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 2021

SYNOPSIS of the year

1. RECAP of the pond and the fish:
my blog post with some of the photos of renovations to the pond and rockeries.

About March 20 - 23 Pat helped me get the spillway installed and levelled, in the water fall. The waterfall looks ok, but the surrounding rocks need to be made into a sort of a crevice garden. I did some renovation on the cement block sides of the pond and to all the rest of the "rock necklace". On Dec. 11 I noticed that 3 or 4 rocks on the deck side of the pond had slipped into the deep end during the pouring rain. I won't be able to repair that until its warmer out. I am considering making that end of the pond into some sort of wooden edging. If the critters or floods dislodge the wooden edging it will float and be more easily replaced. There has been constant renovation to the waterfall, the edging plants, and the surrounding moss/Japanese garden room. This will continue on into 2022.
In mid April we had a visit from the great blue heron. All of the lovely fish were eaten. I got a few new fish. I have put tomatoe cages in all the pots and bamboo sticks along the sides and across the top of the pond. It looks awfull, but I think it has kept the blue heron away. I am thinking of using bamboo sticks in all the pots instead of the tomato cages. Maybe I can make it look like a Japaneese fence. I don't know about raccoons or other creatures that go fishing in the pond. The fish are very wary. I have not seen them for months now.

2. I am in the process of renovating the little rockeries in the back and front garden. I have moved the Saxifragias and tufa rocks to the new little gold wall rockery at the front. I think I have lost 2 or 3 of the Saxifragias, but I have some cuttings growing in little pots on the deck. One of the gentians survives and I really must get replacements. I have a lewisia growing and a sopanaria that I think will survive. I need more gold rocks. The beds are trough size. Having watched a lot of Paul Spriggs crevice gardening, I will need more rocks, for the front and the back little rockeries. I also want to make the waterfall rocks into something like a crevice garden.
With the heat wave in the summer, all the little gardens have become overgrown and need weeding, replanting and cleaning up. See July 2 for a longer description of this 'heat dome'. Also Aug 13th for more of the same, with water shortages.
These climate change disasters are getting to be too much for me to keep up with, in my garden. I may have to go to a more manageable kind of garden. Perhaps put down landscaping cloth with mulch over top.

3. We have had another year of the corona virus.
We had a drought all summer and a heat wave in the end of June and some daus of July and August. There were horrific forest fires all over the interior of the Province.
In the middle of November there was floods and mudslides. There were flooded farm lands with loss of farm animals and crops. See November 16 for more, but no where near all the problems that the people in Merritt, or Chilliwack and other places, suffered.
About a foot of snow and cold in February. It melted in a few days. Now, in the end of December we are in a deep freeze, with record breaking low temperatures. It melts and warms in the New Year. Who knows, how the rest of this winter will be!

5. I have cancelled my account with Godaddy and have moved it to the care of Trevor and who ever might be his next helper, 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 28 of the 33 albums remade as of January 1, 2022. 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 and more photos with captions. More photos and pages and links to the travel albums. Its fun and time consuming.

The garden in 2021

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January 2021

January 1, 2021
10° Happy New Year. Cannot seem to access my ebay account where I bought the spillway. So, will have to fix that, but not right now. The spillway is being shipped but I cannot see any details. C'est la vie! Have started to make the JE2020, and have the Japanese photos found and ready to tweak. Putting Like a Rolling Stone on the JE2020 for the music. So need to load RollingStone to sounds and load the new playlist.

January 3, 2021
Downloaded photos. Must go to this computer and to CCIM in M drive... weird. Dropbox is trying to sync pictures. Disabled the anti virus to stop the damn thing from popping up a scan or whatever question and it wants to be updated. This stuff is driving me crazy. BUT I have some good pictures, but not great bunches. A fantastic flare of the Colquitz river from our walk there in Nov ?. A Rainbow from this morning. A good one of a hummingbird in Dec, I think. There was some fantastic light out there this morning! I am working on the JE2020. Have the synopsis, done, added Rolling Stone for music, and am up to June 1 with proof reading the daily posts. I have the images collected for the Japanese album, and named in order. Have yet to tweak them all and down size the new ones.

January 4, 2021
Raining all day. Was about 9°. Laundry, cleaned the soap dispenser on the washing machine, made cole slaw with dressing. Looking at Shaw stuff. Pat seems to have managed to get our bill down to $135 a month. We get a new, faster modem.. 7.5 to 10 mb? We should get the new modem in a few days. Pat will try to set it up. Our bill is down $32. In 2 years we renegotiate. So, we don't need to worry about changing our email and all that mess. He spent the day trying to get ahold of them. I did a bit of a walk about the garden. No crocuses showing. The snowdrops are showing buds in the boulevard garden. Can't find any more roses to bring in. Waterfall is running good. I have to use one more paver on the little rockery reno at the front, as there is about 6 - 8 inches of gold wall space for the rockery. I move the side paver over and put the new one into the back of the extra space.

January 6, 2021
There were big winds and much rain yesterday. Some people lost power, but we were ok. The water reservoir has been 100% full for a few days now. I finally got the JE2020 loaded. Must remember to put the Synopsis photos into public html + 'images'. Pat got our Shawcable cost reduced by about $32/month. Today he got the modem and stuff to install. This makes me crazy, of course. I think he should get Trevor to install it. But he has got to try it.

January 9, 2021
Was 5° today. Watered house plants. Dumped out an orchid that was dying. Finished the index pages for the Japanese album. It has 9 pages now where it had 4 before updating. Over the past couple of days Trump has been doing numerous stupid things. The Democrats won the 2 Georgia senator seats. A bunch of thugs (white supremists, Proud Boys, Qanon, etc) broke into the chambers where the confirmation of the elector seats was being done under the Vice-President Pence's duty. They had to call in the National Guard to get things back under control. They got the job finished at 3:00 am. Biden is to take over on January 10. This break in was promoted by Trump on Twitter and where ever else he had been posting his lies. Twitter has deleted his account permanently and he is off Facebook as well for the foreseeable time. The Senate does not seem to be going ahead with getting him out of the whitehouse under the constitution law, so Pelosi and the House of Representatives are going to try to impeach him again. Some of the Republicans will have to vote with the Democrats to accomplish this. As it stands now the Senate is at a tie of 50 seats each party... the Democrats count independents as theirs... such as Bernie Sanders. Trump is not allowed access to any military buttons to push. Pelosi is calling him 'unhinged'. The people in the white house are resigning like rats jumping off a sinking ship. They have found that they cannot control him at all. He has gone beserk. None of his attempts at filing cases in court to say they stole the election have been even given a second look by the Judges. Meanwhile the virus rages on. Biden is doing what he can to get the vaccines started.

January 12, 2021
Yesterday was rainy and about 8 °. I made up the Plant Lists page (lists of plants in every garden room) with music etc. Added its link to the gardening page. Loaded this stuff and it works. Also found the ebay account to see the tracking code for the Spillway, and it is to arrive some time today. The spillway arrived just after lunch. It is going to work just fine, I am sure. I will need some gravel and round stones from a beach sometime. I hope I have enough stones for disguising the spillway and the plastic bin I intend to modify to make the waterfall run about a foot to where it will fall into the pond, making 2 falls. (one off the spillway into the bin and the other into the pond from the bin) I will want more flat gold rocks for the little rockery at the front. It got up to 12° today. I took a walk around the block for pictures of the river. It is really quite high and still raining a bit now at 4:00. I have half of the captions to do for the Japanese and Moss/Water Garden album -- hope to finish it and load it today.

January 13, 2021
Up to 11° today. Was very windy last night and there are lots of people without power. Made cole slaw in the morning. Picked up twigs and leaves off the cutting garden and dumped the garden bin into the green bin. Pat was trying to figure out the Shaw thing... don't know how far he got with it. Made a $10. offer for the 69.99 teddy bear... they came back with a 59.99 plus there is 22 or 23 worth of shipping. I think I will just leave it.

January 16, 2021
A couple of days ago I finished the Japanese album and loaded - it all works. Spent time on playnow and put $78 away. Not sure what all else I did in the past 3 days. Today I got trapped into fixing some old photoshop information in texts that got skewed in that Win 7 fiasco. I also figured out how to get the thumbnails in photoshop to be bigger. In Bridge ... on the bottom right there is a slider... just move it to the size you like... Man! I must have spent a couple of hours looking for that damn thing. Then another couple of hours fixing the old text documents. I have got 3 photos for the paths and art tweaked. Nothing about gardening done.

January 17, 2021
Finished tweaking 4 pages of photos of the Paths and Art album... 6 more pages to go.

January 20, 2021
Luke was over on 18th and set up the new modem from Shaw. Yesterday we shopped out in Langford. Today we go to the Wine makers and bottle the zinfandel. Finished page 5 of the Paths and Art page -- 5 more to go.

January 21, 2021
Overcast. 8°. Discovered a slow leak in the suite ceiling of the hallway... Plumber will be here today. Plumber was here about 10:15 to 11:30. Fixed it... will give Pat a reference to a drywaller. The floor is quite wet, so this has been going on for a few days I suspect. Pat is drying out the suite with a heater. Finished tweaking page 7 of the Paths and Art album. Page 8 has the 2019 photos, so its the start of the new updated photos. Finished page 8.

January 24, 2021
There was ice on the water table this morning. It has been cooler the last few days. Watered houseplants on 22nd. Bottled the wine at the Flying Fish on the 20th. Had the new modem installed by Luke on the 18th. Had the leak in the plumbing fixed on the 21st and are waiting for the drywaller to come and fix the rest of it. In the meantime I have made the album for the Paths and Art in the Garden, and am finishing up the coding. Have finished the Index pages. Have finished the first coding of the photo html pages up to Page 4 .. 6 more to go. Made the Pre1989 Travel logue page PRIVATE and PASSWORD protected and have it bookmarked for easy access. Updated the Cars page and loaded it. Updated Progress page but have not loaded it yet.

January 25, 2021
Finished the Paths and Art big photos htlm pages up to page 5. Spent most of the morning trying to get my playnow set up how I want it for now. It has been a coolish day but with sun. We did not get any of the promised snow.

January 26, 2021
Was up at 6:30. doing this stuff
Have the playnow set up and working. Another cool and cloudy day. Finished the albums photo pages up to Page 9 of the album. I need a nap as I was up to 2:30 last nite having previously fell asleep watching the news.

January 27, 2021 Made the French salad and the chicken with the French tomatoe etc sauce.

January 28, 2021
Finished the above part of the photo html pages. One more step to make changes on the 100 photo html pages and then can upload it and hope it all works.

January 29, 2021
Was 7° today, some sun. Finished the paths and art album, loaded it and it all works! Had a bit of a walk about the garden. It needs leaves and debris cleaned up. I might remake the little gold wall with red bricks and use the gold wall stones on the new waterfall. I need to level the cement blocks on the yew hedge side of the pond. This can be part of the reno of the waterfall and its surrounds. Some of the stones can be replaced with drift wood and perhaps stumps or pieces of wood. I can move the big old stump to behind the marsh marigold, and move the lantern into its spot. There is some bird or animal scratching the moss off the lantern. I have seen squirrels in the garden. I need more sand and compost in the little rockery at the back and topped with crunched up lava rock, maybe. Then I will want some more plants in the rockery. I think I have to take the lava rock to the old sidewalk behind the garage to crunch it up, so as not to make cracks in the patio. I will be adding sand and some of this crunched lava rock to the little rockery at the front, after rebuilding the gold wall. I may need to dig the saxifragias out while doing this, and probably the lewisia also. I hope I can get enough red bricks to do the front of that bed and the side by the aubreia. I will check for tufa rock at https://www.bordenmercantile.com/garden-supplies .... BORDEN MERCANTILE... I see they have PUMICE. Spriggs says it is good for mixing in the top dressing of the crevice gardens. YEAAA. (Note: Spriggs uses the fine stuff and it seems to be a grey/brown color; not the white stuff I got) Just had a notion of building a board walk for along the yew hedge side of the pond. Wonder if Pat would like to help me. Would need treated landscaping tiles ... measure the area.. length and width; and then the little cross boards to cover it all. Could be stained when finished, to help it last longer. The pond liner would still need stones or old cement blocks to weight it down. I wonder if I would have enough overlap to staple it to the landscaping ties. I could add more of the liner and make it overlap into the pond. The little boards would cover the edge and appear to act as a bridge with water flowing under it. YES!! Pat says he is staying out of this.

January 31, 2021
Yesterday started the Chastity album and finished and loaded it today. It works. Cleaned the humming bird feeder and put out new stuff.Today it is 8° and raining lightly. Sorted Playnow stuff and recorded it. Did the banking stuff. There were flocks of robins eating the berries off the holly tree today. Only about a month late this year. There were all sorts of other birds in the garden, also: sparrows, woodpeckers, wrens, a jay.

February 2021

February 1, 2021
Did the laundry and ironing. Made a yummy salmon salad and a 1/2 a Johnny cake as we only had enough corn meal left for half a cake. Used buttermilk instead of milk and it was all good. Butter for the shortening. Finished the little Star Trek Album and loaded it and it works. Starting Homework.

February 2, 2021
Got up to 10 degrees today. Made Hawaii Chicken, and 4 cups of beef broth. February 5, 2021
Yesterday got meds. Corrected the links page and the Series page. Playing on playnow. Put $50 towards the winnings. Today it is about 7 degrees at 10:00 with sunshine. Watered and fed the house plants. made up the 3 meatloafs and froze them. Finished and uploaded the Homework album.

February 6, 2021
Spent the morning sorting out my travel journal note books. While getting ready to do the Richards Rust album, I did up the notes from the July 2002 North Island album which I see is one of the albums that I need to redo ... so I can add these notes to the pages when I redo them. I did up an under construction page for the North Island that I will need to remove when I get to that one. Its a sunny day and about 8°. I will be working on Richards Rust though.

February 7, 2021
Ice on the water table this morning. It will be getting colder for a few days now, the weather app says. Finished the Richards Rust album. Then had a zoom meeting at 12:00 from the alpine garden club of BC, with the speaker from Scotland, Jim Jermyn on a trip to Japan. Was excellent .. hour and 15 minutes. Uploaded Richards Rust and it works.

February 8, 2021
Spent the morning doing laundry and sorting out all my email gardening stuff. Must keep the Tom's Guide info about learning to make my Fit Bit read my blood pressure, etc on the cameras of my Pixel 5 phone. I have a notion about fixing the pond edge by the little boxwood hedge: I shall get 2 or 3 landscape ties and put them along that side of the pond. Will put some of the extra pond liner over them and let it fall into the pond. I will put the cement blocks over top of these liner covered landscape ties. I can make them hang over the pond edge by a couple of inches or so. This should stop the water from eroding that edge of the pond, and go into the pond because of the new pond liner added. Must keep the liner tight over the ties and back fill under it to bed the cement blocks on the ties snuggly.
It froze last night, but it is now about 7°. My little saxifragia that I have stuffed into the tiny hole in the tufa rock, is coming into bloom. It is just the tiniest thing. I can get pumice at borden mercantile (hopefully) for adding to the top dressing of the little rockeries. I need to get some stones from a beach for in the waterfall. Then I can spend $100.00 at Canor so as to get my $25.00 off membership coupon used. I should do this before my time runs out. There are yellow crocuses up in the crocus field, light blue ones in the strip behind the crocus field, snowdrops and cyclamens in bloom, and a few little primulas. I should get out with my camera.
I started collecting photos for making the new waves. Am up to 50 photos, so far. That is: 2 rows down and 5 across = 5 pages. or 50 photos.
Was out in the afternoon: pictures and measuring. Found a nice hepatica under the big bergenias. I must remove the bergenia from around it. The front new renoed rockeries are 3 feet long, both the top one and the lower. The Iberis level is longer as it goes over to the feather rock. I think its about 5 - 6 feet, with most of it filled with semperiums (hens and chickens) cyclamen, small one that gets yellow balls for flowers, and a small perennial white snapdragon like blooms. The side of the pond by the boxwood is about 5.5 feet long ... of course these landscaping ties can always be cut to fit.
The pixie orchid and the hai marie tricolor or whatever it is called now, are in bloom. There are 3 others with buds. One of them is a lady slipper. And of course the magenta African violet is blooming.

February 10, 2021
froze over night. Hummingbirds were trying to drink out of the waterfall. Got their food thawed out and added a bit more to it. Its 2 degrees and the snow that fell was not entirely melted. took the green bin out and while out pulled off some of the dead perennials. Way too cold for this! Am up to Page 6 of the Waves images tweaked. Looked up several links that I shall use on the album. Found out where to take the broken blue box... 304 John st. and they will give me new ones.

February 12, 2021
Yesterday finished tweaking the Waves photos, so it is ready to get made. This morning it is very windy and -5 degrees. The snow we had yesterday seems to have turned to ice. At about noon the wind seems to have gone down and I put out the hummingbird feeder. Have seen one of them feeding. So, they seem to have survived the cold night.

February 14, 2021
Yesterday we got a foot of wet, heavy snow. Pat shovelled off half the driveway so he could get the car out, if need be. Today he has a very sore shoulder. Today, we are getting more wet snow, despite the temperatures being 2 or 3 above 0. Some of the snow is dropping off tree branches, but more is piling up. We are to get warmer temperatures tomorrow, so it should all soon disappear. Pat has been making a nice fire in the wood burner downstairs in the last few days. It is very cozy and warm down there in the evening.
Today I finished the Waves album.. will check it all and load it. It has about 4 more pages than the old one: 70 photos, some with links to the places where they were taken. This should finish the Photography - Series albums that need to be recreated.

February 15, 2021
It was about 4 degrees today. Most of the snow has melted. It was raining. A poor little soaking wet humming bird was at the feeder. Did the laundry. I have to tweak 80 photos for the North Island (2002) album, then will be ready to create the album.

February 18, 2021
On the 16th we got word that John S. had passed away the night before. He was 92. Yesterday it rained and some of the snow had melted. Today it was up to 7 degrees and more snow is melting. Watered the plants and made rum balls.

February 19, 2021
Got up to 7 today. Most of the snow is gone. Did up my thing for the tax dept re property tax or whatever. Called Dan, Bernice, Sandy/Ralph.. they all knew. Of Course, Sandy knew way more than did I. They sold the cabin. Cindy and Larry are selling the home in Kamploops and moving to Airdrie where their kids and grandkids are. She is taking Isabelle with her. Bev knows. Didn't phone Henerietta. Funeral to be 25th. Finished tweaking photos for the North Island album.

February 21, 2021
Got up to 11 degrees today. cloudy. Ryan Wade came and cleaned out the gutters today. $180. Finished loading the North Island album and it works.

February 24, 2021
It froze last night. The birds are picking the moss off the lantern constantly. I move it to back by the old stump just under the edge of the deck. I need to dig it in a bit deeper. But it was quite cool out there at 6 degrees. I deboned and skinned the ugly chicken so as to make some apricot chicken out of it. Kelly sent a link to John's obit, yesterday.

February 26, 2021
Ice on the water table this morning, but it is gone by 9:00 and the temperature at noon is 10°. Typed up the Uchuck travel journal entries and uploaded to web page. Finished the Uchuck album and loaded to web page. North Island was loaded a couple of days ago. All works. Have to clear the cache on my chrome every time.

February 28, 2021
Have started to do up the Haida Gwaii album. Typed the notes for the travel journal page and copied out a short form for the new album index pages. Its a sunny day, 8 degrees.

March 2021

March 1, 2021
Warmer day. Watered house plants. The pansy orchid (Milt. Breathless 'Beauty'), the Pixie, a cattalaya (tag lost), the hai maria discolor (Ludisia discolor) , are in bloom, and a lady slipper (phrag Andean Fire) has a bud. The magenta African violet keeps on blooming constantly. They all need repotting but this not going to happen. Did laundry.

March 2, 2021
Finished the Haida Gwaii, loaded, and it works. Started the Pre 1989 album. Stopped at the Horticultural Center of the Pacific and picked up my membership card. I am good until October 2021. Was a nice warm day but did not go out. The crocus field is up but sparse in places where shitheads have been parking their vehicles.

March 3, 2021
10° today. Cleaned up my email boxes. Pictures outside. Levelled some of the stones at the pond edge by the deck. Looks better, especially from the deck. The garden is still soggy.
March 6, 2021
Yesterday I made potatoe salad and cole slaw. Have finished the pre 1989 album and uploaded it and it works. Was 12°today but did not get out. I am sorting the photos for the Genoa Bay album. There are lots of photos. Will do them from the originals.

March 7, 2021
Was up at 6:00 to get the Desjardins stuff straightened out. Made a green bean with potatoes and onions soup. I just saw the neatest thing. A hummingbird came to the clematis old flower head, pulled out a piece and flew away with it. Probably using it in its nest. Its 8 ° now at 10:15. I have 2 zoom meetings today. 12:00 and 1:00. Don't know if I will still be awake then. The zoom was excellent Jim Jermyn from Perth. Ran for 2 hours. Hope I can find a copy of it. https://www.hillsidestone.org/ for some nice looking stone. The zoom guy and Paul discussed dolomite lime for out acidic soil... get the granular type, not powdry stuff.

