The "C" word.........

The "C" word is not well received this time of the year.  Let me give you a hint what the "C" word is:

There are only 133 days until the "C" word.

I know who really wants to know this in the middle of a stinking heatwave???

However it will be upon us before we know it.  Already the nights are starting to draw in.  It's now dark until after 6 am.  Despite this stinking heat the nights are a little cooler.  So it is on the horizon.

This year though I am no where near as organized as I normally am, basically because our son is getting married the beginning of January, so it will be a low key Christmas, as we are all travelling to the Bahamas for his wedding.

As most of you know I put money in pots each week for various things.  Been doing this for years now.  I have three pots; a birthday pot, a Christmas pot and a "other thing" pot.  I have a healthy $620 sitting in the Christmas pot.  So will keep adding too it weekly and it should cover everything.  

The "other thing" pot will be saved towards spending money and payment towards our vacation/wedding.  I put a deposit down with the travel agent the other day so that $300 will come out of that pot.  The rest of the money in that pot will be saved and converted into US $.

The birthday pot will take a big hit in September as it's Sammy's, son-in-law's and dh's birthdays.  The good thing though is I know I have enough money to cover everything,  It's a lifesaver those pots.

Back to the "C" word though; a lot of thought is going to have to be put into this, this year as I seriously want to cut back, plus we have two new members in our family..........

Have you thought about the "C" word yet?  Have you made plans for it?

All ready for the big day........

Got all the gnomes done for Our Little Man's birthday party.  Here they are all lined up ready to go:

I then made a gnome and baby hat set for a couple who are expecting in January and are going to the party.

I used a different yarn for the set and as they are not going to find out the sex of the baby, I thought the colour was appropriate for both a boy or girl.  I would love to make this is a variegated grey yarn.

So far I have five babies and a wedding in the first four months of 2016.  So more baby gift sets and a baby quilt to make.  Better make a start on them!

What are your thoughts..........

Young couple, early thirties.  Two children 5 and 2.  Lived together for nearly six years, bought a house together.  Both work; he will be well paid, her not so much.  Decided to get married in March of 2016.

So far asked to buy ticket to Buck and Doe (joint Stag and Hen night).  Dh only bought one as he has no intention of going and they cost a lot more money on the night anyhow. $10

Bridal Shower; being thrown by future mother-in-law and sister-in-law in a banquet hall (sister-in-law's wedding reception there, very fancy place).  Bride registered at Sears; lots of stuff on the registry. Money spent........? Hoping to spend under $100; very doable.

Wedding: $300 cash gift for couple.  As the people who will be invited will be the same people who went to the last two weddings we've been too, I will have to buy at least a new top, so hopefully only $50 spent there.

My gripe, I think they are being greedy having not only a Buck and Doe, but a bridal shower when they have a house and live together.  Okay you may want the whole Bridal experience, but couldn't you have the Bridal Shower for close friends and family; I am neither.  Or have the Bridal Shower with no gifts.

I am quite sure most of the wedding will be paid for by their parents, as his parents put on a big fancy wedding for their daughter.  They are good parents and will want to make their children equal.

I am not going to the Bridal Shower as I have other commitments that weekend.  I will just send a gift and my regrets.

Are they being greedy?  What are your thoughts?

Very lazy Sunday.......

As I mentioned we were at a wedding on Saturday for one of dh's co-workers.  This fine young man we have known for many years and his wife is a lovely woman.  They were so happy and so in love it was a joy to see them.

Here are a few photos from the day/night.

It was a Catholic ceremony and the stained glass windows were gorgeous.

They were all the same wheat but different colours.

This is where the wedding party sat, it was lovely.  There were seven bridesmaids, seven groomsmen, two flower girls and a ring boy.  That's the biggest wedding party I have seen.

The centre piece on our table.  I won ours but forgot it.  Dh will pick it up today at the office for me.

 The wedding favour was a jar of honey, again I forgot it, so dh will also get that at the same time.

 The cake it was so pretty.  The colours were pink and white.  The guys wore navy blue suits with pink ties.  The bridesmaids wore pale pink strapless ruched dresses.

This is the most unique dessert I have ever seen.  They are ice cream.  The banana tasted of banana, the grapes tasted like grape flavoured bubble gum.  The apples were vanilla and the red covering was white chocolate.  I had the orange/peach and it tasted like Creamiscle ice cream.  They were so good.

