Our Little Cottage in the Big Woods: 7/1/22

July 31, 2022

Goodbye July.

It was a great month! A little too hot at the end.

But lots of amazing moments and good memories.

~ Chy

Downton Abbey.

We finally have committed to watching this amazing

series. During Covid, we tried but I think our minds

were too busy with all the "what ifs" and we couldn't

concentrate. Now we can and it's been worth the wait!

~ Chy

Right Here. Right Now.

What I'm wearing .... ripped jeans, bare feet and my favorite purple t. When we're working on the stone pathway, I have my garden boots on.

What I'm reading .... "The Last Bookshop in London." Two more chapters and then I'm all done. I did spend some time today online ordering from our local bookshop. I was able to snap up 6 books for $46. If I had bought them at the big box store, the total would have been over $138. Happy to shop local AND save $92!

What's happening in my kitchen .... it's quiet in the moment but dinner will be starting soon. Smokies on the bbq and Caesar salad.

What's outside my window .... rain, sun, wind, stillness ~ we've had everything today except snow! But we are thankful for the rain as there are forest fires around our Province. It's scary to think our little forest could burn.

What I'm thankful for .... the rain, good health, my sweet family and our tiny cottage in the big woods.

What I'm smelling .... the blossoms from our gardens.

What I'm hearing .... the neighbor is doing some digging. Thankful the trees between all the houses down the lane make the noise a distant hum.

What I'm crafting .... curtains for our bedroom to keep the light out. Living so far north, we have sun until almost 11 each night in the Summer.

What's on my mind .... all the wonderful things I'd like to do this week and all the items on the task list dh created so we get a few things crossed off.

Words to live by .... see the quote above. Love it!

Having an amazing week!

~ Chy

Garden Loves.

We have this week off from work and our

plan in the moment is to create a tiny stone

walkway from our front door to our gravel

driveway. The stones we will be laying are

the same ones we used last year for the stone

patio we created in the back off our big deck.

On top of the stone patio, my other current

love is the sweet meadow that has slowly

grown in the back. We have purple vetch,

chamomile, yellow blossoms and a little

bit of red that we don't know what it is. I

am not a fan of red but will leave it for

now as it's only a bit here and there. Love

that every year, the meadow grows in size.

It's raining now but we hope that as much

as we need the rain, it will stop soon so we

can get back to working on the stone path.

A big project for this long week off work.

~ Chy

July 30, 2022

My Hydrangea's.

We planted this Hydrangea about

4 years ago. And each year, we do

get blooms that start out white, then

green, then a pale pink. I cut them

and let them dry in a vase and in

time, the blooms turn a light brown.

This year, we added in this larger version

that is off to the side in front of the garage.

I'm excited to see what these blooms will

look like in time. And how big it will get.

The tag says it could get as high as 5 feet

and as round as 6ish. I'm sure that growth

will take some time. Happy we found this,

especially on a 40% off sale at the nursery.

~ Chy

Cool Eating.

Like everywhere around the World, it

is hot, hot, hot here! Eating is now a

challenge as who wants to cook when

it's this muggy. So "cool eating" it is!

My favorite this past week was a lovely

berry salad from the store. And then we

were in town, so we headed to Costco

for our favorite ice cream. There were

no waffle cones due to a "shortage" so

we had cups and those worked well. A

waffle cone wouldn't have held the ice

cream as it melted in the heat. Yummy!

How are you handling the heat?

Are you practicing "cool" eating?

~ Chy

Sweet Baby.

We love having wildlife all around us. And the sweet

deer will always be my very favorite. This baby has

been hanging out behind our cottage and he/she also

wanders around the corner and down the lane. So cute!

~ Chy

We grew Roses!

