A Birthday

A certain little fella turned four months old this past week. He changed a lot this month. He's grown a lot and is so much more alert.






Daddy also celebrated a birthday this week.

Take Three

It's done: done for this year, at least. In the latest and final round, I have planted whatever it is I'm going to plant this year and have mulched.

It doesn't look like much, but, hopefully, it will emerge as something worthwhile over time. As I posted previously, there are lots of petunias in there that should fill out in another month or two. Today I added perennials that will look good in the years to come ... knock on wood.



I went to the local grocery store (a YIG for those who understand the short form) which actually has a pretty fair perennial section, better than Wal-Mart or Home Depot or Canadian Tire which is the local competition. I chose plants of the lavender, pink, blue and white shades and stayed away from yellows, oranges and reds. It's not that I have anything against the latter, but we're trying to go with a bit of a colour scheme. So, I picked what I could from their stock, planted it, and now hope for the best. It wasn't necessarily the assemblage that I might have gathered had I had all of the choice in the world, but I did my best under the circumstances. For example: most, except the phlox at the front are summer flowers; I had hoped to include asters for later colour but couldn't find any, and I didn't think sedum, which they did have, would fit very well in this particular garden.

I've had a perennial garden before and know that I will probably change my mind a lot once I see how the garden begins to take shape. Sometimes, reality turns out to be different than what your mind's eye envisages in the designing stage, and one has to be adaptable. For example, the campanula is in front of the echinacea right now, but it may turn out to be taller, so those two could be switched at some point, or I could move one or the other out of this bed completely.

Here's a labelled photograph for those who know plants and/or are interested. Where there is both a Latin name and a common name, the Latin comes first. Clicking will give you a somewhat larger version.



It's not much, but it's a start and should be a big improvement on the disaster that has been our lawn and garden since we moved here ... and for many years before that, I venture to guess. Hopefully this bed will just be the start of a larger plan, but I have to be careful because I know from past experience that gardens can become more of a burden than a pleasure if you get carried away with grand plans.

Foto Friday

We took the Bonnie Wee One shopping in town with us the other day. Cuppa thought she was pretty cute walking along beside me holding the bag.



She fell asleep on the way home in the car, so we drove many miles out of our way, so she wouldn't wake up too soon. Have you ever done that?

I a CSI

I've gone and done it again.

You might recall the funny glasses that I purchased on our last shopping trip into the city. Just in case you're suffering from an advanced case of oldtimer's disease or you are new here, I present this famous photo that I presented on Making a Spectacle of Myself.



Well, they've been working so well, that I decided that I could use even more illumination in my life.



Before you conclude that AC has gone completely bonkers, permit me to tell my little story.

You see, summer is almost here, and any day now, Cuppa will turn on the fans, and they will run almost non-stop until sometime in September. Most of these fans, at least in our upstairs, are ceiling fans. In other words, they are connected to lights which are connected to switches at the relevant doorways.

Well then: obviously, one simply cannot run lights at all times, especially since most are either in bedrooms or where they can be seen from bedrooms. And so it comes to pass that every summer, whislt my beloved sleeps, I must prowl in the dark because I am not about to go running willy nilly in search of dangling chains to turn on lights. Anyway ... how would I begin to see such chains in the pitch black if I were to wish to yank them? My life is difficult beyond measure, I tell ya.

And so, I have purchased my own personal, little CSI light and can now stealth about like Dr Gil Grissom and company. Actually, mine should be termed a CSITD (Can't See in the Dark) light or maybe CSITDN (Can See in the Dark Now) light. Either way, it works for me.



If you need someone to gather any deep, dark evidence on your behalf, just get in touch.

Camp Day

I trust all you good Canadians will be going to Tim Hortons today, more than once if you possibly can. This is the day that the revenue from coffee sales goes to support their regional camps. We'll pretty well start the day there. We'll be taking The Bonnie Wee One along with us to buy kosher food in town for an upcoming distinguished guest, and our trips into town always begin at Timmy's. In fact our trips to anywhere begin there. It's the altar at which Cuppa worships and is renewed. Praise be. We could drive all of the way out west or down east, which we have, and the biggest thrill for Cuppa would be starting at Tim's ... and then hitting as many as possible. I drink extra large, double cream in a travel mug. What about you?

Enough Already

Seriously folks: enough is enough. It's the second day of June already, but I'm tempted to turn the furnace on as I sit here in my winter jacket and woolly socks. When we've only a few weeks to go until summer officially begins, is a modicum of warmth too much to ask?

...

I've now peeked at the forecast, and it appears that the worst is over and that more seasonable temperatures are on the way. If I can just survive a few more hours without losing limbs to frostbite ...

Difficult Partings

We have great trouble leaving Nikki Dee these days because goodbye's upset her so much. It's hard to know what to do; often, we'll try to sneak out to prevent her from having a meltdown, but we don't want to lose her trust either. Yet, if we do leave with normal goodbyes she'll wail pitifully and want desperately to come with us. She'll find her shoes and bring them to us with so much hope in her heart. This sometimes works as it's really really tough to let this darling kid down.

Yesterday, she somehow picked up the cue that we would be going in a little while because she was getting her shoes and jabbering about the car well before we had made any sort of tangible move. I'm not sure exactly what the cue was, but she's a very clever little girl to have figured it out.

Mom and Amma got her out to the car before me, and this is the sight that greeted me when I arrived to take my place behind the wheel. There she was sitting in the driver's seat wearing Buppa's jaunty cap and sunglasses.





Oddly enough, even though she clearly wanted to come with us, she still had some mournful farewells for her parents. As we were driving up the street, there was a repeated, "Bye Daddy, bye mommy." Soon, however, Cuppa started up her Raffi CD, and Nikki Dee smiled happily and got into her Raffi groove. Let's hear it for Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea.

I don't know how we're all going to be able to deal with partings in the future because I don't expect that it's going to get any easier.

However, I do trust that she will leave the driving to me for about another fourteen years.