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Garden Journal Excerpts

My garden is in constant revision, as you may notice my web page is, also.
This will be a way to show some of the updates and revisions I make to the garden throughout the years from my garden journal entries. I have several books of written garden journals. In June of 2012 I began to keep sporadic notes of my time in the garden on my computer.

Monthly Excerpts from the Garden Journal of 2020

SYNOPSIS of the year

1. RECAP of the pond and the fish:
August 24, 2019 - 6 small fish
- Creatures great and small pet store and got 6 fish. 2 browny gold ones, 1 light gold (white), 2 sarasa looking ones (orange spots on white, 1 gold with white bottom. 6 fish for $19.00
August 31, 2019 - 4 small shubunkins, fish food - Pets West at Broadmead, got 4 little shubunkins, calico shubunkins because of the colors; and some smaller pellets of fish food. Not sure how much the fish cost as I did not get an itemized bill. Total $25.48.
So total of fish at the end of August 2019 = 10.
This was after I put too much chlorinated water in the pond, earlier in the year, and killed some plants and all the fish, I thought. There were hoards of little black ones in there, as well as the other gold fish and sarossas and shubunkins that were quite big.
Now in August 26, 2020.
I have seen at least 6 fish - 2 sarossas, 2 gold fish, 1 white fish and 1 shubunkin. And Glory BE! today I saw one big BLACK one that seems to be turning a very nice blue color, so it might be a gorgeous shubunkin. Since then I have seen multiple smaller black ones, and 1 tiny shubunkin and 1 tiny gold fish.
In the water tubs: June 14, 2020 - Cannor:
Gold Fish - Comets 2 - 3" - Four (4) for $12.00
These fish survive after our return from Manitoba in August - 2 in each tub.
There has been constant renovation to the waterfall, the edging plants, and the surrounding moss/Japanese garden room. This will continue on into 2021, as I have a spillway on order from ebay, and plans and musings on re-creating the waterfall I hope to get the sides of the waterfall made into another little rock and alpine garden area.

2. On January 10, the Davey Tree guys were here and did a lot of tree pruning. The Davey Tree guys (Graham and another guy) were here to do the work on the English oak tree, the California lilac, the fig, and apple trees. They took a whole big branch off the oak and all the dead little branches. The apple tree was lightly pruned and the fig heavily pruned. The California lilac was brought down in height and cleaned up on my side. Graham suggested that I keep it pruned on the pees side as I have been doing. He seemed to think it looked good that way. (See January 10 for more info) I have taken the firethorn down to about 7 feet. There are 3 sumacs left standing and they are about 8 feet tall, and need to come out. There is a sumac closer to the old sidewalk that I will leave standing. The others are too close to the Douglas Fir tree that is about 10 feet tall now.

3. I am in the process of renovating the little rockeries in the back and front garden. I am doing this with a view to move the saxifragias and tufa rocks into the little rockery in the front garden. The saxifragias are growing and spreading like crazy in the white pots on the deck.

4. In this year of the corona virus, I have had less damage to my garden since March when we were to practise social distancing, wear masks and wash our hands.

5. I have cancelled my account with Godaddy and have moved it to the care of Trevor and Luke of Computers on Wheels. I have to redo all the old albums made with the old Adobe Photoshop in about 2005 - 2006 - 2007. I have 5 of the 33 albums remade as of January 1, 2021. I am enjoying updating the albums. Needless to say, this takes more time than I originally thought it would. I am adding more pages to the gardening ones I have recreated. Its fun and time consuming.


The garden in 2020


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GARDEN JOURNAL - 2020
January 2020

January 2, 2020
was a rainy coolish day. We got banking chores done, and bought 2 new cordless telephones at London Drugs. Did a facebook upload. Did a blog post yesterday. Crab bisque for new years eve day with a fish entre. So, maybe all the cooking and eating is mostly finished now. I only seem to have one hummingbird now.

January 5, 2020
6 degrees and a bit breezy. We have Keith from Davey Trees coming over between 9 and 10 on Monday the 6th to look at the Japanese cedar. It is leaning slightly towards the Syrians place. We might need to have it taken down. I also want to get a quote for pruning the apple and fig trees and taking out the old California lilac at the front. Also have a look at taking down the dead lower branches of the English Oak. Yesterday I got my web page working again. I spent the afternoon at it. I deleted all the files that had anything to do with Coppermine on them, from my hosting account on the right side of the panel. I even editted one of them. The wretched coppermine logo still shows on my browser for every page like a favicon. Then I restored the files from the Dec 12 or whatever backup it was. Now the page seems to work again. I have to re-upload all the 42 or 43 pages that have the music and the ssl badge on them. I am so happy I do not have to take down my page and reupload it somewhere else. But I am still thinking of moving it all to Canada some day. I was ever so happy to see my finished albums all back up and running. I must go over everything and see that it works. I find that Chrome puts the coppermine favicon on the pages, but FIREFOX keeps my favicon on there. I am getting the bedding all washed.

January 6, 2020
Keith from Davey Tree was here to give me an estimate of the cost of doing the work. The Cryptomeria - Japanese cedar can stay. He says it is going to be there for a long time. These trees grow in weird and wonderful ways. So it STAYS. On going to look at this tree, I see the jasmine has been ripped off its stake on to the garage. It has to be tied up Keith said. Davey tree does not do that, so I need a gardener. The clean up of the English oak is going to cost $170. the California lilac is to be trimmed and shaped and will cost $90, the pruning of the apple tree and the fig tree will cost $150. Total of $410 plus tax. I do the rest of the stuff myself... take out sumacs, prune roses, clip back the pin oak, keep cutting the Saanich tree next to the plum tree back. They are going to take off the lower branches of the Oak tree... one really big one and clean up the rest, to make the canopy higher. The california lilac will be trimmed back and shaped.. it will grow again. So in planning my rock garden for the saxifragias I need to renovate that front area behind the little rockery at the front.. move the montebrias probably out to the front rectangle on the Pees side, for now. The solemons seal can go with them, or to the back woodland area actually. This area under the Japanese cedar is growing bluebells and I am trying to smother them. The butterfly bush needs to be cut back, the tub garden removed, the wood pieces taken into the garage, the milkweed seeds are going to be planted in the cutting garden, the roses pruned, and the hedges trimmed. The moss garden needs to be cleaned up. etc. It is about 6 degrees and raining today.

January 10, 2020
froze overnight and now its raining heavily. Yesterday it was only about 4 degrees. The Davey Tree guys (Graham and another guy) were here to do the work on the oak tree, the california lilac, the fig, and apple tree. They took off a whole big branch off the oak and all the dead little branches. My markers for the perennials are all gone. The new guy did quite a lot of raking around the pond and in the cutting garden. oh well... the perennials are not really up yet so anything that is going go grow will come up and be remarked and tagged if possible. The apple tree was lightly pruned and the fig heavily pruned. The california lilac was brought down in height and cleaned up on my side. Graham suggested that I keep it pruned on the pees side as I have been doing. He seemed to think it looked good that way. okey dokey. There will be pictures when it stops raining. I will have to put back the stakes and stuff I took off the cutting garden and redo the waterfall. The jasmine has to be tied up again. The pin oak and sumacs need to be taken out and of course any blackberries that have started up taken out too. All in good time.
On the web page I have downloaded the backups from December 12th in a zip file and learned how to unzip them in Windows 10 file explorer.. and extract. and I restored the December 19th backups. Now I seem to have the index page working as it should be, and the about page, one of the changes page worked too, but not sure which one. The blog page has the music working as it used to work before the migration. I am working on the 2019 Journal notes, on the orchid photos for a blog post, and still working on the April album. Lots to do.

January 11, 2020
It froze over night. Cooler day to about 6 degrees. Some rain and mostly cloudy. There are snowdrops open in the boulevard garden. Vaccumed a bit, got a few more pages fixed on the web page stuff. There are 10 of the 43 or 44 fixed. Did up a few more photos for the coming blog post. Shopped at Russel books and gave them all the stars and good comments on my phone. The world has been in a turmoil over the Idiot Trump and Iran, and a plane shot down accidentally by Iran with Iranian Canadians on board, while trying to retaliate against Trump's having a great General Solieman assinated. All horrible. And then the idiot Megan Merkle (Harry's wife) and Harry decided to drop a bombshell on the Queen and the rest of the Royals. They seem to want to distance themselves from the Royals and make their own way in the world. And yet they still get all kinds of money from the Queen. Merkle is somewhere back on the Island with the baby Archie. What a freakin mess. Didn't get any gardening done. Too cold and wet for little old me.

January 13, 2020
Yesterday it was about 6 degrees and about 7:00 pm began to snow, so it got colder. We got about 2 inches of snow, but not much of the big winds that were predicted. They did get them other areas as ferries were cancelled. I made a roast beef and have 2 big jars of beef/vegetable stock for the beef barley soup. I reloaded several more of the pages on my website. I have about 18 of the 44 pages to reload. I brought the hummingbird feeder in overnight and put it out again this morning. Now at 10:30 a.m. it is snowing lightly. There have been 2 hummers at the feeder.

January 14, 2020
It has been snowning most of the day. We seem to have about 6 inches piled up. The water reserve is probably up to 100 percent after all the rain we have had in the last few weeks. We have had 2 days of freezing weather and will probably have a couple more. And back to above temperatures and more rain. I put the humming bird feeder out at about 10:00 today. The birds have been around to feed. I finished reloading the pages to my website and all the music works with the links or works off the playlist page. I have the 19 photos tweaked for my blog post about the orchids. Pictures aren't very good. Have much gardening news letters to catch up on. I made clam chowder for lunch and have 1 pkg frozen. Pat got a lot of good things done on his on line stuff. I did up a 5 star review for Davey Tree. have not seen their bill yet.

January 15, 2020
Was about -5 when I got up this morning. About 12 - 18 inches of snow on the water table. Capiccino as Pat has stayed in this morning. I scooped off the water table with the dust pan and put out the humming bird feeder. About mid afternoon there was a hummer at the feeder. Pat shovelled off most of the driveway. At about 7:00 the temperature has risen to 1 degree above. We are to have warmer temperatures now and for the next few days. The snow should be gone in no time. Last night it was very bright out with all the white snow. The full moon was on the 10th, so just the brightness from the city lights and snow is all it took to make it so bright.
I have all the pages working on my web site now. Updating each page is a pain, but can be done. Looking back at all the stuff I have done, I do NOT want to lose this on line page. Finally got the blog post about the orchids in 2019 done. And began work on the JE2019 page. Looking back at the pictures for '19, I can see why there was not a lot done on my page, as well as all the stress of new servers, new windows, new this and that (not to mention the the unmentionable this and thats), the stress of the Avatar trip, the new renos in the garden, plant lists to complete, new pump,teddy bears lists and etc. well... it should all be on the JE 2019, and maybe I will have calmed down about it by the time I get that page finished.

January 16, 2020
There were big winds last nite. It did freeze last nite. Now at 11:30 it is sunny and 5 degrees. A lot of the snow is gone.

January 17, 2020
Froze again last nite. And it only got up to about 4 degrees today. Some sun and cloud. There is still snow and ice around. Pat went to the store and got a 5 lb. bag of apples at .79 cents a lb. He peeled and cut them with his marvelous machine. I did up 2 jars of apple sauce. The most time was spent driving to the store and microwaving them. Good stuff. The under construction 2019 Garden page that I did up yesterday now works. We have been hearing this loud humming at night, since the snow fall. It is a mystery where it is coming from. We wonder if it might be that hydro pole out in front of our place.

January 20, 2020
We have had warmer temps and no more freezing, some rain until all the snow is gone. Yesterday we were on the VCCC run and went to London Drugs after leaving the silly drive. I went out to the pond to check the damage. My flat blue piece of slate is missing, of course and the other flat one from the top of the waterfall. There were about 6 cigarette butts in the pond and around the edges. I put them in the garbage. Did not reset any rocks, no point in doing that until I can get the stuff out of the pond. Its full now, of course. and too cold to try going in up my ears. At the front there were more butts around the little rockery that I threw back on the Pees driveway and on the cars. What a sick bunch of sad no life miserable people. I got the synopsis pictures done up for the 2019 JE page. Its slowly coming along. Steak for Pat's supper. I guess it was good. Its 10 degrees at 11:00 am as I type this. Newfoundland, St. Johns has been in a huge snow storm, with high winds and 3 - 4 feet of snow. People have snow covering their doors and have to dig out. Incredible! Yesterday the army was sent in to help them. There is said to be about 600 military people, moving snow and helping people get to hospitals, etc. After our dump of snow, the mailmen/women were working on Sunday to make up for no mail delivery.

January 22, 2020
Were to Zambie for lunch with the JAM team, yesterday. Today is another warmish 9 degree day with clouds and more rain. Loaded the humming bird feeder.

January 25, 2020
Rainy and warmish - 9 degrees yesterday. Today is the same. I spent the day researching a security camera for on the deck over looking the water garden. I think I will get Trevor's advice on setting it up and what one to get. If, he does this kind of stuff. If not, then I would contact the Commissionaires and see what they might advise. They can monitor it from the app if they care to, this summer when we go east again; or set up their own, perhaps. I should get some brighter solar lights for the pond, too. There is cigarette butts and garbage in the pond. The back light came on again at about 2:00 am. Pat found some pictures of us from 1973 in his End of the Road book. He scanned them in and sent me the scan. We look really good, if I must say so myself.

January 26, 2020
Was up to 11 degrees today, some sun. Skimmed the cigarette butts out of the pond. picked a few of the branches off the cutting garden. Tied up the jasmine back to its stick by the garage. It needs more string on it to secure it. Cut down some of the perennials in the fig tree bed. Went for a drive in the Benz. Vaccumed a bit. Did more steps and have got up to 42 move minutes and 17 heart points.. 4081 steps. Used up 969 calories. and 2.14 km. so far. We have had more rain and the resevoir is 100% full Pat tells me.

January 27, 2020
Was about 9 degrees today and overcast until 4:00 when it started to rain. I got the laundry done. Put $30 in the Mary account. Went out to the garden at about 2:00 and was back in about 4:00. Clipped back the perennials in most of the back garden. Pruned the two David Austin English roses. Have not done the Simplicity rose yet. I might prune that one very lightly. Cigarette butts in the flower bed just next to the cedar hedge. The piggy pees, of course. Threw the butts back on their driveway. The green bin is full but not packed. Tomorrow is pick up day. Having sweet and sour pork riblets over rice, with burnt brussel sprouts and stuffed mushroom caps for supper. The water in the pond is very clear. The under water plants have recovered nicely. Pulled out the little sumacs that were growing in the woodland path. I need to cut down the 4 big trees with the saw, and cut them up or use them for lining the path. The soil in the path is very good stuff from all the leaves etc. put on it. I might shovel this soil out and use it in the flower beds, while forming new soil with the leaves each year. I am planning to put some of the R.M. saxifragias in pots to take to the VIRAGS show and sale in the end of April. They should get rooted if I do them now. Will move the little dianthus into a bigger pot as it has roots coming out the bottom. Have 2 delesporeum (ice plant) in small pots for the Show & Sale.

January 31, 2020
Downloaded the Jan pictures.. must do a blog post of the snow. While downloading I found this silly editor on Windows 10 and played all morning. After lunch went out and put in the plastic collars for the soulmate milkweed seeds. There are 2 or more in some of the collars. Covered the seed with a bit of potting soil. The seeds were out on the deck during the snow and freeze. We have had rain and more rain since then. I hope the seeds can germinate now. It started raining lightly just as I finished up the planting of the seeds. Was only out for about an hour. The stupid Republican Senators voted to NOT have witnesses. I thought it was up to the Judge to decide whether to call witnesses. The UK has officially left the EU today. The world has gone mad.

February 2020

February 1, 2020
Was 8 - 9 degrees with sunshine and breezy today. Was out for about an hour and a half. Prepared 14 four inch pots for saxifragia and maybe primulas. Transfered the little rock dianthus to a bigger pot. I put a double layer of newspaper in the bottom, next a thin layer of dry clay, then a layer of pea gravel and then filled the pots to about half full with potting soil. I have 2 smaller pots of delesporeum (not sure which ones). Cleaned up the perennials on the deck. Something I read said to drill holes in the tufa rock with a 3/8 to an inch wood drill bit. Pat doesn't seem too excited about doing this for me. It poured rain all last night. The rivers in Vancouver area are on flood watch. Have not gone out to see the Colquitz, but I do not see the trail flooding or the road. We are to have 2 more days of sunshine and then more rain and a colder day. Scrubbed up the carpet spots with a damp cloth. It looks a bit better.

February 3, 2020
Finished tweaking page 12 of the April album (15 photos per page) and have 12 more pages to go. Made the lemon pudding today. Messy business. There was a medium sized woodpecker on the oak tree this morning. Temps only got to 5 degrees. Last month, YVR saw 256.6 mm of precipitation, with 226 mm of rain over 26 days, and 34.6 mm of snow over four days — with a mix of both on some days. Only Jan. 9 had no precipitation whatsoever. 256 mm is equal to 10.08 inches. I should be able to propogate the polygala from cuttings.

February 4, 2020
Finished page 12 of the April album and got a good start on Page 13. Did up the list of plants for the Deck garden room amd finished that room. Put the 2019 purchases into the JE 2019 page.. needs a bit of coding to it yet to make it more readable. This morning there was a bit of snow and ice on the water table. As the snow continued to fall it was more like rain, as it was 3 degrees out. I was to the lab and shopped a bit. Pat picked me up at 11:15 and home to tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Got a bit of a chill while out to the deck in the rain to get the names of the plants. Am up to October on the JE2019 page.

February 7, 2020
Been getting the house vacuumed in the last few days. Did some work on the JE2019 and the April Album. It has been raining and cooler. Was to the Penninsula Streams meeting at Pearkes Area. Several groups giving reports. The piece of the Colquitz near the park was done by Saanich and Pennisula streams guys.. don't know if they had any volunteers. I have pictures from the last time I was to see it.. early Autumn... must check that and do a blog post and put a link in here maybe.

February 8, 2020
Bright and sunny day, only 10 degrees, though. Cleaned up the bottom 2 trays of the light garden. Took me 2 hours. Cleaned up and repotted the minature African Violets, and the one pink big A.violet. and the 2 orchids that are on those trays. The hai marie and the other one. Dumped an aluminum pan full of debrie on the moss garden just over the railing of the deck.

February 9, 2020
sunny, froze last night and was only 7 degrees today. The yellow crocuses are up, and some of the light blue ones. The cyclamens are in bloom and the primulas have buds. The magnolia is getting fatter buds. The wall flower has buds. The winter jasmine is in bloom, but it is a pathetic little thing. Fed and watered the house plants. Pictures of the outside blossoms. Vacummed the hallway, the bathroom, the dining room and the living room. It gave me 68 move minutes and 60 heart points and said I was at it for 1 hour and 9 minutes. About 5700 steps and .6 of a km. Have to vacume my room yet.

February 10, 2020
Vacuumed and dusted my room, finished the laundry, made the jello salad. The green bean and bacon soup was very good for lunch. All this heavy duty activity gave me 64 move minutes and 60 heart points, 5846 steps - .31 km and 1007 calories. It is overcast and 9 degrees.

February 16, 2020
Pat has friends visiting from Riverhurst for the last week or so. I seem unable to get anything done in the garden. Got the house vacumed, though. It has been raining off and on, too. Plus it is a bit cooler. The waterfall needs to be fixed, and the perennials cut back, the sumacs cut down, one rose to prune yet and blue bells dug out. I don't seem to have the energy to do this gardening anymore. The crocuses in the boulevard garden are coming up... mostly yellow ones so far. Daffodils have buds. There was ice on the water table this morning and it is only up to 6 degrees and over cast. Was out to take a few photos.

February 21, 2020
Watered house plants. Was to Borden Mercantile and got a 50 lb. bag of #3 grit for $7.64. Had a look at the rocks at the Gravel Mart on Pleasant street. They have screenings and would sell me a bag to fill if wanted. Screenings are smaller and have a lot of 'dust' with them. They had some slate rocks... no prices posted. The crocus field is looking good with all the colors showing now. (pictures) I should get some snowdrops into the mix.



February 23, 2020
6 degrees and gusting winds with bits of rain. Yesterday was warmer and sunny, but I still did no gardening. Tweaked photos from the birthday party for John and loaded them to the smith clan where Cindy commented on them and told of John being on the mend and she is moving Isabelle into her new home where John will join her once he is finished his physio and rehab. The cattleya Intermedia (Oriata x Aquinii) has 2 blossoms opening. It is too tall for the light garden so is sitting on the deep freeze where it can be seen. Last night I went to shut down the lights and saw hoards of little black bugs pouring out of one of the phalenopsises. I got out the one shot wasp spray and did a good job on these wretched little bugs. Hope the orchids survive the treatment. I see no bugs this morning. God knows where they came from, but they have been around for a couple of years, but never in hoards like last night. Found a site for tufa rocks in Kelowna. We are going to be in the area in the Autumn for the LTV meet up, and can surely go there.

February 26, 2020
Was sunny and 11 degrees. Was out from 1 to 4. Got some of the front perennials cleaned up, clipped the heathers and the French lavender, pruned the simplicity rose, moved the sumac roots into the bin. Fixed the waterfall. Dug out 8 little rock plants and potted them up. Used sand, potting soil and #3 chicken grit. 1 purple primula it has tiny buds, 1 umbellica? spelling, from the west coast planter at the front, 1 mountain avens from the front, 2 of the dianthus thing from the front that lives on rocks,1 red mossy saxifragia from back rockery, 1 saxifragia paniculata, 1 saxifragia hybrida R.M.

February 27, 2020
Was a lovely day out, to 12 degrees. I was up in the middle of the night looking at some file stuff, so I got nothing done this morning. In the afternoon I decided to finish cleaning up the light garden as the ants were still noticeable. It took me from about 1 to 4 to get them watered and the trays cleaned. I threw out the big cactus.. it had no ants, the little pot that the air plant was sitting on was full of ants and got pitched over the deck railing. The dendrobium spectable (never bloomed) was ugly and thrown out, paph, and the very nice lady slipper (phal. sogo vivien) seemed to be dying, so threw it out. I put the tall one that was beside the freezer back on the top tray. It and the yellow phal. are showing blooms. The ground orchid (Coelogyne Cristata) has three buds. The first bloom on it for me. The hai marie one with the colored leaves has 4 stems of blossoms.

March, 2020

March 1, 2020
It has been a leap year, so we had a Feb. 29th day. Today it was overcast and 9 degrees. In the morning I made beef barley soup and have 3 pkgs to freeze. Was out in the afternoon from 1:00 to 3:30. Tried out my little rake on the moss garden. It worked very well. So, did a bit of clean up on the stepping stones and the stone path. Dug blue bells out of the front little rockery. Have potted up 2 cyclamens, 2 globalarias (and put some into the little rockery at the back, and potted up 2 pink primulas, for the VIRAGS sale. day before yesterday I treated the orchids to Ant OUT. There were hoards of ants at the drops and taking it back into the pixie orchid pot. When I turned the lights off they all disappeared. This morning there were a few skinny scraggly ones eating. So, I hope this has got them all. Must keep an eye on them, of course. Yesterday I was to the Orchid show and sale, but could not find anything I wanted. I am thinking of downsizing, anyway. Today I felt that I can keep gardening with maybe some help from a gardener. It went fairly well out there today. There are lots of weeds but it does not take long to get rid of them. The blue bells are growing in the fawn lilies of course, but there does not seem to be as many as last year. I will get after them again this year.

