The heat is on!

Most mornings this week saw me outdoors working on the garden beds, and attempting to rearrange the rocks in the flower bed. I managed to get most of the vegetables planted on Sunday, in both raised beds and the original garden bed. In the raised beds, I've got tomatoes, basil, peppers (green and jalepeno), oregano broccoli, cucumber, lettuce, radish, red and green onion. In the larger garden bed, I have peas, carrots, potatoes, and corn. The orginal asparagu s and the chives I'd planted last year are doing well. It appears I may have missed a few strawberries as I'm seeing some evidence some made it through. I'll leave them if they aren't in the midst of the other plants. 

The containers were planted on Monday - or at least most of them - I may have bought a few more plants since then. If you've been around for a number of years, you'll know that I have a bad habit of having more containers than I originally intend. As of this writing there are four containers out front, and seven in the back yard. Several of these are hanging containers, two I purchased and the others I planted with annuals I'd purchased last week.

On Monday, the Landlord Next Door's construction guy (Matthew) stopped by to measure the fence. When I'd talked to LND, he hadn't wanted to commit to the quote I'd received as he "didn't know the guy". Matthew is well known here and in fact, we've used him for other smaller jobs. I just didn't realize he was set up to do larger construction jobs. It turns out he is, and later that afternoon, he returned with a comprehensive quote that is much more detailed and definitely higher in price. It was clear to me he's prepared to do the work and has the resources so I'd be quite happy to go forward with the work. However, when I contacted LND he advised he would be talking to a realtor on Wednesday to determine whether replacing the fence would be beneficial in a possible sale. Hell yes! In any event, he is supposed to contact me this weekend to advise whether he's prepared to share the cost. If he doesn't, this neighbour may feel the need to point out the condition of the fence to anyone I see viewing the property. 

I spent part of Wednesday morning, digging more rocks out of the flower bed. I'm trying the move them out of the way for the fence removal and replacement. I think I mentioned last week, I'd discovered a concrete border covered by dirt and rocks. More of the border was uncovered, and I'm hoping to locate several of the rocks within that border.  Others have been moved to an area to the west of the garage. I'm not certain what we'll do with them but they're out of the way there.

Some afternoons were spent relaxing in the backyard. The area near the firepit is shaded by the tree by mid-afternoon. It's a great place to sit and read, and listen to the birds. While I've not seen many (except for the prolific robins and grackles), the Merlin app tells me there are Northern wren, chipping sparrow, goldfinch, and several others visiting the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, I'm reading Malice by Lisa Jackson, the story of a former LAPD detective Rick Bentz, his dead ex-wife, and a serial killer determined to torment Bentz. 

The temperatures were decent through to Thursday, cool in the morning with highs around 27C/80F in the afternoon. But that changed that morning, when we woke to 20C/68F, and the mercury climbed to 34C/93F. I went out to water early in the morning, and then again in the evening, and spent the rest of the day indoors. I had been weeding in the peony bed the day before and when I was out watering, I could swear they had grown at least 3-4 inches in one day! On Wednesday the plants still had a bit of a purple hue, but were now totally green. The buds are showing, and I expect we may see the flowers next week.

Our air-conditioning unit frequently throughout the day, and continued to do so on Friday. It didn't get quite as warm, a few degrees cooler, but with winds gusting to 60 km/h (about 38 mph). The plastic Adirondack chairs were blown about, while the garden and containers dried out quickly. I watered well twice, once in the morning and then again in the evening. 

It is Tourism week here in town, and D and Eli made it to three of the events. The Heritage museum tea, the Library open house, and the old Rail Station tour. I went along to the latter event, and found it quite interesting. The building was set to be demolished but with some CN rail funding they were able to start the restoration of the latter. Thus far, they've repaired the roof, added insulation, and created two lovely foyers. The fellow who did our tour suggested it could take $1 or 2 million to finish it. I suspect it won't be done in my lifetime. 

The weather is expected to improve, that is cool down over the next week with rain in the forecast. I'll be happy for both! The yard work continues, with the weeds doing their best to overrun parts of it. We'll be planting a few things tomorrow, including a couple of mint plants (peppermint and spearmint) in a container, as well as an apple seed that I was able to germinate. I doubt anything will come of the latter, but Eli was curious as to what would happen if we planted apple seeds. 

