More gardening and tests

I saw Dr. C. for my bone marrow test results. And my bone marrow is not what is causing the problem. Yeeeaaaaa! So, next test is for lack of oxygen while sleeping. The lack of oxygen makes my system think it needs to produce more red cells. Hmmmmmm. This one won't hurt, at least.

I got the laundry done, and the grass mowed. It is raining in little spits, but the garden is not really getting enough water.

I have loaded the Pond part of the water garden page, and am working on the Japanese part. I need a few better photos for this area. I should go out tomorrow and see if I can get anything decent in foliage.

Water Garden album on web page

I uploaded the 2nd part of the water garden sub page to my web page. I have the Japanese garden to complete yet for that sub page.

This is a photo of the lichens at Todd Inlet, processed in PS CS. I am slowly becoming more comfortable using PS instead of my old PSP.

This was the Swiftsure weekend (Yatch races) and again I missed getting photos.

Earthquake - Indonesia

A 6.3 level earthquake has occurred in Indonesia (Central Java) in the early morning hours Saturday causing structures and buildings to topple and collapse crushing and injuring the sleeping residents. The quake struck near the erupting volcano of Mount Merapi, abut 24 kilometers southwest of the city of Yogyakarta. The loss of lives is estimated at 4400 and the total is still climbing.

Indonesia is still struggling to recover from the devastating effects of the massive tsunami that wiped out coastal communities in 2004. This area is in the “Pacific Ring of Fire” – a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that encircle the Pacific Basin.

Canada has immediately pledged $2 million in aid money. No doubt the teams of rescue, medical, and other workers will be flown in as soon as possible.

More gardening

I spent about 4 hours in the garden today. I clipped the cotteneaster topariary, both of the jasmines on the garage, transplanted my annuals from Cannor, moved old boards to the back, clipped the firethorn, the holly, the bush by the compost bin. Weeded a bit here and there. All in all I got quite a bit done.

We have had bits of rain over the last few days so I have not done any roundup or weed and feed just yet. The bits of rain have not really added to the moisture content of the soil. I dug out the black bamboo and it was quite dry. Today when I was digging holes for the transplants it was fairly dry 2 inches down.

David and Jennifer were by to pick up the bamboo and for tea. They travel, also, so we had a very interesting visit. Jennifer is going to be cleaning out her pond (13 x 9 x 2) soon. She has a netting tent over it. The predators do not bother her fish. She has 3 big koi. She will give me some baby ones, as she has tons of them. I should look into tenting my pond too, as my fish just seem to disappear. The ones in the deck tub survive as does the one in the Mermaid tub at the front.

The hedge shot is from when I just finished clipping it a few days ago. The koi are at Cannor when I was there to get my few trees and annuals. All this gardening is paying off, because the garden is beginning to look even better. I still have quite a few weeds to get under control, though.

The clematis all over the garden are looking terrific. I have to prune back the evergreen one over the garage yet. This involves climbing on a ladder. Not my favourite thing.

The Pond

Yesterday I went to Cannor and got 8 new little fish. The above photo is not a recent one, as the predators have been eating my fish. I seldom see them on the surface. I also bought 8 cedar hedging trees, 3 tomatoes and a few annuals. Delivery is free with a membership ($20.00) If you spend more than $100.00 you get $25.00 off on the first purchase after membership is paid. So, I shall be getting my trees and plants delivered on Friday. The fish are in the pond. They went to the bottom and were avoiding my shadow(when on top) at each end of the pond when I tried to get their picture.

Tomorrow morning I dig out the black bamboo runner for Duncans. They will be over at 3:00 to get it. Sheila said her piece of the black bamboo had grown quite tall already. Its good to hear that these runners actually take root and live. CowPee never let me know how the ones I gave her did in her garden.

I have 40 photos for the 'pond' part of my water garden page. I have to tweak and resize them and then make the album and load it. Slowly getting this page finished. My page is www.mmmee.com go to Gardening and then to Water on the drop down menue.

Hedge trimming, Victoria Day Parade, Water Garden

It was raining and colder today, so we did not go down to watch the parade. We watched it on TV. This parade is the largest in Canada, and it is the parade's 108th year this year. It ran from 9:00 to after 12:00. It starts at the Mayfair Mall and runs down Douglas Street to about the Conference Center. We get quite a few US highschool marching bands attending each year. They are very competitive.