March 2, 2020
coolish, 8 degrees and raining off and on. Did laundry, made cole slaw, sorted out some emails, and got caught up on reading gardening news letters, etc. Found recipes for using dandilions, and a couple of other weeds. Copied some of it out for the recipes.
March 4, 2020
Was up to 11 degrees and sunny, but I still felt a bit chilled. Out from 2 to 4. Cut back the fire thorn, the buddleia, a bit of the mock orange. The bin is full and there are branches to be cut up and add to next bin day. Spent some time figuring out how to make that Office program get rid of the headers and footers. It is a bit better. Entered the purchases of the chicken grit, the new blue lupine and a very red ranuncalus. I shall put them in the cutting garden. Hope they survive. There is a big fuss about the coronavirus. The stock market is reacting badly one day and the next day it is great. I wonder if the smart people are buying up the good stuff at the lower prices. Yesterday I was to the lab for Dr. W. and got groceries.

March 6, 2020
Did the recycle stuff today. Got 3 more plants from Country Grocer, listed in the purchases page. A blue pin cushion flower, another blue lupine, another magenta ranucalus. All for the cutting garden, I think. Downloaded the last backups for my page and extracted the zip. Copied my lab reports for Dr. W. Letter from Dr. T. yesterday. She is quitting her practise due to health issues. :( Seems she has looked after me for the last 16 years! So sad. It was sunny out today, and about 10 degrees but did not get out. Finished the JE2019 and uploaded it. Got it to work. instructions in the migration file folder and in WEB PAGE STUFF in the web page folder.

March 7, 2020
Got up to 11 degrees for about 3 hours when the sun was out. But there was still a chill in the air. Now at 3:00 it is cloudy and back to 7 degrees. Skimmed off the pond. Cleaned up some of the leaves on the iris on the cutting garden, into the bin on the garden. Must empty it when the green bin is taken away. Cleaned off some of the debris off the back little rockery. I see where I put some globalaria in that little rockery. Hope it catches hold. Had the new plants outside till it cooled off. Brought in 3 clay pots for Paul of the VIRAGS who needs 60 terra cotta pots to carry on saving the Rex Murfitt saxifragias. A Note from the President:
Paul is looking for roughly 60 terra cotta pots as it is now time to pot on Rex’s 2 year old saxifrages. Please have a look around your potting sheds for old pots that are no longer in use and donate them to the cause of saving Rex’s collection. Paul has about 100 different species and cultivars that need to move up in pot size. Four to six inch diameter terra cotta pots will be gratefully accepted!
Last nite I read a bit about our older Android devices needing to be updated to keep us safe from hackers. I proceeded to do 3 of these patches or updates as they are calling them. So, today, I just received a notice for another update. My apps have gone from 62 to 59. That can't be a bad thing. I have so many of them that I don't use. can't stop looking at the JE2019 page. :) Now I must get to work on finishing the April album and learn how to upload it OR get a new hosting service in Canada.

March 9, 2020
Went to the ... Inn for dinner with Art and Marlene last nite. Was ok. Good visit. It froze last nite and there is still ice on the water table at 5:00 o'clock. Cleaned and watered the orchids. There are still some ants in the pots, but I think I am winning. I have water in the trays so they should not be able to spread to the pots that don't have ants in them. I have 23 orchids left and will probably reduce that amount more over the years. Replaced one of the African violets in the fancy pots and put the green plastic outside. I might put some kind of alpline in it to take to the show. Watered the cactuses too. The white one seems to be almost finished blooming and the red one has lots to buds. Was on my feet for the afternoon, again. Cleaned the counters with bleach. Watered the new Country Grocer plants. It got up to 9 degrees this afternoon. We changed time on the clocks yesterday. Spring ahead. blah. Spent some time in the morning trying to get on to Pam's linked in ... I think she has a new one as well as the old one. Messaged her on her old account.

March 10, 2020
Got up to 10 degrees today. Had the Country Grocer plants out for a while. Did a blog post.. have more to do. Updated Win 10 and got back on.

March 11, 2020
Was 12 degrees. Was out in the garden from 1:30 to 5:30. Got the firethorn branches cut up and put into the bin. Then started digging out blue bells in the woodland. Dug them out from the neighbors falling down fence to where the old sidewalk meets the woodland path. Liberated some rocks from along the woodland path, to add to the rock collection. I believe I am winning the battle of the blue bells! The fawn lilies really like the woodsy soil, especially where there is rotting wood. Have a few more feet of digging out blue bells to do yet. I have to clean up the moss garden... move a primula from under the epimedium to near the other primulas. There are a couple of fawn lilies with big leaves, like a small sized tulip. Lots of just little leaves, so I should have more big ones in a couple of years, I think. I have 2 blue hepaticas but cannot find my pink one. Am thinking of moving the silver leaved plant that is in a pot on the deck into the dry stream that I am letting the moss grow over. Have to move the fern that is by the house next to the new rhodo where it does not get any rain, move it to the moss garden somewhere near the other one (the one that grows on rocks in winter.) Maybe put the western bleeding heart into the back woodland area by the falling down fence, behind the japanese anemone that I see is showing new shoots. All the leaves that I put on the woodland path seem to be flattened out. They are no longer crunchy. The ones at the back of the woodland by the fence are still whole and in layers of dampness; except no dampness under the Japanese cedar. The back rhodo should be developing some good woodsy soil to hold in the moisture.

March 15, 2020
Got a blog post done a couple of days ago. We have had a day and 2 nights of high winds, with freezing over night and sun during the day but still coolish - 5 - 7 degrees. Got my photoshop to go to pixels instead of inches for the canvas size. Lots of shopping done. We have only one case of the COVID-19 corona virus on the island.

March 18, 2020
Watered the house plants this morning. Was out from 2:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon. Skimmed off the pond after the big wind storm we have had. Picked up sticks around the garden from the storm. Dug out more blue bells in the woodland. Am finished up to the tub. Had a look at old antique car photos... not going to bother sending to Peter F. He probably has anything I ever photo-ed, and in much better resolution, etc.

March 19, 2020
Was up to 11 today with sun. I mucked about with getting my files sorted out, in gardening and in the travel stuff. did a blog post. I filled the humming bird feeder yesterday, but still do not see any birds. Must be sitting on their nest (eggs).

March 23, 2020
source of milkweed seeds... some that actually might grow: milkweed seed Also Joe Pye Weed is good for monarchs and all butterflies as a late season blooming plant.
Did not go out yesterday, was doing cooking, some laundry and other house stuff. This morning I am making chicken soup and doing all the bedding laundry. Wiped down the counter tops in the bathrooms. It rained a bit but the sun is out now with some cloud.

March 28, 2020
Was 14 degrees today but raining lightly. We have had some cooler days without rain, but I did not feel like going out to the garden. There is a dead fish floating on the pond that I must get out and skim off. I did repairs to the links on the Gardening page, checked the Progress page and see that the changes I made have not been loaded. So, I went to the file uploader, clicked the blue html thing on the right side and deleted the gardening page and the progress page. Then clicked off the file uploader and clicked it on again. Clicked the blue public html on the right and the public html on the left. Then upoaded the new gardening page and the new progress page. They both worked immediately! So, I feel I actually accomplished something today. Made a good fish and eggy potatoes for supper. It all tasted good to me. I thought I was winning the ant war, but yesterday I saw about a dozen of them running around on the second shelf. Moved the plastic pot top to the second shelf with more ant out. Added more ant out to where they were running. Some of them seemed to be taking it back to where ever the nest is. Today I saw about 4 or 5 of them. And there is one more dead one in the white plastic thing. So, I hope they get wiped out now. Was up from 9:00 pm to 11:00 trying to wash the ants out of the orchid they had infested. The top shelf of orchids seems to be cleaned up. I threw out 2 more cause I just could not wash all the ants out. Have kind of quarantined a couple more on the bottom shelf. The African Violets look horrible. I think it is time I started to seriously downsizing these plants.

March 29, 2020
Saw 2 ants, each on a different plant on a different shelf. OYY. It got to be about 12 degrees this afternoon. I was out from about 1:30 to 3:30. Mowed the grass. Did not quite finish the back when the mower and I ran out of energy. The mower is missing its catcher tray so the clippings do not go into the bag very well. When I get most of the leaves, etc cleaned up I should let the clippings lie and become top dressing. I skimmed the pond, taking out the dead very light colored fish. It seemed to have grown quite a bit since last Autumn when I got them. Might have been an inch, inch and a half long. I began cutting down the sumacs. Have one of the 4 taken down, and a big branch that was leaning on the falling down fence in that corner. There are still more branches in the douglas fir. This fir tree has grown quite a lot. Did the sheets and pillow cases and the towels this morning. Also while trying to find out how to cut a tufa rock I found this great web site with links on his page to his excellent photography and interesting travel albums on SmugMug. He does tours to see these rock plants in the wild and has been all over the world. Harry Jans I could spend hours, days.. on that site. He drills holes in his tufa rocks with a 25mm (1") fancy drill.

April 2020

April 4, 2020
Was a coolish, cloud and some sun day. Made up 6 pkgs of split pea with ham soup and a cupful for supper. Is good. Have been cooking, shopping, cleaning lately. Pat has started to downsize the damp boxes from under the stairs. He has finished the 'old desk box' with interesting stuff in it, but has managed to throw it out. There is a new orchid with 2 buds.

April 6, 2020
Lovely day out. Got to 15 degrees with a light breeze. Made a batch and a half of baked beans and bacon. Made potatoe soup for lunch. Then was out from about 2 to 4:30. Cut up the sumac branches. Then dug out more blue bells and weeds in the woodland. I need to clean up the Iris bed, and get all the species tulips out of there, and clip back the germander. I have some primulas that I can move back there, along the edge of the old sidewalk. At the front I took down an old ratty heather and have more old plants to dig out and rejuvenate the montebretias. I am thinking of building this area up into a little crevice garden and plant the saxifragias in there... depending on how ambitious I am. I would need help to build it, as moving rocks and dirt is a bit too much for me, now. I have 2 lava rocks from Clear water area that might work as tufa rocks. The front little rockery is full of violets. They look nice but really they do tend to take over the garden. Lots of dandilions to get out. The thyme circle needs some attention. I should thin out the alliums, and see if I can get them to do a better show, instead of all of them dieing. The saxifragias are out growing their space in the pots and the rocks are getting way too mossy, so I have to get them cleaned up. I need to dig out a clump of snow drops from next to the dry stream in the Jap/moss garden. Then I will have a place to plant the lovely silver leafed Brunnerea "Jack Frost".

April 7, 2020
Was about 14 today. Watered inside house plants. There are still a few ants crawling along the baseboard next to the livingroom wall. I gave them some Ant out that they did not want. Then I shot them with the one shot wasp killer. They went crazy. Then I hit the area with the Lysol disinfectant stuff. I killed a few manually. Was out in the garden from 2:30 to 4:30. dug a half of the little pail of compost out of the bin. Cleaned up around the Trilliums... all five of them are growing. The little old one has one blossom, so far and will probably have 2 or 3. Put the compost around the trilliums. Dug out more violets and dandilions and weeds from the Magnolia bed. Got up to the Magnolia tree trunk done. Clipped some of the perennials out of the rectangle on the west side of the Boulevard garden. cut out some bamboo sprouts. So, both of these garden rooms need more work. Moved a few rocks around on the waterfall to get a better flow.

April 9, 2020
Nice, sunny day. Made chicken soup in the am and did bedding and towels. Got Meds and then spent about an hour in the garden cleaning up the alliums in the front garden and straightening the little rockery wall, and digging out some of the campanulas that are taking over that little rockery. It is beginning to look like I might have room for an addition to the little rockery, or an expansion of it, towards the cedar hedge, where I took out the ugly old heather. I am wondering if the 4 brown square pots might fit there... but am thinking I would prefer real rocks. The other rockery plants seem to like the clay base with some drainage over it, and sand. . . . like the back little rockery is made. I think that may work for the spare saxifragias and any thing else I might need space for. I can remove more montebretias, etc.. as I need more rockery space. I really like my few gold colored rocks on the little wall.. so perhaps I can get some of them from a rock landscape place, and some gravel/grit for drainage, along with a nice grit/compost/sand mix to fill in between the rocks.

April 13, 2020
Was out gardening from 1:00 to 4:30. Transplanted a lupine in the fig bed and one in the cutting garden. Also put the fancy anemones in the cutting garden. And the pin cushion flower in the cutting garden. Transplanted the Brunnera macrophilla Jack Frost beside the dry stream, after digging out a clump of snowdrops and putting some in the woodland and some in the cutting garden, under the lilac. Transplanted the Western Bleeding Heart next to the mock orange and the tub garden. Filled the pond. I don't see any fish floating on the top. Not sure if there are any in there as I have not seen any except the dead one a while ago. We have had a couple of weeks of warmish weather and no rain. The garden is going to need watering soon, as there is no rain forecast for the next week. Dug out the old heather roots at the front and then dug out blue bells along the cedar hedge (at the front). I have weeded up to that little false bamboo. The kinnickwick is in bloom and looks really nice as a carpet under the California lilac. The magnolia is in full bloom. The hyacinths everywhere are perfuming the garden. I tried to crush a terra cotta pot to be used for drainage in the front little rockery. I am going to move the montebrtias to the edge of the little boxwood hedge and dig out the solomons seal and put it in the woodland. This is to expand the little rockery. I must get rid of the invasive campanula that has really taken off in the last couple of years. I hope to move the saxifragias and the tufa rocks into this area. The deck looks junky with all the pots and dirt bags etc on it. The milkweed/monarch project did not go well. On the other hand, the trilliums are growing nicely. Lots of weeding and cleaning to do before I take on another rockery project. I find I have about 8 or 9 more terra cotta pots for Paul Spriggs. I might try to contact him and let him know he can come get them if he wants them.

April 14, 2020
Warm day with a cool breeze. Was out from 1:10 to 4:10. washed the deck and patio. Moved the pots around and sorted out what I will keep for the extension of the new little rockery at the front. Took a long time to clean the patio... and it is only sort of cleaned up. I have left lots of moss on it. Then watered around the back, some in the woodland area and a bit on the cutting garden. The soil is pretty dry and we are not to get rain for a few more days yet. Shot some of this 'green' weed killer that I have onto the campanulas that are taking over the golden rocks. They might need a few more treatments to get them all. The brown bunny was in the front garden. It didn't seem too interested in eating anything, but a weed or two from the stone path. There has been a bumble bee or two around the garden.

April 16, 2020
16 degrees. sunny, nice day. Cleaned up the light garden and discarded a couple more scraggly orchids. Decided to keep the African violets for now. To Langford for the LB run in the afternoon. There are no fish on top of the water.

April 17, 2020
Nice day. Made duck soup in the a.m. Pat got the water system working on the LTV. I was out in the front garden from 2 to 5. Am renovating the east side of the front little rockery, including the area where I took out the old ugly heather. Am about half way finished weeding the west side and the path, and the new area where I am renovating where the campanulas were. This little area adjoins the top east side with the gold rocks. I am smashing up some terra cotta pots from drainage, then I will add cruched up leaves, and mix it all up. I added top soil to the Iberis and a couple of sad looking lilies, places where I dug out rocks, and to the globalaria and the Grace Ward thing, and the fern leaf peony. There are many notices from VIRAGS about going here or there to participate in on line shows, and instagram. Some guy has vegetable starts for anyone who wants them, and he could use some plastic 4" pots. I am still debating about emailing Paul Sprigs about my extra terra cotta pots... want to get my little rockeries cleaned up first, I guess. The rock hammer works great for this renovation. Skimmed the pond a bit. The mermaid is in the pond, near the little willow. Both willows are now in pussy willows. I need to get their pictures. The water hawthorn is coming into bloom and so it the marsh marigold.. both lookin good.

April 18, 2020
Another lovely sunshine day, but we need rain. Was out in the garden from 3 to 5. Finished cleaning the weeds out of the little rockery at the front up to the hebe and the boxwood. The elephant ears thing has 3 nice big blossoms now, the hebe has buds, and the Japanese anemone is starting to sprout up. I straightened the golden wall a bit and added pot shards and more clay soil to level it. The aubretia is in bloom. I liberated a couple of rocks from under the elephant ears and have stepping stones to the hebe. I added crushed leaves and loose soil to the holes where the rocks were, and to holes where I dug out weeds. Started to dig out the montebretias. They are way down in the clay and have piled bulb upon bulb. I moved one over to the boxwood hedge, but the hole was really hard to dig out in the clay. I will move a couple or three more when I am better rested. They seem to spread quite quickly. I will be taking them back by about a foot more. I think I need to let this renovation rest for a year to see that all the blue bells and montebretias and violets are taken out, next year; before I make the extension to the little rockery. In the meantime, I can transplant some of the saxifragias to small pots and have them ready for next year. The plum tree is in full blossom. I saw the hummingbird on the water fall having a bath. The marsh marigold and the water hawthorne are beginning to look pretty good in the pond. Most of the hyacinths are finished blooming, the ones in the shade on the patio last longer.

April 19, 2020
Perfectly nice day, to about 16 degrees a bit of clouds. Mowed the grass and put the clippings into the bin behind the garage. Weeded along beside the old garage and along the otherside of the old sidewalk, digging out blue bells, grass, dandilions and other weeds, removing the tops of the hyacinths and daffodils. Have finished the bed from the round stepping stones to the holly tree. Put a couple of weed box flats into the green bin. Picked up the old crocosimia/montebretia bulbs and threw them into the green bin too. I might be able to use the weed killer that I used on the campanulas on the weeds between the round stepping stones, except I really don't want to kill the moss. Watered the deck plants and picked a bit of moss off the tufa rock. I need to find something to clean the moss off those tufa rocks. I saw a garden snake on the Syrians side of the old garage. Its good to see the garden snake back. Have started the laundry, so I can get gardening tomorrow, too. Was out from 2:00 to 4:30.

April 21, 2020
15 degrees, cloudy, breezy. Made coleslaw and the tuna casserole in the am.

April 26, 2020
Have had .6 inches of rain over the last little while and the days have been cloudy and some bits of rain, as well as a bit of wind, and some sun. On the 22nd I did godaddy stuff and cancelled the auto renew on all the stuff. Still not sure about keeping them, but the hosting is paid up to '29, I think. So will let it ride for now. I can still get some Canadian company to transfer to, I think, since Godaddy does not believe in refunds. The emails I sent to Justin Butcher and Adam Withrow bounced. Godaddy is under new ownership and management. On the 23rd it seems I did some Van stuff ... washed the towels, not sure what else it was that I did in the van. Today, I took a pail of water with bleach added and wiped out the fridge, cleaned the sinks and toilet, and counter tops and the the shower floor and the floor. There was a day when I cleaned up more of the blue bells, etc at the front extension of the little rockery, and fixed more of the little gold rock wall. There was a day where I helped Pat with some of the down sizing of the travel stuff. He has over 200 lbs of stuff ready to go to the shredders tomorrow. There will be more travel stuff to clean up, but not sure if it has to go to the shredders. I cleaned out under the sink yesterday, and washed the cleaning rags. Its nice to have that cleaned up. Today was cloudy but warm enough. I made a cover for the pump extension, only to discover that the pump is not working. But there is electricity in the extension where the pump plugs in. So, this pump was bought at Cannor on April 13, 2019 and has a 3 year warrantee. I will get Pat to help me talk to them about this warrantee, after I have exhausted all of the shit-headedness that has been happening to my pump and waterfall from the twit next door. Was out to get a few photos today. The lilac is in bloom, the Apple tree is in bloom, the plum tree and the saskatoon berry bushes are finished blooming. The fig is just starting to get blossoms. The tulips are out now. The trilliums are finished. The magnolia still has some blossoms, but is getting leaves. The peony tree has buds. The woooland along the Syrians side of the old garage is in bloom, including the anemonella or whatever it is with lovely white bloosoms and the one with heart shaped leaves and tiny blue bloosoms. The honesty plants are in bloom in 3 colors. The fawn lilies are finished blooming. The Western bleeding heart and the other one are in bloom. There are still some blue bells to dig out back there and the sweet cicely has to be reduced to one plant. Pictures of the stuff on the back rockery -- the daphne in bloom, gentians, the red mossy saxifragia, and the little lewisia are blooming. The primulas are in bloom, the little hosta is coming up, the hellebores are in bloom. I see I have some lily of the valley growing under the deck near the new rhodo (which is doing very well). Ferns are coming up. Epimediums are looking good, and the chocolat lily is blooming. The perennial geraniums along the driveway strip are doing great. the cyclamens are spreading like crazy, of course. There are things actully growing in the cutting garden. It is slowly coming along. The saxatilis tulips are blooming. The rosemary by the cutting garden is in bloom. I saw one gold fish today. It is almost twice the size it was last Fall when I bought them. The marsh marigold and the water hawthorne are in bloom and looking good in the pond. The saxifragias in the pots are getting crowded. I want to make some more of them for the new little rockery, but it must have good drainage and tufa rocks, if possible.

April 28, 2020
Overcast, tiny bits of rain in the afternoon. Was out from 10:00 to 11:30. Cleaned up about 6 feet of the stone path at the front. Dug the dandilions out of the grass, but am leaving the violets, daisies, vetch. It can become a flower carpet. Took the stuff to the recycle depot. It was very very busy. Many people with bags and bags of stuff. There have been ants running around the counter in the kitchen. I put down some ant out while we were away at the recycle depot, after disinfecting the counter top. When we got back there were ants taking the ant out back to their home which seems to be under the casement of the window. By 3:30 there are still hoards of them coming and going from the ant out to under the window. Also put a plastic pot top on the floor near my chair and there are a few ants in it.. they aren't moving much. I am not seeing any more ants on the orchids. A couple of days ago I cleaned out under the sink and disinfected stuff, washed all the floor rags, so every thing under there is ant free I believe. There are no more ants downstairs. I must have taken them down on my clothes or Pat did from sitting in my chair. They got fed ant out and are all dead, I believe. Haven't seen any down there lately.

April 29, 2020
about 16 degrees today. A bit of rain in the morning. watered the house plants. Cannot get ahold of John or Isabelle. It is Is' birthday today. She should be 88, I think. Called John's cell and the house number (Cindy). Fell asleep after lunch, so missed my time outside this day. There are still a few ants crawling around the sink area. Pat and I are both killing them. I am disappointed that they are not all dead by now. There are no more of them in the light garden area.

April 30, 2020
We took the LTV to Wings to get Wor Won Ton and drove out to Dallas Rd. for lunch. Nice out, but we did not walk. Lots of people and dogs out. We got home about 2:00 and I went out to the garden. Finished taking out the montebretias and blue bells. Did a bit of rock work around the edges, moving a couple of cement blocks to block off the montebretias from what is now going to be more rock garden. As the 2 saxifragias I have on the little rockery at the back are doing ok, I think I will take scoops out of the potted saxifragias that are getting over grown and pot them up to be put into the new rockery space at the front. I have a very special primula in a pot on the deck. It bloomed with a tiny blue blossom, but the foliage is wonderful. I am hoping it will transplant to the new rockery space at the front. All the little rock plants are doing well at the front now. I want to email or someway contact Paul Spriggs to let him know I have more terra cotta pots for him, if he want to pick them up. And then I hope to show him my little rockeries, and maybe get him to get me some golden rocks and other stones for a crevase garden or the drilling of the tufa rocks to put out on the little rockery with the saxifragias. (good luck with that..just didn't happen) I think I will put the primulas into the woodland by the tub. I will need to clean up the woodland again, too. As well as the little rockery at the back and the round cement stepping stones, and all. The lilac is in bloom, the cutting garden is showing some growth. Spinach pizza with added anchovies for himself and shrimp on my side. Was delicious with a green salad.

