Special Gardens

 Golf was cancelled today.  Our group panicked due to rain in the forecast.

So, I headed to the greenhouse instead for my couple of hours communing with nature.  Decided to spend part of the time on a couple of special gardens.

0ne of them was my Trillium Hill topiary garden.  It is partially hidden by the soil skids so it tends to be ignored a lot.  Looks better now.

And the garden around the hydrant needed to have some grasses and weeds removed.  The Yellow Centaurea is almost finished blooming.

I feel better now 😊.

Time to start packing for out trip.

Stay well.

The Countdown

 Following along on yesterday's theme, I spent about a half hour creating plants again today.  I had three plots of Cactus, two of which are well displayed, but one was not really seen.  So, I dug it up and split it into 16 parts (the black pots - the two green ones are from last year).

Hopefully, they'll generate some sales next year, and if so it's a half hour well spent.

I also spread some soil and did some watering before giving up to the heat and humidity. 

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The Blue Jays, playing in Baltimore's heat and humidity (worse than here) finally won a game today after dropping four in a row.   They're still a few games ahead in the American League East and have a day off before resuming play in the air conditioned dome.  Should be just fine.

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Golf tomorrow, weeding on Friday, then Saturday morning cut the grass one last time before leaving that night for Scotland.  Getting excited!

Stay well.

Dotty?

 I golfed yesterday.  But by the time that I hit the 7th hole, with the heat and my crappy eyesight, I was ready to call it a day.  The low point was on a par three - I landed my tee shot on the green, but took 4 putts to finish the job!

Glad that I didn't quit though.  A slight breeze came up and my back nine was better than the front by seven strokes.  So I've decided to try again on Thursday.

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I love the little things that Mother Nature pulls on us.  Like this Sunflower growing beside the Pine trees.  The neighbour farm was planted with Sunflowers last year, so one lonely seed made it through the winter.

And the squirrels planted another Oak tree under the Pines this year.

As well, Kathryn discovered a baby Pine tree the other day.  So, today I potted up the Pine and the Oak (but don't tell David - he thinks I'm dotty when I do these things).

I'll leave the Sunflower where it is and send another picture after it blooms.

I put the newly potted plants beside the Smokebush that I previously planted.

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For the last few years, David has planted some corn and pumpkins in the Trillium garden (apparently, "dotty" may be a transmittable disease).  But the devil left for Scotland without planting it!  So, good old Dad did the job on Monday.  But the corn had been left so long that it was too tall to stand up on its own, so today I staked most of them.

I'll send more pictures in a couple of months.

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In other news.......Brooke is not only a forklift driver, but she's taking instruction on the tractor as well.

She'll probably be winning a Tractor Pull contest by the time we get back from Scotland!  Go girl go!

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August 2 is Michelle's birthday, but we'll be in Scotland that day, so Mardi took Michelle, A.J., Reggie and me to dinner to celebrate.

All the best on the 2nd Michell!

Stay well folks.

A Winning Day

 Belated birthday wishes to my old Fishguts friend Barry.  Hope you had a wonderful day!

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I certainly had a wonderful day today.  Daughters Barbara, Jo-Ann and Kathryn, Grandson Yancy and Kayt, and best of all, Great Granddaughter Rowan visited.

She had a great time swimming in the pool.  We are allowed a limited number of guests, so good friend Pat came down to join us so all could enjoy the pool.  Thank you Pat!

Rowan has always been a bit shy around men (a good thing, but dismaying to a Great Grandfather).  This time we had great fun together.

Including a nice lunch at Banana Leaf Asian Cuisine.

A great day!

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And the Blue Jays won again, putting them at the top of MLB.  Keep it up guys!

Stay well.

A Good Day

 I'll ask Jill and Gary to pass along my birthday greetings to their daughter Jacquie today.  All the best.

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Had my annual visit to the heart doctor today.  All is well and in the proper range.  The technician noted that I'm in good shape for my age 😎and I said "I guess at my age a lot of people are pushing walkers."  She replied "Or being pushed."

Made my day!

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If you didn't watch the Blue Jays game tonight you need to watch "Blue Jays In 30" tomorrow.  What an entertaining game!  They made the Yankees look like country bumpkins.

Stay well.

Pickerel!

 When David takes the family to Scotland on August 2, the greenhouse will be without a forklift operator for eleven days.  So, Brooke is taking the Bullivant Forklift Operator training program....

..........and one of her first training runs was to deliver a skid of broken soil bags down front for my landscape repair campaign.  Thanks Brooke!

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This afternoon, Mardi and I joined Greg and Diane at Steve's and Bonnie's beautiful Lake Erie property.

When dinner time came, Chef Steve got to work.............

