A quiet week for me, not so in Minneapolis

 It was a slow start to the week, and much appreciated after last week's schedule. I did go thrift shopping with my friend L on Monday and Tuesday. We didn't spend a lot of money, but we had a good visit and a lot of fun looking. My favorite find of the two days were several tiles - two of the smaller ones already have the cork backing and I may just use the others as is until I get home. I know I have cork in my craft stash there. They make great coffee coasters and these are pretty to boot. The larger tile, I want to add a hanger to and will hang on the wall in my bathroom.

The steamer trunk (Wednesday's photo) was at the Humane Society's thrift store. Originally marked at $400, it has been reduced to $350. I certainly don't have the space and although very interesting it did not come home with me. Frankly, I would much prefer to see it in a museum where it could be appreciated by many people. One of the volunteers said these items are often purchased to be used as clothing storage for babies. This particular was in great shape, all the drawers worked and the hanging rod was solid. Sadly, there were no stickers to indicate where it had been. If only it could tell its story. 

I started the painting project on Wednesday morning, along with three others. We started our prep using wire brushes to clean off some chipping paint. I thought the exterior west wall would be the worst as it is most exposed to the weather, and it needed quite a bit of work. However, the east wall was even worse as the lowest level of concrete blocks had not been primed the last time it was painted, and only had, what appeared to be, one coat of paint. The paint on those blocks peeled off in large pieces. We made a plan to prime on Thursday and paint on Friday, though if we had enough volunteers we could start painting the interior on Thursday.

After coffee hour, I went home and changed clothes, then back to the pool area to start the priming. Only one other person showed up and she cleared rocks away from the walls so I get down on the ground to prime the lower blocks. When she finished she left to get cleaned as D volunteers at the Hospice thrift store Thursday afternoons. I continued to work on the painting until noon, finishing the two rows of lower blocks and the top block on one wall, and partially on a second. This way we can roll the paint on the remainder of the wall.

We managed to finish the primer coat on the exterior walls on Friday morning and got started on the interior. J did a bit of repair to a few of the blocks, while the rest of us painted. The repairs need to be left for at least 24 hours. So I decided we'd take a break over the weekend and plan to be back at it Monday.  The fact that the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (women's curling) started Friday evening may have had something to do with it too.

This next few paragraphs are a change from my normal blog post. But it is something I feel strongly about. I don't expect all of my readers to agree with my comments but it is something I feel the need to address.

The news this week that a five year old child was used by ICE in Minneapolis to entrap his father horrified me, and the fact they have detained the child as well as the father is even worse. 

Reports indicate the child was being driven home from school, was removed from the vehicle by ICE, taken to door of a home and told to knock and ask for his father, using him as bait to lure his family outside. The family currently has an asylum claim and no deportation orders. Both the father and the child were detained and whisked away to Texas. While there is a suggestion that the child would have been left alone, reports indicate his mother was in the home and the school was also able to take him to safety.

Some of you may be asking why I care - the father was apparently in the United States illegally, however it is one thing to arrest someone for a crime, it is quite another to take an innocent child. The trauma the little boy has experienced should never have happened and will, most likely, have long term impacts on his mental, physical and emotional health. As a grandmother I cannot fathom how anyone could support this situation.

But that's not the only reason I care. I care because the lack of humanity and disregard for the rule of law displayed in the case and so many other incidents across the country is extremely disturbing. The number of these events is rising exponentially, with ICE officers acting as judge, jury and even executioner on occasion. For a country who has enshrined the right to due process in its Constitution, that right is being ignored and eroded. It's easy to say that it doesn't matter because it doesn't affect us personally. However, I fear it is only a matter of time before the current administration turns their focus to other marginalized groups, people of colour, LGBTQIA2S+, neuro-divergent people, and the disabled.

Thus I feel, even as a Canadian, I need to speak up. My words will not change anything, but at least I can demonstrate my support for those who are in the line of fire. I will not forget Liam Conego Ramos and the other innocents who have been targeted by the men in masks who are willing to break the law every day they go out on the streets. 

For now, I look to Mother Nature to provide some calm at the end of the day. I am reminded She is constant in our lives, while I have hope one day, there will be an end to the madness.

Painting continues and future travel plans

More painting happened this week. A couple of days in, I was thinking it would never end. The first coat was finished in the basement area by mid-day Tuesday. It could have been sooner, but I took a break Monday afternoon...to plan a trip.

