Cedars, butterflies, and being Brave.
This week-end has been a pretty busy go, but it has been rewarding in the amount of stuff I feel like we've gotten done. Or at least made progress on things.
Saturday started out a bit slow, even with the pets bound and determined to have me out of bed by 6am. Really? Is 7:30 just too much to ask for? I guess with the sun already risen and the birds singing, our critters feel there is no real reason to keep sleeping.
Close to noon I did a bit of putter around the house, covering off an area in the stairs that I'd previously opened to access wiring for the coffee bar, and then later made a stab at cleaning some of the building materials out of the basement. It has become obvious that I'll make a lot more progress downstairs if I actually have room to work!
Later that afternoon we went out for a bite to eat, and ended up stopping by Canadian Tire to look at plants. We had been planning to build a fence around our yard and then plant a few tall, narrow, evergreenish trees along it. Since the budget for the fence is non-existent we decided to measure things out and move ahead with just getting the trees instead. Canadian Tire had "skyrocket" cedars on for $30 each; a fraction of the price a nursery was selling theirs for; admittedly the nursery trees were more mature, but at $30 each I can afford a failure or two.
Making the decision to plant the trees in the middle of a very hot afternoon may not have been well thought-out, but it was done regardless. I'm hoping they take and being to take off in the same way our maple did.
This morning we decided to make a trip to the zoo, and once again arrived in time for the ocelot feeding... and the snow leopard "training". We had a good time there, and actually had the opportunity to speak with a couple of the staff about the changes going on at the zoo. It's a real mixed bag, as we are losing some things that have been there for 30 years (apparently the current offices are what once was the original lion enclosure), but at the same time the changes are all for the better of the animals and I'm certain the whole Journey to Churchill will be amazing when complete.
I think I managed to get some rather good shots, but now I just have to find a parcel of time where I can actually go through my photos!
We did a quick stop for lunch at the Qualico Centre in the Park. The food was decent, not too exotic, and the pricing was alright... but the back patio was quite nice to hang out on for a while. Under the shade of a good umbrella, that is.
This evening we hemmed and haw'd about it, but finally came to the conclusion that we should go see Brave, which me did. I had intentionally not read very much about the movie, and at first I really wasn't certain what to think. As the show went on I really started to warm to it, but there was something about it that was different enough that it took time.
The worst part of the show was definitely the kid behind me that kept making clicking and popping noises the whole way through. Or the unwashed family that decided to sit beside me. I think they made my popcorn disintegrate.
Just remember everybody... being dark doesn't mean "smell proof".
But now, here I am writing a journal, and I'm really far too tired to be too coherent. Hopefully with-in the next few days I'll get some nifty photos posted and be slightly more coherent (probably my more standard level of incoherence) than now.
This would probably also go for things that I've posted to other journals that ended up just sounding like yet another non sequitur.
Saturday started out a bit slow, even with the pets bound and determined to have me out of bed by 6am. Really? Is 7:30 just too much to ask for? I guess with the sun already risen and the birds singing, our critters feel there is no real reason to keep sleeping.
Close to noon I did a bit of putter around the house, covering off an area in the stairs that I'd previously opened to access wiring for the coffee bar, and then later made a stab at cleaning some of the building materials out of the basement. It has become obvious that I'll make a lot more progress downstairs if I actually have room to work!
Later that afternoon we went out for a bite to eat, and ended up stopping by Canadian Tire to look at plants. We had been planning to build a fence around our yard and then plant a few tall, narrow, evergreenish trees along it. Since the budget for the fence is non-existent we decided to measure things out and move ahead with just getting the trees instead. Canadian Tire had "skyrocket" cedars on for $30 each; a fraction of the price a nursery was selling theirs for; admittedly the nursery trees were more mature, but at $30 each I can afford a failure or two.
Making the decision to plant the trees in the middle of a very hot afternoon may not have been well thought-out, but it was done regardless. I'm hoping they take and being to take off in the same way our maple did.
This morning we decided to make a trip to the zoo, and once again arrived in time for the ocelot feeding... and the snow leopard "training". We had a good time there, and actually had the opportunity to speak with a couple of the staff about the changes going on at the zoo. It's a real mixed bag, as we are losing some things that have been there for 30 years (apparently the current offices are what once was the original lion enclosure), but at the same time the changes are all for the better of the animals and I'm certain the whole Journey to Churchill will be amazing when complete.
I think I managed to get some rather good shots, but now I just have to find a parcel of time where I can actually go through my photos!
We did a quick stop for lunch at the Qualico Centre in the Park. The food was decent, not too exotic, and the pricing was alright... but the back patio was quite nice to hang out on for a while. Under the shade of a good umbrella, that is.
This evening we hemmed and haw'd about it, but finally came to the conclusion that we should go see Brave, which me did. I had intentionally not read very much about the movie, and at first I really wasn't certain what to think. As the show went on I really started to warm to it, but there was something about it that was different enough that it took time.
The worst part of the show was definitely the kid behind me that kept making clicking and popping noises the whole way through. Or the unwashed family that decided to sit beside me. I think they made my popcorn disintegrate.
Just remember everybody... being dark doesn't mean "smell proof".
But now, here I am writing a journal, and I'm really far too tired to be too coherent. Hopefully with-in the next few days I'll get some nifty photos posted and be slightly more coherent (probably my more standard level of incoherence) than now.
This would probably also go for things that I've posted to other journals that ended up just sounding like yet another non sequitur.