More Jugs please.

The weather improved a little today though it started out cool. The pool is looking very clear considering we only just opened it and it appears NOT to be leaking. Smallest's hay fever seems to be over for now (thank goodness) though I may still take him for a test at the doctors so we are more prepared for next year.

Both boys were still fast asleep when Huffle and I got up this morning. Small was very tired after working hard at his football last night. Huffle went in to the office today so it was very quiet, not that I was in much either myself today. After the boys went to school (one in shorts and one in long trousers). I went to aerobics. Much laughter and fun and a workout of course and then I came home and got ready for Pottery.

Today we made a small jug and I made mine into a Maple Syrup jug as we always use our Yorkshire Tea jug when we have pancakes and I wanted one specifically for Maple Syrup - well why not? There was not any time to make anything else but next week we are making a candle holder for outside (I will use it for citronella to keep those pesky mossies away).

I know what you're thinking but I swear the Maple Leaf is just because it's for the Maple Syrup!

I got home just before the boys and we all went up to look at the pool and vacuum it and add the necessary chemicals. Smallest wanted to go in but it was freezing, he managed his toes but that was all.

I made dinner while the boys played on their tablets. Huffle came home and fitted the new hose and sprinkler and added the timer to the pool filter so we don't have to keep switching it on and off - fancy hey?

After dinner we played football and a bit of cricket until Small's friends came and got him for a bike ride. Huffle and I did a bit of weeding and watering.

 

 

 

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New Football

After the weekends' fabulous weather, it all turned a bit cool today. Though I did start out in my shorts, by the end of the day, I was in a jacket and jeans.

After the boys went to school, I went to work and helped Jan to weed out the main beds, plant a few pansies in the Potage and plant the potatoes after we hauled two huge pots up the hill! I came home with a couple of Wild Violas and a Dog Wood Pagoda Tree (just a Baby one). At coffee time we sampled Jan's lovely Custard and nut cake (yummy). The others are going off to the Royal York tomorrow without me but I have been promised a trip there in a couple of weeks to do some Hot planting (tomorrow is supposed to be down to 4* so it certainly won't be hot and the things that can be planted in a couple of weeks time will be things like peppers, squash, tomatoes etc).

Naughty work cats Keeping an eye on the birds

Aunty A's Leeks

I had a very brief lunch with Huffle and a quick Skype catchup with Moo before driving off to Suffolk's and going to Costco with her. I called home to see if Huffle wanted any Pork tenderloin and tried explaining what it was like, bearing in mind I am a vegetarian, I was telling him it looked like lumps of meat a bit like chicken breasts but pork obviously. I didn't end up getting any but the look on some of the people's faces around was priceless. They probably thought I was very strange!

The boys were already home when I got back and we had had a delivery of the trellis and slabs and sand. Last night, after watching the Chelsea Flower Garden Challenge, we decided to take up the path I have been building and replace it with a thinner path using the bricks and slabs (as we now have the bigger ones from Suffolk's house too). I will make a start on this on Thursday if the weather is good.

I made dinner whilst Huffle finished his work and the boys did their homework. Huffle and Smallest played on the Wii and then after dinner Huffle took Small to his new football practice. Huffle wasn't impressed with the setup and Small was disappointed that he was in a team that wer rubbish (apart from a select few) though he did enjoy it and he is getting plenty of exercise which is good.

Smallest and I played on the Wii. Huffle came home today with a Microwave (ours fell apart inside), a huge hose with a lifetime guarantee (good because we don't have much luck with hoses), a metal sprinkler and watering can (so Small can't drop and break them ha!). And here's me thinking he went to watch Small play football, not go shopping!

 

 

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A Victorious Day

HAPPY VICTORIA DAY - this means we get a day off. Hurrah. Last night there were lots of fireworks all around.

We skyped Grandma and Grandad at breakfast and Grandma admitted that she preferred Canadian Apricot Jam (Smuckers) over the jam from UK. Oh dear, is Grandma becoming a hybrid?

After breakfast we went and played tennis at our local court. It was very hot and humid but we managed to play for over an hour and then we gave in at midday and came home.

I decided to get the mower out to cut the grass befriend the forecast storm started but the bloody machine only let me go once round and then misfired, popped and died again. It started enough to get round half way and then died again. I've had enough of the piece of 5h!t and kicked it and left it in the middle of the garden. I will bury it later!