May 2020

May 1, 2020
Did the banking stuff in the morning. We go to London Drugs after lunch. Home and Pat peels and slices the apples with his handy dandy machine. I make apple sauce, and have one jar frozen and one in the fridge. Then made the cranberries up . . 3 jars. Then it was time to make the chicken for supper. I feel like I was busy all day. Did not get my photos downloaded. No gardening done, and tomorrow is suppose to rain.

May 2, 2020
Bits of rain all day, but no readable amount in the rain gauge. Did laundry. Pam phoned, nice visit. We will email. Updated browsers, updated credit cards on .. where ever. Downloaded April photos and deleted all from Dropbox, as it asks to update which will cost money if I go for more space with them. Tried to set Dropbox 'not' to add photos or anything to it. must 'ask first'. up dated Telus stuff. This technology privacy is driving me crazy. Take me back to paper and mail please! Every day there is something that needs fixing in one way or another. Added adobe elements -- its free from microsoft store. Not a lot of stuff on elements. Its a dumb down app. The file endings thing did not go so well.... I should give them a minus stars for their app. Said it was free but as soon as I tried to use it there was the demand for money. Blah. Have the lovely French lilac (Burgundy color) with some rosemary for the boquet on the table today. Great fragrance.

May 3, 2020
Installed the Adobe DNG converter and got it working. Made a note of it in the New PC folder. I am going to drag any CR2 into the folder and desk top, and after converting them delete the CR2, and put the DNG into the folder where it came from, and same with the big processed in camera raw in photoshop file back into the original folder. Got a couple of April photos done. Was out in the front garden from 1:45 to 3:00. Cleaning up the stone path. Decided to remove the lemon thyme as it is rather vigorous and over growing the little rockery. Have finished up to where the stepping stones go down to the thyme circle. The Rufous sided towhee was complaining all the time. I think it was back to its nest as soon as I left. Dumped a lot of thyme in the bin. The new rhodo at the back by the steps is in bloom. Its a light pink color. It looks nice in its shaded spot. It seems to have grown about a foot taller. There are lily of the valley (convallaria), growing behind it under the deck, ferns, moss, the geranium thing. I need more rocks. Pictures of the rhodo and the front reno work.

May 4, 2020
Was a cooler day. Was reading in bed in the am, so was up later. Lunch of left over chicken and potato pancakes. After lunch we went to Langford for our LB run. Nice drive on the way back. There is constuction all over the roads. Quite a few people out and about. Early this morning I watched the rufous sided towhee go in and out of the nest about 3 times. I wonder if they are feeding the hatchlings now. Suppose to take about 2 weeks to lay eggs and hatch them and then 2 more weeks before the fledge. that seems very short time period to me. Did laundry of the towels, bedding and green table cloth,etc. Searched out recipes and found one for a ceasar salad using brussel sprouts and anchovies. Gonna try it. Maybe tomorrow. Filled the birdbath and the tub, as when I was out there a house finch came to drink. Cool seeing it up close. Did some planning to make the path on the new renovation of the inner garden at the front, a bit wider by the smoke bush. Moved stones to atop of the old terra cotta pot I left in the ground and have terra cotta pieces under the purple stones. I will move the Clearwater lava rocks into the new area. There is one behind the David. And will probably move the rock from Bryan into the reno also, but would like to get it polished up again. Wonder if the Rock Hounds place would do that for me. Still undecided what I will put in that area, but am thinking the tufa rocks and saxifragias in the white pots, as well as the special primula auricola or whatever it is and the lewisia in the grey pot. The hens and chickens are coming along nicely. Must feed them some chicken grit and compost. :) The little gold wall looks pretty good. Saw about half dozen more ants on the counter by the window, killed them and shot disinfectant at the window casing thing. I threw out a phalenopsis onto the fig tree bed. Its roots were dead, so there is another pot for Paul Spriggs. There were 2 ants in that pot. There is another dieing phal, too.

May 5, 2020
Today got up to 19 degrees. In the am I did ironing, made the ceasar salad dressing... its yum. After lunch out to the garden at 2:30 and in by 4:00. Finished cleaning the stone path to just past the iberis. Raked leaves off the thyme circle with the new little rake. It works very well. The rest of the front garden needs a lot of weeding, and the boulevard garden is totally over grown. Got in and made the brocoli, bacon, etc for the salad. Its pretty fussy and yummy. But I could skip the broccoli and use romaine lettuce. Lots of dressing left over. I have not seen the nesting rufous sided towhee for a couple of days. I wonder if the birds have fledged...I hope so, rather than have had their nest invaded by whatever predator. Added black ink to printer and noted what ink I have and what I need... the big black. Updated Shaw cr card auto pay.

May 6, 2020
The night of May 5th from midnight to 2:30 am I had to fix the Amplifi wifi router. Windows did a check of all the disks and did repairs on something, as well. I had unplugged both of the cables to the power. My printer turned off, too because of this unusual shut down of the printer. I am going to write this up for the new PC file. As at

May 7, 2020 everything seems to be working fine. Beware of phishing emails regarding the Shaw account. Gmail catches them, but Thunderbird missed it. They look very authentic.
Yesterday we took the LTV to Naughty Nellies, got 2 halibut dinners and went to Dallas Road for our supper. Was wonderful. This morning I have looked at the investment thing and made copies. Hopefully everything will be on the rise, hereafter; as the Provinces are going to slowly come out of lock down from the nasty Coronavirus.
Have seen the humming birds feeding at columbines, and all the little rockery plants. They do not seem to be interested in the feeder. House finch at the bird bath. I have not seen the rufous sided Towhee for 2 or 3 days. Have seen at least 4 different fish on the top, doing the fish mating thing. These fish appear to be twice the side they were last late summer when I bought them. Was out from 2:30 to 4:30. Widened the stone path at the front around the smoke bush tree, actually moved it over about 8 - 10 inches, and dug out weeds and thyme. In moving some of the soil from the previously dug over bed I found a few sprouting things, about the size of grass in the newly dug over soil. Spread some good topsoil around the golden rocks area and a bit in the thyme circle. the thyme circle needs to be weeded and more sand/soil put down to level it out again. The wooly thyme should be replaced with some smaller blooming thymes. That would be a big chore that I am not sure I want to do. It felt really hot out there today. It was only 18° I peeked in the towhee nest and thought I saw something move. If it was a baby bird, I decided not to disturb it.

May 8, 2020
Very nice day... a trifle warm for me to garden, at 22°. Sunshine all day, not a cloud in the sky, but a tiny bit of a breeze. Was out from 1 to 2. and had a half hour break. Then out from 2:30 to 4:30. Came in and had a soak in the tub. I checked the towhee and the nest is empty... no movement this time. Did not see any egg shells. So, they must have fledged. Wish I had seen that happen. I have the stone path cleaned up and the surrounding areas, like the inner smoke bush area, the sundial circle, and a bit of the thyme circle. Some of the little thyme has little buds. Took 2 flats of weeds to the bin. I am going to get some tufa rock. Yeeeaaaa. Pat did my income tax today and says I can afford the tufa! Yeeeaaaaaaa! As you can see I am quite excited about this tufa. I have finished digging over the new area for more rock garden. I am contemplating moving the david to that area with his back to the cedar hedge. I have emailed Paul Spriggs to tell him I have about 12 more terra cotta pots for him. Also contemplating moving the two big tufa rocks to the new area... perhaps Pat will drill some holes in them for me. Also want to move the primula auricola and the lewisia to the new area. I will move the pot which will add some dirt to the area. The auricola primula should like it. Once the tree leafs out it will be in semi shade. Have a few more photos of April done up and will add a link in here to the blog post when I get it done. Have seen NO ants today! Hope we are winning the ant war.

May 9, 2020
Got up to 26° blistering hot for me. I went out to get pictures... bad idea. Watered the deck plants. I am not going to weed as it is way too hot. The humming birds are testing the wisteria flowers up in the cedar tree. One of them was having a refreshing shower in the little solar fountain. The tufa rocks will be going ahead the end of May. I want a 1/4 skid which should cost about $325 according to the price of apx $1300 per skid. The garden looks terrible except for the part I have renovated, etc in the front. Since the Towhees nest is empty I should be able to get the hedges trimmed -- after I finish weeding the thyme circle and the grass etc out of the plants in the david area. The tulips in that area did not do very well. The bamboo is coming up in the grass border by the driveway. I am going to treat it to some weed killer. It stopped the shoots dead in the thyme circle some years ago. Did a blog post and sent a link of it to Pam. The temperatures got up to 27 degrees before going down, after the sun went down. I have the dining room window open, the verticle blinds closed and the low fan running above the stove. It has stayed quite liveable in the house today. Did not get any gardening done, though.

May 10, 2020
Was out from 8:00 am to 11:00. It got to be 21 degrees while I was out. Cleaned up the thyme circle, and the little herb patch in front of it. The thyme is going to need some compost and more water. I would like to replace the wooly thyme with a nicer shorter variety. Would best be done in the Fall when the rains come. I took out 4 tall black bamboo stems. They are quite long and lovely. I see that another nice big one has leaves dying and can probably come out. I went around with the herbicide that I used on the campanula and found quite a few bamboo shoots in the boulevard garden and a few weedy little ones on the thyme circle perimeter that each got a shot. Went along the driveway strip with this stuff and shot thistles, and prickly little bushes, morning glory, other weeds. Hope it works on the blackberries, too. Took out the dying lavendar from by the smoke bush. Took out quite a bit of grass and old siberian iris debris. So, still have the area from the david to the driveway to clean up. The purple wall flower by the step is looking really good, with the peony just above it in pink. There 2 balloon flowers coming up in the smoke bush bed and the geum is in buds. Gave them some top soil. The hebe is looking good, the bergenia has 3 bloom spikes this year. It is suppose to like the shade. I guess it needs better humousy soil but it is surviving and spreading. It is evergreen. Sandy's campanula glomerata is looking good. I have 3 allium heads with blossoms, and lots of plants that could not compete and so are brown and pulled out. There is never a shortage of these onions. Before I got out I found the ants running on the top tray edge. I think they are in the Lisa Taylor orchid, too. Lisa has a bud forming. I shot the hornet stuff under the tray where they were and into the Lias pot. Watered the otherplants. Put down some ant out by the chair. I do need to keep downsizing these plants. text chatted with Pam. She is doing veggies, in her new boxes and potatoes in 'bags'. It is now 27 degrees as I type this at 2:00. So, this getting up early works best, cause I have been going out in the hotest part of the day and not being able to stay out very long. I can always go down for a nap in the afternoon.

May 11, 2020
Was out from 9 to 11:30. Its overcast and 20 degrees when I was out there. Now at 2:30 its 24° and suppose to rain starting about 7:00. This morning I started the clean up of the bamboo. There are dead canes in the clump. I spent quite a lot of time getting some of the clump cleaned up. Got about 1/3 finished. Cleaned the grass out of the Siberian iris and pulled out those perennial bachelor buttons. They are so invasive. After the French lavender by the david blooms I am going to clip it and shape it. The one in the boulevard garden is going all floppy but is full of buds. Pulled violets out of the bamboo area. Sprayed the weeds around the water meter with the herbicide. I see the treatment of weeds along the driveway is working. There are more little weeds I missed in the front little rockery. Paul Spriggs is coming by for terra cotta pots. As I slowly downsize my orchids and light garden I will have a few more for him. Shall tell him I am working on getting the garden cleaned up with a view to downsizing in a few years.

May 12, 2020
Woke up with a very sore elbow and arm to the shoulder. Eventually got into the tub and the hot water did wonders. Did the bedding and towels and all the laundry. Cleaned up the downstairs bathroom, the laundry room, including the inside of the washer which was filthy, especially on the inside of the door. Hopefully my towels will be cleaner now. vacuumed out the dryer. vacuumed the floor and the entry way. Washed the upstairs kitchen. Washed off the birdee do do off the living room window and watered a bit around the front garden. We got about .4 of an inch of rain last night and we are to get more tomorrow. Maybe even thunder storms this afternoon. It is 2:00 and no sign of the storms yet. o well. Its 19 degrees. The little Syrian kid from next door seems to think he is allowed to play in our driveway and front garden. Pat sent him home yesterday and I told him to go to his house today. He wanted to argue about it, so I sprayed him with the garden hose and told him to GO. He went but grumbling all the way. I think his parents need a lesson in caring for their raft of children, in the Canadian way. My elbow has had a good workout but does not really hurt... just sore from whatever strain I put on it yesterday. Now, I shall deal with the pump tomorrow, I guess. I have seen no more ants today. Have to find the new pump box.

May 13. 2020
I liberated the blue extension cord for the pump plug in. I went out and attached it and plugged it in. It worked fine. Adjusted the splitter feeds. Its going fine now. It was 15° when I was out there and raining lightly so I did not wade into the pond to rescue the mermaid and whatever else is in there. At 2:30 it is 20 ° with big clouds and some sun. After lunch I cleaned up the light garden. Thew out all the African Violets except one big one. The miniatures were doing very poorly and badly infected by the scab insects or whatever they are. I saw no more ants. The plastic tray seemed to have quite a lot of dead ones. Washed down the wooden parts of the bent wood chair and it should be ok to sit in again. I had to start Windows 10 again after its microsoft Windows 10 "patch". The next one is scheduled for June 8th. Now it wants to restart to install the updates. So, I guess I will attempt it. here goes...got done. I hope it can now stop having its belly aches.

May 14, 2020
Lovely day. slept in till almost 10:00. I was up late on playnow and then awake in the middle of the night when the motion detection light came on. Later this morning as I checked the desjardin charges I found that I had a charge from hostwinds out of seattle for 20.69 usd and 29.79 canadian dollars, on the 12th of May. Phoned Desjardins 1 866 877 9444 and talked to a very helpful person. He got my info and proceeded to cancel the offending credit card and gave me a temporary credit on the account for 30.29. To send my new credit card by Canada post should get it by the 19th I think that is what he said, or it was to be mailed on the 19th? no matter... I'll get when I get it. The old card is cancelled and that Hostwinds is blocked from using it anyway. He will do some searching to see if I really authorized this. As I have no communication from Hostwinds other than this credit card billing...I think he may be on to some scammers. As Godaddy uses a different credit card I don't think it would have originated from them. I hope he gets to expose some nasty leaks of credit card information carried over from their leaks of months ago. After emails about the terra cotta pots we probably have it figured out. Paul will come and get them when he can. Might or might not phone first. This technology is getting more and more complicated all the time. Its a lovely day and I should get out there.

May 15, 2020
Set up Flickr for 2 more years, starting in June. Moved $200.00 more to the visa account to cover the cost of $153.88. Did grocery shopping and got lottery tickets at London Drugs. Was out in the front garden from 3:00 to 5:00 was quite warm. Got the old metal ring from the half barrell dug out ... nasty job. I will need more soil to fill in the top dressing once I get the beds sorted out.

May 18, 2020
We have had a bit of rain in the last 2 days and cooler weather. Got a blog post done yesterday. Got some Flickr stuff done, and a lot of miserable computer stuff. Updates on Windows seemed to make my Amlifi go crazy and had to go through some CHKDSK checks of some sort, with Windows making corrections. I seem to be ok now. Pat having trouble with his sign in to Apple... etc. etc. etc. Notices from Cindy about John and Is. see notes in documents. Today things seem to be settled down a lot. Made an appointment at the lab and it went VERY well. Must remember to fast for Dr.T's stuff and have them just forward it to the clinic for someone there to see me. Hopefully they will call me. If not I will just go in and see them and wait for my meds to be updated. Was out in the garden from 9:30 to 11:30. Dug out a black plastic pot from the new renovation. Added another cement block to ward off the montebretias and all, out of what is going to be rock garden. Hopefully with the tufa rocks. To be planted up next Spring when I see how the new reno is doing. Dug out more little weeds and violets from the roses and the established little rockery. Cleaned the bamboo off the thyme circle. Have put the copper thing onto the top of the wire cage to make the table, with the blue rock on top. Have liberated the nice thin blue slate that was on there. I should put it in the garage for safe storage. Old shithead Pee threw another cigarette butt in the reno. Dug out the blue leafed straggly plant.

May 19, 2020
Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Pruned the small boxwood and about half of the taller boxwood. Sniped things back from the Pees sidewalk. Threw the clippings on the grass path at the Pees end where the baby pee is constantly scraping off the grass under the hedge edges, down to bare dirt. Tied the purple Jackamani clematis to the handle of the door into the chimney. Tied more string around the top vines and tied that to the trellis, and to the handle. It was 15° when I got in to shower and make lunch. By the time we were ready to go to Langford at 1:15 it was 20°. The UV rating was at the high #6. The heat just saps my strength.

May 20, 2020
Was overcast and about 17 degrees. Was out from 9:15 to 11:45. Finished trimming the boxwood hedge. Did the spirea bush in the boulevard garden and some of the honeysuckle pilea hedge. Its ratty. But I won't be replacing it with boxwood any time soon. Picked up most of the clippings and have the green bin half full. Made a start on cleaning up the Magnolia bed - - pulling out dandilions and violets in the cement vase area. The aubretia needs water. The tree peony is about finished its blooming time. The dry bamboo leaves keep falling on the thyme. Did a blog post with all the trillium information in it, yesterday. blog post about trilliums Did another blog post today about the trilliums. I got most of them from Fraser thimble farm in May of 2018. They are doing ok in the new Trillium bed under the Magnolia tree. I need to finish cleaning up this bed.

May 21, 2020
Was cool this morning, about 13° I was out from 9:00 to 11:45. Cleaning out the weeds in the Magnolia Tree bed. I have finished the top part from the driveway to the edge of the water meter thing. Trimmed up the old heather and the Irish heather. Digging weeds and violets out everywhere, up to the Trilliums. I dug out most of the iberis and got all the violets that I could find out of them. Put some of the iberis back into the cleaned up bed, with a bit of root attached to most of them. There was bits of rain while I was out, but not enough to make me come in. So, I have about half of that bed cleaned up. There are some nice columbines in there, an autumn joy sedum, some michaelmas daisies, feverfew, one of the blue geraniums with the nice foliage, arabis, ladies mantle. Alchemilla is a genus of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Rosaceae, with the common name lady's mantle applied generically as well as specifically to Alchemilla mollis when referred to as a garden plant. from Wikipedia. The little plant next to the grass path with red flowers PORTULACA needs more sun, I think. This site says it would look good in stone paths -- that would be wonderful in my stone paths. Moss Rose The Irish heather looks ok, but the other older one is not very nice. I think I will take it out, when I figure out what to replace it with. Another perennial that I will need to look up its tag. It is just behind the old ratty heather, so maybe it will get more sun and spread out into a clump, if I take out the heather. The heather leaves seem to retard the growth of the other plants, rather than breaking down like other tree leaves. After I got in and showered it started to rain. We had quite a nice rain. Hope this helps the Iberis root and grow.

May 22, 2020
Was out from 10 to 12. Finished pulling the violets and weeds out of the rest of the Magnolia tree bed. Cleaned more dead canes out of the black bamboo. It was quite cool with a bit of a breeze. Snipped off some tall grass with the big scissors thing. In the afternoon I was out from 2:15 to 3:30. Cut up the bamboo canes. Pulled bind weed (morning glory) out of the woodland area from the geraniums to the back corner of the garage. This woodland is going to need some cleaning up soon. The wretched violets are spreading back there. I might use chemical on them. Dug about 1/2 of a 30 liter bag of compost out of the old compost bin and spred it around the trilliums. Had a look at the Cutting garden and it needs the twigs and leaves cleaned up and weeding done. I think the milkweed is finally coming up. The rhubarb is a zero. I need to get a new root and maybe put it behind the old garage, as the milkweed seeds do not seem to be coming up. The boulevard garden needs to be cleaned up. I think I will mow the grass next, though. Did a bit of work on ghe garden rooms lists of plants.

May 23, 2020
Was out in the garden from 2 - 4. Mowed the front grass path and some of the boulevard garden grass. I had to get Pat to sharpen my big hedge trimmer tool and then I cut the tall grass down. The lawn mower ran out of charge trying to cut this stuff down. I clipped it back to about the spirea bush, so about half way. Put 4 thirty liter bags of grass clippings into the back compost bin. Its full. Watered the house and deck plants and cleaned up a bit on the deck in the morning. Did a blog post. Did a bit more on the Garden Rooms lists.

May 24, 2020
Was out from 2 - 4. Got the boulevard grass finished clipping down. Piled a bag of leaves into the back compost bin. It is full. The green bin is full also. Pictures in the am. There is a small humming bird feeding on the wall flower by the step; and it sits on the railing for a while. I could get quite close to it. At one moment there were 2 humming birds there. Deleted the CR2 photos on the camera.

May 25, 2020
We had about 1/4 inch of rain over night and this morning. Doing YouTube stuff this am as the VIRAGS are encouraging us to make videos of our gardens and put them up on youtube and the Editor of their web page will link them on the page. Made cole slaw, roast beef in the pressure cooker. Good big dinner. The other day Pat had the guy over to fix the drain pipe on the eaves trough. About $150.00. There was a wasps nest blocking the pipe and so it fell off.

May 26, 2020
Was cooler this morning. Was out from 9 - 11. Weeded the boulevard garden and have done up to the peony in the rectangle. Clipped back the cedars a bit and the honeysuckle little hedge. Since the green bin is full I am putting the weeds into a black plastic bag. Pat took the van down for its check up ...everything is fine. The battery is low, and it seems there is nothing they can do about it. Twits. $500 for doing nothing. I am slowly getting some photos done for the next blog post for April. Have quite a few posts to go to finish April. Was out in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30. Got the outside strip of the boulevard garden finished, almost. There is lots of grass and dandilions, and daisies. Dug dandilions out of the crocus field grass. Slowly getting it done. Temps got up to 20 so it was definitely a short sleeve t shirt day. Put another bunch of weeds into the black plastic bag.

May 27, 2020
sunny day. Was about 16 ° when I was out this morning from 9 to 11. Finished the boulevard garden room except for cutting back the sprouting tree between our properties. Its a Saanich tree, after all. Cut out one of those prickly bushes.. hawthorn, I think. It gets red berries I believe. The birds like it. It pops up everywhere in the garden, due to the birds, no doubt. Pulled out the blue bells and dandilions in the rectangle by the Pees side.I shall be dumping leaves there in the Fall, again, hopefully the bluebells will get smothered. I have left the prickly thistles and hawthorn cuttings under the plum three. They will stay there until the green bin is emptied, at which time I can get my kevlor gloves on and put them directly into the empty green bin. Right now the green bin is full, and I have 2 black plastic bags full of weeds and clippings to go into the green bin next Tuesday. Put herbicide on the sprouts of the hawthorne and the thistle and on a couple of bamboo root stumps. Hopefully this will slow them down a bit. Did a blog post. Did Pat's ironing.
Had a look around the back with a view of where to start the clean up. It is time to prune the lilac. It has a lot of dead branches in it. To rejuvenate it, I could take it all down to 8 inches. I think I will want to leave 3 tall trunks and just take off the spent blossoms amd then take the rest down to a manageable level (say about 3 feet)... taking the dead ones out, of course. If I took it all down to 8 inches it would take at least 3 years for new blossoms. The wisteria needs cutting back. The sweet cicely thing needs to have the seeds cut off and all the extra plants dug out. These are the most immediate things to do.

