So, I'm still plodding along, fighting the same cold I caught two weeks ago. It's nasty. But, I have to slog myself out into the garden today and pull a million weeds. We have four large Chinese Elm trees along the back of the yard, and I think every seed pod that they dropped has sprouted. Olivia can help...she loves digging in the dirt, so we can both be in the shade working. She takes such pride in the little (ok...not so little...it's 20 feet by 40 feet) garden we planted. "Look, Grandma...look at our rutabaga!" "Psst..Olivia...that's rhubarb." Which reminds me, I should pick some today to make this, because someone at our house really, really likes pie. We also need to plant the remainder of the plants that we bought for our newly-enlarged flower beds.

In the whole working/new house/cold that lasts forever, I am seriously behind in my blog reading....so I apologize, and now I know what I'm going to be doing after Olivia goes to bed tomorrow night, and I am at home by myself. It's a Riders home game, and Donnie and some of his friends are going.

Backyard pics

I have this sort of love/hate thing going on with the great outdoors. I love gardening, but I hate all the bug spray/sunblock that I have to pile on to do it. I have a combination of pasty white skin, and apparently really tasty blood to the ravenous mosquitoes here. I love the backyard at our house. I'm amazed more and more each day how beautiful the flower beds are that the previous owners put in. Speaking of which, I am totally procrastinating right now finishing off the upsizing of one of the back ones, which I should do before I have to go to work this afternoon.

So, I thought I'd share some pics of what the place looks like.

This is the little bed along the back of the garage. I have plans to make this bigger too. It's edged be some pieces of wood that are all rotting away, and I'm not fond of the very straight rectangle shape that it is.

But I love the huge bleeding heart, and the hostas, and the columbines. I can't remember what the plant is in the middle...I had one in a garden a long time ago, and it is really bugging me, because I should remember.







Olivia found this little garden objet d'art and we had to bring it home.











Flower bed behind the back deck.








Irises and white-flowered shrub by the garden shed.

I DO actually remember how to knit...

So I got the living room painted and all the books unpacked in time for my visit on Wednesday. And then I came down with the mother of all colds.
No energy...coughing...sore throat...the works. So, Thursday, my wonderful fiance Donnie said, "You have worked so hard...I want you to do nothing today. Just sit and relax." So, I pulled out some projects that have been sitting around forever. Like Olivia's coral cardi, which has been languishing in my trunk for a year. Good thing I size up the piece that I'm working on for her, because by the time I finish things, she's significantly older. I'm working on one of the sleeves, and it's working up quickly. I may even finish it this year.

I was working on a different project...I've ripped back the sweater that I was making out the Endless Summer Lara. This is now the third different project that I have started with this yarn. Maybe I've found a winner yet. I keep ripping it back and trying something new with it. So, anyways, I found a pattern for just a simple ribbed shell, and I was sitting on the couch with Donnie, watching some variation on Law and Order. He was watching me intently.

"Wow...that's amazing," he says.

"What is?"

"That...that looks so...hard. You're doing that thing with the needles and the yarn in front and back...It looks complicated." (He is looking at me like I am splitting an atom.)

"Football is complicated, sweetie, this is not."

Took a break this weekend...

We've been doing a lot of work around the house, and decided to take the weekend off again. Last weekend, we went to the Cathedral Arts Festival, and then out for dinner with some friends at Earl's, which is one of my favourite restaurants.

This weekend, we went to Mosaic, and hit a few of the pavillions. We ended the night at the Scottish pavillion. The picture quality is not the greatest, since I took it with my cell phone, but that was one of the bands playing at the Scottish pavillion. Two guys on guitars, and one on bagpipes, playing things like AC/DC, the Bay City Rollers, and the Ramones.

On the bagpipes.

And, we got to hear a lot of music from our University days, stuff that unless you lived here, you probably have never heard...like Captain Tractor.

But now, I'm not scheduled this week at all, so it's back to work around the house. I'm planning on getting the living room painted, since Stacey, the loans officer who did our mortgage, is coming by on Wednesday to visit and check out the house. After I get some more stuff done, I'll take some pictures, and post them.