sunny, warm, temps 25
unexpectedly lovely day. They were calling for rain, so this is a gift. Wayne is cutting the lawn. Lise and Donna came this morning and weeded - and planted vegetables. three types of peas, scarlet runner beans - and next week the broccoli will go in. Wanted Potatoes but they'd attract potato beetles, that will eat the lilies. So - no potatoes.
Did three big loads of laundry - including bedding. Tomorrow 'le deluge' - Michael's son Vic, my brother Doug and two of his kids and two of their friends will arrive. So we've been getting ready. Not sure anything ever is 'ready' for the onslaught. But it sure is fun...trying to figure out where to sleep everyone. Fortunately the sofa on the screen porch coverts to a bed and Roslyn loves sleeping out there...we pile her under a bunch of duvets and leave the doors to the house open in case it rains or gets cold or she get scared. But every morning she's still out there, sound asleep.
We always manage to find beds for everyone.
Busier day than expected...had to try to decipher the tax exemption forms from the tax people in France. I could feel my life-force being drained from me as I read it. But after a few hours, and a few phone calls to our tax people in Ottawa, and our accountant, I think I've figured out what they want. Either way, I'm mailing it!
The laundry is fun - two loads have been hung on the clothes line...our sheets. Love pinning up the laundry, and taking it down, with the fresh scent and sheets warmed by the sun.
Then I cut a few bunches of lilac and put them in vases around the home.
Black flies have arrived! Thank god for the screen porch.
Next week I'll start the second draft (first edit) of the next book. I'm sure enjoying these two weeks away from the book...but I'm also looking forward to getting back. I say that now, but I can guarantee on Sunday I won't be feeling quite so enthusiastic.
Breakfast tomorrow with Joan. It has been so wonderful to catch up with friends these past two weeks.
Speak to you tomorrow.
Showing posts with label lilacs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lilacs. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Thank you, Ralph
overcast, rain, temps 17
Cool and rainy - but good for the garden, and it's the day we left Hovey anyway so we really don't mind the rain. Lilac almost out here at home. Even got the suitcase unpacked! I often can live out of it for a week - too lazy to totally unpack...so I do it in stages. Funny how easy it is to unpack at the hotel, but so hard to do it at home. I timed myself today. Took 7 minutes. And yet I can stretch it out for a week.
Nice to be home.
And lovely of Ralph Cosham to blog for us. What a wonderful post too. Thank you, Ralph.
On another topic, les Canadiens have so far lost both of their hockey games against Philadelphia. The first was 6 to 0! the second, last night, was 3-0. So we're getting better. I figure, at the rate they're going, they'll tie the next game, 0-0. Then win the next 3-0, etc. So, basically, the Habs have Philly just where we want 'em. What a plan.
Hoping to have another quiet day tomorrow and start getting ready for everyone arriving this weekend. Speak to you tomorrow!
Cool and rainy - but good for the garden, and it's the day we left Hovey anyway so we really don't mind the rain. Lilac almost out here at home. Even got the suitcase unpacked! I often can live out of it for a week - too lazy to totally unpack...so I do it in stages. Funny how easy it is to unpack at the hotel, but so hard to do it at home. I timed myself today. Took 7 minutes. And yet I can stretch it out for a week.
Nice to be home.
And lovely of Ralph Cosham to blog for us. What a wonderful post too. Thank you, Ralph.
On another topic, les Canadiens have so far lost both of their hockey games against Philadelphia. The first was 6 to 0! the second, last night, was 3-0. So we're getting better. I figure, at the rate they're going, they'll tie the next game, 0-0. Then win the next 3-0, etc. So, basically, the Habs have Philly just where we want 'em. What a plan.
Hoping to have another quiet day tomorrow and start getting ready for everyone arriving this weekend. Speak to you tomorrow!
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Happy Mother's Day!
snow - snow- snow!!! windy - temps freezing
Dreadful weather...five inches of heavy wet snow already. Woke up to it - thought I was Rip Van Winkle and had slept through spring, summer and fall.
This would be slightly fun and even amusing and cozy, if all the trees weren't in leaf and bud, as well as the flowers.
Have been out twice today to whack the bushes - It breaks my heart. The lilac were just about to bloom, and now this. The honeysuckle flowers were juuuust popping. The peony are in bud but were on the ground, buried under heavy snow. All the trees and bushes and bend, the roses and peony and late tupips and last of the daffs are on the ground.
