Garden Centre

Had a run out to the garden centre on Saturday.  Have to say I was thrilled to see some greenery.  I wasn't so thrilled about the price of things though 😟  I guess like everything else things have shot up in price.  I took some photos.

I loved the contrasting colours on these branches.

Then I looked at the price........$649.99 🤯

I also loved the contrasting colours with the yellow and green.  Bumble bees and lady bugs seem to be a "thing" with this garden centre this year.

Loved the different colours of the Hibiscus.  Of course we wouldn't be able to put these outside here in Southern Ontario until June.  We have a chance of frost until at least May 24th.

This bougainvillea is also so pretty but again needs warmer weather than what we have at the moment.

People were buying hanging baskets and other annual plants, all which would die if we put them outside at this time of year.  I am just pleased to see a bit of colour after such a long winter.

Question for the gardeners out there.

What is this?

I have a tree with blossom's on it...........no idea what sort of tree it is.

Lavender.......

It was a mixed bag of weather on Sunday, a little of everything.  We popped to the garden centre for me to pick up a couple of pots of spring bulbs to brighten up the house for Easter.  Wasn't happy with the selection, so picked up a pot of lavender, as there is none in the garden.  After having it in the house for the next month I'll plant it outside.  I haven't re potted it yet into my cup and saucer planter.  Thought the planter was cute.

 Never heard of Anouk Spanish Lavender.

As per this site Gardenia it sounds perfect for our garden.  I checked out Freeman Herbs, there are all sorts of things on their site.

New Resident in our garden and she is Royalty!

 
Look at the crown she is wearing!!  The "stone" body is actually resin, so no stones were harmed in her making.  Here she is looking at the new English Lavender plant:

I picked up this red Astilbe as well.

 As well as this pretty Dianthus.

We have yet to put down the new mulch. 

 Already the garden is looking a lot better.

We do pay for gardeners to come in on a weekly basis to cut the grass and every other week to weed the gardens.  They are paid through our monthly maintenance fee and they are USELESS!!!  I have contacted property management and basically told them that in an email, also cc-d board chair.  Haven't heard back from them yet.  So that's why we are putting mulch over everything in the hope of keeping the weeds down.  The state of the garden's is a sore point with me at the moment!!

I AM HAVING MAJOR COMPUTER PROBLEMS AT THE MOMENT AND IT'S BLOODY FRUSTRATING!!

A memo to my Christmas Cactus..........

Look at you, you are beautiful again, all those super pink flowers.  However I have just one little request of you, would it be possible for you to flower one of these days at Christmas time, just like the season you are named after?

I have yet to see you flower at Christmas, you generally flower in the Spring and Fall.  Would you prefer to be in another room?  Would that help?  Regardless though, I am just pleased that you do keep on flowering for me.  Keep up the good work!!

Aren't plants supposed to thrive if you talk to them?  I read this article and it says it does help them grow!!

As I was watching the news on Tuesday night the word "Flurries" popped up in the weather forecast..............I am so not ready to hear that word.  We still don't have our snow fences up yet and dh hasn't tried the snowblower yet.......

This was Tuesday nights sunset:

Has anyone been to the Creative Festival in Toronto?  I was thinking about going, and wanted to know if it was worth while.

Wibbly Wobbly Pudding

This is a super simple recipe:

Wibbly Wobbly Pudding.

1 pkg Jello/jelly any flavour
2 cups (1 pint) Vanilla Icecream


Disolve the jello/jelly in 1 cup (1/2 pint) boiling water.  Add 2 cups (1 pint) icecream, and stir until all melted together.  Pour into dessert dishes and put in the fridge for a couple of hours to set. 

I made a peach jello this time and sliced a can of pears into it, that's why it looks lumpy.

It was another busy day on Thursday.  I got the rest of the grass cut, and managed to get sunburnt on my face despite the fact that I had to wear a fleece jacket at times as it was cool when the clouds covered the sun.

After supper I dug up and potted some plants.  Purple Iris, Chives, Lily of the Valley and some kind of ground cover.  I am having a yard sale on Saturday, so decided to try and sell some plants as well.  If I charge $1 or $2 a pot it's better than nothing.  My dad also sent up some bird houses for me to sell, plus I have a couple pieces of English Paper Piece quilting to sell also.  I also thought of picking some rhubarb and picking some black currants to sell.  I won't make millions, but I may make a couple of dollars.

We had a guy come around to see about getting the a/c installed.  Hopefully that will happen in the next couple of weeks.  Dh is doing the electrical of course, but the rest the installer has to do.  It is going to be hot and humid next week, so we will have to suffer again no doubt, but at least there is an end in sight.

What I was up to on Sunday.

Woke up to snow on the ground.  Nothing exciting, but enough to say it had snowed.  Had the fire on again, as it was so cold.  Went to church and had a get together with a couple of the women who have been giving me grief with this recipe book; but have it all sorted out, and they seem reasonably happy!!