March 10, 2021
Have the copy of the Jim Jermyn stuff. Was really good. Made soup this morning. Have enough for another meal now. The Phil's Professional .. whatever finished the ceiling in the suite and we paid him $813.12. He did a good job. Pat says that between the plumber and this guy this little leak costs us about $1000. Thank goodness Pat's Picks are doing wonderfully well. I was out in the afternoon for about 2 hours... not moving too fast, though. It was a lovely day, after it decided to quit spitting a few drops of rain. I clipped back a few things in the driveway strip, the French lavender by the David and the Irish heather, the tree peony, and some of the montebretias by the roses. Have decided that I will clean the Irish plant out of the West Coast planter. That fancy plant (Primula marginata) is coming along with a lot of little shoots. I put some chicken grit around it and pulled out most of the Irish thing. I will make sure I have some of it left to grow in the golden wall, once I get that finished. The daffodils are starting to open up. I moved 2 of the blocks off the edge of the pond where I will be building up the edge, so the blocks do not fall into the pond. It was 8 degrees, but warm enough when I was moving around. I have the green bin full for pickup tomorrow. I have quite a lot of photos sorted out for the Genoa Bay and still more to go. I will have to reduce it. I don't have to keep 3 of everything.

March 11, 2021
Was out in the garden for about 2 hours. Measured and cut the pond liner to cover the end of the pond by the boxwood. Removed the cement blocks, put a board (the 52 inches or so of the pond) down along the edge. Put the pond liner over the board. Added a few bricks along behind the board to level the covering of this liner, with the height of the board. Put the 7 cement pavers back on top of it all. They hang over the liner by a few feet and are just little bit bouncy to walk on. I need more grey bricks to fill in behind the pavers and make the path a bit wider. Have started to fix the side opposite the water fall that adjoins the newly laid cement pavers. I think I will still proceed with the waterfall using the plastic tub, with cut down spot for the water outlet, and use the flat turquoise slate for the stone where the water runs over and falls into the pond.
I have made a bit of progress on the Genoa Bay album. Have the photos sorted and have started to tweek them. Have 3 rows of five = 1 page finished. Its going pretty good.

March 12, 2021
Was up to 11°. Have a sore muscle in my knee, so did not go out today. It was really nice out, too. Have finished tweaking 2 pages of photos of the Genoa Bay album. Its looking pretty good. Have 10 more pages to go.

March 14, 2021
Was kinda cool today. Snow on higher levels and storms in the US. Weird weather. Finished tweaking photos for Page 4 of the Genoa Bay album. Watched some of the Grammies on TV... totally weird lights and music and clothes. I think you would have to be high to 'get it'. We did the Spring Ahead thing this morning. Hope this is the last time change we have to do. Silly notion for these times. Decided to add another board to the edging on the pool. Have to move all the cement blocks out and insert the board, then put them back again. Then fill the behind the cement blocks and lay the square ones over the rectangle ones at the edge. This should hold them in place, so they do not slip into the pond; and make a level walk way along that side of the pond. Then, am thinking of using the brown plastic trough in one side of the waterfall next to the clear plasic box to hold the waterfall. This will create one side of the waterfall. On the inside of the plastic box there will be river stones, and flat stones to cover the sides of the clear plastic box, with the waterfall spilling into the box and dropping into the pond, over a spill rock from within the clear plastic box. The brown plastic trough can be planted with alpines that hang over its sides, like abretia, creeping phlox, etc. The trough will also hold in any soil in the mountain of the waterfall. There will be another layer of rocks going down to the pond level, also planted with alpines in sand and grit.

March 15, 2021
It froze last night. It is now sunny but only 8°. It stayed at 8 all day. Have done the laundry. Changed my card on the public mobile to the TD. Moved blocks to along the pond. Pat cut a board for me. I have 3 pieces of it that I am using under the blocks to try to get them to stop sliding into the pond. I have all 7 of the blocks of the first layer set, almost level. Have one of the square blocks set on the end of long blocks, to hold them in place and make a walking surface. that edge is looking better. t'will have to do! I should be able to find 5 square blocks in the cutting garden to finish it off. I want to bury the black hose under the rocks to make it disappear. Was out from 2:00 to 4:30. Did up one row of Page 4 of the photos of the Genoa Bay album.

March 16, 2021
Watered the house plants. Made up some beef barley soup, only to find I did not have enough barley. O well, tomorrow, maybe. Temps of 10° and sun. Was out from 2:30 to 4:00. Finished setting down the blocks to make the path level by the yew hedge. Used blocks and bricks from the cutting garden. I will be moving some of the blocks around to fill in the paths on the cutting garden. Have started to take down the stones to fix the waterfall, next. Dug the lantern in a bit deeper in its new spot by the big old stump, just under the edge of the deck. The dry stream is covered in moss, and I am going to leave it go to moss. So no more dry stream. Since the dry stream is going to moss, I can use its round stones to fill in the plastic box under the waterfall spillway thing. So I should have 2 waterfalls when I am finished this reno. Going to use the brown plastic trough in the cutting garden side of the waterfall. So the top of the waterfall should have space to cover its top with flat stones, maybe the turquoise thin stones. To match the turquoise one that I will use as a spillway rock. Filled the pond and it began to overflow. Pond looks good really full, but it does not stay that full for very long. Have the clear plastic bin out and ready to cut out the hole for the spillway rock. The box needs 22 inches of space. The black spillway thing uses up all but 6 inches of the plastic box. So, the plastic box should be about 4 inches from the edge of where the turquoise spillway rock is, so that I can set some rocks in front of the plastic to cover the plastic. Wonder if paint would work? so, 22 inches plus 4 is 26 inches... could be a bit more as I have pond liner to put under the plastic box, so as not to lose any water.

March 17, 2021
It froze lightly last night. There were a couple of deer in the front garden at 4:00 a.m. They didn't seem to eat very many things. The waterfall is running very nicely. Brought some daffodils in. spent most of the morning talking to Shaw to get the bill paid for by registering a new credit card as the old one bounced, of course. And tried again to get our bill show the right amount. Should show it to be apx 142.00. $135 and tax Zada said. Then after lunch made up the turnips and potatoes ready to be boiled for the St. Patricks Cornbeef dinner. Then activated the new card I just received. It is up to 11° now at 1:30, but I do not feel like going out to garden. This stuff just wears me out.

March 18,2021
Made the beef barley soup this morning . . . 4 packages. Finished page 4 of the Genoa Bay album. Since it was not raining after lunch, I went out to the front garden. Weeded the little rockery and dug out bluebells where ever I found them. Replaced a couple of stones and worked on the little gold wall a bit. I was out for about 2.5 hours until it started to rain a bit at 3:00. I think I will take the lava rock to the front and smack it with my big hammer to get smaller pieces. I will put this and some sand and some of the potting soil from the big white pot on the top to fill it up. Let it settle for a few days. So I need to take the sand, the lava rock and the white pot with a tufa rock out to the front... one at a time. Mix them in the wheel barrow. Actually I will use potting soil from the brown pot on the patio area, so I will just move the saxifragias and the tufa rock with any of their roots. Can tip them out on a plastic on the deck, so I will not be carrying too much down the stairs at once. The fawn lillies are showing leaves. Not too many bluebells growing back there now. But I must keep after them and get them out. Also need to take down the sumacs back there. I have no plans for the empty pots.

March 19, 2021
Got up to 12° today. Figured out some stuff on my phone, got the ringer to ring. There is sooo much stuff on that phone. It does gesture stuff. Can go to 'tips' or getting started on the phone. Figured out that deposits can be made to Playnow with debit card and not have to pay a 3.50 fee every time. Made crepes in the afternoon. Took about 3 hours. So I could get them made before lunch if I did not have this computer stuff to do. It did not really rain today, but it felt cooler than yesterday. O well. Could have gone out at 3:00 when I finished the crepes, but did not want to get grubby before this nice supper. Yesterday I saw a sarrosa fish and today I say a different one. So they are in there. Maybe tomorrow I can fix the waterfall. It is losing water out the left side, so that little willow is getting watered, for sure. Am still thinking of putting the plastic trough on the left side next to the plastic box and have plants that will hang over both edges of the trough. Maybe one of those little varigated grasses, they seem to be tough enough, without long roots. The little evergreen bun thing grows over rocks so it might be good too. And a Wulfeni if I need a taller plant. I could put the big turquoise slate on the top of the spillway, with my turquoise rock on top of it. The rest can be done with other flatter rocks, with some of the decorative rocks from on the deck railing on top of that. The right side can be made into a crevice garden with the displaced stones. Would be good to have the stones all the same color and of a limestone kind. The Andean Fire. hai maria, and the pansy orchid are in bloom.

March 20, 2021
Finished page 5 of the genoa bay album. 7 more pages to go. Changed PlayNow to debit card. Was 11° today with a few spits of rain and very breezy! Was out in the garden from 2:30 to 5:00. Got the rocks removed, and a flat space ready for the plastic bin to hold the spillway, made by adding clay that had been dug out, to make the area for where the plastic bin sits level. There were lots of cedar roots in the clay of the pile of rocks. The end of the hose leading to the spillway thing needed a brass fitting on its end to turn into the other end that Pat added to the gizmo on the spillway. Was 5:00 by the time we got this figured out, so hope it works now. Was too late to try it out. There were 3 fish on top. Probably because the pump was turned off since 2:30. I hope to add the plastic trough to the area on the left side of the plastic box and blend it in to the 'rock garden look' of the new waterfall. I have lots of rocks left over. The building of the new waterfall is going well. I even found another turquoise piece of slate. Added a bit more water to the pond. It has been loosing water out the left side and it is going to the area where the little pendula willow grows. Hopefully the willow has extended its roots into the pond now, and can suck up as much water as it needs. I think the willow on the other corner has stretched its roots into the pond. Hope they both survive this operation.

March 21, 2021
About 8 degrees and sprinkling rain.. just enough to keep me inside. Wasted time and money on PlayNow, idiot that I am. Finished Page 6 of the Genoa Bay album. 6 more to go.

March 23, 2021
Yesterday: Did the laundry and ironing. Pat fixed the ending of the hose to go into the spillway. We went out at about 1:30 to attach the things and it immediately started hailing. Pat stayed out until he had it put together and I stayed out and did a bit more stuff. Tested the connections and there is no drips! Excellent. The spillway has to sit level so it works properly. I have the blocks set to have the chair sit on - 4 square cement blocks. As soon as I came into the house, it quit raining and the sun came out.
Today: more ironing, moved the orchid's white water catching tray. Wasted time on playnow. It froze last night, so it is not feeling like summer yet! I have a new plan for setting the waterfall. I need to dig the plastic tray in deeper with a cement block under it to get it level. I will put down more cement blocks just a bit higher than the edge of the bin, except where I want the water to run out, will be a bit lower and have the spillway rock in this space on top of the black plastic, which goes over all the level blocks. There will be another layer of cement blocks over the edges of the black plastic. This will make a flat surface around the spillway and the bin. The water will run in the bin and over the edge at the pond where the spillway rock is slightly lower and out over spillway rock. The rest of the surrounding black plastic at the front will also be covered with flat rocks. I will then put down a bit of clay on the flat surfaces and collect moss from the patio and put it over the clay. Hopefully I will have a surrounding flat surface area of moss. I hope to put my best rocks from on the railing on some of this flat surface covered with the moss. The brown trough will be put on the yew hedge side of the flat surface and planted with some kind of tough plants. The mermaid might have a level round rock to sit on overlooking the litte willow and the waterfall. I might have enough rocks to make a little crevice garden on the other side of the waterfall, or more moss with woodland plants. I may need to get more cement blocks to put in the cutting garden for paths.

March 24, 2021
Raining all day. 11°. Finished page 7 of the Genoa Bay album. 5 to go.

March 25, 2021
got up to 11°, sunny Finished page 8 of the Genoa Bay album. 4 to go. cleaned the biffies, took out the compost to the back bin. Dragged the bins to the back. Made coleslaw. Made porkchop soup. Have the spillway added to the waterfall. It is mostly finished. Have to add the rocks to the yew hedge side yet. Pat made our appointments to get our vacinations on April 4 at 6:45 at the University. Pat has all the numbers on his phone. The filter I tried to set up on Thunderbird seems to have worked.

March 26, 2021
Got up to 12 ° today, but sure didn't feel like it. The wind came up and it was very chilling. I was out at 1:30 and finished the stones on the sides of the spillway. The spillway is level and spills over the ledge evenly, then runs down over a few stones (with pondliner under them) and falls over a piece of slate that makes a nice 2nd fall into the pond. No leaks that I can see. The spillway is level and a bit higher at the back. It is covered with the flat piece of turquoise slate that seems to be just cut to the perfect size to cover the spillway. On top of the spillway turquoise slate is a turquoise rock that I have had for yeats. The water runs about a foot over some rocks and falls over another piece of turquoise rock, and falls into the pond. The mermaid sits on the yew trees side gazing into the top waterfall. I managed to get it set just where I wanted it, and level, also. I put a lot of clay on the other side of the rocks and hope to grow some plants (maybe the sedum that seems to grow everwhere, down both sides of the 'mountain', with round gold rocks placed around, where they fit. So, I did not use the flat cement blocks, idea. It might look good if I get the sedum to catch on. I think I will need more clay and sand/compost in the cracks between the rocks. Will need to push this in through the cracks in the rocks, a la Spriggs method of crevice gardening. I have a few rocks left, maybe for an edge to a small bed just below the dedk side of the mountain. I really want hollyhocks and delphiniumns. The cedar roots get into everything. Also need to finish digging in the hose to fill the pond, and fix the flat cement blocks on the pond surround. As well as in the garden, from which I 'borrowed' quite a few blocks.

March 27, 2021
Is 10°. Finished Page 9 of tweaking photos of the Genoa Bay album. 3 pages to go. Was out in the garden from 1:30 to 4:00. Found another blue/green rock that matches the one on top of the slate spillway rock. Am slowly getting the top slate edged with rocks to cover the edges of the slate. So, did a bit more on the mountain then started on the placement of the cement blocks. I have the chair on 4 square blocks with the white pot next to it with no block under it. From the chair back to the entry to the pond is cleaned up and the soil is ready to plant some garlic chives beside the path. I have red bricks with holes in them. I am going to put them on a bed of drainage, maybe the black lava rocks mixed with good garden soil, along the edge of the railroad tie, and plant little alpines in the holes. This will be along behind the little rockery and a brick height above the railroad tie. I have started to make the path along the cedars side of the strawberries. It starts at the path into the strawberries and is made with grey cement bricks and the rectangle cement blocks. It will be a bit wider by about the width of a brick. It should now make a more comfortable path to walk on and to trim the cedars. I am about 1/3 of the way finished and I like the the way it looks with the blocks and the bricks in a sort of a pattern, to break the mononteny of the straight cement blocks. I am not sure what I am going to do with the brown plastic trough or the cedar trough. I will need about 6 each of the rectangular cement blocks and the same for the square ones. I have used up most of the clay in the waterfall and a few more rocks placed and hopefully fitted into the mountain. I can support the sides with wooden stakes, if need be. I have some rocks left over and some nice ones to place along the railroad ties between the little rockery and the red brick crevice garden. :) Hope this works and the little rock plants root and spread over the bricks. I have one saxifragia and a delesporeum (ice plant?) to start with. The little globalarias survive, and so does the yellow allysum, the fire spinner? is spreading wildly. The little Lewisias are doing fine. I need to add more rock garden mix or top dressing to the little rockery and get a few more plants to put into it. Maybe more saxifragia? from the ones I now have in pots. I would sure like to get that little campanula propogated to another spot in the rockery. Some phlox might be nice.

March 29, 2021
Was up at about 5 cause I could not sleep. Got the duck stock, etc. ready to make Irish Yellow Broth and/or Split pea and ham soup. Pat was to the store at about 7:00 and brought home some more split peas. So, was back to sleep in about an hour. It froze overnight, again. Got up again about 8:30. Put away the groceries. Started the bedding, towels laundry. So, finished the 3 loads of clothes, made the Irish Yellow Broth: 1 for lunch and 3 frozen. Used up a 8 cups of duck stock. Skimmed off the the duck schmoltz. After lunch Pat took us to Tillicum mall. He went to London Drugs and I went to Lowes. Took forever to find the gardening, which is on the 2nd level and out on the parking lot. They do not have most of the Old Castle stuff I wanted. I would have spent something like 75.00 plus tax if I could have got the stuff I wanted. Just got 14 16" x 8" blocks for $48. Got it home finally, and Pat helped unload them to the back old sidewalk. I got into my gardening clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon carrying the blocks to the 'cutting garden' area where I have started to re-lay the pavers path. Played out there till 5:00. Am very tired, now after supper. I am going to be making the little red brick rockery addition to the back rockery and moved the brown plastic trough. I should have 3 clear days to complete the paths and rockery. No rush. The erinus plant died in the terra cotta pot on the little rockery. Have no idea why. Pushed soil down, so maybe the roots were affected by the soil not being around the roots... no idea why. I will never find another one of those plants.

March 30, 2021
Froze over night. The Pixie orchid has buds again. The pansy orchid, hai maria discolor and the Andean Fire are still in bloom. The daffodils are on their last days of blooming. The anemones and some of the hyacinths are blooming. The deer ate the tulips in the front garden, by the David. finished more of the blocks in the cutting garden, etc. Leveled and lowered the lantern in its new spot by the old stump. It looks good under the large leaves ot the plant under the deck by the big old stump. I may have killed the Jack frost Brunera by dumping pea gravel and clay on it. I put black lava rock into the trench for the red brick crevice garden. This is next to the railroad tie and the newly laid blocks into the strawberry patch and the cutting garden. Put sand over top of the lava rock and garden soil over the sand. The bricks end up at the level of the railroad tie. There will be pea gravel and soil to cover the railroad tie. And sand and a bit of compost into the brick holes, with pumice added when I get plants for the holes (Crevices). I hope to put cuttings of everyone of the saxifragias I have in the big pots on the deck. I moved the brown plastic trough next to the heather and at the edge of the cedar hedge. The cedar trough continues the bricks to the edge of the other entry into this garden room. The lewisias, the campanula (evergreen blue upfacing flowers), the one I think is a dianthus but it is evergreen and crawls over rocks, the big .... and a new little one, another evergreen thing.. I think it is a sedum), and the screlarus (spelling), are doing ok. The allysum and some globalaria seem to be getting established. Don't know what I will be putting in the troughs. Perhaps annuals.

March 31, 2021
11 ° at 11:00 o'clock. Cleaned out the vacuum cleaners. Vacuumed the kitchen. While out looking at the work in the cutting garden room, I noticed that the room gets quite a bit of sun in the morning. I suppose when the oak tree leafs out it will be getting less sun. Weeded along the old sidewalk bed to the holly tree. Quite a few of the cutting garden plants are coming up. I will make notes of them when I get the blocks finished in this room and in the water garden room. And when I get these rooms cleaned of debris and weeds. Finished laying the blocks in the cutting garden room. Weeded and picked out the sticks. Have stuck branches of sage behind the chair, and hope they form roots. Started clipping the bay laurel and the round cedar below it. Have a pail full of clay/dirt to use under the 2 blocks I have to set around the pond, tomorrow. Need to bury the hose that leads to the pond to fill the pond. Have daffodils in the house. Have one more row of photos to tweak to complete page 10.

April 2021

April 1, 2021
Was out from 1:30 to 4:30. It was 13° and overcast. Perfect weather for working in the garden. I finished laying the blocks. Actually there is one or two in the cutting garden that need a slight adjustment. And maybe one in the pond area to be raised slightly also. I broke one of the new blocks. Yes, the girl at Lowes warned me about them, just as a review on the Lowes website said. They are not as sturdy as the other cement blocks, but cheaper, and they are about 1/2 an inch smaller. Buried the hose that goes into the pond to fill it. Adding more soil around the little willow and the surrounding area. Replanted a couple of clumps of the variegated grass into the old plum stump bed also. Cut back the Lebanon cedar and skimmed off the pond. Filled the pond to see if the hose still worked. Over flowed the pond, so it wasn't really that far from full. Did some weeding in the pond surrounds. Still have more to do and more in the cutting garden room. I am using sand on these last couple of blocks, as I have used up all the clay I had in reserve. I still need to fill in around the lantern. When the pond over flowed it went into the lantern's stand hole. The little plant in the west coast planter is in bloom. Its rather pretty. It might be an auricola primula.(Jan 15,2022: It is a Primula Marginata) Up-facing lovely blue flowers. I will be removing the rupture worte plant. They grow anywhere, so they may go to the waterfall mountain. Pulled out some of the frittilaria (onion) plants in the center garden room in the front. Lots of them to do yet. Finished tweaking photos for page 10. 2 more to go.