We planted 2 different rose bushes a couple of years

ago. At our other house, we had tried once to grow a

rose bush but had no success. I was told then by the

greenhouse that roses are not easy to grow and it takes

commitment. So it was a gamble to try again. And

the interesting thing is, we planted the bushes on the

same day, have provided some fertilizer and lots of

water but really haven't done anything different than

all of our plants. I'm loving that we've produced a

couple of roses each year BUT this year, we have

an over abundance of blooms. A warning: you may

see a few photos of roses over the next few weeks!

Do you have roses in your garden?

If so, have they been easy to grow?

~ Chy

July 24, 2022

Right Here. Right Now.

What I'm wearing .... a light blue April Cornell flowy dress and bare feet. It's super hot here, like it seems to be everywhere. The order of the day was "comfort!"

What I'm reading .... blogs, research documents and recipes.

What's happening in my kitchen .... in the moment, it's quiet.

What's outside my window .... clouds that hold rain ....

What I'm thankful for .... that it might rain tonight and all day tomorrow.

What I'm smelling .... rain! We can smell it in the air.

What I'm hearing .... crickets. And "F.R.I.E.N.D.S." on tv.

What I'm crafting .... dollhouse .... still ....

What's on my mind .... everything and anything.

Words to live by .... see the quote above.

Having an amazing week!

~ Chy

July 16, 2022

Under the Light.

I captured this shot the other night when

we were watching a movie. I glanced at

the sofa table under our big window in

the great room and realized how happy

the tiny plants in this pot must feel. All

under the light on a very dark and cloudy

night. I imagine they felt like they were

still back in the greenhouse with lights

helping them grow and thrive. The tiny

micro plants can be finicky and I'm so

relieved these one seems to be doing well

in this spot. The light truly is helping.

Do you have a tiny garden inside your home?

~ Chy

July 14, 2022

Lovely Summer.

Summer is lovely so far. Very few bugs, unlike last year when we couldn't sit outside very long because of the swarms of mosquitoes that tried to consume our bodies and all the aggressive, nasty wasps that got in to our little cottage. This year is almost bug free. We are having a few days of super hot weather but then it will cool again. I'm not great with heat this high but am thankful for limited bugs.

We have some items on our "landscaping task list" that we need to tick off, now that the festival is over. I've started to work on the deck, which needs to be scraped, sanded, then re-stained. It's a little too hot to stain. I may have to do the prep work, then stain it closer to Fall when it's cooler. Tricky to work the timing to do this but would love to have it off our list before the snow comes back. We also need to work on installing the final row of fencing and the gate on our picketed veggie patch. Next is talking to the greenhouse about our apple trees that have never given us apples - hoping they will honor the guarantee and replace them. Then we'll be working on filling the last of the empty spaces with cedar chips so we don't have weeds to pull. I need to order more chips and may stop in today to get this done so we have them on hand. We do a section at a time and the transformation is amazing! We have to lay the bricks in the front to create our new walk way and figure out what that looks like in the back and along the side as well. Can't wait to see this part done. Last thing on our list is to work on our greenhouse. The wind was not kind to it this Winter, despite the notation that it can stand high winds. Um, no. But thankfully, it was free so we'll find a way to get it back to working order so it doesn't just sit, as it currently is.

Future thoughts for our property include adding shutters (our builder was supposed to but claims we said we didn't want them, even though they are on the list and on the plans, clearly visible), window boxes, a garbage can receptacle and finally, the gate and driveway. Our drive is currently gravel, which has its appeal but we also like the idea of a smooth finish, so looking at either concrete or blacktop. Likely an expense for next year but we'll start the conversations now so we know the cost. Not cheap, I'm sure.

Always so many things when you own a property. For us, the hard part is having events, work and general like in between trying to get our list down. When I look at what we had in the beginning and then where we are now, I'm very proud we've got it down now to just a few items. Lots of hard work has gone in to putting this all together. We are enjoying it and hope to get the bits done this year and next so then it's just maintaining it all. So relaxing now to sit on the deck (that never existed), to look out on the work we've done (from scratch) and see our garden blooming (all dirt back then), and feel accomplished. Always something will need work or to be tweaked but it's finally showing what our true vision was and now is. Worth all the time!

