New readers..

Just a reminder that I will be returning to a private blog this coming weekend. I will send an invite to all my regular readers - so anyone who had access before I became public will again be sent an invite to read the blog. Don't feel you have to accept though.

Anyone who is new to my blog this week and would like to continue to read my blog after it becomes private this weekend will need to contact me and ask me for an invite to the blog. You can do this by contacting me via the details in my profile or by leaving your email address and info in a comment here.

Thanks :)

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7days

This is todays self portrait picture and I chose it because it reflects how workmen (and I've met a LOT of them lately....sigh....) have a habit of talking to my chest rather than to ME ggggrrrrrr

This picture is part of a 7 day self portrait project I am taking part in. You can read more about the project and check out the other pictures from other photographers taking part at: www.flickr.com/groups/sevendays

New growth...

All our various fir trees are doing really great this year! They all have so much new growth this year! LOTS of new cones and buds and branches and 'bits' on them!!! We've never seen these pink things before!!! All the different trees on our land have various new things growing on them! I thought this one in particular was really interesting!

No wonder we've finally attracted a squirrel!!!

Fathers Day..and other stuff

I hope you all had a lovely Fathers Day yesterday...we did. Chris made Lloyd coffee and brought it up to us in bed and the children all brought the cards and gifts up to the bed and we sat around on the bed and watched Lloyd open them all...

Sam made Lloyd the pen holder above at preschool but it was rather plain so when we got it home I helped him decorate it with all the lovely stickers :) and we got the special pencils from Home Depot to fill it with as we thought it was ideal for his workshop! Lloyd also had some dvd's and what he REALLY wanted - a cordless reciprocating saw!!!

We phoned our Dads over in England to say hello and wish them Happy Fathers Day!

Lloyd and I went to Greenlands Garden Centre for coffee for a while and did a little shopping there - Lloyd wanted a climbing vine to grow over his workshop - he bought a type of Ivy that grows in Zone 3 and will grow to 50' and changes to a lovely shade of red in the Fall...I forget the name....

After that we came home and spent the rest of the day pottering about outside......

Today our garbage is collected - as part of the new Green team recycling project thingy that our County is running...it's the very first day. No more normal garbage collection. Normal waste will only be collected every two weeks and you can only put out the one black bin and the lid must close on it. You can put out as much recycling as you like.

Every week in between you put out organic waste (composting) as well as your recycling. Organic waste is pretty much everything so actually very little goes into your normal garbage can anyway.

Now we have a system in place it works very well. They provided us with the necessary garbage cans - we already had blue recycling bins for plastics and paper so now we just need to buy blue bags regularly and I plan to buy composting bags regularly because I don't want the green bins to get smelly - although we have a composting bin and we feed Charlie food waste quite often, we still will have some smelly food waste and organic waste for the green bin and I don't want it smelly, so I want composting bags. Tissues and coffee filters etc go in there...meat and dairy products and oils etc - so some things that don't normally go in the compost box can still go in the organics bin.

But one thing I am not sure about are fabric softener sheets like Bounce sheets - drier lint can go in but what about fabric softener sheets??????? I have tried phoning up but the line is busy and they say to leave your number but our phone is about to be cut off as the trenchers arrive at lunchtime (FINALLY!!!!) and will cut through our phone line today......so there is no point...so I am not sure what to do with fabric softener sheets.....which bin?????? Maybe thats a question for LP.....

Ok have to go - Abigail has her last drama class of the year - her concert is tomorrow night :)

The trenchers foreman was here this morning :) They arrive in one hour and will start trenching at noon :) our contractors foreman will be here at 11:30am to oversee the trenching :)

We will have a hole this week :) they are starting our renovations TODAY :) AT LAST...no more delays from the weather or anything TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!!! :)

Eyebrow pencil????

Susie weeded the strawberry bed for me yesterday and thought it funny to to add sdome dirt to her eye lids and eyebrows......funny girl..... ;)

Remember my grass seed?

I cut the new grass for the first time on Thursday. It's not too bad for a first trim huh? Don't laugh too hard about the fact that there are day lilies coming through.....I have a bit of a problem with day lilies...they're bloody everywhere!!!! I can't seem to get rid of the things!!! I give the damn things away and they're STILL everywhere!!!! Now they're popping up through my lawn ;)

But still, considering this was a silly little twee flower bed around an apple tree, it's now part of the lawn with three half-barrel planters filled with annuals.....the annuals aren't doing too great really because our weather is crappy and cool and half the time I don't bother to water them (oops lol) but they are surviving....and the false sunflower is surviving despite me and is very VERY pretty :) I must take my macro down and photograph THAT one :)

I think it won't be long before you won't be able to tell that there was a flower bed there at all....

Peony eaters...