April 3, 2021
I did nothing yesterday. Went for a drive to get lottery tickets. Went to Borden Mercantile to get pumice, but they were closed.
Is lovely day at noon, but it is suppose to rain today. I am in the house because we are going for our vaccinations tomorrow. So, am going to make the duck feast today, and trying to stay clean for tomorrow, too. I have a couple of delaspernums for the red brick crevices, and a couple of saxifragias. I am going to take pieces off the saxifragias in the pots on the deck and put them in the brick crevices. Hope they grow roots. Doing the laundry today in case I am not feeling up to it after the vaccine tomorrow. Did up one row of photos from page 11 for the Genoa Bay album. It seems the old boat houses have been turned into 'apartments'. They seem to have 2 or 3 floors to them now.

April 4, 2021
Finished the pages for the Genoa Bay album. Went for a vaccinations at 6:35. We might get our 2nd shot in 16 weeks, sometime in August. Got ribs from boston pizza place. I really had no appetite, but Pat was doing ok.

April 5, 2021
Taking it easy today. My arm is a bit sore. Nothing serious, though. Read my book for a while in the morning. After lunch I made up the Genoa Bay album. Have 12 pages and 180 photos. it was actually fun doing up all the new photos. Now I have all the page and photo descriptions to do, and all the coding, of course. I think I may do a bit of light gardening tomorrow. It is supposed to rain the next day.

April 6, 2021
12° with a cool breeze. Wasted the morning on the wretched Des Jardin crap. Did some work on the Genoa Album until 2:20 and then was out in the garden until 4:30. Cleaned up the moss/stone paths on both sides of the moss/Japanese room. Picking up leaves and debris and weeding. The rock fern and the miniature maiden hair fern are both doing very well. Both the blue and the pink hapaticas are in bloom. The birds or the wind keep knocking the moss off the lantern. I will be moving the end of the dry stream over a bit because there are some astilbes coming up where it was and it has to go around the lantern now too. The primulas seem to like that area too and have spread over from the viewing platform. Waterfall is running good. My muscles are just a bit sore from the exercise. The wind was very cold. It got up to 14° but felt a lot colder. Pat got his fixed glasses back today, and is going to get a reference to an opthomatrist. (sp?).

April 8, 2021
Finally the credit card has posted my payment! its been 8 days. I have been upset since the 1st! Time off for Easter.. they sure stretched that out. Was out in the garden from 1:30 to 4:30. Setting the last blocks in. Clean up the bluebells. Put sand and soil (from a brown plant pot) around the wulfenia and the london pride saxifragia. Weeded up to the dry stream, and added more soil. Still need to add more soil in the stump bed. Moved the dry stream and put moss among the rocks that form the banks of the river. Need more soil beside the viewing platform where there are primulas and astilbes. I dug out clay to use under the blocks and used some to line the edging rocks and then put moss over this clay. Hope all the moss catches on. That dry stream grows great moss. The pond overflows and runs into the dry stream area. Skimmed off the pond. It was about 14 degrees, but with a very cold wind again. So, of course the wind died down as soon as I went in. Put $38. of the $50 into the Mary account, and reduced the weekly limit back to $50. I am going to leave the bottom of the brown pots soil in them. They have that white styrofoam stuff in them for drainage. So, if I put new soil on top I can get annuals for all 4 of the brown pots. I will have 2 empty white pots, also. Not sure where these pots might all go. I need a good plant for the terra cotta strawberry jar. The fawn lillies are in bloom. Must do a bluebell search and destroy back there.

April 9, 2021
Made enough money to buy lottery tickets on line. Made the johnny cake. Have done the captions and the menus of the photos of the Genoa Bay up to the end of page 3, where all the photos are from 2005. Page 4 will have photos from 2006

April 10, 2021
It froze last night, again. Today it is at 11° with a cold breeze. I do not feel like going out in it. Although the sun is shining. We only got light rain yesterday. I watered house plants. Made up cranberries. I have finished the captions for photos on page 5 of the Genoa Bay album. 7 pages to go. And have Index pages done up to page 5. Took the started plants down to the patio area. Threw 3 or 4 of them over the deck railing as they had no rock plants coming up in the pots. Took the compost out to the back bin. Spent about .5 hour thinning out the frittililaria in the front garden, and of course, it started to sprinkle and quit as soon as I got into the house. 2 of the trilliums are not yet showing leaves. Not sure which ones.

April 11, 2021
There was ice on the water table this morning. It is up to 10 degrees with sunshine at noon. I finished page 7 of the photo pages of the Genoa Bay album. Have 5 more pages to go. Index pages descriptions finished to page 7 also. Was out from 2 to 5. Finished leveling the last 2 blocks on the pond surround. Added 20 litres of potting soil to the old stump bed. Made the hole in the old stump a bit bigger. Not sure what I want to put in that hole. It should be a real show piece plant, though. Then set about cleaning up the debris. Finished that from the bay laurel to the lantern, with the pond side of the water hose done and the other side yet to weed. Have re-routed the dry stream slightly to accommodate the astilbes and the new position of the lantern. Have yet to finish the dry stream and then add pea gravel to it again. I have been stuffing moss into the rocks at the side of the drystream... hopefully to make the stream have a 'bank' along the rocks that line the edges. The little maiden hair fern is good, the rock fern is good, the pink hepatic is not quite as tall as the blue one. Maybe it will grow a bit now that I have cleaned up around it. The back side of the pond could use a bit of refinement to 'mountain' and the flower bed next to it. There are still blue bells in there. I think I should like to have foxgloves and maybe lupines or delphiniums back there. I dug out more clay from under the deck for use where ever I might need it under blocks. Have been using the top of the soil from one of the brown pots that is empty. It has styrafoam in the bottom for drainage, so I might just leave the bottom stuff and all the roots in it, and plant annuals on the top, for now. The same with the other brown pots that had orange trees in them. Also have to clean up under the deck. We have to get Pat on his own apple ID. He is driving me crazy with this stuff. I now have his name and birthdate on my Apple ID. Will change it back to mine, should we ever get him on his own apple ID. Then maybe I can get an ipad again, but really, I don't want one ... no time for it. I can read on my androids just fine. Not even sure if I can access my old books anyway. Bother!

April 15, 2021
So after my stupid stupid mistake of letting hackers on my view screen. Had to call the banks. The credit union and the TD both blocked any on line activity to their accounts. Des Jardins are sending a new card and so is TD. I have to pick up my new atm card at the TD. Luke returned my computer at 12:30 today. They were able to wipe it and then reload from back ups of the 12th. So I have only lost 3 days and 2 of those days were spent with the computer in the shop. Cost $406.xx. Today Pat looked up his Apple ID and glory be his IS on his own ID. Changed my Apple ID back to my own name and BD. Must check it though when I get my password changed. I have only lost page 8 of the genoa bay album that I have done up. So they were able to restore nearly everything of importantance.
After I got my computer back and Luke set up new passwords on my emails for me, we went for a drive, got lottery tickets, and then got pumice at Borden Mercantile for $14.69 Went out to the garden at 2:40 Its a very sunny warm day good heavens its 24° Weeded from the old sidewalk to the stepping stones that go under the deck. Clipped the eonymous or whatever that little bush is called. while weeding I looked up at the pond to see the great blue heron looking back at me. Its a beautiful bird. Guess it doesn't realize it has eaten all the fish. Got back in at 4:40. Put the supper on. I am much more calmed down about my computer now.

April 18, 2021
Have been trying to get all my passwords changed. Only got the Telus stuff sorted this morning. Went out to the garden at 2:30 to 4:30. The lawn mower was not charged up. So, had to get that sorted. Guess it had not been plugged in for the winter. It is now charging I hope. It was 22° today and really hot, even in the moss garden at the back. I weeded from the stepping stones that go under the deck to the epimedium. I spent a lot of time weeding the auricola: taking the lilies or are they tulips? out of the primula auricola and replanting a few of them in just behind the primula wandas. There were a lot of weeds in that clump of plants and under the big rhodo on the corner of the deck. It is all pretty cleaned up. I tried to re-establish the moss to grow in that area to cover the garden hose leading to the feed of the pond. Didn't want to bury the hose just yet. It looks good at the pond end where I have buried it. Then I spent quite a bit of time clipping out the old leaves of the epimedium. So, I should prune back the old leaves early in the year before the new growth and blossoms start to grow.

April 19, 2021
Got the laundry done and got a few more passwords changed. Was out in the garden, weeding a bit more on the path between the moss garden and the fig tree bed. Got a bit of the fig tree bed cleaned up. There is a nice Lupine coming along and beside it is a mini rose? Don't know where that came from. I should get rid of the perennial bachelor buttons and the michaelmas daisies in that bed. The stepping stones are really full of weeds closer to where the path meets the other path that goes from the old sidewalk over to the pond and into the strawberry/cutting garden room. The lawn mower needs a new battery. Pat has arranged to see the all batteries guy, Chris, tomorrow morning. So, all this shit happening! There are about 4 hummingbirds sucking up the food. I put out another feeder and filled the glass one. I guess the babies hatched and are now hanging around eating. There is more sugar on the list. Was really hot while out weeding. I think it got up to at least 22°.

April 21, 2021
Yesterday was very hot. Spent the morning shopping and getting the battery for the mower from Chris at all batteries. Gave us a good discount. We shopped for groceries and got lottery tickets. Pat fixed the mower; putting in the new battery, sharpening it. Ater a couple of runs, it worked great. I just empty the back more often and it does not pile up against the entry to the catcher. Dumping all the clippings into the green bin. Mowed the front and the back. Lots of weeds in the back. The apple tree is starting to bloom.
Today I finished the passwords stuff but have a few things left to do for when I get my new cards. 18° today. Charged the mouse and the keypad. Talked to Fran on Pat's phone. Finally got out to the garden about 3:30. Weeded the rest of the fig tree bed, cutting off the hyacinths. Weeded in the moss garden and have finished most of it now. Have a little bit to do along by the bamboo. Some bird or something knocked a flat rock into the pond. Fortunately it fell just under the waterfall and I could reach it and put it back on the rocks at the front of the second waterfall that drops into the pond. Filled the pond and came in about 5:00. I must finish the bit of weeding and turn the sprinkler on. The asiatic primulas want water.The chocalat lily is spreading very well. The epimediums are in bloom. Clipped off their dry brown leaves. This really should have been done earlier.

April 22, 2021
Made vegetable whip, and got the pork hock ready for our supper. Did the ironing. Was a bit cooler today. I was out from about 2:30 (waiting for the lawn mower noise to stop) until 5:00. Finished weeding along the stepping stone paths. Have started weeding under the deck and still have some left to do. I was sure the maiden hair fern was growing next to the rock fern, but there is not a trace of it. It has just disappeared. Unreal! Must be loosing my mind. The birds are enjoying the new waterfall. There was a dark eyed junco having a bath at the end of the blue slate. The robin that has been around is huge, and beautifully colored. The finches are singing most of the day. Pat saw them drinking out of the humming bird feeder on the deck railing. The fern leafed peony is blooming at the front. All of the trilliums are up.

April 24, 2021 Sorted out email, deleted RAW photos in the camera. It got up to 12 degrees with light rain. I wish it had given us a substantial rain. Might rain again tomorrow. The lilac is in bloom in the back garden and so is the apple tree. The Flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) has been in bloom for a week or two. It grows in the Inner garden room, by the English roses. This shrub can get to be 10 feet wide and tall. Can be pruned lightly after finished flowering and heavier pruning in early Spring, since it is in the Rose family. It blooms on old wood. I cannot really see the flowers because they are at the bottom and partially covered by leaves. I am going to start shaping my quince, as it only has about 3 feet of space to grow in. If I prune off some of the top and thin out the branches, it should give the shrub a better view of the flowers. It is about 3 feet high now, so I will start shaping it this year, leaving some of the old wood to produce flowers, each year that I let it grow. The iberis in this inner garden room is looking good. It anchors the new little golden wall rockery to the stone path. I love this little rockery. But the lilies are coming up! When I dig this bed out to put down the sand and lava rock for the tufa rock and its saxafragias I am going to have to try and save the lilies. There is also a solmon's seal coming up in that bed too. I hope to get little cutting of the saxifragias into the holes in the red brick that I have added to the little rockery at the back. I need some other rock plants for that bed and add more drainage rocks and sand/compost mix on top of that, then put the plants in with crushed rad lava rocks for the top dressing. This should end up as the red rockery. I may crush some of the pumice smaller to add to the mix for rooting layer of the rock plants. That is just above the drainage rock and in the rooting area. It helps to have a day or two to plan this stuff. It would be nice to get some lewisias but the ones I have there are self seeding and growing nicely. The daphne is in bloom and the new tiny one is growing well. The globalaria seems to getting established, but the allysum died. The birds and critters seem to be digging little holes around the garden. There is even a hole in the tall white pot on the deck. The honeysuckle is putting out new growth in that pot. So, I think I will let it grow, and add the old trellis, and train the vine up the trellis. It will need more sun than it is getting now. When I get over to Cannor I must see about getting a couple of fish for the deck pot and put a wire cover over it. Finished Page 9 of the Genoa Bay Album

April 25, 2021
Temps of 14°. We got more rain today. We are finally up to over .5 of an inch over the past few days. Finished page 11 of the Genoa Bay album. 1 more page to go before I do the coding. Threw out the house plant that Pam left as a hostess gift. It was looking rather ratty. Watered the house plants. Looked around Facebook a bit - watched the video of the lewisia wall at Government house! Yes, I need to do this with the rock pile around the waterfall. Don't think I will use a lot of lewisias though. I need a creeping phlox for in the strawberry jar. Then I need to fill the holes in the red brick, crush some pumice and add it to the cactus soil, then stick some saxifragia cuttings into these brick holes.

April 26, 2021
Got up to 14° today. There was bits of rain, but now at 7:00 it looks like it is finished raining. The weather app says the next 3 days will be without rain. We have a bit of .5 of an inch of rain, now. I slept in really late. The clock was flashing when I woke up about 4:50. Pat woke up too cause it was our pee break I guess. The power had gone off. We fixed some clocks and went back to sleep. This power outage happened again later in the day. Who knows? Did the bedding and towels laundry. Went Langford to the super store, the LB store and the co-op for lottery tickets. After putting everything away, I activated my new TD visa, changed the google pay and it works. Made the supper. The waterfall is running good. I haven't seen the big Great Blue Heron in the last few days. There is going to be a muppets special for 2 hours on tv tonite.

April 27, 2021
Was up about 5:00 am and got my paypal and the google pay set up. Went back to sleep for a few hours. Got up and put away a few of the things Pat had brought back from the store. Did my other kitchen chores. Got Page 12 of the genoa bay album finished. Made the lunch and went out to the garden about 2:00 and was back in at 5:00. Was quite cool out even though the temperature was 14 degrees. The little breeze was cold and it was overcast all day. Cleaned up under the deck and watered for about 10 minutes at the end. The waterfall is running good. The rocks keep moving around on it. Birds! Tulips in bloom. Hyacinths and Daffs are finished. Have cut most of the hyacinths blooms off.

April 29, 2021
Yesterday I got quite a bit of stuff done on the bed along the old sidewalk. Digging out weeds: black berries, michaelmas daisies, dandilions, violets, grass, etc. Clipped back both of the jasmines. They should be nice this summer when they grow new tendrils and blooms. The fragrance should be superburb. I still have more to do on that bed and around the corner to the old compost bin.
Today was horrible. Shopped in the morning at London Drugs and activated that horrible card (Purchase of ink, and need to call back Monday to have the guy reserve a Grey pkt of ink as they had none of it. Shopped Red Barn and used the good card for this. After lunch, got the password changed (very stressful) at the horrible card - phoned them to accomplish this. And then corrected my phone number on the London Drugs account. Was too 'spent' to go out gardening, although it was a perfect day for it. So played on Playnow and added $25 to the Mary account. Recorded the gardening purchases in the last few months. Let's hope this is the end of worst month of the year for me.

April 30, 2021
It rained last night and most of the morning. We had a little more than .5 inch of rain. Made Strawberry and Rhubarb pie in the morning and a pot roast in the afternoon.

May, 2021

May 1, 2021
Nice sunny day. Have reconstructed the purchases from 2013 and saved it to gardening. There are more to do in the Pictures folder. Downloaded the photos from Camera and formatted. There is a good photo of the black squirrel. Was out in the garden from 2:30 to 4:30. Weeded to the end of the holly tree bed, and across the stone path, cut back the old hebe and the firethorn. Started cutting down the germander. Finished weeding the bed along the old garage. I am pulling out michaelmas daisies and the perennial bachelor buttons, dandilions, bluebells, stinging nettles, grass.

May 2, 2021
I think I will add some good sea soil to those flower beds along both sides of the old garage, when I am finished weeding them. And get a new rhubarb to put along behind the garage. Zoom meeting ran from 1 to 3. Too sleepy to go out in the garden. Finished changing the index pages on the Genoa Bay album. Now I have 180 photo pages to do! I'll never get this done! and all the gardening too! Put $11.00 into the M account.

May 3, 2021
14 ° and light rain. Laundry day. Last night I looked at things to keep the heron out of the pond. I think I will just try get a plastic big heron and put black bamboo stakes around the pond edges and see that the fish have somewhere to hide in the pond. That means wading into the pond to check for fallen rocks and to see that the pvc pipe I have are accessible for the fish.

May 5, 2021
Yesterday was out from 2:30 to 4:30. Was a perfect gardening day. Cut back the germander, up to the white pot. Then dug out the germander and everything in that bed up to about the yew tree. Lots of saxatilis tulips left. Finished page 3 of the Genoa Bay album. Today it is a bit cooler and cloudy. Was out in the garden from 2:30 to 4:30. Trimmed almost all of the front boxwood hedges. Picked up the trimmings by mowing the grass path, and mowed some of the grass by the street. Put all these clippings on the woodland path beside the old garage. Pulled out some bind weed. Added all the germander etc to the green bin and dragged it to the curb. Wasted the morning by trying to make youtube folders.

May 6, 2021
Had to get in contact with a Shaw techie by phone. We were not connected to the internet. Finally got on and it was our own router thing and the Amplifi. The techie told me to disconnect the amplifi and the router (?) modem (?). anyway, pulled out the black cord on each of them. She did some typing away, and then had me reconnect. I know nothing of these matters. So, I have finished page 5 of the coding on the photo pages.

May 7, 2021
Paid $30 membership for a year to the Alpine Garden club of Bc. Was out in the garden from 12:30 to about 2:00 when it started raining. Finished trimming the boxwood hedges at the front and trimmed the honeysuckle pilea hedge along the Pees side (East) including trimming back the California lilac with the hedge trimmer. Raked all the debris out to the curb under the plum tree. Lots of bluebells coming up in the rectangle on the Pees side. I need to finish cutting back the tree that grows along the border between the Pees and my stuff in the boulevard. We had a heavy rain for a few minutes at about 2:15 and there was hail in it. Finished page 6 and 7 of the Genoa Bay album (coding on photo pages)

May 8, 2021
Lovely day. Spent the morning watching videos of the Victoria Conservatory of Music garden tours. Nice music, of course. Finished the coding of the photo html pages to the end of Page 9 on the Genoa Bay album. out to the garden from about 1:30 to 4:30. Weeded around the farside of the pond. I see I need to fill in between the rocks with more small rocks and soil before planting sedums, etc. Dug out some bluebells. Have to keep these things under control behind the waterfall. Weeded from the hebe (penstome?) which is lovely and in bloom right now to the iberis. Lots of violets, dandilions, etc. Cut off the berengina roots to give the hepatica room to grow. This spot needs more compost. So do the other alpines along beside the little gold rock wall. Need to add compost and pea gravel. Dug out bluebells, violets. Cut off the solomens seal that has been growing into the gold rock wall bed and onto the stepping stones area. Most of the saxifragias have died in the little gold rock well bed. Need to add sand and compost to this 'trough' and then move the saxifragias and their tufa rocks from the white pots on the deck to this area. I must keep them watered as they get settled into this new bed. I am going to leave the lillies. Don't care if they die.

May 9, 2021
A Scottish mist was happening this morning. Now, at noon the sun is out and it is 15 degrees. The hummingbirds have been at the feeder lately. I think the babies have hatched and the parents have started another batch of babies. I finished page 11 of the photo html pages. So, 1 page to go to the finish. Was out in the garden from 1:30 to 4:30. Perfect gardening day after the Scotch mist. Dug out compost, crushed some lava rock, added peat moss, and sand. Had about 3/4 of a wheel barrow full. Added it to the newly found hepatica at the front, and to all the little rock plants along the front, including the fern leafed peony. I had weeded this area previously. There is only 1 gentian coming up. Its the big floppy one, so it too got some of the mix, and to the iberis. As did the polygala and the mini daisy in the sun dial circle, and to the globalarias by the thyme circle. And the plants along behind the sun dial circle, and the lovely penstemone or whatever it is. It is in full bloom and looks terrific. Added a bit to the primula marginata in the west coast planter. Then added about 1/2 a pail full of pea gravel along the stepping stones. Weeded some more around the trunk of the tree and crushed the leaves around the trunk. Did a bit more cleaning up and pruning of the California lilac, picked up all the clippings and weeds and took them to the compost bin. I have some of this good compost/sand/lava rock mix left. I should be able to add it to the thyme circle when I get it weeded. As I looked at the pond from the deck while getting supper ready, there was a pair of gold finches at the water fall!! What a treat to see them. I do hope they are nesting around here. I have some empty pots and some potting soil on the deck. I am going to try to propogate each one of the saxifragias that I now have in the white pots on the deck. They will soon be moved to the addition to the little rockery at the front. The little rockery at the back needs a lot of work. It's soil is like cement, needs a lot of compost added and lots of sand and crushed lava rock. I have to get rid of that brown plastic trough. It is not deep enough to use.

