Babysitting the Plants

 Last weekend, daughter and I went to the Amish greenhouses about 15 minutes away to purchase the flowers we are going to plant in a number of urns, pots, and window boxes for her wedding this summer. Her colour scheme is white / cream, green, and gold. In her pots and urns there can also be the palest of pinks just to add a little colour. 

Of course, here in Canada, the month of May can still be iffy when it comes to weather and true to form the temperature dipped dangerously low with frost warnings, so I had to bring everything into the mudroom for two nights so we didn't lose any of them to the cold. 

Otherwise, they live on the back porch and I keep them watered and rotated until we can get the big urns, etc. in place and start to plant them. 

Do any of you gardeners have something like this?

This is my bag of old bedsheets that I use only for covering plants (especially tomatoes in the early Autumn, again when there is a danger of frost). I draped the flowers one night when it was quite cold, but had to physically move everything in on the other nights. 

I will take some pictures of the planted urns and pots when that happens. I have reassured my daughter that I will keep everything watered and fertilized so they are all looking good for August. 

Happy Mother's Day

 I couldn't imagine my life without these two. This picture is from a family holiday we took last January. 

When life gets stressful, or down, or I just need a mental reset, I think of how lucky we are as a family. Other people have dealt with illnesses or major difficulties with their children and ours have been healthy, happy, independent, thoughtful, kind, and all around decent human beings. Daughter is currently 30 (just turned!) and son is 26. She is getting married in August and he has a lovely girlfriend.

I'll be going out for brunch with the two of them later today and hopefully the weather will be nice enough that they are going to help me get my vegetable garden ready (weeded, rototilled, rows marked out...). My own mom has been gone now for many years, but husband's mother is currently in a long term care home and he will see her today. She is 87 and physically still quite well (but has dementia). 

Happy mother's day to all of you who have raised and cared for children. May you have a nice meal, outing, or even just a phone call today with your loved ones!

Happy Easter

 Wishing everyone a happy Easter this weekend. We are gathering as an extended family on Sunday at our house. About fourteen of us this year. There will be ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, a creamy corn casserole, chick pea salad and a spring greens salad. I’m baking a lemon layer cake and my daughter is making a cinnamon roll cake. My sister in law is bringing another dessert and my sister is bringing appetizers. 

I don’t think we are expecting a warm spring day, but instead cool and rainy ( perhaps snow). But that’s April. 

Even though our two kids are 26 and 29, I’ll still pick up a few little Easter treats for them ( and their significant others).I asked husband if he wanted anything and he said yes, but just one. Likely something Reese’s Peanut Butter chocolate. Then I asked, and what am I getting? Like most moms, I’ll get my own ( like stuffing your own stocking at Christmas! Haha.)

I am looking forward to getting on with outdoor tasks the first of which will be raking our one acre property. If the weather behaves we will have “ kid” help on the holiday Monday. 

Happy Easter everyone! 🐣

It's a bit COLD

 I thought I would quickly pop back here for an update. We are having another good old fashioned winter again. LOTS of snow in "southwestern Ontario" with lake effect snow coming off of the Great Lakes. At the moment, we are in quite a cold snap. Keep in mind, we are measuring in Celsius.

Yes, that's a going to be a low tonight of -24, feels like -34. If you don't understand, "feels likes" means taking into account the wind chill factor. So even though you might be outside in a balmy -24, with the wind blowing, it's more like -34. Let's just say that the cats don't stay outside very long in this weather. 

Husband and I got away for a week and thoroughly enjoyed the sun whilst at home they were getting a blizzard which closed roads and actually closed schools for a couple of days (usually the busses are cancelled, but schools remain open). Busses get cancelled because the back roads are not able to be cleared in time by the snow ploughs, or the blowing snow is causing white outs that are too dangerous for busses to be travelling in. We really enjoyed the resort we were at (Dominican Republic) and would consider returning there some day. It was 28 degrees there. Lovely. 

Being as it is a sunny morning (a rarity), here are some east-facing and west-facing porch pictures to show you our snow. 

I hope you are warm and contented, wherever you are in the world. 