D, Eli, and I had been talking for a few months about travelling to Nova Scotia this summer. Eli is old enough now, at 8 years old, to remember most of the trip. We had meant to book for 8 days, 7 nights, but somehow I managed to book flights for 9 days, 8 nights. Probably a good thing as our days will be full! We'll be staying in Halifax for a couple of days, then travel to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg before spending another night in Halifax. From there, we're off to Baddeck, with a couple of stops along the way. From Baddeck we'll travel to Sydney for one night. A one night stop in Antigonish, will have us back in Halifax on Canada Day, before we fly home the next day. There are museums, parks, gardens, and historical sites to visit. The day of our flights home, we've nothing planned, and we have late flight. We'll have time to pack and some playtime at a park before we drop off our rental car at the airport. 

Eli will miss a couple of days of school, but it is the end of the school year so won't be missing much. D has been working with him on his phonics for his French language and discovered this week, he is ahead of his classmates! Sadly, there was an issue with his in-class teacher and he hasn't been able attend class for a couple of months. He is working with a resource teacher (one-on-one) on his other subjects, but it has been left to D to provide the French language skills he needs. She attended French Immersion from kindergarten to Grade 12, and has her Education degree. As a result, she's well able to help Eli with his school work.

We're all looking forward to the trip. I did a road trip to the Maritimes with friends back in 2016. This will be different travelling experience. I suspect, though, like that trip, I'll be doing the majority of the driving. I do like feeling in control. :)

The photos on Wednesday is the work I completed on Tuesday. The first coat of paint was on the walls, and I was tired. I had taken part of the morning off to go thrifting. I found a couple of pretty decorative cushions and a 2 cup glass measuring cup ...with the markings on it. So many times the thrift store measuring cups have had the markings missing - I don't know if they were washed off, or if they were simply so poorly made. My daughter measures things using a coffee cup; I'm not that talented. But my best buy was a pair of brand new blue jeans (still had the waist tag on them) for under $7. 

The painting party continued over the next few days. I did have an accident on Wednesday morning. There is/was a water fountain for the cat and I managed to knock it over and when I got back from the bathroom where I had taken it to dump, I found I'd also managed to tip over the paint can. There is now a large splotch in the carpet. I cleaned up as much as I could, and will use a carpet cleaner later to see if I can any more of it out. If not, the carpet is ancient, there is a cat and a dog in the house, so at some point I'm sure my son will want to replace it. 

By Thursday afternoon, I had finished the second coat throughout the basement. I noted, as it dried, a few spots that needed to be touched up but decided I needed an afternoon off. Since I'm on nobody's schedule but my own, I chose to do just that. After a much needed shower, I went out to do a wee bit of shopping. I can't say I found anything special, but came home with a pair of pillows and bath mats. 

Friday morning, I made a few touch ups before I tackled the stairwell. There were some holes to patch that needed to be left to dry before sanding. I was able to continue painting other areas, though, while that happened. I'm not able to reach the full height of the walls at the top of the stairs, so will send my son up the ladder on the weekend. He's over 6 feet tall, about a foot taller than I am and should be able to do the edging along the ceiling.

By midday, I decided to call it quits. Can you tell I'm getting tired of painting? Oh, I'll power through and get the rest of the foyer and stairwell painted, but my bedroom is going to wait until my next visit. I plan clean the basement next week, and then I'll start packing the car to go back out to my daughter's. 

Instead, I spent much of the afternoon watching television and cross-stitching. Guess what I did, for part of it? Not painting, not stitching, but snow shovelling! We got about an inch of snow over a 24 hour period. While we could drive through it, the snow had piled up in front of the garage. My son likes to park in the garage over the weekend, while I like to have my car available (we have a narrow driveway). It only took 15-20 minutes, but it is the first time I've had a shovel in my hands since December. 

Later today, I'll continue the painting up on the landing and the stairwell. I'm using latex paint, and as it dries quickly, I'll try to get the second coat on in the afternoon. Then I can clean everything up and put my supplies away!

Meanwhile I'm watching the women's world curling from Korea. Canada is playing Scotland this morning and at the moment the game is tied up. I've got my tea and bagel with peanut butter to enjoy along with the curling. Go Canada go!

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Good times

I had a great, if tiring, time with Eli and D early this week. My drive out on Monday was unremarkable; there was one short section of construction that had me stopped for a couple of minutes. D had warned me, there was more construction, but it was finished and I surprised her by arriving twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

Eli and I spent the morning watching 'toons together, while his mother caught up on some housework. I'd brought the carpet cleaner with me and she put it to good use. After lunch we headed out to the parks, first to one I'd not been to before where a resident cat named Lily often makes an appearance. Eli was disappointed that she didn't show up that day. We played tag for a bit (Eli climbed the equipment out of my reach), and then took a walk on the nearby path. Then it was time to head for the park close to home. There were lots of friends in the park so Eli was quite content to let his mom and I sit in the shade and watch.

