Spring chores

 

After waxing and polishing the Adult Sailing School boat, Genesis 2, Rick and I then did the same to Spellbound.

and put her name on the other side. Friends helped lift the outboard motor up on to her and then Rick painted the bottom with anti-fouling paint. She went in the water today.

"Meanwhile, back at the ranch" LMP has started work on the "seawall".

They accessed the bank through the property next door (Dan's) and then built around down and across my property

and started working on the property on the other side of me (Fil and Sheila's).

All the stone gets dumped in my driveway

and then taken down the bank to be placed in the trench dug behind the seawall. It's a heck of a mess and beeping machines all day. They will finish Fil and Sheila's and then move on to mine. Not sure about Dan's yet.

Chris invited me to Toronto to help with this project. The plan was to take off the wrought iron, sand, primer and paint it, repair and resurface the cement and then replace the wrought iron.

It was in pretty bad shape but she had "watched a YouTube video"!

She had borrowed the tools from the Tool Library and purchased the recommended supplies.

But all did not go according to plan. When Chris took one section of the railing off it was so rusted that it fell apart. Same with the stair railings. They were irreparable so taken to the side of the road where they were scavenged in no time.

The other section was still solidly attached so we left it in place and I scraped, sanded and primed it.

Next day

painted it black. Those little twiddly bits were not fun.

It needs another coat but there was rain in the forecast.

I also got to Cigi sit for an afternoon

and took the opportunity

for a photo shoot.

Humans aren't the only ones with spring chores. This mess on my deck

was caused by a Robin building a nest under the balcony.

It is driving poor Rasta crazy.

Now for some random photos from the last couple of weeks

My Edmonton family at a playoff game. Photo by Aimee.

Sunset from The Edge.

Difficult to get pictures of Cedar Waxwings in the apple tree

until one cooperatively moved onto a closer branch.

My certificates arrived from the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild - Honourable Mention in Multi Cut (for Cigi's Schooner and Seagull rug) and in Alternative Fibres and Techniques (for the Puffy Pansies)

Bruce Trail - Map 3 to 4, Niagara Section, and The Watering Can.

 We have had a wet, windy and cool spring but the day of our first Bruce Trail hike of 2022 was perfect - sunny, about 16 degrees, no bugs. We met at a parking area on the side of the road where I parked my car and then Dave dropped us at our starting point.

No leaves on the trees yet meant that we had great views and the sun could reach the ground

warming all the spring

flowers

popping up.

The sun also illuminated the moss

with it's little companion plants.

I crouched down to take a shot of these flowers and found that I couldn't get back up (I need to start doing squats)

Nic came over to give me a hand. I should never of given her my camera first as she took great pleasure in taking the picture when I fell over backwards.

Pictures were taken while bending from the waist,

not the knees,

after that.

We could hear the waterfall well before we saw it.

We came out onto a road and sat on a rock, with a river behind us and open fields in front to have our "lunch".

From here

we had 2km of road to walk, past

vineyards and

the view of downtown Toronto, across the lake.

Then it was back into the woods for another couple of kilometres. At times it was very rocky,

muddy,

slippery and

the rivers were all full and fast.

In total we did about 8km in about 3 hours. It was probably our most relaxed walk. Maybe because the weather was perfect, it was a weekday so nobody else on the trail, it was the right length (felt like an accomplishment without being in pain at the end) but probably because Nicky is now retired and there isn't the same kind of intensity as there was when she was fitting hiking in, between other obligations.

We contemplated just heading home but a friend of Nicky's had recommended a local restaurant so we decided to celebrate our first hike of the year.

Well, the Watering Can Flower Market in Vineland,

was quite a find. We wandered in to it looking for the restaurant (which was right at the back) exclaiming at all the plants that we had never seen before.

Each table and chairs set was unique (they looked like thrift store finds) and buffered from the other customers by huge tropical plants. We shared a salad and a grilled cheese (Provolone cheese, caramelized onions and apple butter) and a couple of iced lattes. There was also an extensive bakery that we resisted.

The amazing variety of plants wasn't the best part, it was the creative displays.

They had the best selection of garden pots I have ever seen,

tons of cacti, succulents and

tropicals but their selection of outside plants was much smaller, perhaps we were too earl;y in the season.