Burned, bruised and bleeding

Third trailer load to the Compost centre

My husband always says that when I come in from working outside and I am burned, bruised and bleeding, I have had a great day. We finally got all the cut branches, roots, and shrub from the back of the property. We still have another load of grapevine that I have been accumulating in a big pile, as well as some more dead branches. I will load those up next week as I continue to do yard work. This morning I picked up the loss leaders from Freshco. Tomorrow we will go to Napanee to shop at Giant Tiger and No Frills to pick up their specials and the few items on my grocery shopping list. 

Blue perennial sweetpea

This afternoon, I realized that it is time to put in my garden. It is the end of May, and although we have had frost warnings since the May long weekend....it is time. I haven't even put annuals into my planter pots yet. This crazy weather can't make up its mind. Still waiting for rain. Anyways, the veggie garden that I weeded (seems like a month ago now), has been overrun with weeds again, so this afternoon I tackled that job. I spent a couple of hours in the hot sun, pulling out weeds by the roots. Tomorrow, after shopping, I plan to lay down compost, peat moss, and manure and get some of my veggie starts from my local nursery. I will need to buy seeds for beans and carrots and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Sunday is our team's turn to serve dinner to our clients at St. Andrews (beef  veggie stew over mashed potatoes with buttermilk biscuits). I will be peeling and washing 15 pounds of potatoes before leaving home at 1:30, so the day is pretty much taken up with preparation. No gardening on Sunday. So have yourselves a great weekend and I will talk to you on Monday. 

Last week of May

These are Columbine. I didn't plant them, but they come up from seed wherever they land. Sometimes I pull them out and throw them away because there are too many of them or they grow up in the middle of my other flowers where I don't want them.  I only have this one colour and they are somewhat smaller than the flowers you can buy at the nursery, so I suspect they are wild Columbine. But mine get so big and bushy and they are such a lovely hit of colour, that I leave them alone for the most part. They seem to thrive on neglect. 

Snow in Summer

This morning it looked like it could rain...very cloudy and foreboding. But again, it was just a tease. I decided that I would stay indoors anyway to do some vacuuming and fold some laundry. After lunch, the sun came out, so outside I went to cut and remove some more grapevines and to pull some more weeds. It is really a full-time job. My Sweety Pie took a second trailer load of branches and shrub into the Kingston Composting centre. His friend came over yesterday with a chain saw to cut up all the trees that  were dragged back to the curbside. While his friend used the chain saw, we threw the pieces into the trailer, so our first load went out yesterday afternoon. It looks like we have one more very full load to go out tomorrow. In the meantime, I have nearly another trailer load  of prunings and grapevines from just the last week's work...and I'm not finished yet. I have a huge compost pile in the back yard that I normally use to toss my wheelbarrow loads of weeds, spent flowers and tree prunings. Right now it is so tall, I cannot throw anything else up on top. And really, I don't want to throw the grapevine in the pile, as it will root on anything and take off again. My neighbour used to say about grapevine and Manitoba Maple....they will grow in your toilet, if you let it. So this pile I am working on now, hopefully I can load this into the trailer and get it outta here. 

After working hard in the hot sun yesterday afternoon, I was so exhausted, so my SP made dinner for us....grilled pork chops and Newfie potatoes. YUM! Tonight I will make some Hellman's chicken and mashed potatoes. I will have to start it now while I still have the inclination. Have a great evening everyone. 

We still need rain

Lupines are just starting to bloom

TGIF

Purple Perennial Bachelor Button. My chives are about to blossom in the background. 

Working outside while it is cool.

Both purple and white Honesty plant or Silver Dollar plant

After the May long week-end

Blooming lilacs

Dad's 90th birthday party

Birthday invitations

A minecraft birthday party

Birthday banner

Birthday card with Creeper

 My daughter's house just went on the market in Oshawa, and there were going to be two viewings on Sunday. So we made last minute plans for my daughter and my two grandkids to come visit their grandma and grandpa on Mother's Day. Tomorrow is my grandson's fourth birthday, so my daughter phoned on Saturday to tell me she was bringing a cake for him because it would be the only opportunity to celebrate his birthday because of them selling their house. (That made sense). So I told her not to go to all that trouble because I could bake him a cake. But she said no thanks, because her son really, really wanted a Minecraft birthday.  And just like many of you, I had no idea what Minecraft was.

I love the Internet. I googled "free printable Minecraft birthday" and got lots of ideas for decorations and food. I printed until my printer ran out of coloured ink. I made the banner, Welcome sign for the front door, food labels, water bottle wrappers, wrappers for Hershey mini chocolate bars, and other pictures of Minecraft symbols as wall decorations. So Sunday morning, I got up at 6 AM to start the cleaning and decorating. Then we were off to Bulk Barn to buy the snack food and candy. At home again, I put a green table cloth on the table and wrapped my table bench (that sits on top of the table) with pale green tissue paper and laid  matching green "Easter" straw that looked like grass, on top of that. I filled 4 small plates with building blocks for the game, like sticks (pretzels), slime balls (green spherical snack crackers), redstone (red spherical snack crackers) and carrots (cheezie twists). Grandpa, in the meantime, went to the Dollar Store in Amerstview to buy green balloons, and plain green paper plates and cups. My daughter  made a wonderful cake to look like a "creeper". Like the game of Minecraft, the kids had to "build" their party food. We made pizzas. His uncle gave him a Minecraft poster for his new room when he moves and his mom, dad, and big sister gave him a new bike (which they brought with them). Grandpa and I gave him a Fisher Price Batman Cave, which we had already bought for him. 

This party was thrown together so quickly, I forgot to take pictures. Fortunately my daughter took some which she will share with me later. Here are some of the offerings. From l to r, slimeballs, red stone, and Lego candy. 

Before they left, I gave them each a green cardboard container to fill from the candy bar, which were also building blocks from the game.....diamonds (Hershey kisses), gold ( gold foil wrapped mini chocolate peanut butter cups), coal (black cherry jubes that were really black in colour...perfect) and cookies (tiny 1" chocolate chip cookie snacks). We also included the wrapped Hershey bars, Lego candy that really stacks and locks like Lego blocks, and a small "mystery box" that contained a toy figure from the game. I think the kids had a good time. We played in the playground over at the school grounds so my grandson could try out his new bike on the paved parking lot. The day was exhausting, but what a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day. And how was your week-end? 

Mother's Day Weekend

My rhubarb patch

Another beautiful day

Yellow tulips against the blue flowers of  Brunneria in my woodland garden.

 I have Trillium in my woodland garden...and a whole lot of goutweed. 

We need rain

Pretty pink tulips

Frugal Friday

Pasque Flower

One of my daffodils with white bleeding heart starting to come out in the background

Pink Aubrieta deltoides