Sunny Saturday

The morning started out gray and overcast, I was sure we were in for some rain.  Even so, just before 9 a.m. the crew showed up to complete the work on my front yard.  Hooray!

A friend came to pick me up just before 10 to go check out some garage sales.  We were back by shortly after noon and within a half hour, the yard looked like this.

 I love the new patio.  It is going to be such a lovely place to sit and relax with a coffee or a cold drink, especially on the days when it is too hot to be on the back deck.

It all looks very bare though doesn't it?

Not for long!  The sun came out just as the crew finished and then it was my turn to get to work.

I planted containers, the front flower bed, put out the furniture, and cleaned up my mess.

By that time the sun was shining brightly.

In late afternoon, this will be a sunny place for an hour or so.

Out in front of the tree are the two large planters I purchased a couple of weeks ago.  I had thought I'd like a third one, but this looks okay.

The blue container I picked up at a garage sale today for $4.  Score!

It stills needs something else for interest but I'm in no hurry.  I'll know it when I see it.

This is what we now see when we walk up the driveway to the house.  It would be nice to hide the neighbour's airconditioning unit.  Maybe a screen?

This is my favorite view from the front door looking out towards the street.

I can't believe how different it looks in such a short time.  And I know I'll enjoy the space far more than I did when it was a lawn full of weeds.

Hope the sun was shining on your Saturday too!

Friday Funny

Truths for Mature Humans

     1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

      2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

      3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

      4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

      5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

      6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

      7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

      8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

      9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

      10. Bad decisions make good stories.

      11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

      12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

      13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

      14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

      15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

      16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

      17.  I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

      18. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

      19. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

      20. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever. (I don't agree with this one!)

      21. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

      22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

      23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

       (Ladies... Quit Laughing)

Tooting my own horn

Come to think of it, I really can't take credit for this....but I will!

I fixed my garage door opener.  The stupid thing had been acting up, it would open just fine, but to get it close I had to use the controls by the back door and hold the button down until the door closed entirely. At least it closed but I was starting to think I needed to call in an expert.

For those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile, you know I tend to call in people to do things for me.  Especially if it is a heavy job. So I was quite prepared to hit the phone book to find someone to fix the darned thing!

And then I saw an advertisement on television for Ask.com.  Yeah, I know, it's been around for a long time, I just hadn't seen the need to ask anything before.  So I asked "how to fix a garage door opener" and whole bunch of stuff came up, including some YouTube videos.  I figure what the heck, maybe I'd learn something.

So I watched the first one, and while it was funny, it merely proved to me I wasn't ready to tackle the garage door opener.  There is electricity involved folks....

Then I watched the second one.  They should have called it "garage doors for dummies".  It pointed out nine things to check for including looking to see if the garage door opener was plugged in.  I knew that wasn't the problem since it opened and closed (grudgingly).  I knew it wasn't the batteries either, nor had I locked the control panel.   I was pretty certain it wasn't an issue with the remote as the problem happened even when I used the exterior key pad.

Then they suggested cleaning the eyes of the sensors with a damp cloth.  In fact, they recommended doing so every season.   Hmmmm...we've been in this house for 11 seasons and I've never cleaned the sensors....could it be that easy?

Turns out it could be!  I cleaned the sensors and watched in amazement as the door opened and closed easily.  Who knew a little dust could be such a nuisance?

And do you know what I just realized?  Since I saved myself $50 for a service call, I have money to go shopping!

Have a great day everyone!

Heart ache

We get some wacky weather in Saskatchewan.  As you'll have noticed, winter didn't give way to spring until very recently.  After this lovely weekend past, it seems amazing to think the last snowstorm happened only three weeks ago.

In recent years, in the summer months, we've had some phenomenal thunderstorms and damaging winds.  Thankfully, in recent memory we've not seen a tornado.*

I'm sitting here watching the television and reading the news on the internet about the devastation in Oklahoma.  It makes my heart ache to see the destruction, to read about the lives lost, and to hear the sound of fear and sadness in the voices of the survivors.  To stand where one's home once stood and know there is nothing left must bring a feeling of helplessness second only to the loss of a loved one.

Once again, Mother Nature has reminded us she has the power.  We can create radar to track the weather patterns, we can predict what might be coming our way, and we can build early warning systems to (hopefully) save lives.  But she wins, hands down, every time.

Stay safe, where ever you are.

*The last tornado (or cyclone as it was called then) to touch down in Regina occurred June 30, 1912.  

Stalled

Progress has ground to a halt in the front yard.  Sigh...I was so hoping it would be finished today but no such luck.  The owner came by today to check on his crew and apparently he wasn't entirely happy with the progress.