Have a great week ahead everyone! I hope the weather is fair and the temperatures to your liking.

Perseverance

Yes, it's extremely icy here on my street and will be until the melting truly gets underway. A funny, not so funny thing happened; the city sent a grader down the street on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m.! It scraped a bit of ice off the street piling it along the sidewalks and in front of driveways. I was not happy at the time of day they chose to do the work, nor the mess they left behind. Someone on the street must have some connection to City Hall, as another grader was out clearing the area in front of driveways on Thursday. Once the melting happens we'll have a bit of a lake though I don't think it will be as bad as the first year we lived in the house. That year, the water in the ruts was about 5 inches deep. I sent a photo to the city of my boots as I stood in the ruts to complain about the problem the ruts caused smaller vehicles. Eventually, enough of us must have complained because the street was cleared. 

It hasn't been a terribly busy week, just the usual housework, a bit of grocery shopping, an errand for D, and lots and lots and lots of curling. The weather hasn't been particularly good, quite cold for this time of year, along with wind to make it worse. Snow was forecast for overnight Friday and will continue until sometime this evening. It's hard to tell how much snow we got last night as the wind continues to blow and cause drifting. Neither C nor I have anywhere we need to be this weekend, so the clearing up from the storm can wait until tomorrow. The photo is the view from my bedroom window this morning. Out the front door is even worse.

My UFO project is coming along and I've made a decision as to what to do with them. Originally it was going to be a baby blanket, but I like the colors so I think I'm going to try to make a full sized blanket. Since I'm using thrift store yarn, it may take some time to actually finish it. 

It clashes with the rug, but you get the idea. The hope is to create these flowers, and then use green yarn to create the background and connect the flowers. One thought is to create squares from these hexagons....some thought will be needed to do that. I do notice as I'm looking at the photo I like the bottom and side row, not so happy with the inners.  That's primarily the way I've laid them out, and I suspect it will be easier once the flowers are put together. I'm also adding another series with yellow as the centers. I know I'm running low of pink, and I'll be down to a couple of skeins of variegated purple after this batch of petals are complete. 

The curling has been good, but not great this week. There have been flashes of brilliance and just plain flashes. (A flash is when a rock passes by it's intended target and rolls out of the rings.) For the most part, the teams expected to be on top are, and history was made when the Nunavut team won their very first game in Brier history. Since their skip actually lives in the vicinity of this year's Brier contest (he's an import to the team), the arena went nuts with the victory. Fun to see! I'm hopeful now that we're into the playoffs the level of curling will improve.

I'll have almost an entire week off (curling) between the Brier and the beginning of the Women's World Curling. The goal is to continue to work on de-cluttering with three areas to focus on; the linen closet, my clothes closet and dresser, and the craft room. I'm realistic enough to know it's unlikely more than one or two of these areas will get done. The craft room is going to take some time. I did manage this week to get the boxes of items from the kitchen and Christmas into the trunk of the car. These will be dropped off at the thrift store next week sometime. 

The other thing on the to-do list this week was to plant some seeds for my containers. I saved marigold, petunia, tomato, and pepper seeds last fall. The seeds haven't yet germinated, but I'm hopeful I'll have some luck with a few of them. I've ordered a grow light that I'm hoping will improve the results. If you recall, I did have a bit of luck with my marigolds last year, with one plant growing to a height of over 3 feet tall. I made sure I saved some of those seeds.

A few more photos from the backyard this week including a grackle,a redbreasted nuthatch, and a blue jay. My brother R says he's had the latter at the farm over winter but I hadn't seen any since last fall.

There were three jays visiting, but I wasn't able to capture more than one. They quickly flew off when I stepped into the sunroom.

Today I'll be watching first two games of the Brier playoffs, and crocheting. The first draw starts at noon, so I'm catching up on blogs, e-mail, and PVR'ed television. That, and watching the snow swirl around out the front window!

Have a great week ahead everyone! 