This isn't our grass, but this is what it will look like if it doesn't get cut this week! Weed killers are banned here, subsequently there are many many dandelions here at this time of year. Then they go to seed and those damn seed heads will be blowing up all over the place creating more and more and more dandelions. I offered the boys money for taking the heads off but Small remarked that we used to pay them 1p per flower in UK and now we only give them 1c. He asked for 5c and I said he could have 2c each. I don't think he can be bothered!

After lunch, Small and I went to Suffolk's house. She was having a clear out of her plants in her garden and had some for me to take away. When I got there, there were 15 big heavy slabs to take and then I helped to dig out a whole car boot full (including the back seats folded down). Small went for a walk with her son to the park and I played catch with her youngest daughter while we had a drinks break. I left about two hours later and then Huffle and I put all the plants in our garden which included having to make more room by digging up the grass. It was back breaking and so very hot. I have left all but one slab at Suffolks and will be picking them up a couple at a time each time I visit.

While we were plant taking, Huffle and Smallest planted veg and perennials, repaired the pool pump (Huffle followed a YouTube video of a hillbilly fix) sorted out the pool and had moved the mower to the front gate (I think that will go in the Garage Sale now too). The boys did lots of watering and had another water fight.

Huffle worked hard for the rest of the afternoon/ early evening while I made dinner. We have ordered a new mower and apart from the fact that we don't know when it will be delivered and they added the tax because we forgot to put the correct code in, all is good and we should have a new tractor/mower very soon.

I called the Nursery to see if I was needed for working tomorrow and was asked if I would go to The Royal York on Wednesday but I can't because I have pottery. Damn it!

 

 

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Muddy Pool

When Huffle got up this morning the sun room was showing 36* on the thermometer. He opened all the doors and it took ages to go down. The outside temperature was 26* and it was only 9am! It was going to be a hot one.

So we decided after breakfast to try and open the pool. What a bloomin' mess. The cover had fallen in. The sides of he pool were bent in on one side and the amount of leaves and sludge was incredible. Huffle got in there with his wellies on and I crawled underneath the decking and between us we hauled the cover off. We scooped as many leaves as possible out before we started filling it with the smallest hose pipe ever made! We can't find our normal one anywhere and wonder if we threw it away (except no one remembers doing that).

Of course one thing leads to another and before we knew it, we had emptied the entire barn, swept the floor and rearranged everything in it. You could dance in there now - still didn't find the hose though. We got the boys to clear out the outside play box and we found a few things for the Garage Sale. It took them ages to sort through everything and put stuff away as well as making a den too. We put out all the boxes, chairs and tables that live up at the pool plus umbrellas and stands etc. it's all ready for Summer pool fun now, the only thing we need is the pool itself (fingers crossed everything is alright and we don't have any cracks or holes in it).

The boys have been horrible today. Fighting, arguing, moaning. Huffle and I got so fed up with them that we ignored them for the whole afternoon. I painted an outside chair and Huffle drilled some holes in some logs for some plants to go in (until he got his drill bit stuck in one and he abandoned tools).

The kids carried on their arguing and ended up having a huge water fight which seemed to get it out of their systems a bit. Not having us to play or talk to, made them play with each other. Ha!

We had a BBQ for dinner and ate outside as it was still warm. The garden is moving so fast now, there are things flowering that weren't even up last week. It looks beautiful. So much hard work last year has really paid off.

 

 

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Porch Unplugged

This morning was a scorcher of a day (if not a little humid though) and the morning was spent watching football (no goals but excellent results) and path laying (I have now run out of bricks that we found under the compost heap). While I was trying to remove some grass, I encountered a huge hole. Huffle helped to secure the hole by placing a few broken slabs and packing it with soil (the other day we found our old well but who knows what this hole is for (not sure I want to know really).

We all went and visited the Country Market and picked up some plants (veggies and perennials). For dinner we went to the new Burger place and watched the car wash while we waited (wow we lead such exciting lives).

This afternoon we went for a lovely walk in the forest where we walked, climbed, balanced and did some Ninja Warrior Training. The Trilliums were out and it was so lovely but the Mosquitoes finally drove us out of the trees and back home.

We sat on our porch eating ice cream, listening to DonNoQuotey playing his guitar (we applauded a few times and it made him play for longer), playing Monopoly Deal and finally coming inside for our tea and watching Ninja Warrior UK.

