Damn deer

By day,she feeds innocently on the lawn and the plum trees.
By night she sneaks into the garden and munches off the tops of my beautiful Casablanca lillies...all three of them... Sh*t, H*ll, Damn,Blankedy-Blank,P**P,Bu**ers, Rats and a lot of other words not fit to print. They all poured out of my mouth like verbal diarrhea and then some. They ate my top three ,plus about four other stargazers and orientals. Now I have what is left, covered with a net. I should never have removed the net to begin with. For some strange reason, I thought the deer only ate them when they were popping fresh out of the ground. That is when they devoured the last two. I hope my irises bloom to fill in the gaping holes!
The pic below here is the last half of Sunday's labour of love...basil, tomatoes, asters,lettuce and wax beans... At least a few things will have a head start. in fact, I am two weeks earlier than last year, so all of that is good. My lettuce is up, as are the radishes and the spinach...Now to protect it somehow so it doesn't get devoured like it did last year...
I hung up a piece of that red tomato plastic on the fence at the bottom to deter the critters until Emil returns and gets putting up my new fence.
You can see how high the water is already...and how Silk loved taking a dip. No shivers there, but dare I run the cold water in her bath and she shakes like a leaf! I had to bring her home and give her a bath...Now she needs a trim....Anyone need some dog wool?
I'll have to continue tomorrow night.I am yawning into oblivion.Silk and I had a nice walk to stretch our legs ,after gardening last night,and after the rain Stopped,and just as the sun was setting. I took some nice pics of the sun fading behind the mountaintops.I'll post those tomorrow,as well as some of Annette's and Emil's trip with our grandkids up to French beach...Now that looked WONDERFUL!

Cheerio...I hope everyone had such a prolific weekend!










"The Creator"

Sunday....Happy Mother's Day...to all the great moms out there

These are my pots that I planted...they look sparse, but will fill out incredibly. That was my problem inthe past...putting in way too many plants. I used to add pansies for the "instant flower" look, but hey overtook all my other plants, so I am more patient and jsut wait for everything to grow and bloom, now.

I saved the pansies for my little table baskets. They are easy to keep and look great for most of the summer.

Burning went on all day and night,across the lake ,high up on the mountain where much had been logged out last year, due to Mountain Pine beetle. They are trying to control the population. Much of the forests all around have already turned brown.
On our property we have mostly Spruce and last year we were once again hit hard with the Yellow headed Spruce Sawfly...a nasty worm that devours a tree in no time at all. We won't know if they will be reinfected until mid June when the worms rear up their ugly little heads!

Here is a shot at night. It looked intense, but was only burning on the ground at the base of the trees that were still standing. This morning with the rain, it appears pretty much dead.

Today:

I'll see if I can listen to CoffeeBreak Spanish and type at the same time. So far it is going slow. Looks like they buy ham by the slice in Spain, so you ask for how many slices of ham you would like .





That is finshed now...I can't listen and type at the same time.





So back to the week-end.. It has been productive so far...I worked on my ten large flower pots...first I emptied out all the old dirt into Emil's tractor cart, then I mixed in a bag or two of manure and a bunch of peat moss and stirred it all up and then refilled the pots. I recycle all of the previous years dirt as once you mix in more goodies, it seems to come out a pretty good blend. However, doing all that lifting of full pots and emptying takes its toll on my hands these days. They were achy before I even began the planting.


I put in beautiful Ivy geraniums in a dark red and lots of purple Regatta lobelia and white lobelia and one dracena in the middle. They still need a wave petunia in each pot. I am hoping to get those in Rock Creek on my way back from Sonia's house. The bicolor purple and whites that I bought there last year bloomed like crazy in a carpet of petunias that draped over the side of the pots and continued across the sidewalk. They were the real macoy!