Back to routine

I'm interupting the vacation posts, to get back to my regular routine. It's been just over a week since I arrived home, and it already feels much longer than that. We had decent weather for most of the week, then the snow fell on Thursday and as of this morning, we're back in the deep freeze. According to the weather network, it is currently -25C (-13F), with a wind chill of -37C (-35F). I can assure you it feels very cold out there, as I just returned from filling the bird feeder. 

Initially when I returned, the birds weren't coming to the feeder. Perhaps they had given up on me since my son didn't fill it while I was away. But by mid-week they were back in full force, along with the squirrels. There is also evidence the hare has been finding food under the feeder too.

On Thursday, the Hungarian partridges were back - all eight of them. I was happy to see they've made it through the winter thus far. I smile everytime I see them parading through the yard. As you can see they found some shelter under the bird bath and hunkered down for most of the afternoon.

The hare paid a visit on Friday evening. I was having a green salad for dinner, while it had its greens from the spruce tree as well. 

The groceries needed restocking - I did that early in the week, ran an errand for my daughter, and dropped in at the Dollar store. On Wednesday before stitch and chat I stopped at Costco to pick up cat food for D and paper towels and Mr. Clean for me. There were only two of us at the stitch and chat. We caught up on Christmas (we didn't meet the week between Christmas and New Years), my vacation, and other happenings in her life as well. 

I worked on a counted cross stitch project I'm making for D and Eli. It was a kit I found at Value Village and it's coming along nicely. At home, I use two lamps for lighting, but the library's overhead fluorescent lighting was perfect. I've been trying to do an hour or two a day, as I'd like to finish it before March...but it's more likely going to be May.

Curling is back after a short break, with the provincial women and men's events happening across the country. The winners of these events will be the provinces (and territories) respresentatives at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Brier (I can't recall who is the title sponsor as it has changed several times). I'm annoyed with our telcomm here in Saskatchewan as they are only televising one draw a day. I can watch the other two draws on You-tube. I'm starting to think that streaming services may be a better option than cable television.

And of course, I've been catching up with housework. As I predicted, the vacuum that I parked in the closet before I left did not move (I didn't expect it would). While C is pretty neat - there were no big messes to deal with - even with one cat the cat hair builds up. I'm pretty sure I picked up another cat based on the amount of fur in the canister.

Speaking of cats, while I was away, D found a young kitten (about 9 months old) living in her garage. We're not entirely sure how long she was in there, but she had a bit of frost bite on the pads of her feet, but none on her ears or tip of her tail. D posted on the local lost and found and town FB pages but no one came forward to claim her. She then contacted the shelter in the nearby town (none in her community) and learned there are 70 cats currently awaiting placement and they couldn't take another in at this time. As a result, she now has a third cat. Lady Spencer (a nod to Princess Diana), has joined the family. She's been checked out by the vet, given meds to rid her of worms and ear mites, and been spayed. I suspect that she may have gone into heat and rather than doing what was best for her, the family she lived with simply tossed her outdoors. Their loss. She's settling in well, with Sheldon and Stanley, and is even starting to rule the roost. Stanley gets annoyed and jumps up somewhere, where she can't reach him, while Sheldon mostly tolerates the pesky kitten.

I'll get to meet her next week, as I'm heading out to visit for a couple of days. Eli doesn't have school either Monday or Tuesday, (teacher's conference or PD days or whatever they call it these days), so I'm sure we'll have lots of fun.

Have a wonderful week ahead everyone. 

Arrivals and departures

It's been a busy week! The Brier ended Sunday evening with a win by the Brad Gushue team out of Newfoundland. The team was our representative at the Olympics in February, and the thought was they'd be tired. Well, they certainly didn't show it winning all their games in round robin play. They did lose in the 1 versus 2 page playoffs but came back and beat the winner of the 3 versus 4 in the semi-final to reach the final. What was even more impressive is their third player was diagnosed with Covid on Saturday and the three team members played the remaining games without him. Mark live tweeted through the game and it was clear he was stressed not being on the ice. :) The team will be off to the Men's Worlds in Las Vegas later in March.