May 28, 2020
Was out from 9 to 11:30. Put the ramp up. After emptying the wheel barrow out into the black bag I took it to the woodland area. Pruned dead wood out of the old lily of the valley shrub. Took out lots of fern fronds and put them in the old compost bin. Took out lots of the big leafted thing that is seeding all over, took out some bachelor buttons and small weeds from in front of the black tub. Clipped back the sweet cicely. Put all the weed clippings into the old bin and it is full again. Pruned back the pin oak shoots to 2 trunks with the branches taken off of them up to the height of the old garage. Took a dying branch off the rhodo. That rhodo has huge pink heads of blossoms. It is doing much better since it has had mulch. The old bin is full of clippings and I have a pile of woody clippings to go to the green bin. Took down about one half of a sumac. I have 2 and a half of these trees left to take out. The douglas fir is growing like crazy. So is the mock orange.. clipped it back a bit. I have put chemical on the sweet cicely stumps and on the big leafed thing. I have to get rid of both of them as they tend to take over the woodland. Was out from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. I was in the shade of the oak and the lilac but it was still pretty warm out there. Was 26°. I pruned the blossoms off the lilac as high as I could reach, and cut out dried trunks. The main trunk is tree like having a diameter of at least 3 inchs. I cannot pull it down so the blossoms stay on it. I could cut the whole thing down to about 8 inches, but the article I read said it would not bloom thereafter for 3 years. I did cut quite a few blossoms off, so it may have a good bloom period next year. This is the most attention that lilac has ever had, so it should bloom. Another pile of woody clippings to deal with next week.

May 29, 2020
Cleaned up to 4 of the stepping stones going into the Moss Garden. Was out from 9 to 11. Weeded the two rhodos at the front of the beds. Cleaned up the ferns and dead-headed the new rhodo that grows between the house and the back step. Leaving the foxgloves grow in front of it. The rhodo on the other side of the step has not finished blooming yet. There are 3 perennials under it that need to be discarded or moved out. The purple hellebore does not add a lot to its spot under the rhodos and is just crowding out the primulas. I might move it to the back of the woodland area. The other two are just too invasive.. I forget the names. One might be an arum and the other one is that tri-colored thing that has a heavy fragrance when bruised. It has now gone all green and is growing everywhere. I shall treat it to chemical when I move the hellebore. The moss and the mint is doing fine between the rocks, but it is infested with grass and clover and of course, those little things with orange flowers. There are a lot of dames rocket and foxgloves bordering the path. I am leaving most of them in. There were a lot of bees around the rhodos and dames rocket. It got up to 24 degrees today. When I started at 9 it was about 17. So far I have 6 hours invested in cleaning up the back.

May 31, 2020
Yesterday did laundry. It rained a wee bit and was cooler. Sorted out the orchids that I have left after the Ant Purge. I have 19 orchids, 2 cactus, and 1 big African Violet. I am using only 2 of the shelves. Did a blog post.
Today watered house and deck plants. It is suppose to be a cooler day. We are having a feast day of the duck, so I won't be gardening. Ground some coffee beans for cappiccino. Sorted out the Saxifragias somewhat.

June 2020

June 1, 2020
It was the perfect temperature for gardening today. It was about 15° in the morning and got to 20° in the afternoon. I was out from 9 to 11:30. Got more of the moss garden weeded. Cutting back hellebores and the white azalyea. The stepping stones that go under the deck are pretty mossy right now, and the ferns are hanging over. I still need to clean up under the rhodos and dig out the purple hellebore. I weeded over to about the little pine tree. Cut back the epimedium somewhat. Weeded part of the fig tree bed. In the afternoon I finished the stepping stones up to the grass, and weeded more in the fig tree bed. It is almost finished. I see I have 2 little roses in there. I must get them into a more sunny spot. Perhaps use 2 of the brown pots on the patio area or they can be moveable to the front. Also thinking of using the brown pots for tufa rocks and saxifragias along the cedars at the front. Plans plans. The milkweeds have not been a big success so I do have the space that I call the holly tree bed that goes along the old sidewalk up to the stepping stones of the fig tree bed. thinking about doing something good with that. I do like the bronze fennel in there. and there are hyacinths in the spring. In the afternoon I weeded and picked bamboo leaves off the thyme circle. The thymes are blooming and there are a few bees. Dead headed the globalarias and the iberis. Pulled the big malva thing out of the west coast planter. I do believe I will put the Primula Auricola in there. The Lewisia needs sharp drainage and it will go in somewhere in more sunshine, I think. I need to remove the little spruce from the back little rockery as the big gentian and the delespernum are going to crowd it out. So, maybe I can build up a crevice type spot for this Lewisia somewhere along with the little lewisias in the little rockery. Not sure where to put the little spruce. Its a lovely thing. Maybe I can put it into the grey pot and set it on the stump by the pond. And put the drift wood around it. Found garbage thrown behind the bamboo. Looks like the little baby Peehead cannot manage to behave. Should I tell Gertie? :) I now have 11 HOURS of time spent on the back garden, not counting the time spent in the woodland area.

June 2, 2020
Was up at 5:00 and did a blog post with the ready photos. Was outside at 9 to 10 when it started to rain just enough to chace me in. I put on my kevlor gloves and put the prickly things from under the plum tree in the bin. Then went along the driveway cutting back the roses and the mountain ash, cutting out blackberries, some dames rocket, and dead heading stuff that needed it. Brought in a big darkest blue iris because it was lying on the driveway. The gold one is in bud and also lies on the driveway. The driveway strip needs more work. Lots of blackberries, thistles, morning glory. The agave thing is going to be sending up a big stem of blossoms this year. It survives the invasion of the St.John's worte. So that stuff needs to be cleaned up after it blooms, or maybe I will just leave it. The little wild bush that keeps growing every year needs to be cut down. I really should move those nice tall bearded irises that flop over the driveway. The bin is almost full again, so I will have to keep all the weeding and tree pruning stuff over till next week and probably the week after as I probably have enough stuff sitting there already for 2 bins full.

June 3, 2020
Was out in the morning from 9:30 to 11:30. Weeding the moss garden stepping stones. It was cool and good working temperature. Cloud and bits of sun. Out in the afternoon from 1 to 3:30. Half hour or so of that time I spent taking the grey pot down and into the wheel barrow. Took some of the chicken grit out to the front garden and put the Lewisia Cotyledon 'Rainbow' into a front corner of the new gold rocks wall, with pot shards about 6 inches high and this area filled with a mix of potting soil and chicken grit for sharp drainage. I put the primula aruicola into the west coast planter in the same soil that it grew in in the pot. Then put the rest of the pot soil around on the thyme circle and some on the little rockery plants. I put some of the soil on the red hens and chickens and put chicken grit on top of that. There are montebretias coming up, and other little weeds in the rockery. I watered around the front a bit, trying to water the roses, the new primula and the thyme circle. That took up about .5 of an hour. The rest of the time from 1:00 to 3:30 I spent finishing weeding the stepping stones that go from the old sidewalk over to the entry to the pond. Its a nasty job because there is grass and clover growing in the area of the stepping stones. The lawn needs mowing now and I need to finish a couple of the stones that go into the pond area. More and more weeds into the back old compost bin. Its heaping full. I now have 15 hours spent on this area of the back garden. Must never let it get that overgrown again. Cut back the hyacinth leaves and pulled out columbines before they went to seed. No doubt there will be more of them, and of the dames rocket for next year. Pulled out most of the michaelmas daisies and all of the bachelor buttons things. Left all the foxgloves. The peony is getting quite big. The roses are too tiny for the rest of the big plants in the fig tree bed. Not sure what I will do with them. I saw a swallow tail butterfly in the back garden.

June 4, 2020
Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Cleaned up the rest of the stepping stones leading into the pond area and/or the cutting garden. Then weeded and cleaned along the edge of the little rockery. Weeded up to the delespernum (which has one little bloom). While cleaning up the pinks at the edge of the rockery I found a good solution for the way, way too big gentian. I shall move the gentian to the new front rockery. Then the spruce and other little plant will be able to stay as they are. I need to make the path into the cutting garden wider so I will add the exta cement pavers that I have left over. The two saxifragias will be moved over a bit into the area where I will remove most of the pinks.. maybe even all of them as they are not blooming. And the saxifragias will get some new soil and some tufa rock when I get it... soon, I hope. Lots more weeds and clover to the compost bins.
At about 11:30 I went into the pond and rescued the mermaid and a few small rocks. Pulled a bunch of the underwater oxygenating plants out of the pond. I should throw them on the front little rockery where I need some better soil. It was only 17 degrees out there but it was not too bad in the water. I saw one of the shubunkins. It is at least twice the size of when it was when bought, so its about 2 inches long now. Added more water for about 10 minutes. I cannot add a lot at a time due to the heavy concentration of chlorine in our water. So, tomorrow I will add a bit more water.. and so on until its full. Watched the hummingbird trying to get a shower in the solar fountain spray. When it got close to the water its shadow would block the sun and the water would go down. The bird gave up, as the water seemed to be avoiding it.

June 5, 2020
It was cloudy and cool this morning. Was out from 9:30 to 12:00. Finished the Fig Tree bed and moved 2 of the stepping stones over about 6 inches. Put the hyacinth bulbs on the fennel side of the stones. Then started to clean up the Holly Tree bed. Taking out the malvas, the bachelor buttuns and most of the michaelmas daisies. I cannot see anything that really looks like a milkweed in that bed. But saving 2 things that MIGHT be milkweed. I will buy some from Cannor if they have them and plant in that bed again. I have two in the brown pots that might be milkweed. Have to see if they bloom. One grows in a pot with fireweed.. might make a nice combination. After lunch I finished weeding and edging this Holly Tree bed, putting holly tree leaves into the green bin. Pruned the firethorn a bit. Also took a bit off the western red cedar. Dug a few weeds out of the grass. It is full of clover and weeds. I need some kind of weed and feed for it. The apple tree has tiny apples all over it. I filled the pond to over flowing by mistake. I only meant to run water for 15 minutes and ran it for 30. The fish were at the top of the water and seem to have survived. I saw at least 4 different ones. They are mostly 2 inches. There was one smaller gold one with white on its tail. Probably a sarrossa. Last nite the back motion light came on. I got up and put the light on over the deck. I did not see anything. Nothing was moved that I noticed. The mermaid was still out beside the pond. While I was up my computer did its disc checking. After that I was still awake, so I did some work on the Cutting Garden plant list. Slowly getting that stuff done. The whole garden needs watering. I plan to move the big gentian to the front little rockery. And move the two saxifragias to the front also when the beds are ready next spring and I have the tufa rock for them. I need to move the entry to the strawberry patch/Cutting garden over about 6 inches. I will make this new entry with the left over cement pavers that I have. I might have a couple of big rocks to add to the front rockery when I am finished this. I am way behind in my blog postings. Yesterday I discovered that I can open RAW files in PHOTO EXPRESS and save them to JPEGS, there are a few other things that Photo Express can do.. frames, borders. When I save them as jpges they seem to have more detail than the camera jpeg ones. So, this got me thinking that I should save my RAW files, just in case I have something special. I finally figured out how to check the size of my data disks. I have plenty of room. 4TB data drive E for win. 10 and 464 GB used, so it says 3.18 TB free. LOTS! There is a 5.45 TB with 1.98 used. It does Win 7 and 10. Backup HD (K) It does Win 7 and 10. So, open RAW files in photo express and save to jpegs. Then open that jpeg in Camera Raw in PS5 and carry on in the usual way. To find the disks I used Start/Settings/Sytem/storage. Hopefully I can find that again. Filled the bird bath and the humming bird came and had a look at it. The finches arrived and had drinks. Watered the saxes and the other plants a bit. Must water more tomorrow.

June 6, 2020
Was out at 12:00 and mowed the grass. Put a catcher basket full of clippings from the back into the old compost bin. Mowed the front and put a basket full onto the rectangle on the east side of the boulevard garden. Finished the grass at 12:30 and then started watering the front. Used the little blue sprinkler and moved it around to all the spots in the front garden rooms to make sure everything got a good watering. Using anywhere from 3 minutes to 10 minutes per spot. There is bamboo shooting up all over the garden. I just broke them off, did not use any chemical on them. Finished the watering at 3:30. So three hours for this kind of watering. There was a very cold breeze coming from the east, so it took some careful positioning of the sprinkler to get all the corners watered. I may have missed some.

June 7, 2020
Got an email this morning about the Tufa rock run. It seems I and 3 other people who had 1/4 skid and 1/2 skid orders will not be getting our tufa. Guess we are just small potatoes. I don't understand it when others are getting boulders and 'various' what ever that is. I don't see where this is fair, at all. They say they had room for 2 extra skids that were given to these other people who's names I do not recognize from the club. Well, I am not doing the new renovation until next Spring, so I will soon forget about this, I suppose.
Here is the email: Jeremy and I have completed the Tufa Rock Run and are excited to share the results. Attached are the pictures of the endeavour, The photo attached is with Bryce Wolfenden, the accomdating owner in Brisco, BC selling the Tufa. The 15 cubic square foot U-Haul worked great for loading the rock and travelling up the back road to the quarry. We loaded the maximum allowable, which allowed us an extra 2 skids, which were delivered to Leda Boyes and Elizabeth Grant/Robert Burke. Bryce, very kindly, has offered to open his quarry if anyone else would like to make the trek. We've compiled the remaining club members below who would like Tufa. The quarry is great to pick from, as there are many different piles sorted by size. We took moving boxes to fill with Tufa crumb (to use as top dressing). The ramp was helpful for loading. Luckily, it was a nice, dry day. Bryce's contact information is btwolfenden@shaw.ca if anyone is interested (he is thinking of selling the property in the near future). Wish we could have accomodated everyone, but here's the list for another endeavour, if anyone is interested: Ruth Howell-1/2 skid Margaret Mehan-1/4 skid Bonnie Moro-1/4 skid Anne Morris-1/4 skid Don Lindsay, Karen Morrison, Donna Humphries, Bill McMillan-Boulders Norma Senn, Louise Potvin, Jeff Wright, Michael McHugh, Bob Wright, Erik Fleischer, Janice Currie-Various Regards fellow rock gardeners, Maria and Jeremy Hendrikx
In reviewing this email several times, it now seems like all of us missed out on the tufa... I give up. Its ambigous and unclear. On looking at that Hendrix woman's facebook, it seems she has had a 15 or 16 old neice disappear, so I am just as glad I did not make a fuss of any kind.
Was up at 5:30 this morning and got the water garden in April blog post done, and then did up another post for the renovation of the little front rockery. I have been searching for plant names for my garden room lists, and have added a few. But I cannot find the name of the plant that is in the terra cotta strawberry jar. I wonder where I put that label, cause I know I just had it recently. I think it might be an erinus.

June 9, 2020
Yesterday I had to go to the lab, and then we went to the flying club for the wonderful seafood won ton soup. Got the laundry done too. Did the April little rockery at the back blog post. Had a good day reading about the alpine plants, etc.
Today is a cooler day. As at 2:00 we have had over .5 inch of rain. I have made a huge pot full of borscht. Letting it cool before I put it in containers. Froze 6 plastic containers and one for tomorrows lunch.

June 10, 2020
Was out in the morning for about an hour and a half. Moved the cement pavers over a bit in the entry way to the strawberry patch. Moved a Saxifragia paniculata to the front little rockery. Have taken a paver to set up as a divider from the montebretias. Dug out a few montebretias from the reno bed. Weeded a bit at the gold wall. In the afternoon was out for another couple of hours. It is a good gardening weather. I took the pink pots down to the patio area. Repotted the basil to a bigger green pot. Scrubbed off the table and a couple of the chairs on the deck, with a bit of bleach. Dragged the hose up and washed off the deck. Emptied the deck tub and washed it out. Hosed off more of the deck. Have a wheel barrow full of stones, paver and bits of soil to add to the reno at the front. Washed out the clay pots. Have about a dozen of them for Paul, in bags by the back garage.

June 11, 2020
Was out for 2 hours in the morning and 2 more hours in the afternoon. It was a perfect gardening day. Overcast and about 17 degrees. I dug out a couple of stones and lots of pinks. Reset the edging stones by the entry way to the strawberry patch. Took one paver, a couple of rocks that I liberated from the back little rockery, the old bit of cedar bark mulch that is mostly decomposed, some chicken grit, and some pea gravel, 2 little tufa rocks from one of the white pots on the deck, two of the pink pots - one with a foxglove in it, one little bit of dianthus. I weeded and picked the bamboo off the front garden rooms. I see that the milkweed from Dave is finally up. Should get blossoms this year. I pulled off the bachelor buttons from around it. Have to dig them all out, some day. The foxgloves look good in the front of that bed and they hide the David a bit. The Siberian irises are blooming but something keeps knocking the blooms over. Birds? They too hide the david. I have to keep the messy bachelor buttons out of there. I see where one of the sages planted in that little bed has died. I am going to have to come up with something nice, and tall to put in that area behind the milkweed. The wooly thyme is blooming. I did a bit of work on the gold rock wall and added a bit of soil from the holes I dug out to put the genetians in. one to go beside the Sandy plant and one across the stone path from it. I added the composted bark mulch into these holes. I think the gentians want peat moss. I shall get some tomorrow from Cannor when I get my fish. I emptied a little pink pot with a white foxglove in it to the end of the reno, by the smoke bush, and another one emptied and the soils sits end of the reno where the spare rocks are. I dug out the red mossy saxifragia from the back rockery (it seemed to be drying out) and put it in the top of the reno by the gold rock wall where I added the paver to keep the montebretias out. This spot now has the 2 saxifragias from the back. I put to little bits of tufa rock from the white pot between them. Sandy's campanula is doing very well. I hope the gentiana likes it in that spot, too. So I added chicken grit around the saxifragias and the other sax, hens and chickens and the gold ball thing. Also put some pea gravel down on these plants. I must water all the suff in.

June 13, 2020
Was nice and cool out today. Was out from 11:00 to 3:00 so, 4 hours. Weeding, preparing the beds for the saxifragias, and the gentians (3), at the front. Dead headed the roses. I seemed to spend a lot of time moving little rocks around, and mixing different soils into the planting holes for the gentians. Still planning where to put the gentians. We had a half inch of rain yesterday, but the beds seem to have just sucked it all up. The thyme circle is in bloom. The roses look good. Thyme circle looks good is in bloom. Have to keep picking the bamboo leaves off of it. Dead headed roses.

June 14, 2020
To Cannor - got 4 comments 2 - 3 ", heliotrope, 10 L of peat moss. The gentians need it. Got 3 pair cotton gloves at Canadian Tire. Nice cool day, wasted in the house resting. The humming birds have been eating their food again since I cleaned up the feeder. The honeysuckle is in bloom. Needs more sun. Its a scraggly thing anyway. Might throw it out. Not sure what to do with the tall white pot. Maybe just put the dragon on it, on the blue thin piece of slat, with the rocks from the railing with it. It doesn't need sun.

June 15, 2020
Cool day with bits of rain most of the day. Didn't amount to much moisture... less than 1/4 inch. Straightened the rocks on the waterfall. Took the bin out to empty tomorrow... at last. Spent some time reading gardening stuff. Did laundry.

June 16, 2020
Was 14 degrees this morning with lots of dark clouds. Was out from 10 to 12. Moved the big floppy gentian, adding peat moss/pea gravel/sand and composted bark mulch. Later added compost from the back bin.Transplanted the heliotrope into the big pink pot which is now on the patio. Dug holes for the other gentians. Picked bamboo leaves off the thyme circle. The thyme circle is in bloom and is filling in nicely. Was out in the afternoon from 2 to 4. Dug out the other 2 gentians and put them into their holes with the same mix plus compost from the back bin. The stemless or acaulis is now beside the campanula glomerata (Sandy plant) which is now in bloom and looking very nice. Dark purple blooms. It would be a good plant for the cutting garden, maybe! The cutting garden is evolving, of course. Added more pea gravel mulch to the new transplants in the front reno. The red hens and chickens are growing nicely. They are in the level below the floppy gentiana. Hopefully the blue of the gentian will look good against the red of the hens and chickens and the white of the chicken grit. I am getting the new reno expanded to its edges with the rocks moved about. The lava rocks match each other in color and form. This is more like the Beth Chatto flat rock garden than it is like the crevice gardens that Paul Spriggs is so fond of. But his crevice gardens look really good. Hope my Saxifragias like it in the flat rock garden. Going to move the ones in the pots with their tufa rock... maybe before the leaf fall! The little back rockery will need some plants. I think I have a lewisia of some kind along with the little ones that go to seeds and the little spruce, a nice big daphne and a smaller one. The new alyssum, the globularias might survive. I have to get more compost added to that little rockery. The plant in the strawberry jar is doing great, but it too needs more compost. The moss like thing schel... is doing ok but should probably be divided and given more compost, too. I had a little time to start weeding the strawberry patch and move the woody branches to the back woodland. Also had a look at the cutting garden. Its pretty shady for a cut garden. oh well.

June 17, 2020
Was out in the morning from 10 to 12. Was about 15 degrees. Watered the house plants, the deck and patio plants, all with the watering can. Watered around the edges of the deck a bit. was out in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30. It got quite a bit warmer and was very hot in the sunshine. I was mostly in the shade. Reset some rocks that were messed about on the waterfall. The light was on last night, but I did not notice the rocks being moved until I went out after lunch. Reset the mermaid to its spot by the pendula willow. Dug weeds and picked twigs out of the straw berries, and most of the weeds out of the cutting garden. Put 10 kg of mushroom manure on the strawberries. Dug out most of the rhubarb, I should be able to move strawberries to that spot. Turned the water on to the back before I came in at 3:30. That side of the back should be getting a good watering, except the stuff along beside the garage. Shall have to set up the sprinkler to do the water garden and the fig tree bed. Should work if I do not turn the water on all the way. There was a swallow tail butterfly around in the morning. It did not seem to be able to find any nectar to its liking. The maltese cross is in bloom by the fig tree. The humming bird checked it all out. I have seen a few fish zipping around on the bottom. Gave the pond and the tub a bit more water today. The honeysuckle is in bloom. At the front the French lavender is still in bloom. The little erodium at the back is in full bloom, as is the light blue thing that hangs over the stone wall by the rhodo is looking lovely and cool. It seems to like the shade. So the patio area is looking pretty good. Paul's pots and the bamboo pieces make it look a bit messy, though. Read the May VIRAGS news letter. Interesting article about a little Trillium. Diane Whitehead has some of them. Real plant people, like Ceska, etc. know about this plant and Diane has grown hers from seed, I think. The picture of them in her garden looks like they are growing in a crevice of a mossy rock. Moved the sprinkler to cover the fig tree and the pond area, at 4:40. It is doing a pretty good job. I would need to water the trees bordering the Pees place, by hand.

