Monday, May 18, 2009

All Work and A Little Play

So it's a long weekend here in Canada. The first "official" weekend of the summer. As per our usual, we don't go anywhere on this long weekend. It's the typical weekend where all the campgrounds and parks tend to get the party-hardies out in droves and we're just not up for the crazy traffic out on the roads. Not that we camp either, but we do like our picnics and day trips. Just not this weekend.

No, this weekend is usually up for fun stuff like carpet cleaning, bush trimming and flower bed digging. Yeah, we are a fun people! We did manage to squeeze in a bar-b-que over at my sister's house yesterday. It was hot outside, 27*C, that means almost 80*F, so that is hot for this time of year. Perfect to fire up the grill and have some good visiting on the swing on her deck. Typical of around here though, today we woke to overcast skies and barely 5*C or 41*C, a little bit chilly.

So all my big plans of getting the bedding out plants in their planters and flower beds came to a screeching halt as there is still one night, next Thursday, that they are predicting below freezing temperaturs. Sigh, so these guys will be doing the twice daily dance with me of putting them and taking them in, putting them out and taking them in, for at least a few more days.

Saturday found me mixing top soil, which around here is clay, and peat moss together in the wheelbarrow and then putting into this flower bed. Yay, now I can say this one is done and ready and waiting for some of those flowers above.

If you look closely by the rock there, you can see the lovely burgundy leaved perrineal my kids got me for Mother's Day. I did plant that one out. Unfortunately, this bed still awaits me:

I took yesterday off to do some fun stuff, as in a birthday bar-b-que for my Dad at my sister's place. But now this is calling my name:


As is this:


and much to my chargrin, in years past I could always console myself saying I started a tan this weekend trimming these babies, but alas, I cannot even lay claim to that this year as I will probably be wearing a darn parka. Thank you weatherman! And yes, I do realize the grass is two different colors, as in there is grass in one strip, and stripped grass in the other. LOL. We really had to power rake our lawn badly this year, and my dear hubby, whom I, with much affection, call Mr. Extreme, did his job. He never does it halfway. So with some good fertilizer thrown down and some rain hopefully today that should be beautifully green by next week.

Somehow the overfilled parks are starting to look more appealing. But chin up, taking a deep breath and charging on. This must be done. And I'm giving myself a reward of a soak in the jet tub with a hot chai tea and a good book later on. But only if it gets done. So I'm off because that reward is sounding better by the minute.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd run as fast as I could the other way when that vacuum called out my name. I cannot believe the strange weather you have. What a swing it is. Mahalo for sharing and the pics are excellent :)

Islandsparrow said...

It's a get work done weekend for us too. Especially outdoor work. But this rain is putting the kibosh to that!

Musings of a Housewife said...

This is an odd spring EVERYWHERE it seems!

Brenda said...

Sometimes it feels good to spend the weekend getting caught up on chores. Not always, but sometimes :)

Barbara H. said...

Hope you get to your reward! This sounds like our spring break, only it was filled with painting rather than planting.

Michelle said...

WOW that's hot for you this time of the year ;-) Saturday was so humid here and Sunday was lovely and hot too.Your bedding plants look lovely.Good for you for catching up on your chores.

the voice of melody said...

Your flowers look beautiful, I just love the different colors. I'm sure they're happy to be taken inside at night. Brrrr! :)

Jamie said...

It will feel so good to get it all done! I've been doing a lot of planting around here lately. Do you plant a garden or just flowers?

Much Ado said...

That reward does sound great! :)

Karyn said...

Did you get snow?

We got some of the garden done on Saturday - then it snowed on Monday. Hopefully, the snow will provide moisture, at least.

Wish I could reward myself with a jet tub soak! Maybe I'd be more motivated. LOL

Faith said...

Last weekend I got quite a bit done with lawn, flowers, etc. This coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend where we hav monday off from school/work so we are HOPING the weatherman is correct (he is predicting 85 degrees for Thursday and friday) and maybe we can get our kayacks into the lake. we also have a hike planned for the Berkshire mountains.....
Oh, I hope you get your reward!!

GiBee said...

Did you use the shake fertilizer???

Carol @SheLives said...

I worked out in the yard yesterday, too. And planted stuff. So fun!

While trimming the shrubs, I accidentally cut the cord on my electric hedge clippers, though. Not so fun at all.

Barb said...

LOL at your two toned grass Susanne. My hubby weed and feeded (sorry but weed and "fed" sounds stupid) our grass and he burned about half of it up. So he decided the solution was to water the daylights out of it...he's been watering so much I told him we're going to end up with mushrooms. He thought that was amazingly dumb.

Guess what I saw sprouting all over the lawn tonight when I took Chelsea out? I wonder if they're the edible kind. Sigh.

Like Rob tells me on a daily basis, don't worry, Honey. It'll come back and look just fine. LOL