Many of you have seen these already on Richard's Facebook page, but for those who haven't, here are our wedding ceremony photos and an account - more for my memory than anything - of our big day.

After we spent all of 15 minutes obtaining our marriage license Sunday morning (the web applicants' express lane), we did some shopping, came back to the hotel, and I changed into the teal blue sundress I bought for our Mexico trip in February. By 1:00 we were outside awaiting our "limousine". Larry and Richard had been making jokes all morning about Elvis-themed chapels and blue suits... but Richard did say "think like me", and I should have known, especially when he said the limousine we were waiting for was red. But no, I was surprised yet again as I saw two red Jeeps drive by and turning to Richard with a punch on the shoulder said, "those are for us, aren't they!" Of course.

Getting in and out in a short dress and heels was a bit challenging, but the drive to Logandale was quick and the off-road trail was more road than rock. The pastors, Bill and Anita (!) had never been off-road before, and we were a bit worried as they joined our guides, Tim and Quinann from Las Vegas Rockcrawlers, in the smaller lead Jeep, but they loved it. I saw a real live roadrunner as we hit the trail, and some very large cacti, but most of the route was dusty and brown until we came around a corner into the Valley of Fire. Suddenly it was all red rock, just like Moab, but a lot easier to get to for a wedding.

Debbie handed me a beautiful bouquet, another detail Richard arranged from afar with Quinann. Richard and Larry found the right (flat) spot - what a view - and Larry set up a video camera while Richard backed up our Jeep so he could use the CD player to start us off with a song.

After the ceremony, we danced to Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do, I Do It For You", which was so perfectly appropriate, and wonderful. And then a toast, again arranged by Quinann, complete with strawberries instead of a cake, and sparkling apple juice instead of champagne. We fed each other strawberries, posed for photos (by Larry and Tim), and then the sun began to set and it was time to go - we had one more Cirque du Soleil show to catch, and early to bed for a morning flight home.

Behind us, the red rock Valley of Fire.

Something blue, old sandals, new earrings, borrowed Jeep!

After we exchanged rings, a lovely Apache blessing.

I said my own words to Richard after the I do's:

Richard, you are loving and generous,
Capable and confident
In everything you set your mind to do.
I can always depend on you,
And you never cease to surprise me
With your spontaneity and creativity.
You push me, you support me,
And you surround me with love.
I love you more than I can ever find the words for.
I am yours, always.

You may now kiss the silly look off my face.

Even after 13 years together, it meant so much to both of us.

The perfect setting for a toast.

Thanks Quinann for the bouquet, bride & groom glasses, etc.

I've switched from amazed to all smiles.

White gold wedding bands.

Strawberries instead of cake.

Not your typical Vegas wedding (eh?).

Our red "limousines".

This was our tour operators' first wedding. Thanks!

A few photos, "just married" on the Jeep, and back to Vegas.

And for the finale, Cirque du Soleil's Mystere. Perfect night.

Again, huge thanks to Larry and Debbie for being there and helping Richard pull off this surprise, and thanks to Tim and Quinann for taking care of all the extra details so we could get married out on the trail.

The daze of amazement has morphed into a perpetual smile on my face (10 days and counting). It was wonderful hearing the words, the 20th wedding we've been to in 13 years together, and knowing this time, they were for me. I didn't know just how powerful it would be until we did it. We're married!

Thank you, family and friends, for coming to our UNwedding six years ago, so that we could elope like this and not feel too, too guilty for leaving you all out of it! And thank you to everyone who made it to the surprise party, aka wedding reception, on Thanksgiving Monday. You surprised me so much I nearly died of shock! Right back atcha! We love you all.

Picking up the long weekend wedding story where I left off yesterday, we jumped in the car at 8:30 Saturday morning - a half hour behind schedule - and headed down to the border.

