Tuesday, April 24, 2007

April 24/07

My fingers have been flying on my first Christmas stocking (only 6 to do in total!) and I will post a WIP sometime this week. I am getting a little impatient that the order my LNS is waiting for is still AWOL in the postal system. I did not expect to have almost completed the stocking I am making for myself before even starting the one for my mom. My wish is to finish my mom's first because that just seems like the most respectful order to do them in. My mom should be the first person to receive one. Anyhoo, not every variable can be easily controlled in life, can it?!

The Christmas ornament SAL weekend is fast approaching. My schedule will probably not allow me to get much done because I am scheduled to work, there is a farewell dinner for a co-worker on Sunday, one of my El Salvador trip mates is in town to visit his grandkids, and my Rotary club has a major fundraiser next week that sucks up alot of my time during the week of. Plus, there is a doctor's appointment in there and I have to go to Moncton on May 5th for a Rotary youth exchange seminar. Oh well! Once I get to the 6th, life goes back to normal....Hang on! I was wrong about that since I fly to Toronto on the 11th for a Habitat for Humanity leader training weekend and then another pharmacist at work is away to England for 2 weeks so I will be working lots of hours so once I make it to May 28th, life goes back to normal. Yeah, so what is normal?!

The weather forecast just said showers for the rest of the day so I guess that I will not bike to work today. Besides, I skinned my knee when I missed the bottom step at my trainers home gym today so perhaps I should give my knee a rest. Gas prices are up to $1.08/litre which is considered expensive here in Canada, plus I cringe when I turn on the car because I always think of the pollution and I need the exercise so I am starting to bike more now. My plan is to lead by example since over the years, at least one other co-worker started biking as well in the summer. The guy across the street bikes into town year round because he does not have a car and I give him alot of credit because this little wimp with a car would not bike on a snowy road in -30C! There is only so much that I will do for environmental sustainability!

Speaking of which, it was quite discouraging to look in the brook to see what garbage has grown there as a result of the flooding last week. Once the water levels go down low enough for me to walk through the brook, I will be back down there to pick out more garbage.

On Saturday, I cleaned up my flower beds and made plans to plant more bird and bee friendly flowers. There have been news reports recently about the decimation of commercial hives because of a syndrome called "Hive collapse" and something to do with a mite so I figure that it can not hurt to plant some more bee balm and echinacea in the yard. I had a thought about planting some out on my property in Bloomfield to encourage the bees to establish themselves around my apple orchard. I have some awesome photos of butterflies on my garden flowers from last summer and I really enjoyed all of the hummingbirds who buzzed around my yard last year. Note to the wasps: you are not welcome to nest in my shed this year. It bloody well hurt when you stung me on the end of my nose last summer so please find another place to build your nest.

1 comment:

mainely stitching said...

Weird - we've also had hive collapse mentioned in the local papers, too. Although we're surrounded by large cities, we're in what's called 'the green heart' so there's a lot of agriculture, etc. I am allergic to bees, though ... only mildly at this point, but I've been warned that can change suddenly. Still, maybe if I planted the bee balm but made sure they didn't actually make a hive nearby....

Anyway, I followed the link over from the comment you made on my blog. I wanted to say "THANK YOU!" Today's been a totally crazy day and it was just so darn nice to read that someone thinks I actually do a lot (I feel like I'm treading water most of the time!). Have a great weekend!