LOL That is too true! My two cats have it so good, I would trade lives with them any day! They're spoiled rotten! I could live with that

Hi Everyone,

I just came in for a dish of ice cream (OK, two, but who's counting)
after working all morning in my front garden. I decided to turn it into a meadow but I find even though you sprinkle around lots of seeds, you still have to weed out the obvious bad ones or it looks a total mess. Now that some of the seeds are flowering, it's starting to look better - not just an unmowed lawn which it started out as.
Will return to it later today after the sun cools off and will in the meantime catch up on some good reading here.

Blessings to everyone,
Ruth

Evenin' All,
Since I know no bad time for coffee, I feel justified in my 11:30pm post. Day is almost finished, all the usual stuff... Trying to get the yard done again. The deer ate my garden, well most of it. Thats o.k. at least they don't like the tomatoes or pumpkins. Getting a pool, yea in july, and getting ready to set it up. Probably take all month to fill it with the low pressure here. Hope the tortilla injury heals well. I tend to get Pizza burns either the roof of my mouth or the "cheese slap" under chin injury... go figure.. I hope I have the chance to get to know all of you.

Afternoon everyone. I have had a busy day so far. Washing , baking etc.

Larc I wish I could put some photos on but I don't have a digital camera. And am not sure how to do it anyway. But I will take some snaps with the old camera and give it ago. But please be patient as I have to get them developed etc etc. They are a great idea. You use a fourty - four gallon drum ( have to be very careful as to what was it it to start with) then we drew a template for the back of the chair, drew it onto the drum as you cut it out all in one piece. Use the top of botomm of the (cut off) as the seat of the chair. We are doing up some twisting round bar steel to weld around the back for a bit of a fancyer look. So I will do my best to get some photos as soon as I can.

Kath

Good morning all,
Kath, those chairs sound interesting. I use to have a grill made out of a steel drum, but I had never considered actual furniture.

Misty-W, you are absolutely right. There is no bad time for coffee. When people ask me if I am a morning person or a night person, I tell them I am a coffee person. I am sorry to hear that a deer ate your garden. I've heard if you make a mixture of cayenne and garlic and spray it on the plants, it's to hot for deer.

Ruth, your meadow sounds lovely. When planting a meadow, do you just shake the seeds on to the ground, or do you actually plant them? I'm sure it will be delightful to look out over a yard carpeted with flowers. And eat up that ice cream girl. We spend all our time as children dreaming of having unlimited ice cream for breakfast. There should at least be some benefit to being an adult.

And to everyone else, have a positive day!

Good Morning Everyone,
Just having my first cuppa and trying to catch up on everyone.

Kath, those chairs sound facinating. When I stop to think about it, I haven't seen an actual steel 44-gal. drum for years. We use to see them under every downspout on the Prairies when I was growing up (long time ago) but now no-one uses them. Did you salvage them from somewhere?

Misty-W, there is no bad time for a pool even if it takes a while to fill it up. Enjoy it! I live in the Southern Okanagan in a little pocket of a desert and when the deer come down from the bluffs at night they eat our tomato blossoms and then the green tomatoes (as well as everything else, of course, ) so I know the frustration. The neighborhood grump put 8-foot wire fences around his fruit trees, and Dad put up an electric fence after nearly putting out his neighbor's window when shooting at the deer with a sling-shot.

Stacey, I just scattered seeds around and watered and hoped for the best. Last year my Dad had a stroke so I quit watering and cutting the front lawn and, of course, a lot of it died. Anyway, clumps of grass survived and I thought, it did sort of look like a prairie meadow so I thought this year I would scatter seeds around and see if they would grow. Well, alot of them did but there are a lot of weeds also coming up so I thought I better pull them up before I had a delegation from the neighborhood come by.
I think next year, I will do it properly and put down a layer of bark mulch and plant some very prolific seeders like Gloriosa Daisys, coneflowers and other drought tolerant plants. I'm trying to get away from lawns and their very high needs.

Well, I hope everybody has a great day and Blessings to you all!
Ruth

Kath, I'm starting to get the mental picture now. Sounds cool.

Ruth, I'm with you on the high maintenance lawns. I'm going to avoid too much grass next year and I'm starting to plan out in my head how I'm going to do it all. I'm thinking a walkway and some bushes to separate our property from the train people's property (people walk alongside our building all the time, I'd like to try to re-route them).

Misty-W, looking forward to getting to know all the new Cuppa attendees too.

Have a great day everyone!

Good morning, good day to one and all.

Thought I would pop in before the morning run of taking the boy to work. Their still on school holiday until this coming Tuesday so he has been given extra hours at work.

Ruth the 44 4's wher from my mans work, they had de - greaser in them. They also have heaps of fuel ones, but they are too dangerour to use ( fumes and all that if you don't wash them out properly).

I know what you all mean about the lawns. I would plant up the whole front yard but I am the only one who thinks this is a good idea. He likes the grass, but it so much trouble to keep green. And with the hours he works it usually land to me. Although I love gardening, I would plant it up with natives and flowers.