June 18, 2020
Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Cleaned up the rhodos. Dug out the old purple hellebore and put a couple of pieces under the deck. Did not dig them in. Don't care if they die. Dug and pulled out the smelly things from under the rhodos. They too were taking over the rhodo bed. Pulled off all the seed heads on the rhodos and the azylea, gave them a few hands full of peat moss. Need to give them rhodo food before watering them again. Was out in the afternoon for about an hour. It got up to 23 degrees with a 7 uv rating. Too hot. Finished cleaning the front of the moss garden along the stepping stones and around the entry way to the pond area. I ran into an ant hill and moved to the moss garden by the lantern to clean a bit. Hope the little lizards find those ants.

June 19, 2020
Yesterday, sometime after getting in from the garden and leaving for our dinner at the Finest at Sea, I saw about a dozen ants running around. This is disgusting. I thought we were finished with ants. I put out some Ant Out on the window sill. When we got back from our supper out in the van, there were dozens of ants in the ant out. I thought they were stuck in the stuff. Late at night I checked on them. There were very few ants left. Since I could not sleep I photoshopped a few photos for the May blog. Finally got back to sleep. This morning I was too tired to go out and garden. There were one or two ants. Now at 5:30 there are no ants. So, tomorrow morning I will dump out the plastic ant traps, and hope they have all gone forever. I did up two blog posts with the photos. It was 22 degrees but overcast. Pictures around the garden. I should water the transplanted gentians.

June 21, 2020
Yesterday was cool and bits of rain that never amounted to much. Did blog posts. Tweaked more photos and looked up plants for my garden room lists. The ants were all gone. Watered a bit at the front. The big gentian seems to be reovering. The other 2 look fine. The thyme circle is in bloom. The campanula glomerata is gorgeous. Later in the day when I was making supper I discovered that the ants were in the dishwasher! For crying out loud! I had run the dishwasher cycle earlier in the day. So, after supper I ran it again.
Today: I could not sleep last night for worrying about these wretched ants. So I was up from about 2 to 4 am. Tweaked a bunch of photos and looked up plants in my old hand written garden journal. Oh dear, I killed a lot of plants back then and put far too many trees in, that became too big and had to be taken out. I seem to have them under control now, more or less. Fall is busy with collecting all the leaves from the sweet gum tree. It is definitely not a low maintenance garden. So, there were 2 or 3 ants in the dishwasher this morning. I am going to have the cleanest dishes in town if I have to wash them twice. Spent the morning doing more photos, looking up plant information and recording some of it in the garden rooms. After lunch I was out from about 2 to 4:30. Cut out bamboo shoots, watered around the front and back by hand. Was only a light watering, but I am sure it was more than the rain we got yesterday. Picked bamboo leaves of the thyme circle. Dead headed the rhodo behind the old garage. Pulled out bind weed from the driveway strip. Found another CC bottle in the spirea bush in the boulevard garden. I think the gentians are going to be ok.

June 22, 2020
Was a nice day. Got to 23 degrees. Did laundry, watered deck plants. Did a blog post. Used up all the processed photos.

June 23, 2020
Was another nice day. Some clouds but high UV rating. Watered lightly around the front by hand. The big gentian can use all the help it can get. The two smaller ones are doing growing after their move from the back to the new renovation in the front. Yesterday I got a message from Paul S. that he was going to be around sometime 'this week' for the pots. I told him that I would have one of Rex's cement pots to be sent to a good home. Said he would put one of Rex's saxifrages in it. So, this morning about 10:00 I made a spot ready for the saxifragia that was in the pot, in the front litte rockery with the others by the little gold wall. Added some chicken grit to the mix for drainage after getting the plant settled in. Added a bit of the tufa rock grit I have onto the newly moved saxifragias. I see that the bottom half of the pot was sand and the saxafragia's roots did not extend into the sand at all. So it is now sitting on this bed of sand, only with some of the soil mixed into it. I guess they need better drainage than I have been giving them. Watered all the new stuff by hand with the watering can. Moved one of the lilies that survived to the back of the new reno. Not too hopefull about these lilies. They need a lot of feeding, and I do not need another project. Put the montebretias back into their cage. They are all getting really big and have lots of buds. Feast for the hummers soon. Just after we had our lunch, I found that I had a message from Paul saying he had just got the pots. This must have happened while we were having lunch. Neither Pat nor I noticed! Well, Paul took all the clay pots I had put out there and the plastic ones. He was especially pleased to have the old Butchart gardens cement pot. Meanwhile, Harvey and Valerie are coming over tomorrow and we have a play date arranged to pick up or lunches and go to the Gorge park. We are taking the LTV for washrooms. We can use it with the canopy out if it rains. So we got some lunch salads and ice cream cups. Pat might pack the big table that they used at the swap meet. Being the veteran travellers that we are, this should be fun! Last night I could not sleep so I was up for about 3 hours tweaking photos for the next blog post. Did some more of this after lunch and our trip to the LB store and Thrifty's in the western communities. Was a nice little trip with a very light scattering of rain drops. Am glad I watered the little gentians and saxifragias. It was very hot and muggy, but we did not get the thunderstorm I was hoping for. Oh well. Lovely supper of the lobster tails that Pat had brought home the other day. Very nice day despite being not as well rested as I should have been. Got more photos tweaked and ready for the blog post. It is 5:00 am on the 24th as I type this.

June 24, 2020
My computer did its Disk check and I was here to make it enter Windows 10 with the F8 and the Enter keys. Everything is fine with the disks. No rain yet. I was hoping the promised rain would be over by our noon time lunch with Harvey and Valerie. The birds should be singing soon.

June 26, 2020
Yesterday did a blog post and some plant names and info stuff. Did not go out. Today I was out from 9 to 12. It seemed quite nice and cool. Its 25 degrees and overcast now as I type this at 2:00 o'clock. I cleaned up the iberis and the magnolia bed plants. Dave's milkweed has 4 or 5 stems coming up. I have weeded its area. I must give it some compost. I think there may be anoter milkweed in that spot. Also, I think there might be 2 of the soulmate milkweeds growing in the old orange tree pots. I will see if they bloom. and then research when the best time to move them might be. Maybe early winter? I dead headed the roses. Picked the bamboo leaves off the thyme circle, clipped back the cedar hedge just back of the sundial circle. There is the hebe, the valerine, the gas plant and some very nice campanulas blooming along there. They need compost. The thyme circle is blooming. The geum and the sedum need to be deaded yet. Watered by hand a bit around the roses, the new rock plants, the trilliums, etc. Was out from 3:00 to 4:30. Dug compost out of the bin and put it around the campanulas, etc. by the cedar hedge at the front, by the sun dial circle. Put some on the empty sun dail circle area too. Brought another cement paver from behind the pond and dug it part way into the little rockery bed from the gold wall back to meet the other cement paver to finish the edge of what is to be the saxifragia bed, maybe. Well one of the tufa rocks can go there, anyway. I need several more flat gold rocks to complete the little wall. Went to the back to do some weeding and found that some rocks had slipped into the pond. Reset stones on the waterfall. Fetched the rocks out of the pond by reaching in. Reset one of them. The other ones with the thin blue slate need to be relevelled. Had no more enery for it. Something dug the dill seeds out of the trough. No wonder I cannot get them to germinate. Looks like rodents of some kind. I guess I will have to buy some prestarted dill plants if I am ever going to get dill growing in my garden. The temperatures are down to 20 degrees by 5:00 and its cloudy. Sure hope we get a good rain.

June 27, 2020
Was a cooler day, with some wind. Spent the am downloading and reading some scottish gardening e-magazine. Spriggs et all in Scotland building a special crevice garden to match the old one that was there. In the afternoon we went to Canadian Tire for bathroom parts, to London Drugs for my stuff. Back home by 3:00 and I went out to the garden. Got quite a few things done. Tied back the Magnolia branch that was blowing over the driveway. Reset a rock by the pond and cleaned up a bit along by the clematis. Weeded the stepping stones, digging out that orange smelling tri-colored plant that is growing everywhere. The primulas in that area are spreading out like crazy. I had cut back the white azalea and now I see where the stepping stone needed to be moved. Did that, and while digging out the big flat stone I found a long yellow brick beneath it. Well! This is what I needed for the gold wall in the little rockery at the front. Added the brick, beneath a nice real gold rock to raise the wall a bit. Did a bit more rock moving in that wall area to get a nice looking 'wall' from the hebe on down to the iberis. I think I may put one of the tufa rocks by the gold wall at the top level and the other tufa rock at the bottom level. I must be sure to give these plants lots of sand for drainage. They are saxefragias and have shallow root systems with good drainage beneath; according to what I saw in the Rex Murfitt pot. Found that there was one of the sumac branches dragged over the electrical cord to the van, and the bleeding heart plant is stomped down and laying flat. There was a piece of a branch holding the bleeding heart against the garage. This branch seems to be missing, too. Pulled bind weed off this area of the woodland. That stuff grows like crazy. Added some compost from the old bin to the primula side of the new rock installation by the white azalea. The primula bed is now more defined with the hellore gone and the white azalea under control.

June 28, 2020
We had about 1/5 inch of rain last nite. When I checked the front plants I could not even tell that there had been a rain. But there is quite a bit of water on the water table. Fran's 100th b-day celebration via Zoom. She had a wonderful day. She was so excited about all the people that had come to see her from in town, and then several family were on zoom. After our late lunch I was out from 2:00 to 3:35. It was about 23 degrees. I picked the bamboo leaves off the thyme. Then weeded the stepping stones area from the entry to the strawberry patch over to the first step up to the pond... under the little red Japanese maple. The moss has been neglected this past year. Removed lots of leaves, blue eyed grass and debris. There were too many ants around! Cleared the stone path and hope to get the moss and mint growing between the stones again. It needs more water. But once I have things under control it should be easier to find the time to water. We are still not encouraged to travel out of province and the border between US and Can. is closed except for essential travel. I am getting more done in the garden which is all fine with me.

June 29, 2020
Was out in the morning from 9 to 11. clipped the spirea bush in the boulevard garden back a bit. Clipped off some bamboo shoots. Straightened the little gold wall. Looks like some animal was rooting around in it. At the back I weeded from the little red maple up to the mountain laurel (which is finished blooming. Moved the lantern to beside the old plum tree stump. is much better there. The bed around the stump is a bit wild. It has some very tall dutch irises that are mostly yellow. I am thinking of putting them at the back of the pond and maybe get some lower growing things for that bed. It is looking too weedy now with columbines, the too tall irises and the blue eyed grass stuff. The corsican mint is growing really good in the dry stream. I am going to move it out of the dry stream and try to get it to grow along the stepping stones path at the back and the front. Moved another gold rock to the front. The violets are getting under control. It was 20 degrees when I went out and is now 23 at noon. did up the columbines in May blog post. When I was going out at 1:30 there were ants on the counter top. Cleaned off all the things and sprayed the ants and the counter top with disinfectant and left it all until I got back in at 3:30. Cleaned it all up. This seems to be a never ending chore. The ant bait does not seem to kill them. While out from 2:00 to 3:30 I cleaned up the moss garden from the mountain laurel to the edge of the deck. The dry stream gathered a lot of moss. I weeded and moved moss onto the bare spots. I really should water it all in. Maybe tomorrow. The moss in the shade on the dry stream was nicely damp. So, this is what a stone mulch and the rocks in the rock gardens do for the plants. Keep the moisture in the root zones. Clipped the lebanon cedar a bit. I have some weeding around the pond to do yet. The bed where the stump is, is not really all that bad for weeds, but I do need to get some lower growing plants in there and they will need better soil. Unless I make it into an extension of the moss area. I will need to collect leaves and twigs off the Cutting garden. First I mow the grass and pay some attention to the woodland.

July 2020

July 1, 2020
Yesterday was in the house all day with the laundry, a blog post and more photos tweaked. The beef short ribs were very good. We had a tiny bit of rain over night.
It is a cooler day today. Watered the deck plants and dead headed everything. Actually saw the 2 fish in the tub. The irises, globe flower, verbascum, saxes, are all finished blooming. Downloaded and reviewed June photos. Went out from 1:30 to 3:30. It is only 17 degrees. Mowed the grass. Dumped a bag full of clippings from the front into the old compost bin and a half a bag full into the green bin. Emptied the black bag into the green bin. It is now about half full. So, perhaps I can start cutting up the brush pile. Cut out some wisteria sprouts that are growing on everything behind the firethorn. The apples are really growing. The berries on the holly are quite big, and abundant and green.

July 2, 2020
Was about 17 degrees. Watered around the front. Took about 2 hours in the am and another hour after lunch.

July 4, 2020
Yesterday it was rainy all day. Had rained the night before. I can't believe that we only had the 1/5 of an inch of rain that the gage showed. It only got up to about 16 degrees. Tweaked photos for the blog and looked up more plants for the lists.
Today it is 21 degrees and partly cloudy. Watered the house plants. Did the blog post. Have only a few left to do for May. Was out to take photos. Things mostly going to seed. The crocosimas (formerly montebretias) are in bloom. The humming birds do not seem to be enthralled with them, this year. But they have emptied their feeder! filled the humming bird feeder. Made coleslaw.

July 5, 2020
Messed about with computer stuff for most of the morning. After lunch we went to Thrifty's and got a spinach salad and 2 cold, cooked chicken legs. Put the stuff in the fridge and at 5:30 left in the Mercedes Manor to Cattle Point. Was a lovely supper. The spot was a bit full, but we got parked and enjoyed our dinner. By the time we had finished lots of cars with little boats had left and there was more spaces open. Was a sunny day. No gardening.

July 6, 2020
Was out this morning from about 9 to 11. Finished weeding around the pond, dead headed the water irises. It wasn't too bad for weeds, not many violets. There is a dwarf golden rod up. It is next to the newly positioned lantern. Re-positioned some of the rocks in the back little rockery. Hope it looks a little more like a rock outcrup now. I downloaded the Scottish rock garden's e-magazine and watched Spriggs and others make a crevice garden: trying to make it look like the natural rock outcrop just below this garden they were working in. They stand the stones on edge and close together to make these crevices. I have no idea how they get plants put into those crevices. Fed the fish. Saw 4 - 2 sarassa, a white one and 2 gold ones. Saw 2 really big black ones. Have no idea how they got so big before they were 2 years old. The big gentian seems to be doing a little better. I must keep an eye on its moisture level until it really gets going again. The other 2 gentians seem to be doing ok. One of them has its little blue flowers. From my notes it must be the Gentiana depressa. The flowers are just tiny. There are lots of violets coming up in the front rockery. wretched things. The houdini thing is popping up all around the rhodos. more wretched things. The plum tree stump is decaying. It might make a planting pot. Annuals would be best, as I do not know how much of it is going to rot down. Would hate to have an established plant sink into the ground. Watered at the back with the sprinkler and the pots on patio with the watering can. Took about 2 1/2 hours.

July 7, 2020
Was out from 8:30 to 12:00. Raked twigs and leaves off the strawberries and the cutting garden. Weeded them. Put some of the leaves and twigs on the rhodos. Hopefully this will provide some mulch and will breakdown. These are oak leaves. They seem to take longer to break down. The sumacs are sprouting all over the back woodland. I need to take the big old ones out and just leave one or two. There are thistles and sweet cicely that need to be taken out also. The green bin is almost full, so I guess I will just pile the things up until I can get them into the bin. It was a very good gardening day. Overcast and only about 18.

July 8, 2020
Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Was cool and cloudy. Got quite a bit of stuff done in the woodland. Pulling out sumacs, clipped back all the sweet cicely, thistles, morning glory. Clipped a bit on the Japanese cedar and the mock orange. Took off a branch of a sumac, cut its branches off down to a trunk sized log. These sumacs decay very fast and turn into what looks like good woodsy soil. Dead headed the little erodium that is beneath the grape. Took off some long branches of the grape. I have several piles of stuff lying around the woodland for chopping up and adding to the green bin. It will probably take another month or two to get rid of it all. I still have more to do in the woodland. Saw down the 3 old sumacs and all the branches. clip back the germander and the lovage, etc.

July 11, 2020
Doing medical stuff last couple of days, and blog photos and posts. Bits of rain over night and during today. Looked through the old plant purchases. Cannot find what is in the strawberry jar, or what the big leaf thing in the woodland is. I am going to get rid of it anyway. It seeds all over and crowds things out. Since I was out working in the woodland on the 8th I have some horrible insect bits on my leg and on my arm just above the elbow. Hopefully they will disappear soon. Don't know what the bug was. Have been feeding the fish. Saw the usual white one, 3 sarassas, a shubunkin, and the two big black ones. So, I suspect most of them are still in there. We changed the ant trap today, as it was full of ants.

July 12, 2020
Pictures at about noon. Too contrasty. The tall agave thing is in bloom. The crocosmias Lucifer are in bloom all over the garden. The st. John's wort is looking rather ragged. Malvas and campanulas in bloom. The glomerata is finished blooming. I think I will let it set seed. The balloon flowers under the fig tree are in bloom. The little campanula raineri in the back little rockery looks rather sick, with yellowing leaves. Perhaps it is just too old and I should take cuttings. The pansy orchid, the pixie orchid and the big magenta African violet plants are in bloom in the house. The heliotrop and the violas look very good in the pink pot on the patio. We have been promised rain 3 days this past week and have had no measureable rain at all. Maybe this is why the plants are all suffering from lack of moisture. The roses need dead heading and more water. I have never seen them look so ratty. The double day lillies look pretty good in the boulevard garden. I fished a dead slug out of the pond. I fed the fish and the big white one was around, so the thing was a slug and not the fish. I have not been out to the woodland to do any more cleaning since I got these horrible bug bites. Been looking up plants names and care. Did another blog post. Filled the hummingbird feeder at 5:00. Did another blog post. :)

July 13, 2020
Did laundry. Watered around the front a bit. Mostly the saxifragias, the gentians, the trilliums. There was a damaged morning cloak butterfly licking up water drops on the driveway. Should have had my camera! Did a blog post and have photos for the next one tweaked. Was mostly sunny and got up to 23 today.

July 15, 2020
Sunny warm day. 22 degrees. Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Dragged the pile of tree prunings to the bin. Have about half of them cut up and put into the bin. Its almost full again. Have to leave room for the house compost. Cut down 2 more sumacs to about 3 or 4 feet. Cut some of the branches up, and so have more stuff to go into the green bin, eventually. Water by hand around the back for about an hour. Everything except under the deck and on the Syrians side of the garage got a bit of water. Added some to the tub in the woodland. It was very shady in the back part of the garden. The pond was getting the most sun. The little rockery was shaded and so was the strawberry patch and the cutting garden. Still have more cleaning up in the woodland to do. I find it hard to take out plants, even if they really need to be taken out. The tall bearded Irises have never bloomed. Don't know what the problem is. They have nice green leaves. Probably need to be thinned out, and perhaps better drainage. The stuff directly behind the old garage needs to be thinned out too. The germander needs clipping down. I sure don't know why everything on that side of the hedging trees grows so well.

July 17, 2020
It got up to 24 degrees today. Watered the house plants and the deck plants. Tweaked photos and did a blog post. Not very inclined to go out gardening lately. Roses need dead heading. Everything needs watering.

July 18, 2020
Was up to 23 today. Watered all around the back. Attached the gold sprinkler to do the woodland and both sides of the old garage. Clipped grapes and fig tree a bit. Dead headed the heliotrope. Hope it gets more blossoms. This watering took from 12:30 to 4. I have 10 more photos tweaked for the next blog post.

July 19, 2020
It is 26 degrees. We have a bit of breeze going through the house, though. Out for lottery tickets and a bit of a drive. Did a blog post. Filled the humming bird feeder with 3 cups. Seems like they slurp it all up in a matter of minutes! I have bought Michelle Obama's book and am tearing through it. Unlike the book by Mary Trump, who's book is just depressing and not that well written either. Learned how to bring the wide angle or whatever it is into proper alignment using new layer/edit/Transform/Skew and pull out the bottom corners and a bit of the top corners pulled in then apply.

July 20, 2020
Another warm sunny day. I was up in the middle of the night last night because my pc screen was lit up. I have no idea why. My skype had quit working some time ago. So, I fixed that. Did a few photos, including finding the right name for my gentian depresso... which is CRUCIATA. Gentian Cruciata See the images. It got up to 28 today. Pat is doing a prime rib roast. With the fans in bathroom and the above the stove, it seems to be keeping things liveable. I got a long blog post done. Still have 3 or 4 posts to do.

July 21, 2020
Its 27 degrees at noon. We have a nice breeze going through the house so it is cooler. We are going to have a cold left overs supper so it should be nice all day in here. Pat started the fan in the bedroom yesterday, so that helps keep things cool, too. I am watering the front. Have dead headed the white rose and the wall flower. Put more chicken scratch around the sea thrift (Armeria) and the sempervivum (hens and chicks), and the saxifragias. Picked bamboo leaves off thyme circle.

July 22, 2020
Its 25 degrees at noon. Watered the deck plants. We have our day to get the new leveling jacks at Winkler. So we are to leave the house at 7:30 on July 29 to make our reservation on the ferry at 9:30. We are to arrive in Winkler and over night at their shop ? on Aug 5th. The work will take 7 or 8 hours on the 6th of Aug. So, I have, as usual been making lists. Have charged up my battery pack. Downloaded July photos, after taking a few. There was a dead frog on the back patio area so I had to dispose of it and hose off the patio area. Then watered around the back area a bit. Took 2 tall bamboo canes out of the cedars, stripped the branches.

July 23, 2020
Spent about an hour getting clothes ready for the trip to Winkler, in the morning. After lunch I mowed the grass back and front. Pruned the French lavender with the hedge trimmer. It worked pretty good. Moved the bamboo canes into the garage with the long ones up top of the rack of boards. The germander is just coming into bloom, so I only made one little cut at it with the mower. Put the back clippings into the old compost bin. Probably should not have done that as there is holly tree leaves in it. Started watering the back at 5:15. Earlier I filled the pond. Finished later in the evening. I seem to have more energy in the afternoon, as all this stuff went very well. It was 24 degrees. Tomorrow is suppose to be cooler.

July 25, 2020
Yesterday I did a bit of clean up in the front garden, picking leaves off the thyme circle, cut a bit of the sweet gum tree branch off where it was falling on the smoke bush. Looks much better now. Cut up the branch and have some for the wood stove. Took out another black bamboo cane and have it to move things around in the pond. Tweaked more photos for the Blog. Shopping run to the west shore stores in the afternoon. Today is another nice day. The weather app shows no rain for weeks. I will have to do up the plant care page for the Commissionaires when we are away to Winkler to get the new leveling parts for the LTV. Leaving at the crack of dawn on Wednesday 29th. I did up the complicated blog post, looked up a couple more plants and started the INNER garden room list.

July 26, 2020
Was 31 degrees at 3:30 today. Made cole slaw, potato salad, chicken salad, all to take on our trip. Moved the plants to by the deck door. Moved green bin out to curb. Made stuffed peppers for supper. Took a few things out to the van. So am organized to take things out tomorrow. The freezer might be too full... we will see. Is nice downstairs. We could have had our dinner down there. Also did a shopping trip to London Drugs. Got a lot done today. Now going to watch The Book of Negros.. the 3rd and 4th part of the series. I think there are 2 more... hope they are on tomorrow, before we leave.

July 28, 2020
Was up to 28 degrees today. Loaded stuff into the van almost all day. Phoned Sandy. To call her on the 7th ... Not good news about Ralph. Watered house plants, deck plants, patio plants. Unplugged the pump. Its going to be hot again...probably all week. We should be in air conditioned comfort.

