This weekend

It seems each week something blooms and this week it's definitely Wisteria, Diana took me to see her friend Shirley's wisteria. I think she said it was 28 years old. The whole yard is wonderful. When I came home I was busy looking up

Chocolate vine,

Pearl bush,

Snowball tree.....

Friday night at Beach Gardens marina-there's a small beach area where there are great waves when a south easterly is blowing. We were tired after an afternoon of sailing with our trusty instructor, Michael. Tacking, winching, sails up and down, reefing the main. How I got a rope burn on my leg is beyond me...

He says we have a baggy main-would have made a good name for the boat.

The eagle family-they are back and forth with fish, so must be feeding young. Also spending much more time off the nest.
The strong north west wind is ruffling the neck feathers.

Low tide, Myrtle Rocks and Gooey Ducks

A nice young couple were digging frantically in the sand and our curiosity got the better of us-

Here is the prize-a gooey duck -actually a geoduc- a very large clam with a very ugly neck which when extended is about a foot long.

A great delicacy to some-especially the Japanese

Myrtle Rocks is a picturesque area south of town which are only accessible at low tide, and often not even then. This old wharf is the subject of many paintings, and the picture shows the dark part which is normally under water.

Lots of starfish even an orange one, Susan.

Ken and Bailey-wondering how to get down again with the tide coming in....

Low Tide days

The past few days have resulted in a wide varience in tides. Yesterday and today the low tide was 0.0 which means it's waaaay out there.

Nora Lee and friend
Lots of starfish, waiting for high tide.

How come they are purple???

Where Ken and Bailey are standing will be under about 8 ' of water by this evening, when high tide is 16.7.
The eagles are very happy-finding exposed tidal pools full of goodies, not normally attainable.

Early this morning.

"Lady's Mantle"

-you must enlarge this to see the dew along the borders of the leaves.

the very early Clematis-"Montana"

-massive vines, dripping with blossoms all over town-maybe mine will be as huge some day.

We spent the day on the boat to escape the
noise,
smells
and confusion
as our street got paved.
Not all is quiet beauty in lotusland.

B.C. Fallers

There is an organization out here called B.C. Fallers-men skilled in felling trees. We went today to help Marv & Kathy remove a huge hemlock from their back yard, and it was accomplished with the help of friend Bill McKay, who is in fact a B.C. Faller.

What you don't see here is Marv & Ken on the end of the rope, guiding the tree in which way to fall, and they did a fine job of it.

You also don't see Kathy & me, lopping branches and piling them for later disposal.

One Faller and 4 go-fers got the job done.

Paving stones & sea glass

My friend Kathy and I made about 17 of these this week.

I think they are great.

Basically it's a rhubarb leaf piled with thick cement and left to dry for a couple days. Very effective.

Thanks to Marv for doing most of the heavy mixing.

They aren't quite ready for walking on yet, but will eventually be set into the gravel.

In behind, you can see Ken's collection of sea glass.

Each trip to the water (daily!) yields a small handful, mostly green, white and brown. The blue bits are very hard to find and that jar is kept in the house.

Lesley's girls loved to collect them.

One beach(at Beach Gardens Hotel), has more blue that the rest, which is a mystery to us.

I lugged these huge jars home from a recent garage sale.

The Gumdrop Garden

Friends gave us this Alberta Spruce, so with a few additions and a driftwood fence, it has become a new garden in the front yard.

One of us had the driftwood fence idea, the other could not visualize it at all, so it took a few days to accomplish....

Now we are both happy with it.

Cousin Linda told us about pink jobs and blue jobs and this turned out to be a pink job.

May 4

Yesterday and today I emptied out the boxes around the deck in preparation for summer plants, so the pansies went into the border.That added a splash of colour....
Bensons supplied the location (the ravine below Craig Park, south of Lund) and we suppled lunch at Nancy's Bakery-and a good time was had by all-especially 2 dogs who loved exploring....
Wonderful rain forest location. Tucked way down where it looks like no one has ever been-until one comes to a covered bridge and cement steps- no idea who has done all the hard work in such an isolated spot.

It was very likely the B.O.M.B. squad that did it.

That stands for Bloody Old Men's Brigade,

- a group of retired men who do an incredible amount of work on the paths in the area.

Yellow violets

A stump covered with my favourite plant-huckleberry. It seems to only like decaying trees to grow in/on. No amount of coaxing will make it grow in my yard...

Visit to Ontario

Delores has done a good job with photos of birds, grandson and relatives, so I'll just put this one with Gram, Bob and Linda, after our trip to Harrowsmith
Linda & I had a wonderful trip to Harrowsmith and a visit with 4 ladies we went to public school with. The picture above is our 2-room school. After lunch and getting acquainted, we walked around the cemetery and around town-the town looks so much smaller than it did when we were 6 years old. Funny how we all remembered the same things, like getting cheese curds from the cheese factory, the shack at the outdoor skating rink......

Mr Buck's blacksmith's shop across from the school-a great source of entertainment at recess.

Here are Laura and Shelia Cranston, Barbara Kawka and Linda. Gail Blair didn't do the walkabout.

We stopped at Wilton Cheese Factory on the way back to Oakville so we could eat memories all the way home...