I tried to snooze but I was far too excited, and going crazy because Richard was texting the whole way. I got peeved at him so Richard fed me a story about texting because it was his co-worker Andrew on work stuff, and he didn't want to talk to him. As we reached the end of the Coquihalla, Andrew phoned twice (or so it seemed) and Richard was very abrupt and angry with him. On Monday night, he confessed that it wasn't Andrew who was texting, it was everybody coming to the surprise birthday party, and he didn't want them to know we were en route somewhere, or me to know they were calling. So poor Andrew got lambasted and Richard finally had to text him, ask him to call to support the ruse, and apologize in advance for being rude. It worked, I was completely oblivious to the fact that the first caller was Chris asking party prep questions, and not Andrew about work. Richard is FAR too good at pulling the wool over my eyes!

Of course, I was busy thinking about my first visit to Las Vegas. Sometime that morning I had the hazy thought that, huh, we could get married in Vegas, followed quickly by, no way, only drunks and people under 30 spontaneously get married there! Little did I know, a) you can't get a marriage license in Vegas if you're drunk, and b) Richard's level of spontaneous took over two weeks of very careful planning. Most of it online while sitting next to me on the couch, I might add.

The next minor snag in my love's cunning plan was when we got to the Sumas border crossing, usually one of the quickest crossings and the closest to us, and the wait time sign said an hour and a half! Luckily he had left himself two hours of wiggle room for lunch etc, so we had just enough time before the flight out of Bellingham to get some travel snacks and eat a takeout lunch in the airport parking lot.

At this point I knew we would have to hurry when we got off the plane, to get to dinner at the restaurant Richard had raved about on his trip last year, and then get to the one show in Vegas I most wanted to see: Cirque du Soleil's "O", starting at 10:00. As a birthday present that was fantastic and I wasn't thinking much past that. I was partway through a wonderful novel called The Night Circus (thanks Allyson for the loan!) and read more on the plane, so I was definitely wrapped up in magical circus imagery. The fact that I'm not a good flyer worked to Richard's advantage, as once we were on the plane I didn't ask any more questions, just buried my nose in my book. Not that he would have answered my questions anyway.

So we get off the plane just as the sun is setting, and Richard points out the strip, right alongside the airport. Mandalay Bay is huge! We hurry off the plane, and as we head towards the baggage carousels, Richard makes a call to our "driver". I've been sitting for 10 hours at this point and need a bathroom break, so I'm not really wondering why the shuttle driver would need a phone call. And then next to the carousel, I see this sign, held upside-down in front of the face of a guy in a pink shirt. Before I even saw my name on the sign next to it in Debbie's hands, handiwork of daughter Amanda, I knew it had to be Larry - responsible for the pink in their Big Pink Flamingo Wedding Luau, which we went to in July. "Surprise!" says Richard. I was stunned, again. Thank you for coming, Larry and Debbie, Richard couldn't have pulled it off without you.

Larry and Debbie had flown in from Reno hours before, so they could run around picking up a rental car and the Cirque tickets, and check into our rooms at Treasure Island - which they also found time to decorate in birthday streamers. We drove directly to the restaurant, no time to change out of all our travel clothes, because we had 7:45 reservations and a show to catch. In we go to Del Frisco's steak house, and I'm looking forward to the wagyu (Kobe) beef Richard raved about last year.

Debbie and I go in first, and I don't pay any attention in the huge and busy restaurant to the fact that the hostesses make a big deal out of "reservations for Larry" - "Larry? Larry Allen? Right this way!". The guys are right behind us, we are seated by an older waiter - I'm thinking he was the maitre d' - and then it's all about the menu and how Larry and Debbie came to be there.

Richard had brought the flashcards to show them, reading off the backs again, and I was happily interjecting comments on being grumpy, sleepy, and surprised that morning. And then he looked at me and laid down the last card, the one with the date October 7 circled on it. Only this time he said, "...before we start a new adventure tomorrow..." and pulled something out of his pocket...

"...when I want you to marry me".

I gaped at him, and opened the deep blue velvet-covered box in front of me. I gaped at the wedding ring. "Really?" I gaped back at him. Larry held his phone up, videotaping, and took this photo. Debbie was surprised too - Richard had only confided in Larry, on Thursday, when he was fit to burst with it. Watching the video Monday night, Richard laughed at how my jaw nearly hit the tablecloth, I was so stunned, it seemed like I couldn't speak for several minutes (it was 16 seconds). I said yes (despite the fact that he didn't actually ASK me at first), and tried to put on the ring, but since it was the wedding band itself, he took it away again. And proceeded to tell me NOTHING about the ceremony planned for Sunday afternoon. All I got out of him was the limo was picking us up at 1:30, and we'd be seeing a second Cirque show, Mystere, after the wedding. I sat there smiling goofily as the meal arrived, the flashcards tucked away as mementos, photos taken, and back to the business of enjoying a good meal. Crazy! My wonderful man.