August 2020

August 19, 2020
Got home yesterday. Unloaded a few things, was 20 degrees. Today I did 9 loads of laundry. Packed in the clothes, food and drinks. Remade the beds with clean bedding. Pat is washing the Benz. Registered the plates again. Phoned des jardins and used up our $430.00 of bonus dollars on ferry fare, campgrounds. The mermaid and stones were displaced on the waterfall. Fixed it and turned on the pump. I am going to get a drilled rock from that place downtown. (didn't get it) Everything in the garden is dry and overgrown. Dragged the light garden back into place. Filled the water tub on the deck. Now my Windows wants updating.

August 20, 2020
Rained a bit last night - about 1/4 inch. Added more water to the pond and the deck tub. The 2 fish survive in the deck tub. Saw a shubunkin, a couple of gold fish, the white fish in the pond. It is cooler today so I am roasting a whole chicken. Got the CCU transferred to a new page. All my pens had dried up and quit working. Finally got them all to print again. Charged up the keyboard yesterday and am charging up the mouse now. Tweaked the rest of the photos for June and did the last June post ... might do a Gorge Park one someday. Sent Valerie and Harvey a few pictures of our gorge park visit. The orchids are finished blooming. The Commissionaire guy sent photos of them to Pat when he first attended the home. So I guess that shows he was more aware of the care of the plants.

August 22, 2020
Cooler day, 21 degrees, some cloud. Email Trevor about anti virus web page, etc. Brought hotmail and facebook up to date. Cleaned up some of the email boxes. Checking for Nexus 5 purchase (jan. 2014) Don't know the price. Probably about $350 USD its battery is dying, now. Am waiting for the Pixel 5 in early October, or Sept. 30th. My Telus is good until November 7, 2020. Sorted what I need to do for web page re our 2020 Winkler trip.

August 23, 2020
Its 19 degrees at 10:00, sunny. Feels just right. Did the ironing. Put 2 cups of food in the humming bird feeder. The waterfall is running just fine and the pond is retaining its water.

August 24, 2020
23 degrees, nice day. Spent the morning making a chicken soup and making the post for the Benz page and for the travel page. Need to do the stuff for the Pre 1989 travel logue page. And then do all the menus to load. Have to download the pictures to get one for the Under construction page for 20 Winkler. Spent 1.5 hours out in the garden. Loaded the old pile of twigs and some of the newly cut back stuff from the fig tree and the grapes, to the green bin and took it to the curb. Added a few gallons of water to the back water tub. I saw one fish in there. I need to add more water tomorrow, to let this disapate the chlorine, so I do not kill the fish. Very tired from the heat.

August 25, 2020
About 23 degrees again. Did up some Web Page stuff on the trip to Winkler in the morning. And to the bank, the leather repair shop. In the afternoon I was out in the garden from 1:30 to 3:30. Cut back most of the crocosmias, raked the bamboo leaves off the grass and the thyme circle. Dragged the bin to the back and loaded the previously clipped fig leaves into it. Added another green pot full of water to the back water tub. The water in the pond looks really clear. Uploaded the 4 pages for the 20 Winkler trip. Refreshed the browser and they all work. Yeaa. No photo album, or long write up on the Pre 1989 travel logue

August 26, 2020
23 degrees, a bit of a breeze, but high uv index so the sun is very hot on my head. Wasted the morning trying to get my pats picks transferred to a new google finance. No luck. There is new Firefox browser that is going to need a look at. Maybe after I hear from Trevor about the up dates and web page stuff. While feeding the fish last evening I saw 2 gold fish, 2 sarossas, the white fish and 1 shubunkin. 6 of them. This afternoon I saw one of the big black fish that seems to be turning into a very nice blue shubunkin. I think I have at least 8 fish or more. My head seems to be in a muddle after that stuff this morning, and its too hot out. Pat is zipping around and getting all kinds of things done, including peeling the cucumber and slicing it for the cuke salad. I noticed a humming bird at the feeder ... they have finally found the filled up feeder. turned the sprinkler on at the back at 3:40. Added 1.5 cans more of water to the back tub. Saw both of the fish and fed them.

August 28, 2020
Emptied the deep freeze and let it defrost. Went out for groceries, etc. After lunch I started the travel logue page for the winkler album. Sunny day again. Yesterday I cleaned up the orchids. Threw out a cactus and a couple more orchids. They had ants in them. We have not been seeing ants anywhere since we have been back from our trip. Who knows where else they might be lurking.

August 30, 2020
Yesterday watered more out back. Had a problem with getting wifi in the back bedroom. Emailed Trevor about it. A half an hour later the thing was working again. Bloody hell. I dusted it off a bit, wonder if I touched something on it to make it go, or if just removing the dust did it. Went to pick up Greek food at the festival.
Today is a sunny day. Brought things up stairs from the downstairs freezer. Changed 2 tubes in the second tier of the light garden. The hummingbird is back to the feeder. Been slowly topping up the water gardens. I don't seem to have killed any fish. Been feeding the fish every day. Working on the "jump to" coding for the Pre1989 page of my web site. Had to delete everything I did yesterday and started over. Got the Jump to coding done.

September 2020

September 1, 2020
Actually this was done on August 31st. Did the laundry. Watered the deck plants and the fish tub. Talked to Luke and he Looked after the renewal of the antivirus, update software, tuneup computer, remove temp files. Forgot to mention the update of the CC Cleaner. Talked about killing my Win 7 and maybe use its drive for my web page when I get it moved from Godaddy. He said they will have a look at it and give me an estimate, in a few weeks. Trevor does the web page stuff. I think I will want to remove the "Guestbook" page, maybe keep the old blog but get a new word press for a blog ... I would like to know if they can give me an album making program that is attached to my page where I can make changes to any album, directly. Or build the album as I go along... directly on the page. Will send them a cheque for $119.00. Got a couple of recipes copied and added to the folder. Made the potato salad, and the salmon loaf for supper ... just have to cook it. The temperatures got up to 20 degrees today. Did up the banking stuff.

September 1, 2020
Shopped at bit, made red cabbage for supper and 2 pkgs frozen. Made the corn, beans, rice stuff going to have some for supper tomorrow and have 2 frozen. Pat peeled the cucumber and I made the dressing for the salad. All this chopping stuff and cooking took until time to make the supper. In the morning I got some of the Journal Entries pages typed up for the 2020 Winkler trip. Uploaded to web page. All the new menus work.

September 2, 2020
It got up to 25 degrees today. Have up to the 17th of August of the Journal Entry pages finished, only 3 or 4 more to go. I thought I would be finished them in no time and have time to garden. I was up at 6:00 and emptied the dishwasher and thought this would give me a nice start. Oh well. While feeding the fish today I saw a tiny one... it already looks like a shubunkin. I haven't seen either of the 2 big black ones lately, not even when I feed them, but I am sure they are still in there. We only usually see 6 of them at a time. Both of the humming birds have found the feeder and are quickly emptying it. The pixie orchid is in bloom again, 3 blossoms.

September 3, 2020
Mucked about with DropBox for half the day. Thought I could have my files on off line in the dropbox. Got them half moved to open off line and discovered I was going to run out of storage space on my phone... had to go and switch the off line button back. Instead of doing them all individually again I went to Dropbox and deleted all its data etc. This effectively lost everything I had in there of course, so had to go get it all back, somehow, don't remember how. But Drop box has a new password, and it will continue to cost me $155.88 for the 2 GB of storage. Wasted the rest of the day and on into the night fixing the Drop box. It now works and the new stuff for 2020 that I loaded is showing on the web site. Searched some Pixel 5 stuff. Pixel 5 rumoured to be out Sept 30 and cost 699 USD = 917.1929 CAD. So by the time I add ear buds and case I will be over $1200.00. plus tax $150 = 1350.00. Now I see I have Canon Image stuff to look at. It got up to 25 degrees today. Pat clipped back the virginia creeper and has the green bin heaping full.

September 4, 2020.
Filled the pond and added another green can full of water to the tub at the back. Did not see the fish back there. The 2 in the deck tub survive. Everything in the garden is really dried up. The mossy saxifrage is all dried up and so is the floppy gentian. I am going to start weeding and pruning, again, all over the garden. The heathers look good, and the autumn crocus. Lots of grapes. Checked the plum tree and could see only one plum on the tree. Very few small ones on the ground. While feeding the fish I noticed the gold fish sitting very still, not moving at all. I may have added too much chlorinated water. Oh Oh. I did see the little shubunkin, the big white faced shubunkin, a gold one with a white tail, 2 or 3 sarossas, the white one, and a smaller gold one(comet) for a total of 7 or 8. Have not seen the big black ones, but they must be in there. Had a nap in the afternoon. Piddled about on the PC for the rest of the afternoon. Downloaded my Apple books but cannot seem to read them, in fact, cannot find where they downloaded to. I can play my apple music from itunes.... there is an icon in the task bar.

September 5, 2020
Yesterday, I mucked about with itunes stuff, got my id and password from Pat. Found my books and downloaded them... God knows where they downloaded to! They are not in Microsoft's downloads. Figured out how to make icons for desk top and made a note of it. Keeping a copy of it in the new computer file.
Today: Finished the Journal entries for our 2020 trip to Winkler and back, and loaded them to the page. They work. Mucked about on Playnow. Out for a nice drive and got lottery tickets. It is a very lovely day. Too bad we have not had some rain, though. Everything is very dry. Yesterday I thought I had a dead fish in the pond. I got the skimmer thing and went to dip it out. Well, it was just a leaf! It looked so much like a gold fish, even had a spot that looked like an eye. I tweaked the waterfall. Added a bit more water to the pond. Moved the little fountain thing into the sun. Fed the fish: holy moly! the tiny fish is turning more and more gold colored and eating with all the other fish. There were several all black ones, smaller than the gold ones, but way bigger than the tiny one. I also saw one of the huge semi black ones.. it is looking a kinda bronze color. So the colored ones must be at least 3 inches, and the all black ones would be about 1.5 inches, the big black/bronze ones must 4 or more inches. We are to have Greek food for supper. I am not going out to garden cause I need to go help get the Greek food. I must get out tomorrow.

September 6, 2020
Got up to 24 degrees today. Made cranberries, capiccinno, fed and watered deck and house plants. Cleaned up all the plants. Moved a couple of pots into the garage. Transplanted an orchid into the last of the orchid mix. Found that my printer was stuck on scan. Bloody hell! Mucked about with it and could not get it to go. Says my note book files are corrupted. yeah right. So, emailed Trevor and Luke. Going to be another couple hundred dollars I suppose. Cut back the cedars by the downspout of the deck corner. Took down the ugly trellis and cut out the ugly honeysuckle. Pat is going to get someone in to fix the downspouts in the front and the one at the back corner of the deck. Another few hundered dollars no doubt. Last night I figured out what to do about the April album photos, but did not get time to do any of them today. Oh well... this is not something life threatening and neither is the printer. I suppose I can copy the stuff I need and paste it in an email to Pat... about the Triple E table.

September 9, 2020
Is 26 degrees, very high uv index. Pat is out in this hot sun fixing the drain pipe.. up and down the ladder. I cleaned the big bathroom, which included the window which was very grundgy. Took 2 hours. Wiped up spots on the dining room carpet. vacumed my room, big bath room. Yesterday and day before was doing computer stuff. Luke told told me how to use my camera, it also has the microphone in it. It worked well with the Zoom. Had the first Zoom meeting with the VIRAGS. It went well for me. Some people did not get on. Luke will be here on Friday to fix my printer. Lillos might be around also. The garden is soooo very dry. Haven't watered for awhile. Seems like the Fall rains are never going to come.

September 10, 2020
Got up to 30 degrees. vaccumed dining room, living room, entry, in the suite, pats room, stairs. Watered around the front a very little bit. It is soo hot out. Finished Page 13 for the April album. Sorted the rest and reduced the pages by 2, for a total of 22 pages.

Sept 11, 2020
My internet connection quit. Phoned Shaw techie and he tried to get me to unplug and restart the computer, and to try the plugins for a loose or unplugged one. Then Luke was over early to fix the printer thing, only to find that I was off the internet. He found the unplugged modem on the back of the Amlifi. Then he found the disabled LAN and fixed the printer. Then we talked of removing the Windows 7, and about Trevor being willing to take on the task of my web page. So they will phone me next week about a time to come and get my computer to take off the Win 7. This might be a good time for Trevor to see the files on my web page and all. I showed Luke how I access Godaddy. He said that the hosting with C panel is what Trevor uses. And that they are getting quite a few people moving their web page hosting to Canada. So, I am quite happy about this too. Although, I know it is going to cost me some big bucks. Hope they can get some back from Godaddy. Pat too is having an event filled day. He received the table leg adjustments stuff for the Benz and reviewed it. He is quite excited about it. It is going to be easy for him to do and its going to be great he says!

Sept 14, 2020
We have had fairly heavy smoke over BC for about the last week. It is coming from the horrible fires in the west coast of the US... from California to Washington. Harry and Rosalie to visit 2 days ago for lunch. Good visit. Cooler weather for the past 3 or 4 days. I did the laundry today and a bit of gardening. Have the green bin about 1/4 full from the old clippings that would not fit into the bin last time, and some of the sumac branches and dried lovage stems. Everything is pretty dry all around the garden. The heathers and the autumn crocuses, cyclamens, white rose in bloom. I picked the grapes... we have about a cup full of them. Very tasty. They are really ripe and beginning to fall. I dead headed the white rose. There are still fish in the woodland tub and in the deck tub. Filled the pond with a bit more water. There seemed to be 2 sarossas, one shubunkin, 2 gold fish, the white fish, 2 tiny fish that are changing colors, the big black one, at least one of the big ones. Did not see any of the medium sized black ones, but I imagine they are in there. It started to sprinkle a bit at 5:00. I see I had left the fish food can, open on the deck table. The food got a bit damp, so I have it in the house to dry out. Pat got the new table in the van set up. I need to get out and get pictures. It should allow us to get from the front seats to the back easily, now; as we leave the table set up all the time. He is quite happy with it.

Sept. 16, 2020
We have had a bit of rain yesterday. The smoke is clearing a bit today with some westerly winds blowing it to Alberta. It is about 21. Trevor is trying to get Godaddy to let him access my files. They are not playing nice, he says. Everything I have read about trying to move to other hosting place from them has said exactly that. So his estimate of time/money billed will have to go up. Bloody hell! My web site still shows as being on line, with the same mistakes on the blog page that I tried to correct the other day.(at 5:00 pm) so I guess Godaddy still have it. I could not download my backups earlier today. I do not want to sign on again, until Trevor gets it moved. I have 6 fish showing up when I feed them plus the big black one, a tiny gold one and another tiny one looks like a shubunkin; and then there are medium sized black ones. I seem to have lost a really nice shubunkin that I have a picture of from a couple of years ago. The one I have now is not very colorful.. no orange, and very little blue on it. I have finished page 14 and half finished page 15 for the April album.

September 19, 2020
Have been doing web site pages clean up, remove Godaddy SSL badges, for the last couple of days. Am up to the JE pages, where I am taking off the long menues and adding the short ones. Am trying to plan a feedback forum kind of place instead of the old guest book. Have to run this by Trevor when he gets the hosting stuff sorted out. At the moment my page is still on line, and Godaddy has done backup for today. I don't want to go download it, as it did not work last time I tried to do that. Must talk to Trevor before I do anything with/on go daddy account.
Today has been cloudy. Most of the smoke is gone. Dipped a few leaves, etc out of the pond. This was partly done in search of my little fountain spray thing. The last picture I had of it was on the 7th, and then it was not there on the 17th. I think I just noticed it gone about 3 or 4 days ago. I assumed this to be the baby pee's work, of course. I could not find it in looking around the pond area or in the pond. So, I put my camera on its zoom and searched the pond. LO! I found it. It seemed to be stuck between the side nearest the deck and the hose that ran to the waterfall. Fished it out. No sun today, so I won't know if it still works, until I get some sun. I sure don't understand how it could get stuck like that, as it floats and should not dip below that under water hose.
While out watching the fish, I saw a greenish gold bird. I do believe it is a female gold finch. It has been around for a couple of days. I must get some sunflower seeds for it. I had put bread out on the deck railing.... very little eaten, so I dumped it in the green bin, as it may even have been attracting rats. There is a bird feeder in the garage. I would like to rig it up on a string that I could hang from the oak tree. Squirrels and rats would have a hard time crawling down a twine, I think. Or maybe I could use some of my fine wire for this operation. I will enlist Pat's aid, if he will. I think he likes figuring out problems like this. I would have trouble going up the ladder to hang it. It has to hang low enough for me to reach it. Wish I could see it. Maybe the yews will have to be reduced in size. They were originally planted for privacy, but the cedars have grown tall enough. With the yews cut down to a regular hedge height might let more light into the cutting garden too. If the yews were 4.5 ft. high I could hang the feeder at 5 feet to see the birds. I think they would look better as the back drop to the pond if they were shorter, too.

September 21, 2020
A momentous day for my web page. Trevor and Luke have my files from Godaddy and are loading them to their servers today. I am to stand by for them to finish cause Luke will contact me by phone and get me signed in to the account, and show me how to operate the FTP, etc. Next week on the 28 he is going to be at the house to make the changes to take off the Win 7. I must ask him if that drive could be used for my web page. Have more questions about the web page. Apparently Godaddy had 676 files, and Luke could only see about 140 in my folder. I mentioned that the folders; ie: the made albums might account for the difference. And yes, their FTP loads folders. So, at 4:00 Luke has not called back yet. Must have got an emergence call or something or trouble with the Godaddy files. So, I did up another page for the April album. 6 pages to go.
Otherwise, I cannot go out to garden. It is a cooler cloudy day. The green bin is only about half full and has to be put out tonite for early tomorrow pickup. C'est la vie! September 22, 2020
This morning at 3:30 or so I get an email from some godaddy address (GoDaddy Monitoring Subject line: GoDaddy Monitoring: http://mmmee.com - Warning Cleared ::: saying and I quote:
Site clean, malware-free and not blacklisted.
Site name: https://mmmee.com/
List of links scanned:
( there were no links indicated just blank lines
This message was generated automatically.
GoDaddy Inc.
https://godaddy.com
unquote
sent it to Trevor and Luke. Yesterday I was searching with Google about how to get a refund from Godaddy. Seems like they are suppose to have 6,000 people employed. They must all be out sourced people to be working at this hour of the night. No one ever seems to get a refund from them. Maybe Trump should be thinking about tweeting about what he is going to do to Godaddy, next. My bill with Trevor and Luke is sure going to be a humdinger. They are worth it. I am typing this at 4:18 a.m. Just another premonition keeping me awake. When all is said and done I hope Trevor can write one his warnings up on his site. Here is something of interest about godaddy in decline: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-GoDaddy-RVW20292735.htm Written by Godaddy.
Trevor contacted me by remote. He set up my FileZilla FTP. typed out the instructions on snip and sketch app.. it does mouse writing and ink colors and stuff. Its kinda cool. But I messed up my printer trying to print his instructions. Oh well... Luke will fix it when he is here next Monday. The FileZilla ran nearly 10,000 files. A few files had to some choices of what to do with them.. I mostly said 'resume'. There were 10 of them. I must make a note of them. and check them out when my site is up and running on Trevor and Luke's servers. I am so glad I had organized that web page folder by taking out a lot of old files re godaddy and saving them into a web page godaddy folder. I am sooo tired. I was up last nite from 3:30 to about 5:30 looking at that wretched Godaddy stuff. And we are not finished with them yet!!!
We had about 1/4 inch of rain in the gage over the past few days. We are to get a good rain the end of the week.

September 24, 2020
It rained all day yesterday and last night. I emptied the rain gage this morning at 9:00. .5 of an inch, again.
Yesterday I made cabbage rolls and have 3 pans full to freeze. Did a row of the April album.
Today am doing laundry, as I missed last Monday's washday. Shaw cable was down last night from about 1:30 to 2:30. There was to have been thunder and lightning storms, so I suppose that might have been something to do with it. I was estactic to see that my web page is now on line on the new servers with Trevor! Shopped in the Western communities after lunch for scallops, chicken legs, a big ham. Have the ham in the oven to cook it a bit before I divide it up. Have the tongue cooking in the pressure cooker. All done by 3:00

September 25, 2020
Emptied the rain gage of 1 inch of rain this morning. There has been some light rain since then. Packaged up the ham with one for supper tonite with scalloped potatoes, and 3 in the freezer. Went to my Google Drive, found the web page stuff from October 27 and the machine did a zip file to put into my Downloads. In communication with Trevor I said if the removal of the meta data did not work for all the albums made with the old photoshop, I would redo them all. Must remember to load that WS FT file before I start removing meta data and see if that makes any difference. September 28, 2020
Yesterday emptied the rain gage of .5 inch of rain. It has been cooler, with rain. Today, no rain, sun and cooler. Luke was here to take out the win 7. The drive still has win 7 on it but is not accessible. We might wipe it, if I do not find anything else I might want off of it in a year or so. Don't know how I might find anything I might want if I cannot access it, but I think I have had a good look around at it. Left files in my drop box. Luke set up the File viewer and Video to Video programs on desk top with icons. Have been using the File Viewer today to look at some of the files I deleted, but saved copies, from my godaddy account. Yesterday I started to delete files off the Godaddy account. Kept copies. They went to the recycle bin. Have them all copied I think. There are still some of the files on there. Waiting to hear back from Trevor about the htaccess stuff. I can read them with the File Viewer now. GD has changed the file endings on them. Twits. The fish are getting fed and growing, The garden needs weeding. I will go to Cannor and get fish food, dirt, etc...made a list...sometime this week. I got the bill from Luke and Trevor for the web page stuff and Luke's attention to the windows 7 and the printer. Was very reasonalbe, I thought. Hard copy in the new web page file. I hope to get Pat to do me a scan and send it to me. Some day I will get gardening done again. The garden needs attention. There will be the apples to pick and sauce. Then leaves will start falling. There has been horrible weather disasters around the world. We have been lucky so far. We seem to be keeping our coronavirus infections in the low amounts, on the Island, too. Horgan has called an election. We have asked for mail in ballots. Apparently there is a big demand for them, so it might be awhile before we get ours mailed to us. Been finding a few cigarette butts in the garden, again. Piggy Parmars. Such total idiots.

September 29, 2020
Deleted a few more files from GD, I first downloaded them. Then I copied them to the folder - Sept 27 downloads, then deleted them from downloads folder. Bother. This morning I read something on GDamn that said I should delete all of my files, so am doing this. But all the ones I deleted before today went in to GD trash. The ones today were totally deleted.
Was to Cannor and got some more pea gravel, sand, peat moss, potting soil, manure, 3 thyme, pair of gloves and a memberrship. They charged me twice for the membership. So, I phoned them and the person said she would enclose $25 cash in an envelope for my delivery tomorrow (Wednesday). To use my membership for delivery I have to buy over $100.00 worth of goods, and I have a coupon to get $20. back if I should do that again. Todays total was $154.29. I shall keep it handy for the delivery truck tomorrow. Everything is so very expensive. They had maybe 2 other customers and hardly anyone else buying anything. No fish. Pathicist.