That evening, he chose to sleep with G'ma. We read a couple of stories, then he wanted me to tell him a story. I started, "one upon a time, a long time ago, and far, far away lived a little boy named Eli, and his best friend a dragon who was a very nice dragon". At this point, Eli stopped me and told me the dragon's name was Bon, and that Eli lived in a castle. So I started again adding these details, and then saying that one day an evil dragon came to the castle. He stopped me again, and told me that Eli lived in the castle with his mommy and grandma, and he had a secret stash of weapons in the basement. Start again, he said. So I did and this kept on as he added more details until eventually the hero Eli slayed the evil dragon and everyone was safe. 

I can't say I slept well that night because, not only is he a wiggle worm, he's a little furnace too. Their house has no a/c so I slept on top of the covers. A couple of hours in, I opened up the window to let the breeze in.

Tuesday we had plans to head to the beach about a half-hour away. D and I did a few things around the house in the morning, she pulled some weeds in the front yard, and then we started packing lunch and all the beach items while Eli played his learning games on his tablet. He doesn't yet know the names of the letters but can identify the sounds - he even sounded out the word fish on his own. He is only able to access his video games when the learning games are complete. Smart mom!

We arrived at the beach about 10:30 and were one of two small groups there for about ten minutes before several more families showed up. Both D and I wore our bathing suits too, so we were all able to get into the water. Eli had a blast on the slide, jumped off the dock into the water or our arms. But his happiest moment was when he was able to dump a pail of water over G'ma's head!

The water felt a bit cold initially going in, but once I was in and mostly wet, it felt wonderful. We stayed and played in the water for an hour or so before heading back to the beach for our lunch.

D and I had made sandwiches, while Eli had a bento box of crackers, veg and cheese. For dessert, I'd cut up a few pieces of watermelon. What I didn't realize is this kid loves watermelon. I was able to get a couple of small pieces before he inhaled the rest. Then after a bit of play on the equipment, we headed back into the water.

We stayed another hour or so, then headed back into town. It was quite warm by this point, but there was a good breeze so D and I stayed outdoors to catch up on some yard-work. We were both tired so D ordered and I picked up dinner that evening. At bed-time I again read a couple of books to Eli before he asked for Chapter 2 of the dragon story.  This time I knew enough to stop and ask for the details and eventually all was well in the world Eli and Bon once again. This night he decided to sleep in his mother's bed so I had his big boy bed to myself. 

I got away fairly early on Wednesday morning after lots of hugs and kisses from my boy. The temperatures increased as the days went on, and though my son had watered for me on Tuesday, I figured things were going to need a good watering earlier on Wednesday. By mid-afternoon, the tomatoes were looking a little peaked, with the top leaves starting to curl. I gave them a good watering, and waited until early evening to do the rest.

Other than the tomatoes, I might well have waited. We had an incredible series of thunderstorms roll through with heavy rain starting about midnight. I was woken several times during the night and could see the flashes of lightening through the window. The storms finally passed by about six a.m. At that point, the cat wanted to be fed and watered so I was up for the day.

I did get the closet painted in the new room on Wednesday and Thursday. All of the painting equipment has now been cleaned up and put away, or in the case of my plastic drop cloth and couple of rollers tossed in the bin. I'm going to give myself a week or two break before I finish the caulking and baseboard painting. I'm tired of it all.

Yesterday, I went out early and got the grocery shopping done before it got stinking hot. Once home, I spent some time on Ancestry, did some knitting, and had an afternoon nap. As I was watching baseball and football in the evening, my phone alerted me to a tornado watch in our area. I kept one eye on the radar and when the wind picked up and the sky was darkening, I headed outdoors with the camera. (Maybe not the safest place but I wasn't alone - lots of neighbours were on their driveways). These are a few of the photos I took.

The storm seemed to circle around the city, it came from the north but swung around to the east.

Meanwhile the sky to the north west still showed a bit of blue sky with the sun glowing on the clouds.

This was taken a half hour later than the others. The clouds were lit up by the sun. The storms continued east of us, then turned again and went northeast. We didn't get a drop of rain but I'm sure other areas got a dump. D told me this morning, they didn't get rain but did get a lot of wind. One of the city trees in front of her house lost a large branch and there are reports of trees down throughout the small community. 

I was up early this morning in order to get some things done outdoors before the heat arrives. (35C/95F). The containers and front flower bed were watered and did some need deadheading and weeding. I made some breakfast and took it out to the front patio to enjoy the cooler air and the breeze. I opened windows in the sunroom and front room to allow the breeze to flow through the house. It's now after 11 a.m. and my a/c has yet to kick in, though I don't expect it will be much longer. We had a recent announcement that the power company is seeking a 17% increase in rates effective August 1. I don't think they'll have the approval quite that quickly but it's worrisome to think costs are going to increase that much. I'll likely have to rethink my usage and find ways to economize. Our energy costs are also increasing but by a much small percentage. 

