I went to the market and came home with a plan. It has been very dry here. First I would water these candidates for my garden. Then I would wait until evening and water my flower beds - give them a good soaking. Then the next day - planting!
But no.... I took the flowers out of the car and put them in the shade. I went to use the hose and..... the pipe from the house to the spigot broke creating a geyser which was aimed at me. It took a few attempts until I got the water to the outlet turned off (down into the basement, up to the side of the house, check and then all over again until it was really shut off). So with watering can in hand, I watered these flowers and tried to figure out when I could get a plumber here to fix it.
It's a long weekend - I'm not going to pay holiday rates. I have meetings all week so I won't be home in the day time except for short periods. Haven't worked my way out of this dilemma yet - but I really can't plant until I get some water into my gardens and there is no real rain in the forecast.
Each day Martin picks up dogs from various homes to walk them in packs of about 8. You can see him at different times of the day, always with a variety of canines. It doesn't matter what the combination of dogs is, they all seem to get along and enjoy being together. He controls them, in English and in French and they respect him in return. I wrote about him once before.
I'm getting my kitchen redone. Everything has to be packed up. This is part of my get rid of pile. Even it is full of reminiscences. The ceramic pumpkin, with candle inside, would glow on our table at supper time in October. My children are well in their twenties; the custom has fallen by the wayside.
This plastic car was given to me by my sister-in law. She knew my then young son loved anything with a motor. What could be more fun than a jello car! My son was sick with a sore throat. It seemed the perfect time for cool jello. I prepared the jello, poured it in the mould and walked gingerly to the refrigerator. As I opened the door the car tipped, spilling jello on the floor and into the fridge. What a sticky mess! That was the last time I used this car. Yet it has sat in my cupboard for over twenty years. Time to let go. Time to move on.
I took my car for a long overdue wash. There is a hand carwash not far from me, so the inside and the outside of the car got a thorough cleaning. I would never put up with the same dirt in my house that I put up with in my car. Now I can feel I am driving in a healthy environment (if there is such a thing in a car) for at least a few days. If I could only stop eating in the car......
It was a day for water - I had to hook up my hose for the first time this year and water my flowers. We have had a full week without rain and the flowers were starting to beg. It's that time of year when the garden starts to look faded. I need to keep the flowers happy as long as possible. One nice thing about this photo/blogging experience is that I am watching spring burst forth in Australia so I will have virtual flowers all winter.
A solid rain, yesterday, has washed my car. Winter is hard on cars here, with filth splashed up, sometimes as a fine mist, other times in a heavy spray. Cars begin to take on a uniform colour as the salt-laden spray coats the exteriors. Spring rain does its outdoor spring cleaning, washing away the winter grime. Streets and sidewalks are losing the layer of sand left after months of sand-spreading in attempts at keeping them accident free. In the spring sunshine, my car shone, reflecting the overhead view. Change of seasons. As spring progresses these branches will be laden with leaves, shading the car, keeping it cooler as summer approaches.
A little grocery shopping brought me to this parking lot where this old Cadillac sat. Its long body, showing signs of its age, rested near the handicapped parking sign - a reference to the car or its owner?
I remember the cars of this vintage, from a time when gas was cheap and cars grew longer each year - no oil crisis or environmental awareness then - just the feeling that car was king. These beasts, possessing no catalytic convertors or any attempts to lower their appetite for fuel, cruised our roads and highways. Going for a drive was an activity to do on a weekend.
Looking around the lot there are still large vehicles - SUVs and vans that continue to spew the remnants of burning fossil fuels - but there are signs of a change. There are smaller cars, too and hybrids. And maybe there's a shift in attitude, with the car becoming more of a means of getting somewhere and less an activity in and of itself as the monetary and environmental costs of fuel soar.
