Culture — Page 67 — You are in My World Now

Going to the In-Laws this weekend

February 22, 2008 by Tricia

I think we’re supposed to get together with the in laws this weekend.

It’s my husbands oldest sisters birthday and I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to go to my parent in laws for a dinner.

Of course we’ll bring the puppy along with us. I suppose if we were only going for a few hours she could stay at home, but we’ve got to go out of town to see the relatives so we’re bound to be away from home for several hours.

I can’t leave my little girl at home now can I?

In fact, since we’ve been having so many crazy snow storms lately there’s always the chance that our day trip could turn into an overnight trip. There’s a section of our trip that’s really dangerous to drive through when it’s snowing hard or just when the weathers bad in general. We’ve been caught in that area in bad fog, blowing snow and wind storms and it’s pretty scary.

I guess if we are going to the in laws I’ll pack up all of our travel gear just in case it ends up being an overnight stay. That means bringing extra food for the puppy too!

If I actually liked going to my in laws it wouldn’t be quite so bad ….

My arbor rose

February 17, 2008 by Tricia

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This rose is Breath of Life. It’s a climbing rose. It’s actually the first rose that I picked out for my garden and I gave it a prominent place right at the entrance to the back garden. It’s attached to a rounded bamboo arbor and as it grows each summer I attach some of the large branches to the arbor so that the rose hugs one side and at least half the top of the trellis.

I also grow a large blue/purple clematis. It climbs up the rose and grows over the arbor. On the other side I grow honeysuckle in a large planter so the arbor is completely covered by the three plants.

Together all three plants make quite a lovely and dramatic entrance to the garden.

Do you have a special plant that you grow near the entrance to your garden?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Dutchman’s Breeches

February 10, 2008 by Tricia

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Enough with the winter pictures of snow and worrying about where we’ll put it if we get another big snow storm anytime soon. Time for dreams of spring and early summer I say!

These lovely flowers are formally known as Dicentra spectabilis and more commonly as Bleeding Hearts. With Valentines coming up I hope that no one has a bleeding heart. Sorry … bad joke.

Another name that some might know this late spring / early summer blooming flower by is Dutchman’s Breeches. Perhaps they do look like old fashioned breeches but to me they kind of look like a little girl with pig tails. What do you think?

I know I’ve got several months to go before I’ll see these lovely flowers so I’ll have to be satisfied with looking at photos of them for now.

When can I stop shoveling?

February 9, 2008 by Tricia

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This weeks theme is Heavy

We’ve had a few snow storms here in Toronto in the last week or two and I’ve been out shoveling the heavy snow! I guess it’s good exercise but it’s awful hard work when the snow is packed and heavy. My back ached each time.

Look how high the snow is on my tiny front lawn:

It’s almost as high as our car!

We’re supposed to get more snow over the weekend and next week. I don’t know where we’ll put it! The snow was blowing so hard the other night that you could barely see the led tail lights of the few cars trying to drive on the streets!

Please visit two of my other blogs that are participating in the Photo Hunt – We’ve had a lot of snow this week here in Toronto and if you want to see some snow damage in my garden take a look at As the Garden grows, then if you want to see what my puppy finds heavy over at Tricia’s Musings.

Snow, ice and even a thunder storm

February 6, 2008 by Tricia

We’re experiencing yet another winter storm here in Toronto. It started last night with freezing rain and since then it’s been snow, snow and more snow! Oh yeah … thunder and lightening too. Pretty weird if you ask me!

Last week we had a really big snow storm. I think it was Friday because I remember cleaning off our car while I was outside in preparation for going to our Puppy training graduation that evening. Of course it was still snowing that night and only three other people showed up with their puppies so we had a trick class – a bonus extra – and our trainer said we’d have an extra class this Friday for our puppies graduation.

Well … that day it snowed a lot! When I went outside in the afternoon I shoveled the snow. There must have been close to a foot of snow on our walkway, the sidewalk and maybe two feet of snow in a big ridge blocking our driveway.

It wasn’t too bad shoveling the walkway and sidewalk. I even did our elderly neighbors sidewalk too, but by the time I started trying to clear out the snow that was blocking the end of our driveway I was getting tired. My back was starting to hurt too.

Of course the snow blocking the drive way was a little melty due to the salt or melter that had been spread on the street so it was really heavy! I think I almost quit shoveling three times.

It’s amazing how hard snow shoveling is on the body! I’m a nurse and on snowy days there’d always be a larger number of people, usually men, coming in to the ER with heart attacks. It’s very hard on the heart and most people over do it. Even I over did it. If I felt like quitting shoveling three times I should have stopped and taken a break, but I didn’t.

Makes me wonder whether I’ll even be able to shovel snow at all when I get older. A senior living residence might be looking good by that time! LOL

Anyway, today we were lucky. The sidewalk snow plows came around in the night and at least once in the morning so all the sidewalks in the area were free of snow. I wish they’d done that last week since there was a heck of a lot more snow last Friday!

Have you had to shovel a lot of snow recently?