Very long and photo heavy post - Gardening :)

On Thursday DH & I decided we would put in a garden after all - a little late but so what.

We decided to build two raised beds in the back yard and cut a garden in the front yard.

So that day we went and bought the wood for the raised beds and the various plants we would need. We also ordered 5 yards of triple-mix, a maple tree and a cedar tree to be delivered on Friday.

Tomato & peppers plants

More tomato plants and some others for the front bed

A couple clematis and these red flower bushes DH really likes.

A couple baskets of impatiens in pots for the front step.

The front bed with the sod cut outThe sod pile out back (that's the dogs' pool :))

The side of the house is horrible with weeds.

DH built the first raised bed

On Friday morning the soil was delivered along with the trees we bought.

The dirt pile with only a bit taken out

Our Deborah MapleSide garden filled in - we'll plant hostas here later
While I was raking the dirt in this area, I smelled gas.
That's a gas meter smack in the middle there.
We called the gas company and all of us (dogs included) sat out
back to await the gas guy. When he showed up after about
20 mins, he used an instrument to check for a leak,
which he found, tightened a fitting and left - took all of 5 minutes.

The front garden with the new cedar tree and soil in the bed

Raised beds filled with soil - they hold a LOT of soil

We decided to cut another small bed for the
clematis in the middle of the back fence

DH planted all his veggies in the 2 raised beds

Dirt pile getting smaller

After buying the supplies on Saturday, DH built
a trellis for my clematis to grow up

They are pretty tiny right now though

DH planted the red flower bushes in the corner of the yard -
coincidentally, the flowers growing through the fence from our
neighbour's yard are the same plant.

This is what they will look like when in full bloom - we had to stop
and take a photo of some we were driving by, so that we knew what to buy.

The front garden bed all planted - kiddo helped me

Small blue & purple flowers planted between the rocks - kiddo helped here too

Although DH hauled all the dirt to the back yard, I helped rake and fill the beds, dig out sod and plant. Friday night I could barely move, my back and feet hurt so much.

The weather was actually quite nice, warm without being hot and there was usually a nice breeze as well.

We still have to plant the tree, but that will wait until next weekend. And the side garden will get hostas once my friend splits a few of her hostas up. We also have a large amount of soil in the backyard that has to be spread to level an area that used to hold a pool. That too will wait till next weekend.

It was a lot of work, but the results look good. Now we just have to remember to water each day :)

Happy Canada Day!

We finished Peanut-proofing the backyard today and so, let Peanut out to go wild.

Here are a few new pictures of her and a video of her with her leash and one with Kodi - they are both quite tired now - they continued playing for some time after the video stopped.

Building, Fiesta-ing, reading and stuff

I know I have been horrible about posting lately. It seems I can't work and keep up with everything else. You should see my kitchen *sigh*

So some updates.

We installed our back yard gate yesterday. We still have to install the hardware and a couple boards to close up gaps in the bottom of the fence and then my Peanut can roam free out there. We currently take her out an her lease. She will now be able to terrorize Kodi in a much bigger space :)

Last week was Fiesta Week in our neck of the woods. There are about a dozen different pavilions representing other countries to visit. You buy a passport and visit as many pavilions as you like, just buying your meal at each. They also have shows with traditional dancing and music.

Since we have soccer Monday & Tuesday, we had a late start. On Wednesday we went to the Ukrainian pavilion - I wasn't that impressed with the food, but the show was fun. Thursday we went to the Caribbean pavilion which has great food, dancing and a steel drum band. That is where we heard about the death of Michael Jackson - RIP MJ.

And finally on Friday we went to a Greek pavillion. The food wasn't bad ( we prefer a different Greek pavillion) but the best part was that I finally got to meet a friend of mine. I'll call her K. We both worked on the same contract a few years ago but it was a work-from-home contract and so we never actually met face to face. We continued to chat via email over the years but had not met until Friday night. So cool :)

Over the past couple weeks I have read and would recommend the following books:

The kite runner - Khaled Hosseini
I was worried I wouldn't like it and that it may be too political - I did and it wasn't.

The Lost Quilter - Jennifer Chiaverini
Story about a slave in the South in the 1860's - very good read

Heart-shaped Box - Joe Hill (this is Stephen King's son - and you can tell in his writing)
Aging rocker who collects oddities of the occult, buys a ghost and gets more than he bargined for.