I did do one thing on Sunday and that was do the menu plan for the week.

The highs and lows of the wedding.................

On Saturday, dh and I attended the wedding of a young lady we have known since she was 5 years of age.  She is the same age as ds and will be 28 in April.  She was a stunning bride, breath taking in fact.  She is around 5' 10" with long blonde hair and her dress was gorgeous.  It was fitted to the body until the hips and laced at the back.  The bottom was all flouncy with big flowers dotted here there and every where.  She arrived at church wearing a pear of bright pink Uggs and changed into a pair of bright pink ballet flats.

The bridesmaid wore black strapless straight up and down dresses with bright pink sashes.  They carried bouquets of bright pink roses  The guys had bright pink ties and bright pink rose button hole flowers.  They had an Anglican church service, and it was lovely.

There were probably around 200 people there and it was in a big banquet hall.  The food was usual wedding food, antipasto to start, followed by a pasta course, with ravioli in a white sauce and pasta with a tomato sauce.  Main course was a beef medallion with gravy, chicken breast, roast potatoes and two pieces of asparagus and a carrot, and a green salad.  This course was not at all good, the beef was more rare than medium. I like my beef not too be moo-ing, mine was moo-ing!!  The veggies were bordering on raw and who has salad with gravy?  So that was not a success as far as I was concerned.

The dessert though was top notch, a lot better than dd's at her wedding.  It was a warm chocolate brownie with ice cream and whipped cream.  It was a 10 out of 10 for me.  Then tea or coffee.  Around 11:45pm they had a pork roast called Porchetta with accompaniments, wedding cake which was chocolate with vanilla frosting.  Along with cookies and fruit.  They also supplied little boxes to take cookies home and again tea and coffee.

The speeches were good, what we could hear.  I think you are either a public speaker or you're not, and that applied to these speeches.  The father of the bride's speech was super as was the bride and groom's speech; especially the grooms, he had the bride in tears and even I shed a tear.

The biggest disaster of the night though was the disco.  It was a large room and for some reason the volume of the music was deafening and so loud the music was not 100% clear.  Oh and they started off with techno/house music and it was bloody awful.  Myself and a friend went and sat out in the lobby to get away from the racket.  However it still was loud.  If you have to yell at the person next to you to have a conversation then something must be loud.

The icing on the cake though was when a guy set up two snare drums and a cymbol and connected that to the speakers and beat his drum to the music.  By this point I had a little man in my head who was also playing the drums.  However we hung in until after midnight and were in bed by 1am.

Overall though we had a great time and it was a privilege to see this lovely girl get married.  However I am not good at staying up that late and am pooped today.

Gorgeous gift........

(The header photo is of dd wedding bouquet)

When dd and hubby came over on Saturday night they brought us the most fantastic gift a photo book of the wedding.  There are some stunning photos in there.  They also brought us a USB stick of the wedding photos, all 700 of them.  I have to go through them when I get time, as I want one enlarged to hang on the wall.  Here is the front cover of the book:

I am still having trouble commenting on people's blogs.  One Simple Farmgirl, you're one of them.  I can read your blog, but when I come to comment I get a white blank page and that is it?  I have no idea what the problem is, hopefully Blogger will figure it out, or if anyone knows what is wrong could you let me know?

Also just a heads up I am going to be having a really good giveaway on my blog in the next couple of weeks, and it has something to do with this: http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-paintings.html

Good news I am up to $30 in my Amazon.ca account thanks to Swagbucks!!!!  Have another $5 to come and hoping to cash in my swagbucks before the end of the month for another $5.

Back again..............

and back to normal, well sort of.  As what exactly is normal?

It's been a heck of a month so far.  What with dd wedding, which went off without a hitch and was just lovely.  To having my mam, step-father and brother here for nearly three weeks.  Of course that visit was made stressful with my step-father going into hospital for three days.

They arrived back in Britain yesterday morning and my step-father got to see his doctor later that day and she has put in a request for him to go and see the cardiologist.  He will need a stent put in, as the pain he is still experiencing is due to one of the blockages.  Of course like most men (you ladies out there will understand this) he never listens and despite being told to take it easy he hasn't and isn't.  So only time will tell what's going to happen next with him.

