In The Garden

   The garden is looking lovely at the moment with all the rain we have had recently. Long may it last! The peonies are just about to bloom and the wigelia bushes are full of deep red flowers. No flowers on my eggplant and red pepper plants yet but the tomatoes are coming on well. One sad note: my climbing rose, which I thought was recovering from the winter die off, is not producing any flowers - and it seems to have extra leaves, 7 instead of 5, on each shoot. I think it has "gone wild". So disappointing!

   Hot enough for a dip in the pool after gardening today. It's barely 70C but very refreshing when I get too sweaty. Keeping ahead of the weeds is hot work!

   Last exercise class today, so the last coffee chat with the ladies at the Senior's Centre. But I will still see them as it is my turn to man the coffee counter on Wednesdays while Maria is at her cottage for the summer. It's an easy job and probably will be quite quiet there as some of the classes don't run during the summer months. But at least it is air-conditioned.

   Natalie and I had fun at Dancing in the Park yesterday, only it was "Dancing in the Church". Although it was a nice evening the weather forecast called for thunderstorms so, rather than take a chance of a soaking, it was transferred indoors. Natalie did three dances, her favourite was The Dashing White Sergeant. I did a couple more as she was quite happy to sit and watch. Next week James will come with us. He was very upset that he didn't get to come this week, but it was for the best as it happened. He would have been hard to entertain at the church.

Finally Some Sun

.... but later in the day. I lay in bed this morning listening to a heavy downpour, telling myself there was no point in rising early as it was to be an indoor day. However, I finally rose shortly after 8:00 and had a leisurely breakfast of egg, toast and coffee, followed by a good thorough read of the newspaper.

   By 9:30 I was ready for some housework followed by a stint on the computer - I really only got it fired up to finish printing a couple of documents that had jammed up the printer yesterday but, while I waited for them, I dialled into Facebook and got involved with a couple of interesting sites. Finally quite around 11:30, went for a shower and got ready to go over to the Senior's Centre (still raining) for bridge. This will be a regular Monday afternoon pursuit as I am filling in for someone who has departed to spend the summer at their cottage. I had terrible cards and only played two hands, but was able to make the contract both times (barely!).

   The day has finely brightened up and looks hopeful for a dry morning for tennis tomorrow - fingers crossed! I may even get out for a bit of garden work before dinner tonight as I am eating leftovers so needn't bother with any fancy cooking. I made a stew in the crockpot yesterday and it is simmering away again as I type - it only gets better with further cooking. And there's some leftover rhubarb crumble calling my name.

Not More Rain!!

     Just had a read of a couple of blogs I follow - I sometimes need to be inspired by other people's efforts, to finally get around to writing mine. One I follow, an English woman who is making a new life for herself in Bulgaria, writes faithfully every day. In fact if she misses a day panic sets in with all her followers. I'm not nearly as conscientious so no one worries if I miss a day or two.

    I was thwarted in my garden clean-up this afternoon by a thunder storm. I was half way through cutting the back grass when the heavens opened and I had to rush to put away the lawnmower and my book which I had left on the sun lounger. It stopped later and I went out to finish but no sooner had the machine out again when the rain (and thunder) returned. Now I will have to wait until the grass is dry enough to cut by which time it will have probably grown another few inches. Grrr!!

    First stop this morning was to drop off a box of books at Variety Village. It's (sort of) on my way to Don Mills TC - just a slight detour. The books were leftover from the book sale table at the RWTO lunches and I am glad to see them go. They had been well and truly picked over. I also took a few over to the Senior's Centre as they sell them for a quarter to raise funds for the special days and lunches.

   There was a bit of rain on my way to tennis but it had stopped by the time I got to the club and the courts were dry. It got quite hot and humid by 10:00 so many people departed early. I hung on until just after 11:00 then went home to watch the tennis from Roland Garros in Paris. It was the Men's semi-finals but the last one had to stop after the third set because of darkness. I will be up early to watch the Ladies final tomorrow morning, Serena Williams against Lucie Safarova. Should be a tight match.

   I am making Mac 'n Cheese from a box for dinner tonight but will add extra cheese, peas and mashed sweet potato. I also plan to make a rhubarb crumble as the rhubarb is growing like gangbusters with all the rain we have had recently. Soon I will have to start picking the lettuce and kale as they are also growing with abandon. So I will be hunting for kale recipes. It's my first time growing it and it is already producing lots of leaves. No flowers on the red peppers or eggplant yet but I did find one small tomato starting to form. Good times ahead in the vegetable garden!

Kale ready to harvest.

Lettuce and basil coming along.

  



   

     

Much Improved Weather

    No need to water the garden or fill up the pool as we had a ton of rain over the weekend. But finally, the skies cleared and it has been beautifully sunny for the last three days. The temperature is gradually rising and should be more seasonable by the weekend. 

   Judy, Natalie and James came over yesterday evening so that we could all go to "Dancing in the Park". We practiced a couple of easy dances and Natalie tried an easy strathspey as well. It was a lovely evening and the band was in good form. James joined in enthusiastically and vowed to come back next week. We shall see!

   I have got a good start on tidying up the garden as the borders are quite a bit more malleable after all the rain. I have pulled up a ton of weeds so my composter is well and truly filled. I even transplanted a small fir tree which had sprung up in an awkward spot. So it is now in a new location and, hopefully, will survive.

   I have a new contact for my Tribal Pages website - Rachel from New Zealand. I have added her to the site and am waiting to see if she adds more of her family and, even better, some photos. Our great-great-grandfathers were brothers. Rather a distant connection but one nevertheless. It is wonderful when, out of the blue, you get a contact like that.

   Not much on the agenda today - exercise class in the morning, chatting over coffee afterwards and then watching the French Open for a couple of hours. Made some soup and then back out in the garden until the heat got to me. Leftover kedgeree for dinner tonight with some of my homemade pickled beetroot. I don't think I will need any dessert.