June 30, 2025
What a beautiful day today was!
Yesterday, Attila and I visited a landscaping supply business, and ordered eight yards of premium top soil. It will be delivered tomorrow. It costs a pretty penny, but it is needed to ready the last two raised beds for planting.
Today Attila constructed the last two raised beds. My assistance was needed to apply the bottom bolts, there were 16 of them. Attila took over after that. Brush was cut, trees were trimmed, the last of the old knotty, un-splittable ash logs were carried over and added to the beds. Luckily it was not too hot, or humid. Attila worked hard all day long.
Tomorrow Attila will be busy as soon as the soil is delivered, carrying it from the driveway to the backyard to fill the beds. The soil will be moved one wheelbarrow full at a time.
I foolishly worked in the sun without a hat, and developed a headache. After half an hour I fetched my wide brimmed hat and weeded the finished raised beds.
During the growing season our food bills drop by more than half, as we eat fresh vegetables from the garden three meals a day. Most of what we purchase right now is either dairy, fruit (we don’t grow fruit), or items that are on sale.
I sat out on the front porch for most of the afternoon, enjoying the sound of the wind in the trees, the birds at the bird bath, and watching Attila work. He doesn’t want me to help, he prefers to work alone, although at times my help is asked for an appreciated, as it was today.
July 1, 2025
It is Canada Day today. Attila wanted a Canadian flag, they are flying everywhere. Ours is draped along the front porch. Canada is not perfect, but we love it, warts and all.
At last, we had some rain last night. It wasn’t a lot, and did not fill even one of our rain barrels, but it was certainly better than none. Attila spends several hours every evening watering the garden.
Today is cloudy and humid, which will help the land retain the small amount of moisture it received from the sky over the course of the night. It is preferable to sunny weather right now, as Attila is transporting wheelbarrow’s full of soil across the property to fill the last raised beds.
I baked this morning, strawberry rhubarb squares for Attila, chocolate zucchini muffins for me, and a loaf of bread.
While Attila was loading his wheelbarrow in the driveway in the front of the house, our new neighbour asked him what the soil was for. They chatted a while, and the neighbour offered to help him, an offer Attila declined. Attila likes to do things for himself, by himself. He doesn’t enjoy team work, not even with me. For the most part we have worked out a way to move forward with projects by dividing the elements to be accomplished between the two of us, we work in parallel with limited discussion, that is as close to teamwork as we get. I do miss working with other people, but you can’t have everything.
The new neighbours seem lovely. They are very young, in their very early 20’s, and have just had a second baby son. We have been lucky that all the families that have lived in the house next to us have been good parents, and it has always been a source of pleasure to hear them out in their yard with their young children.
The current young couple next door bought the house about two years ago. This is their second house, they owned a house in the downtown area which they sold. To afford this house they used used their profits from the house they sold, and are renting out the basement apartment to an older woman and her granddaughter. It is refreshing to see these young people make smart decisions for their little family’s future.
Two of the former four owners of the house next door lost the property, they stopped making mortgage payments, the house was repossessed by the bank and sold under power of sale, twice now.
Then the last two owners have been young people who have a lot more sense and knowledge about finances. The couple who created the basement apartment, just before the last sale, went on to buy acreage and build a new home on it.
Old fashioned living. The new raised beds all shiny and new and full of food.
Worldly
Weather
28°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Tuesday 1 July 2025
Condition: Mist
Pressure: 100.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 25.1°C
Dew point: 22.8°C
Humidity: 87%
Wind: SW 17 km/h
Humidex: 38
Visibility: 8 km
Quote
“It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.”
Simone de Beauvoir
1908 – 1986
Maggie, thanks so much for sharing the pictures.
Thanks Wendy, the pictures are the unedited us.
I enjoyed the photos very much. The hollyhocks are gorgeous, and so are the other flowers.
Glad you enjoyed them Joan! The red hollyhocks bloomed a few hours after I took the photographs, they are pretty too. Tonight we celebrated Canada Day sitting on the back porch at dusk, watching the fireflies dance and flash all over the yard. We didn’t last out there very long though, because the mosquitoes dancing and biting, lol.
Maggie, may I suggest a Thermacell for backyard comfort? We’ve had various models for a few years and depend on them. I see that just this week CNN listed it as “the only mosquito repeller worth buying.”
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/thermacell-e55-rechargeable-mosquito-repeller-graphite-1592138p.html
Since I’m reactive to mosquito bites, this repeller is very important to keeping areas mosquito free when I need it. Also, DH uses it at our front door in the evening when he has to walk the dogs. Barely open thecdoor and put it outside for about 10 minutes in the area you want mosquito-free and you’ll have about a 10 ft radius clear in 10 minutes, and that area will expand within 20 minutes.
We even take it with us when we go to a drive-in movie. We turn it on and leave it on the ground next to DH’s door. Ten minutes later he can open his window and let in cooler air.
I can barely smell the chemical they use and DH can’t smell it at all.
Thanks Teri, hearing how well something works from a reliable source, your experience in this instance, is worth a lot. This really is something I will be considering.
When we lived at the country house we had a Mosquito Magnet, which worked very well. But we don’t use it here at Mist Cottage. At the country house the mosquitoes were overwhelming, horrendous really, thick enough to affect the light at times. The mosquito magnet merely lured the hordes away from the entrance to the house. Our only wholly successful ploy was a screen in porch, where even the gaps in the decking had to be filled to keep them from getting in.
I’d like to try this thing!
Hi Maggie. The photos are great. I love your flowers. Happy Belated Canada Day!
Hi Sandy, and thank you, Happy Fourth of July! Any view is improved by the sight of flowers 🙂