Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

We packaged up the kids, and my sister in law along with her two kids and spent seven hours at Wonderland while it was both cool, overcast and kinda rainy. Luckily the park was just about empty, in the kids zone at least. We were celebrating my nephew graduating from preschool into kindergarten. So we sat around feasting on fries while the kids ride all the tiny little rides that we usually would just ignore. We didn’t have much choice in the matter as it was far too windy for any ride over 200 ft tall to operate. So snacks, sitting, and entertaining the littles was the primary focus of the day. It was a hoot!

Funnily enough I always thought there was more to a Daisy than just a tall spindly weed looking flower, but here we are, squat down behind the pig pen taking photos of pretty looking weeds in amongst the tall grasses, and the ever present deer flies swooping overhead.

The dogs managed to catch yet another chipmunk between the two of them, and they squashed it until it would squeak no more. Poor little fella. I laid it, and it’s friend from yesterday down to rest in the tall grass underneath the spent lilac. It’s not much, but it was the best I could do under short notice. I cannot be burying every rodent or pest that these two dogs run down on their daily walks. At some point the rodents will learn to remain hidden high up in the surrounding trees, or down deep inside their burrows while the mutts are jumping around in the grasses each morning.

I am still waiting on news regarding my weed eater. I have a children’s birthday party to prepare for and 8 really need it back soon. My fence posts and signs all look really tacky with long grass around them even though the lawn itself is manicured. Feels unfinished.

It’s now Friday, the last one of the school term. Next week ends as a half day on Thursday so we really are within spitting distance of summer vacation 2026! Six months of 2026 has come and just about gone. What did I tell you, once we crawl into the month of May somebody hits fast forward and life erupts at 4x the speed of winter. The only saving grace is that all of the school year programming for after school has pretty much stopped all ready, except taekwondo which ends (at least for us) next Saturday afternoon with another belt promotion ceremony, and a skills test which my daughter will pass with ease. Then we’ll hit pause on that too.

Everything will pick up again like normal by the end of September as we lead into the fair, Thanksgiving, my wife’s Break week, and Halloween. Then it’s a break neck dash to the last few birthdays of the year, and then Christmas. Rinse and repeat with slowly aging children, and us rapidly aging adults. It’s a merry go round of fun, fun, fun!

If you can, take some time to look at the flowers because they are fleeting. Moments lost in time, like tears in rain.

Keeping timelines on a fluid schedule means that things get altered incrementally constantly, so now we operate on an (ish) scale for time and not a set number. Like “Oh such and such’s group plans to meet us there at eleven o’clock-ish”, which could mean 10:55 on up to 11:35 before a second clarifying text or conversation might need to occur. It’s not my favourite way to operate, but since my wife’s family are chronically late for anything, and everything I have somewhat come to terms with it over the last twenty four years. It still grates on my nerves at times. But you have to treat it like island time. It’ll happen — eventually. Or you go against the grain, maintain your schedule and leave them behind. I lean towards that myself. Stay on task and forget the seemingly purposeful stragglers. I do get tired of having to change MY plans to suit others who won’t do the same for me. Let’s see how this plays out.

Not much going on here so far today. The black flies, deer flies, and horse flies are starting to get out of control down by the river at the farm, so alongside the tall grasses full of ticks, I’m going to avoid the lowland valley & river until that changes in the fall. Ugh! I hate when bugs buzz my ears, or fly directly into my eyes. Not a fan of that.

I did manage to trim the lilac back a good amount so that I can now cut the grass in the backyard without getting smacked in the head by low lying branches. My yard waste pile has quintupled though, so I’m going to need to find a way to transport it to the farm. It’s a bit of an eye sore piled up against the front fence. I also broke out my fan rake to clean up the hedge trimmings, so that felt good to do finally.

I do have my eye on removing two substantial limbs off of the big maple out front, but I’ll need the dump trailer to dispose of all the wood, brush, and leaves. It will also be a pretty involved undertaking as I have to be up in the tree to take it apart in manageable pieces so as to avoid damaging the house. That’s why I want to take them down, to avoid damages in the case of a major wind storm. No good trying to avoid one type of danger, and then foolishly introduce another via rushing, or incompetence. That’s not cool. No thank you.

I also took some limbs down that were overhanging the back deck, and some others that were interfering with the gutters. I’d love to not poke holes in our gutters with wind swept tree branches. Hard enough when they clog up with leaves. Let alone become punctured by repeated assaults in the wind. Those are the kind of expensive repairs I’d prefer to avoid if I can. No amount of spray on filler will help in that regard.