I don't know if it shows up in this photo, but our meal was delicious, a "tomahawk" it's called. The highest quality wagyu beef perfectly grilled, 22 ounces (not including the long bone) cut in half so we could split it. I was still in shock (I think I only recovered by morning!) and not surprised that Richard wouldn't tell me anything about his plans for the next day. Some women would be upset that their own wedding was completely out of their hands, but we'd had the UNwedding already, you see, so this was about Richard doing something just for me. I remember we had to be careful with the food - Larry is so allergic to seafood that even being splashed by salt water in a fishing area will make him break out, Debbie can't do pecans, I can't do onions, and all three are on the table - and the waiter took this photo, wishing me happy birthday again. The little white specks hovering after the flash suited my state of mind perfectly! The wait staff were thrilled to hear we'd just got engaged, and invited us to come back anytime. Turns out Larry had wheedled reservations on a night when they were already full, at a time (7:45) that they don't seat people at, and I think he told them Richard was going to propose but I'm not sure on that point. At the end of our dinner they were still going to serve me a birthday cake, but I'd dashed to the washroom and Richard had to tell them no, we had to get going so we wouldn't miss "O".

O is for overwhelmed.

The Belagio is amazing. We went directly there from Del Frisco's, and I was feeling very underdressed considering I'd brought quite a lot of nice clothes with me that I didn't have time to change into. Yes, I did notice the beautiful lobby ceiling and point it out to Richard, but it went by in a blur, as did "O". From the magical first few minutes I was entranced, but my brain was going around in dizzy circles by about halfway through and I kept missing chunks of the performance, starting back to awareness as the scuba divers suddenly appeared on the stage, or the acrobats got a round of applause. I saw the carousel horses dip down into the water, but I couldn't tell you what happened to the acrobats' tall ship. The water was amazing, the colours and shadows and flames, but looking at the souvenir book we brought home, I think I must have missed at least the last 15 minutes entirely. It's also the kind of show where you really can't see everything at once, there's too much. I was so tired, so dazed. So happy.

I held Richard's hand, and we went outside to watch the Belagio's beautiful fountains before going back to Treasure Island and up to bed.

Now that I've mostly recovered from the shock - LOL - of Richard's series of surprises for my birthday weekend, I thought I would share with you how our trip to Las Vegas started: with flashcards.

After spending Friday evening with my girlfriends Cynthia and Saskia in Kamloops to celebrate my birthday, to end a very busy and nearly sleepless week, I was really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. When Richard turned on the lights I knew it was still dark out, and I was NOT happy. Apparently he's never seen me pull a pillow over my head quite so forcefully.

He ignored "go away!" and said he needed to show me something. I saw the time on the card in front of my face and told him it was probably -4 and my gardening tasks for the day weren't going to start until it warmed up, a lot. Coherent, good sign. Then he showed me the next few cards and I started to wake up - and freak out. He was so calm, and enjoying his surprise far, far too much. Evil man. When he showed me the plane, I finally realized something special was happening. What a way to start a birthday long weekend.

On the back of the first card, the clock, Richard had written down what he was going to say, and each card was numbered so he'd get the order right: "Sorry for waking you so early, but the clock is ticking".

"And there's no time to complain..." But I was...

"After all it's your 40th birthday weekend and we have plans."

Plans? "You can hate me now and love me later..."

"But we have less than 3 hours to leave." Leave?

"We must be gone by 8am sharp and in the car." Where?

"In this time you must shower..."

"...and pack your bags..." Wait a minute...

"Sorry you have no time to play in your garden."

"But in time, hopefully minutes..."

"...you will forgive me."

"You can sleep in the car..."

"...while I drive, so we don't miss..." What?!?

"...our second ride. I don't think they'll wait!"

I'm in shock now. "...or our third ride".