While sorting out my photos for the 2 last stages of my web page's water garden album, I came across a few more interesting shots that I have to load here. I might load all these to my photo.net portfolio, too.

I have the lawn areas mowed, the hedges trimmed, the water features full, the vegetable garden planted and some weeding done. I need to do a bit more weeding and trimming back of shrubs and trees. Then the garden will just need regular maintenance. Its looking not toooo bad. I shall need a few more hedging cedars for where Old Weird has removed her ugly fence. I will want to get a water hyacinth or two, a few goldfish and maybe a shubunkin or two. I need to get some sort of shelter for the fish to hide in when the predators come calling. The mermaid tub still has its old fish and won't need another.

I finished reading the book about Rattenbury a few days ago. A good read and some good history on Victoria in it.

Vegetable Garden, Lawn

I cannot decide which Norfolk Island Pine I like best, so loaded both of them. I cut the growing tip off this plant to keep its height below the pictures on the wall behind it. I have the tip stuck in a pot of dirt and hope it roots to start a new plant.

I got out last nite just after sundown to shoot some garden photos but still got glare on things. The vegetable garden is all planted and watered. I cleaned up the flower beds at the front along the street. Then mowed the grass with the new mower. It works great. The edging boards at the front are good with the mower too. I should put an outer strip of colored stone between landscaping tiles like Salis did in their front yard. Maybe next year. After mowing I watered around the back and topped up the pond a bit. Pat has several bags of twigs chopped up. There are still stashes of branches under the deck, by the compost bin and under the camillia on Parmar's side. Not enough to call Tom the hauling guy for though.

Old Weird has taken down a section of her fence by the firethorn and has put up a plastic green screen thing. I like how this looks without out that ugly grey fence behind the evergreens. Now my trees will get more sunshine, hopefully.

Stuff

While searching my photos for photos to add to my water garden albums on my web page, I found a few interesting shots. This is Pete and Audree's Coot that they had up until a couple of years ago. The foxgloves I found at a coffee stop on one of our trips back to Sask. The spider web is out my patio window at night. The blue sky is just a relaxing cool blue shot. It was hot again today.

Vegetable Garden, web page - pond

I am going through all my photos to find ones that I will add to my album for the 2nd part of the water garden. This will about the pond and the tubs.

Pete and Audree dropped in today. They had been to see the sailing ships that are down in the inner harbor. These ships are racing around the world. They leave at about 4:00 tomorrow and anchor off Point-no-point area. The next morning they are on their way again.

The temperature got up to 30 today. Very hot. It was cooler after supper so I went out and planted the last of the vegetable garden. I also planted the little plants I had bought at the rock and alpine show. I have a couple left to plant. One will go in its own clay pot. The silene is just tiny so I shall leave it for now too. I will probably empty out the cedar trough to the rockerie and the perennial border.

Water Garden, fence, and difficult neighbours

I have uploaded the first part of my 3 part page for the water garden. The first part is Creating the Water garden. The water gardem is full and cleaned out. The water fall sounds very nice, and it looks good. I clipped a few branches off the plum tree by the deck, so I can see into the pond. It is a very sunny day, so pictures today would not be good. This lily photo is from 2 years ago, probably in July or August.

Old weird Sheila phoned about sharing the cost of a fence, again. Parmars had a ready made fence delivered today and are sharing the cost with her. She is already getting in a fight with them over the cost of the fence and what her share might be. She interrogated the delivery person as to the cost of that fence. She says Parmar told her $1500 and the delivery guy said $1000. I told her I was not interested in a fence for my part of the lot that backs on hers. She wanted to discuss my attitude about this and I told her good bye and hung up. No thanks you silly old bat.