Took Molly back to the vet's to see about the couple of lumps and she said they are in the lymph nodes and are a little smaller than they were.  So we are going to take the wait and see approach and I'll pop back into the vets again in the New Year.  Mind you Molly is in the "dog house," at the moment, and is suffering and getting no sympathy from me!!!

My mother bought four mini packs of chocolate turtles, I think there will only be around 4 chocolates per box.  Anyhow she had them in a plastic bag in their bedroom.  We went out and Molly went snooping.  She ate the first box in the bedroom, carefully taking them out of the box and unwrapping them.  The next box she took down to the bottom of the stairs.  Then she thought she would get comfortable with the third box and opened and ate them in front of the fire.  By then she must have decided she was full, but thought she should "bury" the individual chocolates around the house to snack on later!!

She did have the runs but really only the one time.  She still managed to eat her supper that night, despite her stomach being bloated.  She is now pooping normally but it does have candy wrappers in amongst it!!!  I couldn't be mad at her, but I refused to give her the bone I had bought that day for her.  I put it in the drawer and she now keeps going to the drawer as she can smell it!!!  She's a character that Molly!!

So now the house is all quiet.  I got up on Thursday morning and came down stairs and thought I wonder if my mam had put the kettle on for a cup of tea.  Both dh and I are pooped though as it feels as though it has been none stop for a while now.  Plus the stress of dealing with the hospital and insurance was the icing on the cake as they say. 

Our plan is to take things easy up until Christmas to wind down and hibernate.  I still haven't made a start on my Christmas shopping yet.  I am up to $56 in my Christmas food pot which should no doubt pay for the Christmas Day lunch, but want to add another $24 to it to be on the safe side.  I need to clean the house from top to bottom as well. Oh and get back into my blogging again.  I feel as though I haven't blogged in months.

I hope to start visiting and commenting on everyone's blog starting this weekend as well to catch up with what you have all been up to.

Update on insurance and my speech at the wedding and the menu from the wedding........

Got word yesterday that everything is going to be covered for step-father's medical expenses while in hospital.  So a big worry lifted off of our shoulders.

I thought you may be interested in seeing my speech from the wedding.  People at the wedding said it was okay:

Hello and welcome everyone. I hope you are enjoying your meal so far?


A couple of months ago we were having dinner here with B parents, C and L; along with C and B. The subject of giving speeches came up and I said I was giving the speech from our side of the family, but wasn’t sure what to say. C (B dad) said the speech was to welcome B into our family.
As I pointed out B has been around for the past 11 years now, so if he doesn’t feel like part of the family by now he never will do? However, in keeping with tradition, B, I officially welcome you into the T side of the family.

R my husband is a man of few words, but he always stressed to B that if he were to marry C he had to ask his permission. So imagine our surprise when we got a telephone call a week before Christmas telling us he was popping over and NOT to tell C. When you came over and asked our permission to ask C to marry you, we were thrilled. Though the look on R face hid that fact well.

I can’t remember what R said, but it must have been yes, but my answer was, “Well it’s about flipping time.” I will add that was also the longest week of my life, as I couldn’t tell anyone what was going to happen on Christmas morning. R being the man of few words didn’t have a problem!!!!
I know many of you are parents here and a lot of you have children who are married. So you will be able to relate to what I am going to say next. C, it doesn’t seem like five minutes since we brought you home from the hospital and now here you are all grown up and married. Where did all the time go in between hands? You’ll always be our little girl, but we are handing over some of the responsibilities of looking after you to B now, as we know he loves and he cares for you as much as we do.

B, look after C she is very precious to us, but you already know how special she is?


Okay, before it all gets too soppy and I run past my allocated two minutes. Would you all raise your glasses and wish C and B all the best of luck and love in the world.

I took out people's full names just to protect their privacy.

Our menu for the wedding was as follows:
Country Bread Basket with Creamry Butter

Four Cheese Cauliflower Soup

Organic Greens topped with Crumbled Goat Cheese, Toasted Pine Nuts and Cherry Tomatoes with Maple Dressing. 

Grilled Chicken Supreme, with Crispy Honey Mustard Crust, Mashed Potatoes and a selection of Vegetables or Baked Globe Artichoke in a Crispy Pastry Lattice, filled with Woodland Mushrooms, Goat Cheese and Baby Spinach.

