March In Vancouver

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daffodils, flowers, forsythia, march, spring, tulips, Vancouver

This gallery contains 5 photos.

I Am Super Productive/Murderous!

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black thumb, Canucks, flowers, gardening, hockey, plants, productivity, sun, weather

Dude.

I woke up yesterday morning, and the sun was shining. As someone with a tendency towards S.A.D., a good dose of sunshine is like a big happy kick in the butt.

It helped that Babby had actually had a decent sleep, only waking a couple of times and just briefly during the night, and he actually slept in. Perfect Husband woke me up (because I was going to drive him in and take the car for the day) and I sneaked out of bed and showered while the baby was still asleep.

When I dropped PH off at his work, I spotted a gardening centre and thought, “YES!”

Babby and I spent an hour browsing through plants, trying to get a good deal. We eventually picked up 12 plants and a pot for 50 bucks, all of which I really needed.

You see, my yard is still hideous, although it’s WAY better than it was last year.

the land where weeds go to die

My mother dug up the whole yard when she was here last summer, and re-sodded it and seeded it, and bought plants for it. Some of the plants didn’t make it through the winter, but others have.

The new grass sprung up tall and thick (as you saw), but many of the dandelions returned. PH weed whacked (our yard is too small to mow), and I’ve dosed them with vinegar and salt, because digging them up proved too time consuming when I had a Babby munching soil on a blanket next to me. I’ll re-sod and re-seed soon, and the yard should look better.

I came out of the gardening centre with three seedling geraniums, some pansies, a fuschia, lavender, chocolate mint (It smells like peppermint patty!), sweet basil, some “Jack Frost” to cover the backyard, and a deliciously aromatic curry plant.

Problem is, plants tend to die in my care.

Many plants have succumbed to my black thumb. There was my Phinneas, my ficus, which dropped its leaves and died as soon as I brought it home. There was Charlie, my little blue pine, which gave up on life when I replanted him in a bigger pot and stuck him on the balcony. There was the ivy I hung in the kitchen, which I forgot to water, and the rose bush, a birthday present, which was dead in two months. Then there was Bling, my poor money tree, which survived me hardily for a year until we moved to the new house and I placed him in the kitchen window, which gets Eastern sun (the rest of my house is North facing and largely dark).

Poor Bling, sitting in his Window of Death

Well, that sun burned poor Bling up dead, even though he struggled bravely for nearly another year while I ignorantly tried changing pots, water more, watering less, wiping his leaves and so on, completely unaware that he just needed more shade (since the kitchen is in shade for most of the day, and I don’t really do mornings, I just didn’t clue in until it was too late).

RIP, Bling. I'm sorry.

No wonder we’re having money problems.

I KILLED THE MONEY TREE.

Here’s hoping the new generation fare better. I chose the plants carefully for either sun tolerance (East facing) or shade tolerance (North facing), and then researched them further on the internet to decide whether to keep each one inside or outside, potted or planted.

curry plant, lavender, annuals

The lavender is in the sunny front, planted in a bed. The pansies, snap dragons, and two of the geraniums are planted there also, although they may get too much shade from the adjacent hedge. The curry plant is in a pot on the stoop.

Jack Frost and a fern

I put the Jack Frost in the shady yard, where hopefully he will cover the moss and weeds.

jade plant, chocolate mint, sweet basil

I put the sweet basil and the chocolate mint in pots in the kitchen window, next to the jade plant which has survived in my care for 9 months now.

fuschia

I hung the fuschia in the kitchen where the ivy used to be (must remember to water).

geranium

I hung the last geranium in a hanging basket in the yard, in a sunny patch. I did all of this while Babby napped (with screen doors and a baby monitor turned up high) because the sun was shining and I apparently operate on photosynthesis.

I am now placing bets on how long until the first one dies. I may turn this into some kind of giveaway. Price is Right rules apply. You should probably know that I got the sweet basil for free because it was so sad looking already.

Oh, I am also taking suggestions for names for my newest victims, so I can mourn them properly when they die horribly.

Then I went and got a hair cut, and then I drove to a friend’s house where I met PH and we watched the Canucks MURDER the Sharks.

Go Canucks!

All in all, a productive day.

…as long as the Canucks win the Stanley cup, and my plants don’t perish instantly.

April Showers Bring February Flowers

Tags

cherry blossoms, flowers, forsythia, spring, Vancouver

Spring has come late to Vancouver this year. I realize that those of you who are still under two feet of snow will have limited sympathy for me, but it’s true. By the time the Olympics were over last year, the cherry blossoms were well in bloom. Now it’s April and they still haven’t hit full swing. They started to bloom in February as usual, but a long cold snap put them in suspended animation.

It’s been raining a lot lately, and some days, like yesterday are still quite fridge-like. However, the flowers are finally daring to continue the bloom they began two months ago.

It’s Babby’s first spring, and the walks are fun. At least, when it isn’t raining.

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Vancouver Sunshine

Tags

bad days, flowers, gloom, luck, spring, sun, Vancouver

It’s one of THOSE days.

You know.

I dreamed about a friend who was very close once but grew distant when I got pregnant. She has ignored birthday greetings from me and has not acknowledged the existence of my child. Thinking about her makes me sad, and these dreams pop up occasionally and make me sadder.

I tried to get a referral over the phone from my doctor, but was told that I had to come in and tell my doctor to her face that she is a moron. That did not encourage me.

PH went to the store to pick up the crib we ordered, only to discover that it is in a very large square box much bigger than the dimensions for the crib, and that it will not fit in our car. It is wider than our car. This presents a problem since I don’t want my baby to sleep in a warehouse. I will have to pester friends with trucks.

I was going to take Babby for his first swim today, but I”m afraid it will bum me out more if he hates it. But if I don’t  go at all I’ll feel even more like I didn’t get anything accomplished. Maybe I WILL take him in a fit of optimism.

I think this must be a combination of PMS and first-grey-day-in-many-days funk. I realize you people in the East won’t sympathize, but spring comes to Vancouver in February and lately Babby and I have been going to long walks each day to soak up the sunshine and flowers. But today is grey with a few flakes of snow. Short walkies today.

So, in view of banishing the Bad Day Gloom, I will dwell on the sunshine and the flowers of the past week.

BEHOLD!*

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*Some of these pictures are fuzzy because I bought a can of pop at the Esso on one of my walks, and I set it down to unhook the dog’s leash, and the can rolled away, and I chased it into the road and I did catch it but it was punctured places and spraying pop everywhere at high pressure BUT I DRANK IT ANYWAY and it made my hands and everything I touched sticky.