Don’t wait - Loss

 My oldest brother died yesterday. This was a shock for everyone. He was 72 years old- a character if there ever was one. He hid how much his COPD had advanced and was affecting him. He also had later onset diabetes ( requiring insulin). 

When he started feeling unwell last week he naturally thought it was a cold virus and rested and dealt with it accordingly but it was influenza which rapidly became pneumonia. Within hours he was intubated and in the ICU. Regardless of all the antibiotics and the multiple machines and lines which were helping his body systems to function it was all too much and he died within four days, never coming out of his heavy sedation/ medical coma. 

Don’t wait is what I put in the title of this post. Don’t wait to take care of your health. Don’t wait to get together with family and friends. Don’t wait to take the trip, make the call, hug someone, or prepare or update your will. 

When you think you are having a bad day, ask yourself if you woke up in your own home and breathed on your own. If you did, it’s a good day. 

Thank you for allowing me to share. Please enjoy the holiday season and appreciate your good fortunes. 

At Long Last, December 4, 2025

 Realizing I've been absent from blogging for months now, I thought I should show proof of life. This morning, here in Ontario, I am sitting with my Santa mug of coffee, reading blogs and preparing myself mentally for getting ready for a supply teaching job even though buses are cancelled due to the wintry weather. (The schools remain open and many children are brought in by their parents). 

Life has been busy and good. We spent the whole summer and fall doing projects related to getting ready to host our daughter's wedding here in August of '26. We also went away for a week to Cuba in November which was ill fated and probably won't be repeated again in our life time, ha ha! 

I am just starting to gear up for the Christmas season. We were in the city to deliver our son's cat back to him (we were cat sitting while he was away for a much more successful holiday to Mexico later in November) and we managed to get some shopping done. We found a Christmas tree (real) close to home for a sale price of $60.00 which suited us much better than the $99.99 price tag we were seeing! I decorated the tree with Celtic Christmas music in the background yesterday. 

As per usual, Murphy has ensconced himself in his rightful place under the tree. (Tree skirt is not yet put down, so excuse the ugly mat that is used to protect the wood floor). 

I shall start baking soon. We will be having our immediate family get together on the 24th and then extended family will be on Boxing Day, hosted by my eldest brother's long time girlfriend. I am not heart broken over not hosting this year. It is a big undertaking. This will be the first year that we will not be bringing my mother-in-law out of her nursing home to come to our house for a meal and presents. Her dementia has made it more difficult to leave the comfort and familiarity of her place and she is not always aware of who her son is. So we will go to her and hope that it is a nice break in her day. 

As I said, today is blustery and as I look out at the one street light on our dead end road here at the edge of the village, I see there is a tiny break in the weather. Hopefully when it is time for me to set out, there will be another break as I navigate the 20 minute drive through the country side to the school I am working at today. It is a JK /SK class that I am in (junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten split) so I'm not sure how many little ones will show up. 

I hope everyone is well out there. I still enjoy reading blogs, but have lost the previous years' momentum of writing posts myself. Perhaps I will do another Christmas baking post soon. 

Aug. 10, 2025

 In all this heat, I’m still working on perennial/ shrub beds. This will be a quick post, but for those of you who do your own gardening and end up having to clean up existing beds, I discovered a great “ hack” as they say. Well, likely others have discovered it as well, but it’s new to me. 

I have dastardly creeping bellflower in some beds and it’s nasty to get rid of. You must dig deeply to get at the main roots, not just the little spidery white roots just under the surface. Of course, I have established shrubs and plants like peonies and spirea that I am not going to dig up and then put back in place, but they are big and scratchy in the case of spirea, so I took some foam covered gardening wire ( or tie-back) and wrapped it around the whole shrub as best I could and cinched it in and twisted the wire closed. This gave me lots of room, let me see what was under all those branches, and doesn’t hurt the plants at all. 

I did this to try and control a giant Annabelle hydrangea, too. It worked really well! 

Also, I just planted a Rose of Sharon because I needed something that would be in bloom at this time. It wasn’t blooming when I planted it, but it had several buds. Well, look at this!!

Those blooms are huge! I couldn’t believe it. And… they were 25% off! I love end of season sales!