Yesterday Shanon P. came over to say that the wisteria was knocking over the fence. As I was just back from seeing Dr. C. at the Royal Jubilee, Pat went out to see what the matter was. Apparently the wisteria was on the fence and the post was leaning over. So, Pat cut the wisteria down to about 2 feet tall. It was lovely and in full bloom. I shall try to make it grow into a tree now, instead of letting it vine all over. I will try prune all the branches to head towards my garden. It will need a lot of pruning but will be worth it, once it gets blooming again, in ohhh, maybe 6 years. Geezzzzzz. Parmar has taken down his part of the fence. We can see the horrible hatchet job Old Weird has done on some cedars she had along the fence. Man oh man what a mess. She has also been topping the white birch trees and everything else she has in her yard. I think these neighbours of mine hate trees and flowers. I expect I might plant a few more hedging cedars where the wisteria no longer has branches... along about 8 feet of my vegetable garden. There is space for them. I could use a few more at the back in the woodland garden, too, where the Scotch Pine was removed. I should get the biggest ones I can get delivered from Cannor and put them in this summer perhaps. I should get another couple of cedars for along between my water garden and Parmars also. So, perhaps 10 - 12 cedars in all. Any spare ones can go along between the woodland garden and the neighbors on that side where I took out the Russian Olive tree - nasty thorny thing, although it had lovely bark and leaves.

Vegetable Garden, good friends and web page

Yesterday I finished putting the cement slabs down in the vegetable garden to create paths. I have a great purple bruise on my wrist to prove it too. Today I got about half of the seeds planted. Mrs. P. had me cut back my trees between our houses cause they were interfering with the guy who is painting her house. She says they will grow again and be thicker. Sure hope so. A good pruning might be ok.

I filled the pond and the tub on the deck. I saw 2 fairly large black fish. Hope they turn gold soon. I shall have to get a few new ones. Fixed the rocks on the edge of the pond and watered all around, including the woodland. I see I have a lot of blackberries growing in the woodland and shall have to get after them, asap. The weather was perfect today.

Pat put some sort of lubricating oil in the Bentley and changed its plugs. So, we took Steve and Ruby and took it for a run to the Stonehouse Pub at Canoe Cove. Runs really good now. The food at the Stonehouse was scrumptious. After dinner Pat drove us around Landsend road and back to their place to see the new renovations on their house. Wow, it is being totally redone. Looks really good.

Tomorrow I go for my bone marrow test.

I have almost finished the 'create the water garden' part of that water gardening subpage on my web page. It looks ok, nothing fancy. The other 2 parts of that page should have better photos, I hope. Most of the create photos are from pre-digital days.

Gardening

Slegg Lumber delivered my cement slabs today. I got 2 dozen 12' square, a dozen 8 x 16 and 2 dozen brick size.

I clipped back the wisteria a bit and dug out a few dandilions.

Pat bought a 20 inch electric rechargable lawn mower today and it is charging up its battery at the moment. I have to read its operating manual and get the grass mowed, tomorrow.

So many of the flowers and shrubs are in bloom right now. I wonder if there will be anything left to bloom in June.

Yesterday I put 4 new florescent tubes in the light garden, on the cactus shelf.

Silver Star

We got home yesterday evening from Silver Star. The guys had been to the Red Deer Swap Meet and Sheila and I went up on Saturday to meet them at Silver Star. It was a wonderfull drive again. The Nicola Lake was spectacular. Navy water and the golden grasses. We did not stop for photos, though. Sigh. We did stop at the little store at the Ranch and at the other Colchina (I think) store. We had a bit of snow on Sunday. I got out for a few photos after the snow. The guys got back on Sunday and we had a very nice dinner.
Pat and I left on Monday morning and stopped to visit the Kelowna Konnection. I did some shopping at the Bay before we arrived at their house. Their garden is planted already! We had a most scrumptious roast for dinner with homemade bread and all. Special garden lettuce with a special ceasar salad dressing. No photos though. Oh well.
We left on Tuesday morning and got home late afternoon. Was an excellent trip. So good to see everyone.

RROC & BDC Spring Meet, and Todd Inlet

The Spring Meet for the RROC and BDC was held at Gwen's grand house. The judging and car games on Saturday carried on despite the sky pouring down buckets of rain. A nice smorg dinner at Duinsmuir Lodge finished the dreary day.

On Sunday Candi, Gary and us walked to Todd Inlet in some lovely sunny weather. The trilliums are blooming. The tide was out and the starfish were on the beach. We had dinner at Tino's, after a few other stops of interest in the day. Good company and a good time.