The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! Welcome to Monday June 13, 2022. Happy Birthday to my dear friend Pauline, grandmother to grandpup “Georgie.” We wish you a wonderful day. Yesterday we were all dozing on the sofa (me, Alvin and Georgie) when there was a knock at the front door. We all jumped up. The dogs were barking as we all ran to the door to find Pauline there with two trays of pansies in her hands. I had scooped up Georgie before answering the door so that he did not get free and perhaps run away. That would not have been good. George wriggled to get free and get to Pauline. He clearly miss his Grandma. Finally Pauline was able to get into the house. Here they being her daughter (George’s Mum) and Pauline decided to get me some flowers to plant in my garden as an extra thank you for keeping care of George. I was paid as well. Not that I asked, they insisted and I gratefully accepted. So sweet. Anyway we had a visit for a few minutes and I heard of some “Jasper stories” before she and George were on their way back home. I of course, helped carry his food, his bed and dishes to the truck as it would have been too much for one person to carry. Last night it was very quiet without George. He followed me wherever I went. Mr. Alvin must have been tuckered out as he slept without moving for a good two hours after my supper. He did not move when I ran upstairs to put clean sheets on the guest bed as Amanda is coming over the night, today. So great to have company.

Just after I planted the pansies, well not afterward it started to rain. Perfect timing. I ended up putting them in with some existing plants as I had not overfilled any of my pots. The pots look great. Very grateful for the additional flowers.

I also broke down some of the boxes in the garage last night. Just a few left. Some of them are hard to do so will wait until this evening and ask my daughter to help.

The sky is overcast this morning although there have been moments of sunshine and there was a pretty sunrise earlier in between the dark rain clouds. I think the forecast is for rain for most of the week.

Well time to fly. I hope that you have a great Monday.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities (and coffee, I want to add).

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. 57 days to my 65th Birthday. I even had an opportunity to help a neighbor and friend after I saw Pauline and George off, I saw a neighbor out moving a load of rocks from her lawn to the space beneath her living room window at the front of the house. So I happily went over and helped her.

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! The sky is filled with what appears to be rain clouds. There is a slight breeze. The temperature when we were outside earlier is actually quite nice. Not exactly sure the number as I did not google it yet this morning. Mr. Alvin did not have a great sleep last night. He was up and down. We ended up on the sofa at 12:32 AM, I am so grateful that the sofa is comfortable and that we have the red warm blanket to cuddle under. I checked his paws and I do not see any places where there is an open wound from the removal of the hair matts. Which still freaks me out and writing and sharing it with all of you. Well, I feel like a bad “Momma.” My poor Alvin.

He spent a bit of time outside with me yesterday while I was repotting my geraniums. They are looking a bit “not pleased” with the new situation. I remember two years ago when I repotted them and it took awhile for them to acclimatize to their new home. Perhaps I should have brought them in and out more than just two days. Well it has been done. Only time will tell, if I made the right call or not. My pansies and violas and tomatoes are doing well. The oregano seems to be growing as well. I planted the begonias in flower pots and placed them on the front porch. The colours are amazing. There are four of them. Begonias that is. The impatiens I planted some in a pot and put the remaining five in the front flower bed along with the borage seeds. I am excited to see if those plants grow from seeds. The ferns are coming up so I left them. Planting done for now. I would still like to get some petunias. The backyard does not have much colour at the moment. The violas and pansies are the holding up that end and are so pretty with purples, white and yellow mix.

Fingers crossed about Mr. Alvin.

I sold a outdoor glider that I had as I am downsizing things around here.

Well it is time to head downstairs and put on the coffee, I really really need it this morning.

I hope that you had a great long weekend. Ours was a mix but I am grateful that Alvin is on the mend. Positive thoughts.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilties.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. I am grateful to be alive, to be in good health, to have Mr. Alvin in my life, for sunshine and rainbows, for my own house, for oranges in the fridge and peanut butter, for this post and all of you. Happy Tuesday.

PPS. Perhaps I will be able to get a couple of baskets with petunias.

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! I hope that you have been enjoying this long weekend. Perhaps you live somewhere on the planet is not having a long weekend, in that case, I hope that you had a great weekend all the same. The sky is a brilliant powder blue with wisps of white slender clouds dispersed through. The sun is shining ever so brightly. There is a bit of a breeze.

