Steve Arrives Today

I was a busy beaver all day yesterday. 

It was a beautiful sunny and warm day, but I love that there were some clouds giving us temporary breaks from the hot sun. I raked and toted, I picked up Sheba souvenirs, I used the leaf blower to tidy up the front sidewalk and the courtyard, and I watered all the beds.

We walked early without our friends yesterday morning so that I had more time to work on the yard. I wanted it to look as nice as possible for Steve’s visit. (Steve is my ex.) My work made a huge difference. To get all the cones off the ground in the yard made the place look much tidier. And time flies when I am busy.

I cleaned up the entire yard, and I watered everything very thoroughly. I cleaned the chairs and table where we may want to eat together, I moved my new drinking fountain that has a tiny solar fuelled fountain, and I put rocks in it so that now the fountain stays in one place. It floats and moves around without my intervention, and that scares the birds.

I began working at 9:00 and only took five minutes for lunch, so I didn’t take a real break until 14:00. I was sweating, panting and thoroughly exhausted. I was a wreck, but it felt very, very good to come into the coolness of our wonderful home, and I felt instantly better. Once refreshed by the cool air and a cold drink, had a spa while it was in the shade, and then Her Highness and I went for our afternoon on a short trail in the 707 Park.

When we got home, I to chilled watching videos on YouTube. I’d done all I’d planned on doing, so I felt okay about abandoning garden and yard work and having a spa before dinner. Last night, when I took my walkabout last night at 19:00. it was 31°. I was wearing a sweatshirt hoodie because when I am inside, inside, I don’t feel warm enough in just a t-shirt because it’s so cool. When I went outside, I was hit by a wall of heat.

Right now, it looks like a desert garden because nothing lives on the ground right now except in my garden beds. Moss lives on the ground in the shadows that lie fallow because it gets little light down there due to the Douglas Firs. But there’s lots of colour in the garden right now thanks to the hydrangeas and the crocosmia. 

Below are phots I shot last night during my walkabout. Sadly, they don’t reflect my experience of the garden. Every plant, each location, they all represent decisions. The rocks are back pain made manifest. My yard is my hobby. It keeps me active all day most days. I love this place. I love semi-rural life. I love living in an island. I see my babies in these images. 

This is a healing garden. There was nothing here. The landscape had been disrespected. A lot of machinery and rotten wood and scrap metal, and years of weed and cones had to be removed, and soil brought it. I had to pay $7,000 to build a fence to keep deer out of the yard. And then, I started.

I came here eighteen months after my breakdown. I came to reduce stimulation, hoping to lessen the severity of my symptoms. The garden gave me something to do, so it truly is a healing garden because I have always had plants. It may seem odd, but the thought that comes to mind is that loving plants is logical if you love animals. That makes no sense, I know, but I feel that ‘of course’ I love plants because I love animals. I love life and nature is life.

The birds get thirsty at sundown. As I write this at 20:00, the fountain is a bird magnet—until the neighbourhood Barred owl or a Falcon comes along. I often know a predator is around when there are no birds at all in at dawn or dusk.

Steve arrives today at 17:30. I’ll be watering, cleaning, walking with Her Highness and doing some chillin’ today in advance of his arrival. He’s here until Sunday. This is the shortest visit since I moved here, but it’s okay. I’m profoundly grateful he comes each year. 

This Hydrangea has HUGE blossoms.

This is the bed beside the courtyard. The path leads to a gate in 
the fence that leads out to land that I own. It's where I put all my
forest fall and other organic garden waste.

This is the wall that gets the light of the setting sun.
the Virginia Creeper covering a log wall. I love it.

I have very few plumbs. I planted this plum tree in the Spring of 2025.
Next year there should be a decent harvest based on my eperiencce
with my apples.

I have four apple trees. All of them are fruiting
but only one in abundance. It gets the most sun. 

Just under four meters of herbs.

The first colour on tomatoes this season. I have
three plants. I love fresh tomatoes!

A modest crop this year, but I'm glad of that. Picking,
de=stemming and de-flowering takes a lot of work.
Flowers are residual dried leaves on the flare end
of the berry.

These are the wild strawberries I took out of my 
lawn and put into a gutter attached to the deer
fencied. Each one has taken. They are rooting.
I hopeto get some wild strawberries next year.

This is a side view of the other gutter with strawberry plants
I grew through Spring from runners of some strawberry plants
I'd had for years. They all took as well, and some have fruited.

The strawberries.

This bed is on your right when you come into the backyard through
the swing wooden gate. The blue plants are hardy perennial 
Geraniums that spread like a weed and are beautirul.

This is where you step up onto the deck. The brown, on the right
behind the chairs is the spa. If you open those open those doors, 
BUT YOU DON'T BECAUSE OF THE CATS, you find my desk.

The fountain brings lovely sound, a great many birds, and
beesw Theay hear the water and its very dry right now.