With the curling out of the way (for a few days) it was time to tackle the housework that was somewhat neglected over the past ten days or so. I spent the first few days sweeping, vacuuming, scrubbing, washing and tidying in preparation for my visitors on Thursday. D and Eli arrived in the mid- afternoon. She had planned to leave right after school ended at 11:30, but a friend let her know there was fog on part of the highway. She still ran into fog for about 20 minutes but it wasn't too bad.

Eli was able to get his first Covid vaccine on Tuesday, with the second to follow in about 8 weeks or so. He was very brave little boy; there were some tears but D made it up to him with a trip to Tim Hortons for a doughnut treat and some time at the sledding hill. 

No sledding to be had at Gma's. I might have taken him to the park but the street was a mess and because of the ridges the grader made the sidewalks were ponds as well. Though I'll take the ridges of snow - were the snow still on the street it would be tough going with our smaller vehicles. There is a good reason why most of our neighbours drive trucks and SUVs. This is what the first week or so of spring looks like around here. We're forecast to have daytime temps over freezing so with a little wind it will clear up in the next week or so.

Eli and I did spend some time in the back yard, first on the deck and then he convinced me he could dig a path in the back yard to the bird feeder. He started his little dump truck and a rake and soon was marking out a path. At one point, he lost one of his boots in the snow, and turned around and carried it back to me to get help getting it back on. Silly kid! I grabbed the shovel and cleared out a wider path behind him.

Other visitors to the yard this week included the hare out front on Monday. It was enjoying snacking on the evergreen and then settled down to rest. At least it did until my son pulled out of garage. Then it took off in a big hurry. This next photo is of a little redbreasted nuthatch. For many weeks I've seen this wee bird when I go out to fill the feeder. It sits in the tree close by and talks to me - truly! It has a sweet call and I like to think it is saying thank you. I've tried several times to get a photo and each time it's been camera shy and flown away. Since I got the photo, I haven't seen it at the feeder. Hopefully it's okay and I'll see it again soon. (This was a cellphone photo and I cropped it to see the bird more clearly.)

On Thursday morning, I looked at the kitchen and spotted Hoover at the feeder. I thought the lighting was pretty - it's furs all aglow. 

Of course the camera focused on the branches but I didn't want to take the time to manually focus. I was right, as it spotted me and headed down the fence line.

While Eli was here on Friday morning, he got to see the downy woodpecker as well as the squirrel at the feeder. He told me they have a squirrel in their yard too, named Squirrely. D says it climbs on their neighbour's room and chatters at them.

They both had doctor's appointments Friday afternoon, and headed home once those were complete. D brought the paperwork from the pyschologist for the doctor to add to his file. It was confirmed last week that Eli has ADHD. We're lucky he was diagnosed early as the supports are being provided even before the official diagnosis. Dr. J pronounced Eli a physically healthy little boy and noted he has astigmatism. Not a surprise as we all have it in my family. The three of us, D, C, and I all wear glasses, though my son C has a tendency to only wear them for driving.

Before they left, Eli turned to me and said, "G'ma - you're the best!". I do so love that little boy - he is so sweet. Our visits are always fun, though tiring. I did a couple of loads of laundry after they left, did a little clearing of slush and ice, but did little else for the rest of the day.

Today I've been puttering around this morning, doing a few chores, setting a batch of buns, and catching up on blog reading and television programming. The Women's Worlds curling starts this afternoon at 3 p.m. local, with Canada taking on Italy in draw 1. Next up, is Norway at 8 p.m. I expect both games will be fun to watch. So you know what I'll be doing for the much of this week. The sports network will only air the games Canada is in, until the weekend when the qualification games begin. Fingers crossed, our Canadian team will be in the thick of it!

Of course, I can't forget that the spring equinox occurs tomorrow. It won't be truly spring here for a few more weeks, but I'm happy that the long winter is fading.  Happy Spring everyone!

Pain, pain, go away

I made it home on Sunday by mid-afternoon, just in time for another curling game. In the morning, I'd gone out to shovel a bit more to clear out part of the alley way, as the snow clearing crew had yet to come through. There was enough truck and SUV traffic (neighbours across the way and next door) that I figured I could make my way out with my smaller Corolla. There was one spot right at the street that was heavy going but I made it through. Staying for the extra day meant the highways had been cleared and it was smooth sailing from there.

