Getting Used to the Mower's Limits

The Ridge

It was the 6 am alarm on Bill's phone that woke all of us on Friday, Aug. 14th. Oh brother, and we were all sleeping so well! So, I stayed put while Bill got up and hopped in the shower. He wasn't working for Mike today but was heading into town to help at the big house.

Good morning!
It doesn't happen often but
today, I was up early enough to
catch the sun just popping.

I got up at 6:30, washed and dressed before making my tea-to-go. I left the Suite at 7 for town. The gas price that had dropped over the last couple of days to $1.34/litre was creeping back up, today it is $1.45. 🤷‍♀️ There's always a reason, or excuse I should say. 

Before anything, I slip out
and count today's Moonflowers.
8 to add to the list.
I took a side shot of the top one,
kinda cool.

The Mat was empty - again - that is 3 days in a row! Maybe everyone is avoiding me, but that's okay as it allows me to clean uninterrupted for my time in there. Today, I took the extra 30 minutes and emptied the big dryer lint 'trays' and did the high dusting.

To the south, still pretty.

Bill messaged as I was just finished washing the floor, wondering if I was stopping by the house before I went home. I had planned that anyway so went to see how they were coming along. The laminate was done in the upstairs hall, bathroom and one bedroom, with Bill finishing the closet.

Another nice pond picture but
yesterday's was the best yet.

There are a couple of rooms to finish, one large, one small and the stairs need attention. Will they be done by Sunday? All 3 of them are hard workers so I wouldn't be surprised at all. I stayed with Bill for a while before heading for home. I met R & A on their way back with the dump trailer.

I'm sold on the Carbonaut bread
but not this particular one. Either it is
very old or just not good toasted.
Frustrating.

I got caught up in some online stuff, one of which was a video my niece posted about Mike Rowe and his mom, Peggy. Hilarious interview with her and before I knew it, it was 11:30. So, I had lunch then and went out to see how much grass I could get cut. It was getting long!

Two more huge Hibiscus blooms.
No I'm not counting these, there
will be too many!

It was a disappointing lunch, the bread I had to buy this last time is not our favourite. It doesn't toast without falling apart so my tomato sandwich was unsatisfactory, the watermelon was on its way out so I didn't eat it and my Oikos 0% yogourt was blah. Not a great lunch at all.

You might be able to see where I
stopped cutting because of the
mower dying.

I went out with Gibbs and while he puttered around until he found the perfect shady spot, I got Sputter Butt out. We managed 12 minutes, yes, I timed it. I'm getting wiser and do the ends of the lawn first, in the small unreachable areas for Bill on the CC, and then just wait for it to die. 

Hanging out in the shade with my
little man.

After putting it away, I was hot already so sat on the patio with Gibbs. There was a nice breeze, off and on, so it was comfortable until - you guessed it - the flies made a nuisance of themselves and chased us indoors. Gibbs promptly found a cool spot on the floor and I started my blog.

We walked to the mailbox
and our home was calling out
for a picture.

Bill, after some discussion between us, is skipping our C the A meeting tonight. He was going to go for the 30 minutes to help count $ & tickets but I didn't see the point. We'll manage without him tonight as long as he gets something to eat at Goodchild's. 

Our Catch the Ace 'host' speaker
is running for Councilman in
this fall's election.
Love the sign on his truck.

I sat with Gibbs until 5 o'clock when I drove next door to see Ann. I needed more eggs and she also offered me some zucchini. Yum, I picked two, I like them fried or in muffins. Then I drove into Durham, stopping at Foodland for a couple of loaves of bread. 

Cutting laminate on the porch
I love the porch!

Sadly, Ryan still doesn't have what we like in the freezer, so I bought some Villagio. Darn! The price of $2.99 ea. was great but the carb count isn't. It's probably why Bill lost close to 20 lbs. since we've come home. He has been eating only low carb bread every day. 

Eggs from Ann and Adam

And zucchini

I got to the Curling Club a couple of minutes before 5:30 and joined Brian, Kat and Bo to count tickets and cash. No winner of the Ace of Spades tonight but someone won $547 for having their name drawn. From there, I drove to see how the workers were doing. Quite a bit of progress today!

My supper was good 
The tomatoes are yummy!

It was nice to see Andrew home after his 6 weeks in Greenland. All 3 of them were hard at it so I cuddled with Mildred for a bit as I checked out what they've done and then left to come home for supper. What to eat? Well, now I have nice bread, I made a grilled cheese sandwich. Yummy.

Just a beginning really.

This was a good day. Mostly lazy for me but I did get some of the grass cut. Maybe tomorrow I can finish the middle, we'll see how Stutter Butt feels about that. We reached a pleasant high of 25.5C/78F and as I finish this post, the sun is dipping below the horizon. Pretty sky.

I knew from the clouds that it was
going to get even better.
Good night!

Thank you for stopping by. 

Summer Days

The Ridge

On Thursday, Aug. 13th I was awakened after Gibbs came back into bed. I know I dropped off relatively quickly last night when I went up at 11:00. I'm watching reruns of the Alex Cross series from James Patterson's books. 