In other news I still do not have my Echo SRM-230 weed eater back from the service desk at Markham Mower. Those of you playing the home game might recall that I sent my weed eater in on Thursday May 21st, 2026 and was told it’ll be 1.5 to 2 weeks for it to get serviced. Well tomorrow will be 4 full weeks, so yeah. That’s happening. I hope to have it back sooner rather than later. They called twice last week, so maybe I’ll hear tomorrow or Friday? My fence line looks pretty bad.

I have done the front beds a number of times but have been slacking off in favour of reading, working, and tending to my four new fruit trees and their accompanying rain barrel. But the excess greenery was detracting from the peonies and other purple flowers so I got my leaning over back put on right and got to work yesterday afternoon. I also broke out my rake to clean up the back patio from all the hedge clippings I dropped on Sunday. I have a nice sorted pile under the lilac ready for transportation to the farm. I am toying with trimming back the other lilac because three lower parts really get in my way when I cut the grass back there, and I’d like to not get knocked on the head/neck by low lying branches when I’m all sweaty and agitated. It has bloomed and now looks like just another green shrub. I think I just might do it this time!

Today’s garden focus is the random mostly empty bed against the back of the house. It’s where the dog digs the most. If I leave weeds in it he doesn’t dig so much, so I have strategically left a handful behind to deter his mining urges. Let us see if they work at all. I don’t think they will. At least not for long.

My main goal is to be able to sit at the patio table and one, not have the hedge look unruly, or overhang into the useable space, and two, not have the beds look atrocious or unkempt while seated and actually looking around. The far bed has trees, ferns, and a tulip like ground covering weed in it, so it looks ok, and purposeful. The one I weeded today just looks like a mess, but I don’t know of any plants that would like that spot. Maybe some shade loving hostas? We have lots of those. Even more Daylilies? I’m not sold on that either. Maybe just scented mulch? Who knows. It’s unlikely I will do anything about it this year. I put the budget into those four new fruit trees. I very likely went overboard. Oh well.

Luckily the thistles haven’t started up yet. They get really nasty in July and August. Long needles and tiny shards that embed in the skin with barbs and are just all around painful. If you have to pull out thistles you reach right down to where the stem meets the ground and twist/pull from there. It’s the least armored spot, but beware it’ll still bite you if your grip fails, and your hand slides up the stem. It’ll git’cha!

I would typically go for more grass and fewer beds. More shrubs and fewer flowers. I’m a lazy outdoorsman. Not much of a gardener once the heat climbs up into the thirties and beyond. No thanks! As I age I sweat more than ever even from mild exertion. I’m certain the pot belly and thirty five extra pounds don’t help at all in that regard either. Ha! Look at me, I’m a pear.

Had an odd dream about shifting through timelines last night. I was at a party talking to random guests, as you do. When I was asked a series of what I believed to be pretty standard questions like what hand do you use to cover your heart when singing the national anthem, what lyrics to a certain song do you recall, name this book/character from an image etc… only to discover that I am in fact from an alternate timeline, and am the third such person discovered to have been so. It was a funny, Erie, and strange dream but not scary or frightening. It just kinda felt like “Oh now this makes sense” . Good times.

I don’t typically remember my dreams the following morning, not unless they were traumatic or deeply unsettling. This was just quirky. I like quirky, far better than night terrors by an extraordinarily wide margin. I don’t like horror films, and I don’t go in for jump scares either. Not a fan.

It’s Monday, and a fair bit cooler today as this morning was down into single digit territory. Had to turn the heat on in the car! No frost luckily, as that would kill everything this far into June. Still might see a stress response from some things in the garden after such a cold night though. We will wait and see.

The fruit trees are doing about as well as can be expected, which is fantastic. We have a week’s worth of rain coming, unless the forecast changes, so the rain barrels should be well stocked as we gear up for full on summer sunshine, and all that incessant heat! My barrel is almost always in the shade so it shouldn’t dry out before the contents get emptied onto the trees it’s there to support. We will see how that works in reality as the season progresses.

I have some work to attend to shortly, but I see some Domestic Duties Monday chores that I need to tackle as well. It never ends! These kids create messes, and laundry, as well as dishes from out of thin air. It’s a damned magic trick, I swear it. Frustratingly so.

Enjoy your cooler than usual Monday here in southern Ontario Canada.

Having to try to read this book slowly because it is the last available one to read for at least another full year, or possibly longer. I have read all of the previous seven books one right after the other, but now that I’ve caught up, I have to make a determined effort to apply the breaks in order to savour it. No matter, as I have some other great books to read after this one, but I am on my twelfth book for the year (which is great!) and now I’m not in a panic to achieve my reading goals for the year. Also pleased to note that I have grown rather fond of my glasses, and no longer refuse to utilize them to the betterment of my life, and my work. So there is that. What’s next actually getting hearing aids to help me listen better — utter madness. Nonsense. Don’t even mention it.

