went to finish the chicken soup, and noticed the oven was on, so I tried to open the door and the handle came right off…
it had been loosening before and I would just tighten it…
my housemate and I couldn’t put the handle back on because the oven was hot… we left it to cool and then tried again…
when we went to open it, the inside sort of separated… I was hoping this allowed us to get to the window that we could clean…
unfortunately, it was not the one, although we did clean this portion…
next he went out and bought some loctite to make sure the handle stayed on… we weren’t able to get to the really messed up window, but the important thing was to get the handle back on the door, which was being held closed by the stepstool…
now it is fixed… we will see if it comes loose again…
last week we went through the garden and collected flowers from the pansies, bachelor buttons and petunias, as they will be a special snack treat for the bearded dragon, lol…
next they went into the dehydrator to dry…
took about twelve hours and then they were nicely dried and put into a bag for future snacks;-)…
yesterday, as I was reorganizing the plants that have come in from outside, my housemate helped me with the monstera plant…
he brought it with him when he moved into the basement and had it down there for a while, but had to move it to the main floor as it wasn’t thriving…
It isn’t my favourite plant, but when all the plants were being moved around, we trimmed it and attached it to a pole and it looks much better…
in the same corner, I put one of the ferns that had been in the garden and was much happier than when it went outside… hope it continues to thrive there;-)…
we emptied the space out and my housemate discovered that the hose on the tap was leaking… that one had been installed in 2014…
we contacted our plumbing people and headed out to purchase a new tap… we took the $10 Canadian Tire money that has been in the drawer for years…
it was fun to watch various staff members try to figure out how to deal with the paper, lol… eventually they discovered the longest serving teller who was able to assist our cashier and away we went…
as we got home we heard that the plumber was on his way…
in just under an hour, the tap was changed, and they were on their way…
this tap has the handle on the right side, so I am getting adjusted to that, lol…
we had a fan on, drying out the inside of the cabinet before the “stuff” which was filling up a number of counters, went back in…
this morning, now that the space is dry, all of the items from the cabinet when back in… and possibly in a slightly more organized way;-)…
our most recent project was fixing the back gate… one end had sunk down and it was dragging on the ground, making it difficult to open and close…
day one, session one, involved removing it from the fence and cutting a portion off the bottom… at the end of the day we put the garbage and recycling bins in the opening so it didn’t feel so open, lol…
session two was removing nails and finding a board to go from corner to corner to help keep the gate from sagging as well as one to go along the bottom… and purchasing screws and a gate wheel…
day two, session one, involved figuring out the angle of the cross board and reattaching all the pieces… and purchasing an impact drill…
we aren’t going to talk about how someone gave away the first one, sigh…
session two involved reattaching the gate to the fence and making sure the wheel was in the correct spot… sounds easier than it actually was, lol…
and job done…
this will make taking out and returning the bins much easier in summer and winter;-)…
Friday was a delightful day… the sun shone and the temperature rose to 25°C…
throughout the day, I prepped for a dinner party… between organizing and setting the table on the deck, there were plenty of opportunities to sit, read, and relax…
preparing a space or food for special people is always enjoyable for me as I think about those who I am doing this work for and how important they are to me…
for this gathering, it was mainly about making the space comfortable and considering what dishes we would need as the food was being picked up from a Charleswood Rotary fundraiser…
they provided a whole lobster, baked potato, fresh bun, coleslaw, brownie, small bottle of wine, with a bib and a lobster fork;-)… each person received a shopping bag with all of the goodies in it… I added a few fixings for the potatoes, warm facecloths with lemon for our fingers, and garlic butter in warmers…
once the food was warmed up, we had a lesson in how to eat the whole crustacean… I was a bit slow, lol, so had to keep having information repeated…
the weather was perfect, well, except that the wind kept blowing out some of the butter warmers… lots of conversation and story telling kept us busy throughout the meal…
my housemate took the requisite group photo which he was happy to do (and not be in) before we spent time around the pond…
happily, the fish came out for a short visit before returning to their favourite spot under the bridge…
and before you knew it, everyone headed off into the sunset;-)…
I (and possibly my housemate) have been bringing out the indoor plants slowly, but surely…
first to come out was the Japanese maple… right now it’s sitting on the ledge that’s mostly shaded, for a few days…
next out came the hibiscus, and it went to the back under the trees, again where it’ll get shaded for the next few days before moving to its final spot…
orchids came out and filled up the little plant stand at the back, looks very cute with the begonias…
brought out a fern and another plant which I can’t remember the name of, that did really well in the top of the rain barrel, so we’ll see how that goes…
when the mandevilla comes out, it is going to sit along the path to the side garden to acclimate…
the lemon tree is still in the house… haven’t quite figured out where it’s gonna go and maybe a few other plants from in there are gonna come outside… we will see…