Good morning!
The fog started rolling in last night.
This was 7:30 this morning.

Bill was in town laying laminate or prepping for it with underlay until 9:30. No doubt, he was tired enough and went up to bed at 10 to watch tv until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. 😉 He was still awake when I went up.

Certain blooms greeted me
this morning. This Hibiscus wasn't
fully awake yet. It got bigger.

So, this morning I came downstairs around 7, time enough to see Bill and say goodbye before he left at 7:20 to walk down the lane. He tried to save Billy from driving up the lane each day. I hopped in the shower as soon as he left and then made my tea. 

6 Moonflowers this morning.
I have started tallying them up.
Once they're done, you'll have
to guess.

It was a lovely start to the day, expecting a high of around 24.4C/76F with plenty of sunshine. I didn't have to go anywhere so either the bnb guests were staying another night or Jessica was cleaning for Robin. I knew for a fact that Robin was going to pick Andrew up from whatever airport he flew into.

This is the house that Robin
is renovating. There are two separate 'apartments'
in the home. The back is permanently rented, the front
has just been vacated Aug. 1st.
She was going to
turn it into a bnb but someone is desperate
for a rental unit starting Sunday!
Hence, Bill's assistance.

Back at the beginning of June, when my first Moonflower bloomed, I said I was posting them everyday they produced fresh blooms. I'm sure you are sick of seeing them but I wanted to go back this morning while drinking my tea and start counting. I know there are more to come but I wanted to start.

Another flower greeting.

So, needless to say, I got caught up in that plus in my blog postings each day. I found some comments over the past 2 months that I'd missed responding to so did that in the process. Sorry about that! It was just a few minutes before lunch when Billy and Bill came up the lane.

I don't understand 'organic' tomatoes,
I guess.
From Donna's b-i-l. They're tall
and look healthy but......

Odd, he'd said it would probably be a long day. I won't go into details but it was not a good morning and it turned into a short day. We're always happy to see him home early, this job is getting to be really hard on him. 

the plant on the left has 2
tomatoes. Poblano, I think, but
no bigger than an inch.
The plant on the right - none.
Mine on the hill are loaded.
🤔

For the record, if I haven't said it already, he will not be doing that job next summer. 😍 Something else, less hours, less physical, perhaps, but not that job. We had lunch together and after a 30 minute snooze (w/Gibbs right beside him in my chair) he drove into Durham. A much easier, less frustrating task.

Yesterday, in town, I popped in to Rethreads (one of our 2nd hand stores) just to peruse and up on a high shelf, a bag with a duvet (so said the bag) and shams inside. Hmm, didn't look like a duvet to me and one of the staff but we pulled it out, measured it to be a king (👍) and I approved of it.

I love it.
It came with 4 shams and a bed skirt.

Our duvet is old, it replaced one from Mom a year ago or so. I think it was from Donna. We've never been happy with any of the covers we've found for it, since our bed is a king, the duvet is a queen and.....well, it has just gotten annoying! So, marked at 50% off the $25, I bought this duvet/comforter for $12.50.

After lunch, I crawled around this garden
and found the dirt again.
Yes, I've neglected it badly.

Last night, we slept with it on and it is lightweight and we are both very pleased. I did good! Will it be warm enough during the fall and cool evenings and mornings? We'll see. We have other blankets to add when/if necessary. This one is quite nice looking too.

Great help he is!

After Bill left at 1, I made some hummingbird food and filled the 2 feeders. Gibbs wanted to be outdoors so I went out with gloves and trowels and weeded the small 'lilac' garden. It was so overgrown with purslane that it was time to clean it up.

I know purslane is edible and is very good for us but I could never get into that habit. Tried it in London years ago but that was it. So, my sisters may groan, but it went over the hill and the garden looks as it was meant to look. 🤭

He was so tired after watching
me weed!
💕

Because I had pork ribs out for supper, once thawed I rubbed a spice mixture on them and put them in the fridge. Madame IP would be cooking them for us. Bill called at 4:30 to let me know that he would be home at 5:30. Once I started cooking the ribs and potatoes I suggested that 6 would be better.

I should remember by now about the time it takes to build up and release pressure. Anyway, he pulled in at 5 minutes to 6 and I was dishing up right at 6 o'clock. Patting myself on the back here. 😉 The whole meal was delicious, right down to the gravy made in the same pot.

We walked down for the mail
of which there was none but I needed
to stretch my legs.

We did dishes together and since Bill took tomorrow off, he didn't need a lunch. At 6:30, he was on his way back into town. Robin and Andrew were also working since this afternoon, the push is on to get it ready for renters on Sunday. 🤔

Here it is. Sunday night meal
on a Thursday night.
I've been so slack lately, this was
necessary.

Today was no disappointment by any means. The weather was perfect and Gibbs and I spent a bit of it outside, sitting, weeding and walking for the mail. The weekend is around the corner and with it comes the Ides of August. It was a great day.

Yesterday, I made these
bookmarks. I need to add string.
Good night!

Thank you for your visit.