May 11, 2021
Was not feeling good yesterday. Slept most of the day, but did get the laundry done. Today has been a fine day. Did some light gardening stuff; that is, filled 12 little pots of a mix of sand and top soil. I am going to take some saxifragia cuttings to put into these little pots and hope I can propogate new plants. Then I will be taking the tufa rocks out to the front little rockery, along with the saxifragias, of course. I need to dig out some of the dirt in the beds where these saxifragias go and put in some lava rock, with good sea soil then sand, more soil and pumice. Put the plants in and add pumice for top dressing. Hopefully I will have cuttings to put into the little rockery at the back. But I am just not that excited about saxifragias, anymore. They grew like crazy in the pots, but the blooms are just not that spectacular. The best one was the red mossy saxifragia that I bought at Cannor. My lewisias at the back are doing fine. The globularias are blooming. I have a nice little veronica across the stepping stones from the epimediums that I will add to the back little rockery. The front needs a lot of weeding yet, too. I need another little oxyalis bulb thing that has the pink flowers and is very well behaved. It grows by the cyclamen in the bed along by the old garage.

May 12, 2021
Finished the Genoa Bay album, loaded it and it works. Weeded a very little bit and watered a very little bit. The baby hummingbirds are eating all the food. Picked up KFC and went to Elk Lake for supper.

May 13, 2021
Have made a good start on the 90Hawaii album. Very nice day, but I seem to have to be inside today for various reasons. Got another scam message on messenger on my phone. Marked it as scam and blocked the number. Google let me know that it was marked scam. Bought the Victoria as Queen book. It is non fiction. The baldacci book sample was not very interesting I think I will remove it and try another one of his. Memory man was good but gory. Pat's glasses broke and he is seeing the optomitrist and getting new glasses

May 14, 2021
Temps to 20 degrees. In the morning - 9:30 to 11:30, did the cuttings of the saxifragias, added pounded pumice to the top of each pot. Hopefully they will grow roots into the sand and compost and potting soil mix below the pumice. Also did a couple of the pretty little veronica that is in bloom along the stepping stones on the fig tree side. Mowed the back and found that the mower had not been charging. But I did get the back mowed. Skimmed off the pond. Made up the hummingbird feed.
After lunch we went to the LB in Langford and lottery tickets in Colwood.

May 15, 2021
22 degrees today, sunny. Was in the garden from 2:30 to 4:30. Clipped the white rose back off the front entry. Have buds in the house. I hope they open, but they are really small. Dug out the soil from the little gold rock wall rockery. Added lots of black lava rock into the cavity. Heaped soil up around the cavity and onto the lilies. The soil was extremely dry. Put the gritty soil back on top of the lava rock. Rebuilt the wall with a 2 red bricks. Watered all around the front a bit. Tried to wash off the windows. The saxifragia cuttings are doing really well with the pumice on top of the potting soil/sand/peat moss/compost mix that I have put into the little pots. Watered the deck plants. There are all kinds of birds coming to use the waterfall as a birdbath.

May 16, 2021
Was 19 degrees, sun. Perfect day for gardening. Got out at 2:30 and was out till 5:00. Set the Sprinkler to water the back. It did not get the corners of the cutting garden, so must do that by hand, soon. Although it might rain tomorrow. Mixed some sea soil (potting soil) sand, a bit of chicken grit, a bit of peat moss, and a bit of composed manure. It made about 1/2 a wheel barrow full. Took it to the front and filled the new little gold wall rockery. Have a pailful left. I am going to put it on the thyme circle. So, weeded from the Iberis past the campanula from Sandy and down to the thyme circle, weeding a bit in each bed both sides of these stepping stones. Got a bit of the top of the thyme circle weeded and it was 5:00 and time to come in. I added red bricks to the gold wall. I still have 3 red bricks that I can use. It looks not too bad. Oh yeah, watered in the new soil. I left the lillies in there and a couple of dutch irises. Don't care if they survive.

May 17, 2021
14 degrees today, mostly cloudy, a bit windy and rained at about 7:00 pm. Got the Haida Gwaii album working on the web page. I had the old folder of it in the uploading web page of my garden. Did laundry, vacuumed the kitchen, shopped at London Drugs, made beef short ribs for supper, made a $11. deposit to the Mary account, and left about $11. to play with... did this while the ribs were in the pressure cooker. The gold wall looks pretty good from the living room window. I did not get out to garden though... so tomorrow. The wulfenie is in bloom and the London Pride saxifragia looks good along the pond edge. The Iberis around the garden are almost finished and will need to be clipped back. Tulips are finished and need to be clipped too. The Chinese poppies are in bud. The dames rocket and honesty are in bloom around the garden. We only got a bit of rain, so I will need to keep up the watering. We have had very little rain in May, far less than the average.

May 19, 2021
Yesterday I was out from 2:30 to 5:00. Weeded the inner garden and the thyme circle. Put the new compost/sand mix onto the thyme circle. Watered around the front a bit, watering in the compost on the thyme circle. In the morning I made the broccoli salad.
Today, I have finished tweaking the photos for page 2 of the Hawaii album. I have started to do the Travel logue journal notes for Hawaii trip. Was out in the garden from about 1:15 to 4:45. Clipped up the branches I had left on the boulevard garden. Mowed the front grass. Cut off bamboo shoots in the grass. Cut off a long black bamboo shoot that was leaning over. Since the green bin was full I left some of the grass clippings down as mulch. Dragged the big tufa rock down to the front gold rock wall bed. It had the Lilac Time and the one that looks like a pine tree attached to it. Dug it a bit into the sand/compost/grit layer. Took out a pail full of the mix out and put it into a bag. Positioned the tufa and filled in around it with the compost mix and added some small tufa rocks under the Lilac time and the other one. Got pail full of pumice and added it around the saxafragias. Made another spot for the Dr. Clay saxafragia, digging out some more of the compost mix. (threw it around the inner garden plants) Put pumice under the Dr. Clay saxifragia (it has a layer of the compost mix. Filled in around the top of the Dr. Clay with more pumice/compost mix. This plant covers about a 6 inch diameter and is next to the tufa rock and goes to the front wall. One of the old saxifragia survived the winter. It might be aizoon (paniculata?). Put pumice and compost mix around the top of it. Have to position more rocks around these plants. I might have room for the red mossy saxifragia when I get it. There is another saxifragia growing in the lowest level with the little sempveriums, a cyclamen and the one with the gold balls for flowers. I must add compost to them and top them with pumice too. Since I have cleaned up the stone path, I should put down pea gravel to top it off. Watered the cutting garden and the Japanese/moss garden while I was doing this stuff. And watered around the front a bit after I finished the transplanting. It was cool enough to wear my long sleeved old sweater. Got up to about 14 with some cloud. The moss garden needs weeding again.

May 21, 2021
Yesterday dug out the second level of the gold rock wall. Putting the gritty mix into the wheel barrow and up the sides around the cement dividing blocks at the back of the gold wall. Levelled more of the gold rock wall. Then put down the rest of the lava rock into the cavity (it goes down to clay and roots). Put the rest of the gritty clay over the lava rock. Then put the compost/sand/peat moss/potting soil/manure mix over this, using up the half bag full of the good mix. Clipped the globalaria and the iberis. Watered it all. Finished about 4:30.
This morning I created the Hawaii album and started the coding. Its silver, but I think I will stick to black for all the travel ones. Finally found the real mistake on Haidi Gwaii and fixed it, reloaded the travel page and had to empty the cache before it would work properly. Went out to the garden about 2:30. Its warm... 20 degrees. Watered at the back towards the pond and the cutting garden for about 1.5 hours. Meanwhile, mixed a half wheel barrow full of potting soil/sand/chicken grit/peat moss/manure. I added some to the inner garden and on the lower level of the little gold wall rockery, and the rest to the 2nd level at the front where I am going to put the other tufa rock and the saxafragias. Put gold rocks around the edges of the top level with mostly clay under them. Brought the dragon and its rock down to the spot by bench and rock to the 2nd level. Found a big light gold rock in the back rockery and have it to put at the side of the 2nd level of tufa/saxifragias. Its a gorgeos rock. There is another spot on the 2nd level that I will populate with perhaps taller plants to match the dark coral bells that is in there now. Watered at the front for an hour. The plants really do need the water, despite their being 'rock plants'. They need to get established ... hopefully by winter.

May 22, 2021
Its a lovely day. In the a.m. transfered $14 to Mary. Finished coding the Index pages of Hawaii, and up to page 2 of the photo html coding. Was out from 2:30 to 4:30. Got the big white pot of saxifragias moved to the front little gold wall rockery. I made one nore spot for the 5th saxifragia by extending the second level by about a foot. Filled the top with pumice. Used up quite a lot of the pumice. I should be able to get more from Borden Mercantile. Watered it for about an hour. The water was running down to the thyme circle. I will need to fill the back part of the second level with some good rock garden mix. And find some good slightly taller plants to put in that bed. It will form almost a C shape, and then go down along the cedars. I am disenchanted with saxifragias. The old London pride looks good along the pond edge with the wulfenie. It is a very tough plant. The rhodos are in bloom, the lilac is still blooming, the oriental lilies are in bloom. I need photos. We are to get rain starting tomorrow night and all the next day. So tomorrow I should put manure out on the strawberries and the cutting garden, and reel in the garden hose. The saxifragia cuttings are doing fine. Not sure where I will put them. I should go to cannor on Tuesday.

May 23, 2021
Sunday. Perfect day. Have finished codeing the 'index' part of the Hawaii album. Went out in the afternoon at about 1:30, to take pictures. Was out till 3:30 and was quite chilled. There was a very cold breeze. So, I stayed in and cleaned my camera, deleted the RAW files, and was falling asleep, so went down for an extensive nap, and got warmed up. I seem to have needed that rest. Moved a few rocks from the deck railing to the front rockery. There is a lot of weeds every where in the garden. I saw a colorful little garter snake in the boulevard garden but was not fast enough to catch its photo. Rolled the hose back up onto the deck, as we are suppose to get rain, starting later tonite.

May 24, 2021
Overcast, warm, showers off and on all day. Laundry, ironing, phoned in perscription to pick up tomorrow. Cleaned off the deck and moved the big white pot to the corner, will be taking the blue old pot down and empty it out. Will be putting the top of the soil from the parsley pot and the basil pot into the big white pot, then put in new soil on them with some new annuals for the big white pot... heliotrope comes to mind and snap dragons, perhaps. I might want another dictamus for the front, but have not finished that area yet. Finished the Hawaii album and loaded it. It works. Cut up the turnip and apple and made it for supper. Started typing the Hawaii journal entries... am tired, been busy all day.

May 25, 2021
Spent about an hour at Cannor this morning. It had stopped raining by 9:00. Got some sand, potting soil, pea gravel, tomato cages, and a few plants. It all came to an exorbitant $142 and that was after the $20. coupon and the 10% of regular price for members. Delivery is free. They do not have a great selection of plants, and NO fish... crap. I am not going to get a membership again, as they have very high prices, and not much of the things I want. No lava rock, no pumice. I can get that at Borden Mercantile. I can get good cement pavers and other good stuff from Lowes and some good mixes of soil at Lowes at decent prices. Spent some of the early afternoon getting the deck pots ready for planting. Need to get a basil yet. The heliotrope and the petunias will go into the big white pot. This will be the annuals pot. The small white pot on the deck has the globe flower with buds on it now. Scooped some of the algae out of the pond and ran more water into the pond. Hope the chlorine kills the algae. Watched the lily specialist - Darm Crook from 7:00 to 8:45. he is from Sask and lives in NWT where he grows and hybridizes lillies.

May 26, 2021
Finished typing up the journal notes for Hawaii and reloaded the travel logue Noted the trip to get the speedster wheels on the ModelTs page and reloaded it. No photos for that trip, there will just be the journal notes to do up. Cannor delivered the dirt. One of the sand bags was open. Had a nap for about an hour and a half after lunch. Woke up at 3:00 and went out to move the dirt bags to behind the house, only to find that Pat had moved them. Thanks Pat. took out the compost pot, opened the potting soil (it seems only have a bit left to finish the little rockery at the front and do up the rockery at the back. Transplanted the heliotrope and the 2 petunias and the bacopia into the big white pot on the deck. Transplanted the gorgeous marigolds to the edge of the cutting garden. Put the pink creeping phlox in the strawberry jar. Weeded a bit in the strawberry bed. Turned on the sprinkler at the back for about 1/2 hour. Hope that gets those transplants watered in. It is suppose to start raining about 9:00 tonite and be raining tomorrow. The sprinkler watered the moss/Japanese garden. There are lots of humming birds around eating the food. The robins seem to have a nest in the cedar by the deck. They seem to be feeding babies for a couple of weeks now. I have a saponaria and a little veronica to put out in the back rockery. I moved a delespernum into a spot just next to the big daphne with the smaller red rock below it. I hope this delespernum is yellow... or I will get one to put into that spot. The sun spinner delespernum is not blooming but it does spread around. Watered all the plants on the deck and filled the bird bath and the fish tub where the finches go to drink. The sparrows bath in the bird bath. I plan to start the 92North album for the web page, next.

May 27, 2021
Was quite cool and bit breezy. It rained a bit last night and off and on today. It has not amounted to a lot of rain in the gauge. Got a start on the 92 North and 93 to the Yukon is included. Did up Pat's letter for him re losses. Filled the humming bird feeder.

May 28, 2021
To the lb store and to get lotto tickets this morning. Pat was out at 8:00 to get a few groceries. So, made spaghetti sauce in the am, too. After lunch I had a nap for about an hour. Then out to the garden at about 2:30 to 5:00. Was kinda of cool, temps of about 17 with a breeze. Cleaned up the little rockery at the back, adding sand/potting soil mix to top up all the plants. There are quite few empty spaces for plants in this little rockery. The globalaria added last year are growing nicely. The campanula is sending up big shoots of blooms. The new daphne has grown quite a bit. I transplanted a saxafragia (probably azoon - sp?) into the red brick holes. Hope it catches on. The sun Spinner delesporeum thing is spreading but not blooming. Clipped back the Irish heather and the iberis. I have a soapwort to put into one of the empty places, and a veronica, from Cannor. Watered the stuff for about half an hour while I made the supper. The back looks really good with all the rhodos in bloom, and the fig bed is full of purple dames rocket and the peony is getting really big. I need to put manure on the rhubarb & strawberry bed, as well as on the cutting garden, after weeding them. The clematis is full of blooms on the deck and down its side to the pond edge. Glorious plant. The wulfenie is starting to bloom. The dutch iris in bloom on the stump bed, mostly yellow and one purple. Since I have been watering the moss is looking better, but it needs weeding again. The pond waterfall was looking really good tonite, and the algae seems to be deminished. I need to get rid of the perennial bachelor buttons plants. They just take over everything. Also need to keep the michaelmas daisies under control, too.

May 29, 2021
Was out from 1:30 to 4:30. Cut the dead branch off the oak tree and cut it up with a little help from Pat. He fixed the long handled pruning saw. It was loose and wobbly. Cleaned up the Harry Lauder's Walking stick (curly hazel nut bush) and the small bamboo clump, as well as the lily of the valley shrub in that corner of the moss garden. While picking up the clippings and branches I found another hepatica coming up under the bay laurel tree just beside the entry to the strawberry patch. Got most of the clippings picked up and had to go in as it was time to make the supper. It got up to 20 degrees out there. Turned the water on the back for about a half hour again. In the morning I looked at the June album and see I can redo it using the same old photos plus 5 more to make it up with 11 pages of 15 photos each = 165 photos. The rhodos are looking glorious with all the purple of the dames rocket. Now I just need to weed that area again to keep it looking good. There are tiny figs on the tree, lots of bees on the plants in bloom.

May 30, 2021
Wasted the morning on PN. Watered the house and deck plants. At 1:30 I went out to the garden to pick up sticks and clippings. But ended up weeding the fig bed, and then digging out 2 small roses that were being crowded out by the big peony and some lupines that are getting growing and putting out little side sets. The bulbs are almost finished hardening off, and the dames rocket have had a good show for a few weeks. I put each of the roses into a brown pot and they sit on the patio area on the right side of the garage door. I used up almost all of the potting soil that was left in the big bag, and some manure and sand. Watered them in. There is one more plant that I need to rescue from under the fig tree. The balloon flower is looking nice, but it too is being crowded out by these bigger plants. I think there will be room for it in the front center/brown leafed shrub (smoke bush) center garden room. It will need the soil amended. There are lots of weeds in the fig tree bed -- perennial bachelor buttons, michaelmas daisies, vetch, violets, grass. The clematis on the deck is full of flowers and is covering about 1/3 of the deck area from the ground up to the deck. The rhodos are full of blooms too, with quite a few bees. Not honey bees but our indigeneous bees, I think. I am getting a lot of good renovations done this year. The thyme circle is looking a bit better. I was looking at pictures of the thyme circle from 2012. It was covered in blooms. I will give it more of a top dressing again this year, maybe. Mix of sand/potting soil/manure and maybe even bone meal. The saxifragia seem to have survived the move to the front, but I must pay attendion to watering them. I have to dig out the bachelor buttons at the front too. They form very big roots theat need strenuous digging to get them out.

May 31, 2021
Cut some of the ends of my hair off. I think it looks better, thicker, anyway. Did Laundry, the banking stuff, emptied the freezer and Pat wiped it out when it was defrosted. It got up to 25 degrees today. Was out from 2:30 to 4:30. finished weeding around the fig tree bed. I have lots of tree pruning to do next.

June 2021

June 1, 2021
It got up to 28 degrees this afternoon. Did the ironing, in the morning, then we went for lottery tickets and a nice long drive. Made lunch after we got home. Cleaned the chicken and put it in the roaster and down stairs oven. Put carrots and parsnip in tinfoil and put them into the oven. Took Pats round up and spritzed the bamboo shoots. So, I can't water at the front for a day or so now. Who knew it was going to get so hot! Went out to the garden despite the high temps and UV rating. Weeded along the stepping stones by the grass and around the water side of the moss garden. Still have about 1/4 of that area to weed. Came in at 4:00 to turn the oven on for the chicken. Then went out and set up the sprinkler for the pond and moss garden area. At about 5:15 or so, I will go out and change the sprinkler to on the strawberries, etc. There was a swallow tail butterfly in the garden again. It was feeding on the dame's rocket flowers. I hope it leaves an egg or two on the fennel.

June 2, 2021
Was out in the morning from 7:30 to 9:45. It was about 18 or 20 degrees. I was in partial shade. I clipped back the holly tree quite a bit, picked up all the leaves, and chopped it up so it would fit in the bin. I clipped the pin oak leaves off the garage roof. I pruned lots of the straggley branches off the lily of the valley shrub by the old compost bin; cut down the buddleia to just one trunk. Don't care if it survives. The bin is full, so I will have all these prunings to put in the bin next time. I emptied the yellow flag iris out of the black pot, and they will go in the bin next time also. When I spilled the water out of the tub I found it had a little gold fish in it, so, of course, that fish is now in the pond. I do have to get rid of the algae and get new fish, soon. I have been making potatoe cakes and roasted brussels sprouts with the bratwurst for supper. And the avocado in a salad. Since I have a zoom meeting at 7:00 we are going to have an earlier supper for this feast night. The potatoe cakes and the brussel sprouts will be done in the downstairs oven as it is 28 degrees again. Put $11 in the Mary account and bought a BC49 in Playnow. So far this month, I am a dollar ahead. :)

June 3, 2021
Nice in the morning. Went out from about 10 to 12. Did a clean up along the drive way. Cutting out roses, blackberries, morning glory, weeds. Chopped some of it up and into the bin. Saw the 2 adult quails. Saw the swallow tail butterfly. It was 27 when I got into the house. Very hot, after all. High uv of 7. Was out in the afternoon from 2:00 to 4:30. Mowed the front grass border and the back grass around the apple tree. Clipped back the front Irish heather. Snipped off the bamboo shoots. Watered the roses a bit and set the sprinkler on the saxefragias for about 1/2 hour and then by the sundial for half and hour and the trilliums for 15 minutes. I am 2 dollars ahead today = $3 for the month. :)

June 4, 2021
Was quite cool and overcast this morning. When taking the recycle bin out I found that some creature had been digging in the new little gold rock wall bed. Had to repair that. It needs more pumice on it now. Have some flowers in for boquets. Clipped off more bamboo shoots. In the afternoon I was out from 2:30 to 4:30. Finished weeding the moss garden. Transplanted the veronica and the soapwort in the little rockery at the back. While I was out it sprinkled just a bit. So, now at 5:00 the sun is out, but there are still clouds. Let's hope we get a real rain tonight. It got up to 19 degrees and then cooled off a couple of degrees, so it was good gardening weather. My muscles were pretty tired from yesterday, so the weeding was more relaxing than work, today. AND the lost has been found! The little maiden hair fern was hiding under a big Welsh poppy. So, I hope the fern can grow now! The Jack Frost brunnera is tiny but it is coming up now. Its along the dry river. I have marked both of them with stakes for future reference. The dry river is now going to end at the deck edge. where I have the lantern placed now. Under the deck is some of my best moss. The Corsican mint is growing all over the moss garden. Oh well, it smells good.

