I wish we had a yard

...I really do. But after seeing these baby cages, I'm super happy with what we've got.

I'll take our 36 square foot deck over one of those things any day!

Gardening!

It's that time of year. I can't wait to plant some flowers, but first our deck needed some care and attention. I think it was feeling rather neglected. There were plants growing between the boards and leaves everywhere


a random nutella jar (deposited by our friendly squirrels last garbage day)


and lots of weeds, all making our favourite summer sitting place not so nice.


I discovered the parsley and oregano survived the winter, but the basil and cilantro did not...


there were three fuchsias hiding behind weeds


and my favourite pink flowers are coming back (too bad I don't know what they're called.


Now the weather just needs to stay nice for a few more weeks and then I can plant new stuff!!

Early Rising

It's Saturday.

I don't have to go to work today.

I don't have to be anywhere until 7:00 tonight, but at 7:15, I was wide awake.

And now, pathetically early for a Saturday morning, I'm sitting at the computer...

I know the "experts" say you should get up and go to bed at close to the same time every day, including weekends, but I'd like to sleep in a little bit - even an hour would be nice.

But it is so nice out this morning, so I took the new toy out to the deck for some fresh air. It needed it; it hasn't had any fresh air for a few days.

The sun was shining so nicely and the tree with the mega wasp nest no longer has a mega wasp nest in it. Just pretty white blossoms.


I didn't stay long though. It is a beautiful day and nice and warm, but the deck that's been subjected to insane amounts of rain and snow this winter is still extremely slippery and I'm not entirely steady yet, so I thought it would be best for me and my camera if I took my klutzy self back inside.

But not before taking a picture of the "smoke"


and the pretty purple flowers on the weeds that will soon be removed from my planters.


Now I'm just waiting for Alex to get up so we can go for a walk and enjoy the sun before the rain (inevitably) comes back.

Rebirth!!

The world is coming alive again...I LOVE IT!

The plants on campus are turning green and producing flowers...



And the deck is coming back to life (yeah, yeah, very blurry...partly because I obviously have an unsteady hand and partly because the deck is super slippery right now...scarily so. When is the rain going to go away?!)

This

geeze I'm a blurry plant...Musta had too much rosehip wine last night!!

looked like this last summer

And these

I was partying with soon to be pink up there

looked liked this (top to bottom = left to right) last summer.

I can't wait to start planting again! And then the lovely weather will come and then I'll live on my flowery deck...

the plant I tried to kill...

survived...

when I got it, I knew I'd kill it. Miniature roses don't like living at my house for some reason.

Then it got covered in moss and I went away on vacation.

I made a deal with the plant...if it survived, I'd put it in a bigger pot when I got back, cause it was in desperate need of transplanting. So I came back and it was still alive and I ignored my half of the bargain. Then we went away again and again when we came back, it was still alive. So I transplanted it.

Now it has tripled in size and is blooming?!?! What's up with that...sometimes I kill plants when I want them to stay alive, but when I purposely try to kill a plan it totally defies me and lives and blooms and looks great?!?!


Oh well, it's pretty and I'm happy a miniature rose finally survived my house!!

Sarah and her mom are here now too...

That's everyone...for now...

So far this visit has been great - and involved a lot of food! Hiromi and Edna were most interested in the salmon we had for dinner the other night...as soon as it came off the barbecue and before I'd even opened the foil, they were sniffing it to see what it smelled like.

Now that we can see it, does it look okay to eat?

Tonight we had take-out sushi with beautiful lacquered chopsticks Hiromi brought for us from Japan.



Then we took in the Celebration of Light (Symphony of Fire?!) from one of the little parks in Kits. The people with the balcony next to the park who usually play the radio really loud so that everyone could hear it weren't home last night, so we just got to see the fireworks without the accompanying music.

look at my lovely quadruple chins

Sarah, Pauline and Hiromi

Tired ladies: Sarah, Hiromi, Pauline and Edna

Hiromi's here too!

and we had other visitors last night....

Our deck is a pleasant place to spend the evening and last night there was a bit of a breeze, so it was even better.

As we were sitting around the table chatting, the tree at the end of the deck started to shake and rattle...we looked up to see this little guy watching us.



He looked quite young, so we quickly got everything except our glasses in the house in case his mother made a surprise appearance and we had to make a run for it. He watched us scurry around the deck and once we had sat down again, he waited another 10-15 minutes.

Not long after we saw him wander up the neighbour's stairs. The tree on the other side of the deck started shaking like mad and he reappeared there, saw us and ran back down the tree and up into his little nest.

These guys live in that tree though...we stayed far away from them!



Kelsey went home last night and Hiromi arrived...



It's balcony party time...just like summers at Pax Lodge!!!



Hiromi brought me a sparkly ring...

look at my pretty ring from Japan!

Alex *really* liked it ;)

whoa...where'd ya get that thing?

any excuse for a party (and an appearance by Snuffleupagus)

so...my birthday and Stacey's birthday were both last weekend, but why not extend the birthdayness and have a party (or two) a week later?

We met Stacey, Sunita, Warren, Goran, Peyton and Ciara for brunch at the Bayshore in honour of Stacey's birthday...Mmmmm...brunch buffet. It was scrumptious and of course we all ate too much, but how often do you get to go brunch buffets?



After a few hours of coffee, food and some silly laughter, we went our separate ways, with everyone but Ciara, who was off to a wedding, planning to meet up again in a few short hours at my house.

Stacey and Sunita arrived at the blue house in time to have smokies with me and Alex and then kick us out of the house for half an hour. When we returned, the house was decked out in streamers and there were people arriving.

Stacey brought an amazing cake with all kinds of chocolate bits on it (yes, I know I'm not SUPPOSED to eat chocolate, but it was still my birthday...kinda...)



Heather brought me a crown that says Princess for a day...it suits her quite well too!!!



And the gang from the morning appeared on my deck...minus Ciara :(



Warren is apparently a big fan of the Girl Guide movement.



There were a few noisy games of table hockey....after a dismal start, Sunita and Heather crushed me and Stacey!




Including one that saw one poor player injured, but after a good talking to, he was ready to keep on playing!



There were lots of photos...and lots of avoiding said photos...



And then the moon came out to bid us goodnight...



What a great evening...good food, good company...all good stuff...and now the vacation begins...oh and Snuffleupagus, aka Heddy's D, arrived toward the end of the evening, tired and starving from a day full of flying...

What a super birthday week I've had...I think it's time for a break...at least until next year...thanks guys!



(PS punk and raceface...the cupcakes I promised have been forfeited in favour of half a chocolate cake and half a strawberry cake...sorry, I can only do so much cake in a week!)

cupcakes for breakfast

yes, yes I did have cupcakes for breakfast...but it's my birthday, I'm allowed to do silly stuff like that.

Alex sang Happy Birthday to me and brought me two scrumptious cupcakes complete with two candles...



Aren't they pretty!!



And no, I didn't have TWO cupcakes for breakfast, I had half of each and Alex had the other half. I'm sure each cupcake has five pounds of butter in it, just in the icing, but you know what, it's my birthday!!!



And finally, the deck is done and ready to hang out on for hours and hours and hours. It's just too hot right now. I have a few errands I want to go do, but the washing machine man in here fixing the washing machine...again...For good this time I hope! I spent Saturday running up and down our landlady's stairs, trying to get as much laundry done without pestering her too much...so our own washing machine back will be a great thing to have!





Oh...and Alex disappeared right before he went to work. He wasn't in the house and his car was here and he didn't lock the front door. Turns out he ran out to buy me some flowers...awwwwwww...