Thank-you for all your kind words about Dave and his grandma. Waiting really does make it harder. And on top of that, the ward she is in went on lockdown because of a COVID outbreak, so they are limiting her visitors to just two people.

We probably won’t see her again before she passes, so I’m thankful I took Dave both days this weekend, and he spent as much time with her as possible. But as he said, it’s the time he spent with her when she was living, not dying, that really matters – and he’s covered in that department. Not just lots of time, but quality time.

Anyway, as you can imagine, there wasn’t much time for tiny stitches this weekend. I was too tired on Saturday after we got home, but I managed a little bit Sunday night.

I’m a little over half done the final border. I really wanted to finish it all this weekend, but I had to remind myself, other things are more important and it can be finished later. In all honesty, I’ll probably work on it tonight instead of waiting for the weekend. I’ve already got my next project lined up and I’m itching to start…

I found the kit on the Joann website when ordering some fabric and I just HAD to have it. I mean Burton on a vintage sewing machine?… how could I not? Obviously, when completed, it will hang in my sewing room!

I hope you all had a wonderful mother’s day (and thank you for all the well wishes for my Mama!). My brother and fam popped in to see her and had a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, things weren’t so grand for Dave and I, or his family. I can’t remember if I’ve told you, but his grandma had been in the hospital for the past couple of weeks. On Wednesday, we got the news that she wouldn’t be coming back home. Unfortunately, she would be moving to a hospice, the hospital was just waiting on an opening.

Friday, things took a turn for the worst. She stopped eating and drinking, and now it’s just a matter of days. The hospital is doing everything they can to keep her comfortable and pain-free, but there is nothing anyone can do but be with her and wait.

It’s almost a three hour drive for us, but both Saturday and Sunday, we made the trip to spend as much time by her bedside that we could. Dave played music for her and talked, while I sat by with my knitting.

This sock was actually finished before we went. While there I knit 3/4 of the second sock, but I haven’t taken a picture yet, so this one is all you get. It was helpful to have some cheerful colours to work with in such a gloomy situation.

Hug your loved ones tight, and stitch every stitch while you can.

I’d like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the mama’s of every kind and colour out there, but especially to mine… who proves day after day that she’s some kind of amazing wonder woman!

She’s healing from surgery quite nicely (staples are already out), and while she’s not able to be down in her studio as much as she like to be right now… she’s still crafting.

She’s been hand sewing these pretty little hexie flowers. I tell you, that woman is UNSTOPPABLE!!!

Our weather has still been mostly cool, cloudy and rainy, but there have been a few bright sunny days. I took one of them to clean out the weeds around the perennials I have inside and outside the catio.

It’s just small green things for the most part, but what you see there, are Lupin (both the old ones I brought from the townhouse and the new ones I bought last summer); Oriental poppies (I’m very happy about this, I thought I’d lost them and my seeds didn’t take); Liatris (purple and white); Chrysanthemum (I did lose a couple of the new ones I planted last year, but at least three came back); Tickseed; Coneflower; and Black-Eyed Susans. Not pictured I also have Bellflower, Sedum, and Speedwell coming back as well

With the majority of the weeds cleared away, these small green things can really soak up the sun and become big green things in no time.

I still have to clean out the weeds on the fence garden but I should be able to that this weekend.

Elsewhere…

The bulb box is blooming nicely. The tulips in there are just getting buds, but I expect to see full blooms next week if the weather stays nice. I’m really enjoying my daffodils.

And while the tulips in the bulb box may be slow, I got some surprise tulips elsewhere in the yard that are already blooming.

These ones are along the fence by the maple tree on the left side of the house.

One of the plans this year is to take down that fence, which was kindly, but hastily put up by our neighbour to keep people from easily trespassing on the property while the house was empty.

We are going to replace the fence, but we will put it up in front of the maple, which will give us another “room” to the backyard – and one with shade in the summer. But in the spring, it will also be the perfect place for a wonderful “woodland garden” with snow drops and hellebore, and lily-of-the-valley! Of course, that will be dealt with later in the season.

And last… prep has begun on the landscaping out front!

Ok, admittedly, it doesn’t look like much. Before we even knew of Alvinston, the house hard large cedar hedges in the front yard. At some point (probably not long before it was put up for sale), they were cut down. Only stumps remained. I’ve managed to get rid of the majority of stumps and the ones that are left, I can work around. This area is all going to become a garden ,but its just chock-a-block full of weeds. So… I took some heavy contractor grade trash bags, cut them open, and staked them down. Now, I just have to let the sun heat them up. That and the lack of light should kill 99% of the weeds beneath them. Then I can get out there, even out and amend the soil, lay down some landscaping fabric, and create the perfect canvas for a beautiful perennial garden.

That’s the theory anyway. Here’s hoping it works!

The weather is only now starting to get nice enough for me to get out and enjoy my new-to-me lounger. My plan is tomorrow is get out there and tidy things up so I can make use of the space again. (It becomes a storage space over winter).

But that’s doesn’t mean my lounger has been sitting there, unused all this time…

As you can tell by the cat hair… it’s WELL broken in… sigh… I guess I’m doing laundry on the weekend too! It’s a good thing those cushion covered are easy to remove and wash!