June 5, 2021
We got about 1/4 inch of rain last night. Today was a high of about 17. Much cooler, have been turning the house temperatures back up a bit, and closing the windows. Had a lazy day, playing on Flickr, napping. It was fairly windy most of the day.

June 7, 2021
Yesterday we had off and on little showers, and a cool day. Finished the photos for the 92North album.
today it is 12 degrees and some sun some clouds. Made the broccoli salad. Did laundry for the bedding/towels week.
June 8, 2021
17 degrees with high uv index of 7. To city hall to pay taxes, and get lottery tickets. Put the first 2.5 oz of D-Solv into the pond. It is crystals. I just threw it in the pond. It sits on the top. Don't know if I am suppose to dissolve it in water before adding. Was out from about 2 to 4. Transplanted the herbs - parsley, basil to the deck pots. Filled the green pot for basil and added a snapdragon. I still have a bit of potting soil on the deck to refresh the pots. Removed the dying rose from its pot, put in the dill and 2 snapdragons. 3 more snapdragons into the small rose pot. Clipped the dead stuff off this little rose. Watered the deck and patio stuff in. Put one of the tomato cages in the deck tub, and the rest in the pond, with a few bamboo stakes added horizontally to the mix. I anchored the cages in the pots at the shallow edges of the pond. I could use a couple more cages. We will see if this works. There are 2 big strawberries on our plants. Must keep them watered. The fig tree is forming green figs. It, too does better with more water. Picked the hyperion rhodo blossom drops off the moss. The moss too, needs more water. Dead headed the Dutch irises in the stump bed. The pond with the bamboo and cages is not exactly pretty, but if it stops the heron, I can stand it. I have not seen the fish in the deck tub or the pond since I added them. Zoom meeting tonight at 7:30 - Jeff Wright and his fernery.

June 9, 2021
In the morning I worked on the 92North album. Replace the Progress page link with Cars link. I don't really like that progress page. Was out in the garden from 2 to 4:30. Put dolomite lime on the mini maidenhair fern as per Jeff Wright's advice on the Zoom meeting last night. Mixed the lime with a bit of potting soil and spread it around the fern. Watered it in. Weeded the little rockery and gold wall rockery at the front. Have weeded up to the stepping stones that go down to the thyme circle. Added another section to the gold wall bed, taking rocks from around the stone paths at the front to create the wall at the back. Behind this final section there will be taller plants or maybe just one plant it will grow in front of the false bamboo thing. Perhaps a litte azalyea would do well in that partially shaded spot. Will be good to have an evergreen plant there. I pulled out the bachelor buttons from that front bed. Dead headed the roses. Emptied a few bags making that new section. There is lemon balm (a mint) growing in the pees corner by the Simplicity rose. That area has bunches of very invasive plants all growing together. They don't seem to make it past the boxwood, though. The thyme circle will need a couple or three more new thymes. But it is filling in pretty nicely and is in bloom, with quite a few bamboo shoots to be kept cut off. I decided that Bryan's rock is going to go in the West Coast Planter with the special primula marginata and the Irish thing.. rupture worte?. There are 2 strawberries, and the little saxifragia in the bricks seems to be growing. I could not find a red mossy saxifragia at cannor. I may have to go searching for it, or go to the VIRAGS plant sale in September at Janice's place (hope they can move it to neutral territory by Sept.) The tomatoe cages and bamboo stakes look awful, but they stop the heron, I will keep them. I haven't seen the fish. The D-Solv does not seem to getting rid of any algae, but its only been a day.

June 10, 2021
18 degrees, breezy. Uploaded the 92North album, includes the 93 photos. Must get the 90 92 93 journals added to the travel logue. Was out from 2:00 to 4:30. Weeded the thyme circle and from the thyme circle over to the grass path. This took till about 4:00. I had been watering the back garden since about 2:30. So started watering at the front for the next 3/4 of an hour. It was quite breezy so the water did not go where I wanted it, all the time. The roses and thyme and the Siberian iris are in bloom. I am pulling out all the bachelor buttons, but the roots are still in there, so they will just come up again. YEAA.. the milkweed at the front is up.. the one from Dave, that does not produce seed. We have 2 strawberries that are almost ready. The front looks pretty good. There are a few big bamboo shoots in the rectangle bed on our driveway side. The French lavender is seriously blooming all over and covered with bees. I saw an admiral butterfly (skunk butterfly) yesterday and the swallowtail butterfly is still around. There seems to be 4 or so humming birds at the feeder. Finches drinking out of the deck tub.

June 12, 2021
Its about 20 degrees with sun. I finally got that link to wikipedia off the top of my blog. Persistence! I did a blog post at last. Was out from 3:00 to 4:30. Cut out the bamboo and some of the thistles and weeds out of the rectangle bed of the boulevard garden. The lupines are almost finished blooming. Dug out some grass out of the rectangle bed and put it in the chemically browned spot that the Pees caused on my grass just by their side of the boxwood hedge. Watered it in and watered all around the front a bit. Brought the daisies in for a boquet.

June 13, 2021
Spent the morning fixing the Progress page and uploading it. Nobody but me will even want to look at it. We got a few mm of rain again last nite. It is 20 degrees at noon, and overcast. Updated the Amplifi and Shaw wanted my password... the one I have noted did not work... so I reset my password to the one I have noted and it worked now. It was a scam and so was the one that said my adobe password was changed and to go here or there for support if that was not me. WELL.. just sent to scam, or junk. Shaw is going to be bought by Rogers, so this might account for any glitches. This might happen in a couple of years. If I worked at Shaw, I would be leary about having a job in a couple of years, too. Took a few photos, charged up the battery. Finished tweaking the photos for Portugal.

June 14, 2021
Was cool and overcast in the morning. Did the laundry. After lunch we went for a drive and got lottery tickets. The lotto max has been at 70 Million for a few weeks now. The have halted it at the 70 M and just add more 1 M prizes to be won. Did up the Portugal album and have to do the coding next. It was a very interesting trip. I must get the travel logue done up! It got to 21 degrees today, but still feels chilly.

June 15, 2021
It is 21° at noon. Made pepper, arichoke hearts, bacon kabobs and used up the old little sweet peppers (5) and 2 strips of bacon, and a jar of artichokes. Do not broil, but bake at 375 so that the bacon gets done without burning the peppers. Brushed them with the juice from the artichokes. Baking the beets for the beat salad. It is supposed to rain today.. haven't seen a drop yet. Downloaded the app for PayPal and I am suppose to get $5 from them. Not in my PayPal account yet. Did they lie?
June 16, 2021
Was up to 22° today with a high UV rate. Was out in the garden from 1:30 to 3:45. Watered the deck and patio plants and around the back a bit, by hand. Watered the plum tree... ooops it ran down the street. Cut up branches from the prunings of the driveway strip. Have about half of them clipped into the bin that is out at the curb now. Watered the thyme circle a bit. This morning I made strawberry daquiri stuff up along with the crushed ice. Egg salad sandwiches for lunch and there is going to be lettuce wedge salad with salmon and potato salad and flat peas. Did up more of the Portugal album. I should be able to finish it tomorrow.

June 17, 2021
Was up to 24° with a bit of a breezy. In the morning I finished the Portugal album and loaded it and it works. Shreded the cabbage for the supper creamed cabbage. Went out at about 2:0 and chopped up the rest of the branches and twigs and have the green bin about half full. Came in at 3:00. It was just too hot to do any more out there.

June 18, 2021
made the cucumber salad. Went to Elk Lake Nursery, got 7 plants all at $3.99: 2 red creeping thyme, 1 heliotrope, 1 dill, 1 campanula deep blue chips (perennial), 1 osteospermum, 1 ice plant (Delosperma hybrid)(perennial) for $31.02 and a coupon for 5 rainbow tulip mix bulbs free to be picked up in the Fall ( Sept 15 to October 16, 2021.) Temps got up to 24°. Was out from about 3:00 to 5:00. Watered at the back for about an hour and a half. Filled the pond. Cleaned the moss, etc off the top of one of the beige pots and took it up to the deck. Filled the pot with a mix of sea soil and sand and planted the dill in it. I used some dill from the other plant to make the dressing for the cucumber salad. Cleaned the weeds out of another beige pot and dragged it to behind the old garage. Mixed the stuff I took out of the pots with some sand and took it to the front and threw it on the last level of the rockery reno. This area needs a bit more clean soil and sand to top off the last litte rockery spot and a plant to put into it. Maybe the new ice plant which is red and will go well the the blue of the gentian that is growing in that area. I moved a hycinth out of the beige pot to the front also. Of course the thyme will go into the thyme circle, the campanula blue chips will go by the pond, with more added sand, soil and pea gravel for topping. The African Daisy (annual) will go in the rockery reno for now. Not sure where I will put the heliotrop. Probably in another pot on the deck. I love its fragrance. I still need to plant the corsican mint at the front in the stepping stones with more sand and soil and pea gravel to line the stepping stone path. Potting soil is very expensive at all the nurseries, so I should get mine from Cannor where I get my 10% off until September. So, I will go there in search of sarrosas and shubunkins and get more planting soil and topsoil to have on hand, maybe even 1 or 2 more sand.

June 19, 2021
We go for our 2nd flu shot today, so I am getting nothing done, except computer stuff, today.

June 20, 2021
Its a perfect gardening day, but my shoulder is a bit sore from the flu shot. Watered all around the front, though. Broke the little blue sprinkler, have kinda fixed it with an elastic to hold it on. Must get a new one. Getting the garden purchases done up. Have done from 2014 to June 2021. Its under plant lists html page. Loaded it and it works. To get the Chrome to refresh the page, click the little circle icon thing at the top. The pansy orchid has 2 blooms on it. Poor thing really does need a repotting. The Andean Fire (name?) is still blooming, one bloom at a time opens. Not a great plant. The Lc. Secrfet Love HSinying has one bloom. I guess it is a small catalaya. It is magenta and has been on the plant for what seems like weeks now.

June 21, 2021
Got the light laundry done. It is 26° at noon. Watered the deck plants using 10 of the green plastic cans of water.

June 22, 2021
Mailed the letter to Canada life re my annuity. Took the cans to recycle for a record breaking $15.70 for Pat, and took a drive about. It is 22° at noon. Was out gardening from 2 to 4:30. It was 26° when I got back in. I put pea gravel on the little strawberry jar in the little rockery at the back. Watered the patio plants by hand with watering can. Clipped back some grape vines. Put some sea soil, sand, manure, and a bit of chicken grit into a plastic bag. Put some pea gravel into the little pail. Took the 3 red thyme, corsican mint and the delospermum into the wheel barrow and took it all to the front. Transplanted the ice plant into the last little rockery spot. Added most of the mix to top off this little spot, put in the red ice plant and covered the surface with pea gravel, using up most of the pea gravel I brought out to the front. Dug a hole for the corsican mint in the stone path by the smoke bush. Added some of the mix and some pea gravel around it. I set the newly fixed blue sprinkler to water the dead grass that the baby pee killed with some kind of chemical he dumped on it. I have put some grass from the boulevard garden into the spot, but I am not that exercised about this crap. The sprinkler does not cover a large area but it seems to shoot out a lot of water. So I had lots of water running down the low spots. After that I moved the sprinkler to water the transplants, finishing off with the thyme circle. Cut out bamboo shoots where I could find them, and some cedar roots in the bottom of the thyme circle. While working at the back I saw somebody's cat chasing the lizards and stomping on my flowers. I threw my trowel at it and scatted it away. Missed it, though. Filled the pond. Numerous little things that I forget I did.. dead headed the Gertrude Jekyl rose. I might like to get a new sprinkler; probably at Cannor .. maybe in Sept. when I need to buy a new membership. NO.. want to get it while I still get the 10% deduction. Must read the stuff over. I am finding that potting soil and all those bagged things are the same price as Cannor or even worse, so with my percentage off, Cannor is the best buy.

June 24, 2021
Was out this morning from about 9:00 to 11:00. It was cooler than it is now at 2:30 It is 25°. I mowed the back grass, cutting off all the clover blooms. There is lots of June drop from the apple. Got most of the holly leaves sucked up into the mower bag. Water around by hand at the back and took the hose up to the deck and washed it, and the windows off. Knocked the thermometer off and Pat put it back on. Came in and showered and made lunch. After lunch we did a couple of shopping chores. I got a new solar light for the front garden, at London Drugs, but their sprinklers looked complicated, so will try for one like my litte blue one at Canadian tire maybe Lowes. Deleted amazon music app, but still have my amazon account. Cancelled my spotify, it wanted access to my Google account. Remove access to Google from Windows and whatever else was on there. I closed my LinkedIn account, too. There is a big warning about the hot weather we are to have, starting tomorrow. Last night at mid-night the Syrians were burning something, and there were sparks flying and I could even see flames. I woke Pat up and he went out there and told the guy to put the fire out or Pat would call the fire department. The guy said.. 2 more minutes.. and Pat said NO, now. They finally put it out. I was up for hours after that, so I had to have a nap today from about 2:30 to 4:30 (the hottest part of the day) so that was ok. Today Pat did call the fire department, and they said they would come over and talk to the Syrians. One of the other neighbours from back in Loenholm crescent was up too.

June 25, 2021
33° at 2:30. Made bean salad (2 jars), Broccoli salad (needs some more mayonaise), looked over the salad recipes and made up a list for more salads. Made up mashed potatoes for potato salad. I have had about 5 of my mugs of water so far today. It has been ok for temperatures until about 1:30 when it has got quite warm in the kitchen. Turned the above the stove fan back on and it makes a big difference. Made Pat's lemon ade, and the humming birds food. I was up early to get stuff done while it was still cool, but have spent about 5 hours on my feet in the kitchen.

June 26, 2021
Was extremely hot today. got up to 36°. From 11:00 to 11:45 watered at the back with the sprinkler, while dead heading roses at the front. Then watered by hand at the front from 12:00 to 1:00. Got the white rose dead headed and the 2 English roses. Just need to do the Simplicity rose, yet. Pat put the big fan in the window. We had supper down stairs as it was much cooler. Spinach with avocado salad and then bean salad with cold ham. Watermelon to finish. Was quite good. At 9:30 it is still very hot.. maybe 28 degrees. Added water to the deck plants at 9:00. Tomorrow will be hot again. We are in a great heat warning and it will go on for a few more days yet. Did a few photos for the 95 Germany/France album.

June 27, 2021
It is 33° at noon. It is 37° at 4:00. Made puffs earlier and burnt them while downstairs doing computer stuff with Pat. Bloody hell! so, got nothing done today. As of the 26th I am $4.00 ahead in the Mary account. Meehans had a zoom meeting this afternoon. Happy birthday Fran.

June 28, 2021
It is 33° at 9:00 a.m. It is still not too hot in the kitchen. Have unloaded the dishwasher, put away groceries, added the mayo to the broccoli salad. Made the jello avocado salad and it is ready to 2:00. It is 38° C which appears to be 100 F. There is a bit of breeze coming through the deck door and cooling the kitchen off a bit. I had the door closed while we went out for gas, etc. 100 F. = 37.7778 C Temps got up to 39 - 40 degrees. At 9:30 we are finally going down..at 28degrees now. I have turned on the back sprinkler about 9:25. We had supper downstairs, again. bean salad, cold canned tomatoes, ham, avocado jellied salad. Watermelon. I had a nap downstairs in the afternoon before supper. It was quite comfortable temperature wise. Finished the laundry and turned on the last 3 loads in one go, after we finished supper. It got quite warm in Pat's room after I turned the dryer on. I will bring the clothes up to the spare bedroom to finish drying tomorrow. There have been record high temperatures all over the west where this big weather of hot temps is going on. Tomorrow should be cooler the weather app says.

June 29, 2021
Watered by hand around the front. Gave the plum tree about 20 minutes of watering with the hose stuck in the cedars. There are quite a few little green plums on the tree. Watered from about 9:30 to 10:30. Old Peehead moved himself and his chair away from the front of his house when I watered the Simplicity rose and that corner, from standing on the my front deck. Some lady with her black and white cute dog stopped to let the dog play in the water spray. Crazy dog! It is about 29° at 11:00. Watered the deck plants. The yellow lily blossom has gone, the globe flower is making seed heads. Being sure to give the special little fern some water that I pour over the deck railing. The fern is doing fine. Going to have broccoli salad with the peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch. Will make a potato salad to have with the left over salmon and some jellied avocado salad; with ice cream for dessert. Had the front door and the side suite door open this morning to get the downstairs cooled off. It was getting too warm after I dried the last 3 loads all together in one load. Have them upstairs now to finish drying. have done 1800 steps, so far today. Got up to 35° at 6:00. Put $12 into the Mary account. 3169 steps so made my steps goal.

July 2021

July 2, 2021
We had quite a breezy day, I think, on June 30. I watered at the back in the evening.
Yesterday the temps went down somewhat. We had ham and eggs for lunch and were out to Dallas Road in the Benz for Boston Pizza ribs for supper. Was nice. Just did the banking stuff and wasted $10 on PN.
Today is nice and cool in the morning, despite the 20°. It is overcast again. Sure wish it would rain. There are huge forest fires all over the interior. Lytton was wiped out in a matter of minutes, yesterday. The 'heat dome' from over BC is slowly moving to Alberta. They are having fierce thunder and lightning in the interior. The lightning has started quite a few of these forest fires. In northern BC and in the North there has been heavy rain that has assisted in the fight against these fires. So, they are doing better. But the next problem they might face is flooding from all the ice melt. All of these unusual weather events are due to climate change. The Province and the Federal Govenments are looking more seriously about what we can do to reduce the climate changes damages. Even on a local level the CRD and Saanich have recommendations and even laws about future construction and renovations. https://www.saanich.ca/#d=2&m=6&y=2021&v=month Do a search for any information at Saanich.ca and about climate change climate change Made a big jar of Harvard Beets. To the Lottery store and the LB and then to get fish at Creatures great and small for $29.10. So, at this moment I have 10 fish in the pond and Elvis in the tub.

July 3, 2021
Was wonderfully cool after 11:00 last night and on in to the morning. It smelled sooo nice out the front window last night. Now, at 12:00 noon it is 24° with a very high uv rate of 8. I have watered and clipped the deck plants. Repotted the African daisy and the 2nd heliotrope and the blue chips campanula into the pink pots that are all slightly larger than their black nursery pots. Have clipped off the dead leaves and finished blossoms and am keeping them in the shade until it cools down. Used up some sea soil and I will need more before my membership runs out at Cannor in September. There are horrible forest fires in the interior now and they may be spreading into Alberta. Glen G. was 65 a few days past, this year. The humming birds are back at the feeder when it is coolor in the morning and evening. The vine on the deck has grown back and is going up the nice trellis that I have in the tall white pot.

July 4, 2021
Started watering the back apple and fig tree area at about 9:30. Had breakfast, cappiccino, and internet. About 11:00 I went out to the pond, turned off the pump and took the solar fountain thing out of the water. After skimming with the skimmer for a bit, I waded in and began clipping dried things and throwing out any other old dead material. Then found rocks by the waterfall and replaced one on the shelf below the fall and threw the rest to out of the pond, to the back by the waterfall. Picked out handsfull of old leaves, twigs, etc from the bottom and threw it out to the sides. Must have thrown out at least 2 of my little pails full of debris from the bottom. Clipped the broken and finished leaves and blooms and threw them out. Got the rocks from the bottom of the side by the deck, and threw them out, too. Crawled out. Levelled the rocks on the deck side with more boards from the garage. Put the rocks back on and filled in behind them with the old debris. This debris goes between the Wulfenie and the rocks. All this took me until about 2:00 when Pat was finished his FaceTime and ready for lunch. Went in, put clothes in washer, had bath and then made the lunch. All finished and changed by about 3:00 and we went for a drive to find strawberries and tayberries. Was a very nice drive. Got home about 4:30. Its 27°. Didn't seem that warm in the pond. Supper later because of late lunch. Now at 8:00 its 22°. The waterfall has been running clear since shortly after I turned it on, but the water looks brown now at 8:00. The plants and the pond look nice and clean. The deck edge looks good, but will need to be washed down. Was a very good day. I was dreading doing this pond clean up, but it really was quite fun. I hope I do not have to use any more of the disolv stuff. Will keep an eye on the green algae.