The football starts shortly, so I'll be picking up my knitting, to watch our Riders play the Toronto Argonauts. It's an away game for both teams as the game is being played in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Later the Blue Jays are at home playing the Kansas City Royals. You know my butt will be planted on the couch for much of those games. I'm making decent progress on my knitting and hope to have the front of the top complete today.

Have a great week ahead everyone. Stay cool. 

Another week in the rear view mirror

 Another blogger mentioned that time seems to be flying by this spring, and I do not disagree. This week in particular just disappeared. I said to my son as he left for work on Friday, "Is this your last day of work for the week?" He said yes, and I responded, "Then it really is Friday."

I have no idea what I did the first part of the week, but I do know that I spent several hours in the basement painting. The main room is almost complete - it needs some paint touch-ups, and the baseboards need to be painted. The bathroom wall has been painted but I still need to caulk the baseboards and paint those. While I was working in there, I discovered the toilet is leaking. It's because the bolts inside the tank are rusted and loose. I had pointed that out to the contractor and he said it was that way when they removed it. I suspect it may have been but the removal and replacement dislodged them further. I shut off the water, flushed most of the tank, and used towels to clear out the rest before calling the plumber. He's booked for next Monday. We have two other functioning bathrooms in the house so it isn't a big deal.

The new room has been partially primed I still have a wall and half and that one walls bulkhead to complete. I have lots of primer, but have run out of the natural grey that I've used in the other rooms. I'm going wait a couple of weeks to get more, and use this project for the heat that will come in July. It will be much cooler in the basement than outside and I'll appreciate it more. 

Outside the fence that was installed last year needs to be weather-proofed with transparent stain. In addition, the trim around the garage and front door need re-painting. I finally bought the paint for the front door too. Because, you know, I don't have nearly enough painting to do. :) 

I did get outdoors as well, and transplanted the seedlings that I started this spring. The seeds were from tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds that I harvested from the plants I grew last year. I didn't have much luck with the marigolds and peppers. I got two seedlings out of the two dozen marigold seeds I planted, I've two green and one red pepper, out of the nine that I planted. Tomatoes fared better, with four of nine plants started. They're much smaller than the plants I bought at the garden center as I was growing them indoors with no grow light. This was mostly an experiment so it won't bother me if I get nothing from them. My garden center peppers are blooming, the tomatoes are a little further behind. On the other hand my potatoes are up! I've got three containers so I'm sure I'll enough for a few meals when all is said and done.

My front flower bed is starting to fill in. The west side tends to do better as it gets more sun, but I've got columbine, bleeding heart, Jacob's ladder, five hostas, and some lamium starting to fill in the area closest to the front door. I need to replenish the mulch too.

I was thrilled to find the bleeding heart made it through the winter...and it is blooming too. The bush is only about a foot high so I was bit surprised by that. 

The bergenia is doing well. It was one of the first plants I put in the bed. Twelve years ago, all this bed contained was lily of the valley, a hosta and a whole lot of rocks. It's come a long way since then.

Out back, the peony is about 12-15 inches tall, but has no buds. I didn't expect it would, as it can take up to three years for a perennial to mature. I read the saying the other day, "The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap."

I did have a day out on Wednesday. I started with a drop-off of a trunk full of stuff at Value Village. For the donation, I received a 20% off coupon. Eli needs shorts for the summer, so I decided to check the store. I found five pairs of shorts for him, two t-shirts for myself, a jigsaw puzzle and two large balls of yarn. All for less than $30! I had to mail a couple of things to D, so added the shorts in the box and he should have them next week.

I did some browsing at a few other stores, and grabbed a bite to eat before meeting my travel agent L, and friend K at at coffee shop. It was a beautiful afternoon so we sat outside with our drinks, talked about past and upcoming travels, laughed at life and I shared the photos from my cruise. It felt so good to be out with friends, spending an afternoon in the sun.

Thursday we had a thunderstorm roll through in the afternoon accompanied by a good rain. The spruce trees have been shedding pollen for a couple of weeks now, and my driveway was almost yellow in color from it. The rain washed that away for the most part. Friday was another rainy day. Carter showed up first thing in the morning to silicone the stairs and to install the access hatch for the furnace duct. Hooray, the contractor's work is complete! I'll wait to share photos until I finish my part. 

Today, I slept in - until 7:10 a.m. That's a first in a very long time for me. I'm usually awake by 5:30 and out of bed shortly after 6. Not always because I want to, but Saku is quite insistent on being fed. Today he let me sleep. The sun is shining at the moment, though there is more rain in the forecast. I'm going to take advantage of the nice weather and head out for a walk. The painting can wait!

Have a great weekend everyone.