I PLANTED some of my flowers early, meaning I planted some of them late yesterday afternoon – early early evening. After I had supper. I just could not wait. The pansies, violas, lavender, two other plants that I do not remember their names, three tomato plants and oregano. I found that my grass and lavender plants that had wintered in the garage covered with layers of sheets may have survived. The grass is partially green and alive so I pulled the dead spears and gave it a good drink of water. Time will tell. The lavender I wanted to change pots so I placed it in a smaller pot with fresh dirt and water. My Canna Lily seems to be the same as last year. A few long leaves from the same bulb. The same one that wintered in the basement. Maybe a smaller pot! I will just put it back out in the sun and see what happens. Today I will be planting the flowers out front. I have a flower bed that needs some colour. Those good old ferns are coming up. I thought they were all pulled but they are hardy creatures. I will leave them. If they survive and are coming up and green, they deserve a chance at life. YAY. I have impatiens that are pink and then some beautiful begonias. The begonias are a rich coral, yellow, white and pink. I cannot wait to plant them. I think that I will put the begonias in pots on the steps and the impatiens in the flower bed. My daughter gave me some seeds for borage plants. Time to get them into the ground. Also I am changing my geraniums that have been keeping residence in my kitchen since last summer and oh so pretty pink flowers and putting them into bigger pots on the deck. I hope that they do well. Yesterday I put them outside for a few hours. I cannot wait for everything to be planted and growing and the beautiful colours that will be outside my home in the front and back. One plant that I do not have this year is petunias. Perhaps I will be able to get a basket or two at some point and set them on the deck. Love petunias! Oh, almost forgot that I have to finish the back garden. Couple of small bushes need to be finished pulling out or cutting down and see if they come back. There are a few weeks and some dead leaves on some of the perennials which are slowly starting to turn green. It is a space that does not get too much direct sunlight but does get some. I need to change things up in there. In time.

I, we are enjoying the weekend. Last night after just a few hours short of 4 days I decided to abandon putting on the socks when Alvin goes into the back yard. I washed his paws and dried them before bed and put on the salve. We won’t go for a walk today and give him one more day. I checked his paws as good as he will allow and they appear to be healed or I don’t see anything red, which is a good sign. He really was pretty good about the sock thing. Yes, I have photos to share. I will get them uploaded? downloaded?

Time for coffee. Mr. Alvin got me up this morning. I guess with all of the up and downs, my body just wants to remain cozy and warm under the blanket on the sofa. Thankfully Mr. Alvin had other plans and forced me to get my fanny farkle off the sofa. Good thing!

I hope that you have a great Monday – whether you are at home – at work – wherever you might be!

Thank you for reading my post. I am so grateful for you and your time.

Happy Monday.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. I am grateful to be alive, to have our beautiful home shortly to be surrounded by pretty flowers, for good health, for good friends and family, for employment, for sunshine and rainbows, for good food and you!

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? Well other than not falling asleep quickly we had a great night sleep. Alvin woke up at 4:00 and then we were up to stay at 6:22 a.m., now does not get more perfect than that. YAY Mr. Alvin and yay Momma. The wind was cold last night and I was worried for my flowers but looking at them earlier they appear to be okay. We do have some cold weather coming this week with even possible “snow” flurries, I sure hope that the sun shines and the only moisture we receive is rain. Some of the overnight temperatures are in the single minus number range and that means covering the plant pots that I cannot move. There are three that I struggled to get to the lower deck from the garage and there is no way that I can easily move them into the garage and out for the daytime. So covering is the only option. I finally was able to download my photos and I now have figured out why everytime I download photos from my phone to the computer ….. that I get a message stating a number of files did not download and that is because they were LIVE shots. Gotta love technology. So yesterday when after two years with this phone (should have asked my daughter) the light bulb came on and I made the realization. So I spent over an hour deleting live shots from my phone. Luckily I had some portrait mode ones that I could download. I reshot the flower photos last night. The jewelry party was a success, I have no idea the sales but there were more people attending and watching the replays than ever before and I am grateful for that.

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This is my back deck area. Lots of flowers and different than I usually plant. Of course, there are some of the usual. I did forget to pick up marigolds so will have to grab a couple of those at some point during the next couple of weeks. Marigolds help keep mosquitoes and wasps away.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day and that your weekend was great.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you doing this morning? We went to bed later and I was doing a “no no” before turning out the lights, I was on Facebook responding to posts from my online Fifth Avenue Jewelry party. Then it was midnight. Next thing I new it Alvin was wanting to go downstairs and when I got downstairs it was 2:30 a.m., argh. So needless to say we have had some choppy sleep or rather I have had some choppy sleep, lol. Oh well. We, I am up now and ploughing through the TO DO LIST which consists of putting away clothes that are drying in the basement, doing a bit more laundry, cleaning bathrooms, washing main floor, vac upstairs, watering plants tonight, walking at some point, oh and I want to make pancakes for breakfast, going through photos on my phone as I was trying to upload/download my photos from phone to computer and it was taking way too long, and whatever else I can squeeze in, also the last Fifth Avenue Jewelry live at 3:00 p.m. Looks like I am going to be busy but that is okay. I am quite certain that the majority of the people on the planet are as busy or busier than I am. All good. Mow the back patch of grass, too. Luckily most of these jobs are quick to do.