Huffle and I finished the day off planting our plants and watering.

 

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Skids and Pallets

The weather has very cool again. The boys ditched their shorts and reverted to long trousers and fleeces for school. After breakfast I continued with my path, put a few plants in and dug over the bed in front of the barn and added a few of my Mothers Day plants in there. Now when I look out of the kitchen window it will look very colourful.

Huffle donned his lumberjack gear and lopped at the big cedars in between us and Otto. Wow, what a difference. It's a bit ugly (there will be adjustments later) but the light streams in now. Hopefully he will have taken down half of our mosquito population too.

At lunchtime we popped out to a hardware shop and ordered some trellis for round the pool area (as we have no plants or trees around there now and it's nice to be screened when we are in the pool). We also ordered some slabs and sand and they will all be delivered on Tuesday. We had to pay a deposit which which be refunded when we bring back the 'skid'. We translated this into Pallet (which is what it is called in their brochure) and I asked the lady behind the counter why it was called a Skid and not a pallet. She said because you are British and we are Canadian and laughed singing Potayto Potarto Tomayto Tomato. We had a look at plants but were very uninspired today.

We had lunch and abandoned outside work due to rain (but we did pack our tools away Grandad). This afternoon I cleaned the bathrooms and started painting the shelves in my bathroom.

The boys came home and we played a game of Catan (Smallest beat us!) and then I made dinner while they played on their tablets. We had dinner in front of Ninja Warrior UK and then played a couple of games of Stack 'me up.

Yesterday Smallest came home with a note that said there was a Spring Concert at the school (first I had heard of it) and it happened to clash with the boys first football session. We told them to tell the teacher they wouldn't be able to do the concert. Today Smallest came home and said he had told the teacher but the teacher asked how many football games there were and that he should come to the concert because there was plenty of time for football. We disagree, the first game of the season is important as it puts the kids in their correct teams and we pay a lot of money for it. The concert is out of school hours. It is wrong for the teacher to say that a school concert is more important than football, especially when half of the kids are missing from school some of the time due to hockey commitments. Is hockey more important than school, than football? Outrageous!

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Morris Men Take 2

What a quiet house without Aunty A singing. I particularly missed her this morning when I had to empty the dishwasher by myself (that was her chore). She got home safe and sound but was very tired and went straight to bed, only to get up four hours later (damn jet lag).

I had a slow morning after the kids went to school and caught up with a bit of TV with my breakfast. Huffle was too cold in the bunker so he moved into the computer room/library/under loft. I went into the garden and carried on with my path and dug over the soil until it hurt my shoulder and I stopped. Huffle spoke to our TV people and finally got the channels back that have been missing for days now HURRAH!

The side bit we are transforming. My path is to the right.

Huffle and I had lunch and then I got the mower out and started cutting the grass but the mower died on me before I even got down to the bottom of the garden. Huffle managed to get it going again and it chuffed and puffed its way away around the grass with a flat tyre on one side. Poor old thing! I almost finished and it stopped again so I left it and came inside to get ready to go shopping.

I did the food shop and came home. The mower had run out of petrol, Huffle had filled it and much later I finished off the bits I missed.

I started on dinner and the boys came home. Small was supposed to be going to someone's house to video aMorris Dance that he and four of his class mates were doing but instead they wanted to come to our house. The first boy turned up at 4 O'Clock and Small and Smallest played football with him and played on the trampoline together. The second one turned up about an hour later. We had to call the third one because he had forgotten. The forth one called me and asked if I would bring him home (bit cheeky), I could hear his mum in the background saying he could stay till 7:30pm but someone would have to bring him back. I said no as we hadn't eaten dinner and I thought it was rude! In the end his mum brought him and sat on our drive in her car till he had finished. she didn't even get out of the car to speak to me and I was in the front garden watering. How Rude!

Huffle got them some Morris Dance music and I videoed them. Smallest had to do it with them to make up the sixth person. They all did very well and finished their video with some Bloopers. Smallest fell over and grazed his elbow and knee and came inside for some medical assistance. Everyone went home and we ate dinner.

I checked in Smallest's bag tonight and found four water bottles, four fleeces, a glove and a pile of papers I should have seen weeks ago. It was an absolute mess and a disgrace. He spent some time sorting things. I can't believe he got an award for Organisation. We are now going to have a weekly bag sort!!

 

 

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