July 6, 2021
Was out at about 9:30. Turned the old sprinkler on at the back for about 1/2 hour. Clipped the grapes and fig tree back off the sidewalk. Took down about 7 big bamboo shoots. Clipped some of the other things back in the boulevard garden. Put the new whirly sprinkler on the thyme circle for about half hour. Its going to work fine. Took the bamboo to the back and a half wheel barrow full of clippings to the bin. Got in about 12:00. Very tiring working in that hot sunshine. It was about 25° at noon. There was a big black cat in the back garden this morning.

July 7, 2021
Was in the front garden from 10 to noon. It was 22° and quite breezy. UV rate of 8. I watered the plum tree by hand. Clipped some of the weeds out of the plum tree area. Watered the plum tree for about 45 minutes. Then watered along the cedars, etc. along the Pees side, and watered the Simplicity rose. Watered a bit on the thyme circle and the sun dial by hand and cut out any more bamboo I could find. Dead headed the Simplicity rose and some more of the French lavender in the boulevard garden. At noon Juan Pierre from Canada Life called. Resubitted the request by email. Hope this works, now. Took out the compost. Yesterday watered the house plants.

July 8, 2021
Was out from 10 to 12. It was 19° at noon. Now at 2 its 22°. Watered the deck and patio pots. Got the axe and chopped up the balls of water iris roots and shook out most of the dirt, put them in the compost bin. Cut the last orange tree root off and in half and put it on the wood pile. Watered under the deck a bit. Set up the new sprinkler and tried to set the water pressure and the position of the sprinkler to cover the cutting garden and the bed next to the garage. It will work, but I need to do a bit more work on the position of the sprinkler. Got an email back from Juan-Pierre: the annuity is good to go. Dan messaged me about which phone number to use, so messaged him back and then phoned him while I finished lunch. Put him on speaker phone so Pat could hear him and talk too. I was cutting out, he said. I think it was because Pat was sitting next to me getting messages on his phone and answering.

July 9, 2021
Was quite nice out this morning. Was out to try out the new red sprinkler. I can set the middle slides to any position. How far the water sprays depends on how far the tap is open too. Replied to Trevors email about the anti virus update. Was on his page to listen to his podcasts about India scammers. He uses spotify, it seems, to get his podcasts. We had a nice long drive after getting lottery tickets. Just missed a deer jumping across the road in front of us.

July 10, 2021
won $100+ on PN yesterday. Am getting the Mary account up to 10K and going to the green thereafter. We are at 23° at 11:00 today. Was 25° at 1:30 and really hot without a hat, and in blick t-shirt. Was out taking a few photos...not great with all the sun. Made up 3 jars of cranberries. Did up a few of the Germany album photos.

July 12, 2021
Temps up to 28° today. Did laundry, made greek salad.

July 14, 2021
Yesterday I finished tweaking the photos for 1995 Germany France album. At night after dark I went out and turned off the light in the garage. It had been on for a couple of days. Watered at the back for a bit. Today, I got up at 3:40, had breakfast. Started the watering at the front. Came in at 7:00, cold and damp, and crawled back in bed for a couple of hours of sleep. We seem to be on water restrictions of stage 1. Even numbered houses water on Wednesdays and Saturdays - from 4 am to 10 am, and 7 pm to 10 pm at night. I only got the front watered this morning. I need the nozzle on the hose to water the boulevard garden area, and along the Pees side of my property. I put $16 in the Mary account yesterday, so I made $6. :)

July 19, 2021
Made dolmades and a Greek style pork, peppers dish for supper yesterday. Was pretty good. 26° today. Its a bit breezy, but still really hot. Of course I have black stuff on, does not help. Did bedding, towels laundry. Watered the house plants and the deck plants. There was a dead bird on the deck. :( I think it was a house finch. At nite I have been hearing some screeching. I think it might be an owl. Yesterday I saw a hawk coming into the back yard. It did a 90 degree turn and left, when it saw me. Today, I saw Elvis in the tub, but I have not seen any fish in the pond for a few days now. I saw a bright blue dragon fly today. No butterflies for a few days now. Watered the patio pots and around the back by hand for about an hour.

July 20, 2021
A breezy, cooler day. Wasted most of the day on PN. Finished the 95 Germany France album. Its not great. Pat got his most excellent news from the cra.

June 23, 2021
Yesterday finished the 1996 RROC stuff and the poem with music on it -- who'll stop the rain by Credence Clearwater. Watered deck and patio plants.
Today it is 23° at 11:00. Clipped back the French lavender at the front. Clipped out bamboo where ever I found them. The front, especially the plum tree will get watered tomorrow. Our water resevoir is at 81%, so the brown lawn policy is working fairly well, it seems. I am seeing more and more ugly rock (round beach stones) covering people's yards. So much for the appearance of the garden city. My grass/clover needs mowing, maybe. I think the long grass helps keep the soil shaded. I do not seem to have any fish left in the pond, but Elvis lives in his tub. There have been dragon flies around.

July 27, 2021
Yesterday I did laundry, made apple sauce, made cole slaw and its yummy dressing, filled the crumbs jar. Worked some more on the Progress page. It was hot yesterday - 28°. Have been filling the pond and watering the deck and patio plants, but not the garden. I saw a tiny fish in the pond and a splash like for a bigger fish. So, I think they are in there... just hiding. I dead headed the French lavender at the front and clipped back all the bamboo I could find. Also made the album for the Rocky Mountain Tour, in 1996, on the RROC page, and made up the Moose of Misery on the Poetry page. So, I have been busy, but not much in the garden
Today I finished the Progress page, loaded it and it works, again with the updates. I reached my goal of over $10K in the Mary account, and switched my PN to the Green account by doing a $23 deposit. So far on my PN I am $6. to the good for one month... the rest of today and 4 more days to the month. Hope I can stay ahead.*** Pat told me that the Sooke resevoir is at 79.8% (average for this time) and we are on #1 water restrictions, today. He gets this information from the Times Colonist on the weather page.CRD water schedules Sprinkler watering time:
Even Addresses
Lawn watering allowed
Wednesdays & Saturdays
4 – 10am and 7 – 10pm
Water established plants at any time by hand.
Watered at the front by hand for about 3 hours. Watered the plum tree for about 3/4 of an hour.

July 28,(Wednesday) 2021
It was about 17° when I got up at 7:00 and watered the back with the red sprinkler and the shooting brass sprinkler untill 9:30. I still need to do the corners; the grape tree, the rhodos and under the deck. Need to hand water the patio and deck plants. I moved the gravel and sand into the garage. Swept up the ladder corner, as I had splilt some peat moss. Moved a beige pot to the patio. Moved the 4 beige pots, a pink pot and a tree growing in a black pot, all in a row closer to the house. Put the LTV's old ladder in front of them. Clipped back a lot of the fig tree and some of its surrounding dames rocket, etc. that had gone to seed. Cleaned up the dried poppy stuff. Left the grape leaves to grow to dalmady size. The Nile River (Apaganthus?) lily is in bloom (blue), in front of the jasmine vine. This plant should have some annuals planted in front of it when the poppies die back. Clipped back some of the fire thorn.. it still needs more attention. That thing grows like crazy. The green bin is fairly full. Did a bit of cleaning in the wood land. I will need to get that cleaned up after the bin is emptied tomorrow. Started the 96Italy album. Made the crepes.

July 29, 2021
Watered the deck and patio plants. Then watered by hand under the deck, along the old garage and both sides of the old sidewalk. Watered a bit along the outside of the deck, and the rhodos. Watered some behind the garage and gave the trees a bit of water back there in the woodland. It was 23° at 11:00 when I got in from watering. The Sooke reservoir is 79% full. We are under a weather warning for another high heat days for a couple of days. Today is to get up to 28°, and higher temps for the week end. got the crepes wrapped and ready to bake, downstairs in the oven. It is 2:00 and 28°.

July 30, 2021
The Sooke Reservoir is at 78.6% today. 23° at 11:00. 30° at 3:00. 32° at 5:00. Have set the sprinkler up on the front for early tomorrow morning. Am doing up the INFO for the 96Italy Pages.

July 31, 2021
The Sooke Reservoir is at 78.3 today. 23° degrees at 10:30. I was out watering at 9:00 and will be finished at 10:45. I found pretty good spots for the sprinkler... on the thyme circle, just in front of the plum tree cedar hedge about 4 trees in from the property line, on the rock by the West Coast planter for the front area - the pink rose might need a bit of by hand watering, just between the bamboo and the cedar hedge, this spot could use about 15 - 20 minutes, as does the plum tree, and finally along the grass path between the box hedges. 25° at 3:45. With all the cloud cover the UV rate was down to 4. Have created the 1996 Italy album and have finished the coding and it is ready to load.

August 2021

August 4, 2021
Sooke Resevoir is at 74.7%. 23° at 10:00. Have finished watering the front, the deck and patio plants. Have been working on the travel journal notes on the web page. Am almost finished the first book of notes which takes me up to 1992. Have loaded the Italy album and the updated Progress page. There are some entries to the car pages finished with journal notes done up.

August 5, 2021
Sooke reservoir is at 71.1. It is Thursday today. That reading for yesterday's reservoir must be wrong. It is 28 degrees now at 1:00. It is very hot and muggy. There are a few clouds. We are promised rain for Saturday, but it feels like we could have a thunder/lightning storm. It is quite nice in the house, as we have a breeze going through from the dining room out the deck door. And have the big fan going in the guest room with the ceiling fan going in our room.

August 6, 2021
Worked on Drop Box this morning. Finally made a bit of headway in understanding it. Have Web Page added as a folder. Have to add any new recipe as I add to the folder on desk top. It does not sync. It was quite breezy today. Made Bean Salad, and a new salad type thing with Beet Leaves. Was quite good and have some left over. We are hoping to get some rain starting tonite about mid-night and going on for most of tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Sooke Resevoir is at 76.5 as at 4:00 pm.

August 7, 2021
Rained last night. We have about .25 of an inch in the rain gauge. It is 21° at noon today, and cloudy. Hope we get more rain. Cleaned up my email box a bit this morning. Deposited $12 to the green. Have been doing Travel Logue stuff and catching up the posts to the Model Ts, RROC and Antiques pages, which are ready to upload. I just need to finish the Travel Notes for our trip to Yellow Knife, NWT, and then I will be finished the #1 book of travel notes, which takes me to 1993. I have 8 of the 34 pages that I need to recreate to do yet, including 2005 which has the travel notes right on the pages, but it has many pages and photos. But considering the work and time involved I feel I have made some good progress (as noted on the Progress page). We have to cancel our LTV group trip to the interior due to an outbreak of the delta strain of COVID in the area, where restrictions of travel, etc. are in effect again. Those poor people -- if the wild fires do not get them the COVID will. Finished book #1 of travel notes... up to 1993 to Yellowknife, NWT. Will load the travel logue page and the car pages. I am up to 98 Arles in recreating the photo albums. I think I have 8 left to recreate, plus 3 of the monthly garden albums to make. At 6:00 it is 21° and rather windy. I did a few repairs on the pond stones and filled the pond. Loaded the cars and travel logue pages

August 8, 2021
It has been a lovely day. Have been getting the photos for 98 Arles France album ready. Am half finished (15 of the 30 photos). Have started to make up the Index page description stuff. Pat is making his roast beef for supper. I am adding gravey, beet leaf salad, mashed potatoes, and califlower. I really have to get the Provence trip typed up. We had such a good trip. The meals are listed and include the local wine, cheese courses.

August 11, 2021
Yesterday we went to Genoa Bay for a wonderfully, delicious lunch. It was big prauns, with some salad and dressing on lettuce leaves.
Today I watered the back fairly well, and watered a bit at the front along the Pees side, and tried to water the plum tree. Did some clean up in the back woodland corner and along the driveway. Have the green bin quite full. Wednesday and Saturday are my watering with sprinkler days. 7 to 10 am and 7 to 10 pm. Actually, I think I can water at 4:00 am to 10:00. Its too early for me though. I made the beef bones into stew and arby's type buns, out of Pat's roast beef, on seseme buns, for lunch. Was very tired after lunch and had to go down for a rest/nap. Now, at 2:30, the stew is done. Its 29 degrees out there. We have weather warnings for another hot spell, starting tomorrow, Thursday, and going through the week-end. There is a bit of notice on the weather app of 40% rain on Monday and the temperatures cooling off. Hopefully we will get a good rain this time. I finished the Arles France photos for the album a couple of days ago, and just have to make up the album and do the coding. Oh yeah, still need to do the captions for the photos, too.

August 13, 2021
from the Times Colonist, Aug. 13, 2021
The heat wave started in earnest on ­Thursday, but its intensity varied around the capital region, with a high of 35.3 at Victoria International Airport and 27.6 at Gonzales. The heat continues today and Saturday, with high 20s and low 30s.
A breakdown of the high-pressure system hovering over B.C. is forecast for Sunday. “We see a pattern change, with a cold front sweeping the province and bringing with it a drop in temperature by a few degrees and a chance of scattered rain showers,” said Bobby Sekhon, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
The hot and dry spell has put Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands on a Level 4 drought alert. B.C. uses a six-level (0 to 5) classification to reflect the severity of a drought. A Level 4 drought means adverse impacts on both the environment and water users. The east coast of Vancouver Island entered Level 4 on July 7, followed by the west coast on July 28.
The Sooke Reservoir has shielded Greater Victoria residents from the impact of drought. The region is under a Stage 1 water conservation plan, running from May to September, which still allows limited lawn and garden watering. The reservoir water level was at 74.9% on Thursday afternoon. While that number is within the five-year average for this time of the year, it is at the low end, the CRD said. CRD water customers are using an average of 215 million litres a day in August, up from an average of 197 million litres in the preceding four years.
In the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the drought is having a greater impact. The district is made up of 20 water utilities, ­sourcing a combination of ground and surface water. A number of customers have been trucking in water since June. Cowichan Valley reservoirs have dipped low enough to cause concern about having enough water to fight fires.
If the fall rains do not arrive in time the district has large pumps on standby. “In an emergency, we may have to pump water from Cowichan Lake to artificially keep the rivers and streams flowing,” said Brian Dennison, manager, water management for the Cowichan Valley Regional District. The district only supplies water to residences, leaving farmers and other agricultural users to find their own sources, mainly wells. Farmer James Lockwood had sprinklers on the roof of his barn and misters running inside to keep his flock of 5,800 hens from ­overheating. He said he won’t know until the end of the week if his crops will survive but during the last heat wave, in late June, he lost about 6,000 heads of lettuce and some of his chicken flock. “We can handle temperature fluctuation of two to three degrees, but not 10,” said Lockwood, who runs Lockwood Farms with his wife Cammy. “We had the fans going but all they did was to suck in hot air.” He grows up to 150 varieties of vegetables and produces about two million eggs a year, enough to feed 8,000 people annually on average. Consumers may notice a growing number of medium-sized eggs in the market, he said, because chickens under stress lay smaller eggs. When tucking into their eggs in the morning Victorians can expect to see hazy skies for the next two days as smoke from the wildfires burning in the Interior drift west.
Air quality advisories were issued across southern British Columbia, including most of Vancouver Island. Exposure to smoke can affect health and people are advised to reduce their level of physical activity. Respiratory symptoms can include mild irritation, dry cough, sore throat or difficulty breathing.
parrais@timescolonist.com
Finished createing the photo album. Finished the coding for Index pages and started the Photo html coding. I have been getting more of the photo captions finished for the Arles France 1998 photo album. Today at 11:00 it is 28° with a bit of smoke in the air and causing the sky to be hazy. We have the fans going and a bedroom window, the dining room window and the deck door open. It gets hotter later. We were fine yesterday for supper up stairs and we should be today, although it may get a couple of degrees warmer. It is 32° at 3:00. Watered the deck plants.

August 15, 2021
Yesterday was a fairly hot day. Watered the house plants, the deck and patio plants and watered at the back for about an hour. We had a scam attack on Pat's iphone, so he phoned them and is getting a new card. I finally got my public mobility phone re activated as I just missed making the monthly payment on the bitched credit card by a mere few hours. So, after much frustration and bother I got the payment made and have the account on a different credit card. I have been checking stuff and moved what I found -- that I had not yet done -- onto the chequing account. Was ok by lunch time. Got a bit more done on the 1998 Arles, france album. Have about 30 more captions to do then I will check it all and load it. We went out for KFC and to the ocean side to eat, in the van. Was nice, the kfc was good. I am very tired as I did not get much sleep last night for worrying. It is 8:00 and still quite warm out..23 degrees but lots of clouds. Hopefully, we will get rain tomorrow or tonight, even.

August 16, 2021
It is about 18° at 7:30. It is much cooler today. I did bedding and towels laundry. Vaccumed the top floor . . . at last. Got a few things done on the 98 Arles album. Have about 15 more photo captions to do. Not all of them need to be researched, as there more Fourchon photos from the apartment, that does not seem to exist any longer.

August 18, 2021
Yesterday, made dalamades. Got more captions done for the Arles Album
today made cole slaw, put 3 plastic pkgs of dalmades into the freezer, one in the fridge and have one for suppoer. Saw the bigger whitish gold fish in the pond. There have been 2 blooms on the mini water lily in the tub recently. The grape has a clump of grapes waiting to ripen. Watered around the front, and clipped back a few plants. Filled the humming bird feeder. Finished the Arles 1998 album and its ready to upload. I have been making so many silly mistakes so I will leave this upload for the morning.

August 19, 2021
It is 25° at 3:00. Yesterday the resevoir was at 73.6, and still no significant rain. It must be 60 days by now, since we had any rain.

August 20, 2021
Reservoir is at 73.0 yesterday. At 10:30 it is 13° and overcast. Fires all over the interior, all summer. The firefighters are exhausted. We need rain all over the province. Covid-19 has a new Delta variant that is very contagious. People who have been vaccinated twice should be ok and not get it. The Hospital workers, old folks home workers and other people who are in contact with the public should have the vacinations for their own protection. We cancelled our RV meeting because of the fires and the covid. I made chicken soup today, and spagahetti sauce. Have some of both left over. Clipped the deck plants, and watered them. Filled the pond. Saw Elvis in the tub and the white goldfish, and the grey shubunkin. I must get the pond skimmed off. There seem to be 4 or more humming birds around. I hope they are finding enough to eat. We are in a drought with extra hot days... hopefully, the hot days are over and we get rain soon. The lawns in Uplands are all green. They have those automatic sprinkler systems that can be turned on, with their timers. My plum tree is dropping little plums. I don't think I will get a crop this year. Have not watered the tree enough, it has been sooo dry. We got fish and chips at Naughty Nellies and went to Cattle Point. Was wonderfull! Quite a few sail boats out, a girl with a guitar was accompanying the girl on the piano (there are these little pianos in the parks that people seem to play. The couple of girls last night were really good!. I have a few pictures from in the van. birds, sailboats, and the playing duo. I waited for the people to leave the rocks and was in the van to take the photos. Did not walk.

August 21, 2021
Water one section of the back from 10:00 to 11:00. The power was off for 20 minutes. Dead headed the two big rhodos from 11:00 to 1:00. Cut back the grape and the fig tree, also. It is 22°and the reservoir is at 72.7%. Its overcast so the UV is not high, I could be out there without hat or sunglasses. Perfect gardening weather. So, now I am watering the fig tree and water garden part of the back from 1:00 to 2:30. Watching the fish in the pond: there is Whitey (white goldfish, comet from Cannor), Slim (gold colored goldfish with a long tail, comet from Cannor), Ghost, (the grey shubunkin,from Creatures) there is Tiny (small, very active goldfish, Creatures), Blondie (a light gold colored goldfish, Comet from Cannor) and an unnamed (bigger goldfish, comet from Canor) There should be 4 tiny gold ones. So maybe the others are bigger than Tiny. There should be another Shubunkin from Creatures. There are 2 golfish in the tub, Elvis must have survived the Heron attack and I put another new one in there, maybe the 4th comet from Cannor. So all accounted for except one shubunkin and 3 tiny comets from creatures.

August 24, 2021
Coolish day with sun. Resevoir is at 72.0%. 20° at 11:00. I have 8 albums to redo, and then 3 months of Gardening - April, May and June. These 11 albums are some of the longest ones to do. Skimmed off the pond and filled it, watered the house plants, deck and patio pots, and watered under the deck and along the edges a bit. A while after throwing some fish food into the pond I saw the gold/white shubunkin, the white comet, and a gold comet and the very active little one. Both of the goldfish are in the Elvis tub and have been eating ... not much tho'. The female goldfinch came for a drink. It sits on one of the bamboo stems that cross the pond to drink. Finished tweaking 2 of the 3 pages of the Turkey album

August 25, 2021
Resevoir is at 71.6%, 26° at 3:40. From about 10 to 12 I mowed the grass, front and back. Watered the plum tree and a bit more at the front.

