Steve and Dianne come for a visit. May 21 - 25th

 Happy Anniversary Steve and Dianne (May 22)

Steve and Dianne came for the weekend. They're usually here for May long, but this year we are all going to the Trooper Concert in Duncan Friday night.

They arrived at 2 pm today. Let the party begin! Once they carried in all their stuff it's dock time. Ray made margarita's .... yum!

I had the Traeger going, smoking pork ribs for dinner, so once the wind came up stronger at 4, we moved up to the sundeck so I could keep an eye on our dinner.

Pork Ribs, my Holiday Baked Beans, green salad and corn is on the menu today.

My kitchen crew did a great job cleaning up behind me as usual. We watched a bit of TV and everyone wwnt to bed by 9:30 pm.

Friday morning, after coffee, the guys went out fishing for a few hours. Unfortunately they were skunked. It's a beautiful morning though. Pictures from Steve.

Off they go!

Once the boys got back, I made a big breakfast/brunch. Today is Steve and Dianne's 44th Anniversary. We treated them todinner at The Old Firehouse Wine and Cocktail Bar, before going to the concert at the Cowichan Performing Arts Theatre.

Happy Anniversary!

I'd managed to get us great seats, Row E, right in the middle, not far from the stage.

The cover band, called Needfull, wasn't that great ... they played for 40 minutes. Fortunately once the stage changed over for Trooper, they played for 90 minutes with all their great hits. It was fabulous.

Trooper, they sound just like their albums!

We didn't get back home until 11:30 ... so way past our bedtimes lol. All of us in bed by midnight.

Saturday morning is our Annual General Strata Meeting held at Ron and Donna's. We left Colibabas on their own for breakfast. Jason and Amelia came down too, so Jason could attend the fire pump demonstration. At 11:30, everyone came back at our house for fire pump demonstration. Donna's son-in-law, Adam, is a firefighter and offered to give us some tricks and tips for firefighting. We bought the fire pump and hose several years ago and are offering the use of it to the strata in an emergency. 

Glad that's done ... we tried to get it organized last year, but everyone was too busy.

They were finished at 12:30 pm, so lunch time. Steve and Dianne treated us to lunch at Jake's. Back home although the sun's out, it's really breezy and cold. We sat out front for a bit, then Ray set us up in the back yard in the sun but behind the hedge to be out of the wind. A gorgeous afternoon. Tonight is leftovers, we still had a bunch of ribs to eat.

Sunday we were able to sit down at the dock for a couple of hours before the wind came up and then we moved up to the gazebo . Ray drove Steve and Dianne to the ice cream shop that is open for the summer. Back home I put a whole chicken on the barbecue rotisserie for dinner tonight. Since we were sitting beside the BBQ Ray said it smelled mouth watering for the 2 hours. lol

A big thanks again to my kitchen cleanup crew. Certainly makes my life much easier just cooking and not having to clean up.

Monday morning the Colibabas were on their way by 9:30 am and I'm off for my haircut appointment. The 4 days went by so fast! A wonderful time had by all as usual!

Now I have 6 days to pack up and get ready for our trip to Pinantan Lake, staying in a cabin with the kids, for 10 days next week.

Happy Birthday Stella - May 15th - 20th

Happy Birthday Stella. Our granddaughter turns 6 years old today, May 15th.

Hi Dad!

We sent her a unicorn hoody for her birthday which she loves. Big on her now, but it will last for awhile.

Pictures from our Easter visit to Squamish.

Last week, we took Penny up on her offer to visit her at Dinter's. She took us on a golf cart to see "the back 40" the customers don't usually have access to. Ray took a bunch of pictures I didn't post in my last blog.

Every kind of maple tree you can think of.

The middle one looks like a marijuana plant

 

Anyone want a Bonsai?

With our "treasures" in tow, it's back to the parking lot, where we found this beauty T-Bird parked next to us. 

The weather sure took a turn for windy, wet and cold for the long weekend. No sitting outside for the first couple of days.  (Friday and Saturday) Very little boat traffic on the lake. Such a difference from a week ago with the warm weather.

I've been busy cooking meals for our up coming trip to Pinantan Lake with Kristi and family.

Monday, the weather turned nice, so we decided to go to Duncan to return an Amazon Package and a little shopping. We decided to go to the Cowichan Bay Pub for lunch. Great view.

Down to the dock for the rest of the afternoon.