September 30, 2020
Was 21 degrees today, with sun. Got the twigs and branches cut up and put into the bin. Cut back the dried stuff on the patio pots. Did potato soup for lunch and the Italian Sausage casserole for supper. Did up a correction on the Model Ts page, and the CanAm 2019 under construction page is loaded and the link works. I always have to remember to refresh my browser when I do these uploads.

October 2020

October 1, 2020
I ordered my Pixel 5 phone last night. It is on order to be delivered sometime between Oct 6 - 9. It is on the des ja visa for $950. or thereabouts, also has a $50.00 cover in the order. It will be green and so is the cover. Google anyletics has a new code to add to my web pages. Its a lovely day out again, although there is a bit of smoke in the air.

October 4, 2020
Yesterday I deleted all of my web page files from GD account. Trash is all deleted. I left the Htaccess files to see what Trevor wants to do about them. I prepared a file for him of the files that are forbidden or not working due to 404 error. All the albums that are forbidden are made with the old adobe photo album. Haven't sent him the stuff yet. I bought the File viewer program and have it installed. The one that Luke got from Windows 7 said it was a trial version. Anyway the one I bought is an updated version.
Today it is 19 degrees and a bit hazy or smokey. I downloaded the September photos and started to make a blog post.

October 5, 2020
Cooler day, smog/smoke/fog again today. Sent Trevor a couple of emails about my troubles with libre office and wordpad and note book. I deleted that libre office app that did not work anyway. Then I spent till 4:30 a.m. trying to correct all the files that have gone to some sort of weird coding on them. Pages and pages of the crap to delete off the files with note pad. I seem to have notepad working again, and word pad looks about the same. I don't much use it though. I seem to have this font set at the right kind and size now too. I turned off my computer until I got up now at 10:00 am. No surprises so far. Looked through the recycle bin, and emptied the trash. I think I have copies of all the files I deleted off GD account. Luke will be on remote on Thursday the 8th at 9:45 to set up the new update of Windows 10 and leave it to run. Might take a couple of hours he thought. Told him I thought I had the word pad/note pad/Libre Office figured out. But have to delete all the horrible coding it put into some of the note pad files... lots of them in Gardening. It seems to be on the older ones. Very strange. Cleaned up my desk top a bit. Emptied the recycle bin. Watered the houseplants. Took the bin out to the curb and walked about the garden a bit. Looks like the floppy gentian might actually grow again. Hope the other two do, too. The mossy saxifragia seems to be very dried out. I have a few lava rocks to crush up to add to the mix when I transplant the saxifragias that grow on the deck. I need another ice plant. There was the yellow one at Cannor but it was a horribly high price. Threw a couple more cigarette butts onto the Pees driveway, from in my garden at the front. Watered the house plants

October 7, 2020
Yesterday I made 6 pkgs of beef barley soup. froze 5. Today I made 12 pkgs of minestrone. Froze 11. We keep one for testing the next day at lunch time.

October 9, 2020
Yesterday Luke tried to update my Win 10 by remote. It would not complete the update. There are soooo many errors on my computer files, and the printer. long story short. He called me back today and did a look at stuff ... it is a mess. He figured Win 7 might have had something to do with this mess. So, he is going to be here on Tuesday 13th to take the computer into the shop. They will reload Windows 10 entirely. They will have it back to me by the 14th or 15th. Well so long as it works again!. Very tired as I spent last nite worrying over this wretched stuff. And today trying to clean up some of the files that would not open. Sooo sooo many wrong things.

October 10, 2020
Emptied one inch of water out the water gage this morning. The humming birds are back at the feeder. Trying to clean up more of the messed up text files.

October 11, 2020
12 degrees today, raining. Done laundry. Making the duck feast.

October 20, 2020
Finally got my computer back and mostly working. Still a couple of things to fix. Can finally print again. We have had about 4 inches of rain over the last few days and the temperatures have been cooler. The trees are changing the leaves colors. Must get some photos. The fish do not seem as interested in eating... don't know if its the new food, or the colder weather. I spent a bit of time in the garden yesterday. Mowed the grass front and back. Did a bit of work on the little gold rock wall on the front rockery. I am signed up to go to the crevice garden demonstration on the 25th at 10:00 am to about noon. Paul Spriggs is demonstrating at Holly's place.

October 21, 2020
The updated windows 10 is all working so far as I can tell. Signed up for my Public Mobility profile and see I have a $10 credit for using the referral code, and $2 for the prepaid. Added dropbox, photo express, Telegram...not sure what else, but it all works. Am still making changes to the gardening lists, etc. There was ice on the water table this morning. The humming birds seem to have eaten all their food already. I noticed the pump not working at 7:00 this evening. Must fix it tomorrow.

October 22, 2020
10 degrees today, sunshine. Drove over to Gordon Head to find where Holly's place is. Going to a crevice garden demonstration there on sunday $25.00, Paul Spriggs doing the demo, of course. Did the RESET button to get the pond pump working again. Cleaned out the fridge in the morning. Watered house plants. More work on fixing the purchases notes.

October 24, 2020
Cool and breezy day. Filled the humming bird feeder. The pump in the pond needs to be cleaned up before I reset the button again. Did an update on Windows and it added the new EDGE browser.. I believe it runs on Android. Have my CBC gem working now, I think. Must find time to try and use it. My word wrap on note book is running off the screen, so I am going to be doing the enter thing to get it to fit on the screen page. 8 degrees and sunshine. Was out at noon and found the problem with the pond pump. It was shorting out at the connection to the short blue hook up to the plugin. There was water in the protecting plastic pot over this connection. I must fix that connection some day when it is not so cold out there.

October 25 to 27, 2020
On the 25th from 10:00 to about 12:30 about 8 of us VIRAGS met at Holly's place to watch Paul Spriggs build a little crevice garden in their lovely Japanese style front garden. The crevice garden was about 12 feet long by about 10 wide. Paul was there about 8:30 and did the initial work: Dug over the ground for where the garden was to be, added a layer of 80% sand and grit and 20% poor loam. He says that rock plants do not like a lot of fertilizer, but get their food from the minerals in the rocks, grit and sand. Then he installed the perimeter rocks and formed the design of the garden with the grain on the rocks all going the same way and the rocks placed about an inch apart to create the crevices. Meanwhile adding more of the basic sand/grit/loam around the rocks. We watched as he found rocks to suit each spot as he built the miniature mountain. The garden can be viewed from the front. I did not get a look at the back, but it is the highest area and I expect the back rocks will just be mostly a straight down cliff. After getting all of the crevices created, and packed down with the iron rods... this would take a long time to do it all I think. He then added smaller rocks and shims to the ends of crevices to stop the soil from escaping. Added another layer of the sand/grit mix and more packing, to get rid of any air pockets. To transplant the first plant, he got rid of all the soil around its roots, as this fertilized soil from nurseries will kill them. He dug a hole in the prepared crevice spot, and watered it, then he put the plants roots in and covered them to about an inch from the top, then added more sand and grit mix... no loam, and made sure the plant was set into the soil and not flopping around. Then for the top dressing he likes to use some about 3/8 inch grit mixed with small pieces of the original rock and other odd sized pebbles to make it look natural. The plants will grow and cover the crevices so that no soil is showing and the plants have good drainage. He planted a little daphne dominie near the top. (now I know where I got my daphne dominie from. I must check to see that it has good enough drainage, and add chicken grit and crushed lava rock.) It was horribly cold ... about 6 or 7 degrees. Pat had taken me over in the LTV and he stayed there till I was done, so that worked well for him. Was frozen when we finally got home. (
On Monday it was a tiny bit warmer but not much. Did the laundry, made meals etc. There was a zoom meeting about the orchid club people with Justin During doing a video presentation of a trip that he and Paul Spriggs and a couple of other guys did to somewhere out of Tofino in a park, up logging trails and all those other impossible climbs up and down the mountain until they found the crypidium (spelling) montana. There are hoards of wonderful flowers up there! They got pictures and the spot where this plant grows and back home safely. Spent about an hour and a half watching them on zoom.
Today I am video binging about plants. It is such a great relief to have my computer working again, I am becoming much more rested and relaxed. After watching these videos and the crevice garden demonstration I am getting more ideas about how to renovate and maybe expand the back and front little rockeries. Too cold to go out today, after my Sunday freezing. My phone should soon be shipped I hope, and my fanny pack belt get ahead in the que for delivery. It might not get here till December. Geeeez! I hope they have Trump in jail by that time, and a vacine ready for the Covid 19 virus. 2019 seed list: 2019 seed list

October 31, 2020
There was ice on the water table this morning. Now, at noon it is up to 10 degrees and sunny. Still too chilly for me to go out. The leaves are turning colors and falling. We had about an inch of water in the gauge a couple of days ago and its empty now. The apples will need to be picked and processed soon. There are at least 2 humming birds in the garden. The holly tree is full of berries. We are not giving out candy to the children this year due to the Covid 19 corona virus. We are asked to wear masks anywhere we go in public now and we do. My phone has been "despatched" and I should get it Nov 5 - 6. I will take it to London drugs and see if they will help me transfer from Nexus 5 to Pixel 5 and move the SIM card.(public mobile) Otherwise, I will have to get Trevor to do it, as I do not want to screw up anything. My printer is working now and I will need ink. Windows 10 seems to be working ok. There is always something new to update or fix. Pat has our finances well in hand now. He is doing great! Horgan (NDP) won the snap election with a majority. the Greens got 3 seats. When the mail came I got a notice to get my BC IDentity card renewed. So, I guess I can get them both done at the same time. I think I need a picture for the Id card. So it will probably be on the services card also. We have appointments just about every morning this week. And then Gerry Wood is going to be in town and Pat will arrange a time for him to see the Model T. I believe that happens this week also. After lunch, at about 2:00 I went out to the garden to get some stuff done to fill the green bin for tomorrow's pickup. Well the noise next door was going on and the dust flyiny every where. I wore my protective googles as usual, but no mask for the dust. So, got a lot of fig tree leaves and weeds from that bed put into the bin, and then started to get the thorn bush cut down some more. There is one tall branch with berries, that I will leave. But I will want to do some more clipping to lower it so I can reach it to prune it every year. It grows like crazy. I have more of the trimmings to put into the bin for next pick up, as the bin was full. It was hard to get into the swing of things at first, but got quite a bit done by 4:00. There are lots of leaves to come off the fig and the grape yet. I cleaned some of the leaves off the little rockery and the thyme circle at the front... lots to do there yet and there will be lots more leaves coming down, also. Shortly after I got in from outside the mail came. My fanny pack came and the notice to get my Id card came as well. The fanny pack looks like really good quality stuff, but it is not as flat as my cloth one. I may take to wearing it outside of my sweaters, it looks so good. It is to rain all day tomorrow, so I won't be getting more gardening done. I feel the gardening went very well today. Last night I found a site that told me how to transfer my nexus stuff to my new pixel phone. The gizmo to do this comes with the pixel. Does not look too hard to do. So, looking forward to getting my new phone. Ricky at London Drugs said he would change the SIM card for me, on my Public Mobility. So, things are getting sorted out, finally. Hopefully, I can start getting my albums built, again. AND get signed off of Godaddy account. Google is so cool.

November 3, 2020
Rained last nite and was foggy misty today. Got up to 11 degrees. To the clinic for flu shots and then left my med refills at the drug store for pick up tomorrow. Got fretting about my web page shit, and phoned GD and started the process to cancel my account with them. In talking to Angela, she deleted by products at my request. It takes up to 24 hours until I do the final step to close the account. So, must remember to do that tomorrow, in the late afternoon. Then my phone arrived. Oh oh, its not as easy as I thought to get it set. First step is to get a SIM card. So we plan to go see Ricky at London Drugs on Thursday the 5th. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my service card and my id card up dated. (pictures). Emailed Trevor about not being able to sign onto the Zilla FTP thing. hi ho and on and on it goes. no refund from the GD godaddy, of course.

November 4, 2020
Sun in the morning. Got to about 12 degrees and then rain by 3:00 pm. Went to ICBC in the morning to renew my ID card and my Services Card... picture, no doubt its awful... I didn't look. Then we went home and then to the Flying Club for a delicious Seafood Won Ton soup. While we were there Gerry called Pat, Pat has to call back... Does after lunch and then we go to Canadian Tire for antifreeze, then head back to Thriftys to get groceries. While on the Pat Bay Highway, Gerry phoned again. Got to Thirfty's and Pat called him back again. He is to come over to see the T about 3:00. Fine. We get groceries and also pick up my meds. Get home with some time to spare before the guy comes over and sees the car. He will think about it and call Pat back within the next couple of days that he is in town. The car would not start for Pat. He says he should have had a heater out to warm it up. Oh well. I signed off the Godaddy page. and to push my luck tried to get on File Zilla and succeeded. Now, I need to figure out how to delete the files, as I make up new albums. Progress! First I need to finish April, which will be a while yet. I looked at Lambs... it really is rather cute... I must get it redone. This Windows 10 has 2 desk tops... always save stuff to the bottom 'desktop'.

November 5, 2020
Went to London Drugs and had them activate my new phone and transfer stuff from the Nexus 5. Spent the afternoon getting the icons sorted out for desktop stuff, and finding google weather and google finance. My nexus 5 still works. The guy said that it should not be a security issue. Well that is kinda cool. I can use it for reading, maybe. I am charging the Pixel 5 phone now. It says to charge it to full the first time. I must try these fancy cameras sometime. Its been a cool day. I emptied 2 inches of water from the rain gage this morning. Cleaned out my email and my drop box. So, now I should be able to settle down and deal with the apples and leaves. AND getting the albums newly made on the web page, since Trevor cannot seem to be able to figure out how to make the old adobe albums play or not be forbidden, and neither can I. I don't care to suggest he have a look at the old files from the backups of godaddy.

November 6, 2020
About 12 degrees today. Sunshine. I picked the apples off the ground and Pat picked all the rest off the tree 58 lbs. I made 2 jars of apple sauce and a big pie. Lots more leaves down and need raking. There was a wind storm the other day and there were people on the island without power.

November 9, 2020
Did all the bedding and all the other laundry. Washed and sorted the apples. It seems very cold in the house today. Pat put his saur kraut into packages and into the fridge/freezer downstairs. He finished winterizing the Mercedes Manor yesterday and we drove to the .... to dump for $10.00. I have an orchid in bloom ... its a new one to me, I think. Lc Secret Love H Sinying. So, I guess it is a miniature catalya. It has a nice fragrance. Been reading the American election results on my phone. Biden has won the electoral votes, so he and Kamala Harris will be the next President and Vice-president. They are to be sworn in on January 20th. Trump will not concede the loss and is filing all kinds of dumb things in court to try and get the votes recounted or dismissed. Most of the world leaders have congratulated Biden and Harris. Not Putin or China. Trump will face numerous calls to court for all his lies, and fraudulent tax returns, raping women, etc., once he is no longer President. No doubt the banks will be the first ones to get any of the two cents he might actually have to his name. I am getting along much better with my new phone and the Windows 10. I got a row or 2 of photos for April tweaked. Had to reset the photoshop essentials thing to get the panel things stuck to the side. Otherwise they did not move with the window if I moved it. Hopefully it is going to stay there now. I have to watch where I save notepad stuff. If I save it to desktop it seems to disappear. No idea why. Then I have to go in search of the search place on the start menue to find the damn file.

November 10, 2020
Was sunny and only 7 degrees. Was out from 9:30 to 11:00. Clipped up the fire thorn clippings and put them in the green bin. Raked out fig leaves and cleaned up a bit around 3 of the stepping stones. Raked and picked leaves off the rock and alpine plants, front and back. It all needs weeding and then the top dressing. Maybe I will use sand and pea gravel. I really must get some lava rock to crush to use as top dressing. Slipped on the moss and skinned my knee. Came in and made borscht for lunch with apple for the fruit. Then soaked in a hot tub for a while and washed my hair. We have a VIRAGS meet tonite on zoom at 7:00. And a planting of Copley park area on Saturday by Pensinsula Streams people. Limited number of people because of the Covid virus. I think my voice mail is working on my phone. I must check it out... maybe with Pat, sometime. I do have a call from Riga blocked with the spam filter thing that popped up. Pat needs to call Peter and Audree today; its their 65 anniversary. Finished Page 17 of the album for April.

November 11, 2020
Was 7 degrees today. Was out from 9:30 to 11:30. Raked up a bag full of leaves from the magnolia tree and the top grass path and put them on the woodland path. Raked off the sedums and cleaned up the front rockery, then raked these leaves into a bag. Added the leaves from half of the boulevard garden and have a half a bagfull for the compost bin at the back. Raked the leaves off the thyme circle. Cleaned up a bit on the little rockery at the back. After lunch at 1:00 I took the compost pot out and was going to rake up the rest of the leaves and trans plant the 3 thyme plants into the circle, when it began to sprinkle lightly. So, that was the end of gardening for today. Windows did an up date on a restart, for some sort of spam blocker or something.

November 12, 2020
rainy cool day, 9 degrees. Some photos. Went to Peninsula Landscape Supplies Ltd. and got a 40 lb bag of 1 inch size black lava rock for $22.39. I might crush it even a bit smaller for the top dressing in the little rockeries, and some for drainage in the newer ones. I can use pea gravel between the stepping stones or as top dressing too.

November 13, 2020
10 degrees, sunny and breezy. Made 5 blue pkgs of borscht. Emptied 2 inches of rain out of the gage. We are to get more high winds and rain this afternoon. I signed up for a $30 membership for the Alpine Garden Club of B.C. They have 250 members, about 1/4 of whom are international. They have really good news letters with pdfs from the speakers, I think. There are quarterly excellent news letters. Quite a few of them participate in the seed exchange. The news letter editor seems to be from up Island at comox or somewhere up there..

November 15, 2020
Yesterday I did a bit of cleaning up of the bookmarks in Chrome and wasted $50. on Playnow, with a $10 deposit. O well. It was very windy and rainy last night, but there was no water in the gage.. strange. Was more rain and sun this morning and its about 10 degrees but feels colder. There are still a lot of leaves on the tree. Made 3 pkgs of onion & squash bisque this morning with a serving for lunch. Very good. Filled the humming bird feeder. Updated the amlifi thing. It went very well. We are getting some sleet/hail at 2:30. The white christmas cactus has blooms and buds on the side that faces the patio door and the light. After seein the sunset photo from on the Sony with Zeis lens I have downloaded the photos on the sony and charging the battery. Its a great little lens. Wide angle and Telephoto settings. I must find its manual. The setting buttons are tiny, though. Panorama setting, also. It finished charging up the battery after supper, and it all works fine. Finished one more row of the April album.

November 18, 2020
It has been windy and rainy the last couple of days. There are people without power, still today. Made crepes St. Jaques for Pat's birthday and another apple pie. Have been considering the work involved in rebuilding all the old photoshop albums that I have made on my web page; rebuilding with the new web album generator that I am now using. Trevor does not seem to be able to make them work on his hosting site. I was trying to figure it out by looking at some of my old backup downloads from Godaddy, but it is beyond me. It looks like it is beyond Trevor, as well. Very disappointing. Am getting used to my new phone. The London Drugs guys helped me set it up. They had moved my Telus account to Public Mobility earlier... all for free! Its great. And the new update of Windows 10 is going good now, too. Lots to learn about all of it. Well, this keeps my mind active, I guess, if nothing else. So, I am less stressed now with all of that sorted out, more or less. Covid-19 is, of course, a big stress point now, though. There is a couple of vaccines that might be available at the beginning of 2021. And Trump has to be out of the white house by the beginning of January also. So, this should get things back to normal, hopefully. Pat is doing great with our investments despite all the turmoil.
There are still lots of leaves on the oak and the sweet gum. Its too wet to get out there just now. Emptied the 2 inches of rain out the gage at noon.

November 19, 2020
Down to the mayfair mall this am. Pat got his sweater... lottery tickets. Made 5 pkgs of diet (cabbage soup) and a cup each for supper. Mostly sun and bits of rain today. Only 8 or 9 degrees. Finished page 20 of the April album... 2 pages to go.

November 24, 2020
It has been raining off and on. Temps of about 7 - 10 in the day. The leaves are falling, but has been mostly too wet to go out and collect them. Finished tweaking the photos for April album. Today got the Raven Affair recreated and its ready to upload to the File Zilla. We are going to get Pat signed up for his own Apple account tomorrow. I have been trying to keep him signed in. Don't know what the hell is going on with that, but we should soon have it sorted. Maybe I can get that Ipad pro I wanted a year ago once I am on my own Apple ID again. Windows has been updating a few things, but I am able to get along with it, so far. Slowly getting more accustomed to my new Pixel 5 phone. Am getting reconciled to remaking all the photo albums. It is kinda interesting to revisit them. I need to add a new page to the Progress Page, with a Jump to 2020 script on it. YEAH! Maybe I can do the 2020 without the tables... just straight text like the Travel logue. I could put a list of the albums to re-create and when they are finished. sign off the table, and work from each list of albums to redo.

November 25, 2020
Sunny, coolish day. I had loaded Raven Affair to the File Zilla, but loaded it wrong and actually had 2 versions of it on the server. AND had a capital "I" on index, which has to be small i for this server. The old photoshop alblums do not have an index in them, so I would have to change all the links to go to, say: www.mmmee.com/Homework/Homework. All the links everywhere on the menues, etc. It will be easier to redo all the albums. Especially, easier than getting a developer to redo it.. I have more time than money. No one goes there anyway. Sigh! Pat got his new apple identity today, as well as updated his phone earlier. He has a few questions for her. I go back tomorrow to get my ipad... I guess it just needed a new battery. I should be able to figure out how to get access to my old books and music... maybe. Although, after reading on my little nexus phone, the ipad is going to be way big and heavy. oh yeah, technology is saving us so much time. Man, I will need to get out and rake leaves tomorrow and leave all this stressing stuff behind.

November 26, 2020
Finally have Pat on his own Apple ID, glory be! I left the old ipad at the shop... its toast. Now, I can get on with my life.

November 27, 2020
Warmer today 10 degrees. Made 2 jars of apple sauce. Pounded the meat to schnitzle, and made up more cracker crumbs. The apples are quickly disappearing.

November 28, 2020
Watched a video on deleting folders and got Lambs deleted. clicked public html at the top right, then went to Lambs on the bottom, right click it and deleted Lambs. Trevor doesn't exactly walk me slowly through these steps, but I should RTFM, I guess. I am currently making a new Lambs folder. Finished tweaking photos for the Lambs Was up to 10 degrees today. Was out from 1:45 to 3:30. Raked the leaves off the rock plants, thyme circle, and all. Carried 1 bagfull and put it under the rohodos by the deck. Put another bagfull under the deck. These are black garbage bags. With the moisture on all the leaves they get pretty heavy, at least for me, anyway. 2 more cigarette butts in the flower bed at the front. The old Pee was sitting right by my side of the grass path, stinking the place up with smoke. Baby Pee came and talked to him and made him move over to by their door. I skimmed leaves and debris off the pond. DAMN... made up the album and added titles and all the photos changed the names to the titles I added. Bloody hell. Will redo it and add the titles and descriptions later.

November 29, 2020
Was about 10 degrees today. Was out from 2:00 to 3:30. Got the rest of the leaves picked up and put around the garden. Some in the boulevard beds, most of the rest in the woodland and on the woodland path. Raked the golden leaves off the moss garden and put them in the bin as they had weeds with them. Someone or some thing presented the cement rabbit with a carrot. :) I really should get a picture of that. There are lots of weeds in the garden, especially the moss garden. I have finished the new Lambs album and it is ready to load. Making roast chicken for supper.

