we took a trip to the East Coast in 1988 or 1989 – amazing what I forget these days, lol…
the four of us, plus my beloved’s mom… we had bought a tricked out van and the trip was great…
when we got to the coast we had lobster at every stop because the four of us loved it… George’s mom couldn’t figure out why we kept eating it as she didn’t like it that much, lol…
while we were there, we found a beach that had coal all over it… we had such fun collecting a bagful to bring home to use for first footing…
I’ve been down to one fairly large piece for a a few years now, so I’ve been careful with it…
as I was working away in the garage, cleaning, sorting, dumping stuff, I found the original bag filled with a whole lot more…
we jumped in the boat and went to a few different fishing spots… no luck at the first one but we did much better at the second…
saw turtles and cormorants… the cormorants got a bit tired of us following them along the canal, but I got some great photos…
I also caught two fish and brought another one up to the side of the boat where it decided to jump off, lol… and the rule is, if you don’t get it into the boat it doesn’t count…
one of the Jack’s I caught was around 30 inches (second biggest of the day) and put up a fight before getting into the net… the other was smaller, but really any fish is great;-)…
good thing I have all these excellent fishers around me to provide backup and helpful instructions…
they brought me a bunch of mums for the garden… I had been collecting parcels for them over the last few weeks, so we traded, lol…
we ate in the garage as it was a bit cool out and rain threatened… I am still nervous about having people in the house for any length of time…
even put one of the plants on the table to provide some ambiance;-)… looks good with the tablecloth, but we won’t mention all the “stuff” that is everywhere…
we spent time remembering how grandpa knew where every single thing was located and planning the organizing and decluttering that has to happen…
Sunday, a friend, her husband and daughter came over for lunch… the garden looked beautiful and we had a lovely visit…
lunch was a delightful collection of goodies from Pho Hoang… everything was tasty…
on Monday morning I had an early meeting in the garden and the rain held off just long enough for us to finish…
Tuesday morning, when I woke up after the storm in the night, I discovered that the hibiscus and dahlia planters were both tipped over from the strong wind… when I looked at the neighbour’s yard I discovered a large branch had fallen right next to their house… thankfully, nothing was damaged…
Wednesday morning a friend stopped by and we had a great catch-up…
in the evening my grandson came for his birthday dinner… delicious steak, lobster, mushrooms and twice-stuffed potatoes were on the menu…
once again, great timing… as we were cleaning up the sky turned very dark… we just got all the cushions inside when the wind and rain arrived…
apparently I am getting lax in my old age as I haven’t been taking as many photos as usual…
these are three of the most recent ones with him in them, lol… but they cover the important things…
in this first one he is cleaning out the hot tub for me… he often comes over and looks after various household and garden jobs…
currently he has my car and here he driving me home after my first Covid-19 vaccination where he kept me company through the entire process… and suggested we get an ice cream treat…
this last one is him heading out in the car after delivering items off for me… he runs errands for me and drops off bits and pieces whenever needed…
what a wonderful time these twenty-one years have been…
my grandson came, whipper snipped, trimmed the weeds in the driveway, and blew all the leaves and detritus… we do like the blower, which can also act as a vacuum… everything looks tidy… he also helped get one of the bubble machines going…
a bit later Hilda the Gardener spent time weeding and tidying so that the garden looks well cared for… it is always such a treat to see how lovely everything looks after she’s been here…
meanwhile, I had lightly fertilized the plants that are heavy feeders, filled bird feeders and pulled out a few weeds in the new grass…