"...which will take us here." Treasure Island?

"Which is in Las Vegas!" Holy crap!

"After we land we get to go eat here." Wagyu beef, mmm.

"Before our show." Cirque du Soleil, yay!!

"Then off to the hotel we go..."

"Before we start a new day tomorrow."

At this point I'm out of bed, panicking about getting ready to go. And no, he hasn't mentioned anything about getting married! He says he actually considered waking me an hour earlier to give me more time to pack, but he figured I'd throttle him. Yup. I insisted on making my usual breakfast, a smoothie, because if I was driving and flying for hours, I needed a good breakfast. Richard let me run around packing and when I was ready to eat, he had my other birthday present ready for me: a new blender. He said he told Chris and Dagny that was my one and only present, and they thought he was nuts. That was my first clue that nobody knew about his special plans for the weekend. But I always underestimate his sneakiness - the next surprise came at sunset, when we landed in Vegas.

October 7, 2012, in the Valley of Fire near Las Vegas, Nevada. I love you, Richard Sheridan!

I started several massive garden projects last year that I couldn’t finish, leaving parts of the yard looking hideous and colourless, so I was determined to finish this spring… only it rained, and rained, and rained. I found boulder after boulder in my way. It slowed me down a lot, and Richard had to be very patient about the 6 cubic yards of soil in a mountain in front of his shop. Seems like I’ve worked on it every night and every weekend for the past few weeks, though I know I took time off for inside things. August came fast, but I finished the main two out of three, as of this morning.

Richard did a lot of work both inside (ensuite bathroom) and outside (deck), but sacrificed a lot of time on his Jeep, and with all the travel for work and events, he couldn’t seem to finish any one project. He announced to me that this party is just too much work and we should take next year off, and I argued that we really have so much of our yard done, the major projects list is getting shorter each year. I was confident we’d get done with time to spare.

And then weekend before last, he took the Bobcat and a jackhammer to the concrete pad next to the house. You know, the only hard flat surface we have in the best possible spot for setting up the outdoor kitchen for the party. Great! Forget all those other projects, triple the pace, and up the stress factor – we’re getting a new patio. Crazy man. NOT my fault, don’t let him tell you it was my idea. The timing was right cost-wise, it looks fine (issues with the hot weather concrete pour mean it’s going to get revisited come September to achieve better than fine), and it’s done, but what a panic.

Luckily this year we’ve had extra help. Our neighbour Jonathan’s grandson Devon, 12 years old and a bit bored on his summer holidays with grampa, was a huge help with my garden projects, especially since he came with a golf cart equipped with a box and a trailer for hauling all the rocks around. He taught me how to back up when towing my trailer, woo hoo! Then on Monday, Ben and Adrie arrived en route to their vacation for the week, to stay the night and help out. Ben and Richard finished the stair railings and got the kitchen equipment onto the new patio, along with the fridges and soft serve machine. That felt like a head start of sorts – the beverage fridge is already stocked. And they finished the new outdoor shower (aka the cabana). Tomorrow night our friend Al the blacksmith arrives, to help out with preparations and enjoy Friday night before taking off around lunchtime on Saturday to continue his holiday. We’re very grateful, Al!

Richard finished his menu for the weekend last night, and is about to leave for town to get groceries, while I head back out in the heat to keep going with yard cleanup, spelled off with house-cleaning. It’s getting HOT out there. The forecast for the weekend is 35 degrees. Lots to do still (not least of which for Richard is all the cooking he does in advance), and though I spontaneously took an extra day off work today, it’s more to allow me time to rest, than to get any additional stuff done. I was too tired last year to really enjoy things, but hopefully this year I can kick back, relax, and enjoy the results of all this hard work. And recoup for next year, because we’re NOT canceling if I have anything to say about it. This place is just getting to the point where entertaining is fun!

Yesterday I was convinced spring had arrived. A couple of hyacinths are poking through muddy soil after a mild week, and with daily highs above 10 degrees, the snow in the yard had shrunk to a few patches in the shadier spots. I thought the Stellar's Jay in our spruce tree yesterday, first I've seen this year, confirmed it.