Warm Tarte Tartin, with French Vanilla Ice cream

Tea and Coffee

There were appetizers before the meal during the cocktail hour.

At night there were the wedding cakes, an assortment of french pastries and a Homemade Slider Station; which was Angus Beef Sliders (mini burgers) on buns with an assortment of toppings. Along with tea and coffee.  Also there was a bowl of mini Cadbury chocolate bars, which my mam had brought over with her.

The bar was open for an hour before the reception and for four hours after the reception.  It was a free bar which my brother thought was great!!!!  As did many of the guests!!!!  With dinner there was a choice of red or white wine, and a glass of champagne with the toast.

A couple more photos.......

from the wedding. 

Dd and her dear Uncle Pete, thought this was a super photo:

The dessert at the wedding, tarte tartin:

I have a lot more photos, but just haven't had the time to go through them all.

My mother and I, along with dd are going to the Women's Show today for a break, so should have photos from there.

The week from hell...........

After the high from the wedding things went down hill very fast.......

My step-father started having chest pains on Saturday morning, and never said anything as he didn't want to spoil the wedding.  He didn't tell us until Sunday morning at breakfast, and when we suggested going to the hospital he wouldn't go.  Fast forward to Monday afternoon and we did an emergency dash to our local hospital.  Where after a CAT Scan, many blood tests, and various other things they admitted him, as they had ruled out a heart attack, blood clots and pneumonia.  They decided he needed an angiogram, which they couldn't do at Alliston hospital, but would have to do at South Lake hospital in Newmarket.

They didn't take him on Tuesday but finally got him an appointment on Wednesday afternoon.  They did an angiogram and found one of the smaller veins was blocked 80%.  He also has an irregular heart beat and a heart murmur.  None of this he knew prior to coming to Canada.  They have given him the all clear to fly thank goodness.

Now if this wasn't bad enough, trying to sort out the insurance what an utter and complete nightmare.  They are insured but trying to get all the paperwork to them in England and sorting everything out has been terrible.  When we went to Newmarket hospital they wouldn't do the angiogram without payment up front by credit card, that was $1,450.  The doctors fee had to be paid in either cash or cheque.  That was another $700 in cash.  The medications came to another $100.

They charged $1,700 a night at Alliston hospital.  He was admitted Monday night by Tuesday morning his bill was $5,100.  We were lucky as I found a super woman in Alliston that helped us out with everything and had dealt with foreign insurances before hand.  We also found another lady in Newmarket hospital to help us get paperwork to London, England.

We had gone to Staples and they were going to charge us $5.99 to fax the first sheet and $3.99 for everything after that.  There were 19 pages to fax.  So we got it scanned onto a memory stick and we sent them from our computer, but for some reason they didn't get it.  So thanks to talking to the lady in Newmarket she found someone to do it in the hospital.  All the hospitals in Ontario are not allowed to fax anything outside of Canada or the States, due to cut backs.

I will say everyone we have dealt with have been really nice and very understanding and helpful.

Then we discovered dh's best friend was having a scope for a mass beside his colon, and it's not looking too good.  Ds got hit in the mouth with a hockey puck the Tuesday before the wedding and had to have his main front tooth extracted and another one put in, which he did today and the final bill for that will be $5,300.  Got an estimate for Molly's surgery and that will be around $1,050.

Oh and then I got sick............what a hell of a week!!!  Things can only get better.  We are all going out tonight for dd's birthday which is today.

Onwards and upwards as they say..........more wedding photos soon.

The wedding day........

was perfect.  The weather although cool was bright and sunny, so perfect for out door photos.  We are tired today as me and dh didn't get to bed until 2:30am.  Everyone seemed to be happy and had a good time.  But enough of that you want to see photos right?  I must say though I do not have one of dd and her hubby by themselves, I will post one when someone sends me some.


So here goes, this is the venue:

This is where the wedding ceremony was held:

This is a photo of the flowers that were down the aisle:

This is what the table looked like where we sat.  The brown boxes are the boxed jam.  Dd made the menu's and place cards.  My dad made the boxes for the centre pieces.  I sprayed the "twigs" in the centre pieces.  Dd dried the orchids that were applied to the twigs.  Dd make the table numbers, I will show a photo of them another day, as they were double sided.  She also made the place cards.

