Gardens and Golf

Another gloriously hot and sunny weekend here in Victoria.  August has been so amazing.  I hope it keeps up!

Since Michael is thisclose to finishing his two big house projects we decided we could take a few hours for ourselves on Saturday and headed out to a local driving range.  Michael would love it if I would learn to golf so I’ve told him I’d be happy to hit the driving range once in a while to see how it goes.

It’s been, oh I don’t know…SEVEN YEARS…since I hit a golf ball.  Lordy.  I used to really like going to the driving range though so here’s hoping that translates into liking golf.

I wore my Toms shoes and could not get comfortable so Michael told me just to take my shoes off.  It actually helped me focus on my balance and foot position better anyway. 

We hit a large bucket of balls each, which was enough to help me decide which club I liked best and cramp my hand.  Note:  I bet lady golfers don’t have nice, long fingernails…I kept jamming myself in the palm with my opposite thumbnail!  (Which is why I’m wearing his glove).

After running a few errands we headed back to Michael’s to work on yet another house project.  Front yard landscaping. 

I wish I had a before picture because to you guys this probably just looks like a strip of new bark mulch, but if you could have seen the old log that was acting as driveway trim before you would be all like “wow, that’s soooo beautiful now!!”. 

It’s actually not bark mulch…it’s rubber!  Recycled tires to be exact.  Very cool.  We spread landscape fabric underneath it and edged it with large rocks in the hopes of keeping the weeds at bay.

And just for fun…lap dogs. 

Saturday eatin’:

1. Coffee and water.  Duh.

2. Scrambled eggs, whole grain toast, 2 slices of bacon, avocado and tomato.

3. Free hardware store popcorn.

4. Deli lunch: potato & yam salad, seafood pasta salad, olives and pickles.

5. Fettuccini with ground beef, zucchini and mushrooms in tomato sauce.  Garlic toast on the side.

I also enjoyed a frosty glass of cider with dinner and a deeeeelicous ice cream bar for dessert.  After spending the day in the heat my body was in need of some cool treats!

How was your Saturday? 

Have you ever taken up a sport or activity to enjoy with your significant other?

Weekend Eats and Good Times

Saturday…

Big day of getting a start on renovating Michael’s basement suite.  First, I spent an hour digging weeds out of the garden and picking the first batch of strawberries.  Then tried my hand at picking out just the right paint colours and staring blankly at the ENTIRE AISLE of baseboards.  My brain hurt.

Sustenance…

1. Breakfast cookie.

2. Coffee with almond milk, water, and bumbleberry banana smoothie made with almond milk and cottage cheese.

3. Green Tea Iced Tea.

4. Lunchtime snack plate: salami, chicken, brie, cheddar, olives, 1/2 Kaiser roll with tomatoes.

5. Watermelon.

6. BBQ burger patty with mustard, avocado, fresh basil and sautéed onions on the side.  Cheesy broccoli and cauliflower.

7. Fresh picked strawberries over vanilla ice cream.

Don’t attempt to get Home Depot to colour match a Rona colour for a sample.  You wind up with a greyish white, instead of a sandy beige. 

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Sunday…

After a quick dog walk and breakfast with my sweetie, I hopped in the car and headed for Nanaimo to visit my Mom and my friend Christy.

Mama rescued this wee little toy poodle recently.  Meet Koda.  He’s 4.4 scrawny little pounds and just had all but two of his teeth removed.

Look at those gangly legs!  Cuddly little sweetheart though!

Random eats…

1. Grilled ham, over medium egg on whole wheat toast with brie.

2. Coffee with almond milk.

3. Starbucks grande non-fat half sweet vanilla dark coffee misto.

4. Baby Salsa Sante Fe (chicken & guac) burrito with no mayo.

5. Dinner in the car: baby carrots with hummus, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Luna Bar, fresh cherries.

It would have been faster to hit a drive-thru for dinner on the road, but a quick stop at the grocery store saved me money, calories, and guilt. :)  Plus I have a lot of leftover hummus for this week.

PS:  My Mama bought me a new purse.  LOVE.  {Aldo}

How was your weekend?  Hope you are ready for another lovely week!

Our First Harvest!

The bird bath herb garden has been being put to good use since about the third day it was planted.  Everything I cook or prepare over at Michael’s gets itself a handful of fresh parsley, dill, chives, rosemary, or oregano.  I’ve pinched a few bunches to bring home for my weekday meals as well.

Yesterday I decided it was time to start enjoying the lettuces and kale that have quintupled in size in what seems like overnight.  During a lovely burst of warm sunshine I grabbed the clippers and made my way down to the garden and collected a massive armload of fresh leaves.