But no, he's here again today, shrieking, snow, snow, snow! An inch since 8:30 this morning, and it's not even the typical spring mush that melts fast. Richard presented me with a bowl of it, a ball like a cantaloupe, light as air. Sigh.

I love snow, yes, how pure and quiet the world looks, the transformation of familiar shapes into something magical. But not on St. Patrick's Day, for goodness sake! I want Spring!! The fact that it's blowing down in big flakes from a white sky so thick that we can't see across the river is really... depressing.

I'm going to take this as a sign that I need to post some of my photos of our glorious holiday on the Mayan Riviera today. I miss mango margaritas and the blue-green Caribbean! Heavy snow in mid-March. Hmph. It's all set though, we're going to Mexico again same time next year, and good riddance to spring snow.

Happy "green" St. Patrick's Day, all.

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.

I love Richard because he always has the solution to a problem. At one frustrating point he left without a word and returned from the shop with a bright orange wedge of steel and a heavy mallet. And eye protection. I couldn’t really photograph it as I had to avoid flying chips of slate and granite, but he chipped and hammered away at any odd protruding spots until every rock fit into place as snugly as possible, and then he hammered the shards into the earth around or beneath to secure it even more. I can’t take any credit for this bed, really, as I couldn’t lift more than two of the rocks that made it!

I still have a lot of gaps to fill and smaller rock to set into place, but it’s complete enough to fill, as soon as I can get a truckload of earth. Up close it looks quite large and rough, but from a distance the rocks are only a third above the ground, even with my other beds, and inside it will hold fresh soil a foot deep, to be topped with a mulch of fine gravel. I’m hoping to get a few more sunny weekends or evenings this month so I can finish by transplanting all the lilies, irises, and other plants that need to be moved out of other beds, and still get some work on those beds done too. There’s a cold wind today – another frost on its way I bet – and a lot to do to put my autumn garden to rest for winter. But as a birthday treat I curled up with a book most of the day, my work on the new flowerbed finished, for now.

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.

Inspired by the death of a rose bush.

Enter Richard with the Bobcat and toothed bucket.

Goodbye to the dead shrub and quackgrass first.

It'll match the bed on the west end of the driveway.

We collected rocks from the pile beneath the apricot tree.

Here they are in place, after much deliberation.

The centre rock landed that way. Richard voted it stay.

No big rocks left, so I’ll continue today with smaller ones.

And here was our dinner, after a good 5 hours moving rocks. I was so tired that I couldn't be bothered getting out my piping bag to decorate my cake, I just winged it with a spoon; the chocolate looked a mess, but it was tasty! Richard knows exactly how to indulge me on my birthday, thank you! Thanks everyone who phoned or e-mailed with birthday wishes. I’m hoping it will be a great year.

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.

I think we were talking about straw hats. Photo by Dagny.

We spent most of our time just sittin' around.

Dan insisted he didn't need to try the satay dipping sauce.

I loved the salad rolls, in spite of the cilantro.

New with the pork, scratch-made baked beans.

Smoky, yummy pulled pork and brisket.

One of the big changes to the plan this year was the new "International" menu, and I tried to get my camera out at every meal to capture the food, but as you can see I missed half of them. Friday night we had the most mouth-watering dinner: freshly made kalamari with Richard's Greek yoghurt tzatziki, Greek-style ribs with oregano, garlic and lemon, and his Mediterranean pasta salad with rotini and feta. We all voted for larger servings of the kalamari next year.

Saturday morning Richard made his delectable corned beef hash, and Chris made two kinds of eggs: scrambled shiny, and scrambled almost to green. I am as particular about my eggs not being cooked too much as Dagny is about them not being cooked too little. We were all well stuffed, so it was a good thing Richard planned for a light lunch: Vietnamese shrimp spring rolls and grilled ginger chicken, both with homemade Indonesian satay sauce. That was a hit, but next year we may skip lunches entirely, which is what happened on Sunday - we never ate the Indian butter chicken, one of Richard's new favourites, because we were still stuffed from Saturday night's pulled pork and sundae bar, and Sunday morning bennies.

Some of us had leftover salads - including Richard's awesome grilled veggie and tortellini salad in my case - for lunch on Sunday instead, and everyone did their part to make sure the last of the ice cream in the soft serve machine didn't go to waste as we enjoyed the breezy, sunny afternoon. The neighbour's grandson came by to help too.