..........and did a fabulous job on the pickerel.

A wonderful visit.  Bonnie and Steve are great hosts.  Thank you folks!

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And then the Blue Jays had to mess things up.  They did attempt a comeback but fell a run short.  But they are still three games up on the Yankees.

Stay well.

Trees And Me

 Yesterday I worked at the greenhouse for three hours, then spent some quality time with grandson Malcolm, followed by watching another Blue Jays victory.  Nice day!

Today Malcolm, who is visiting from the GTA, was adopted by Charlie.

Notice those Mum planters in the background.  They'll be mentioned later.

Kathryn and I have been weeding the gardens along the crest of the hill down front.  And I then redefine the perimeters and add mulch.

I've mentioned the Spruce in the front of this picture before.

I call it my "Charlie Brown" tree.  It started as a four foot runt with just five straggly limbs.  Not saleable.  Look at it now!

Here is an example of what we have been doing.  Before we removed the weeds and the spaghetti roots of the field grass...........

............and after.

That three year old Oak was originally planted by squirrels, under the Pine trees along the driveway.  I moved it here.

As were the two much older Oaks in the back of this picture.

The Chestnut in the foreground was planted by squirrels in Mardi's backyard on Gateshead.  

David has commented that it would be a lot less work if I had left the hill just grass.  What would be the fun in that?

Some day the Grandkids will be telling their children that those giant trees were planted by their Great Grandpa.  

Besides, the Garden Centre will eventually expand and the area where you saw the Mums will be the parking lot.  By then, these trees will mostly hide the ugly house at the front corner of the property.

The Cedars along the fence that were supposed to hide it keep getting killed by their pool chlorine runoff.

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Our Blue Jays swept the San Francisco Giants today, putting them three games in the lead in the American League East over the New York Yankees.  And the Yankees come to town tomorrow.  A very important series!

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Stay well.

Winners

 What a beautiful day!  I managed three hours at the greenhouse, mostly digging.  Could have carried on, but I had other, equally important, items on the list.

For example, Gary will be scheduling the 2025 Dofasco Quoits Championship any day now, so I had to pick up my updated team Champion's shirt............

.............and to honour the partners who carried us to victory those times.

Calvin and I will be defending our 2024 title.

P.S. Gary, I'll be away from August 2 to 12 in case you want someone else to win (he said modestly😎).

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Blue Jays picked up after the all-star break with a 4 - 0 win over San Francisco.  They're now three games ahead of the Yankees in their division.  

The new batting coach has turned the team into a juggernaut, with all the players getting hits.  Fun to watch.

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Pierre Poilievre is one of 108 (so far) candidates for the Alberta riding he's running in.  Should be fun to watch,

Even if he wins, I think he will be gone in January when the party does  a review of his leadership.  His style of attack is not what we need right now.

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Stay well.

Reality Hits Home

 Two birthdays to celebrate today.  Gary Parker, the man of many names and birthdays, is celebrating his real one.  Hope that you enjoyed your day Andy.

And Irene Cousins is also on the birthday list.  Best wishes Irene.

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I've known for a long time that women were smarter than men, but this week it has become very apparent.

Monday, I golfed 18 holes in the heat - Mardi swam with the ladies.

Tuesday, I golfed 15 holes in the heat, baled on three long ones on the back nine, and was useless for the rest of the day (no smartass comments required Al) - Mardi golfed just 9 holes.

Today, I dug sod and cut grass for two hours - Mardi swam with the ladies in the morning and with our friend Jo-Anne Kempe in the afternoon.

And she crushed me at Skip-Bo.  Can I blame my eyesight?

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Although the American League eventually lost the All-Star game, our two Blue Jay All-Stars, Vladdy and "Captain" Kirk, played well, both getting hits and fielding well.  

Now it's back to the grind as they work towards playoff time.

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Stay well and stay cool.

Greg Time

 First order of business:  Happy Birthday Maureen!  All the best on your special day.

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Mardi's son Greg made a weekend visit.  First time we've seen him in quite a while.  He's been posted, plus he attended the G7 in Kananaskis and got to transport the political bigwigs to the conference by helicopter.  Greg was really impressed with meeting the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy.  They were the most efficient and prepared of any delegation.

Last night Greg and Mardi decided to attend the Ti-Cats game.  I chose to watch it at home - looking into the sun with my light sensitive eye didn't excite me.

So I drove them to Eastgate to catch the bus and picked them up after the game.  The team won, giving them a winning record for the first time in years.  A nice mom and son event.  And I watched in the comfort of our home - a nice dad event!

Greg left this morning, heading to Brantford to see his dad on his birthday.