Yesterday I power washed the deck, the house, the garage, moved out all of my patio/deck furniture, planting all my flowers in pots and in the front flower bed, did laundry, walked and odds and ends. I am finding that it is not as easy to lift heavy items as it was even last year. Guess that means I should be doing some strength training, lol. Perhaps bench pressing Mr. Alvin. Oh well. The flowers look amazing and I am glad that it is done. I love planting flowers and then admiring them for the summer. Of course, looking after them. Water them etc. I planted a more diverse amount of flowers and plants this year. I went with the approach when buying them of what looked pretty and the ones that I loved. Of course, I bought some old favs but a lot of new ones. I even planted a couple of dahlias, which are so beautiful, I got this cool looking grass and a lavender like plant. Outside went my geraniums and the calla lily. My deck looks beautiful and will just look even before as the time goes by. I can imagine how fresh it will look once I get the fence painted. That is a end of June, beginning of July project as it will likely take me a weekend.

I am disappointed that I cannot share the photos of my backyard/deck with the flowers and all. Hopefully soon.

Time to get this day going and have some coffee before I pass the time that I should be drinking caffeine. LOL.

Have a wonderful day. Take some time for you. We all deserve some quiet time. I keep telling Mr. Alvin that.

Continuing to live with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

P.S. love my new garden hose.

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you doing this Thursday morning, May 6th, 2021? We are well. We enjoyed a couple of walks yesterday and on the second one we were able to have an outside visit with our friend. She was working in her garden and invited us in for a patio visit. I love sitting on her patio in her backyard. I cannot wait until her flowers are all out and blooming. She starts most of her plants and flowers inside the house and then in spring plants them in pots on her patio and some in her flower beds which surround the lawn area. She has one of the most beautiful garden ever. It is our sanctuary away from home, I always feel relaxed and calm in her yard.

As I am plum out of stories and things to say on this morning. I am going to post some photos of mine from previous years. Bad me, I still have not downloaded the photos that I have been taking recently. I will be proud to show you my handiwork on the front flower bed and cannot wait to fill it full of plants and flowers. It is now a blank canvas so I had better get planning it before it is too late. Soon it shall be time to pick up some plants/flowers and get them planted. I cannot wait. My favourite thing is picking out some plants/flowers, then planting and caring for them and watching them grow and flower.

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  My Flowers

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  A gift

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  Impatiens

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  My pansies

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  Perfection

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Wishing you joy and laughter on this Thursday. Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

Love flowers ………

P.S. cannot wait to get the fence painted. Looking a bit worn, lol.

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are fine, not quite as much straight through sleep as I would have liked but that is okay. We will make sure that we head off to bed tonight in better time. Just saw flashing red lights out of my office window and turned my head to see the big GREEN trash/garbage truck. The dark cloud banks lining the southern horizon appear to be mountains with pale blue skies above. How very beautiful. A great morning sky. Not often the clouds arrange themselves like this but when they do it is truly magnificent. We had some snow stick from last night and oddly enough the snow that was on the front sidewalks earlier this morning had disappeared when we were up earlier. I did not think it was warm enough to melt. Oh well, it has left. I think that I am going to share some favourite photos this morning. I have no further words that can contend with the beauty of the skies outside.

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  Our World

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  My Flowers

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  More Flowers

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  Summer Adventure

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  Willow

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  Another Adventure

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  A gift

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  Photo Shoot

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  My Flowers

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  Another Summer

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  Flowers

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  Beautiful Place

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  In Awe

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  Impatiens

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  My Roses

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  My Flowers

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  My Roses

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  Park

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  My pansies

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  Flowers for Easter ….. Happy Spring.

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  Perfection

I hope that you enjoy the photos as they remind me of the months to come.

Continuing to live with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Second Half of the NEW YEAR.

Good Saturday Morning and Welcome to the 4th day of July.

Our neighbours to the south are celebrating their birthday today.

Happy 244th Birthday United States of America.

We, Canada celebrated our 153 Birthday on July 1st, 2020.

In the grand scheme of things two very young countries compared to other places on this planet.