November 30, 2020
There was rain and great winds early this morning. By 10:00 the winds have died down. There are lots of leaves down. They were blowing back and forth across the front garden and seemed to have settled mostly in my garden. They even blew over the house and the back deck and patio area are covered with leaves. It was quite a show. I tried to get pictures, but should have been doing video. Its about 10 degrees. Swept off the front step area. Doing bedding and towels laundry. Was out from 2:00 to 3:30 raking leaves. Too tired to pick them up. Put some into the green bin, though. Loaded the Lambs album and it works. Have started long beach.

December 2020

December 1, 2020
There is ice on the water table this morning. At 9:00 it is 0 degrees and sunny..

December 2, 2020
sunny and 6 degrees at 10:00. Fed and watered the house plants. Swept up the leaves on the deck and threw them over the railing. Have the photos for the Long Beach album tweaked and ready to make the album.

December 3, 2020
Its overcast and about 8 degrees. I finished the Long Beach album, and a note on the RROC page as well as the under construction page for the 2003 fuel ecomony page. Loaded it all and it all works. Am starting to re-create the water garden pages: create, pond and the Japanese area whatever it is called. I used to have sedums and stuff growing in the waterfall. I don't know when they all went missing. Had some good moss growing on the waterfall too. I am contemplating buying a drilled rock for the waterfall. The Pees have not been destroying the garden since the pandemic days in March. Only the old man is still throwing his cigarette butts in the front garden.Looking back at the water garden, the edges have deterirated, the waterfall looks crappy, and the rock necklace still shows. Not sure if I want to invest more time and money in it. Or even in the remake of the albums.

December 4, 2020
Was 11 degrees today. Did some of the Create album this morning. Have 4 more pages of 4 to add to it. Was outside from about 2:30 to 4:00. Mowed the back grass dumped the debris in the green bin. Skimmed off the pond. Fixed the waterfall rocks. Looks way better now. Put bits of moss on the rocks. I hope it catches on, over the winter. Planted the 3 new thyme in the thyme circle. There were cedar roots creeping into the circle. cut a couple of them off and back a bit. Add some sand to the thyme when planting them. Now I need to make up a small bamboo fence to hold the gravel and sand off the cement blocks path along the edge of the pond by the deck. I want to plant some little plants that like gravel along the edge of the pond rock necklace and let them trail over the rocks. There were a few of the big fish on top of the water, so I gave them some food. They seemed to like haveing the leaves skimmed off the water.

December 5, 2020
Spent most of the morning watching Peninsula Streams youtube's and reading on their web page. I have added links to them on the LINKS page under my town. Pat and I walked to the bridge across Vanulman. Took 40 minutes. 22 heart points and 44 move minutes. Pictures. Not much has changed since I was there last, but the ivy is growing back in on the cleaned up side. Horrible wretched stuff.

December 9, 2020
It is sunny and 10 degrees. Emptied about .5 of an inch of rain out of the gage. I have added 4 more pages to the 'Create' album. I am more than half way finished making the album. Watch the silly old Pee butt his cigarette out on the boxwood hedge and throw it in my garden. What an idiot. hack and gob on his grass.

December 11, 2020
Finished the Create album, and will load tomorrow. Been shopping, cooking etc. Temps have been good, with bits of rain. Am going to order a spill way for the waterfall, through ebay.

December 12, 2020
Have ordered the Spillway http://thepondboss.net/product/waterfall-spillway/ Pond Boss Waterfall Spillway 8 Quot; Garden Outdoor New Order total: spillway 27.92 shipping 30.88 Total $58.80 USD 78.35 CAD Dimensions: 14.5 in. x 10.5 in. x 6 in. (L x W x H) with 8 in. spillway opening Fits 3/4 and 1 in. ID tubing. I will need stones of some kind to build up around the edges and cover it. Will need fittings to attach the garden hose. Will see when it gets here. Loaded the water page and the links page with a couple of changes. Loaded the Create album. It all went fine. We had smoked oyster appies and KFC for supper. We have 4 pieces of the KFC left... enough for another dinner. So, I have 3 or 4 left over dinners in the fridge now. Started looking at the 'tubs and pond' album and collecting more pictures to use. Am up to my pictures #8, and mostly need newer ones. I should be able to use some from the Create album. I really went a little over board on that one.
December 14, 2020
Laundry day, emptied .5 inch of rain out of the gauge. Is nice out 10 degrees.Raked leaves from 2 to 4, putting them into the green bin. We did not seem to have as many leaves this year. There were, of course, about a dozen cigarette butts in my garden. That corner stinks like a dirty ashtray. Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed my leaf raking. There is lots of earth worm castings around where the leaves had been. I left the worms a few.

December 15, 2020
Raining and a bit cooler. Reading and copying Jans Alpines information about his rock/tufa/peat gardens. My trilliums need peat moss and leaf mold with a bit of sand added to them. I have to put this around them now, as top dressing. Jans Peat Garden. After getting a Hudson Bay Charity Teddy Bear at The Bay, I spent a couple of hours trying to sort out the list of bears.

December 16, 2020
Cooler, some rain and bits of wind. More looking at email and bear stuff in the morning. Made 3 pkgs of Creamed Spinach Soup and 3 pkgs of Beef barley soup. Saving one each out for lunches.

December 17, 2020
Cleaned out some very old emails. Was surprised to find ancient 'chats' stuff. Now have 2 pages of the 'pond and tubs' album for the water garden pages, done. 5 more pages to go. I like how the silver looks. Ribs from the pizza place for supper.. very good. Some time in the last couple of days when in the Mall we got St.Jean seafood stuff. Its from Nanaimo, so its 'local' but expensive.

December 18, 2020
cooler, overcast. 8°. I cannot seem to settle down today to get anything done. Fixed some errors on the Pre1989 travel logue page. added Debbie but have not uploaded the new one, nor the Progress one. I seem to have 2 ebay accounts. Have 4 out of the 33 albums re-created... 29 to go.

December 19, 2020
8° today and raining. Emptied 2 inches of rain from the gauge at noon today. Still raining. Pat says the water reservoir is 93% full now. Spent some time looking up how to change size of green and black bins. We decided that changing the size of just the black bin would not be worth the cost of the $30.00 fee. To make the green bin larger would cost even more. Had a look at the CRD new water treatment stuff, and added it to a post on my facebook. Yesterday I got up to Page 4 of the 7 pages of the Ponds and Tubs photos for the album tweaked. Wasted the afternoon trying to make a new playlist with the new taccata Bach song.

December 20, 2020
11° and overcast. some high wind overnight. Finished tweaking page 5 of the ponds album. I seem to be procrastinating on this album... not sure why, but should be finished it by now. Have been making Christmas baking, soups, etc., raking leaves. The waterfall rocks are set very well right now; but I think I am losing water out one side, though, so the new spillway should help with this water loss. I have some left over liner.. I should be able to use it to extend the waterfall length. Could have 2 falls of about a foot each with about a foot between them. I could use a black plastic pan for the second run of water and surround it with a layer of rocks, like the top of the spillway will be covered and surrounded with rocks. The second run will be open but covered with flat rocks on the bottom and sides, or with gravel. The plastic pan would be cut out at the waters edge and (just a couple of inches high to trap the gravel) and this could spill onto the very flat piece of blue slate that is held in place by the pan. So the plastic pan could be about 12 - 14 long and maybe 8 - 10 wide. The liner would go up the sides of the pan to the water and be hidden with the tall rock I have there now. I need to get these covering rocks all the same color. I have a large clear plastic tub that the waterfall could fall into. I could put the flat blue slate rock down at the opening I cut out of this bin. The opening will be 3 - 4 inches off the bottom of the plastic and about 6 - 8 inches wide. There will be stones surrounding this bin and inside of it to disguise the clear plastic. The blue slate will hang over the edge of the plastic bin which will be a couple of inches in from the edge of the pond to allow for flat rocks to cover the outside edges of the plastic. This would give me 2 water falls with a short gravelly stream between them. Perhaps I will not be growing moss on the top of the waterfall, but I can have a crevice garden along the sides, maybe. I see some of the old photos show veronicas and creeping phlox growing around the pond and waterfall. With the right soil in between the rocks, AND the spaces between the rocks blocked so that the gravelly/compost mix does not all disappear.

December 21, 2020
Cooler today and raining. 2°. Laundry, watered the house plants. The little red/orange SL. Psyche 'China' l, cinnabarina X s. coccinea is in bloom with 2 little blossoms. The Lc. Secret Love H. Sinying has finished. Have finished tweaking photos for page 6... one to go. Started the Index pages text. Leave the blockquote stuff off until the stuff is typed up, as it acts as a formatting when put in to the typing.

December 22, 2020
Everything is sheeted in ice this morning. The temperature was at zero until 10:30 when it gets up to 2° and things are slowly starting to melt. The sun is out adding to the melt illusion. I refilled the humming bird feeder and the birds were there immediately. Caught a picture of 2 of them feeding without chasing the other one away. I imagine the food is a bit warm for them though. Finished the index pages write ups. Looked up when I had rescued the mermaid out of the pond.. Was on June 4th. It had been missing since some time in Nov. or Dec. of 2019.

December 23, 2020
Very icey. about 2° in the am. Put the humming bird feeder out. The sun is starting to shine at 10:00 so we should get some of this ice melted today. Finished writing up 4 pages (40) of the captions for the 'pond' album. Its going well and helping me get some idea of the plan for the renovation of the waterfall, next summer. Made the Christmas pudding and sauce.

December 24, 2020
Very cold this morning. Its at zero until about 9:00. Finally up to 3° by noon. Spent most of the morning sorting out my Christmas music playlist. I hate this groove play thing that comes with Windows 10. The windows media player worked very well, and this thing is just confusing. Finished writing 6 pages of captions for the pond album. Pissy old Parmar was out in the front butting his cigarette on my boxwood and threw the butt into my garden again. Tried to ask him what he was doing. Told him to stop throwing garbage in my garden. Told him to stop it or I would call the cops. He grinned and muttered something and went in. Asked Pat to call the cops and he is not getting involved. Patrick you are just enabling him. So, I called the police at about 4:35. The dispatch guy took the information and said he would put my complaint up for the officers to deal with. They are busy tonite of course. He asked me how old Parmar was and I said about 88 89. And what is there I can do about this... the dispatcher did not know... oh its difficult to know, he says. Told him I was partly reporting this to tell him to add it to my file to keep them informed about how this damage to my property continues. That this has been going on for years. Told him I had pictures of this if he needed the time. Parmar thinks this is funny because nothing is happening to him or any of them. Dan and Carol phoned later. They are both retired at the end of the year. The cop came to the door while we were talking. Pat answered the door and then told Dan and Carol what was happening. I went down and out and talked to the cop. He cannot do anything legally, he said. etc. build a fence, etc. and would I like him to go and talk to them... yes.. and so he did and I went back in. The whole corner of the garden stinks and the cop saw the cigarette butts. Had read the file they have about me at the cop shop and knew about the 30 years war. I doubt anything will change. I shall call Dan and Carol sometime later, I guess. I do not understand why the police cannot do anything about my property damage and harrassment by these f**&&^ing idiots.

December 26, 2020
Was a bit warmer today. Most of the ice has melted. Pat emptied the rain gauge. There was a robin trying to call the rest of the birds to come and eat the holly berries, but it was getting dark and they did not gather for the Christmas feast. I suppose the berries will be all gone by the time I get up tomorrow. I have finished the index pages of the pond and tubs album. Have yet to do all the big photo html stuff. There are 70 of them.

December 28, 2020
Is 8° at noon. Laundry and watered the house plants. There was 3 hummers at the feeder this morning. The holly berries are still on the tree, and no robins there so far today. Have finished the footnote stuff on the Photo html and am half way finished putting in the captions.

December 29, 2020
Warmer, overcast, 7°. Got the garbage and recycle schedules onto the calendar. The motion sensitive light at the back came on several times last night. The water fall is ok and cannot see any other damage. Must be critters of the 4 legged kind. Do we have owls? My blog has some kind of link to Wikipedia added to the link to blogspot.. weird and I do not know how to get rid of it. To hell...just wasted the whole day trying to figure out how to fix it. Finished the captions for the Pond album.


Garden purchases in 2019

VIRAGES show and Sale:

$5.00 to get in door and $36.00 for plants... So about $41.00

Saxifragia paniculata 'Dr. Clay' R.M. ... 'Doctor Clay' is a mat-forming, evergreen perennial forming rosettes of broadly linear, lime-encrusted, grey-green leaves and slender, arching stems bearing panicles of cup-shaped, white flowers in late spring and early summer. Planted in white pot with tufa rock $5.00

Saxifragia Lilac Time X Youngiani R.M cutting Big blossums on the short plant
(Saxifraga Porphyrion/Saxifraga 'Lilac Time') Planted in white pot with tufa rock $7.00

Daphne domini is 10 inches tall by 11 inches wide. growing on calcareous rocks, rocky slopes / evergreen / flowers do not open - cleistogamy / self-pollinating / always masses of orange fruits / hardy . Wonderful dwarf shrub about 15cm tall; linear leaves and pink tubular flowers followed by bright orange fruits.fruits. Sun/part shade. Colour: pink, April to June. Height: 10 – 30 cm, Shape: shrubby. Soil: scree trough. Origin: Europe.
Planted across the big rock from the other Daphne, in the little rockery at the back. $3.00

Delospermeum Sutherlandii Seedling (might be great or not) dwarf perennial plant, native to South Africa. forms a dense lawn with abundant, long-lasting flowering. Will reach sizes 60 cm Usually magenta with white eye -May 27/19: It is blooming and is magenta, lighter than the other one which is also in bloom in the back little rockery.
$3.00

Omphalodes linifolia
Venus's Navelwort. Beautiful hardy annual, self sows. Likes sun and good drainage. White forget me not flowers in spring, blue-grey leaves. Planted in the cutting garden, I think $5.00

these 2 omphalodes have totally different leaves must plant them in pot and keep eye on them.
omphalodes ? blue it says and it is indeed blue. In the cutting garden I think. $5.00

Cardamine - looks purple. Might be in the plum tree stump garden.
Cardamine pentaphyllos (syn. Dentaria pentaphyllos), five-leaflet bitter-cress or showy toothwort, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to Western and Central Europe in Slovenia and Croatia. It is an herbaceous perennial, growing to 30–50 cm (12–20 in), with palmate leaves and racemes of purple, pink or white flowers in late Spring and early Summer. Mine is half that size. There are also hardy annuals of this plant too. The Latin specific epithet pentaphyllos means "with five-lobed leaves. $4.00

Trillium chloropetalum - Giant Trillium, Giant Wake Robin, Wood Lily, Trinity Flower. Rich of a rose fragrance, Plant Height : 1 to 3 feet; Zones : 6, 7, 8, 9; Plant Width : 6 to 12 inches; Bloom Time : Early Spring ... T. chloropetalum var. giganteum is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial with stout stems each bearing three broadly ovate leaves and an erect, stalkless deep maroon flower 5-10cm in length. Moist but well-drained, Soil: Chalk, Loam, Sand, pH Acid, Neutral – Planted in the trillium bed/Magnolia bed and has survived as at May 27/19 $4.00

Plants purchased the end of March 2019 from Cannor.
They had all the plants you can pile on a tray for $20.00 It was pretty well cleaned out by the time I got there. Nevertheless, I got a few good plants. I planned to take them to the VIRAGS sale. but ended up only taking 3 of them, and had doubles of the ones I donated.
2 Alpine wall cress, gravely well drained soil, evergreen, ground cover, full sun
Arabis Ferdinaandi-coburgie "Old Gold" low carpet, 2 - 4 in., green and gold streaked leaves, small white flowers.
1 for the show and 1 planted in the plum stump bed
Basket of Gold Alyssum. They need full sun.
1 Basket of Gold Alyssum - full sun, sharp drainage, 8 - 10 tall x 12 -14 spread. Planted in the little rockery at the back.
2 Little Lemon Solidgo golden rod Dansolitem - sun, part shade, 12-16 high, x 12 - 14 in spread. Planted in the plum stump bed. 1 show and 1 mine.
2 Saponaria - Soapwort, ground cover, full sun. 8 - 10 in tall spread 24 in. drought tolerant once established. pink. Not sure where planted.
1 show and 1 mine.
1 Arenaria montana 'Avalanche - 2 - 4 in. x 10 - 12 in. spread. Average soil, well drained, full sun. Large white flowers in early summer. evergreen (not) mine will go into the little rockery at the back, if it grows. died
1 Corydalis, fragrant, blue - blooms intermittently Spring to Fall, Stems grow 15' long Edging, containers. Partial shade, cool moist, well drained. (blue) Going in a container with Trollius (globe flower) (golden) Planted in a small white pot on the deck with a globe flower. (died)
3 Asiatic Primrose Primula Sieboldii Spring bloom, part shade. 12 in tall, purplish with yellow center, fertile, well drained, cool temperatures. Planted the 3 of them in the primula bed (moss garden room)
2 Trollius Chinensis - Globeflower, 2 1/2" bowl-shaped golden yellow to orange flowers, blooms in Spring, 3 feet tall. Borders beside wet areas. moist soil, in area with morning sun and afternoon shade intolerant of heat. 1 for container on deck with Corydalis, and 1 in pot in the pond.. raise the pot a bit. There is a basket on the front shelf of the pond that holds a pot for the Trollius. Used a gallon pot.
1 Asclepias incarnata - white flowers, fragrant, clumping perennial upright stems, long seed pods release black seeds with silky tails. Blooms summer and fall. Moist well drained soil, low to moderate water once established. Butterflies like it Planted in the cutting garden adding lots of leaf compost, from the old compost bin. Dig a deep hole and fill it with compost. keep it well watered this summer.
1 Asclepias incarnata 'soulmate' pink, full sun, 40 inches x 12'' spread. Do not allow soil to dry out. Cutting garden, Same as above. 1 Verbascum temptress purple, 38 - 45 cm 15 - 18 inches. full sun. Brown Pot with Pink Veronica and Pink thread leaf coreopsis.
1 Verbascum phoeniceum 'violetta' Violetta Mullein beautiful cut flower, spikes of deep purple violet flowers self seeding perennial, blooms all summer if dead headed, 3 feet tall. well drained soil, full sun cutting garden.
1 Heuchera Carnival Rose Grantia - part shade to shade. Allow soil to dry between waterings, red/brown leaves. 10 - 12 inches. blossoms are probably white. Planted on the observation platform by the pond.
1 Cascade blue Aubretia. Full sun - 3 - 4" tall x 10 - 12 spread. Soil to dry between waterings. Front rockery by other one.
1 Gypsophila 'Pink Fairy' paniculata, double large pink flowers, good cut flower, fresh or dried, 1 - 18 in x 24 - 36 Average well drained, full sun cutting garden
2 Veronica spicata - sun, party shade, 12" high and 12"wide, keep well watered 'red fox', pink spikes 1 in cutting garden, 1 in pot with Verbascum and pink coreopsis
2 Pink Coreopsis 'American Dream' - June - Sept. thread leaf coreopsis, 12 - 18 in. tall and wide. Soil moist, full sun. 1 cutting garden, 1 in pot with Verbascum and pink Veronica.
2 Aquilegia 'Nora Barlow' columbine full sun to partial shade Cutting garden
2 Aquilegia Black Barlow cutting garden
1 Columbine in bigger pot... no name on it... is in cutting garden.
30 plants actually, for the $20.00
Got a Mossy Saxifragia from new stock and it is planted in the little rockery at the back, in full bloom with red flowers.

Mr. Grocer June 12th Lewisia Cotyledon 'Rainbow' $6.00 There are 2 plants in the pot, both in bloom, 1 pink/orange, the other is golden/yellow Am going to put them in a pot on the deck
Creatures Great and Small August 24, 2019 - 6 small fish
Creatures great and small pet store and got 6 fish. 2 browny gold ones, 1 light gold (white), 2 sarasa looking ones (orange spots on white, 1 gold with white bottom. 6 fish for $25.48
2 of these fish were regular price of $1.50 the other 4 were a 'special order' because I asked for this or that one, at $3.50 each Bloody hell. There was a sign way up on the wall behind me stating something about this. Total of $19.00 is still reasonable compared to the $4.99 each fish at the Broadmead shop. I might get shubunkins there. There is a gold one with black and white on its tail. The light gold looked white under the store lights. When I put them in the pond, one of the white with gold ones was leaping right out of the water. I thought it was enjoying the leap. They seemed to be settling down after a few hours. These fish might be 1 1/2 inches long. Sure hope they grow some before winter.
The water hawthorn seems to be recovering with a couple of new green leaves.

Michell Farms:
Hornwort $3.50-

Cannor
More Hornwort very expensive - $12.00

August 31, 2019
Pets West at Broadmead, got 4 little shubunkins, calico shubunkins because of the colors; and some smaller pellets of fish food. Not sure how much the fish cost as I did not get an itemized bill.
Total $25.48. 4 fish at $5.00 each plus the food and tax, I suppose. Very expensive fish, for the size of them. I do not see any of my fish. So, they are not floating on top so I guess that is good.




Continue on to Journal Entries for 2021

Back to Journal Entries for 2019



Welcome to the bottom of the page


Annual Gardening pages



January - we occasionally get snow.
February - more rain, and some bulbs up
March - first spring bulbs blooming
April - rock plants blooming, grass needs mowing, fruit trees blooming
May - the garden is in full swing
June - lovely warm days of medium temperatures and roses in bloom
July - we need to water a lot in the summer as we do not often get rain.
August - the Fall perennials starting to bloom and fruit is ripening
September - harvest time in the vegetable garden and time to plant the winter garden
October - glorious fall colors and sunsets, fruit ripening and rains begin again
November - sometimes a lovely month with the Fall colors and warm rains
December - more rain, the garden is mostly greens and browns, very peaceful.
Water and Japanese Gardening - I built my pond with its 8 - 9 foot diameter
Fruit and Vegetables - grapes, figs, pears, apples, plums, and vegtables
Garden paths and Garden art - I have converted most of the lawn to gardens and paths
Rock and
Alpines - I have a few small alpines in various spots around the garden
Woodland garden - I am trying to establish a few indigenous plants in this area.
Indoor gardening - orchids, cacti, African violets
Bugs - butterflies, birds, animals
From the
Market - photos of bought produce or flowers
At the
Show - there are a number of gardeing shows I attend annually
Mushrooms, lichens
Boquets - Creating flower arrangements for the house and for show is an
added benefit for creatativity as well as visual satisfaction.
Miscellaneous - in case I cannot decide where something belongs
Annual Journal Notes - This is the first page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2012 when I began to keep my garden notes on my computer. See the bottom of this first page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2013 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2013 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2014 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2014 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2015 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2015 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2016 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2016 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2017 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2017 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2018 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2018 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2019 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2019 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2020 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2020 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2021 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2021 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2022 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2022 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Outline of the garden changes - This is the first page of a series of three giving a tour of the my garden.
A description of the garden rooms - This is the second page of a series of three giving a tour of the my garden, and showing the creation of the garden rooms as well as some of the renovations over the years.
Annual Garden changes photo albums The third page of the series will be annual photo albums of the changes in the garden for the year, beginning in 2009.

Annual Photo Albums

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Last revised: January 15, 2021