Saturday, April 12, 2014

Spring Has Sprung -A Dung- Dung!

After a long snowy winter, things are finally starting to turn around a bit.  If you remember from a previous blog post, the Strata (typically called the Home Owners Association in the US), was working on drainage remediation around our complex.  Scootard and I had to make a dash outside to rescue what we could from our little garden area before we lost everything to earth movers and gravel!

Well, the plants; such as they are survived.  Some thrived and some didn't do that well.  I suspect it was due to over crowding in the pots.  But we ran out of pots!  So, oh well.......

Here is a picture of the Hyacinths and Tulips that we salvaged before they were ready to pop open...


And here is after......:-) these are some Hyacinths


These are some Tulips.  This picture was taken through a window that is why it looks a bit cloudy. the tulips don't seem to be doing that well as far as blooms go.


These are the Grape Hyacinths.  When fall comes, I will trim the leaves back and maybe separate the bulbs some.....


More Hyacinths......:-).  These are starting to fade now.  Ass you can see in the background, the landscapers have not come to lay down sod or seed yet.  So, we figured we had better put in the ground whatever we were going to plant this year in a hurry.  Otherwise, we would have to cut through the sod to do it.  I don't think the Strata management company would have been happy with that.


We headed for a nursery out of town that I had never been to before.....yay...!


     They had all manner of "stuff" in this store!  I loved it...

Although, I have no idea what happened at this point...haha


Night lights....very cool....:-)


A fire place/ waterfall combo....now, that is really cool!



ok, ok...back to business...  We had loaded up a cart with 4 beautiful Rhododendron and then decided to google the species and see what diseases it was susceptible to.  Well, we had that part under control and then discovered we are living on the WRONG side of the building for proper lighting.....:-(.  We really had our hearts set on those or Hydrangeas.  But both seemed to be quite delicate and we get a LOT of sun for a LONG time in the summer....:-(.  So, we finally settled on some Hibiscus plants.    



These are "double bloom" Hibiscus, so I hope they are as pretty as they sound.  They were all quite a bit cheaper than the Rhodes and the Hydrangeas too.


These didn't have a picture, but the description sounded pretty.  All of them are still in dormancy.  Hopefully in a couple of years they will have filled out and become quite beautiful.....


 After the assistant assured us that the plants we wanted probably would not survive for us, he recommended that we get this stuff for planting our new plants to help them thrive.
  

 Chris was a trooper getting everything into the car for me.  He's just starting to get his "wind" back after a bout with pneumonia....:-(.  Poor guy....


 After spending almost three hours in the store "ooooowin" and "ahhhhwin", it was time for dinner.  I could not believe it was almost 8:00pm!  We headed for a restaurant that was almost 30 minutes away.  It's called "Fet's" or something like that.  I was starving and so was he.

Chris ordered some Poutine as a starter. For those of you who don't know what Poutine is; it is french fries (or yam fries) smothered in gravy and topped with cheese curds.  It was dark in the restaurant.  Sorry about the blurr....


I ordered mushroom stuffed pasta with truffles......(or something like that)..??


Then for a main course he ordered this giant burger thingee.....ha


 I could not believe I ordered more pasta! This was Cajun Cream Chicken....it was SMOKIN HOT...haha


It was a great day and I have a feeling it is going to be a great summer.....:-)


See you soon!!