Post-and-pre-weekend blog

I am definitely getting tired of painting. Last weekend I spent most of the two days painting the large cupboard (two coats of lovely "Bellini" colour paint from Para), and I'll be doing the small cupboard soon; but not on the long weekend. I'm taking a one-weekend break. No pics of the finished cupboard yet. I'll take one this weekend when it is moved over to the cottage.

Summer is truly here.  We took a walk to the far field, and discovered it full of - what?  I can't remember what these bushes with the tiny pink bells are called.  At one time I could have relied on Wendy B. to ID them for me.  I will have to research them on my own or ask Irene G. for her help (she is full of herbivore lore).

What the heck are these things?  They smell lovely!

Iain made a friend on the way across the field.  He always finds a snake or a frog, or an interesting bug!

There are always lots of garter snakes.  We've spotted a couple of brown water snakes as well, but that's as exotic as we've managed, so far.

On Monday evening, the sunset was glowing and dark; very mysterious-looking!

I'm looking forward to an extra day this weekend; happy Canada Day to all!

Very striking!

I do love summer.  Everyone else can complain about the heat:  I don't care!

Now that I have that off my chest, here's to Iain, who celebrated his 47th birthday on Friday.  Many more years, my love, and good ones!

Myles made a fire-poker for Iain.  Engarde!  He and Dodie also gave him several interesting bbq implements.

When we made our dump run on Saturday (it is becoming our weekly entertainment, to drive out to the Brudenell waste site, and every week our lot is a bit neater as a result) we surprised a doe and fawn on our way back.  Click the pic to see them a bit better.

There was some excitement at the lake during our absence:  a tree on Roger & Vicki's lot was hit by lightning.  This seems to happen about every 20 years, as far as I can tell.  When I was about 16 there was one hit, and Roger recalls one hitting shortly after they bought the place - which would have been about 20 years ago.

You can see how the bark has split, all the way up the tree.  The blackened area toward the bottom is tree paint that Roger applied to try to keep the bugs out of it.

The lightning entered (or exited - who can say) the ground at the base of the tree.

 We haven't had much rain, but the roses are all in bloom!

Sheila was up for the weekend, and had a good time, she said.

Relaxing with a cuppa.

 On Sunday, Iain tried out the sword/poker.  It worked perfectly...good job, Myles!

Company Came

We had better weather, which was nice because we had company!  Sis, Janet and Les came for a visit, and Bowser came along too.  Bowser is a very nice, well-behaved and handsome dog. 

It was great to see Les, who was just in Renfrew for the weekend and came to the lake to see the new place and do a little fishing with his mom.

Janet tossed the ball for Bowser, but he declined to fetch it.

Sis and Les got out for a couple hours, and caught (and released) lots of fish.

Les had to row - we haven't gotten around to charging the motor battery.

Joann brought Kallie by for another visit.  She is one adorable puppy.

Mom held Kallie for a few minutes.

As soon as Janet went outside, Bowser wanted to be there too.  He also took a liking to Iain, who had fun teasing him.

Bowser intent at the window.

Unfortunately Sis et al couldn't stay for dinner, but we enjoyed having them for the day.

I had to put in this shot of three of us working on dinner in the kitchen.  I'm so pleased with the amount of room we have to move around!

...and please take note of the big "Ottawa" bowl on the table - it's the one I got at the yard sale last weekend!

Anniversary Weekend

We have a tradition of spending a few days away, for our anniversary each year.  In the past we travelled around southern Ontario, usually, and for our 20th we went to Chateau Montebello (which was lovely).  For quite a while now we have just gone to the lake; it's cheaper and we love it there.  There's lots to do, of course, but we managed to have some fun as well.  Most of the time it was chilly and damp, but a wood fire took the chill off quickly.

On Friday, Iain started working on spreading soil and seed next to the cottage, again.  He'd begun last week, but the seed was old, so we had to use fresh stuff.  By Tuesday, when we left, he had this whole area covered with sifted soil and seed.

Really hoping this will grow grass, and the sooner the better:  cleaning up the tracked-in sand is a constant chore.