Kath

Happy Birthday to Everyone in the United States!

Hope you have a great and safe day!

Happy 4th everyone!! Stacy, Thanks for the garden spray recipe. I'll be mixing that up soon. Kath, your chairs sound wonderful. I used to make doll furniture from veggie cans (for myself)so I have the general idea of the work involved!! Ruth your right There is no bad time for a pool, just my impatience showing. I've been waiting patiently for 10 years. Larc I love reading your posts and getting to know all of the 'java' group will be a blessing . Have a great day, enjoy!

Evening all,

The children are all upstairs, the little one asleep and the older two in their wind down time before sleep time, so it is now my time - and it feels like I have waited a long time for it today.

My teenage daughter almost caused a fire this morning my leaving her hair straighteners on, thankfully I was directed to her room by the ever protective goddess, and caught her carpet smouldering and managed to avert a fire.

To hear about parched lawns and brown grass seems odd, as what I can see from my living room window are two gardens very green, very lush, and very very overgrown! It has rained everyday for the past couple of weeks and not everything seems to have grown beyond it's limits.

Kath - those chairs sound fantastic, I hope you manage to get a picture posted.

Ruth - I love the idea of a meadow, all I seem to have are different shades of green, not much in the way of other colours.

And to all of you in the States - HAPPY 4th JULY!!!!!

Off to make my own dinner now and actually eat a meal in peace - sheer bliss!

Love & Light

PM

Good day to everyone and HAPPY 4th July to everyone in the States. I hope you all have a great day.

The weather here is nice, a fair bit blowy, but the sky is blue and the sun feels wonderful.

I have planned a day of nothing but beading. I have a lovely celtic throw rug that I have been sewing beads onto so I can hang it behind our bed as a wall hanging. Its a love knot, all earthy tones, so I am putting gold and green beads to add some colour. The one I have hanging in the lounge is the sun and moon, blues, yellows very nice.

Well off the look around for a while. Great day wished to all.

Kath

Bright Blessings, Everyone,
This is my last day of my Days Off so I have to make it count and do all the stuff that needs to be done but I avoided. Garbage pick-up day too so I guess I will start by cleaning out the fridge. Yuk!

Kath, your wall hanging sounds wonderful. How do you manage to do everything? Did you get the chair finished?

I'm renovating my house and yesterday the guys that do the stucco came to put on the final coat. They set up the mixing wheelbarrow in the front yard in my meadow. Of course, to them it just looks like an unmowed front lawn and the perfect place to set up equipment. I'm afraid you friends are the only ones that seem to appreciate and support the idea. A big thanks to you for that. I have to admit, though, it does look a little messy and I will definitely have to work on the concept a little more.

Well, I guess I better get cracking. Lots to do and it's suppose to get up around 39C today. Can't remember what that is in Farenheit anymore but it's darn hot!

Love to you all, Ruth

Good afternoon everyone,

Goodness Pagan-Mystress. How fortunate it is for you that you caught the fire just in time. I wish I had the view from your house. We are in drought conditions here and the grass is all brown. On the good side, I've seen fewer bugs this summer I suppose from the lack of water.

Ruth, don't give up on the prairie look. When the flowers come up, it will be well worth it. That is the thing about planting--you have to envision how beautiful things will eventually be, not as they are when you start. I am sure there is a metaphor for life some where in there.

Kath, the Celtic throw sounds wonderful. It sounds like a nice relaxing creative project.

Misty-W, I hope you enjoy your pool. There is nothing like having a nice day in the pool all to yourself.

And to everyone that has wished the U.S. a happy birthday, thank you much.

Have a delightful rest of the day. If you are at work, I hope the time speeds by quickly. If you are at home relaxing, I hope you find all of the time you need.

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a good day yesterday. I am finally half finished the beading. And is looking good. The kids go over to their dads this afternoon, so I will have three hours to myself before the man comes home. So I will get a bit more done then.

Gee Pangan - Mystress you are lucky to catch the fire in time.

Good luck with the reno's Ruth, it is all worth it in the end.
As for the chairs Ruth, they are almost finished. They just need the scroll work done around the backs, painting and the cushions done. The man has to finishe the scroll work and painting on his days off which will be next weekend before he gets the whole weekend off. And I will do the cushions, going to do them in some sort of vinal for outdoors. I cant wait. I love to make things for the house. They all take time ( if it is something for my man it usually takes a few weeks in between work), but they are so much fun as the whole family usually kicks in. The next thing after this I have been asking for is for the guys to finish the pagola they started for me. They ran out of steam on that on several months ago, but I would love to put it in the front yard with some creepers over it. I am lucky as he is very handy, has done some blacksmithing courses and is a boilermaker by trade, he also has a good eye for that sort of thing. Sometimes needs some encouragement ( mainly because of the hours he works, I only ask when he has not had so many).

Anyway, Ruth go for the prairie look, I have seen it on TV and I would love it. I know though what you mean about the 39C, our summers usually means christmas is around the 45 or so. But I enjoy the summer, long days means extra time for more things in the yard etc.

Kath