Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I planned to spend a couple of hours in the yard before the heat of the day kicked in. I was out the door before eight so had a good start on my plan. I did some dead-heading on the flower pots and then decided it was time to tackle the weeds in the driveway.

I cleared most of them before I went to Christy’s but they’ve grown back even stronger. It was time to get out the big guns so I got ready to mix up a batch of Stacia’s weed killer. I didn’t have much vinegar in the jug so I mixed up a half batch and applied it to one small area of the driveway. You need to apply it on a hot day and I think today will fit the bill. With the number of spots I have left to do we’re going to have to buy vinegar by the tank car! Then I mixed up a batch of spray for the aphids that are attacking the daisies in one of our pots. Hopefully this will take care of them so they don’t spread to any of our other pots. We have some in pots and some in the ground, but I think Pat is going to transplant them all into the ground next year.

I needed to wait until the grass dried enough for me to cut it so I started pulling weeds. You know how that goes – it is a never ending job. I ended the job before I was anywhere near to being done. Then I picked my rhubarb – I got enough to make a nice pot of stewed fruit – and my blueberries. There are only a few blueberries because this is only the second year for the bushes and they are still very small (compared to the ones Christy has). The berries are plump and very sweet though and I think I’ll buy some ice cream to eat them with.

I was afraid I wouldn’t remember how to use the new mower but after a couple of tries to get the batteries installed, and a moment of panic because it wouldn’t start (I forgot to plug in the key) I was up and running. It is such a quick job with this new mower. The edges looked a bit ragged so I got out the weed whacker. I’m not very skilled with the weed whacker but I was having fun so I started to edge the sidewalk. At one point I got a little close to the ground and made an odd shape of cut that made me think it would be fun to weed whack my initials in the grass. On second thought though I decided the head gardener probably wouldn’t see the humour.

When all the jobs were done I did the watering in both the front and back. It takes three hoses and quite a bit of time to finish all the areas. As I was finishing up I was looking forward to heading to the shower but then I remembered that I had about a month’s worth of coffee pods that needed to be recycled.

By the time everything was done it was nearly one – so much for my morning.

I’ve had a little trouble settling on anything this afternoon so I’m going to give up and head out to the beach. A local choir is holding their practice at Willingdon Beach and I was invited. I have no intention of singing but I’ll take my beach chair, my book, and a picnic supper and plan to arrive before they do so they won’t even know I’m there.