Sunday night was Mexican, and I'd be hard pressed to say which of the three dinners was best. We had tortillas warmed on the grill with chicken barbecued in our homemade blend of Tex-Mex spices, smoked paprika-spiced black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, yellow peppers, and canned jalapenos, my guacamole, and store-bought pico de gallo because Richard didn't have the hours it takes to make his from scratch and the Lunds weren't here this year to appreciate it. And of course all the cheese and sour cream you could want, not to mention more ice cream sundaes for dessert.

Monday morning we had blueberry pancakes and I think Richard said we polished off 5 pounds of bacon, which considering by then we had only 8 of us around the table, is a lot of bacon. Mmm. And then everyone helped take down all the canopies and pack up leftovers to take home, so Richard and I still had energy to debrief and make notes after everyone left before we collapsed for a nap as usual. Such a short holiday, but so much fun! See you next year!

Poached eggs for Sunday am bennies.

Eggs benedict with ham and hash browns.

Richard trades his chef hat for his uncle hat.

Cheers!

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.

First on the list – flowerbed rehab.

It took me a weekend – much better.

Under the tarp, mulch awaited shoveling into beds.

Cleared the patio to make room for these.

I started expanding these beds in May.

My back wasn’t up to getting the flowers planted Friday.

Thank goodness for the weed trimmer for tough spots.

Here’s an appealing shady spot. Fixed that.

Visions of French country dining but no time for a tabletop.

We had to buy apricots – ours are still green.

I had to show you this photo from a couple of weeks ago. I was pruning my roses when movement inches from my nose made me look up past the mass of branches I was removing below my office window. Don’t know how I missed it before, but the size of this nest was incredible. I had to admire the papery quality, all the folds and whorls, so delicate. But these black and white wasps are among the most aggressive, likely to sting. One person has already been stung this weekend – by the more common yellow leatherjackets (is the name because they dive-bomb like fighter pilots?) – so I don’t feel quite so guilty about destroying this beautiful thing.

Busy bees ourselves, we had quite a stressful week trying to finish major projects on Sunday and evenings after work, and although we both had Thursday as well as Friday off, it wasn't quite enough time. Next year, the 5th UNniversary, which will involve more work for Richard as we'll have a larger group of guests (only 13 of us this year), we're hoping to convince one of our guests to come up early on the Thursday. One extra set of hands (and muscles) would be a huge help. Everyone pitched in as they arrived on Friday night, and by nightfall nearly everything was done, but with the smoker malfunction at 1:30am keeping Richard and I up, we both got only two hours sleep that night. It was a 22 hour day for me and I felt it yesterday. But Saturday was spent mostly relaxing in the sun with great food and company and everybody pitched in on meal prep and cleanup, so I think it was a success. A surprise guest who'd never been here before was very impressed so that was a nice pat on the back for Richard and I. We will do it again next year, with a few helping hands.

And now it's time to prep for Sunday breakfast and see if the chairs have dried out. I see blue sky!

Another area that needed some work.

Petunias, check. The toilet didn’t go 'til Friday – thanks, Chris.

Thursday AM, locked out and in the weeds!

Lots to cut down, pick up, set up, and put up. Like lights.

These were thankfully already prepped for Rick’s stag.

Kitchen, check. Now we’re ready – let’s eat.

Happy Canada Day! I can’t believe midsummer’s eve has passed and July begins on Friday. Where does the time go? Work has consumed us this spring, and June saw two weddings, involving reunions with friends on the Coast and family in the Interior. Since then every spare minute of mine has gone into my garden, and the work is starting to pay off, although when I think of things to accomplish before our next long weekend, only a month away, I’m overwhelmed. So I just step back and look. The main bed I’m featuring here is looking so stunning in magenta and chartreuse (a happy accident in some ways as I didn’t know what would bloom when with these new plants!) that I completely relax whenever I stop to look at it. So, in honour of our Canada Day long weekend (and happy Fourth to our American friends), here is my version of R & R, relaxation care of Mother Nature. Now if Mother Nature would just make the sun shine for the next 6 days in a row that I’m on vacation, I will happily enslave myself to her again starting next Wednesday! Cheers, everyone.

