Sunday, June 20, 2010

I am going to stop talking about rain soon, really

This week the TransCanada highway in Sask and Alberta was closed due to flooding and we had 3 days with sun. Today was one of them and it was beautiful.

Yesterday we spent the morning trying to catch up on the weeding. I also replanted the beans, and transplanted some others from where the washed away into the path. The girls did the mowing and sweeping, and Mike helped the weeding. He even refrained from complaining constantly, which was great, as he hates weeding. We spent the rest of the day out at Mike's cousin Scott's house in Harris. All the Pollards and various others were in attendance, so the girls had tons of people to play with and opted to stay the night. This left Mike and I with some early morning time to enjoy the yard before some friends came over.

We used that time well this morning. Although the mosquitoes have been unrelenting even in the heat of day, they were oddly quiet and we had morning coffee on the deck. I had some of Mike's homemade yogurt and picked salad greens for supper. We puttered around the yard picking flowers and watching bugs. Other than putting some laundry on the line, we did nothing but enjoy the sun. That set the tone for the whole day.

When the girls got home, they made brunch. They gave Mike is homemade light box to use in his photography, and then we walked downtown to see the Karate Kid remake for Father's Day. We stopped and did a little parkour in each park we came across and played games with Mike's hack sack. We also bought frozen yogurt. On the way home we played at a spray park. It was a wonderful day in the sun and we got in 10 km of walking.

We have begun eating things in the yard regularly. We have had a few strawberries (that's all we will get at a time)  and even had some peas out of the greenhouse. The rhubarb will need picking again this week, and I get a bowl of salad greens ever couple of days. Spices are all great. The things I am eating are similar to what we had two weeks earlier last year. I just finished harvesting asparagus.

The worms have eaten all the beets as they come up, and the beans are still pitiful. I am also worried the squash etc. will do nothing. Other than that, I think things are doing well, although they are far behind.

The flowers, however, are unfailingly lovely. This next week is my favorite in the yard all year. I may actually miss an number of my favorite spring flowers when we head to Ontario, even though they are spring flowers, but I have enjoyed everything much longer than usually due to the lack of sun.

5 comments:

  1. Father's Day was really terrific. I felt free to just spontaneously make things happen and everyone was pretty good at going along for the ride. The Karate Kid was quite good and the frozen yogurt from Homestead was a special treat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you need someone to babysit your garden when you guys are in Ontario? I'd be happy to do it :) ...and I may steal the occasional nap in the hammock...

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know, as I was reading your last few posts about your garden, it struck me how much they remind me of Grandpa Bert and all his garden notes :-) Your garden sounds like a wonderful place to be! When are you heading to Ontario? I assume you're headed to see your family?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anna, we'd love your help, although we are hoping James will do most of it. Certainly there will be lots to eat while we are gone.

    Suzie, I actually have some of Grandpa's notes and use them. I wish I could show him my garden and get his advice. I'll be in Ontario starting on the 4th. I know you'd be welcome at Greta's if you'd like to join the reunion. . .

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sure Grandpa would have been very proud that the gardening tradition has continued. Wish we could meet up with you in Ontario, but we already have plans to go to the other end of Ontario for convention starting on the 7th. Oh well ... one of these days we might get to see each other again ...

    ReplyDelete