We've been trying to figure out what to do about tv reception.  Since CBOT went digital, we haven't had any CBC at the cottage.  Not that we watch much tv, but it's nice to be able to tune in a hockey game or the news. We'd expected to have to purchase a UHF antenna to tune in channel 59 from Barry's Bay, but after checking out the TVFool website's chart for our cottage, Iain made the brilliant observation that we should be able to pick up the channel 3 CBC station to the north of us in Whitney (South Algonquin).  He'd picked up a signal booster and we ran the cable up from the old place and used that to help strengthen the signal; and he had to climb up on the old place's roof and use a plumber's wrench to turn the antenna north.  He did this in the rain, while I fretted.

The antenna with the new, improved orientation.

We gave it a try, and voila!  Channels 2, 3 and 5 (Global, CBC and CTV2) all coming in just fine.  We buried the cable and Iain drilled a hole through the nice new siding (it was a painful moment) to bring it into the cottage.  All in all, a rewarding day!
Saturday, we decided to go yard saleing with Dod and Myles.  There was a heavy wind on Friday night, and we didn't go far before we were stopped by a fallen tree.

Iain preparing to move the tree:  nothing must keep us from those yard sales!

Iain and Myles hopped out and dragged it away.

Myles didn't get very dirty doing this, but Iain was muddied.

We saw several snapping turtles laying eggs alonside the road.

Approach with caution...they can be crabby!

...and the deer were out, too!

There was a younger one here, too, but I couldn't get a pic.

We didn't buy a lot, but did stop at Susie's Sweet Shop (run by my cousin Susan Gienow).  We had some of her famous Rice Pudding for dinner that night, as well as some buns and an excellent Rhubarb Custard Pie!
When we started to move things over to the new cottage, I couldn't think where I would put spices.  I'd always kept them in a nice rack that Rod (Iain's dad) made, but there isn't a lot of wall space here, the kitchen being quite compact.  Iain had the bright idea to put magnets on the rack and hang it on the refrigerator!  And it works very well there.

Very handy to have them here, too.  My husband is so clever!

Lots of puttering around to do.

Iain doing some caulking.

Because we didn't make the kitchen too large, we also need more cupboard space for dishes.  Also, I like the old cupboards and want to make use of them.  I did some scrubbing and sanding to prep them.

Can't wait to get this painted and moved in.

Under the stick-on shelf paper, I made a discovery that made me a bit weepy.  My Dad's been gone almost 27 years, but the old cottage is redolent with memories of him.

Dad was a typical carpenter: always in possession of a pencil, but rarely paper.  Easy to jot down the measurements on a shelf that will be covered anyway.

I'll be painting the little cupboard too, and it'll go over as well.

Not sure if this will hold glassware, or books, or maybe dvds.

We were glad to see a bunny on the lawn; we haven't seen many this year!

Why are little bunnies so cute?

And little puppies are adorable too.  Joann brought over the new addition to her family, Kallie, for a visit.  What a cutie-pie!

Jo holding little Kallie.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day - hated to come home - but we had a nice weekend.

A Day Chez 106

Spent a fun day at Iain's Mom's place on Saturday, just puttering in the garden and doing a bit of shopping.  Sheila has several nice Hostas among her plants.

I needed to photograph this one, with its huge, huge leaves!  I forgot my camera at home, so of necessity these shots were taken with my phone:  2 megapixels doesn't do it justice, I fear. 

Sheila's back yard is a quiet, lovely spot:  just the place to sit and have a nice beer after pulling a few weeds and putting down some soil and fertilizer, among other little jobs.  The new patio set was very comfortable!

Very nice!

I had fun pulling out the windchimes and bird feeders and finding places to hang them.  I don't know if Mom really wanted them all out, but she was very indulgent and let me do whatever I liked.

Yummy sandwiches for lunch!

We did a tour of Lee Valley to find a new wheelbarrow (and ran into Jessica A. while we were there; apparently she was in need of a set of pruning shears to tidy some things at her new house, and what better place to find them!), and went elsewhere to pick up a few plants for the vegetable garden.  Afterwards, Mom bought some steaks for us to barbeque, and Kyle joined us for dinner.  What a great day!

Long weekend!

Well, THAT was a gorgeous weekend! I know we need the rain, but the sun and heat were very welcome.  

Iain and I hauled away more garbage, and are mostly done that now; just the pile of wood needs to be sorted through and removed.  On our way back from the Brudenell dump, we had to stop for a cattle crossing.  The wee calves seemed to be enjoying the change of scenery.

This weekend, at long last, the crabapple tree bloomed when Mom was there to see it!  The tree was just about a foot high when we transplanted it from the garden where she'd started it.  After many years of tending it, we had a nice crop of apples last year, and it looks as though we may have that again this year.