One thing we had at the wedding was a Caricaturist, she arrived at 9pm and stayed until 1am and was kept busy the whole time.  Infact there was a line up, but dh and I got our's done thanks to me standing in line.  Made no difference I was the bride's mother!!!!  It was a big hit and well worth the money.  Here is what we had done:

The only thing that wasn't correct was the glass in my hand, as I don't drink alcohol.


Here is the wedding cake, a very unusual design, not at all a traditional cake,but very nice. The bottom layer was red velvet, the middle layer, was lemon with a raspberry icing and that top layer was double chocolate.  The top layer is in my freezer, as dd wants to keep it until their first anniversary.  The middle layer wasn't even cut, so again it's cut up in our freezer:

They looked lovely both of them and dd was stunning from top until bottom.  I felt as though I had a birds nest on the top of my head with what the hairdresser had done!!  As soon as all the photos were taken off came my heels and I put my flats on.

I will post more tomorrow..........

Really ingenius........

Over here in Canada and I know in Britain, we celebrate Remembrance Day on November 11th.  Between now and then veterans sell Poppies that we pin onto our lapels.  On Saturday dh and I went into town and called into Tim Hortons for a coffee and donut.  Standing just after the speaker in the drive through was a veteran selling his poppies.  He was doing a roaring trade and I thought he was very ingenious; as that drive through is very busy and basically he had a captive audience!!!

I spent part of Saturday outside doing some tidying up.  I noticed our neighbour out back was also busy.  He is busy planting another "forest!!"  He planted the one on the right last year, and is putting the one on the left now.

No idea where he is getting all the trees from.  He has all the correct equipment to dig the holes and plant the trees....

Our company arrives today, so I will probably not be visiting many blogs over the next three weeks, but will try and post every day.  Oh and only 6 more sleeps to the wedding day.......

Writing a speech..........

On Friday I wasn't in the mood to do anything around the house in the afternoon.  So I decided to work on the speech for the wedding.  I am doing the speech for our side of the family, as dh is not keen on speaking in front of a 100 folk.

I had thought about it on and off for a while, and I thought I was just going to "wing it."  However I decided I had better go ahead and write it down, as dd has made the executive decision and decided that the speeches should only last around 2 minutes each.  A wise decision in my humble opinion, as more often than not the speeches are only pertinent for the immediate family. I practiced my speech and it lasted around the 2 minutes so that is good.

Do you like speaking in public, and/or have you made a speech at a wedding?

The wedding plans are all coming together and everything seems to be on schedule.  Our company arrives in just over a week and the wedding is now only 2 weeks away.  This month is speeding by, in fact this whole year has flown by.  Has it for you?

This weeks home of the week.....

This one is a "starter home" in a very pricey part of the city and its only $1.4 million, enjoy!!  All I could think about was they have taken out every single piece of character from the old home and stuck some awful stuff in there instead, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?????


Rosedale is in a very lovely area, with a lot of older homes.  However as a lot of the older homes are not big enough by today's standards people buy the lots, knock down the old homes and build modern monstrosities in their place.


Can't believe we are already at the end of September where has the month gone too?  The count down to dd wedding is on, 5 weeks tomorrow on November 5th is the big day, so it is going to be a crazy busy 5 weeks trying to get everything done in time.

I finally made a start on decorating the hall, stairs and landing.  Got the ceilings all primed.  I have had the paint for months, so of course this is a last minute job!!!  I don't normally procrastinate but I have done this time.

After supper on Thursday I also primed the laundry room walls.  What a difference as we had put up the blue drywall, so it was quite dark in there, but priming the walls white has really brightened up the room.  So I think I need to keep it in a lighter shade when I do paint the walls, I am thinking of a white with a hint of colour in it like one of these shades.    I like Sico paint from Rona, and have been using it for years with a lot of success.

I forgot to ask is anyone putting money away every day to pay for the celebration food over the Christmas holidays?  I am up to $14 as I am emptying my purse of change when ever I have some change in there.

Update on the wedding.........

I haven't mentioned the wedding in a while, have I?  Things have been going on in the background and now we are on a countdown as it is less than 10 weeks away now.

The invites are out for the Bridal Shower which happens on October 2nd.  Maid of Honour is in charge of the shower.  Both the grooms mother and I are doing most of the food, and the bridesmaids are helping out with other things.  I know "K" (maid of honour) has got it planned down to every minor detail.   Both dd and "K" are "type A" personalities and it will be picture perfect on the day.  Which actually takes the pressure off me, as if I only have to do the food, that's a no brainer!!!!

