more pics from my stay at my daughter's...

Warm enough for bare feet in April! Who would have thought it! Weather patterns are so unpredictable in spring around southern Ontario! I think we were shivering in the wind the day before!

A barbecue supper on the back deck:


Our picnic lunch in the back yard:
Mustard mysteriously gets all over Gramma and Kaylee!

The saga of the car is coming to an end. I had decided to rent a car anyhow (my insurance would cover it after a hefty deductible) when Kia decided that since parts had been on back-order for three weeks or more, they would cover a rental. Good grief, I should hope so.

So I've been home for just over a week now, trying to catch up with laundry, mail, email, gardening chores, etc. I doubt I'll ever get organized anyway, anyhow, but I do have my dreams...Today, I got the call the car is finally done and I can pick it up. I hope to do that on Monday, if I can find someone who has the time to drive out to Georgetown with me.

Yesterday, it finally rained. We have decided to use the cistern despite our concerns re it leaking. The leaks from cracks in the foundation and under the basement door are much more serious than any leaks from the cistern ever were.

I spent a day last week trying to muck out the dirt in the basement, nearly an inch deep in spots, that had washed in with the leaking water, thinking at first that we had mold. We may still have mold, but it's hard to tell, now that it's wet again from the runoff from the rain. The eaves troughs are in a sad state. Streams of water pour down forming puddles outside the foundation of the house, in approximately the same spots where the foundation is cracked. Our landlords are in the process of getting much repair work done, so I'm hopeful.

Back to the cistern idea. After the weeks of dry balmy weather (practically no rain all of April), I am concerned that this summer may be drier and hotter than the last. It may just be that having a cistern full of rainwater for watering the garden may spare the well -- although I don't believe it did go dry at all last summer; rather, we had troubles with the pump, didn't we?

The peas I had planted before I decided to stay with my daughter have done nothing, except for two wee sad sprouts. Were the seeds dug up by the birds and squirrels or did they dry up? I thought I might have had more sprouts if I had put nets over the bed. I have very inconsistent results with peas: I get them in too early, too late, they grow fitfully, I re-seed the bare spots, they don't grow at all, or they go mad. I think one has to be a very serious, organized and neat kind of gardener to do well with peas!

The rain however gives me hope for my peas. Today, I was chatting with a local nursery owner who has noticed that all the copious watering his plants receive is nothing compared to the way they respond to a good rainfall! After a good rainfall, he said, the plants "just pop!"

I'll try to post more pictures and updates of the garden soon.