Chuckles and Chortles

Happy new week, blogging friends! How is everyone? What are you up to? How are things going? What are you reading, watching, doing, eating, discussing...? Share in the comments and tell me all about it.

So last week we did head up to Ottawa. We spent the afternoon doing our own thing and in the evening we stopped by my daughter's house to visit with her and her boyfriend. We ordered pizza, talked, had dessert and talked some more. It was a lovely day. And I'm continuing to go walking on Sunday mornings with a friend that lives nearby. Yesterday we hooked up at 7:30 AM. We're both early risers, so mornings walks work well for us.

Eva, our variegated maple that was infested by Japanese beetles, is doing great! The spray we used to rid her of those pests works like magic. We will spray her once a week until those nasty bugs are done for the season. Here's a link to the product we used: ORTHO® BEETLE B GON MAX™ BEETLE KILLER

My sanctuary is still my garden, which is thriving. Below are some images with the first two being the plants that have been flowering non-stop!

This beautiful plant is just beginning to bloom:

My hosta, which is also getting ready to bloom, has turned into a monster. This image doesn't demonstrate just how huge it is:

What I'm really looking forward to is the full growth of this plant, which is a sunflower that will reach the height of 10 to 12 feet! I planted it from seed and it's on its way.

And finally, I wanted to share this funny video of my favourite garden visitor. How many peanuts can a chipmunk fit into its mouth? Watch and find out.

Okay, let's get to the funny stuff. I hope you enjoy the images and I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

Chuckles and Chortles

Happy Monday, blogging friends! I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope you are all doing well. Please share your news in the comments. Before I go on, I want to talk about commenting. I know many of us have had issues with that on other blogs, maybe even our own. Not sure what Blogger has done to cause that problem or how to solve it. But I do know that some of your comments end up in my spam folder, so if you don't see your comment appear right away, rest assured that eventually I'll fish it out of spam and approve it. Also, my comments are not showing up on some of your blogs (Janie, my dear, yours is one of them!), so please check your own spam folders and rescue me!

Okay, moving along...

It's been a quiet week. We pretty much kept to ourselves. I did go for a very long walk (about two hours worth) with a friend yesterday morning. We could have kept going for even longer but it started getting really hot. My younger daughter contacted me over the weekend to let me know that she finally tested negative for COVID after having been infected. She and her boyfriend are over it. I'm very pleased about that and we'll be making plans soon to meet up for dinner in Ottawa.

Bugs...UGH! I've been eaten alive this year by mosquitoes. I'm not always a favourite treat but this summer it's been awful. I have so many bites, I get the urge to make myself a scratching post for my cats. And speaking of vile insects, the Japanese beetles have found our garden. Primarily our beautiful variegated maple, Eva. I went out to water one morning and she was filled with them and many of her leaves were skeletal. EEEEK... So I headed to the garden center to pick up a product that I discovered after watching a video on YouTube. It's specifically targeted to Japanese beetles. We sprayed Eva and all our other trees (just in case) later that day and hoped for the best. The next day I checked up on Eva and there wasn't a single beetle on there! We'll spray weekly until all these nasties are gone.

The garden is doing very well and we have a flurry of activity in it, too, with all the bird feeders. It has become my place of peace. Here is an image of the tiny flower bed in front of our home. Mostly annuals right now until I find the right perennials. It's a work in progress but coming along nicely.

And some flower and plant images to add some colour to your day:

A Fun List Of Questions

My blogging pal, Ellen, over at 15 and Meowing listed a whole bunch of fun questions and I decided to play along. I'm sharing my answers below and I hope some of you play along!

- Age backward: 75

- Favorite pie: Cheesecake (I insist that it's a pie. Don't make me fight you!)

- Steak or seafood: Seafood

- Pepsi or Coke: Green tea

- Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate vanilla swirl

- How many tattoos: None (but I hope to get one soon)

- Ever hit a deer: NO! (I've never hit any animal while driving...thank goodness!)

