Good Day.

Very rare is the day off that I have which coincides with Todd’s day off and one where the stores are still open.

We started today lounging in bed, then readied ourselves for some serious yard-work. The lot hadn’t been raked or tidied since before we moved in, so there were leaves and debris and dust everywhere. I swept the front walk and part of the driveway, Todd started on the raking and I went to help once we decided we would be heading out to get some proper equipment (the stuff we had were older hand-me-downs to make do until we got something proper).

After a few housekeeping stops (Tim Horton’s, Comics North), we headed out to Azilda to redeem a coupon we received at the modest garden show in town. I picked up a flowering fern, some plant food for my herbs, and a cat, a cute black short hair that compulsively licked my fingers while I held her. If my herbs die out, I’m heading back to replace my herbs – they even have stuff like Apple Mint & Cinnamon Basil! And their seedlings were so lush … I was jealous. I hope the plant food helps, and the Miracle Grow potting mix for my transplanting. 🙂

Heading to Canadian Tire and Harvey’s for equipment and snacks, and then returned to do some more yard work. Lots of raking, tons of junk, and these vines that are growing over from the neighbor’s retaining wall that are completely taking over – like weird, jungle horror movie stuff. I did a lot of pruning, filled up the bird feeder, and snipped off some of the center tree’s outer branches that had pods of insect eggs laid on the tips. Even got some laundry in! The backyard looks SO much better, even though there is still some raking to do, and a huge pile of trimmed vines, trees and fallen branches. I also need to get in on the side area in the back where the lilacs have sent dozens of little seeker stalks. We have a lot of bushes on the lot, but they have not been kept trimmed. Instead of nice bushes growing UP, they are growing OUT … and out and out and out. All the little guys on the ground are next on my hit list! We also suspect that a series of five bushes in the back, which would have been a nice semi-circle to set a bench in front of, are well and truly dead. We’ll know soon enough and if so they get axed next.

After all of that work, I made a steak dinner on the BBQ for Todd and I: He wanted a T-bone and I picked out a striploin (had to be 10 oz!), baked up some potatoes in foil, added a couple of heads of garlic (one which got squeezed into the cooked potatoes, and one that got used in a vinagrette), a mixed greens salad with homemade dressing, and some beautiful french bread. Oooooooo, yummy. And we’ve got an apple crisp in the oven (that was a grocery store item).

It’s been a really good, satisfying day.