Tuesday we mostly relaxed for the day. Now that we have the curtains back up on the gazebo, we were able to sit outside even though it's windy. Black clouds out there.

We did have a lovely sunset.

Wednesday, off to Duncan again. With Steve and Dianne arriving tomorrow, we needed more provisions, specifically Limeade for Margarita's, which is not available here at the lake. Before leaving, I prepped my Baked Beans batch for the InstantPot. These will be part of our dinner tomorrow to go with smoked ribs on the Traeger.

Since it's such a beautiful day, after shopping we went for lunch to the Shipyard Pub in Maple Bay. It's been a year since we were there.

Back home for the afternoon.  Too windy to sit down on the dock, but since the curtains are up again, we sat under the sundeck gazebo.

The arbor in front of the house is growing like crazy, especially the Honeysuckle.  The most blooms at once for my Clematis too.

Tomorrow Steve and Dianne arrive!

Wildflowers at Harewood Plains, Nanaimo and more planting at home - May 1 - 14th

Harewood Plains, Nanaimo with Garry Oaks and native wildflowers.

Thursday, May 1st - Wow the weather is great. We are still busy doing chores, almost done though. We did have a bit of time sitting on our front patio.

Friday and Ray's busy untangling the irrigation, so he could get the stuff going on the sundeck. At the end of last year he just threw it all in a rubbermaid, now has a tangled mess. In the front, we're having our irrigation guys install new 1/2" trunk lines as a more permanent installation. We're not moving planters anymore.

While he's busy with that and other things, I spray painted our loungers. They look much better. These came with the house and are so heavy and solid, I don't have to worry about them blowing off the dock.

Saturday, we headed up to Nanaimo to visit Kristi and Amelia. Jason is still away on his fishing trip at Kissinger Lake. Kristi wanted to take us to to the Harewood Plains, which are all in bloom. Ray was able to drag out his camera. It's been awhile since he was on a "photo tour". :)

Lots of purple, pink and yellows. The trail is a short distance from her house. It's gorgeous and the smells of the flowers wonderful.We hiked around for about 2km taking pictures.

Amelia's dress matches the flowers.

After our walk, Kristi took us out for Sushi for my early Mother's Day as they're busy next weekend.

Back to Kristi's and we looked after Amelia while Kristi met up ith a friend to go on a 5 km hike with Olaf. She got back at 3:30 pm and we headed back home. Once home, we were invited next door at Mike and Debra's dock for a drink and visit. Mike invited us for dinner, but we were tired and came home. We had left-over Lasagna for dinner, so I didn't have to cook. 

Sunday morning we went down to the dock for our morning coffee. First coffee on the dock this year. Beautiful outside. It's gonna be a scorcher!

Other than doing the laundry, we took the day off and enjoyed the sunshine down on the dock. It sure was hot. Topped out at 28C. Very unusual for May 3rd. The next couple of days were quite warm as well, but with a lot more wind.

Monday we went into Duncan for some errands and also met up with our gardener, Penny at Dinter's Nursery where  she works 3 days a week. She gave us the tour with the golf cart of their "back 40". We managed to get another rhodo and a beautiful lupin for our front garden.

Tuesday, I decided to cook a ham on the Traeger. I invited Mike and Debra over for dinner. Also on the menu is cheesy scalloped potatoes that were a hit as well. 

Ready for the Traeger. I also draped it with bacon to keep it moist while it cooked.  Of course no finished picture or of our company lol.

Wednesday, more marine fog. The weather has definitely gotten cooler. Penny came this afternoon and weeded the back gardens as well as planting two new plants in my front garden. Lupins and a new rhodo that will replace the straggly purple one. The purple one struggled for sunshine as 7 years ago when it was planted there was also a maple and yew tree behind it. This winter I will prune the purple one down to 1 foot and see if it comes back. If not "it's outta there!".

New Lupin and my first iris's blooming.

New Rhodo. This one should stay compact.

Penny

Tonight we went to Chemainus Theatre with Pat and Darryl for dinner and watch live theatre. I forgot to take a picture at dinner, but here is a snap of the theatre with Pat and Darryl sitting in front of us. It turned out to be a fabulous show "Ladies Foursome". Lots of laughs. Home by 10:30 pm. It's amazing that 4 actors and a small set could have us totally engaged in the performance for 2 hours.