I had plenty of geraniums,so I kept on filling 5 hanging baskets and then proceeded to the front yard where I struggled to find enough dirt to plant anything. A word to the wise...don't ever think that under a maple tree is a place for a flower garden. The roots come right to the surface and have found their way through the landscape fabric and into every possible nook and cranny.





The shrubs are doing great, and the daf bulbs are surviving, but anywhere else that there was dirt,it is now all gone to a mass of fine Maple tree roots. luckily I still had some leftover dirt in my cart to add. I managed to find a spot for all of the 20 or so ice pink petunias and more lobelia,and four geraniums. That is all good,as long as the deer don't pull them out like they did last year. reminds me that I ought to take a look out the window.





A fine rain is falling right now and it is overcast. Maybe we'll get some sun in the afternoon, when I can return to the "Garden of Weedin'" and plant the rest of my goodies. I planted up some pansies in baskets for my table tops,and I have a few of those left over, plus I have more lobelia and I still have some herbs to put in. Last the basil grew amazingly well, tucked in between the tomatoes. I'll try that again this year. The shade for the tomatoes is perfect for the basil. Like Italian parsely, basil doesn't seem to have the need for full sun.





In fact, I would like to get a bunch of my garden planted today,as I am planning a little trip down to see my sweethearts in Victoria on the May long week-end, thus the more I get done now, the better. The rest can be put in later. I am a full two weeks ahead of last year. My sweetpeas are already popping out of the ground!





Emil is in Victoria this weekend to se ehis buddy Noel and to visit with our kidlets. They were making a journey up to French beach for the day yesterday. It was gorgeous weather down there,yesterday,as it was here. I'll hear all about it today.





Time to have my mother's day breakfast! I'll load up a couple of pics.


Also a big thanks to all who joined Facebook. If you haven't done it, hop to it! It is a great way to catch up with everyone... I am amazed! You have to register first, then you can opt to be friends with people in various networks. It is kind of fun!





Have a happy Mother's day!


"The Creator"

Spring on the way to work...

Downtown at the corner of Baker and Ward looking west

you know its spring when the crowds are eating outside...at breakfast...hey , maybe it is summer!

Looking down Baker street from Emil's office

My ride across the ferry yesterday








"The Creator"

Cinco de Mayo, Happy Birthday Annette,HAppy Birthday Dick, Happy Anniversary Lynn and Bob!

Turned out a very pleasant afternoon,as everyone gathered on the back balcony for snacks and a drink before dinner.

Looks like a serious discussion going on between Rick and Dick..

And then we brought out the cake for Dick. That is a party umbrella on the side of the cake...

Anne kept on singing the British tunes after the traditional Happy Birthday song

Gordo and Janice, making fun with their own personal party umbrellas. This was just before Gord and Anne and Dick led us in group song ...well, led us into Rugby songs...and Gord knew quite a few..then there was the swearing song that Janice sang so fast, she sounded like an auctioneer! All in all, it was a grand Par-Tay with loads of food and lots of laughs. After dinner there was a few rounds of bocce to work off dinner...until everyone began to freeze up. When the old sun went down, it was mighty cold.

However today made up for the whole of last week...nothing but sunshine all day. I got to work in my garden for some 6 or 7 hours... and now my sweet-peas are all in, my lettuce is in, and so is my spinach and onion sets... A big deal for me to get so much done in my poor neglected garden. Now I am so stiff and sore, that I must get horizontal, or I'll be crawling around at work tomorrow! I did have a nice soak in the jacuzzi with some 2nd Nature Muscle soak, and that did make me feel a little more limber ...but maybe some kind of A5-35 cream on the sore parts. You know you are older than dirt, when you are applying more than four different creams a day. That would be moi!
To bed...hope everyone got loads done in their gardens too.









"The Creator"

Weeping so bad that it is broken hearted

Hows this for a broken Weeping Willow tree?...Our tree...and was it even windy? No. The poor tree has had an ever enlarging split down the middle of the trunk for two or three years and getting worse with each winter. Emil lightened the tree considerably last year by removing tons of weight from exactly the opposite side to the one that broke. It prevented that side from breaking off, however, now we have this rather dangerous looking situation. What to do...what to do....