Today I have the day off. It's usually Fridays but my newest counsellor would have been all alone tomorrow (I know he'd be just fine) so I switched days so he has another colleague in the building if anything comes up. Turned out to be a good move as our team member who is on maternity leave is now coming in tomorrow for a visit and to talk about her return to work, so I'll get some sweet baby snuggles in! Dh is working out at the moment, then it will be my turn, and the rest of the morning I'm going to do some paperwork and emails, then we'll load up our car with festival items, drop those at our office and head over to the cafe. We're meeting three amazing dear friends who are part of radio station to chat about our upcoming "birthday bash" and the future of the station. After that, dh has some blood work at the lab, then we'll likely head home for dinner and a quiet night. In between, I need to get outside to water our plants.

What are your grand plans for this beautiful, warm,

cloudless, sunny, endless possibilities Thursday?

~ Chy

July 10, 2022

Right Here. Right Now.

What I'm wearing .... khaki's with a flowered t and bare feet.

What I'm reading .... I'm pretty sure I'll be done reading "The Last Bookshop in London" by Madeline Martin. We're planning an early night and I'm looking forward to crawling in to our cozy bed to unwind and read.

What's happening in my kitchen .... the dishwasher is cleaning our dishes for tonight. I spent some time today cutting up all the fruit we bought yesterday into small containers of fruit salad for the week.

What's outside my window .... sunshine, warm air, no wind and pretty flowers soaking up the rays.

What I'm thankful for .... a cozy cottage in the woods, bills that are paid, healthy humans in our lives and a job I'm looking forward to heading to in the morning.

What I'm smelling .... the scents from the garden.

What I'm hearing .... the dishwasher humming and our friends' radio show that we've tuned in to listen to as we support her. She supports us, we support her!

What I'm crafting .... pots. Yup, I'm painting pots for the next round of flowers. Today I took 2 huge ceramic pots my mom had for decades, cleaned them and started painting the first coat of color on each. And then grabbed an amazing black pot with flowers on the outside. I'm now painting it my favorite sage green and already with the first coat on, it looks better already. Now you can see the flowers etched in to the pot. This one will stay inside and I'm planning to repot one of my "babies" that has gotten far too big for the current pot it's nestled in to.

What's on my mind .... Ukraine, hearings, grieving parents and rising costs for everything. Many things to worry about.

Words to live by .... see the quote I've posted above .....

Having an amazing week!

~ Chy

Stormy Nights.

We've had a number of stormy nights in a row. Daytime is beautiful with pure blue skies, no clouds, warm air but not too hot. And then later in the afternoon, the black clouds roll in and everything changes. The wind picks up, the trees bend and wave, we quickly put the covers on the deck furniture and move the potted plants in case hail falls from the sky. The lightening begins, the thunder rolls across the prairies and the rain falls in sheets, straight down but sometimes sideways. It clears after a few hours and then we sleep. Last night, we had to turn a few lights on, even though in the photo above it looks quite light out. My favorite room. A great place to be in a storm. Our "calm" room, we call it!

Today, we're graced with blue skies again. I haven't checked yet but will assume a storm will brew later and we'll go thru the motions of covering up and moving things around. Hoping August has rain but NO storms. I hate thunder and lightening. Love rain but nothing else that makes it scary.

Lounging in bed for now but getting up soon to do a bit of gardening, then showering, heading in to town for a meeting, then we'll head to our centre to pick up banners from the festival to drop off this week at various vendors and sponsors. Home to chill and get ready for our week. We went to "Hamilton" just over a week ago and dh discovered it on Disney Plus last night, so we were up late to watch it. Probably not a late night in our little cottage. Rest before all the busy!

Wishing you a beautiful, sun filled day.
Hopefully without big, scary storms!

~ Chy