Thursday, another marine fog/cloudy day. I went up to 19C today. Great grass growing weather.  We decided to go to the Youbou Pub and Grill for lunch to have their "famous burger". A bit of a traffic jam coming back home lol.

Friday we picked up Warren and Deb, from across the lake, and took them to the Lion Rampant Pub in Maple Bay. A great outing and it was warm enough to sit out on their deck, except for Ray, underdressed in his shorts lol

Another great visit and a lovely lunch. The Lion Rampant never disappoints.

Saturday we left early to Duncan for some errands and to meet up with Penny at Dinter's Nursery again. We're going to rip out our lavender hedge and replace it as it's gotten really woody with only a little green growth. Ray wanted something that provided more colour and flowered longer. We put the original lavender bed in 7 years ago and I've had to replace several plants as they died over winter a few times, but most of it has outlived itself and needs to be replaced.

Penny suggested the Pontantilla that what we purchased. We got yellow, white, pink and orange. These are compact shrubs that are easy to maintain and deer resistant.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Once back home, we ripped out 1/3 of the lavender bed and then finished it up Sunday Morning after waffles for breakfast. We needed the energy!

That's quite the job. Killed both of us, but it is done and ready for planting by Penny on Wednesday. We wanted to do it ourselves, as we were worried the irrigation line would get damaged if not careful.  Plus the irrigation guy's coming on Monday to install my micro irrigation in the front, so if we damaged the line it could be fixed right away. Ray took all the lavender to the dump in our little trailer while I worked on prepping our dinner, dishes and laundry.

It's been really windy here for the past week, so no dock time, just driveway patio time in the afternoons.

For my Mother's Day Dinner, I decided to make us Bang Bang Prawn Tacos. I hate going out for dinner/lunch on holidays as it's always so busy and too much waiting, which Ray doesn't do well with if he is hungry. :) We'd also gone out for lunch several times this week already.

These turned out delicious with our spot prawns I froze last year.

Now it is Monday again .... the time is just flying by. Today we had FGI come and install the micro irrigation the front for the planters, hanging baskets and vertical garden with a more permanent solution.

Ray will be painting all the lines red, the same as the house so the tubes are not as noticeable.

We ended up with a "spider web" of tubing hooking up to the tap. Abde suggested I get planter to cover it..... I did. lol In the winter thes control system will be put inside with only the end of the hoses to remain outside.

TADA! What hose mess!

Another job off of Ray's list.

Tuesday after my eye appointment, we headed into Duncan for a few errands and then back home  for lunch. It was a beautiful day. I got spaghetti sauce going for dinner and Ray played with his new lawn toy, a scarifier to get rid of more moss in the lawn. Considering we had it already done by our landscapers, there sure was a lot more moss to come out!

  

Fortunately he was able to vaccum up the moss using our electric mower, so no raking. He got so hot he jumped into the lake. 

Shown here he just washed his feet from getting them dirty from something or other. The lake is still pretty cold.

Wednesday, cloudy and very windy. Penny arrived at noon for her and I to plant the new Pontantilla Hedge, replacing the lavender one. This should also be deer resistant and flower spring, summer and into the fall. I dug the plant holes and picked rocks while Penny planted. I avoid going on my hands and knees. lol Three hours later we were done.

Should be a mass of flowers soon. Penny also planted two new lupins so now I have 3. She said I'm not allowed to buy any more plants. The garden is full! Especially as these lupins can be split in a few years.

New Red one to go with the orange.

New pink.

The weather has turned to cooler temps and a few showers. Perfect for my new plants to get established. Of course the weather is always iffy on the long-weekend.

Thursday, Ray headed up to Duncan for his doctor appointment and a Costco run. I took the day off and just relaxed.

These two weeks went by in a blur. Happy Spring. 

Everyone in the cul-de-sac is busy. Roy and June building a new garden shed, and still finishing their new house. The new neighbours next door to us, buying lots of plants and outdoor furnishings. Ray and I with our new gazebo, front garden, planters and micro irrigation. Mike and Debra, new gazebo on their dock and getting a new outdoor sauna installed after pouring a slab of concrete a couple of weeks ago. Pat and Darryl are also busy after getting a cement pad poured beside their driveway for their new wood shed. With fire concerns they want their wood away from the side of their garage and house. Busy, busy, busy. I hear noises coming from further down the road with Ron and Donna and Todd, tidying up their yards as well.