So if there are any arborists out there with a recommendation...just let us know what to do. We hate to chop the whole thing down...just too darn big and weeping beautiful.







"The Creator"

They made Front Page!

Just click on the pic to make it larger and then you may read the fine print. That is Lynn front and centre with Val not so far behind her. Lynn said the talk was excellent and she is just awaiting some answers to her gardening questions. The word has it that "Sheep manure is in"! How about deer manure? How about goose manure eh?eh?

"The Creator"

More R&R

As you can see, life is good in the new swing! Tonight when I arrived home from work, who was in the swing??? Emil! He beat me to it! I changed and joined him for a wine and I tell you, one could easily just fall asleep in there! It was a gorgeous day today... so beautiful that the ferry broke down so we could some extra hours at home this morning! How maddening!

After determining that it would be a long haul, I went back home for an hour, returned to find it still out of service and returned home again. i got my floors vacuumed, the laundry done, and the gopher trap reset, with a brand new carrot chunk in it!

Finally around 12:30,the ferry became repaired and once again operational.It was a broken Hydraulic which lifts the ramp.

I arrived at work at 1:30.

Carolyne had the case torn apart and was in the middle of redoing all of them. That project kept us busy for the whole day with still plenty for me to attend to, tomorrow morning...excluding my normal Monday cleaning! Whatever happened to a schedule????

Caro brought in many very cute new pieces of jewellery with many of them in Vermais. That is the name of our new product that has a an underbase of sterling silver. The exterior is a veneer of 18 karat gold. All in all, one has the contemporary look of silver, yet it is the colour of gold, but once again, reflects the prices of silver. I'll bring my camera in to work this week, and snap some photos of the new stuff and the rings.

so my eyes are dozing off...good night all...

"The Creator"

Pineapple coleslaw.

Looking for a fresh change-up to an old favourite?
Try this Pineapple coleslaw from Cooks.com next time you are cooking a ham. Anne made it for us when we went to dinner there a couple of weeks ago and so I made it for John and Ronda to go with our ham steaks.
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonaise
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 medium head of cabbage ( about 4 cups) or 4 cups of the preshredded coleslaw mix.
8 oz can of pineapple tidbits, drained.
Also ,one can add 1 c. miniature marshmellows. ( I didn't)

Mix up your dressing and slather over the cabbage, then add the drained pineappple tidbits. I used about a cup of tidbits...not quite the whole can. Mix it all up and serve...Tastes yummy!




"The Creator"

Various week-end photos

John and Ronda brought our swing set down for us, but of course it was "some assembly required". John and Emil spent a good deal of the windy afternoon doing trying to get it all figured out. Sorry the photos are out of order... but here they are putting the seat together. note how long it is...room on it for Emil, myself and Silk!





























Oops, having a little trouble with the canopy...
Next photo should have been first...well it could very well have been the other way around,because it required a bit of finesse to get it right.






















Here is our number one Mouser! Soleil nabbed herself not one, but two mice today...Emil says she is finally earning her keep. She brought mousie number one right up onto the balcony..and Mr. Mouse was still moving...aghhhhhhh... The photo is of mouse number two in her famous death grip...yah...just another damn mouse...




























Annette sent me this very pretty pic of Sonia before she went to a function last night...
Looking terrific darlin'!




















Back to the swing... Ronda and I did the enjoying of it, initially! I tell you, it is sooooo relaxing that one could crash in there and rock to sleep like a baby!



















Carrying it to its destination location!

The Creator"

All You See ( Alluc)

News at Alluc.
This is a website that offers many opportunities to view TV programs, movies, Cartoons, and Music Videos. When you get to the site, look at the sidebar on the left to choose what you'd like to look for. Once you click on a particular movie, click on "View Content" .Don't be sidetracked by the ads and the video to watch a skateboarder. Other than that, Annette says the links are better than Peekvid, so try them out.

