Are you shittin' me?

It's been a couple of days so I have many things to update you on.

I attended the first of four Healthy Weight Program sessions on Thursday night, offered through Sobeys grocery store - FREE OF CHARGE! I mean seriously, what is free of charge these days? And let me address the "white elephant" in the room, and don't mistake me for that elephant, but clearly, I am in serious need of a refresher on what healthy weight and, more importantly, healthy eating standards are in 2010. Don't we all need a refresher from time to time. Standards change, right?

The group is a small one - eight people. And, a mixture of women and men in all age ranges. We are all there for different reasons, some related to health. Well really, we're all there for our health but others are also interested in losing weight. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all have different goals. So, now the fun starts. Eating according to the Canadian Food Guide and combining some exercise into my day. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on my progress. Two days of healthy eating down, the rest of my life to go - that is until a chocolate bar gets in my way.

On the home front, yesterday while I was running around town doing some errands, the Silver Fox was hard at it, building.....



Great, no? At one of the nurseries in town, he was chatting with the manager about the chances of peppers producing here because it is still a fairly mild climate. She told him the only chance he would have is if he grew them in a greenhouse or a cold (HOT) frame. So, he set to it. He is bound and determined to grow those little suckers.

Today, I continued on with my painting. I did the second coat on the strip along the deck surface and then took a lunch break. I made a sandwich and headed outside to the stoop with little Ernie at my side. After a few moments, I heard a squirrel coming up under the deck, between the stairs and the wall. I knew that it wouldn't see us because we have a collection of plants sitting beside the stairs waiting to be planted. We sat very still and sure enough, the squirrel pops its head around the plant and realizes we are sitting there so it makes a hasty retreat. Seconds later, another squirrel does the same thing except this one doesn't see us and walks right out in front of us before high-tailing it out to its tree.

After lunch, I headed out to paint the deck at the back of the house. The SF assembled a scaffolding of sorts for me to paint the outside of the deck. FAR BETTER than standing on a ladder and allowed me to make quick work of the couple of sections I completed. Mid-way through the SF stopped by. Since it was such a great day, he brought his lunch home to eat outside (I just about splattered paint on him...oops) keeping me company. So sweet. When he was ready to go back to work, I walked him up to the front of the house. As I stood at the top of the stoop, babbling as he walked to his car, he suddenly turned and postured oddly. At the same time, something lying on the road behind him caught my eye. Noooo!! I asked him what it was. Is it a squirrel? And he wouldn't answer. I'm heartbroken. He walked over to it and nudged it over to the side of the road with a promise he would pick it up after he got home from work. "Is it my little Momma?", I asked him. And he wouldn't answer. Just that he would put it away later. I knew it. I knew my little Momma was gone. Only moments later a group of teenage girls must have spotted her when they were driving by and I could hear them squealing as they continued driving. Then they had the nerve to turn around, come back, stop and get out to look at her. I couldn't leave her there until the SF got home so I scooped her up and dug a little grave for her under a tree. I'm sure there are some babies somewhere that probably won't make it much longer without her because it looked as though she was feeding. Why? My poor sweet friend. I seriously need to stop attaching to the wildlife around here. Geesh, the other day I came home heartbroken because I saw a baby fox that had been killed on the highway. It was no bigger than Ernie. Poor sweet baby. Rest in Peace you two. There are no darn cars where you are now but watch out for that Rookie. Nothing he loves better than to chase a squirrel.

When the SF arrived home from work, he headed out to light the barbeque on the deck. He had moved the first planter onto the painted deck surface. Here's how things are shaping up there. Just need to fill the planters...


and now I have one more job to do.....cleaning up someone else's job!


Not twelve hours have passed and the birds already crapped on the freshly painted deck. No where else. Just the nice white stain! Are you shittin' me?

Cuteness factor...and for once it isn't about Ernie.

