Home Away from Home, Trying Something Different in the Gardens

The Ridge

Monday, June 8^th is my biggest sister’s birthday. She’s not BIG by any means, just the oldest. I have 4 big sisters and I like that they have to call me their ‘little’ sister. 

Happy Birthday, Cathy!
It was such a nice picture of her with Mom, I didn't want to crop it

Bill and I were awake before his alarm and had a good sleep in the different bed. I was hoping Bill didn’t get up in the night and forget where he was. The bathroom is on the opposite side of the hall than ours is.

All set to roll
It feels weird that they are going without me
Mount Forest is about 20 minutes to the south

No time was wasted this morning, well, read on, perhaps a bit of time was. In yesterday’s blog, (which surprisingly I finished last night!) Bill had hooked up the Suite, tanks empty with the exception of about 10 gal. of fresh water. He was ready to pull out. All the appropriate checks completed including the lights. Because we don’t do it often anymore, it is good to take your time so as not to miss anything. We didn’t.

The Suite moving on for a week's holiday?

He was pulling out of drive at 7:15. I slipped my shoes on and took the 2 recycle bins and garbage down to the road right away. Then, with my heavy camera in tow, I walked. I was lost in my thoughts and it was a beautiful morning at 12C/52F with a clear blue sky. I had walked about 1 ¾ miles before realizing that I was halfway down the big hill, getting close to the highway, so I turned around and headed home.

My walk this morning

Walking in the door, taking my shoes off, I looked at the counter and Bill’s packed lunch cooler was sitting on the counter. He had already texted that he’d dropped the Suite successfully, backing it into their shop. They were ready to start on it right away. Brownie points for CarStar! When I saw the cooler, I had to call him and see how far he got and caught him just in time before he turned in a different route to work. Sad that he had to come back but he can’t do without his lunch and all the liquids he takes.

My corabelle and irises stretching up proud and tall

Soon he was on his way again. I put on my work duds and went out with the sidewalk edger I borrowed to see what luck I’ll have with it. I started around the side and back of the Bunky where I have irises planted. That worked well and should be much easier to control the grass. Next, I went around the fire pit area that I’d created last summer. I wasn’t working hard and took lots of breaks, trying to encourage Chippy to eat more peanuts from my hand or pant legs. Nope, not today.

Widening the garden area was easy in the left and top pictures
around the Bunky
The lower right is along the corral and it was the hardest area

When I’d finished those two areas, except for cleanup, it was 12:30 and time to eat. I’d pretty much emptied the fridge, well close anyway, so that we wouldn’t be missing things this week. I could go pick things up in town if I had to but I didn’t want to have to do that. I did pretty good although I forgot Bill’s lunch cookies from the snack cupboard and his ice packs. It was a joke between us throughout the evening. “Oh! Did ‘we’ bring the cutting board? Did ‘we’ put in this, or that?” Each time I was able to answer “Of course ‘I’ did”. Except these things. Ha ha

We find these holes down the laneway
Places just not good enough to lay eggs for one reason or another
Or, they were spooked by big vehicles
I can't show you the successes, they hide them too well!

After having my lunch plate, too much, I slipped back outside to start on another area. Now, I needed to work it off even though it was all ‘good for me’ foods. I have supper planned so don’t need to be doing any prep work there. Along the corral fence was the next area that I wanted to attack but thinking it would be an easy section was an incorrect assessment. No rocks to deal with but instead the grass is so lush and deeply rooted, I almost killed myself cutting through it.

Chippy found the plastic bag of peanuts tucked under my t-shirt
so I removed them
When you can't see him in the picture (left corner) he is right in the middle
searching for them

Needless to say, that took a lot out of me but I persisted and finally got it completed too. I was done for the day and just in time. It was almost 3 and the sun was very hot at this point. There was a nice breeze that picked up after lunch so that made the job as easy as it could be. The temperature reached 27C/79F which was warmer than was forecasted for today. Tomorrow will be a scorcher so I’d like to get out tonight and pick up my piles of weeds and grasses.

We have little wrens building a nest in my birdhouse
Can you see her peeking out?

Bill was late getting to work so stayed until 5, texting me when he left Walkerton. I like to have an idea when he’ll be home. In this case, I knew he’d want to have a rest before we ate so remained outside in the shade on my lounge chair. My book is keeping me enthralled so the pages are flipped consistently. When Bill came in, he said that there were 3 turtles crossing the lane. I heard him slow down and now knew that was why.

More critter pictures
Chippy stretched out to reach the orange
A family of geese head across the lane to the pond
Out in front of Rob's trailer, a turtle decides about digging a hole

He dozed on the couch and then we cooked fish and chips. I didn’t have my electric frypan to cook outside but Bill used the Fry Daddy out there on our table. Supper was good and I felt too full for dessert right away so after dishes we went out for a bit. 

My two meals today

The picture on the left is where I found myself after 3, done working
so I was relaxing in the shade with my book

It was so calm, not a touch of a breeze again. Beautiful evening. I picked up all of the clumps I’d left in the areas and dumped them over the edge in our brush pile. Bill re-introduced himself to the Hangar. He hasn’t been down there much.

More critters
Our beautiful frog has been faithful in his daily visits
Not sure what the bird is but he's pretty

When I came inside, it was 8:30 and Bill had put PBS on with some old crooning songs from the 50’s & 60’s rock era. It’s okay to listen to you when you are doing something else, otherwise the advertising portion drives you a bit crazy. I worked on my post until it was ready for publishing and then sat with my book. No good tv tonight, it seems, so a quiet evening. 

I'm not done with Chippy yet, he's so entertaining

This was a great day and we’ve made a big step in moving forward by taking the Suite in for repair. We should have it back Friday.

The sky was very pretty tonight
but I stopped here with the pictures
Good night!

I hope yours was a great day as well. Thank you for your visit!