August 28, 2021
0.3 mm of rain, resevoir at 71.0%, 18° this morning. Have been mostly working on the turkey album in the last few days. Have to do the photo captions and all the rest of the coding.

August 30, 2021
Yesterday I noticed that my clump of grapes had just disappeared leaving one little grape on the cement by the step. The light had been on the night before. Dead headed all the lilac blossoms I could reach. We got the new cordless vacuum cleaner and a new frying pan with a 3 year warranty. Always put a bit of water in the pan or oil before heating. Do not heat the pan with nothing in it and do not use it on high temperatures. I did hambergers in it with a bit of bacon grease at about 7 and that was hot enough.
Today I did laundry, to Fairway to get some produce, etc. The little fountain was stuck under the cement blocks along beside the yew trees, and the gold rocks were moved with a couple in the pond. I fixed the rocks, again, and took the fountain out and filled the pond, again. Clipped the Lebanon cedar. Saw a few of the fish in the pond. Aiden renewed my anti virus and ran a check to see if my computer was running properly, using the remote connection. $119.00. It seems Trevor is mostly giving these young guys some experience time. Aiden said Trevor and Liz are to have an addition to the family in October. Trevor is thinking of getting some older guys to work for his company, and he would semi-retire and just manage the business with a few days a week in the office. Aiden said he wouldn't mind working for Trevor when he is finished his classes. I think he said he has a semester or so left to go. Luke has gone on to something else. Perhaps he got a better offer than what was available at Trevor's place. Pat figured this would be a good thing for some older guys who only each needed a half time job. They would probably cost less to the business. Have 2 dozen plums in the house that were low enough or on the ground.

August 31, 2021
Resevoir at 70.2%. Fed the fish at noon. There were 3 of them at the surface. Tried the ripest plums, they are good, but could be a bit riper. We had about 10 minutes of rain. Its cool and damp out at 2:00. Ran the new cordless vaccum. Got about 35 minutes, mostly on the power boost mood.. highest. Takes 3 hours to recharge. Cleaned the brush roll, but could not get it out. Emptied the cup, but did not clean the filter. Next time I will use the smaller roll for the stairs, its shorter and hand held. Its quite a bit heavier than my original one.

September 2021

September 1, 2021
cancelled my DropBox plus account and am on the basic. Cannot get it to sync to my phone app, so uninstalled the app and won't be using it on my phone. Filled the hummingbird feeder with almost 4 cups of food. Saw 5 of the fish today, and thought I saw a bigger black one. Maybe it survived the heron attack.

September 2, 2021
Lunch with sandwiches from the cafe and drive to the Sidney waterfront. Was very nice. We are not parked by the flowers of the Park this time, but further up towards Sidney. At home and out to water the deck and patio plants. Put cuttings of the red sedum thing into 7 pots with soil in the bottom, layer of pea gravel, and then sand. Most of the cuttings have roots, brought them up to the deck in the old gold pan. The dill seeds I shook out on to the soil in the pot on the deck are sprouted. I may have fresh dill in a few weeks. Fed the fish and watched them. There IS a little black survivor. It is about 2 inches long and starting to turn gold. I saw a white commet, 1 gold commet, 1 sarrosa, the grey shubunkin, a little feeder goldfish, it is growing, and the black one. The deck tub has Elvis and the other gold commet. Not sure what happened to the other whitish comment. When looking at them later, I saw another black blotched with gold. Not sure if it is the other shubunkin or an old black commet turning gold. Saw the other black one at the same time, and it is smaller and more evenly colored. The water hawthorne has 2 blooms, and the leaves are growing, there are 4 leaves now.

September 3, 2021
cleaned the orchids, threw out the cactus. Took me all morning to do this. But its done!

September 4, 2021
17 degrees. Reservoir was at 69.3%. Fed the house plants and put water into the trays. Fed the fish and saw 6 of them. White commet, gold commet, sarrosa, 2 shubunkins, feeder commet that is getting quite big, and the black one is in there but did not see it. Actually there are 2 that look like the sarrosas. They must be survivors cause I don't see any sarrosas listed in the purchases since the heron attack, but I do not see 2 whitish commets, just one. Unless these sarrosas are the feeder goldfish that have grown bigger and got white splotches on them. There should be 4 feeder gold fish and I only ever see the zippy one. The yellowish bird that I am seeing around the pond is probably a yellow warbler. The goldfinches molt and get winter colors, so it could be a winter colored gold finch. I will have to watch for the darker bars on the wings of the gold finch.

September 5, 2021
23° at 3:30. Straightened some rocks on the waterfall, as I seem to be losing a bit of water somewhere. We got 4 spits of water yesterday. Its still very dry in the garden. I should be watering. Finished the Poto captions on the Turkey album. Saw the silver shubunkin and the black/gold one, along with the white commet, gold comet and a tiny one. Smacked my knuckles on the rocks and going to have a wicked bruise with swelling. The old black cat was in the back garden. I hissed it and threw gravel at it and it ran away. The birds were complaining too.

September 7, 2021
I got a lot of stuff done yesterday: laundry, blog post about Salton Sea Lithium, scrubbed and vacuumed the little bathroom, new password for photo express, its my adobe ID, Photo express seems to be an app, although it is under programs. I cannot seem to make a desktop icon for it, so it is on the task bar (bottom of the screen) Finished the captions for the 99Turkey album. Started the deep freeze and loaded it with cheeses and stuff from the downstairs fridge freezer.
Today sent CWF $25 donation and registered for their calendar. used TD. Filled the pond. Cheque to computers on wheels for $315 for the hosting space for 1 year, take to Trevor's office.

September 8, 2021
21° at 9:30. Sooke resevoir at 68.5%. We had a couple of spits of rain last night. Pat brought in a bucket of plums. I had picked a few up off the ground. Made up a blue pkg of plum preserves and 3/4 of a pkg using up the old rhubarb and more plums. Added these to the freezer. We have 3 dozen plums left. Pat says there is more up there but he will need to use the tall ladder.

September 9, 2021
Sook resevoir: 68.3%. 1.33 mm of rain in the past couple of days. It is 23° at 3:00. I am to pick up my meds tomorrow from the drug store. Finished coding the Turkey album and loaded it to my web page (315 to Trevor for the hosting space). Have 6 more travel albums to do, to catch up to where I was, and then can start on the Gardening page, or the travel logue entries.

September 12, 2021
been sick for a couple of days, I have been putting anti biotics on my lips area and I think I killed the good bacteria in my system. So, I lost 2 lbs over not eating. I should be ok now. We got almost 1/2 inch of rain over the last couple of days.

September 17, 2011
Been sick from causing the good bacteria in my digestive system to die by applying an anti-bacteria to the side of my mouth. I ate very little for the first 2 days as my lower bowl seemed to be infected and hurt. I am down only 2 lbs. I am having egg and toast with milk, sour kraut and yogurt for brunch and a small amount of whatever I make for our supper. no alcohol. The stomach aches are mostly gone, but I think I will continue for a few more days. It started to rain last night and continues on today. The Sooke reservoir is at 6.6 (must be wrong) percent, and it is quite cool- 12°. We will have to turn up the temperature in the house. I am sorting the photos for the 2000 Bohemia album, have made up a short form of the travel journal notes and started to collect URL links for the pages. It is taking a lot of time because I cannot always find where the photos were taken. I will probably arrange them into about 6 - 7 pages of 5 across and 2 down so that the notes fit on the index pages. Lillos are coming for a visit sometime next week, so I need to vaccume. Been feeding and watching the fish, filling the pond. We have finished most of the plums and I made the pie. I had the filling ready and just needed to do the pastry. Been breaking about even on the playnow stuff, but using up a lot of time playing. The garden is getting very weedy. Emptied 1 inch of water out of the rain gage at 3:00. Its raining again, too.

September 18, 2021
15°. emptied about 1 inch of water out of the gage at 10:00. Sooke reservoir is 66.4%, 32.4 mmm (1.25 inches) of rain. sunshine at 10:00. The cyclamens, and autumn crocuses are in bloom. The dill seed has sprouted in its pot and is about 2 inches high. Fed the fish but did not see any on top.

September 23, 2021
Yesterday I did up 3 pkgs of squash and onion soup. Finished the 3rd page of the Bohemia album. Today made 5 pkgs of cabbage soup and put $44 into the green bank. It has been bright and sunny today.

September 24, 2021
Sooke reservoir is at 66.2%. Finished tweaking the 4th page of the Bohemia album.

September 25, 2021
Sooke reservoir at 66.1%. Sunny nice day. Harry and Rosalie visited for a couple of hours. Finished page 5 of the Bohemia album. 2 more pages to go.

September 26, 2021
Started raining lightly this morning. Only about 1/8 of an inch in the rain gauge at noon and it is 14°. Did some Flickr stuff last night.

September 27, 2021
Emptied 1 inch of rain out of the gauge at 1:30 today. It is raining lightly again. Did the bedding and towels laundry. Made 8 pkgs of borscht.

September 29, 2021
Sooke reservoir at 65.8%. Made 10 pkgs of Minestrone soup. Skimmed the pond and straightened the bamboo poles. Cut back some fig tree leaves.

September 30, 2021
14° at noon. Seems very chilly. Emptied about half inch of rain out of the gage. Sooke reservoir at 65.7%. Aparently we had big winds last night. Quite a few people with their power out. Finished tweaking the photos for the Bohemia album and started the pages and photos info. More rain.

October 2021

October 1, 2021
coolish day. Have made split pea and ham soup, have 3 pkgs of ham in the freezer, a ham bone and some ham broth, with one pkg of ham to eat.

October 3, 2021
Was a bit cloudy, a bit of sun. Made 5 pkgs of Manhatten clam chowder with a bowl full for supper. Yesterday, Lloyd went into the hospital with a heart attack. He had surgery for 4 stents into his arteries where they were blocked. He seems to have another problem that might be like blood clots in his legs. In lots of pain, apparently. Had to talk to my relatives, Bern, Sandy and Ralph, Dan. Carol was going to contact Bev. Don't know about Henri. Also called Isabelle. She seems ok but can't remember things and it is annoying... right, I know the feeling. There is a yellow blossom on the miniature yellow lily in the tub. Made the album for the Bohemia highlights trip. All the coding to do.

October 4, 2021
It got up to 15 degrees today, with a bit of sun. Did the laundry. Watered the house plant. Added more books to the diabetes truck load. Have got the coding done for the Index pages and started with the big photo pages.

October 6, 2021
Was about 15 degrees today. We had a bit of sun and later in the afternoon it was cooler with bits of rain. Valerie and Harvey were over to visit and we went to lunch at the James Bay Inn. Was good to see them and we had a good visit. Over the past few days, I have finished the photos, and made the album, coded the index pages, and the photo pages. I am just starting to add captions to the photos.

October 7, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 65.5%. 13 degrees. Packed up more books in bags. Cleaned up a bit more out of the travel bags. Ironed the shirts. Carried the blue boxes out to the curb. Yesterday as I took out the bin, a young -- maybe 10 - 11 year old flaming red headed guy asked me if I needed help with my bin. I should find him again and see if he wants to mow the grass and pick up leaves, for a fee, of course.

October 8, 2021
Lovely Fall day. Leaves are starting to turn colors. Mowed the grass. Cut back a few perennials. Added a bit of water to the pond. Skimmed off the pond. This morning I made 5 pkgs of beef barley soup. Packaged the meat loaf in to three meat loafs of ground pork. beef, and turkey. Did a few more photo captions on the Bohemia album.

October 9, 2021
Spent a couple of hours trying to find out where some of the photos from the Bohemia album were taken. Great waste of time, but kinda informative; should I ever go to Vienna again. Made cole slaw and dressing, made the pumpkin pie. Got a few more captions done on the album.

October 12, 2021
Yesterday made up the 11 cups of duck stock from the Thanks giving feast duck day. Worked on the Bohemia album. Today loaded the Bohemia album to the web page and it works. Made a gallet. It has been fairly cold in here today so we had tea after the soup for lunch. Watered the house plants. Starting the Greece album.

October 13, 2021
Sooke reservoir is at 65.0% today. Unusual.. we have been having rain recently and yet the reservoir is going down. Yesterday I got a start on the 01Greece album.

October 16, 2021
Sooke reservoir at 64.7. 15° at 1:30. Emptied 3/4 of an inch of water out of the gauge. Watched the alpine garden club of bc video from the 13th Zoom meet. Have finished 2 pages of photos for the Greece Album and all the the notes for the index pages. I might have 12 - 14 pages of photos. like 140 photo pages. finished the seafood chowder by 3:00. Took out the compost pot and vacuumed and finished by 4:00.

October 18, 2021
Packed up another bag of books. yesterday I played -- looking at plants and rock gardens. Its 13° at 11:00, with sun and some cloud. The pond needs to be skimmed off. Pat has been eating apples, so I think it will be time for pie and apple sauce soon. Finished tweaking page 4 of the Greece album. Sorted photos and looked up a few places. I will have 13 pages.

October 19, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 65.6%. Was cool today. Up to 13°. Finished tweaking Page 5 of the Greece album; and looked up a few more places for the photos. I am going to have 13 pages. TD having some kind of technical issues with cards. I hope they find the wretches that are causing these technical issues.

October 20, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 65.7%. Rained today. To Walmart for stuff. skimmed off the pond and raked up some of the leaves to fill the bin. Got my camera problem figured out. ITS the DISPLAY thing, of course.

October 21, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 65.7%. Emptied 1/4 inch of rain out of gauge. Made $11.00 on playnow. Finished tweaking the photos of page 6 of the Greece album, and reduced the number of pages to 12.

October 22, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 65.8%. Light rain this morning. Finished page 7 of the Greece album photos. Pat brought in about 10 fallen apples. Made up 3 jars of apple sauce.

October 24, 2021
Its 13° at 3:00. The wind came up for a while but has died down now. Maybe we won't get this big wind and rain storm they have warned us about. Emailed Trevor back about the anti-virus screen shot, at 2:00 last night. I couldn't sleep so did some computer stuff, found a couple of interesting sights to look at. One of them was an excellent history of the Acropolis in Athens. Added it to the Index pages. Dennis and Jean Grimmer were over for pizza, after he looked at one of Pat's motorcycles earlier in the afternoon, and decided he did not want to buy it, afterall. Pat brought in some more apples today. Finished tweaking photos for page 8 of the Greece album.

October 25, 2021
We have had big wind warnings. And some high winds over night and bits of rain. The winds are to go on throughout the day. There are about 12,000 people without power due to fallen trees, etc. Done laundry. Doing up the turnip/apple for supper. Pat said the leaves that had formed a 'windrow' along the garage. He put them all into the bin while they were still dry and so handy to the bin. Finished page 10 of the Greece album. 2 pages to go. Pat has brought more apples in. guess I will need to make a pie. Did the anti virus update, as per Trev instructions.

October 26, 2021
Coolish, Pat is bringing in more apples. It seems they have fallen to the ground. Finished photos for page 11 of the Greece album.

October 27, 2021
Sooke reservoir is at 66.0%. Bit of rain last night. up to 13°. Made an apple pie in the morning. Raked some leaves and put them in the bin. Fixed the waterfall. The hose that went to the waterfall was a bit loose and so the water was not running out fast enough. Lifted the back end up a bit to make the water run out of it more evenly. Skimmed off the pond.

October 28, 2021
8° at 10:00. Sooke Reservoir at 4:00 p.m. yesterday was 66.2%. Emptied the rain gauge which was over flowing. It is still raining lightly. The waterfall is working properly and the pond is quite clear of debris. So, the fix to the pump and the skimming from yesterday is working well. There are more apples fallen to the ground and Pat brought them in. Made 2 blue pkgs of apple sauce and about 1 1/2 cups to eat. Finished the page 12 photos of the greece album.
October 29, 2021
10° at 10:00. Sooke Reservoir at 66.9%. Emptied 20 mm = 0.787402 inches out of the rain gauge. My phone updated to version 12 last night, causing me some anxiety about what the changes might do to me, but it all seems much the same. Renamed the numbered photos. Started the Page descriptions on the Greece album. 12 Index Pages. There will be 120 photos to do descriptions.

October 30, 2021
10° at 12:00. Sooke Reservoir at 66.9% as at 4:00 pm yesterday. Ironed a shirt and jeans. Emptied the Alaska 1992 travel bag, keeping only the maps and we may never look at them again, either. Made 4 blue packages of apple sauce. Took the peelings out to the back compost bin. The pond needs skimming again and leaves need raking.

October 31, 2021
Have made the album for the 2001 trip to Greece, Rhodes and Crete. Have started the coding on the Index pages. We are not doing Halloween this year due to Covid.

November 2021

November 3, 2021
Watered house plants. Did laundry on the 1st. Have been working the 01Greece album. Have finished the index pages and have yet to do the Photo pages html and captions. It has been raining all week with temps around 10°. The Sooke reservoir is at 70.1%. Pat has been picking up apples and bringing them into the house, downstairs. Joined the Modern Crevice Gardening group on Facebook. Its Private. Also joined the North American Rock gardening group on Facebook. Lots of good information in both groups.

November 5, 2021
Yesterday made apple pie with Pat peeling the apples on his apple peeling machine. Made bean salad. today the Sooke reservoir is at 71.4%. Did Ironing, shopping, and finished Captions to the end of Page 8 of the Greece album.

November 6, 2021
10° at noon. Sooke reservoir is at 72.7% today. The pond is full and the waterfall looks and sounds really good, but it needs to be skimmed. The water hawthorne (the white one)is in bloom but does not show to its best advantage because of the leaves. The pixie orchid has been in bloom for about a month with 3 lovely large blossoms. The pansy orchid has buds, again. My two best orchids are preforming nicely. The pansy orchid should be repotted for sure. Finished captions for half of page 9 of the album for Greece. The sun was out so I went out to skim off the pond at 3:00. The pond looks much better, and makes me want to get the rock pile fixed with planting very tough rock plants into it, and hopefully get more rocks that match. Although, most of them are simply grey/black field rocks. I should like to make the top with my special rocks. I have the greenish ones on top of the blue/green slate at the moment. I could fill in with the red spotted ones, maybe. So, I raked leaves at the back after cleaning off the little rockery. It needs more top dressing, but I did not have the energy to carry the bag of pea gravel back there. Put a black bag of leaves into the green bin and it is 3/4 full and can be tamped down yet. There are still more than half of the leaves on all the trees, so this ain't over yet. I am enjoying the colors out the dining room window of the sweet gum tree. I cleaned off the little rockery at the front and moved the pile of leaves onto the grass path. There was a little breeze; some more leaves were falling as I cleaned stuff up. If I get a clear day tomorrow, maybe I can take the leaves off the path back to the woodland and under the rhodos, under the deck, into the old compost bin. That old bin is almost empty, so all the leaves, etc. have composted down to almost nothing. The woodland path is getting to be some very nice woodsy soil. I got into the house at about 5:00, by the time I got cleaned up. Just in time to make supper. I feel energized from the fresh air exercise.

November 7, 2021
8° today. Went out to rake leaves at 1:00 while the sun was shining. I put 3 black bags full into the back compost bin, and on the woodland back corner. Put about another bagfull onto the rose bush bed by the front step. Raked off the thyme circle, the sedums under the smoke bush, the little rockery (again), the area under the Magnolia tree. It had started raining about 1:45, but I finished up most of the leaves by 2:30. Got in and put the damp clothes into the wash, and me into a warm tub bath. The pond looks clear of leaves. Pat brought in a few more fallen apples. I couldn't sleep at 3:00 a.m. so I did a bit of work on the captions for page 9 and 10 (Rhodes).

November 8, 2021
cool day, up to 10° and overcast. Did bedding and towels laundry. Played on Playnow and made $36.00, so this should improve my average of what I spend for the month. There was a day last week where I made $37.00, and another $41.

November 10, 2021
Sooke reservoir at 75.8% level. 10° at 10:30. Went out to the garden at 10:30. Skimmed off the pond, swept off the deck and raked the leaves up from the patio and driveway. Was out till 12:30. We had big winds a couple of nights ago, so there was more leaves down. Pat has been bringing in apples, so there are not too many left out on the tree. Made $19.00 on playnow. Have been getting a bit more coding done on the 01 Greece album.

November 13, 2021
Yesterday made more applesauce and have 1 chicken soup frozen, and also have 1 spaghetti sauce frozen from the day before. More rain today and 10°. Getting my email sorted and watched a couple of the gardening you tube videos, saved the URLs to Gardening folder, I hope. The AGC-BC have a seed list that I may be interested in, if ever I get the time. They are also really good about the links to stuff on their web page which make the VIRAGS look pathetic. We really need a good web master for that VIRAGS page. Spent quite a bit of time looking at gardening stuff while cleaning up the email. Then spent more time on PN and put $24. in the bank. The pixie is in bloom, the white Xmas cactus is in bloom (a bit early) and the pansy orchid has buds. Emptied 2 inches of rain out of the gauge at 4:00. It has been raining quite a lot in the last couple of days. Finished up to Page 11 of the 2nd step in the coding of the photos of the Greece album.

