Busy Busy Busy

Just here to say that it's been a very busy week and I haven't had much spare time. Hoping I will be back with something interesting to say soon!

For now, I leave you with some photos from earlier in the week.

That cute little tomato...

For those of you wondering...Yes I did eat that tomato, along with a second handful of peas from my pea plants.



And just because one can never get enough of the Fabulous Felines, I give you:

No more Lazy Chick.

That's right. I'm talking to...well, myself.

A couple of weeks ago (I think it was?) I posted my review of the first 4 chapters of The Beck Diet Solution. The next chapter has the first exercise to get you started on the program. I was feeling fairly motivated but knew I had a weekend away coming up, so I decided to wait until I got back.

Well, I've been back for a week now and the most I have done is to carry book to the living room, place book on the table by my usual spot on the sofa, along with the materials I need to get started. But I haven't actually opened the book and started in on the exercise. It's nothing complicated, no reason not to do it. Except maybe that would mean I have officially started and I have to stop slacking off?

But it's time. It has to happen. Again I say: No more Lazy Chick.

So, the Anti-Lazy To Do List:
1. Chapter 5 of the Beck Diet Solution
2. Decide on a new exercise schedule
3. Start visiting the scale again.

First item in list, explained above.

Item 2 - I was doing really well on my 6-8 week (forget exactly how long that lasted and am too lazy to check) routine of 3xweights, 3xcardio per week. By the end though, I was feeling the need to ease off on the weight lifting a bit and give myself a chance to recover. Seemed easy enough - just replace the weights with something else. But my routing has gone all to heck. The thing about the weights 3 times a week - it really meant I couldn't skip or put workouts off, because I knew I needed that recovery day in between weight sessions. Now I am getting sloppy about my workouts again. I need to decide on an actual schedule - what happens on what days. No more Sloppy-Chick.

Item 3 - When I stop weighing myself, I tend to slack off on eating habits. I need that reminder - preferably every day during the week. It keeps me focused. Right now, the scale is not giving me happy news, but that's my own fault for pretending that it doesn't matter and I can eat what I want. So back to counting the numbers. No more Head-in-the-Sand-and-Everything-Will-Be-Fine Chick.

Just no more.

My rescued Cupids

These two Cupid Tomato plants (in the container behind the cat) were looking pretty sad and spindly when I brought them home from the garden center about 3 weeks ago. I didn't really expect much from them...



Amazingly, they have flourished.



It looks like they will give me my first ripe tomato of the season, small though it may be.



The tomatillo plant is looking beautiful as well.




In the past, I've found that growing things in containers can be hit and miss - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Indeed, this year I have some pots on my deck with herbs that are not doing all that well, despite the fact that I've had great success with growing herbs on the deck in other years.

When I bought those urns for the tomatillos and picked up those Cupid Tomatoes, it was a gamble. Looks like this time, it has paid off.

Pretty in Pink

Remember the deep pink sedum I mentioned in this post? It is now in full colour! I find these flowers so striking.



You can see that the yellow is fading now, but the pink is vibrant.





There were a couple of bumble bees buzzing around while I was taking these photos. They didn't stay still long, but I managed to get one shot.



At the top, center is a Baby's Breath. I planted it last year, but it didn't bloom. I was very pleased to see flowers this year.







I love the little Viola hiding in the Baby's Breath.


This is not pink, but it's still pretty. This is a creeping thyme, I forget what the variety was called - wish I could remember! It has finished flowering, and is turning red.



And I just like this shot....

Watching the garden grow

On Monday evening, after work, I went out to check on my garden. I was amazed at how much things had grown, just in a few days. I guess we had just the right combination of sun and rain, because things seem to be taking right off.

So of course, I wanted to take more pictures. Which I did tonight. (For comparison, you can check out my post from a week ago: First Harvest)

From a distance, it doesn't look like much, does it?

But that little space is packed full of good things.

The tomato plants, in particular, seem to have had a growth spurt. They all have blossoms now, even my little Roma Tomato plants.

I even have my first little grape tomato.

And look at those Sunflower plants, in between the tomato plants. They still have some growing to do, but hopefully there is still time for them to actually flower.

I do wish my bean plants would grow a bit faster - they don't seem to be doing much yet.

These tomato plants are bushing out all over the place. Not that I'm complaining, because they are also producing lots of green tomatoes.

I think this plant is called Ultra Girl (which seems like a strange name for a tomato plant). Whatever it's called, the tomatoes seem to be growing very quickly. It is supposed to be an early bearing plant...Guess they know what they are talking about.

This was also an early variety, possibly called Ultra Early? Seriously, who comes up with these names.

And these are my faithful Scotia tomatoes. Lots of green ones on these plants.

The Cayenne Pepper plants seem to be working hard as well.

The tomatillo plant is starting to get blossoms as well.

I feel like I am well on my way to homemade salsa.

Kejimkujik, Volume 2

I got home on Sunday night, but later than I planned so I was too tired last night for blogging. I did have a good trip, but I didn't get as many pictures this time.

It was foggy coming into Digby on Friday.

My Sis, Brother-In-Law and the pooch picked me up at the terminal and we headed straight for Kejimkujik.

It was hot and sunny - too hot really - when we arrived. We thought our site looked small, but it was very private so we decided to go ahead and set up. It turned out to be a great spot - you really had to look to see other sites around us.

We were all pretty worn out from the heat by the time we got set up.

After a break, we headed down to the beach for a swim. The water was so warm, and it was just what we needed. After our swim we headed back to our site for supper.

Brother-In-Law had bought Buffalo burgers. None of us had ever tried them before. As it turns out, Sis & I didn't like them at all. We did try, but we really weren't enjoying them. So BIL & Pooch had extra burgers while Sis & I ended up having sausages.

Sis did have a nice surprise for me though; she brought cherries from the trees at home.

Later on, we had visitors. One of my cousins who now lives in Toronto brought his wife down to tour around Nova Scotia. They came and got a campsite for the night. It's been quite a few years since we've had a chance to visit.

We took our cousin's wife for a walk around the park. Then we stayed up late, sitting around the fire and talking. After our late night, we were late having breakfast on Saturday morning. We did have a visitor during our late breakfast though - we could hear him pecking away above our heads.

After a leisurely breakfast and some more talking, we went back to the beach for more swimming. We saw about a dozen loons on the lake while we were down there. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. Nor did I have it later when my sister and I were walking to the showers and a deer crossed the road right in front of us. It paused part way across, looked us in the face, then continued on it's way.

After swimming, my cousin and his wife took off to go visit with his parents. Sis & I had a snack and tried to convince ourselves we should go for a walk, but we were feeling pretty lazy. So we ended up just relaxing at the site for the rest of the day and having a late supper. Then spent the rest of the night sitting around the campfire.

All in all it was a relaxing trip. Unfortunately, it took us a bit longer than anticipated to get packed up and on the road on Sunday morning. So I missed the 1:00 ferry to Saint John (just by a hair). We ended up hanging around Digby for the afternoon. We kept ourselves entertained, but it meant it was after midnight when I got home Sunday night and I had to get up and go to work in the morning. I was tired.

But, I had a good night's sleep last night and I'm feeling better.

Gone Campin'

I am taking off for the weekend, back on Sunday. Still rushing around trying to get all packed up but thought I would leave you with some pictures to enjoy.

The Day Lilies are now in full bloom!









These Fabulous Feline photos were actually taken about a month ago, but I never got around to posting them. The boys were posed so beautifully, I just could not resist.











Have a great weekend!