He enlarged the patio further, which I'm thrilled about, and he had them re-level the dirt between my house and the neighbours as rain water would have pooled on the patio.  Then they poured a whole more lot more slag, but before they finished they ran out.

The crew is supposed to be back tomorrow to finish the slag, lay down landscape fabric and rock in front of the tree, and install a border between my yard and the neighbour.

The bricks are here, or a least some of it is.  This is the Sierra gray stone that will form the main part of the patio.  It will outlined in smaller buff colored stone.  Unfortunately because of the delays, it won`t happen until next weekend.

Oh well, I guess with any construction there are always delays.  Besides, it was a delay in another job that got them here this soon, so I should just count my blessings!  It means I won`t have to mow the front lawn, ever again!

This is the last day of the long weekend, and we couldn`t have asked for better weather.  It reached  22C (72F), there was a bit of a breeze, but it was a perfect day for being outdoors.  I puttered around the back yard for a while and sat on the deck enjoying the sun.  (I`m just indoors to change the load of laundry for a few minutes).  Too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow!

Have a great day everyone, I hope the sun is shining where you are!

Easy on Sunday

It doesn't look like much progress...at least to me!

They did get the yard leveled and dug down the four inches for the new patio.  The next step was to put in the slag, wet it down and use that machine you can see in the pictures to tamp it down.

By the time they finished, it actually looked a little like a concrete pad.

 The brick patio will be in sort of fan shaped, coming out from the sidewalk and stopping short of the evergreen.

I was so excited, I went out and bought a small bistro table and chairs. Both table and chairs are actually folding so can be put away in the shed over winter.

And here is the boring space in front of the tree.  I have plans for this area.  For certain there will be planters, and possibly if I can find something I really like, either a statue or a bench.

I couldn't find anything in the stores and a friend and I are planning to go garage saling next weekend.  Maybe I'll find something unique and interesting that someone wants to part with.

I spent part of the day planting containers for the front yard.  I also got my tomatoes plants today, a tumbler and a beefsteak.

There are now fourteen containers in the back yard, and five in the front yard.  I'm under twenty!!!!  It's not going to last though because I bought more plants than I needed.  Oh well, the patio is going to need some color, right?

Hope you all had a wonderful, easy Sunday!

What a difference!

What a difference 24 hours make!  I thought this was going to be a quiet long weekend/  Perhaps I'd get some extra sleep, take some time to read and relax on the deck, and just putter around the yard.

Instead, I got a call from the landscaper last night.  He'd been over the week before and provided me with a reasonable quote (unlike the first one I'd gotten last year) which I immediately accepted.  He told me that one of his jobs had been delayed because the materials weren't available, and would I be okay if they started today.  Are you kidding me????? Of course I was okay with it!

So last night the front yard looked like this:

I have a large evergreen which splits the yard into two parts.  This is the area where a small patio will be installed.

It gets late day sun, the rest of the day it is shady and cool.  The evergreen provides privacy from the street.

The front of yard is so boooorrrrrrrinnnggg!

The grass has always been sparse and full of weeds, mostly thistles.  I especially hate the deciduous tree but unfortunately it`s a city tree so I can`t remove it.

The next few pictures show how it looks today after a lot of hard work (NOT by me!).  This was all done by hand by four young people.

Both of the evergreen bushes have been removed, neither was particularly attractive and mostly collected leaves and other debris...I won`t miss them!

 Out in the front, you can see the roots of the trees were plentiful.  Maybe, I`ll get lucky and they`ll have damaged the city tree?

They also pulled out the irrigation system, and capped it off.  It never worked the entire time I've lived here so I won't miss it either!

The bricks they will be using for the patio will also be used to outline the front flower bed.  I have chosen the colors but haven't seen the paving stones yet.

The rest of the yard will have landscape material and gravel laid over it.  To add some color in the front I picked up a couple of large planters.



While the workers were busy, I went shopping for plants.  I`ve got a couple of perennials, and mounds of annuals.  My goal was to keep the number down to about 20 this year.  I planted the containers in the back yard today, and I have eleven twelve filled so far.  I was looking at the plants I still have to pot and I realized I did it again!  I`ve bought more than I need. ;-)

They will be back tomorrow morning to level off the yard - they are ensuring it slopes towards the street and not the house. The owner told me today, they`ll have it done this weekend.  I`m looking forward to the changes tomorrow brings.

AND one more thing I`m not going to miss?  Mowing the front lawn.  I still have a tiny bit of grass in the back yard...I won't get rid of that as the cats and I enjoy it.  But I won't have to haul the mower back and forth.  It will be like living in a condo without the fees!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend too!