Hello from Sunday night

Well then!I'm feeling terrifically accomplished and successful and even am getting this post up on Sunday night! :D ...although I'm hopelessly behind on commenting, visiting and replying to my comments. Boy, blogging is hard work. And to think that today I told Robbie that he really has to have his own website to showcase his brilliant designs. (What a rotten girl I am making more work for him!)He said his YouTube and his forums were enough for now...unless I want to write his blog posts! 8OBut it's been a wonderful weekend round here for us. C and I went climbing on Friday, instead of our usual Wednesday, and I was very pleased that I got to the top of two of the easier routes. (And to think I was doing this on cliffs 30 years ago. Oh well, I'll work up to it again.)Saturday I stopped at my favourite nursery, Southlands, and had to take a photo of these brilliant signs Thomas put out. Yes, that's my cart, those are my beautiful plants...hands off you pleb! LOLThere was a plan to go to Costco. You know, that soulless, breathless, black hole of a box store, but neither C nor I could face it and so, citing hunger as our excuse, we drove past it to Ikea...OK, another soulless, breathless, black hole of a box store, but much more fun!We had a little lunch and then walked thru it sitting on all the furniture, testing it for comfort and exploring all the rooms...(you know you love doing that)......and having a general gigglefest. At one point, we made a video of C riding one of those huge shopping carts and bumping into the stacks of prefab boxes and sent it to R. Made him laugh.And then, we drove in exactly the opposite direction from Costco and ended up at the George Reifel bird sanctuary!I've been worried about the world's bees these past few years, and was so pleased to see the hawthorns, and all other blooms, buzzing with bees.We were so happy to see babies at the Reifel! Can you resist the yellow, baby bums? I can't. So far one pair of Canada geese have three chicks and one pair of wood ducks have five. The breeding cranes lost their first egg clutch to a bastard mink, but they are sitting on a second egg. Fingers crossed.While I was up in the observation tower, I heard a strange bird call. No idea what it was, so decided to go investigate. The marsh is wet and boggy and no way to get off the paths, but I met a birder, an older gentleman, who told me it was probably a Virginia Rail. Then, on the way back, we met the sanctuary biologist, (who took a shine to C), who sang the call back to us and told us that the Virginia Rail chicks are much cutter than the Canada geese chicks. Impossible we said. He said, "take the goslings, multiply that by cuteness X 100% and make them a ball of grey-black fluff and give them legs which are miles too long for them." Oh man! Now I want to find one!And then for something completely different! By 4pm, Costco was out of the equation, but groceries still had to be bought, so we had to stop at the store and I found this sexy thing! I took some photos for Robbie and put one up on Instagram. My son commented, "Eewwwww...Plymouth Prowler...C'mon mom!" and tagged me on a "real" rat racer! :D I'm like "what?" :D And had to tag him back on some brilliant photos I took of some rat racer earlier in the year. "Better" he said. :DSaturday night C and I heard fireworks and ran upstairs to the studio and watched a lovely display on the downtown waterfront. Lucky us!Sunday morning I had a decision to make. I stopped at an antique shop on Saturday and found a beautiful journal. Someone who had a laundry business in 1949, then pasted pay stubs over the laundry lists in 1960. I love that waste not want not mentality and thought some of these pages would be wonderful as a canvas for some paintings. So I could paint. On the other hand, there were all the seedlings I still had to plant waiting on the porch...and a whole week of rain ahead and a garden show to get ready for.So planting it was, and gardening, and then, because one thing leads to another, then cleaning out the garage and organising the silversmithing bench.I had an inspiration.Last week, I asked my friend Margot, (who has two horses), if I could have some straw for my strawberries. She told me that she has a whole hay bale that her boys won't touch and I can have it. We made a date for today and I drove over to the stables.My biggest mistake was bringing C along who immediately ran up to General for a nuzzle.And then to Levy. Last time she saw them was in Princeton.Margot and I moved all the hay bales off the one General and Levy didn't want and put it into the back of my Highlander, and I looked around for C.Where was she? At the end of the paddock making friends with the Clydesdale!Oh boy there's a lot of hay in a bale! But I spread it around my strawberries, arround the raspberries and blueberries......and then around the garlic, kale, peas and potatoes too.I've never gardened with hay but figure it can go two ways, either horribly wrong or brilliantly successful, (or somewhere between). There's only one way to find out. :DWhile I was cleaning out the garage, C came by and found her professional fire hula hoop, (which will never be lit again), and gave it a whirl and left it outside. After spreading out the hay, I had a go with the hula hoop. WHAT FUN!OK, now I want to hula hoop every day. Very surprised that I can keep it going for longer than two seconds together!And as a brilliant finish to this lovely weekend, at the end of the garden, past the strawberries and blueberries, under the Japanese anemones, I found a lovely display of lily of the valley. I collected a small handful and had a search for the perfect vase.Really, what else could you ever put in this little vintage treasure?Now on my bedside table for sweet dreams. :DSharing with Judith and the mosaic Monday bunch.