Victoria Day

 Monday, Monday... what a day... With the forecast looming over our heads as being gray, rainy, showers, thunderstorms, gray, rainy, showers, thunderstorms all holiday weekend, the hopes of getting in the garden were very small and squashed in my poor little world.  With such doom and gloom, what was one to do?  But as the sun kept poking its head out each day on the weekend and sharing its warmth and light with us and making our spirit happy, we could breathe a little sigh of relief and enjoy being outside.  It amazes me still that people who make so many errors at their job - telling the nation that there is to be rain, when not a drop appears, still manage to keep their job.  I'm pretty sure, nope, i'm positive, that if i kept making mistakes like that at work, i'd be sent packing so fast that my head would be spinning... just saying (a new family favorite expression apparently - i thought i'd insert it here for my family's benefit).  So I celebrated Victoria's birthday weekend with a few day shifts - what better way to honour that venerable old monarch than to work hard and care for the sick?!  But thankfully in the evenings, i was picked up from work and even treated to dinner both nights - how nice is that?  Thanks Timothy!  Monday was a day off for all of us and after a languid breakfast/lunch/coffee, we headed off to Mom and Dad's for ... more coffee - we're thoroughly addicted i think!  After our caffeine boost, it was on with the plans.  I've wanted for a while to change up my garden a little bit and add some interest... there's lots of straight lines and angles and for most of you who know me well, i'm like my mother in liking unevenness and curves in a garden.  My parents cut down their curly willow trees a while ago and the branches were waiting on the grass to be fashioned into something interesting - the possibilities are endless in my mother's fertile thought patterns.  So an arbour was to be the order of the day.  It took some thinking out (but no plans!!!) to estimate how many sticks we would need and how tall (just over Timothy's head was our exact measurement!) 
We loaded the van up and packed it all off to the Meadows...i'm sure we had the neighbours quite entertained for the afternoon as they speculated about what our eventual purpose would be.  It took a few hours of arranging and rearranging, drilling, tying, incorporating, digging and sizing up to come up with the final product but amazingly, with four adults of differing opinions, we managed quite handily and without major feuding to come up with the product pictured below.  We're not going into business and we're not opening a landscaping company, just in case you're asking... but you're welcome to come on over and have a coffee or tea in the shelter of the arbour - it makes the garden so much more cozy and i'm so happy with it!  Thanks all!!!

Ooops, this picture uploaded itself first so i guess he thinks he belongs at the top... this was inspired by an article in the Spec - my mom had cut it out and we were trying to figure out how to install this planter under one of my windows or even under an old window frame that i found at an old house, but Mom found my basement window frame and the planter fit underneath like a charm so here's the final product - not grown in or filled out yet but it will come!

Come on over and have a cuppa...the chairs are empty and waiting... i just have to push the button on the kettle or coffee maker...

Same area, late afternoon... nice and shady on a hot summer day

The property is looking like a million bucks - or maybe a couple of hundred anyways...Dad cut the grass for me when he was here and the grass was looking like a carpet of emerald - Mom and I finished up planting the last little bits here and there and i'm super happy with how things look...

This little planter wanted his picture taken too...i'm starting to find and incorporate little bits and pieces of odd stuff into my garden - I love my Mom's inspiration and encouragement to do this - it's great fun!