After slathering on some sunscreen (Yes, I know. I should have thought of that YESTERDAY!) I headed back outside to get some more painting done. I broke with my routine and started painting some of the deck surface. Completely unlike me when it comes to painting. I am very strict about painting in a consecutive organized manner. None of this bouncing back and forth for me. However, we are anxious to plant in our newly constructed planters but we can't until the deck surface is complete, or at least the deck surface underneath the planters. So, I painted a swatch about 7 boards wide, spanning the deck's surface. I dare that little frog to show up and say I have lots of work to complete. The deck surface is a snap to paint. Another coat on that small path and the planters can be placed in their future home. As I was painting, the SF was washing my car on the driveway below. At one point, I stood up to stretch and was chatting with him when some movement further downstream of him, literally, caught my attention. It was a squirrel walking out onto the driveway to get a drink from the water running down the driveway. It was very sweet. The little guy stayed there for a couple of minutes and then looked at the SF as if to say, "Thanks, Dude!" Heartwarming, no?

Well it was for a short time. An hour later, I saw the SF shooing the squirrel away from the bird feeder and I couldn't understand why he was getting so annoyed. After all, the squirrel has been eating out of the "squirrel proof" feeders for several months now. Well, this should answer the question.

Noooo!!! Say it isn't so!

"You lookin' at me?"

Lower....lower.....Got it!

It's no wonder the hosta below this feeder has new leaves broken off of it every day. The squirrel jumps down from the feeder into the hosta. I suspect it is trying to cushion it's fall.

She's in for a rude awakening because just hours after this show took place, I saw a hummingbird checking out the feeder. Time to switch it up a bit. Besides, those squirrels and chickadees are fat enough now. Time to fatten up some hummers.

Must go soak in a hot tub. Later!

313.5 hrs....Don't you love it when you can turn your husband on....

....to one of your favourite pastimes. Get your mind out of the gutter people. I'm talking about gardening because now he gets just as excited as I do about going to a garden show. It was, however, a very small one in a community called Crapaud which, my chiropractor informed me the other day, is Toad in french. It's a small community about a half hour drive west from our house.

Among the purchases, a pair of gardening clogs pour moi. Sloggers. No Mom, not wooden clogs. Sorry to my Dutch ancestors, but I really don't know how comfortable those could be and as uncoordinated as I am, I would probably break an ankle.


Ev bought two tomato cages that match my shoes.
We were still able to come away with a few plants. Two Hellebores and a Tree Peony. (I borrowed these photos from a friend.)

As for the planters we were building. I found an inspirational photo which we based our design off and then found a free plan online somewhere which we adapted, adjusting the length and the panels to suit our needs. This is our inspiration...

This is first of two.

After our marriage just barely surviving the completion of one, I decided to back away from the power tools and let the Silver Fox work solo on the second one while I worked on my trellises. Regardless of our differences of opinion, mostly math related, we are both pretty impressed and proud of the outcome. The Silver Fox has not only completed the second but has also primed both and will be painting them next week. Then to line them, plant and stand back to watch them fill in. I'll post some pictures once they are done.

Their new home will be on our upstairs deck below the two large picture windows. (I know my Mom will understand this, but I hope they don't end up with FELT PADS on the bottom of their feet.)

That's it for today folks. Must knit. GO CANUCKS GO!!!!!

Driven to distraction....

As you might guess, it was a difficult week for us. The first couple of days, we were completely unsettled. Not happy being home where everything we touched brought up a memory of our beloved Rookie, we would often grab a coffee and take a drive. We would mindlessly and aimlessly drive around checking out neighbourhoods we haven't yet seen and avoid returning home at all costs. Pulling back into the driveway and entering the house was the worst because Rookie wasn't there to greet us. As days passed, it got a bit easier but waves of grief would hit either one of us unexpectedly. Once we made it through the initial days, we both returned to some projects and started others that would occupy our thoughts and steer our pain into something more positive.

