Planes, cars, buses

Last week was uneventful. Boring, yet frantically busy. Friday night, Terry, Mick & Scott headed into the airport to pick up the Mexican traveler. She got in quite late and had to go through customs too, so they didn't really get home here until 1 am..... Meanwhile, I had some cooking to do, as I was serving at the African Violet Society Tea and Sale on Saturday, and had my share of cooking to do for the tea. OK, yes I know, I quit the group... but I can't quit completely. They need me to work the kitchen for the tea, because most of them are quite elderly, and the kitchen is a pretty busy place. So.... my job for the past 16 years is to make the asparagus rolls and the tea biscuits topped with ham. I bring the coffee, tea & napkins; and I make the tea and coffee, all the sweet and sandwich plates up, and the dishes. My two kitchen helpers are Irene Neily, and Bernice Mahar. Irene is 80 and is just recovering from breaking her leg in January, and Bernice just celebrated her 80th last year. check out the whole group of ladies on this website
AVAVS and meet all my dear friends. There seems to be lots of members, but they only show up for a few meetings.

Stephanie.... very tanned and a smattering of nasty burns. A suitcase full of trinkets for all the family, and several bottles of tequila. Even one with a scorpion in it for Scott. eww... a real one, quite dead. We feasted on Chili and Lime potatoes chips and hot peanuts (spicy hot) and a few other yummies she brought home. She entertained and frazzled me with stories of cockroaches in her backpack... and the Mexican Military stopping and search her, all her classmates, and all the luggage, while brandishing machine guns. She is glad to be home, and will be posting to her blog very soon, (right Stephanie). She starts work on Friday with NBCC (Craft Council).

Gardens.....

Yesterday, I took a day off of work. I spent the day with my dear friend Paula Gale, and we made our day's mission to browse through a few greenhouses. We started our day at Denhanns and spent an hour looking at the hibiscus plants (which I am totally in love with) and so many plants for the gardens. Most of my yard is shady, and Paula's as well, so it was fun to be looking for the same sort of plants. I bought a Pink Asiam Lily for Linda Young, who is the proud grandma of Little Miss Lilly Young, born on Friday May 25th, at the IWK. Linda mentioned that she will need to put in a "lily Garden" so I was excited to be the first to give her a lily. And of course, it had to be Pink...

Our second mission of the day was to find a mysterious Greenhouse called "Brooklyn Farms". We had both heard fantastic things about it, but didn't know the first thing about finding it. After two different set of directions, a phone call to Diane Sampson (who gave me even worse directions), then a stop at a corner store for directions (useless as well), we ended up at Wheatons for lunch. Oh well. After a "half" sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup (that had now less than 3/4 cup of peas in it) we had a yummy coconut cream cake and tea. Then on our way out the door, we asked for directions once more, and sort of got ok directions... off we went again, and after 20 more minutes of driving around the countryside we found it. It is less than 7 minutes from Wheatons!!!!! BUT What a place. Its amazing. There are 4 greenhouses and the plants are top notch and the prices are very low. I can't wait to go back. We spent an hour ther and then off to Glads in Cambridge for our final stop. What a great day. And I got quite a few nice plants but really, just a drop in the bucket for what I need. I hope to hit Brooklyn Farms before the weekend again.

Tonight, Terry and I decided to plant the back 40 acres of farmland. We planted cucumbers, snow peas, green beans, tomatoes and a few flowers from my adventure yesterday. The yield we expect at our harvest is in the ball park of 40 bushels... so be sure to stop by the farm market that we will set up at the end of our driveway. We will be putting all profits make towards our children education. the darker mounds in the back of the field are our cucumber hills. (Nanny always taught us to plant them in "hills") Then the rows are our acreage of snow peas, with the first quarter of the field planted with green beans.

The pets were quite helpful and encouraging as we tilled, plowed, fertilized, re-tilled and planted. They were as exhausted as we were, and therefore needed to take several breaks while watching us work.