Both learning new things as we grow or age.

I hope that we never stop learning.

 

This Saturday morning is overcast and a bit cooler than yesterday.

We reached 24 degrees yesterday here in Edmonton.

With a breeze it was so beautiful and the SUN shine.

Magnificent.

This morning I can see the trees swaying in the breeze.

It seems quiet except for Mr. Alvin squeaking about …. he wants something.

Alvin makes this half bark half whine half something ….

I can say one thing about my boy ….. patience are not in his DNA.

Oh well.

What can you do?

Spoiled much, oh no, not my Alvin (not).

 

I am so excited though as at 10:00 a.m. my friend G is coming for a visit.

We always have such good visits.

Then at lunchtime my daughter is coming for a visit and lunch, of course.

Cannot come at that time and not have lunch.

Keeping it simple.

I think perhaps grilled cheese sandwiches with veggie tray (limited on the veggies but I have a few).

For dessert, homemade chocolate chip cookies.

 

So entertaining this morning and then will get some work done this afternoon.

Laundry and such.

A walk with Alvin.

With any luck, Mother Nature will be kind today and the sun will shine.

 

On this Saturday, I hope that you are safe.

I hope that you are surrounded by folks who love and respect you.

I wish you much joy and laughter sprinkled with abundance.

With kindness and respect.

I/We, shall remain,

As Always, Carol & Alvin

 

One of my favourite flowers.

From another year.

A dear friend gave me an early birthday present.

One of the flowers in the pot that she made for me is pansies.

There are several in fact.

I love pansies as it looks like they have faces.

The coloration is amazing.

Such beautiful combinations.

 

Again, I suffer from technical difficulties.

Something I need to conquer.

Definitely.

 

Okay time to go as Mr. Alvin is losing whatever small amount of patience he may have had.

 

 

 

It is a NEW YEAR.

Good Morning and finally we are in the last two or three days of this bone chilling cold snap.

Cars, trucks, buildings, houses, animals, humans; none of us have totally warmed us since this all started.

The roads are frozen so hard.

Icy intersections are many.

We are so blessed that our power has remained flowing and that is due to the harding crews in the power stations/offices.

We are truly grateful.

 

We will be so happy to get out walking once again.

My clothes are beginning to feel tight and not because I am eating more but because I am not walking.

We all need fresh air.

The kind that does not freeze your lungs when you open you mouth.

I am grateful that Alvin and I have a beautiful warm home during any temperature.

 

Today is the last day in our temporary location and Monday we will be back in our “old digs.”

Newly renovated.

A new day.

 

I think it is time for some colourful flower photos.

Flowers for planting from a few years back

I hope that you have a safe, warm and wonderful Friday.

Kindness and Compassion should be our way of life.

Always a good reminder in case we stray.

Some situations …. some times, we forget.

 

Happy Friday

Always, Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Tuesday the 30th day of April, 2019.

The last day of April, 2019.

Well this morning there is no sunrise to be seen.

The sky is overcast.

White and grey no beautiful bright yellows and pinks to be found.

ARGH.

Oh well, this is the end of April and we cannot be surprised or disappointed with this weather.

It is what it is after all.

I snapped some photos to show you what we woke up to this morning.

Thankfully only a light cover.

But it is still snowing.

All the photos were taken from either the office bedroom which faces the backyard or our bedroom which faces the front of our house.

The tree is in the front.

Deck at the back.

So pretty with a light frosting of snow this morning.

The flash is on in the second and third photos giving the shingles and the lawn/tree a mystical appearance.

At the end of the day – am grateful for the moisture.

 

Last night we walked to our friend P’s house to check our her plants that she is starting in her house.

They are doing so great.

She truly has a green, green thumb.

In her outside garden there were pansies and crocuses blooming.

They did not seem to be bothered by the recent colder weather and snow.

So pretty …. and so delicate but oh so tough.

After taking in all the “greenery” we headed out for a nice long walk.

 

Humphrey joined us for a bit last night.

He just wanted to be outside.

The boys spent some time together in the backyard.

Content just to be.

 

Still snowing.

The street is wet but no snow accumulating however; in the backyard, a different story.

 

Spring in Western Canada or in Canada for that matter.

Snowing quite heavily now.

 

I guess that I had better head downstairs to ensure I am ready when my ride arrives.

Happy Tuesday.

 

Enjoy your day.

Be kind.

Live in the moment.

Breathe, just breathe.

 

Special Hello:  all those folks who are gardeners out here – you rock.

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

P.S.  the patio/deck furniture including the umbrellas look just a tad out of place sitting there covered in snow.