Mark Cullen

If you are into gardening, please check out Mark Cullen's garden site for great Canadian tips. Lynn and Val went to one of his talks in Trail and totally enjoyed all he had to say.Check out the info under his Gardening Guide and particularly, the garden planner that you can download.

Brenda's Fruit Streudal

We had a nice hen session at Connie's on Thursday...always a blast of laughter,that is for sure. So a few people enjoyed the Fruit Streudal I brought...and thanks Zelda for inquiring about it. A person has to scroll down on the right hand sidebar until you pass the photo section, then you will arrive at the recipe section which is arranged under alphabetical order.Click on the recipe entitled "Brenda's Fruit Streudal" and you will find the recipe on that page as you scroll down. Any probs, and we can work it out through email...give me a call.
Hope that clarifies things! Or you can click on the streudal links I have underscored...
Thank you for it being Saturday today!
by the time I shopped for groceries last night and came home and cooked up my fishy wishy, I was tired. I still putzed around on the computer...till I found the Funny Video of a four guys on a tread mill...doing some tricky treading. I don't know if that was the one Z. was talking about,but this one is pretty good. Click here toTake a look!

So the other very neat thing to download if you have an Itunes account, is the phenomenol performance of Celine and Elvis on the American Idol Gives back show on Wednesday night. For $2.98, it is a piece of technological history worth keeping. Open your Itunes program, click on Itunes store and check the available downloads to find the Celine and Elvis performance... I couldn't find it by googling Itunes store...funny eh?

So have a good week-end. We are expecting John and Ronda today...so lots of food, fun and festivity...

"The Creator"

Happy Belated Birthday Virginia!

39 and holdin' You look great Virginia...and it looks like a fun night out with your friends!
Cheers everyone.....
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this cutie is sucking up the noodles!
Thanks for passing the pics along... Mom and daughter look alike with that blonde hair...Very sweet!

"The Creator"

Train Derailment in Trail

Lawrence and Lori's neighbour,Bob took these photos today,before the engineer was discovered dead. The other two workers jumped free of the train.
And I was just thinking the other night, that the train passing by our house at 3:00 in the am, sounded very loud and squeely as it rounded the corner..it gives me the "Kreeps!"

"The Creator"

Some garden pics.../Newly Painted Store!

I started at the top of the flower bed where I could see some semblance of growth that wasn't all weeds
The Lavender Heather is in full bloom. I planted my two new heathers near by,in hopes they grow just as big.
This is on the outside of the fence. I salvaged a poppy or two and many globe primulas, but had to quit when I reached that knot of grass at the top of the photo. Any diggers out there???
The swallows have returned from Capistrano...and are back to their old house. I was hoping a pair of bluebirds would move in, but no luck so far...even if they have visited us two week-ends in row.
Talk about Margarita green...Not bad for bright! The jewellery looks fab against the new walls, and check those shiny refinished hardwood floors! Better yet, drop in and take a boo.

"The Creator"

Good Garden Week-end/ Pork All in one dinner.

This is what your All in One dinner will look like ,before it goes into the oven, after it comes out of the oven and before it goes into the fridge...Ha-ha... I have to say the dinner tastes better than its brown gravy looks in a picture. Maybe one could add some bright veggies to give it some colour! Dinner recipe at end of post...scroll down...

We couldn't call it a heat wave, but it wasn't raining. It was pleasant enough to get our tails outside and dig into the garden. Lets say I was the one digging in! At first I thought there was no hope for my flower bed along the fence. It was over-run with grass and the worst section was a chunk that I couldn't face last year. In fact I took out half of the matt of morning primroses last year, but couldn't face finish removing them, thereby leaving a good six foot run still suffering from that wild perrenial that went crazy on me. The roots were in a thick knotty mat over five inches thick from fence to border. I took the pitchfork to them and wiggled and jiggled and hunked off a chunk at a time until I removed the whole lot of them.
Voila! Reclaimed flowergarden.
By then I had snippets of "good" plants from iris to bleeding heart and globe primulas that needed to be replanted. It helped fill in a few holes in the now barren chunk of flower bed.

