poplar road

I don’t know if we’ll get a white Christmas this year, but I know our Christmas holidays will be merry and bright in the company of family and friends. We’re very grateful to be going into this holiday with much more cheer than last year. Here’s wishing the same to you and yours from Richard and I. Happy Solstice, and have a merry merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving! Yesterday was a gorgeous autumn day, warm sunshine and blue skies. On day two of the new bed construction, after an hour or so wrestling with the “small” rocks as Richard called them, I found I couldn’t work them in between where we’d placed the large ones, both because the small ones are still too big for me, and because the larger ones might as well have been cemented into the ground! So after he’d finished cleaning out his shop, Richard came back with the Bobcat to shift the larger stones and helped me with the jigsaw puzzle of laying out the remaining smaller rocks. I'm very particular about the placement, because I have half an acre's worth of evil quackgrass to contend with, and don't want to leave large gaps in my border to invite it into my new soil, yikes.

To celebrate my birthday, I made a cheesecake, Richard made me a decadent prime rib dinner, and he agreed (with trepidation) to be my slave for the day to start a new project in the garden that I’ve been plotting for a while – which required some help from the Bobcat. This weekend is also the 7th anniversary of moving into this house, so we did the usual bit of reminiscing about all we’ve accomplished in seven years. We’ve got a reno project coming up in a month or so that will be another belated birthday present, and carry on our habit of renovating indoors in the fall once the weather chills, but first I have my gardening to finish. Here’s a look at what I’m up to. It was a great birthday, and I’m about to go outside and continue with my project.

A belated Happy BC Day, everyone! I had a two day work week this week - waiting for my next assignment now - so I have no excuse not to post the photos from our wonderful long weekend. There are fewer than usual, as I was either run off my feet or completely relaxed, and therefore hardly ever picked up the camera.

The preparations were exhausting, and overall we didn't get much sleep, but this was definitely one of the quieter, more relaxing UNniversary weekends we've done. We missed all the children, though! Their excitement and laughter brings something special to our event - it was like not having children around at Christmas. Next year should be back to normal, and then some! But we had fun, and the weather, finally, was nearly perfect.

Our local guests who joined us Saturday night included a 2-year-old cherub named Elle, and she had learned some new words for the occasion: "Garden Party". It definitely had more of a garden party feel this year, a little less rough around the edges. I'm especially pleased with my decorating splurge, the colourful paper lanterns with LED lights. After work on Tuesday, I went back and bought a few more for next year. I'm hopeful that by next July, when party prep gears up again, we'll have much less to do in the yard because so much work got done this year to make our space as welcoming as possible. Three of our visitors weren't here last year to see the major landscaping changes from last spring, and they were all very impressed. Thanks for that, we're so glad you enjoyed our place - and of course, the food. If you couldn't make it, here's what you missed.

Good morning, campers. Actually, they aren’t up yet – except maybe the ones in tents. Despite forecasts to the contrary, I woke up at 4am to the now familiar sound of showers, and dashed outside to rescue anything caught in the wet. Lovely.

Luckily someone else had been there before me, perhaps before they retired for the night, and put most of the chairs and baby Olson supplies under the canopies. The Sesame Street book talked to me when I picked it up, so I guess that’s a good sign.

I found a puddle in my cushy camp chair, a couple of soggy rolls of paper towels and other items at the uncovered fringes of the outdoor kitchen, and moved several damp chairs and other things under cover to hopefully dry out by morning. The rain has already stopped, and we only got about half a centimeter, but I’m peeved that showers didn’t show up in our forecast, as we could have prevented all our things from getting wet. At least I moved my new paper lanterns under cover before I went to bed!

Since my early morning exercise woke me up completely, I’m enjoying one of Richard’s delectable brownies from the best ever brownie mix from Costco (thanks to the Lunds’ friend Ottawa for introducing us to these at Marrowstone!) and catching up on one of the last pre-party tasks I didn’t get done by Friday afternoon. Posting the pics of all our preparations. Richard and I have been working every evening and long hours on weekends on projects in the yard and shop, as well as planning menus, seating, decorations, etc, to get ready for this weekend, and I think the lack of sleep and bad backs were worth it. We were really in the weeds Friday morning, but it all came together. I didn’t quite get everything done in my garden, but overall, the place looks great. And the food… Richard has outdone himself. But more on that later.