The wedding invites went out last week and dd is starting to get replies.  She rang me up on Monday night to say how surprised she was with the out pouring of love and excitement she has received from people emailing and RSVP-ing her about the wedding.  People were saying how excited they were to be invited and how they couldn't wait.  A co-worker was telling her how she had gone out and bought a dress for the wedding.  She is getting such a positive response which is so nice.  As at the end of the day all dd and future son-in-law want are people to be there to celebrate their special day with them.

I see Blair had posted her new 2011 Fall collection on her website, so I can show you the inspiration for my fascinator for the wedding.  It is on the fourth row far right: http://www.blairnadeau.com/the-collection-2/fascinators/fall-2011-fascinator-and-veil-collection/  and is called Duchess Monarchy.  Mine will not have the cameo on it, and is going to be black and navy blue with beading on it.  I actually can't wait to see it as she does such gorgeous work.

I am actually going to the hairdressers tomorrow to talk about how I want my hair for the wedding and get it washed, cut and styled.  Now that may not seem a great deal but it is to me as I hate going to the hairdressers!!

All the guy's suits are ordered now, so that is all sorted.  Dd and future son-in-law have invited both sets of parents to go to the tasting meal at the venue next month.  We're hoping to see the florist soon to see a mock up of the centre pieces and go over a couple of things.

Dd and future son-in-law had a meeting with the venue and went over everything with them.  Dd sat down with the photographer and got all that organized. 

Hotel rooms are booked for immediate family and I know a card went out in the invites letting everyone know about the special rate dd had negotiated at the hotel if anyone wanted to stay over.  Wedding cake is all sorted, nothing to do there but pay for it.

D.J, I think there has to be another meeting sometime next month to go over any further details there.  Dd has put together programmes for everyone and they are nearly done.  I can't wait to show you them as they are lovely.  The girls came over and boxed up the jam and put ribbons and tags on them, again just lovely. 

Dd got a Cricut for her birthday last year and that has paid for itself time and time again doing things for the wedding.  So for anyone planning a wedding and is crafty that is the thing to buy to save yourself some money.

Dd dress should be coming next month can't wait to see it, as it's a combination of two dresses so no one has actually seen it yet.  My dress should also be arriving next month as well; fingers toes and everything else crossed I don't need any alterations.

So all in all everything seems to be under control.  No doubt things will arise as the day draws closer but dd is very organized so I am not worried.

Catching you all up with my news....

Not that anything exciting has really been happening.  My brother in Britain drives for a company called Stobbarts it is a well known trucking company in Britain.  Each one of the trucks has a girls name on it.  My brother has just got a new truck and was allowed to name it.  He named it after my mother and our daughter, Christina Corinne, both were super pleased.  I said to my brother that was charming, what about me, he said he would name his next one Gillian if he could............So if you're in Britain and see a Stobbarts truck named Christina Corinne wave at him as it's my brother.


On Saturday we went to see the lady who makes fascinators as dd wants one instead of a veil, and I wanted one instead of a hat.  Blair makes the most gorgeous of fascinators and is a very talented young lady.  Dd is taking parts of various feather fascinators and putting them together.  I chose one from the Fall/Winter 2011/12 collection that she hasn't got online yet.  Here is her website though and you can see some of her work.  I suggested a name for the fascinator I wanted as it didn't have a name, so it will be interesting to see if she does actually name it that.  The name: Duchess Britt, not sure if it will be one or two "T's."

Dh was off on Monday, so we ran some errands, and one of the places we went to was Babies R Us  Dd and I are going to a baby shower in a week or two's time.  I haven't set foot in either Toy's R Us or Babies R Us in years, so it was really interesting to see what there is out there for babies now.  I got a safety gate and a nursing pillow thing, both were on the gift registry.

It's gone awful hot and humid around here which is weird, as last week a couple of the days it was chilly.  The good thing about living in a stone built house it takes around three days for the place to heat up, so we are hoping to not have the a/c on any time soon. 

The grass of course is growing at a rate of knots.  I did manage to get Kamikaze Hill cut again and the front lawn.  I bought some roses and am going to attempt growing them.  I am not an expert when it comes to roses so it will be interesting to see if they will grow.