raising the roof

 Summer has arrived! We’ve had a few really nice days this past week and the forecast shows hot all the way to next Friday! The nights have warmed up so planting has begun :-)

Thursday we got the new herb planters filled with soil and Carm re-spaded the garden but with the temps forecast to get down near 3 or 4C we decided to hold off planting for one more day.

Carm has been out on the links a few times a week and Friday was no exception. Now that we have the truck back I was able to pop into the city to visit Dad in the morning, getting home not long after Carm did. We had coffee, then went to the lumber yard to drop $$ on some wood. We purchased a kit last week for making a bare bones pergola so we started to put it together. The top came together quickly but when it came time to lift it to put the legs under we found it impossible with just the two of us, or if not impossible, fraught with danger.

I put out a call for help and had takers :-) So I rushed around in the morning making stuff for lunch (wings, sun-dried zucchini salad, smashed Asian cucumber salad, roasted asparagus, hard-boiled eggs, and Kirsten brought a lovely bread). I wanted to feed them well!

While I was doing that, Carm got the garden planted in our whirl to get things ready for our strong men/women that were coming to help us heft up the pergola. 

Everyone arrived before noon and after a few minutes of chat we headed outside to tackle the job. With all the strong arms we got the job done in less than 10 minutes! The mosquitos were out in full force and the sun was beaming down hard so we crowded into the house for lunch. 

Later, Olaf and I donned our bathers and dunked in the freezing pool (almost 18C!). It was the coldest I’ve been in but I couldn’t let my big little brother out-do me!!! 🤪 (which almost always is a bad mistake…)

Gradually, bit by bit, we are getting set up outside for the season.

With Carm getting up at the crack of dawn for golf, the dogs have gotten used to eating their breakfast early so now their rumbling tummies are getting us up before 7… this morning I decided that they wouldn’t eat as soon as we got up and made them wait for an hour! Will keep this up I guess. I’m big on routine - it helps me to manage my illness so I will build in the change and feed them after my first coffee.

Yesterday we got the plants outside and planted the deck pots, Carm even had the energy to cut the grass. After we were done (and after an absolutely wonderful dip into the pool) we popped into the village for some tomato cages… on the way home we noticed that the local brewery had some musicians on the grassy patio so we stopped for a cold beer and some music :-) 

They weren’t the greatest but I LOVE it when people are doing what they love :-)

“To fly we have to have resistance.”

-Maya Lin

Awesome!

“our amazing helpers”

“jumping in the pool (today too)”

“the pergola”

“getting the plants out of the house and the deck arranged”

“tender new plants in new ‘digs’”

“an impromptu stop at the beer garden”