And still the snow continues. All I can do is go out every hour or so and try to get the snow off. I put supports around the peony this morning and propped them up. But then I wonder if they're better, more protected, under a blanket of snow. What's worse? The cold wind or the heavy snow? And is it too late already?
Still, have to try.
Funny, last night I was almost sick with joy at the thought of a day (today) with nothing to do. Sit in front of the fire with yesterday's paper and my Maigret book. Read and sip tea. Or coffee. Or ginger ale.
Still, people are facing worse days that sweeping snow off the garden. At least we have a garden to sweep. And a fireplace to come in to. And heaven knows, we can't stop the snow.
It's mother's Day! I don't have children, except Trudy, of course, who gave me a lovely card she apparently asked Michael to get when he was in New York. It's hilarious. And I thought of my mother this morning, gone now for ten years. But as I woke up and saw the snow I heard her voice...'I could just spit', she used to say. turns out she wasn't the Queen. But she was mine. And she's missed.
Have a wonderful Mother's Day!
Dreadful weather...five inches of heavy wet snow already. Woke up to it - thought I was Rip Van Winkle and had slept through spring, summer and fall.
This would be slightly fun and even amusing and cozy, if all the trees weren't in leaf and bud, as well as the flowers.
Have been out twice today to whack the bushes - It breaks my heart. The lilac were just about to bloom, and now this. The honeysuckle flowers were juuuust popping. The peony are in bud but were on the ground, buried under heavy snow. All the trees and bushes and bend, the roses and peony and late tupips and last of the daffs are on the ground.
And still the snow continues. All I can do is go out every hour or so and try to get the snow off. I put supports around the peony this morning and propped them up. But then I wonder if they're better, more protected, under a blanket of snow. What's worse? The cold wind or the heavy snow? And is it too late already?
Still, have to try.
Funny, last night I was almost sick with joy at the thought of a day (today) with nothing to do. Sit in front of the fire with yesterday's paper and my Maigret book. Read and sip tea. Or coffee. Or ginger ale.
Still, people are facing worse days that sweeping snow off the garden. At least we have a garden to sweep. And a fireplace to come in to. And heaven knows, we can't stop the snow.
It's mother's Day! I don't have children, except Trudy, of course, who gave me a lovely card she apparently asked Michael to get when he was in New York. It's hilarious. And I thought of my mother this morning, gone now for ten years. But as I woke up and saw the snow I heard her voice...'I could just spit', she used to say. turns out she wasn't the Queen. But she was mine. And she's missed.
Have a wonderful Mother's Day!
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Sunday brunch and the hammock's up - and I did neither.
mainly sunny, mild, temps 19
It's turned into a beautiful day after starting out quite mixed. Lovely and sunny when we wpoke up around 6am. We have no curtains on the bedroom windows so we wake up with the sun. Good thing we don't live in the Arctic. Then clouded over and looked threatening, and now it's gorgeous. Sat by the pool for half an hour while Michael did odd spring jobs like putting the pots for annuals (rather than the annual pot) around the pool - then, lovely man, he put up our hammock between two pine trees.
That's the sign of summer. It hangs between the pool area and the STILL LIFE orchard and catches just enough of a breeze to shoo away the black flies and mosquitos, and to be gently cooling on the hotest days of summer. And, of course, it's in the shade. Lovely to lie there with a cold drink and a good book.
Heaven.
But always a bit of a struggle to get up - mostly just trying to unwind it from itself. Like a Gordian knot. Thankfully we haven't had to slice it through yet.
Michael and I both wrote this morning, then headed over to the guest house where Susan had prepared brunch for Cotton and us. God, it was good. She made the egg dish you make the day before, with cheese and bread and eggs and mushrooms - and fresh asparagus. Yum. Then she found a recipe in one of our cookbooks - fresh tomatoes with goat cheese on top and proscuitto laid on top of that...stick it under the broiler for a minute or so and it comes out just divine. So much tastier (Michael reports) than the piece of paper I fed him the other day.
Now home. finally struggled out of the pool side chair, got the clippers, and while Michael wrestled the hammock I cut lilac. The first bush is in bloom. Did an arrangement of lilac, daffodils, white bleeding hearts and these arching Solomon's Seal. Now the whole home smells like lilac. Wonderful.
