Good Morning. I trust everyone is doing well. Spring has sprung & moved into summer in this part of the world. Last week we had 4 days were we broke temperature recorded highs with +28 temps. Several days had humidex readings! But today temperatures have returned to seasonal or just a tad below seasonal. It is also very dry & the little bit of rain we had late Sunday evening did not do much. I am hoping for some all day rain today; not the snow forecast for tomorrow!
I have no photos to share this Monday, only because Blogger, once again is not playing very cooperatively. I'll say no more for now.
Currently Reading: Harmony by The Prince of Wales (now King Charles). He really is a Eco warrior & has long been a champion of the environment & organic farming. It's a big book & slow reading. I "discovered" the book when I was creating a quiz about King Charles for our church's Coronation Tea. Not from this book, I also discovered that he paints under the name of Arthur George Carrick & sells his organic products from his Highgrove & Duchy of Cornwall estates, under the name of Duchy Originals.
Currently Watching: On Brit Box we just finished a 3 part series, The Tower. It was, IMO, well done, but a very unsatisfying ending. On PBS I have been watching Marie Antoinette. What a costume budget they must have.
Currently Working On: my resolve not to buy any more scrapping papers, embellishments, etc. During the last stressful three weeks of Mr Man's scheduled surgery & ER visit, I really struggled not buying myself a "treat". Thank goodness I could easily find some inspiring Joshua Becker to talk me off clicking the add to cart cliff. I did not realize how difficult keeping to my resolve was going to be. I never thought of myself as someone who shops to soothe myself. Pride goes before the fall as my Gran would say. I have been truly tested this week. So many specials for Scrapfest & upcoming NSD (National Scrapbooking Day) & the spring papers & colours are SO pretty.
Currently Playing In The Dirt: spent time digging in my garden, trying to rip out all the wild & invasive wild garlic mustard. This plant has a very long tap root & if you do not get the whole thing, it just grow back from the piece left in the ground. It's been like a form of therapy. Garlic Mustard, is on the Ontario Noxious Weed list & is described as one of Ontario's most aggressive forest invaders. And the smell of garlic lingered in the air for quite a while after making a pile of pulled up weeds. Took several lathering, rinse & repeat washing of my hands to rid the scent & I wore gloves!
And speaking of little adorable invaders ... I have a new to the patio chipmunk. I can tell "her" apart from the other friendly one, as she has a nip of tail missing. She was quite shy at first, but me & my endless supply of peanuts have won her over. Once Blogger plays nice again, I'll post a photo of her. Mr Man wants to call her Nipper.
Hope everyone has a delightful April week.
I admire your resolve not to treat yourself after a stressful time!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of garlic mustard but it sounds like it is a tenacious plant. My garden nemesis is ivy. It has such long roots and is another one which has to be removed completely or it just starts off again. Even more annoying is when the 'mother' plant is in our neighbour's garden and grows through the (newly painted!) fence into ours Grrr....
Ivy is pretty in containers, but I know it can get wild quickly. Some of the battles I have with over abundance of plants have come from "gifts" of plants from friends; Violets & Goutweed are two I cruse on a regular basis. The Garlic Mustard is blown in from the plants in the farmer's field strip between the crop field & our residence gardens. I am feeling a little grumpy about my resolve, but I am assured by all the decluttering experts online that this will pass - I hope so!
DeleteYes, we’ve returned to typical weather this morning — April showers etc. I imagine that we watched The Tower, but I can’t remember it. We are currently watching the latest Cormoron Strike series on Crave where my daughter bought a temporary membership.
ReplyDeleteI've read 2 or 3 of the Cormoron Stike books. We are suppose to get more rain later this morning - I can only hope for that. The cooler days should get the daffodils to last a little longer.
DeleteInvasive plants are hard to get rid of. Around here it's privet. People still _plant_ it for some reason.
ReplyDeletethere is a home down the street with a privet hedge, so far no break outs!
DeleteEnjoying Marie Antionette here too. Can't wait until they finally consummate their marriage!
ReplyDeleteI just keep thinking of Marie Antionette's end & wonder if all these moments of rejection from her husband lead her to make stupid mistakes over & over.
DeleteInvasive plants are hard to get rid of and such a nuisance! I'm with Deb and her dislike of ivy, as ours also comes through from our neighbour.
ReplyDeleteI think I spend half of my gardening time ripping out invasive gifts; violets are almost completely gone from my garden now but it has taken years. The goutweed looks like it will need professional help. I've been told only Round Up - chemical - will solve this problem. I am refusing to use because it is lethal not only to plants but my beloved chipmunks & VERY harmful to people. So dig I will.
DeleteWell done on keeping to your resolve not to buy any more scrapbooking supplies. It's hard, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with uprooting all the garlic mustard plants. I looked it up online because I don't think I've seen it here, but, apparently, it is edible!
Aw, little Nipper sounds like a delightful addition to the garden denizens!
I hope you have a wonderful week, Mary-Lou and Mr. Man continues to recover from his eye surgery.
Thanks Bless for the well wishes. I may win the battle & war of stash busting, but I certainly I'm not without battle fatigue. I find if I just go through my pretty papers already here, I am reminded of my good fortune of so much. Garlic mustard was originally brought to Canada as a substitute herb, high in vit c. But it is not a plant that our bees like & quickly crowds out native plants, so rip rip rip :)
DeleteI've never heard of garlic mustard, but it sounds as invasive as the Japanese Knotweed which is such a problem here in places and responds only to glysophate - digging it up just encourages it to grow stronger. With a lingering smell, it sounds a right pain! How wonderful to have a chipmunk in your garden - looking forward to a photo. Well done on resisting temptation. I find Kindle Books are a real Achilles heel for me.
ReplyDeleteThe garlic mustard was brought in because it can be cooked & eaten & has a high vitamin C content. It is just that it takes over pushing out native plants that our native wildlife feeds upon. I often wish I was still buying books, as I often want to refer to a line or quote & unfortunately the routine of ordering from the library (again) daunts me some times. Kindle might solve that ... ummm
DeleteWell, I tend to eat from stress and shop from boredom. I am currently working on breaking those habits as well. I did a bit of NSD shopping for the really good deals, but I keep myself in check by tracking spending in a timely manner in Quicken. I am markedly under last year, which was under the year before. So that's progress.
ReplyDeleteYou do find some excellent deals on scrapping supplies. I'm another stress eater.
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