The Sharper your knife, the less you cry - Kathleen Flinn (Melody I think you may really like this one!) True story of a journalist who finally follows her dream and enrols in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris.

I also received my tea towel & pot holder swap from the Down To Earth swap. But I have been slacking and have yet to take a picture of the items I got - I also forgot to take pictures of the stuff I sent my buddy - so I will post those when she send them to me.

This coming week will be short - Wed July 1st is Canada Day. My office is closed but I will be working from home and taking Friday off instead. I am going to see if I can work from home on Thursday as well, so I don't have to travel that day. DH has Wed - Fri off and the kid finished school on Thursday past.

So until I get back here - have a great week - Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!

Work & Stuff

I am finally getting used to being back at work, although the 5am wake up is still killin me.

The bank offers a shuttle bus service to and from the GO station each day which is really convenient and saves me about 25 minutes and two bus rides each way.

I now actually have work to do, however, some of the people that are supposed to be sharing information with me are less then forthcoming. It is like they are afraid if I know stuff, I may steal their job or something.

To switch topics completely, we have new neighbours behind us. They moved in about 6 weeks ago. I guess the first week they lived there, they were on vacation because on the Monday, they were out on their back deck all day with a bunch of people drinking and BBQing....all day!

Then the next week, at about 10am I was on my computer and had my office window open and smelled something. Well dude was out there BBQing...at 10am! I suppose maybe he does shift work. So then around 4pm there are 2 teenagers out there BBQing. Then at about 7pm there is another guy out there....you got it...BBQing. I guess they never had a BBQ before.

I still haven't figured out how many people actually live there because there is the morning guy who is about 45ish. Then the 2 teens. Then the evening guy is about 30ish and there is a 30ish woman with a small child (or 2?) and I also saw a kid about 10.

Oh ya and these guys really like to party it up on the weekends. Out on the deck til all hours of the night, drinking and laughing with their back porch light on that lights up my bedroom quite well thank you very much.

It looks like it could be an interesting summer.

Tickets have arrived

So our Aerosmith tickets that we purchased two days ago (with much nashing of the teeth over the price) arrived via FedEx today. They actually just left the envelope on the front stoop! Sheesh

While J was eating dinner, we asked him if he had the chance to go to a concert, what concert would he chose? Well first he rhymed off the name of his favorite radio station. Dude, that's a radio station, not a group. Pick a group.

Then he named some alternative singer that he and DH like. No no a group!

Then he said Aerosmith :)

We said how it was such a coincidence that we just happened to have tickets for Aerosmith.

He didn't get as excited as I thought he would, he smiled and said Sweeeet! I guess that is good.

He doesn't have a clue who ZZ Top is so that will be new for him.

Can't wait till Sept 3rd!

Sweeeeeet!

I need a day off after the weekend

Now that I am back to work it seems all the housework and chores and everything else gets left to do til the weekend.

Accomplished this weekend:

• Grocery shopping
• Library visit
• 3 loads of laundry
• Cook taco salad for dinner Saturday
• Cook sheppard's pie for dinner Sunday
• Cook taco rice & lentils for my lunches during the week
• Make fresh fruit salad for lunches during the week
• Prep J's lunches for the week
• Finish crocheting my sister's pink & white afghan (remember to take a photo)
• Design gate for back yard - it is fenced in but has no gate
  
• Buy supplies for gate (now I have to hound DH to get it started!)
  
• Got so caught up in things that I did not turn on my computer Sunday morning and thus missed the reminder that we were supposed to go for soccer pictures at 10 am - no pictures this year :(
• Washed several loads of dishes by hand - all that cooking yanno
  

Still to do:

• Fix the hem on one leg of a pair of pants (I'll use iron-on tape)
• Yet more dishes to wash
• Get all clean clothes hung up and put away
• Pack lunches for tomorrow

Ya an extra day just to relax would be very nice.

Something to ponder...

While using the ladies room one day, as I was washing my hands at the sink, I looked in the mirror in front of me and noticed I could see under the stall doors.

I saw a pair of high heeled shoes that where facing the toilet (reread that, facing the toilet, not the door) and I could hear the sound of tinkling. There wasn't anyone else in the washroom. I didn't wait around to see who came out :)