At left, by the way, is Canadian columbine, which the hummingbirds love just as much as I do. Great colour this year with our cloudy, wet spring weather, less sun to wash them out. (But I still want more sun, thanks!!)

Black iris after rain.

Flirty yellow iris with purple catmint.

In magenta - sea pinks and wild thyme.

Top tier of the same bed, creeping lamia.

Lily, rusted metal in background.

Roses thriving! It's all the rain, not my thumb.

The new bed, more recently.

This shy one loves catmint. Luckily, cats don't.

Hooray for gorgeous spring mornings! Happy Easter from Poplar Road. I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. Thanks to the new wagon Richard built from scratch for me, I managed to haul four bonfires' worth of tree and shrub prunings spread all over the yard out back to burn (and got a good start on this year's freckle crop in the process). The sunshine may be short-lived but I think I have just enough time to mow the lawn and pull up some daylily corms for a friend. And make garden plans. A productive weekend! However you're spending your holiday, I hope it leaves you feeling rejuvenated and blessed.

Happy anniversary, Chris & Dagny! Dag and I were comparing notes on spring, and how lucky she and Chris were that spring arrived so late in Vancouver two years ago, just in time for their wedding. Well, spring is definitely late this year, and I could say my yard still looks a bit dreary. But here's how it looked on April 18th of last year. Yikes! Last spring I never posted all the photos of the landscaping process, which was so transformative but I was NOT permitted to share at the time because Richard wanted it all to be an UNniversary surprise. I'm vetoing that next time. If I don't do it right after or during, I get behind and never catch up! If you're interested, I might do a bit over the weekend if the flowers come up and I can show off before and after. IF the flowers come up - between the hordes of hungry deer and the late chill I've lost quite a few plants out of the new ones that I put in when we finished the rock walls and lawn. But the forsythia are in bloom, the hyacinths are close, and one daffodil has got some yellow showing. And deer have little taste for irises, thank goodness. Soon, soon! And it's a long weekend, thank god!

Thanks for posting a comment, Chris! In return I shall post the long-overdue pics of the marathon reno job you and Richard pulled off over last Thanksgiving long weekend. And in case readability is lost in the reduction in file sizes, I’ll caption the pics per Richard's hilarious signage.

I wish I could show everyone the complete slide show, the way Richard set it up for me on the TV as I came in the door from my long weekend on the coast and collapsed on the couch. The first shot at right isn’t the first one he showed me, but it was the point at which I finally registered what I was looking at: Chris in my basement, looking even cheekier than usual, above a large hole in the old bathroom floor.

The plan, as you’ll see in the following photos, was to surprise me with a new laundry room for my birthday. My pretty new steam washer and dryer (aka Anita’s new Ferrari – the closest I may ever get to a shiny red sports car) are full-size, not compact apartment stackers like the old ones which just fit in the downstairs bathroom. Richard was dismayed to find, when the ensuite upstairs could not accommodate the laundry as planned, that my new units wouldn’t fit in the only other possible location, our new basement storage room. They stuck several inches out past the door jamb. Our newly framed, drywalled, mudded, taped, and painted storage room would have to be renovated again!

So this was a bigger job than just hooking up the washer and dryer to the vent and plumbing Richard had already built into the existing wall. And of course this is Richard we’re talking about. Go big or go home. So instead of a functioning washer and dryer, I got a complete room, all in one weekend. Woohoo!

"Happy Birthday!" A drain. Thank you.

"He has a PLAN." Wait. What?

Quite the birthday present, don’t you agree? The boys wore themselves out doing an amazing job, not only to finish a brand new laundry room floor to ceiling, but to re-route the labyrinth of old drains in the basement floor to allow the guest bedroom to be finished, and to eventually get a tub into that downstairs bathroom.

Above, Chris is kneeling in the rotten old sink’s drain in the first pic, which will become the drain for the tub as in the third shot. They'd already done half a day of gruelling work digging up concrete and moving drains before they started taking photos. Huge thanks to Dagny for reminding the guys they ought to take some pictures. (And loaning Chris for the long weekend!)

