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First installment from me this season... It's been a slow start to the growing season around here and we're in the thick of prepping the old house for a paint job so it's looking tatty to say the least.  Anyway here's what's going on up here early in May.... Peeping out of last year's dead stuff.  Trees are starting to bud.   Some bulbs add the first color of the year to the garden      The driveway garden Jason and I mulched.   My three legged boy (he broke his toe running too fast and recklessly) is forced to relax.  My what a good dog everyone has been saying lately.   The house is looking like a dump.  It's probably never been prepped this well in 50 years and I think it will really pay off scraping and sanding it down so much when it's freshly painted. It's going a light mustard color with white trim (where it's white now) and the veranda floor, doors, planters and peaks will be blood red.      Washing the Bee.   My babies all shined up.  Colorful evening skies over the farm next door. If I hadn't been lazy and taken the first two out of my bedroom window I would have not included the wires. Note the geese, they haven't stopped coming yet.     More...        
Pics taken from this weekend. Stuff has suddenly greened up in the past week.    Some bulbs close up.       The house is fully prepped and ready to go. We're gojng to spot prime, then a full coat of primer follwed by two rounds of top coat. Big job. These are the last pics of the blue house.   The next few are of the one year olds next door making friends with Bandit. It was really cute, if he went away they would moo for him to come back. A downside to this was on Friday night Bandit had the fastest coming on and worst case of fleas on a dog I've ever seen.  I managed to get some Advantage from the Vet on Saturday morning but it doesn't appear to have worked after 24 hours which makes me think maybe it's not fleas. I've never known Advantage not to work like a charm on fleas. Poor little guy is pacing and in obvious discomfort. He has bumps all over his body. I will be taking him in first thing tomorrow morning or call for the emergency vet if it gets any worse today. 'Hmmm well he could be a small version of me'  Bandit is getting bored.  Had enough, starts barking.  Byebye cow cow.  Cows, flowers whatever haha    I let my niece (just turned 16) take her friends out for a ride in the Bee.   Ack, this just happened to one of the doors in my kitchen.   Talk about 'waiting to happen' workmanship there. I was vacuuming and the hose yanked the door open. I have no clue if I have to replace the whole damn door now or just the pane.   
 The cows are on the loose!!  Snooping in the tool shed.  Bandit doing his best to keep them corraled.  One is getting past him.    These young cows are so mischievious.  The farmer says Bandit is a natural. He did a great job helping get them back to their own side of the fence. Miserable weather the past two days, stuck inside with a toothache. Here's the rest of the pics I took last week. What started as six fishies has multiplied to a hundred+ Feeding time...    Lilac trees in bloom.    My favorites, the snowball trees, are days away from being in full bloom. These were nothing more than sticks when I moved here, Karen treated them with bug oils and TLC and this year they're gonna be really nice.    Planted this weeping willow two summers ago. It was three feet high then - now it's close to 20.   Things are greening up nicely.  Karen did the planters on Friday.  They're different than last year but knowing Karen they will grow in nicely.  More flower pics, the bulbs are still hanging in there at the end of May Karen said she tried to plant a variety of early and late bloomers.          
Another installment from me... The snowball trees in full bloom.    Peaonies are getting ready to show.  Healthy grass.  The new paint job.  Rotted parts have all been replaced.  Big storms the past few nights have washed my driveway out.  A strange flower has sprung up.  A bee with his big brother in the background.  More swattables.      I thought this was a bee until I looked at the picture afterwards. No idea what it is.  Butterflies.     Early June flowers.          We found this at a nursery on Friday. Sure excited Karen. It's called a "Picture plant" and she says it's quite rare for our climate zone. It looks like a prehistoric plant to me, the leaves (not shown) almost look like birds. It has to live in a wet peat, bog-like condition.  Hostas are getting lush.  A Lady's Slipper. It's wild to watch the Bees disappear right inside these. They're the provincial flower of Prince Edward Island.  