It’s a rainy Sunday in these parts of southern Ontario. I completed an hour or more of work to prep for Monday, and the kids cleaned up a fair bit around the house to make way for a play date. Laundry baskets are full, dish washer is filling up, floors have shed dog hairs, so Domestic Duties Monday is going to be a go once the dog walk, school drop off combo is completed. At least I know what’s on the schedule! Afterschool programs are just about all finished now until mid September. Taekwondo will be done as of the 27th. Then BAM! right into summer break 2026.

I actually did get around to straightening up the hedgerow in our back yard adding a few extra centimeters to our back seating area by pushing the cedar boughs back with the trimmer. I used the Feather Lite 8ft step ladder I bought recently to do it. Worked great! Just like I knew it would. Going to need several hours if I decide to straighten the top out though. That’s going to be a much more challenging endeavour. I cut six to eight feet off the top several years ago, but they came back stronger than ever. That’s going to be a real chore believe you me. I might just let them get twenty feet tall, I don’t care! The gate opening was trimmed back, and I opened up the airspace around the shed, as much as I could anyway. I could do more, but it’s not totally necessary. It becomes a vanity project after too much time & energy get dumped into it. The space is useable, and that’s all I care about anyway. Hopefully the ferns I stood on will perk up after today’s rain. Oops. Didn’t mean to kill them, or injured them but it was very hot, and I wasn’t keen on a prolonged hedge trimming session in the humidity. Sore butt from all that ladder climbing as it is.

To all my half asleep night time readers, I salute you! May reading bring you peace of mind, and a terrific night’s sleep. To our nooks!

Now I should start by saying that I don’t typically go bouldering when I want to go climbing, I prefer the other side where the auto belay routes are, and you have to clip in and out of the ropes while wearing a harness. In bouldering there is none of that, just shoes, and some chalk. The rest of the experience is up to you. I prefer auto belay because I don’t ever want to blow out my knees, or roll an ankle jumping down off the wall. The auto belay just lowers you down at a steady, yet slower rate than straight falling. Which means I don’t concern myself much with my knees or ankles. But I become extremely aware of the frailty of my body when bouldering. It’s a long drive home with a busted up body part integral to driving (ie) hands or legs/feet.

All the worry was for naught (this time) as it was my youngest whom slammed her chest into the last jutting out jug when descending and knocking the breath out of herself. Left a pretty good solid red mark on her skin from the blow. Poor kid. She eventually bounced back and continued on climbing.

I tried a new path myself which I was rather proud of. Made me spread out wide, do some foot swaps in situ, testing my finger & grip strength to make it across to the top. I was very happy with myself for having tried it.

We still have the taekwondo lunch to go, and I need to get a jump on the backyard hedge before it starts to get into the full heat of summer. June 21st quickly approaches! Happy Saturday.

Not that views were down by all that much here, but on Linked-In whoo boy, things had absolutely tanked. Every 8 to 9 weeks I need to set a reminder to double check that the cross population links are still connected. I’m having another banner year here on the ole blog, but the other site was lagging quite a bit. I think my last two weeks worth of posts hadn’t been shared there. I was otherwise occupied with work and my Domestic Duties around the house to really notice. Fun times.

It was positively windy at the farm this morning, so I’d had high hopes it would continue once I got home and started to cut the grass. It was blowing right up until I put gas in the mower and pulled the starting cord, then the temperature rose, and it became dead calm. Hot & humid for the full seventy five minutes I spent putting lines on the grass. Damn. Yet, here we are twenty two days since 8 took my weed eater in for service, and I still don’t have it back yet. Though they have called me twice with updates, and news on the trigger fix I was after, so that’s good news. I also know it should be about $215.00 plus tax, so the price isn’t a surprise anymore. I appreciate that at least.

Hopefully I can grab it early next week. I’d rather not go a whole month without my Echo SRM-230 if I don’t absolutely have to. I probably should have just bought a new one and gone about my business without the delay. But I’ve had the damn thing for twenty years or more now, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be rid of it over two hundred bucks. It’s strong, not too heavy, and has worked without issue right up until this very year. I’d say that’s worth the effort to repair it.

Welp, work calls so I should get a move on. Best be about my business. I’ll save the hedge work for the weekend! Maybe it’ll cool off at some point soon? One could hope. On the plus side we’ve had a good amount of rain so my trees are still alive! Bonus.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.