- Netflix or Hulu: Netflix

- Last text from: My best friend

- Favorite season: Spring

- Surgeries: Cesarean (first child)

- Favorite color: Blue and Purple

- Mountains or Beach: Beach...with mountains nearby

- Dogs or cats: Cats. Big cats, little cats, cats, cats, cats...

- Early morning person: Yes! (Sometimes I get up before the birds)

- Have you ever flown on a plane: Yes, multiple times

- Favorite holiday: Christmas and Halloween

- Beer or wine: Coolers! Although I barely, if ever, drink alcohol

- Mild or hot salsa: Hummus

- Smooth or crunchy peanut butter: The crunchier the better

- Waffles or Pancakes: Neither. I'd rather have some fruit and peanut butter with honey on sourdough bread.

- Who will play: Whoever thinks this is fun! Will it be you?

Chuckles and Chortles

Happy new week, lovely bloggers! What's up with all of you? What are you watching? What are you reading? What are you doing? What's going on? Inquiring blogger minds want to know!

Our weather has been...strange. But nice! It's cool overnight, in the morning and in the evening, and warm in the afternoon. It doesn't really feel like July weather. Yet. And I'm hoping it stays that way. I'm not a fan of heat waves any more than I am a fan of those horribly cold winter days.

It's been a quiet period for us. We were supposed to make plans last week to meet for dinner with my younger daughter and her boyfriend so we can celebrate her 25th birthday but both of them ended up coming down with COVID. They are doing okay. We'll give it another week and take it from there.

Yesterday morning I met up with a friend and we went for a very long walk. It was such a gorgeous morning; sunny but very cool. It was nice to catch up. When I got back home, I watered all the plants and trees because it was starting to warm up. All my leafy babies are doing great. A few days ago I visited the garden center and picked up this lovely Goldenrod. The flowers are a neon yellow!

And my mini rose bush has exploded with flowers. It's obviously very happy where I planted it.

We have begun looking into getting stones for the flower beds and we've been researching sheds to add to our property. All in all, I'm quite pleased with how everything is coming along, slowly but surely.

And that's all for now. Please share all about yourselves in the comments. It's always nice to learn what's going on with you. Enjoy the funnies and have a wonderful week ahead!

Chuckles and Chortles

Happy Monday, everyone! How are you, my friends? What's happening in your little part of the world? What are you up to these days? What's keeping you occupied? Share in the comments!

We have been enjoying some really nice weather. July seems to be off to a great start! The garden continues to flourish and flowers are popping up everywhere as a reward for our hard work. All four of our newly-planted trees are doing wonderfully. Lilith, the lilac, has flowers. Eva, the variegated maple, continues to be a showstopper with her gorgeous leaves. Carly, the crabapple, is filled with tiny little berries. And Odin, the hydrangea, is basking in the sun. I check him daily for signs of flower buds but I haven't noticed any yet.

And here are some of my favourite garden performers this week:

On the social front, I spent the day in my hometown of Montreal with my older daughter on Tuesday. On Friday, Canada Day, we headed to Lamoureux park where a full day of food, entertainment and activities was going on. It was a stunningly gorgeous day! We took a stroll by the water and then went for coffee. And yesterday, we met a couple of friends for dinner at a popular local restaurant and then headed to their place for tea. We ended up getting back after 10 PM and were met at the front door by both of our cats. We got a scolding for being out late and making them worried...about who will feed them if something happens to us! Cats...

I've been watching a lot of travel videos, learning about different areas of the world. The most amazing man in the world and I have decided that what we want more than anything is to see as much of the world as possible before our time is up. We're both going to make a list of places we want to see, cross reference and take it from there. If we've learned anything these past two years it's that life is short and unpredictable. We want to celebrate it while we can.

And that's pretty much the past week in a nutshell. Share your own thoughts and experiences below! Enjoy the funnies and have an amazing week ahead.