"Fit These" - "In Here!"

The solution to fitting the huge washer and dryer in the narrow space was to take out the bottom half of the wall and set it back several inches. The equipment in the mechanical room had set the placement of the storage room wall, but there was enough leeway in just the lower half of this corner to inset the laundry. It even created a perfect shelf to house our satellite internet modem and all the satellite TV switches. Brilliant!

The boys took over 30 photos, each with a caption written on the cardboard pulled off my washer and dryer. At this point in Richard's slideshow, my jaw was on the floor and I was beginning to realize Chris was probably still in the house!

(On the coast for the weekend, I’d spent Friday night with Dagny and she’d spoken to Chris via cell as if he’d run out of the house on an errand just moments before we got there. I was clueless! More on that below.)

But Richard made me stay put and watch the whole slideshow (stalling!), up to the point where it showed Chris desperately assembling a storage unit with the caption “10 minutes left” crossed out and “2” written above it. (They were so rushed to finish it, Richard called me as I was passing through town and made me turn around and go back up the hill to the fast food place furthest away, to get a ridiculous amount of food for dinner. Perfect for three, but I didn’t clue into that until I saw these pics. It gave them an extra half an hour.) Only after I'd seen them all - but not with any questions answered - would he let me downstairs to give Chris a thank you hug and see the results.

"The Plan." Notice he's holding a chainsaw.

"Help Me! The walls are closing in....

"Drywall Done", again, with 5" inset.

"Anita says, Dryer on the Right / Washer on the Left." Hah.

"Plumbing Done. Exception: Laundry Sink."

"Electrical Done. Exception: Mount new light."

Cheeky man. The sign reads: "No Top Gear marathon... She knows nothing."

Richard just got off the phone with me at this point, claiming he was watching TV. Even gave me grief for taping a couple of hours' worth of one of my shows when there was a Top Gear marathon on BBC! As other slides merrily reported, when I had checked in before Sunday brunch with my friends from Japan, and he was complaining his back was out, he was actually just sore from working until 1am and had been up at 7 to do another run to to town for materials before breakfast. Few things entertain Richard as much as being sneaky and surprising the hell out of me. I have tried and failed to pull something like this on him. (Suggestions welcome.)

The long hours were making them really goofy. Sunday night they painted, and the sign on one photo reads "No Dinner 'Til You're Done!", followed by this next shot, as well as several comments about Chris and his caulking gun that I've deemed too juvenile for print. (But I admit, I laughed.)

"Kidding. 8:30pm Dinner." Painted!

"Chris is OK." On a floor!

I was floored. Ha ha. Chris's sign continues, "I checked his pulse and he's still breathing", which is surprising when you consider what the guys accomplished.

They installed plumbing from the back of the washer, around the mechanical room, and over to that drain from the first photo; cut out and re-studded the wall, moving the electrical and dryer venting; re-drywalled and trimmed the 5" inset nook (which you can see more clearly in the photo at right), and painted the whole room; laid 100 square feet of laminate flooring (leftovers no longer taking up storage space, yay!); created a custom cabinet with sink and gorgeous faucet from a one-piece Costco unit; installed an attractive and bright overhead light fixture; assembled two rolling storage shelves complete with clear bins; and last but not least, got my washer and dryer working.

Happy Birthday to me!

So there you have it. It looks a bit more cramped than this now that I've filled almost all of those bins, but it's working well for me. With all that storage I was able to tidy up a considerable number of other areas around the house that have been landing zones for all manner of junk, including our bedroom - another facelift post on that to come - and the living/dining room. And none too soon, as we went on to update all our living and dining room furniture just before Christmas.

If you were keeping track you might notice that past posts on renos have generally included the phrase "Playing House" at some stage of each project, and this post could have been labelled number XIII. But now that we have painted walls and a couple of nearly finished rooms in the basement, and our upstairs has had a makeover to bring it from 80's shabby to modern country chic, it doesn't feel like playing house any more. It's home. Which is especially nice when outside is dull and grey (or - ugh - snowing as it is right now). I love my new rooms and I can't wait to show them off, in person or here, as time allows. Now if I can just land a new job, we can get on with the next round of renos!