C had shovelled the driveway while I was gone, but the sidewalk to the backyard needed clearing. On Monday I went out to feed the birds, and shovelled my way there. Unfortunately, I twisted something in my lower back and hip when I lifted some of the snow. I kept moving for most of the day, as I found if I sat it was worse when I got up. Tuesday was slightly better, and that has been the pattern, each day there is less pain and more ease of movement. Though I must admit, I gave up on wearing socks for a few days.

We had blowing snow on Tuesday. It wasn't as bad here in the city but the highways leading in were in rough shape. My brother texted to tell me he was taking the day off because of the highway conditions. It turned out that was a good thing, as he spent much of the morning getting vehicles out of the ditch near his home. His neighbour, pulling a snowmobile trailer, slid into the ditch at the end of his driveway. R went out to help - they were able to get the trailer out with R's truck, but had to get another neighbour with tire chains on his vehicle to pull the truck out. Meanwhile that second neighbour's daughter's vehicle was in the ditch further down the road, and the tow truck arrived just as they finished to winch her vehicle out. Full morning! There are reasons I'm happy to live in the city. (If you've ever heard the Corb Lund song "Truck Got Stuck", you'll know what this scenario reminded me of.)

I did go out that day to the nearby Canadian Tire to have the headlight in my car replaced. I've been driving with a single headlight for awhile now, and finally got around to making an appointment to have it repaired. Did you ever play the game paddidle/perdiddle as a kid? I wonder how many kids scored a point from spotting me. I'm not sure why but when I realized I had a headlight out, I started noticing a lot more vehicles that also had that problem. Back at the store, I wandered the aisles while I waited for the work to be done. I was home within an hour and didn't buy anything else. 

The cold weather has stuck around for the past week, Thursday was cold and the winds picked up again resulting in more blowing snow advisories. D and Eli had planned to go to his therapy in a nearby community but she (wisely) decided to postpone the appointment and stay home.

I headed out early in the morning to pick up a few groceries. The biggest purchase was bird seed. They're going through it quickly, helped by the Hoovers and a rabbit/hare that has found a way to wiggle beneath the gate. The latter leaves clear evidence it has been below the feeder. The photo below includes a bird I'm trying to identify. It's the one on the right and appears to have a red streak on it's back or tail. I've sent the photo to my brother but haven't yet heard back from him. The photo isn't very good, it was obviously shot in low light, and I was shooting through the sun room window, as far away as I could be, because each time I got closer the birds flew away. 

By Thursday evening, my back was giving me grief again. This time it was my upper right shoulder. Darned if I know what I did, but I must have pulled a muscle somehow. It resolved fairly quickly, as I'm feeling much better today. The hip/lower back pain is negligible by this point, only a bit of pain if I make certain movements. 

Thank goodness for curling, as I wasn't up to doing my normal cleaning routine. I did manage to get in my steps though, as sitting for prolonged periods was harder on my back than standing or moving, so I spent a lot of time pacing during the breaks in action. I did manage to get the laundry done, filed my income tax return, and worked on Ancestry. I've been trying to determine how my 3X great grandmother immigrated to Canada about 1852. She wasn't married yet, so I'm assuming she travelled with a family, likely as a domestic. From my research, thus far, it appears she was the only member of her immediate family to immigrate.  

Oh, in answer to a question on the wordless Wednesday, that was a Hungarian partridge. It had perched itself on the top of the pile of snow from the neighbour's driveway. I'm not sure why because it was least sheltered area and the wind was howling at that point. Silly bird. 

I did have a welcome visitor to the yard yesterday.

Check it out - it is mostly brown! Spring must be coming or else it is overly optimistic. Actually the temperatures are on the rise today. We're expecting to reach 3C (36F) later this afternoon. Unfortunately the warmer temp means the possibility of rain. That will help melt the snow, but will freeze overnight. I'd appreciate the wind now as it would dry up the moisture quickly. It's that time of year and it won't be long before, like the hare, there will patches of brown to be seen. 

