Happy New Year !

It is almost all melted now but this was our belated white Christmas. The bird sanctuary was absolutely beautiful when we woke up yesterday morning. Even the piles of kindling for the firepit look pretty :) We had a great Christmas and Nicholas is here for a Harry Potter festival and is staying overnight. He is having dinner at his other Grandma's tomorrow so we will be on our own for New Years Day. It should be very relaxing and I am planning on doing some garden planning for the new kitchen garden. Miles has extra chain link from the dog runs and he is going to put it up around my vegetable patch. I am so looking forward to having a large kitchen garden. I have been reading about companion planting and have started my seed list. I have a lot of seeds here already and doubt very much that I will need to order any this year. There is so much to look forward to in my garden this year!

Happy New Year!

A Time to Celebrate

On August 17, 2011, our grandson was taken from his mother by the Children's Aide Society and placed in foster care in Ontario. Since that day, my son has been in court in Ontario trying to bring Nicholas home. It has been a long, overly drawn out process made more difficult by his mother, unfortunately. But on Wednesday I was able to snap this blurry image at the airport gate as our boys arrived home. I would like to say it is over but it is not. There will be more court dates, more money, more work. But today is a day to celebrate and not worry about any of that. I was finally able to sleep the last two nights and I can't remember the last night I was able to just fall asleep when I hit the pillow without spending time tossing and turning and worrying. That part is over, thank goodness. Today is Nicholas' first day at school and Sean's first day back at work. They are settling into a routine already and Nicholas is very happy to be home. He has been smiling ever since he arrived and I have seen him two days in a row. It has been more than a year since I have seen him right in front of me. Let me tell you, over a computer or phone screen is nice but it is just not the same thing as having him standing right here! All I have to say today is whoo hooo! Welcome home Nicholas!! We missed you.

John & Reena Host Thanksgiving

John & Reena hosted Thanksgiving dinner tonight and the food was excellent. Reena and her sister Sherry did all the work and all we had to do was play with the kids and keep them smiling until it was time to eat. Gordon and I caught a ride with Sean, Destini and Lily because Miles had to work and couldn't make it. We had a great time and brought a plate home for Miles that is in the oven now waiting for him to get home from work. It was good to see Reena's family and Jack and Myra again. That usually only happens at Christmas.

Baby Shower

Lily's baby shower was today at her house. I finally got to see both of her eyes open at the same time. There are two of them and right now, they are both blue. She got way too much stuff, the food was great and a good time was had by all. As usual, in those situations, I got home much later than planned so no gardening today. It was worth giving up for our baby girl though. She already seemed to be enjoying her new playpad.

A job complete!

Since we decided to move, my "to do" list has grown to 8 pages. 6 of those pages are big jobs that require a lot of time. Many of those jobs are the kind that need to be done in a specific order. A few of them also involve waiting on tradesmen and ordered materials. So it is rare these days that I can say I have completely finished a job. The excitement of that has me madly typing a post on my coffee break before I go dig up more tulip. I am happy to say that the sun gardens are completely finished. Nothing left to do but stay on top of any new weeds and since that can't be done before new weeds grow, I think I can officially say we have one job complete.