Also did some research this afternoon for the book. I find it helpful to do it as I go along, rather than read everything before I start, because by the time I hit the section on canning or the Galapagos or throwing pottery, I'll have forgotten. So I write until I hit that stage then do one of two things. Either make it up and keep writing then do the research at the editing stage and make changes then, or read what I need for half a day and get back to it next day. That's what I'm doing with this section, though there are sections I know I'll have to 'fact-check' on the first re-write - probably in June.
speaking of editing - I finished the proof edits last night around 11! Phew. Free at last.
Quiet night. Some friends - Don and Daphne - coming over before dinner. They're heading to Vancouver at the end of the month for his mother's 80th birthday and were kind enough to decide to give her my book as a gift - so they'd like me to sign it.
Have all of tomorrow to ourselves - except Gary whose coming over to finished work on our windows (which explains the scaffolding he'd put up - I'm relieved there's an explanation). We think of Gary as part of the family, though hope I don't discover he's there when I see him at the bathroom window! Having coffee with his mother, Joan, on Wednesday. And need to try to arrange a coffee with another Joan friend, Joan Rose and Michele Brault. As you see, when we finally do get home life gets busy. I'm so grateful to our friends for not dropping us since we're away so much! I know it's hard to maintain a friendship when one half is missing. So we try to make up for it when we do get home.
Speak to you tomorrow.
It's turned into a beautiful day after starting out quite mixed. Lovely and sunny when we wpoke up around 6am. We have no curtains on the bedroom windows so we wake up with the sun. Good thing we don't live in the Arctic. Then clouded over and looked threatening, and now it's gorgeous. Sat by the pool for half an hour while Michael did odd spring jobs like putting the pots for annuals (rather than the annual pot) around the pool - then, lovely man, he put up our hammock between two pine trees.
That's the sign of summer. It hangs between the pool area and the STILL LIFE orchard and catches just enough of a breeze to shoo away the black flies and mosquitos, and to be gently cooling on the hotest days of summer. And, of course, it's in the shade. Lovely to lie there with a cold drink and a good book.
Heaven.
But always a bit of a struggle to get up - mostly just trying to unwind it from itself. Like a Gordian knot. Thankfully we haven't had to slice it through yet.
Michael and I both wrote this morning, then headed over to the guest house where Susan had prepared brunch for Cotton and us. God, it was good. She made the egg dish you make the day before, with cheese and bread and eggs and mushrooms - and fresh asparagus. Yum. Then she found a recipe in one of our cookbooks - fresh tomatoes with goat cheese on top and proscuitto laid on top of that...stick it under the broiler for a minute or so and it comes out just divine. So much tastier (Michael reports) than the piece of paper I fed him the other day.
Now home. finally struggled out of the pool side chair, got the clippers, and while Michael wrestled the hammock I cut lilac. The first bush is in bloom. Did an arrangement of lilac, daffodils, white bleeding hearts and these arching Solomon's Seal. Now the whole home smells like lilac. Wonderful.
Also did some research this afternoon for the book. I find it helpful to do it as I go along, rather than read everything before I start, because by the time I hit the section on canning or the Galapagos or throwing pottery, I'll have forgotten. So I write until I hit that stage then do one of two things. Either make it up and keep writing then do the research at the editing stage and make changes then, or read what I need for half a day and get back to it next day. That's what I'm doing with this section, though there are sections I know I'll have to 'fact-check' on the first re-write - probably in June.
speaking of editing - I finished the proof edits last night around 11! Phew. Free at last.
Quiet night. Some friends - Don and Daphne - coming over before dinner. They're heading to Vancouver at the end of the month for his mother's 80th birthday and were kind enough to decide to give her my book as a gift - so they'd like me to sign it.
Have all of tomorrow to ourselves - except Gary whose coming over to finished work on our windows (which explains the scaffolding he'd put up - I'm relieved there's an explanation). We think of Gary as part of the family, though hope I don't discover he's there when I see him at the bathroom window! Having coffee with his mother, Joan, on Wednesday. And need to try to arrange a coffee with another Joan friend, Joan Rose and Michele Brault. As you see, when we finally do get home life gets busy. I'm so grateful to our friends for not dropping us since we're away so much! I know it's hard to maintain a friendship when one half is missing. So we try to make up for it when we do get home.
Speak to you tomorrow.
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