Mom sitting in front of the bloomin' tree!

She had a very enjoyable, albeit tiring, weekend!

The tree was full of bees, especially Bumblebees.

Carl and Irene were up at their cottage, and Carl took time from his schedule to help Iain put up that pesky ceiling fan.  At first it wouldn't work; then Carl noticed there were rubber stabilizers attached that prevented it from running (no mention of that in the instructions, of course).

Installation is a two-man job, done at great height.

Sans-rubber-stops, the fan runs nicely!

The weekend that was

We have some new arrivals at the lake: the pair of geese that decided to stay have three little goslings.  The family hangs out on the road at Mud Lake (as we call it), probably trying to keep the little ones away from turtles.  This means that every time you drive past, they are there - which also means lots of photo opportunities.

How cute is this?

This weekend was my Mom's first at the new cottage, and she approves of it.  I like the fact that there is lots of room for her walker (at the old cottage we had to leave it at the back door and use it outside only).  It was wonderful having her up; she said it was the best weekend she'd had in a long time.

Relaxing before dinner.

Construction/destruction continues:  Iain removed the old pump platform (left over from the boathouse-cum-machine-shed, now on Dodie's property).  It certainly improves the view from the gazebo!

Iain found about six huge dock spiders every time he removed a board.

The platform became, at Dodie's wise suggestion, a temporary entrance-way step for the cottage.

Iain had to take off work on Friday to finish up some electrical stuff and have the building inspector and hydro inspector both in for their approval:  and they gave it!  Which means we have officially passed all inspections (and the well water tested completely safe, also)!  This takes a big burden off, because Iain ended up doing a lot of the electrical work himself, and he was worried that he'd miss something; but all was well.

Finally, most of the work is done!

Okay, here it is - ta da! The kitchen is finished, and so is the whole cottage, and we are, well, more than a bit happy, that's the truth.  And we're ready to enjoy ourselves a bit.


Here we are in the kitchen.  Do we look happy?  We are!

Iain made sure I took these pics before we moved in our sad old Harvest Gold appliances.  They're 40 years old, but hey - they still work; and buying new appliances is not on our horizon just now.

You can see we left room for a dishwasher on the left.  Can't afford one right now, but, thankfully, we have my Mom, who is pretty happy to get her arms into the sink.

Moving in furniture took no time at all, with Dodie and Myles helping us.  Iain loves this spot on the couch.

After getting the major stuff moved (table, chairs, and appliances), it was martini time!  Iain sets up the bar.

Dod took this shot of us getting ready to have our first sit-down meal at the table.  We're so blessed and grateful!

Spoiled? No, our cats aren't spoiled!

Having a neighbour who loves your cats is especially appreciated when we are away!  Cassie makes a trip across the driveway to give them a snack and loving attention, and then leaves a report on how things went.  As you can see, the furkids have developed a taste for the chicken dinner she brings from time to time.

Ahhh, the sweet smell of spring!

The cats were very excited to sit in the open windows and enjoy the scents and sounds of the back yard, when the weather turned warm last week.

Onyx saw something....

We have a fine crop of dandelions in our yard.  I like them.  If not for them, we wouldn't have much lawn.

Snaps sniffing.  Something smells interesting!

Onyx is so very alert when he is looking outside.

I see something edible which also moves slowly enough for me to catch!

A Peek at the Kitchen

Oh my! Saturday was exciting:  getting to see our new kitchen for the first time!  No countertop as yet, but most of the cupboards are in



Carl, Tim and John check things out.  They are looking at the ceiling, admiring the bevelled edges.

The countertop, along with the sink and taps, go in this week.

We left room for a dishwasher:  we like the convenience of one, but don't envision getting one any time soon.  Planning ahead is all.

Iain hooked up the water heater, and we had hot water in no time!  Alas, I for some reason forgot to take pictures of the bathroom (!), so I'll have to do that next time.

Mom's bedroom is complete:  all the trim is on, and the window screens are back in.  The door's on too.

Celebrate, good times, c'mon!

Wiring seems to never end.  Iain put covers on the i.t. jacks, and we got the three-way switches installed for the dining room light.

Installing the ceiling fan in the living room has turned into a major production.  The downrod doesn't have a hole for the set screw, and the junction box needs an extenter ring.  We're going to leave it until Carl has a chance to help Iain with it (he did one at his place already).