I’ve got a small FO and a short post today. I still had a full ball and a bit of the yarn left from the baby cardi, so I wanted to make a hat and some booties to go with it. So far, I’ve only had time to complete the hat.

But…

Damn it’s cute!!!! The pattern is Round Head In a Square Hat. It’s a Ravelry freebie. It’s supposed to have ribbing for the band, but I did garter to match the cardigan. And I added the pompoms, because it was just screaming out for pompoms.

Now I’ve got to knit some booties and get this off in the mail. Due date is still two weeks away, but babies come when babies come, and it could be any day now!

I am ashamed to admit, there has not been much walking in the past week. Work has kept me extra busy, and when I have had time to take a lunch, Dave and I have had to run into the city for something or other.

That’s not to say I haven’t been getting exercise… I think moving that motorcycle was worth at least three days of walking! But it means I haven’t been out taking pictures of our weird and wonderful little town.

Happily, I do have some pictures saved up from previous walks.

Just past the middle of town, there’s a bridge that goes over a little ravine/hydro corridor. On the railings of that bridge, there are these:

Little metal bird houses with planter boxes below them. I’m pretty sure those planter boxes were full last summer, though for the life of me, I can’t remember what kind of plants they held. I’ll have to keep an eye on them and get new pictures for you when they are planted up again.

Regardless, I think it’s a fun little bit of whimsy in this quirky little town.

Despite the busy weekend, I did make time for tiny stitches

While watching a few episodes of Black Sails (Pirate drama) and very interesting documentary on Al Capone, I finished up the flowers on left side of my little Queen. And you might think she’s finished, but she’s not. There’s still a thin, single stitch border to go all the way around here. But one more night of stitching and she’ll be ready for an FO post.

It took me longer to get around to than expected, but I finally got the snaps on the Little Pearl cardigan

It’s a basic simple top-down cardigan. What really makes this one shine is the self-striping yarn. In this case, it’s Ice Yarn Glamor Sock (sport weight)

I chose orange for the snaps, I think they they stand out just enough without being too over powering. I’m working on a hat an booties to go with it and round out the set.

Lately, it feels like if I’m not working, I’m driving somewhere. I was really looking forward to a quiet weekend and home, but Saturday morning, Dave and I were up at the buttcrack of dawn (actually – even early, 2:30 am) to beat traffic as we embarked on another quest.

Nineteen years ago, not long after I met Dave, his friend gave him an old motorcycle – a little 1970 Honda 550. It needed work, but Dave loves a project. It got tarped up and set at the back of the parking spot at his mom’s condo. And there it stayed for the last 19 years. We just never had the time or money (or space) to work on it properly

They are doing some work in the underground, so they needed us to move the bike. It was time to finally bring her home.

We were supposed to get a proper motorcycle trailer with ramps, but Uhaul decided to send us to a location that is no longer a Uhaul dealer (why… I don’t know…. but it’s not the first issue I’ve had with Uhaul. It is however, the last). Friday afternoon we found ourself with no trailer, and a deadline to move the bike.

Happily, Dad gave me his old box trailer back when we first bought the house. It was a little rickety, but it would do the trick in a pinch.

So we hooked up the trailer, and hit the road.

The bike was filthy – covered in 19 years of underground soot. Most of the moving parts were seized, and the tires were flat. Those things were easily solvable. The big issue we had was how the heck we were going to get it in the trailer with no ramps. Happily, Dad built the trailer so the back wall came off, and we only had to lift it about a foot and a half… but that’s still a lot when you’re talking about a 450lb hunk of metal and rubber, and you’re only two people. (and one of those people are me!)

It took about 20 minutes of trial and error and some how we (and by we I mean, mostly Dave) managed it. For my piece of mind while towing, we laid her on her side and strapped her down. I’ve helped Dad with enough loads to know that you have to say the magic words (“That’s not going anywhere!”) after strap something down.

Then we set off.

We made a brief stop by Dave’s grandma’s to pick up a spare windsheild for his Charger that he stored there and set off. You can see by the sun it was still quite early.

We stopped again about halfway home for some breakfast.

I haven’t had McDonalds hotcakes since I was about 15 or 16 (it was a fishing trip I took with Dad) and they were pretty darn good. The same cannot be said for Dave’s breakfast…

Someone murdered his poor Chicken McMuffin. Seriously… who would think it’s okay to send out something like that? Happily, I’d bought him two (the other one was fine) and extra hashbrowns… so for this one, he just ate the chicken and tossed the muffin.

The rest of the trip was long, but uneventful.

By 11:30 am, we were home safe in the driveway. Now we just had to get the darn thing out of the trailer!

I told Dave we’d do it later and promptly went and had nap – lol!

But eventually, with many more swear words and some struggling, we got her out. Gravity made it a little easier than getting her in there, but it still took as a tonne of sheer muscle on Dave’s part.

Now she’s had a quick rinse, and you can see her charm more readily

I think she’ll probably need a full strip down an rebuild… Dave disagrees. We’ll see who’s right in the end. Though who knows how far away that will be – it’s not like we really have the time or money to put into her at the moment. But regardless, she’s home… and doesn’t need to be lifted into or out of a trailer any time soon.

And hopefully, I can stay off the road NEXT weekend!