Hope he didn't have a wet ride.  After he left I headed to the greenhouse to cut some grass, but Grimsby was in a different weather zone.  It was raining when I got there, and the forecast was for more of the same to continue for a couple more hours.

So I had a coffee with Sean and Alex and headed back home.  The grass can wait.

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Two golf days coming up.  Can't take too many strokes 'cause I have to beat the heat.

Stay well - and cool.

Crazies

 Some brilliant congressmen from Wisconsin and Minnesota have sent a letter to Canada asking us to stop sending our wildfire smoke across the border because it is affecting their summer enjoyment.

Wildfires are increasing because of climate change.  And the biggest culprit in that scene?  The U.S., which wants to burn more coal, etc. etc.

Maybe when parliament resumes at the end of the summer it could outlaw lightning strikes in Canada.  That would eliminate 93% of the problem for those folks.

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The Blue Jays lost last night, but they have already won more games (54) prior to the All-Star break than ever before.  And they still have three games left to play.

My concern is that the trade deadline is fast approaching and they are sure to make some trades.  I just hope that they don't trade away their team spirit in the process.  The current guys are really getting along well and that could be at risk.

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Wouldn't you know it.  Just when Canada manages to meet its military defense commitment, with the support of most of the public, four Quebecois idiots (two military, one ex military, one pretend military) decide to conquer Canada starting by taking over a patch of Quebec.  Now, public support for the military may significantly decline.  Great timing!

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Mardi and I enjoyed lunch today with Rada and John - well, with Rada anyway.  John asked me how my eye was coming along and I told him it's slowly getting better, and I didn't realize how ugly he was.   You be the judge!  (Sorry John, I had to do it.)

 

We got caught up to date and had a nice discussion about their trip to Scotland and got some tips for our upcoming (August 2) visit to Edinburgh. 

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Then, this afternoon Mardi and I headed to Southbrook Golf Course.  On the way we ran through a heavy rain storm, so you can imagine how hot and humid it became.  Nine holes were all that we could manage.

Fortunately, tonight a show on CBC claimed that exercise and sweat are really good for you.  Thank goodness!

As we were leaving the course, some antique car buffs were setting up a show.  Mardi stopped over to see if she could get a lead on where she might find the parts she needs to fix her convertible roof.

We'll see if that pans out.

Stay well.

Nine and Dine

 Kathryn and I headed to the greenhouse this morning, but only lasted a half hour in the heat before I called it a day.  But we each finished up two small gardens in that time.  We'll eventually get there!

Then, this afternoon, Mardi and I joined Rose and Ed for a "nine and dine" at Dunnville Golf Club.

It's been over 50 years since I last played this interesting little course.  Some Optimist members used to play there on a fairly regular basis.  It has just nine holes, but each hole has two sets of tees in different locations/distances, so you can pretend to play eighteen holes if you wish.  And it's in really good shape!  We'll do it again and maybe play from the ten through eighteen tees next time.

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In case I don't publish tomorrow, happy birthday Yancy!

Stay well everyone.

R.I.P Joyce

 Today we said our goodbyes to Joyce.  It was a very moving ceremony.

The church choir,  where Mardi met Joyce about 40 years ago, started the celebration.  And several folks spoke about Joyce, including Mardi.

One of my high school buddies, Neil Whitfield, was her cousin, and through him I met Joyce a couple of times back then.  And my friend Wayne was in her class from grade 1 to 7.

Joyce was part of the ladies golf group with Mardi, Maureen, Irene, Monica, Helen, Mary, Rose and Barb.

Fast forward to Mardi and I getting together and Joyce became a good friend of mine, as she was of Mardi.

She will be missed.  Rest in peace Joyce.

CANADA DAY1

 Yesterday, I managed to golf for the first time this year in the Cambridge Men's League.  Started well, with two pars, finished the front nine with 46, but age and heat got to me on the back nine.  Shot 56 to end up with an even 100.

The course was hit with six inches of rain on Friday and even three days later there were still several new lakes to navigate.  We had to take a long detour to get to the tee on this hole.

And Matt and the boys found three balls in this sand trap before they recovered Matt's.

But it was the annual league field day, so we enjoyed burgs after golf.  Nice to be back in harness, especially being together again with my seeing eye companions.

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I started today by getting a couple of gardens ready for Canada Day.

Even the cactus got dressed up for the big day.

But then I apparently needed a rest!

We enjoyed the opening of the Blue Jays Canada Day game and they put on quite a show.  Team players and employees helped the military with the flag.

Quite a sight!  And they won big time!

Then it was time for the Shoreliner's Canada Day get-together.........

..........with other owners, including our friends Carol and Pat.

I hope you all had a good day, celebrating our special country.

Stay well.