Dh worked until 12 noon, so was home by 1pm.  We went to Tim Hortons for a late lunch; we both had the soup deal, and it was good.

Then dh decided to take me for a drive to Bradford Greenhouses. You could spend a small fortune in that place and there have more than one area with just spectacular things in there. 

We picked up a couple of things.  I got this pear tree it's a Red Bartlett to add to my other pear tree, which is a triple pear tree.

I also picked up a white lilac called Primrose.  However when reading up on this lilac, the older the plant gets the more yellow the flowers so that is something to look forward to.  I would like to plant a pink lilac as well.

I have been wanting a clock for outside, as I never know what time it is.  So we picked up this double sided clock and I will get dh to put it up by the garage.  It will save me trailing into the house with my dirty shoes on.

Dh also came home with this basket of plants for me for Mother's Day which was really sweet of him.

Now all we need is for the weather to warm up, but I don't see that happening much before the weekend.  So I will get some jobs done around the house this week.  At least if it's cold the grass shouldn't grow as fast right?

Lots of photos for a Monday.........

Sunday was a busy day for me. It was lovely and sunny and I am sure we were hovering around the freezing mark, Spring like weather!!

Took advantage of the good day to fill all the bird feeders, pick up the poop(!!) empty the ash bin and even clean the outside of the family room windows!!!

I got some sewing done, you'll see what I am working on, on Wednesday.

I cleaned up in the attic for dh as he had to work all day on Sunday.  He was surprised to see how tidy it was up there when he got in from work.

Have you seen my nursery below. My babies.....I took cuttings of an Apple Geranium. I hope to sell them in the summer for a couple dollars each. Its the leaves that smell of apples.  I used yogurt, sour cream and cool whip containers, along with a coffee container.

Here is the photo of our ottoman.

A close up of the fabric.  I am so pleased with how it looks.  I also cleaned out the storage space in the ottoman.  Which was also a bonus.

This is a photo of a needle book I got off my nana many years ago.  Not sure what the age of it is, but to me the front looks as though its from the 50's, what do you think?

This is the inside of it.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Saving's Club pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

When you're out of money. Plants can be expensive, so when your running low on money using cuttings to grow new plants would be a good idea. Buying extra soil and rummaging around your house for an extra container to put it in is definitely cheaper than buying a whole new plant.

WOW....101 followers, that's amazing; and other odds and ends

I can't believe it 101 people are now following me. I want to thank you one and all; I feel honoured that you would take the time out of your busy days to pop by. I would ask one thing though, please feel free to comment and give me any suggestions that you would like me to write about.

I am sure I have mentioned our mail lady before. She has been delivering the mail for 54 years, and she is a super lady. I also mentioned her and her husband came over to pick some raspberries. Well on Thursday she popped in with three cucumbers. So I decided to make the "Award Winning Cucumber Salad" recipe that was featured in my 50 + 1 Cucumber recipe post.
I have to say it was really good and will make it again.
She also gave me an African Violet that she had grown from a leaf. She obviously has a green thumb, as it is so healthy.


One of our big news story is the nasty weather we had on Thursday afternoon. We had a couple of tornado's touch down and dh saw the back end of the tornado in Vaughan, as he was just leaving work. We managed to miss the worst of it on The Acreage and only had a couple of small branches down. The biggest inconvenience for me was the satellite went out while Coronation Street was on. Sadly though 44 people have lost their homes in Vaughan due to the weather and one person was killed, see here for more details.

An Intervention.........oh no!!!

I led an intervention last Friday.......for those of you not in the know, an intervention is where you try to rescue/save someone. In my case it was a plant, an orchid plant to be precise. Here is the poor thing:

Now the saddest thing of all in this; it even has a sticker on it, saying "Please Water Me, with a smiley face." How sad is that?

My apologies for the terrible quality of the photos and the fact that blogger decided to turn the second one around? I feel the plant was moving around as it didn't want its true identity known, and honestly I don't blame it!!!! Now if a certain person is reading this and she knows who she is (LINDA!!!!) I have the plant, and you're not getting it back....LOL

It's been a horribly hot and humid weekend, and it has really taken its toll on me and dh, we are pooped with the heat. On Sunday ds came over with a window a/c unit that we have put in our bedroom, so at least it will be cool in there and we will be able to sleep. Even poor Molly doesn't have her usual pep in her step. Mind you I wouldn't either if I had to wear a fur coat in the middle of summer!!

I did manage to get some grass cut on Sunday which is good. Still have a lot to do yet, but the goal is to do a couple of hours each day. I hope to get around by the raspberry bushes cut by Monday evening. Dh got the electrics sorted out in the upstairs bathroom, so now the plug is always switched on. As before hand you had to have the light switched on for the plug to work??? We also now have a light and a fan in the shower, which is great. He also got the floor cut for the new hearth, but has to grind a stone to make the slate fit, but it was much too hot on Sunday to do that.

Fingers crossed it cools down this week, so I can get some work done around the house and in the garden.