November 14, 2021
Was 15° at 11:00 am today. After lunch I went out to rake leaves. It was still quite warm but the temperature was falling fast. I raked 3 big bags full of leaves and put them on the woodland path. Raked 3 more small bags full and put them behind the roses and more on the woodland path. It had been raining lightly during all this time. I got the rock gardens, including the thyme circle raked off. Raked the grass path between the boxwood, and the stone paths around the inner garden and the little rock garden. Got in at 3:00 and had a warm soak in the tub. Good work out. I recorded it on my fit, as a fairly high activity. So, I got 242 heart points and 4015 steps. I only added 2.5 hours, though. I was busy for at least 3 hours, and got damp, as well. Have finished the coding on the Greece photos html, and have started adding the captions.

November 15, 2021
At 10:00 it is 11°. Emptied 2 inches of water out of the gauge; but I am sure there was much more over night. It rained heavily since about 2:00 a.m. It is still raining heavily now. The water from the Colquitz across the street is beginning to creep up over the road. We are to have strong winds later today and the cold front will lower the temperatures. Lots of places around town are even now, flooded. Doing laundry today. At 11:30 the rain has stopped. The water has come up from the Colquitz and there is water across the road in front of the Syrians house (next door to us) But the rising water stops at about our driveway. It might be coming back up the drain. The storm drains may the over loaded. It is still at 11°. It stopped raining about noon. There were pictures of the puddle. Now at 3:30 the puddle has receded. Finished captions of the greece album to the end of Page 5.

November 16, 2021
Sunshine today. There was a deluge of rain yesterday. There are washouts on the highways. Merritt is flooded and evacuated, totally. Highways closed due to washouts, mudslides. The Malahat was closed over night, one side of the highway looks like it collapsed. Now, at 11:00 there is one lane being used both ways. Sooo many diasters, all over the province. On our street the water came up to the Syrians driveway but not up the road by our driveway. By 6:00 last night the rain had stopped and the water started to recede. We had Andy stay overnight, and maybe tonite, as getting up over the Mallahat will be an all day problem, I am sure. The Mill Bay ferry was backed up for something like a mile. I think there were people sleeping overnight in their cars. Sooke reservoir at 84.4%. Finished the captions for page 8 of the Greece album. 4 more to go.

November 17, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 93.0%. Froze last night, as there is ice on the water table. It is 2° at 11:00. Sunshine. Finished the captions for the 01Greece album. Have to check the pages and then load it to web hosting. Going out to dinner shortly, to Nautical Nelly's.

November 19, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 95.4%. 8°today and overcast. Emptied 1 inch of water out of the gauge. Picked 2 bags of apples off the tree. Pat helped and got the higher ones. Skimmed off the pond and raked 1/2 bag of leaves off the rockeries and the thyme circle. Chilled and tired when I got in at about 2:00. Sorted photos for the 02France album. Going to redo the photos. The captions for the pages look good. On the old album I have 18 pages of 4 photos. I should be able to get the new pages of 5 across and 2 down into fewer pages.... will see.
We have had a great deluge of water last Sunday and Monday. Many roads have had mud slides and are closed. The Mallahat has needed repair and has had one lane of traffic for both ways for the last several days. Andy stayed over for 2 of the nights, and at Joe's place another night. Some of the #1 highway had slides and was blocked, also the coquihalla, and a No. 3 road. Merritt was evacuated, totally because of all the flooding from a river. Abbottsford is also flooded. There are many stranded farm animals. They have to get a dike built before we get the next big rains that are forecast. We are very fortunate. The Colquitz only came up to the Syrians driveway and our driveway was free of water. The Army is suppose to be helping with dike building, clean up, etc. starting today. Meanwhile the farmers and friends have been rescueing their animals, even though they are not suppose to be endangering their lives, or whatever. Because of the Mallahat road damage people got worried about gas, etc; panicked and there were long long line-ups at the gas stations. I think they are bringing in gas by barge from Nanaimo. We went out to Nautical Nellies for Pat's bday crab feast. They only had 2 left. I had paella, not great. Pat's Dugeness crab was not the best. When they asked about how his dinner was, he politely told them how it was, and just not as good as the crab meals we had some years ago. They took the cost of it off our bill. They must have known that it was not good.

November 20, 2021
Sooke reservoir is was at 95.8%. Was 10° at about noon. Pat peeled and sliced the apples for the pie, with his marvelous machine. There were a few apples left so I made a jar of apple sauce. Cleaned and filled the humming bird feeder with 2 cups of syrup. It did not take the birds long to find it. It froze last night and there was quite a bit of ice on the water table. I have two pages (20 photos) of the O2 France album done. It looks like there might be 14 pages. I am able to rescue some of the photos from being too dark, or other mistakes. Using Camera Raw in photo shop.

November 21, 2021
Up to 10° today with sun. Cleaned leaves off rockeries when taking out the apple peelings to the Compost Bin at the back. Still feels chilly to me. Finished tweaking photos of Page 4 of the 02France album.

November 23, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 96.5%. 11° at noon with sunshine. Finished tweaking photos of Page 6 of the 02France album. The pixie orchid is finished and the Pansy orchid has opened 3 blooms.

November 24, 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 96.6%. 8° at noon and overcast. Took out the compost pot and then raked leaves for about an hour. Put a few small bags full into the green bin.

November 25 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 96.7%. 8° at noon and raining quite heavily. I emptied one inch of water out of the gauge earlier this morning. We had quite a bit of rain last nite but the road is not flooding now at noon. I have finished photos for half of page 7. Yesterday I found I could not use 5 of the images, so I now have only 13 and a half pages. I will try to find 5 photos that I do not need before I finish tweeting them, so that I only have 13 pages.

November 26 2021
Sooke Reservoir at 96.8%. 11° at noon with some clouds. Finished tweeking photos for Page 8 of the 02France album. Did laundry, ironing, made a Johnny cake. Emptied an inch out of the rain gauge at 4:30. We have a forecast for another atmospheric river for tomorrow night. There was a sink hole in Langford where the back yard of a home had the deck hanging into the 30 foot drop. This seems to have something to do with the Millstream river running really high. Ian Bruce was out in the river up to his waist trying to clean out under a culvert that would block the Millstream and flood areas up river. The Abbottsford/Chilliwack area seem to be getting the dikes raised, and some of the cows and chickens are back in their barns. This emergency has the help of the army and many volunteers. The highways that have had mud slides are slowly getting one lane of traffic going, but it will take months to get them properly repaired. Including the Mallahat. Pat said the railroad is running again. They say the future for the Island holds some food processing plants and manufacturing of goods on the Island. It can't start too soon! We do have some wineries and cheese making places, lots of fruit and vegetables, and the fisheries, farm salmon. So, there is a start. We need canneries and places that freeze produce. Kleenex and other paper products produced with our own wood, as well as lumber, etc.

November 27, 2021
Finished tweaking the photos of Page 9 of the 02France album. Four pages to go. It is just raining lightly, not the great deluge they forecast.

November 29, 2021
Yesterday was the football game -- Sask vs. Calgary and Sask plays Winnipeg next Sunday to see who goes to the Grey Cup. Today was about 11°. With Pat's help made 3 pkgs of apple sauce. Weighed them at a little over 1 lb each. Emptied 2 inches of rain out of the gauge this morning. We have had no rain, but should be getting some tonight. The hummingbirds are back at the feeder. Today I watched one having a bath on the waterfall. It was on the rock where the water falls into the pond. It was flatteing itself out on every side in the water, and hanging its tail over the place where the water dropped down into the pond. I did not get my camera cause I thought it would be gone in a few seconds, but it seemed to spend a minute or more of time. Was amazing. Did laundry, watered the house plants. When to the University Heights mall to see where we go for our next Covid shot in a couple of days. Shopped at Save On, and the LB store in the little mall where Trevor has his office/shop. Got a lot done today. It seems I made $119 this month on Play now. That should bring my average spending down at lot. I might reduce my amount to spend per month. No way will I ever have a month like this one again. I am up to page 11 of tweaking the photos of the 02France (yesterday).

November 30, 2021
The sooke reservoir is 100% full. It was warm but damp out today, felt cold, actually. Emptied 1/4 inch of rain out of the gauge. I pounded the pork loins, 2 small ones, into schnitzel size pieces. Did up the bank statements.. had to change the ink in the cartridges, except the black and the yellow. Tweaked photos in the afternoon, and have finished page 12. So, one more page to go then can start to make the album, do the codeing and add captions. 130 photos and 10 pages. Will copy the old pages that I had on 18 pages onto the 13 new ones. We get our covid booster shot tomorrow at 5:50 and then go for KFC.

December, 2021

December 1, 2021
9°. Raked leaves into the green bin to fill it. straightened the rocks on the waterfall. Made 5 cups of ham/carrot/onion/garlic broth, with cinnamon. Mixed another 1.5 cups of it with .5 cup of red lentils and cooked the lintels till soft.. had too much water and so they cooked for extra minutes, with the onion and garlic mixed in. Then mixed the left over squash and cinnamon and ham bits, extra precooked carrots. It tastes yummy. I have ham broth left in the freezer, so I will make more vegetable/ham broth to use with lentils or soups. I can have this lentil stuff made ahead of time and frozen, add sauted vegetables, left over meats and spices for a nice addition to a dinner or lunch. Most of the recipes I saw using lentils used curry spices. I don't really need the curry. The cinnamon/nutmeg worked very well. I have a jar full to reheat in a couple of days. It can be served over pasta or rice for the full meal deal, like spagehetti sauce. Think lentils, chicken bits, tumeric, a hot pepper flake or 3, with chopped peppers, celery, onion, garlic, over rice or even pasta.

December 5, 2021
Been working on the 02France album. Am doing up the page descriptions, and info for the photo captions. 13 pages of 10 is 130 photos. It froze last night and was -2° until about 10:00 when it started to warm up. Now at 11:30 it is 7°. The humming birds have been drinking their ice water. The robins have been eating a few of the holly berries. There have been all kinds of other birds around the back garden, including a solitary black bird. There was a squirrel as well. I have not gone out on the deck to check the waterfall, as it is just too slippery. There is still frost on the deck now. There were a few pictures, from out of the deck door. Last night we were to the Hales for the RROC/Bentley Christmas party. My shortbread was well received. I emailed the recipe to Pat and he forward it on to the Hales along with the thank you for hosting. I was pumped up after all this social action so I was up till 2:30 last night on the computer, and then up in time to get breakfast and make our capaccino at 10:00. The Western finals of the CFL is at 1:00. Regina and Winnipeg. Don't know if I will last through it. Then we are going to have Pizza for supper, from Romeo's.

December 7, 2021
We did not want Pizza. The game was over by about 4:00, was a good game, but Winnipeg won, I made supper in. There were no appies. The Grey cup is on Sunday the 12th. It starts even earlier (not sure what time). We have no plans for dinner then, maybe just KFC since they were out of chicken for about 30 minutes, last time we went, and we had Jack's chineese take out instead. I was not able to deposit to playnow this morning without following some security screw around. I used PayPal but that costs me $3.50 per pop. I have increased my deposit limit to make it a once a month pop and do my own policing of the daily limit, or maybe even stop doing a daily waste of time. Also found that I had missed the photo show... I had marked it on my calendar as Dec. 9th, instead of November. Have no idea how I managed that. I paid my $20.00 membership dues for 2022 by Paypal today. So that is done. Don't know how many more years I will be doing this. They have got the Mary Winspear for the Spring show on April 1, 2022. It is going to be a big blow out, with extra events happening during the Saturday. They want entries for the show and help for anything we might do. They even have people willing to pick up people who might need a ride, to take them to the venu to help, or deliver food, entries, or help. The photo show is not up on the website yet. Yvonne Rorison is suppose to be updating the website. I guess they could not find anyone to do this. The Facebook page needs some adjustments too. Since I do not feel capable of doing either I will not be saying anything about it. Seems I am having trouble remembering important days. There was frost yesterday morning. Today is a bit warmer but still a grey drizzily day. I have finished the page descriptions on the 02France album. I just copied them right off the old album.

December 10, 2021
Finished more of the coding for the photos of the 02France album. The Index pages are done. Colder day at 6°.

December 11, 2021
Finished the colspan coding for the Photo html pages. Have to do the captions and check everything over, then load it. Was out to the garden to move a couple of the pieces of slate so that they do not slide into the pond. Two or three of the rocks have slide into the deep end of the pond and I won't be able to fetch them out till the pond warms up. Checked the little rockeries for fallen leaves and cleaned a few off. The back is very soggy, with leaves on the grass under the apple tree. There are not a lot of apples left in the bin in the suite.

December 18, 2021
Watched the Grey Cup and had KFC on the 12th. Have been out to Ithaka with Art and Marlene. They are both very thin from having had an illness and surgery for skin cancer. Been doing captions for the 2002 France album and am finished the Index pages and the coding for the photo pages. Have captions up to page 4 finished. Last night it rained into this morning. Emptied 2 inches out of the over-flowing rain gauge. Made the second batch of shortbread today. Made drop biscuits for tomorrow's dinner of chef salad and biscuits.

December 19, 2021
Am finished page 5 of the 02 France album... 7 more to go. Made rum balls. Made a soup with ham broth, mashed potatoes and left over spinach. Was good. Cold - up 6 degrees and ice on the water table this morning.

December 21, 2021
Cleaned, fed and watered the house plants. Baked beets. Shopped. Did 7 photos of page 6 on the France album. Pat phoned Dan and Carol. They are not doing great. Both have colds and aches. They did a test for Covid-19 and are waiting for results. Did up a letter in Word Pad to send Dan old books, etc. Was a cold day with some sun. Got a lot of cleaning up computer and email stuff done.

December 22, 2021
It is warmer today. Spent the morning doing email, and organizing computer stuff. Got another casserole recipe added. Made 3 cups of vegetable broth. Made up carrots/parsnips and mashed potatoes. Finished captions for page 7 of the 02 France album. Mailed letter to Dan and Carol. Pat had calls from his mom, Jim C., had Harbor door check the garage door, paid Reilly for the storage of the Tcart. Pats picks are doing much better today.

December 23, 2021
Finished page 8, and part of page 9 of the 2002 France album. Made the christmas pudding.

December 24, 2021
Finished page 9 and part of page 10 of the 2002 France album.

December 25, 2021
We had a light frost last night and a skiff of snow this morning that seems to be lasting all day even though it is up to 3°. Finished page 10, and 11 of the 2002 France Album. Had our duck dinner. After the dishes I went down to watch TV and found a Harry Potter movie to watch. Pat was not interested and so he went back up. The movie went on till midnight. In the meantime, I was making the duck stock. After the movie, I finished and bottled the duck stock. It is very good. I have about 9 cups full of it. Got to bed at 1:00 am. We are using the feather tick because it is cold.

December 26, 2021
Was up and made cappiccino at 9:30. Finally finished Page 12 of the France album. Must be too tired to get the Captions sorted out. But there was a lot of Louvre stuff I could not find. So, have started the last Page 13, at last. It froze last night and snowed some more. There was about 3 - 4 inches of snow piled up when Pat went out and shovelled it off at about 3:00. Now at 5:00 there has been more snow falling. The temperature is also falling. It's down to -6°. We are going to have about a week of this cold weather. The humming birds food froze so I brought it in to unthaw for a while. Put it back out and the birds came back to feed. Pictures. I must bring it in over night this time. Beef stew for supper.

December 27, 2021
Was -8 degrees over night and now at 1:30 it is -6 degrees. Laundry day. Put the hummingbird feeder out in the morning and the birds would not feed. Later when it had cooled off more they were feeding. We had ribs from Boston pizza for our anniversary. Pat drove over in snow, ice and cold.

December 28, 2021
There were record breaking low temperatures all over B.C. yesterday. We have more snow. Last night was so quiet, all the traffic tracks were covered in snow. The boxwood hedges have a white topping. Pat shovelled some more on the driveway. I finished the Captions on the 2002 France photo album. It is ready to load. I think I will load it tomorrow, as it is supper time now. Made more biskets today.

December 29, 2021
Was -5 this morning and did not get much higher by 2:30. Made up 16 crepes for the crepe st. Jacues on New years day. Loaded the 2002 France to the web page and it all works.

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See the Plant List page for annual Garden purchases

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Continue on to Journal Entries for 2022

Back to Journal Entries for 2020

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Welcome to the bottom of the page

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Albums:

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.

Alpines - I have a few small alpines in various little rock gardens around the garden
Animals in the garden The pond attracts wildlife to my garden. The deer do not seem to bother my plants as I have numerous herbs planted all around the garden.
Birds in the garden There is a small woods and a stream in the Park across the street from our garden. So, we have a good variety of birds in the garden.
Boquets - Creating flower arrangements for the house and for show is an
added benefit for creatativity as well as visual satisfaction.
Boulevard garden I have planted a little garden in the propery next to the street that is owned by the city.
Bugs - butterflies, bugs
Fruit and Vegetables - grapes, figs, pears, apples, plums, and vegtables
Indoor gardening - orchids, cacti, African violets.
Market - photos of produce or flowers bought at the market.
Mushrooms, lichens.
Moss Garden with shade plants: primulas, hepaticas,
Garden paths and Garden art - I have converted most of the lawn to gardens and paths
Vistas and Views in the garden
WATER AND JAPANESE GARDENING - I built my pond with its 8 - 9 foot diameter. It is surrounded by the moss garden with a Japanese garden design.
Wish List Someday there may be fences, gates and special plants in my garden.
Woodland garden - I am trying to establish a few indigenous plants in this area.
Survivors This album will contain photos of flowers growing in some very difficult places. They are generally called weeds but I think they have a special beauty and appeal.
MISCELLANEOUS I have made this page into a list of some of the miscellaneous things in the garden. There is always room for expansion here. These items may not appear on all of the menus, but only on this page.
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.
Excerpts from Garden Journal In 2012 I began to keep a Garden Journal on my Computer. There will be monthly notes from each year after 2012. When I first started my garden I had note books for daily entries, diagrams of planting beds, lists of plants used in the garden and the purchase prices. My plant lists are constantly changing so I have not been keeping them current. The Journal Notes will mention renovations.
Lists of the Plants in each Garden Room I have started to make rather comprehensive lists of the plants in the garden rooms. When a plant becomes well established I will add it to the list. If a plant should die I will make a note of it to up date the list. It may be a while until I get this finished. Posted on January 15, 2021.
This page also contains the annual PURCHASES and the annual Garden rooms; although these annual garden rooms might not be completed for some time.

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Annual Garden Journal Notes

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.
Annual Journal Notes 2023 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2023 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 Garden Photo Albums

• Garden 2028 - Put in 202 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2027 - Put in 2027 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2026 - Put in 2026 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2025 - Put in 2025 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2024 - Put in 2024 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2023 - Put in 2023 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2022 - Put in 2022 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2021 - Put in 2021 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2020 - Put in 2020 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2019 - Put in 2019 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2018 - Put in 2018 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2017 - Put in 2017 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2016 - Put in 2016 stuff here. magnolia bed reno.


• Garden 2015 - drought, pond edges renovations,


• Garden 2014 - Put in 2014 stuff here milkweed, pond reno....Finished.


• Garden 2013 - Put in 2013 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2012 - Put in 2012 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2011 - Put in 2011 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2010 - Put in 2010 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2009 - Put in 2009 stuff here....Finished.


• Garden 2008 - Put in 2008 stuff here....Finished.



• Garden 2007 - Put in 2007 stuff here.



• Garden 2006 - Put in 2006 stuff here.



• Garden 2005 - Put in 2005 stuff here.



• Garden 2004 - Put in 2004 stuff here.



• Garden 2003 - Put in 2003 stuff here.



• Garden 2002 - Put in 2002 stuff here.



• Garden 2001 - Put in 2001 stuff here.




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Links:

(VHS) Victoria Horticultural Society: http://vichortsociety.org/

(HCP) Horticultural Center of the Pacific: http://www.hcp.ca

(VIRAGS) - Vancouver Island Rock & Alpine: http://www.virags.ca/

Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia http://www.agc-bc.ca/home

Victoria Orchid Society: http://www.victoriaorchidsociety.ca

Native plants: - http://russellnursery.com/natives/

Harry Jans informative site about growing alpines. His travels, and smug mug photo albums. https://www.jansalpines.com/

David Badke collection of mosses, lichens, mushrooms https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbadke/albums/72157673563005916
This is a fine reference source of information on the lichens, mosses, and mushrooms found in my location.

MOSSES CO2 and NITROGEN FIXING

Fawn Lilies(erythronium)

Swan Lake Sanctuary https://www.swanlake.bc.ca/">

Phlox http://www.butterflywebsite.com/articles/phlox-for-butterflies.cfm

CRD natural gardening https://www.crd.bc.ca/education/natural-gardening

Saanich Native Plants - https://satinflower.ca/

Growing Primroses https://www.barnhaven.com/primroses/

Plant photos by common name: - http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/browse_imgs/plant_com_1.html