Even with the onslaught of caterpillars that seem to be cocooning every inch of fence, tree and blueberry bush, all of the green leafy veggies seem to have escaped unscathed.  I gave everything a lovely icy cold water bath just to be sure, then divided everything into batches wrapped in paper towel.  We both have more than enough lettuce to make bigass salads all week!

The rest of the yard is looking lovely too!

We are excited that the strawberries are all flowering and filling out, and at least half (of the zillion) plants are starting to produce berries!  Can’t wait to be picking batches of fresh berries for breakfasts every weekend like we did last year.

The new blueberry bushes seem to be gaining ground now too.  I swatted about a hundred caterpillars from the branches but the new growth looks like it’s winning the battle.

Maybe we’ll be making blueberry pancakes to go with our strawberry topping this Summer!

Patio Paradise

I have spent so much time helping make Michael’s yards of gardens look nice that my poor little patio has been all but abandoned so far this year.  I’m never here on the weekends so I tend to forget all about filling up my own planters!

All that has been going on so far is my pre-fab basil plant, which I’ve already been eating from almost every day for two weeks. 

So this week as I was running errands I made a point of stopping by a few garden centers to see what was left for me to pretty up my patio.  I have to admit, I was surprised at just how picked over everything was!  It was tough to find a few good impatiens…my favourite for a pretty pop of colour.

I opted to try out begonias as well this year since they were in good shape.

I went to three different stores to get a selection of four herbs.  All that seemed to be left everywhere were sage and thyme…neither of which I use enough of to warrant growing it!  I was on a mission for cilantro!

It’s a little limp, but I’ll have this little beauty ready to trim for eating in no time!

The chives are starting out pretty straggly too, but I have high hopes.  And this might be the tiniest little rosemary tree ever, but he’s cute.  I think we’ll call him Charlie Brown. :)

Since my planters kept blowing over and dumping last year I needed to replace my spearmint.  This year everything is sitting directly on the deck, instead of my raised shelf, so hopefully no more herb disasters.

I hadn’t planned on growing tomatoes this year since Michael is growing a few plants and I’ll get to partake in his fruit, but I came across this lowly little cherry tomato for only $2 and just had to bring it home.  I have the perfect pot for him, so I guess next week’s errand is to get some extra dirt and build a little home for this guy.

Once planted, this plant will apparently start to produce fruit in around 48 days.  I wonder if that means I’ll have edible tomatoes before September this year!?  Last year I missed out on the major crop because it finally produced in late September as I embarked on my two week trip to Greece.  Bugger.

Now if the sun would just come out and stay for a while I could spend a few afternoons watching my little plants grow and flourish.  Wouldn’t that be swell?!

Bird Bath Herb Garden

Oh hello apple blossoms!  How pretty you make the back yard!

As much as I love my little condo with it’s even littler deck it’s sure nice that the boyfriend has a big house with a big yard.  Of course, a big yard means maintenance but as long as he doesn’t ask me to mow the lawn I’m pretty in love with helping him keep it all pretty.

Chibi likes to help by eating the grass.

Michael loves the idea of having an edible garden, as opposed to just pretty flowers that die off each year.  The majority of his property has either relatively mature fruit trees, or perennial berries and flowering shrubs and such.  So as he adds to the landscape he’s looking for tasty ideas to do it.

They aren’t perennial but herbs are always my first choice when someone says edible garden.  As we browsed around the garden center he came up with the idea of putting this defunct bird bath to use so we grabbed a few potted herbs and I put this together for him. 

Italian parsley, onion chives, dill, rosemary and oregano.

It came together easily, held just the perfect amount of dirt and even has a drain in the bottom.  The best part?  He has automatic sprinklers and one of them hits the herb bath just perfectly.

He doesn’t really have garden space for many veggies (yet!) but was eager to get something edible into this long garden along his fence.  We somewhat randomly decided on a variety of greens which should fill in very nicely over the next couple of months.

Kale, romaine lettuce, and mixed green, red, and purple leaf lettuces.

After we planted everything we covered it all with deer netting to keep this bugger out.  He’s a hungry boy!  Sometimes we think Burl is a vegetarian.

The yard also boasts blueberry plants and a ton of ever-bearing strawberries. along with a couple of apple trees, a cherry tree, and oddly enough two varieties of currants.  Next up we are hoping to find hanging tomatoes and cucumbers.

Does anyone know if there are special varieties to put in hanging baskets?  Or can we just chose some yummy looking cherry tomatoes and hope for the best?  (He has regular hanging pots, not those upside-down things).

Meet Timmy!  The newest member of our doggie brigade and Michael’s homestead.  Nothing says manly like a pug-chihuahua-x!  :)

This little dude is super fun, friendly and soooooo freaking cute.  He’s taken to his new home very quickly and keeps the other dogs on their toes. 

Here’s hoping he’s not a vegetarian!

Friday