Familiar Territory, Hoping for the Best, Tired Bodies at the End of the Day

The Ridge

On Monday, June 1^st we greeted the first day of this month with ‘hope’.  Maybe this is the month that things will turn around for the pandemic and for the weather. Bill was up at the crack of dawn and I remained in bed until 6:30. I started sorting two loads of dirty clothes. Bill had made his lunch, had his cereal when I joined him downstairs. We both left the Suite, after our coffee and tea, before 7:30. Bill off to Walkerton to meet Mike and his crew and me into Durham.

Ptooties and I head off to work this morning

 I was about to enter familiar territory and ‘hoped’ that I could hop right back into my routine without wasting too much time. This is Jamie’s dollar so I want to do a good job in the shortest amount of time. There was one lady at the Mat when I arrived and loaded my machines. I could tell Jamie and Aaron had been in yesterday as the recycle bins were mostly empty and the garbage as well. I started cleaning and fell right back into where I left off. It felt great!

Look at those bright colours on the line!
I do believe I'm rubbing off on Bill, these are his shirts

There was a man and 2 other ladies who came in before I was ready to leave and we had nice conversations. Customers often think that I’m the owner so ask me questions about the washing machines. I’m not usually much help unless I’ve used the machines myself. I hope that nothing goes wrong with the coin machine since that is the one thing I can’t help with. I folded the damp clothes so they wouldn’t get too wrinkly in the basket and headed home around 9.

Fingers crossed that things thrive up here this year again
I left room for the pumpking to spread out
or there's room for more onions to go in

The sky is clear blue and there is a breeze that only got stronger throughout the day. That is a good thing when you’re drying clothes on a line. Once they were hung, I took the pumpkin, lettuce and onion bulbs up the hill to my garden. It didn’t take too long to get things in the ground. Knowing what a rascal I have in Chippy, I decided to sprinkle a little cayenne pepper around each plant base. I’m hoping we don’t have a situation up there!

I know this won't look like much here but when I look back on it
I want to remember how much effort I made
The green weedy area on the right is a much smaller area for us to trim

When I finished that, I was in the mood (and work clothes) for pulling some weeds. The bane of my existence right now is the corral hill as I’m still working at cleaning up the weeds around each of the new plantings. It isn’t easy bracing myself on the hill while trying not to slip. I dig a section with my little trowel and work at each handful. There is a lot of sand up there but also lots of stones and rocks of varying sizes.

you might be able to see some circled plants in this picture
The spots I'm leaving are close to the bottom edge where we can
cut with the small mower or weed trimmer

Because I want the good plants to stand out for future weeding, I began circling each one with the rocks I was finding. By 11:30, I’d been at it for 2 hours and needed a break. I made myself a coffee and drank it outside with my book. I’ve started another recommended one from Gayle. A Jodi Piccult novel called Small Great Things. Once I’d read the first page, I was hooked and that says a lot. I think we have a winner! I didn’t dawdle and once my drink was done went right back to the work.

These geraniums in my hanging basket are big and beautiful!

It felt good, not bodily as I had to keep shifting positions while avoiding stepping on the ‘keepers’, but otherwise mentally and physically getting my gloved hands dirty. Accomplishing things like this is such a good feeling and I could only ‘hope’ that it wasn’t all for naught. Each year I get a little bit farther with this hill so that is encouraging. I could feel that the fingers on my right hand were not oblivious to today’s digging. I ‘hope' they aren’t sore tomorrow.

This pretty purple flower is in the same pot
Google says it is a 'fairy-fan' flower

I'd forgotten last summer that I moved my 3 jack-in-the-pulpits
so was happy when the popped up and reminded me where they were!

I stopped working at 1:00 for lunch and made up a fat-filled plate of good things. It was so warm outside that I took it outside to the patio table to eat. My sister, Donna, would be so proud of me eating keto. 😊  

tuna, cheese, cottage cheese, egg, peppers, carrots

Back to work for another couple of hours and I worked on the hill until 3:30. I knew it was time to quit, my body knew it was time to quit and there was just a couple of sections to do another day. I changed out of my dirty garden clothes into capris and a tank top.

A picture on my phone is not the best
Seems to be distorted

Yes, I can see you, you imp

Sitting in my lounge chair on the patio, I read for a while and then stretched back and closed my eyes for a few minutes. Bill came up the lane just after 4:30 so he’s had a full work day today. We are back into the groove and isn’t it nice that he doesn’t have to go for any overnights? I’ll enjoy having him return each night while I can as long as he doesn’t overdo it.

Our little tree frog is still visiting
I hope he is okay
He hasn't moved all day

He backed the truck up by the storage shed and unloaded 3 and 4' pine tree logs that were cut down at the site they’re working at. We can use some firewood and Mike was happy not to have to dispose of it. His little chain saw comes in handy at times and he made short work of cutting them into small pit size pieces. 

Some of my irises don't grow very tall but they are sure pretty

I went up the berm to do some hand trimming around the small garden. I guess I hadn’t quite finished weeding yet. We both finished about the same time and came inside. Exhausted.

Bill's last job of the day
this one beneficial to our summer campfires

A nice little stack for future burning
If I counted correctly, this tree was 19 years young

I offered to bbq the burgers as I knew he was tired and would probably need a nap. I started them around 6:30 and Bill took over while I got things ready inside. It was a late supper topped off with our last pieces of apple pie. Everything was very good. We sat after dishes and Bill got his blog ready to publish. You can check it out here. 

a delicious Richards burger
jam packed with bacon, cheese, onion, pickle, lettuce, tomato
Ketchup, mustard, mayo and homemade relish

Adding heavy cream to my apple crumble pie added a whole new delight

This was a good day, I feel I got a lot done. It makes me happy to be back at work, meeting people at the Mat again and having a purpose outside of home. At the same time, for me, I'm glad it is only an hour or so every other day and at my own time. I don't want a daily job to have to report to.

I'll end with a couple of pictures from my big Canon

He's just so darn cute, it's hard to get mad at him!
Good night!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your day. Thank you for stopping by!