On the topic of curling, here are two more games today, and two tomorrow. Our Saskatchewan men have made it into the playoffs.  A win this afternoon and they'll have the opportunity to play again tomorrow, a loss will take them out. 

And on that note, I'll wrap this up, wishing you all a good week ahead. 

Quiet week

 Another boring week for my readers, since I've done little except watch curling, crochet while watching curling, and fit in chores between games.  If you give this post a pass, I won't blame you. :)

The Brier has not disappointed, there have been some incredible shot making as well as some spectacular misses. If you have a minute to spare, check out the round the horn shot by the young Newfoundland skip.  They haven't had the best of weeks and were down 7-1 when he made this shot for his deuce.  They didn't win the game, but this shot made the sports news. Our Saskatchewan team had a couple of tough games, but made it into the second round robin, finishing second in their pool.  They placed third in last year's event, but will need to work hard to get there this year.  They split their two games yesterday and have two more today.

Meanwhile, when I was at D's last week she gave me a container of yarn she's gathered over the years.  She has tried to knit something but gives up readily as she hasn't the patience for it.  I get that, as there are lots of things I haven't the patience for either.  Among the yarn were three skeins of a variegated yarn.  I knew there wasn't enough to make a baby blanket, but after checking my stash, I added some additional yarn in three different colors similar to those in the variegated balls.  I'm calling it my Easter blanket.  I ended up with just a little bit of yarn leftover, which I rolled into a ball for Saku to enjoy. Once the threads are sewn in, I'll wash it and plan to put it on Facebook for sale.  

I've had no success on Varage sale - though there is someone who is "watching" my items. I suspect they think the blankets are over-priced...though in comparison to the others available I would say they are not.  I'll the FB Marketplace with the Easter blanket and depending on the success (or failure) I'll decided whether the others will get posted to FB as well.

Since there was no curling on Monday morning, I decided to make a run to Value Village as I'd received an e-mail with a coupon for 20% off.  I went looking for specific pieces to make a tiered tray.  I thought I'd use a pie plate, a pizza pan and some sort of candlestick.  I didn't find a pizza pan, but was even happier to find a tray. The candlestick appears to be real silver or at least plated so I decided I wouldn't be painting that!  

On the left (if blogger will co-operate are
the three pieces before and it will not...grrr!) and the after on the right below. I chose the blue because I think it will work throughout the year, with different decorations.  In addition, I have a good amount of blue in the house already so it fits in well.   You can see it also has a practical side - the salt and pepper are readily available.  Our meals are served up off the island - neither of us eat at the kitchen table except when D and Eli are visiting.  We got out of the habit when the kids were teenagers as the kitchen in the old house had no room for a table, and the living room was too small to add one either.  We've grown accustomed to eating our meals in front of the television or computer.  

Friday morning, there was no tie-breaker games so I had an opportunity to run out to pick up groceries, cat food and cat litter.  I did get a wee start on the spring cleaning. A month or so ago, I had pulled out the jackets, mitts, gloves, toques, etc. from the front closet and done a bit of a purge.  But, I hadn't pulled the shoe rack and the other items off the floor. When I did this, the other day, I found enough cat hair to make a small kitten.  Oops, I guess it's been awhile.  After cleaning that up, I washed the closet floor and put everything back where it belongs.  Note to self: clean the closet more frequently, I don't need another cat!

I'm off to spend a couple of hours on Ancestry.  I'm continuing to follow the branches from my grandfather's great-grandparents. The first two branches didn't a lot of time, as there isn't a lot of information available on either individual.  One, because his GGF changed his last name and cut ties with his family in Scotland, and his GGM may also have changed her name, as finding any family members has pretty much come to a standstill.  My relative who started this, has hired a professional to do some more research and hopefully he'll come up with something we have not been able to find.

Anyway, enough of that. We're having a lovely spring day here today, with sunshine so I'll be opening the sun room for the cats in the next hour or so.  To end off this post, I've got a couple of photos from the backyard this week. The squirrel would not turn and look at me, even when I tapped on the window.  Definitely into it's meal!

I believe this is a grosbeak but readily admit I'm not good at identifying birds.

Have a great week everyone, take care and stay well!