Ann’s Weblog

Now it is finally beginning to feel, look and smell like spring. It even SOUNDS like spring, as the chickadees are singing their spring tune, and the robins have arrived.

Have spent several hours every day in the last few days trying to clean up perennial flower beds, and feeling almost defeated. It’s already too much, too much, too much. I don’t know how the quack grass gets so rampant so quickly. I’m going from practically hibernating to pushing myself, but I get frustrated that I feel so weary when the day is still young. I’ll just keep digging away at it, literally. It’s hard to be blue, however, when the flowers start blooming. The pulmonaria and crocusses are both showing themselves:

Yesterday I worked down in the vegetable garden, which is where I sunk dozens of pots of perennials and shrubs last fall. I’m thrilled to see that almost everything has survived… it’s a head start before I receive the perennial roots and pot those up. This week I’m going to venture down to the wholesale nursery (7 hour drive each way) for my order of new trees and shrubs, and that will add to the variety which has overwintered in the ground here at home.

Some friends who sell annuals have collaborated with me on our “opening day” for the season. They really just have a one day sale, but we felt that people would get in their vehicles and visit both places on the same weekend. Opening day is early this year, and I’m nervous about plants looking good enough in their pots by then, but I’m excited too. This year I have the second greenhouse, and it will be helpful in getting things lush in due time.

It has been an interesting week. On Monday I landed a little “jam” contract… a tourism business wants the assurance of a supply for their guests who come here for helihiking and heliskiing. They’ve already been buying jams and jellies from the Beanery, and lucky for me, their favourites are the easiest for me to have available.

Yesterday was odd on a couple of levels. While I was taking care of dogs, I devoted an extra bit of attention to our elderly American Eskimo dog. He seemed to have a matt on this neck, so I took him into the grooming shop to investigate. Under his thick fur, I found an ugly lesion that was like an overgrown mole on a narrow “stem”. I phoned the vet right away, and made an appointment for two hours hence. I put little Buddy back in his kennel, and when I returned to check on him, he had completely scratched the growth off, leaving a small, flat wound which, I decided, didn’t need any veterinary intervention!

Earlier in the day, I drove to town to attend a couple of garage sales. It turned out that I was one day late for one sale, and a whole week early for another! That might have saved me some money. En route, I drove past what I believed was a black cat dead on the highway. When I returned home, it was no longer there.

While I worked in the gardens, I started thinking about the body on the road, and was convinced it was MY dark tortoiseshell cat named Fiona. She had spent the whole winter in our snug hay shed, and I had seen her on some days, since the snow left , hunting in the fields. I got back in the truck, drove to the dark splotch on the asphalt, and searched the ditches. All I found was what appeared to be…. GROUSE feathers. Had I seen a dead cat or NOT?

For the rest of the day, evening and most of today, I frequently checked the hay shed for Fiona, and gave up. I was about to write a “farewell” to her in this blog. However, Gary just came inside from feeding the horses and called to me… Fiona is back in the shed, purring away and 100% well. Evidently, at 90 km. per hour, I can’t tell a flattened grouse from a flat cat, after all!

Other things are just as they should be. We have boarders Ryder, a yellow lab, Jade, a Pyrenese cross, Pritchard, Molson, Roxie and Bodhi. My “blue” mood that I’ve had all week is lifting.

Hope you are all well, my friends. Thanks for stopping to read this blog. ~ Ann

Okay, I’m back now… banking done, lunch eaten (good lunch, great visit), winning lottery ticket cashed ($2), and grocery shopping accomplished.

Here are some more pics:

Tika, a “long-term” boarder whose mistress is working at a nearby resort, is happy with us, and we with her. She goes in and out of the house just like one of our own, because she doesn’t leave the yard or even our sight. While doing her usual walkabout yesterday, she found a horse hoof trimming… a treat that many dogs enjoy for good chewing:

We finally had to let the little puppy “Molly” go home, but of course I reminded her family that we are always available for dog sitting should they get in a bind again. Molly loved our dog Lady, and Lady truly enjoyed romping with the pup:

One of the things that happened this week was that our sofa got reupholstered. Just last Monday we took our couch and two chairs to our friend who does that work, and he is already halfway done. He shyly suggested we pick up said couch in order to give him room to do the chairs…

I include this photo more to give my daughters an idea about the colour, than anything else. It’s a difficult hue to describe, as it is called “Avocado”, but is actually the colour of the RIND of avocado, and not the “green” of the flesh.

Gary has been busy building some basic doggy shelters to replace most that we already have, nine altogether. I have four in my shop in various stages of getting painted. This green is most unusual… it was a “mis-tint” for half price from the hardware store, and I really like it. It is a sort of “organic” colour, I think. When I run out of that paint, I’ll choose another, perhaps strange paint, for the rest of the houses. Perhaps there’s a rich purple in the mistints section.

I so love our cats. Pictured is Gilbert, who is resting on her ladder, as content as can be. She isn’t cold: she’d be allowed in the house, but prefers to be out hunting or surveying the world from the roof of the house, or other perches. On the right is the cat “Fiona”, also a spayed female, who was given to me by a physician who was moving out of town. Fiona lives in my grooming shop as she believes herself to be a princess.

Pictured below is Tugger, who has been a long term guest. I was worried that he had become a “lifer”, that he had been abandoned, but finally I heard from his owner. Tugger will be “sprung” from here by the end of January. He is a good boy and we have enjoyed his company.

I’ve come to the end of the pictures that I took yesterday. I should be out painting doghouses in my shop, but it’s almost time to put some supper together! I might rather watch “Holmes on Homes”, play Scrabulous and cook, maybe Chat too. Also, I had a delightful visit on the phone with my eldest daughter in Calgary, who was reading this blog even as I was working on this entry. I miss all three of my darling wee ones all of the time.

Thanks for reading my blog! Love, Ann/Mom

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