More pics... Peaonies are out with a vengeance         White house. Full coat of primer, have had some rude comments already about my choice of painting it white.     A couple more critters.   Assorted.         Getting ready for Wimbledon.    I took a few days off and got down to some serious house painting. The lads held down the fort pretty well. Here's some pics... Sad the peaonies blooming season is so short. Looking like hell now.  This odd little tree is so lush this year. It was not healthy at all when I moved here.  Another one of those weird flowers has popped up. Must have a word with Gail about that.  The orchard ain't gonna be bearing fruit this year. All but two survived their first winter so that's not a bad thing.  The trees we planted last year to cut down on some of the highway noise are doing really well.  Now does this boy look content?? Not unlike his Dad these days.  A pretty purple number is spreading on the log cabin.   Colours.   Not such a good pic but I thought these things looked almost edible.  The planters are starting to look nice again.  The big job's progress this week. We endured some pretty hot, humid weather this week, it's supposed to break tonight and be much cooler tomorrow.       Contemplating the work to be done...  My reaction to that. 
The water feature is looking really natural this year.
  Late afternoon sun.  A cute basket on the tool shed.  The new-look front window boxes.  Flowers.     My hammock.   In my hammock.  Perrenials in full bloom.    I'm starting to feel more at ease on the ladder - I actually prefer being at the top as at the middle it's too bouncy and feels less secure to me. I have only dropped my brush once so far from the top.     Finding the colour too pale - not quite what I had in mind. Does match the Jeep though.  Added a new colour for the window frames, I'm hoping it will tone down the overall look.  The green window box was just a practice round they're staying red.  Decisions, decisions.   Another odd thing has suddenly appeared in the yard.
   This side of the house is basically done, a couple of the window boxes are still green and will be changed. The rest of the house is nowhere near done. but at least the colors are satisfactory and that part of it is over.   Mid-summer flowers.      These things are called Astilby or something like that and look pretty kewl.    A water lily in the pond.  The fish are very "humanized" now and go berserk when it's dinner time.   Webmaster, painter, waterer. Sporting my mid summer's dork haircut. Ah well, at least it's cooler on the head.  Colorful sunset.  The house is pretty much done, now we have to turn our attention to laying the veranda floor and fixing the pillars at the front.    This wasn't planned but we decided to paint the beams on the underneath of the veranda roof the trim color. Really pleased with that effect.  Planted some trees on the hill, hopefully in a few years the road wont be visible and some of the traffic noise will be cut down.  August flowers.            Went on a local trip to the "Barron Canyon" a truly spectacular sight. You probably wouldn't want to come here with an enemy. The cliff is totally accessible and very freaky.   Spotted a canoe in the canyon. Hopefully some camping cuties I thought to myself.  Nope. Very well behaved doggie though. Bandit would soon have had us tipped.   Took a nice sightseeing trip to a local spot called the Baron Canyon. Very scary not the kind of place you come with an enemy.
 Spotted a canoe... hoping for hotties...  No hotties but a very well behaved doggie.   Trees are starting to fill in the hill, should be very private in a few years.  Frogs in the pond.  Not sure what these two are up to buds I guess.   The house is pretty much done, the porch still has to be stained a red color and a bit of painting at the front where the new pillars were installed. These pics are from the past three weeks and not in any particular order...           Gorgeous boy.  One of the fruit trees we planted last year actually has apples this year and quite a few for such a stick of a tree. They're tasty too.  Late summer flowers.       Tool shed is painted - looks kinda cute.    My private sunbathing spot is gone The next few pics are the garage disappearing in preparation for a new one.    Posing.        A water lily.  Another creature has made a home by the pond.  More flowers.               The area where I'm building a garage has been leveled, dug down four feet and filled with a gravel composite. Concrete slab and foundation is coming next.    Me and my pup.  Birdies are back nesting in the freshly painted veranda. I wonder if they appreciate their newly decorated digs.  Speaking of birds saw a blue heron at a nearby beach. I've never seen one of these before.  Even more birds A hummingbird.  More pond frogs. I'm fascinated by how well they camouflage themselves. I get mesmerized sometimes trying to spot them. They're really tame too, they'll actually let you rub their chins.    Bandit's girlfriend Chloe.  They spend hours chasing and barking at each other up and down the fence line. Neither ever crosses into the other's property. But they are totally obsessed with each other.  More posing. I'm having one of my healthiest summers ever - trying to stay fit and eating well.      The house painting is now officially done. The veranda is getting stained this week.    Autumn gardens.     Flowers.    My twin came to visit last week.  The deck is done and all I had hoped to accomplish this season is done.
  Decided to leave the wood natural with a clear stain instead of red. It seemed to blend so well with the house colors the way it was.     Content frog.  Very well camouflaged frog.   I'm not sure what this late season bloomer is but it's putting on a pretty nice show.   September flowers.       Late season colors.       I got up really early the other morning and the fog was thick, made for a really pretty view.         |
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