I made it all the way down to the lilac tree and only severed two roots of the peony! In the end , I even got some of the outside of the fence dug up and did move to a point whereby I could plant my sweet-peas. That was the point of the whole exercise. I accomplished what I set out to do, and even a little more. I stuck in a few marigolds and then some Cosmos on the outside of the fence and even some radishes inside the garden.
By the time I finished, around seven tonight, I was pooped out, but feeling good at what I got done. Silk and I took a walk on the beach while my dinner cooked.

Emil's mom often made this quick dinner that I made tonight.

Save-On had big trays of pork sirloin steaks on sale. They are perfect for this rather quick dinner.You need :

Pork steaks...they are large but tasty . (I can eat one by myself. )
an onion chopped in a large dice
a can of mushroom soup
a can of button mushrooms or sliced mushrooms
Potatoes peeled and quartered lengthwise for however many you are feeding ( 4)
salt and pepper
A mushroom or brown gravy mix
Pam and a little oil to brown the steaks in.

Preheat the oven to 350*

Salt and pepper your steaks and spray your fry pan with Pam and add a little oil so the steaks don't stick. Pop them in the hot fry pan and brown each side until golden. In the meantime, get a nice pyrex casserole dish ( 9x13) ready by Pamming it. Then chop up a good sized onion into a large dice. Open a can of button mushrooms. Don't drain. Open a can of mushroom soup. Find yourself a package of gravy mix.
Once the steaks are browned on both sides, you can remove them and lay them in one layer in the bottom of the pyrex or casserole dish.
Now toss the onions into the hot frypan with the brownings from the pork.
Saute them...stirring until they are soft.
Add the can of mushrooms, including the juice.
Add the can of mushroom soup.
Stir with a whisk to mix in the mushroom soup as best you can... don't worry if a few lumps remain. Mix your gravy mix according to directions ( stir into a cup of water or a less) and add the mushroom soupy mixture.
Stir to cook the gravy a bit, then dump the whole works over top of the browned steaks in your pyrex dish. Top evenly with quartered (lengthwise) potatoes , so that they are submerged in the soupy mix if possible.( Salt and pepper the spuds). Cover with a sheet of tinfoil, then pop into your hot oven and bake at 350* for about 45 minutes. It will smell so good when you are baking it, that you will be sitting at the table waiting for the dish to come out of the oven! Be careful when you remove the tinfoil, as the steam that escapes could burn you!
Enjoy!..I did!
"The Creator"

Digital Scrapbooking at the Digital Scrapbook Place! Computer Scrapping is the hottest new way to preserve your memories!

Digital Scrapbooking at the Digital Scrapbook Place! Computer Scrapping is the hottest new way to preserve your memories!
If you like Scrapbooking, perhaps you'd like to try "Digital Scrapbooking" .

Spring is in the air...

Yeppers, this is what Calgarians woke up to this morning...I promise I won't complain about rain anymore! Thanks Denise for putting us in our place....our non-snowy place! Look who is down at the ranch!!! A couple of newcomers to Joyce and Morgan's ranch!

Great new smile there, Morgan! Nice new choppers! I hear they are almost broken in now...not from biting the dog either!
Now ,this is how we celebrate spring up here in Harroponia! Coffee in the hot-tub, first thing Saturday morning...
And if you are Co-Co...this is how you celebrate a warm spring day!
Last but not least...Happy Birthday to Mataya... She is heading off to Dollywood to work in a Pottery
for the summer. Good Luck Birthday Girl!

"The Creator"