Chica Goes Home

Chica is a gardener. She kicks up the dirt and in doing so, does some effective weeding. But she also uproots some of my plantings, but I love having her around in the yard. She’s become another reason I love living here on Gabriola. She adds some rural beauty to Pinecone Park.

Sheba and I joined our friends for a morning dog walk before I returned to assemble the last of the chairs and the table. Then I got onto staining chairs before planting the end of the rest of the moss along the footpath edges. It was another impeccable day. However, the beauty of the day faded from my consciousness as I wrestled with the assembly of the final two chairs and the table. To do those three things took 5 hours!

But it’s done. No parts were missing and now I have a really lovely outdoor dining table that has a smoked glass surface. The glass is easy to clean and will not warp as did my previous wooded table (that now is a very practical addition to my shed). Once done, I hobbled into the lovely cool house to chill and let the pain in my back fade away.

I had two other chores on my list of things to do yesterday, but all other duties just faded away because I was beat from all the work on the dining set. So, Her Highness accompanied me to the village where I got some groceries, and then we came home to do some tidying up and to water the front and edible gardens before having a spa to end the working day.

Today, I’ll do the chores I failed to do yesterday: I’ll be staining two chairs and planting the rest of the moss along the footpath.

Everything is done. Well, almost everything. I must finish the footpath when the store has them in stock again. But that’s only a couple of hours work. And in just over a week, the guy comes to clean the roofs. But I can go back to regular gardening. I want to clean-up all the gardens and tidy. Up the lawn and meadow.

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Chica is gone. I found her owner and she came last night just after dinner and took Chica away. I’m glad to be chicken-free again at Pinecone Park. She wreaked havoc with the gardens and there are little turds everywhere. 

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I’ve been keeping a diary of the work I began on April 26^th. I’ve worked every day except for 19 days. The work involved the major clean-up of the yard after all the Winter storms, splitting wood that came from trees felled in my yard, and stacking all that wood, plus a cord I bought from a local store, cleaning and overhauling the fountain, and then doing the deck, landscaping and the footpath overhaul. It’s now June 28^th. So, two months of solid work. Not one day at the beach with Sheba. No strolls through Drumbeg Park.

But from here on, it’s a pleasure to work in my beautiful new yard. I can hardly wait for Steve to get here because we’ll have a party around the new table in my clean shiny yard.

Pete came by today. I love Pete, I truly do. Doing the deck together was a bonding experience. I feel a really lovely friendship has grown between us. He’s open, thoughtful, and charming. He’s English and has a lovely accent. He’s well-spoken and witty, and I now adore him. How I feel about him is more valuable to me than the deck. It truly was bonding. It makes my job of caring for his garden when they go away, is a function of our bond and not a debt to him for work done.

I’m definitely going to go with them to April Point in September if Dave/Ursula will feed Fred and Ethel while I’m gone. 

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I’m going bonkers because of my vision, and I have months of waiting to start the process of getting my operations. I’m going to be dealing with double vision for many, many more months. It only matters when I’m using the computer or reading subtitles on TV. Watching TV is really challenging unless I close my left eye. 

The ophthalmologist gave me a prescription, but it’s pointless to fill it until after I get the operation on my eyes. But! My hip hasn’t been bothering me for a couple of weeks. I’ve been debating about seeing or not seeing my nurse practitioner, but I think I will, to ask her about double-dosing daily with Ibuprofen—whether that’s harmful in any way. I couldn’t sleep without it, and I couldn’t get through a day without it.

While so much is going on with my body, all the work of the past two months has kept me active, and they have inspired me. My aging body is telling me to have fun while I can. That’s another reason to go to April Point.

I can hardly wait to stop working for long stretches of every day, when all there is to do is just regular watering I’ll be able to read and eat at the new table in my glorious yard, and enjoy the yard that I’ve worked so hard on for the past two months.