Finally .... Rain!

After weeks of scorching heat and horrible, thick

smoke from the fires up North, it finally rained!

But instead of just rain, we've also been getting

lots of storms, with thunder, lightening and hail.

Warnings keep popping up. It's hard to plan when

the silly weather changes so very quickly each day.

Today, after I was done my work, I was excited to

get home to garden. We did a couple of hours and

then, bam, the thunder started and the black clouds

rolled in. We'll try and get more done tomorrow but

for now, the rain is falling and the Earth is green.

Something to be so very thankful for anyways!

~ Chy

A Baby Moose ....

.... on the loose! This was the very first time

we've seen our newest neighbor in the woods.

He's still getting used to his long legs. A bit

wobbly as he tried to negotiate our acreage.

Finally spotting us, he began to make

his exit. He must have felt so scared.

We wondered where his mama was. And

it looks like he was so lost and nervous.

Off he went, back to the forest. The next

day, we had mama and two babies come

for a visit. They wandered then went out

to the lane and walked to the neighbors. I

hope they visit a few times. So quiet and

very, very majestic as they lumber through.

~ Chy

Potted Garden.

In our last house, and most of our

houses before that, we've had lovely

garden beds full of perennials. The

beauty of this is I only had to weed!

I always had a variety of pots, small

and large, and everything in between

to fill with pretty blooms through the

season. In this house, we have had to

start from scratch, even with living

in the forest and having natural plants

all around us. While we work on our

garden beds, we still need to have some

pots on our veranda and our decks.

This year, I found such amazing colors

and textures of plants. I will in time

show them all to you but here are two

of my favorites. They are growing well

so far. I hope they will last all Summer.

Do you have garden beds?

Or just pots with flowers?

~ Chy

Happy Sunday.

Wishing you a beautiful day full of

love, family, memories and reflection.

~ Chy

Sunny Saturday.

I woke up way too early this morning. Just before 6 a.m. I am NOT an early riser. But after 2 days of beautiful rain with dark skies, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. That was the first trigger for my early awakening. The second was the growling in my belly. Not a lot of appetite the last few days but this morning, my body was hungry! Dh was still sleeping, so off to the kitchen I trekked. As awake as I was, I didn't have the energy to cook a breakfast and I didn't feel like cereal, so I filled up my vintage bowl with white cheddar popcorn, grabbed a couple of ripe strawberries and a cup of chocolate milk. So yummy and filled me up. And dh is still sleeping, so I successfully had brekky in bed without waking him up! He works so very hard and rest is good. 

Look at that blue sky! The rain we had was so welcome. It started a bit on Wednesday, then continued with downpours and thunder on Thursday. By yesterday, the sky was dark, the air was chilled and the moods were shifting. We both had work yesterday (dh at home and me in my little office) but we stopped to have a lovely lunch and that cheered us up. Late in the afternoon, snow started to fall. Crazy weather, but true! Today and tomorrow should be warm and sunny. I'm off to teach my kids grief group today with my crew and dh is going to be at a community event all day promoting our new music festival. Tonight will probably just be a quiet night to relax. Tomorrow will be landscaping in the morning and then we want to go in to the Big City and revamp our antique mall booth. We did some treasure hunting yesterday and found a bunch of great items to sell. We'll settle down to watch the 2nd season of "Big Little Lies" and plan out our week before heading to bed. A nice weekend all around and hopefully the weather will continue to be nice and warm. More rain in our forecast for next week, which is a perfect weather pattern. A day or two of rain, days of sun, then a day or two of rain again. Just enough to keep everything green and growing. Perfect!

What are your grand plans for the weekend?

If you garden, how is your garden growing?

~ Chy

Thyme Garden.

Sunday mornings in our house typically end up as "gardening time" once we're finally awake and breakfast is done. I try to garden through the week but it always depends on which days I work, which days have rain and which days have family events. This week, very little gardening happened with the high temperatures (so unusual for May), the smoke and haze from the wildfires, and a number of evening meetings that didn't leave much time for anything else. I did water each day, sometimes twice and pulled a few weeds while dh bbq'd. Today, I'm hoping with the cooler weather and the possibility of rain this week (please pray we get it!!), time in the garden will be well spent.

Today I'm dreaming of how we can create a Thyme Garden. At both cottages that we book when we head to the island, the homeowners have created gardens like these and I've discovered they will thrive in our zone here. I bought some creeping thyme the other day to get started. We have to figure out if we need a short retaining wall out the front. Lots of drainage concerns to figure out. And our deck guys are going to build us a new set of front stairs, so I also have to map that out so we can plant around where the stairs will land. One day, it will come together and look amazing!

Seven weeks today, our festival that we've been working on for the last 14 months will be done. We've worked hard and it's all coming together. Tickets are selling and our only hope/worry is that they sell well so this is a success. Then we can start all over again for next year! After gardening today, I'll do some festival work and likely some laundry. Dh cleaned the house yesterday while I was at work. So grateful he does this each Saturday so our Sundays can be more relaxed. We also need to put together a box of items for our booth at the Antique Mall. This past month was our best ever and our booth is looking a bit empty at the moment. So later today, we'll price and catalogue. Then a bbq dinner and some down time. Last night we had movie night with "A Star is Born." Tonight we'll catch up on some PVR'd shows or Netflix now that "Game of Thrones", "Call the Midwife" and "Shameless" are all done for now. Not much to watch over the Summer but we spend time outside so it's not like we're missing anything. I have books on the go if tv is too boring!

What's on tap for you today?

Gardening? Reading? Chilling?

~ Chy

Goodbye May ....

It was a lovely and full month. But

really,  May went way too fast!

~ Chy

Bright Spot.

I've discovered the bright spot in our little

kitchen nook ~ this shelf! My plant loves it. 

~ Chy