Gardening! Seems funny I'm going to talk about gardening when we are in the middle of a blizzard here. Over the past 6 hours, we have accumulated at least 6 inches of snow. It was so deep that when I opened the door to let Ernie out this morning, he couldn't even get out the door. I had to carry him out and shovel a little "poo patch" for him. I digress. We have been dreaming about our garden since we arrived. Heck, I've been dreaming about a garden since we left BC in July 2006. We have some lofty plans but are trying to take on only a few projects each year. This years projects:

1. Compost (completed Fall/09)
2. Vegetable Garden & Perennial Starter Garden
3. Lasagna Garden Trial
4. Front Flower Beds
5. New Front Flower Bed
6. Planter Boxes for Deck
7. Trellis'
8. Cold Frames
9. Start Seeds

Would you agree now? Lofty? We started composting the instant we arrived in PEI. The island is huge into composting. We actually have two garbage cans provided by the city - one for garbage and one for compost - each is picked up on alternate weeks. Rather than give away all of our good compost, we wanted to create our own but because we arrived so late in the year, we couldn't find a composter to purchase so we created our own. We have a small compost disposal that we keep under the kitchen sink. When that's full we transfer it out to a garbage can, out by the garage, that we drilled a bunch of holes through to allow air to it to speed up the composting process. When that bucket gets full, we transfer it to a composter that we bought/altered. It is an old damaged wooden bin that we bought from a farmer for $10. We made a lid, out of the old plywood sides of our utility trailer. We are hoping to buy another bin in the Spring to put grass clippings and leaves into.

Next, and slightly more exciting, the Vegetable and Perennial Garden. The hubby is tackling the vegetable garden. We are going to build a bed about 25' x 25' and divide it into four sections. Three will be his vegetables and the last will be my perennial starting garden. For Christmas, I gave him a couple of books on vegetable gardening so he could make a plan. He's been researching "companion gardening". Who knew that vegetables liked to be planted beside certain plants and weren't so impressed to be planted beside others. I didn't know vegetables were discriminating. Did you? We've made several trips out to Vesey's, a local place that has a huge mail order business, where he purchased the majority of his seeds. I had to order a few more online because we weren't able to find the hot peppers locally. Next was organizing them by planting date. Some of them have to be started inside in the winter...right about now actually. So he has a little cardboard box that he has them all stowed away in and I gave him a copy of my spreadsheet that I am using to organize himself (like he needs my help?). I'll have to get his list to tell you all that he has planned to plant. His plan for the architecture of the garden, besides the 4 plots, is to build a fence or lean to that he can plant some raspberries plants up against. The fence is also being made from some reclaimed wood that he obtained from a local kitchen cabinet company that was disposing of it. He's also now going to plant some blackberries, in honour of Rookie, and it will now become Rookie's garden.

Why? When we were living in North Van, the three of us used to walk to a local tennis court. While Ev and I played tennis, Rookie would run around the outside of the court, digging through the heavy bushes hunting out lost tennis balls. On our way home we would stop at the blackberry bushes that surrounded the park for a feast. While Ev & I feasted at the top of the bushes, Rookie would help himself to the berries on the lower half of the bushes. He loved him some blackberries. We'd have to pull him away to avoid tummy aches....or worse. So now, we are going to have a patch of our own.

Ev advised me the other day that he is now considering making raised beds, which only makes sense, about him. It plays to his strong sense of organization. That's a nice way of saying, he's a little obsessive-compulsive. I'm going to leave that decision to him and will keep you posted.

As for my perennial garden, I figured since perennials generally take two years to establish and flower, I decided to have a starter garden. This year I'll plant most of my perennials from seed inside, transfer them out to the starter garden and next year I will transfer them into flower beds. This will avoid having little straggly plants in my main flower beds and also helps to save a lot of money. You can spend a bundle on just a single plant yet buy a packet of perennial seeds for a couple of dollars and have a couple of dozen plants from it. Makes sense, right? I'm all about saving a buck and gaining the satisfaction of knowing I started my plants from seed.

To be continued.....