The ants are busy eating away the waxy coating on the Peony buds....they will do this and then the buds will open to allow the beautiful flowers to bloom :)

We're loving this :)

or link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUPj4pxUt-Q&feature=related

And she's a local girl too :) So support this Edmonton girl :) Laurence and I are loving this song right now!!!


www.myspace.com/kreeshaturner

7 Days - day 2 - My World!

Day two of the self portrait project and here is mine! Me and my family (minus one - no surprise there - he plain refused grrrr) and we tried to get a smiley happy picture but the sun was just too bright coming out from behind the cloud and everyone was hiding their eyes and squinting and so I thought this picture was just hilarious :)

My family - my world :) They're such an odd bunch and this picture just sums it up ;)

Read more about the 7days project at: www.flickr.com/groups/sevendays

or head over to the Dreamdust blog (link to right)

Pictures from last night....

Last nights sunset for you.....and the firepit we sat by for the evening....well, the fire as we left it when we came inside at the end of the evening....it gets dark here at 11pm now...

I love our firepit. It was the first thing we created when we moved here - the last people who lived here just had a burn can or whatever people call them...a rusty old can they burned things in...so we created a big circle of rocks that we placed our old patio furniture around and we spend many evenings sat around our fire pit having fires out there...we cook out there - potatoes and sausages and smores......and we have friends over and sit round there.....I love it :) We often sit around and listen to the coyotes running up on the next field :)

I took a couple of days off....

And I got told off lol.....yep I didn't blog for a couple of days and got a few emails telling me to blog for goodness sake!!!! :) Well it's nice to be missed :) Thank you!

I'm ok! Lloyd took Thursday off of work, which I think I REALLY needed. Actually, yes, that is EXACTLY what I needed and I felt tons better after that! He stayed home mainly because that nasty flooring guy came back to put the new flooring down in the mudroom and the laundry room and bathroom. He did a great job but I didn't want to be here alone with him after last time. He scared me. Remember how he completely lost it and started shouting at me on the porch? So Lloyd stayed home for that but to be honest I think I just needed a day with Lloyd anyway. I just needed to stay home and have Lloyd home. And thats what we did. When he's with me all is right with my little part of the world. We switched off the computer and the tv and we spent the time outside - I cut the front paddock grass with Bertha (the tractor) and it is starting to look like its part of the lawn - we think by the end of Summer you won't be able to tell that it wasn't always a part of the rest of the lawn - so next year it should look like we have a HUGE front lawn :)

What else? What else? I've been hibernating at home with the kids and gardening - weeding mainly....planting, cutting more and more grass....and we've been getting rid of the front flower beds - I've been moving all my Shasta daisies....my Hostas...more day lilies.....haven't moved my Peony yet....

Oh I did do a lot of running around town yesterday for Fathers Day gifts for Lloyd - and then Sam told Lloyd what his main gift was - he said (in front of Lloyd 'Mommy do you remember that humungous gift we got for Daddy at Home Depot'? And of course there was only one big thing from Home Depot Lloyd really wanted......sigh.....

How do you spell humungous????? is that even a word?????

We had a lovely fire in the fire pit last night.......

Susie went to a birthday dinner and movies with a friend last night.....they went to the friends home for dinner and when the parents wanted to smoke they would ask the children to leave the house......can you believe that???? Now I know some parents who go outside to smoke so as not to smoke around their children....but these parents get their children to go outside so they can smoke inside!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! Can you believe that?????

Susannah couldn't believe it!!!

Lloyd is out riding Bertha....Gawd he looks sexy out there :) Maybe I have a thing for farmers lol! All he needs is a piece of straw hanging from his mouth lol! I want him!

Laurie slept over at his friend Chris's last night......he's cycling home this afternoon.

Chris slept over at his friend Josh's last night.....

Lloyd and I were out by the fire until late last night...Sam and Abby were with us....Susie didn't get back until way past 11pm.....so it was late nights all around and we are all tired today!

We ran into town today to Home Depot as Lloyd wanted to plumb in the new sink and toilet for the main floor bathroom today.....yay we have a mainfloor bathroom in time for the workmen to arrive :) and as we only had three children with us, we went for brunch at Smittys :)

Thats my day :) So so tired....so so fed up with this crappy weather for June - glad its dry and not raining but where is the heat.....I know 18 is ok but where are the 25c temps we normally get????? I want some HEAT please!!!!!!

Twister workout!

Sam and Abby playing Twister and getting a workout with it - funny to watch :) As you can tell by Sams muddy face this was after an afternoon of digging outside :)

Pictures from our yard..........

Positively Blooming.....

The Provincial Flower is blooming all over our acreage.....and it's just so pretty, in all it's shades of pink!! The Wild Rose of Alberta :)

Cairo....

Cairo enjoying an evening stretch on Thursday.....