My fight against goutweed ...

... or snow on the mountain, bishops weed or whatever name they have for it!

I bought this property in November and therefore didn't see all the vegetation. Apparently the previous owner wanted ground cover under the tree and decided to plant this goutweed. Unfortunately this plant is an invasive weed. If I planted other pretty plants this weed would just invade and eventually kill it.

So, on with the battle. I learned that this plant is one of the most difficult to get rid of so drastic measures were called for ...

I covered the weed with four layers of thick cardboard and then a couple of inches of mulch ...


I then covered the entire area with geotextile fabric. I'm trying to smother the entire thing and so my front yard will have this massive ugly spot for a year. Jim refers to it as a "missile launching pad"



I've taken the rest of the stuff out (see bottom of pic above for a look at the goutweed) in other sections of my yard and plan to smother it later in the Fall. It may take me about three years to get rid of it all!

Thanks AM & G for a great week-end

My "super week-end" was launched on a beautiful Friday night on Danforth St., known for its famous greek food. I met Anne-Marie there and sampled their famous fare before heading down to Queen and Broadview to meet and listen to birthday boy Barry and the rest of the Wholigans. (I know I was lucky to be invited to this event as I was taken as Anne-Marie's guest and wasn't her first choice. AM's best friend and who-crazed fan Antoinette was visiting Toronto and was supposed to go - but had a return flight a few days before the event. Knowing that I'm a classic rock crazed singer who loves the Who - Anne-Marie graciously asked me and wasn't gonna turn it down).

Once arriving at the venue, we were warmly greeting by an excited and friendly Barry along with his really really nice wife Terry. We chatted for awhile before taking seats right next to the dance floor. Before the music began Anne-Marie was working the room, talking to many acquaintances while I was taking in the atmosphere, chatting to a few people myself and listening to the classic and fantastic (pre-1975) Rod Stewart tunes streaming from the sound system.

Friends of the Wholigans began the evening on stage playing music from The Band, Free and one of the best live performances I've seen of Grand Funk Railroad's I'm your captain/I'm coming home. Then - Barry and the boys took the stage and the room became electric. The musicianship was first-rate and the onstage antics were hallarious!

Anne-Marie and I spent most of their set on stage dancing up a storm and forgetting about anything and everything except for what what was happening in those moments. (We did take a short break and the second time we went up my left hip was killing me - but I worked through the pain until it temporarily left.) Being the crazed singer that I am - I sang along to every song sung - knowing all the words but no one including myself could hear 'cause it was as loud as the Who (Pete, Rog and those who left us but still in our hearts would have been proud). Yippie! I caught a T-shirt that was thrown out into the crowd by Barry. Wish it was Antoinette's size - but think Dale will be the lucky one.

I stumbled in at 2:00 am and awoke to the beck and call of Anne-Marie's sister as she had invited me to Port Dover for the week-end and wanted to leave the city as early as possible. I stumbled out of bed, limped to the car and was on the road at about 9:15.

PD was great! My hip prevented me from helping Giz out in the garden, but spent that time preparing for my important meeting on Thursday. At other times, we enjoyed sangria (thanks for the great recipe hint Giz), listened to tunes, ate BBQ steak (thanks Rob), hosted some of Rob's friends and enjoyed the garden. On Monday we went to the beach. The waves were gigantic, the breeze was cooling the hot tempertatures and the crowds enormous but not intrusive.

Back in Toronto now preparing for meetings on Thursday and next week. Thanks for the great memories AM, G and R!

My hip is much better but still not perfect. Guess that while I felt like I was 18 on Friday my body gave me a reality check and made me feel more than my 48 years!

Awake from the dead

Well, I wasn't actually dead, but didn't have any words to write in me.

2009 has been a challenging year for me. It began with serious bouts of pneumonia that then got complicated with bronchitis (lasting from January to March and then recovering from it after that). I missed lots of work, had temperatures as high as 104F and didn't have much energy for anything but sleep and work. I had to cancel my fun activities - such as singing and curling so that I could continue working. However, it was getting VERY stressful at work due to a boss that was unsympathetic about my health and who began putting more deadlines and pressure on me. In April I began looking for alternative work - which my boss found out about and decided to let me go before I could find anything. There are tough times out there these days but I do have high credentials so I hope to get something full-time soon (perhaps even with a better salary). In the interim I've had a few small jobs to keep me busy. The stress of the winter and early spring is gone and my health has returned so it wasn't a bad thing to have these changes (but would have preferred it without a gap in employment).

As such, the words for a blog didn't come.

But, these days I've been spending lots of time with wonderful friends. I spent a week-end with Anne Marie and other friends at the beginning of July, then had a friend down from Ottawa the next week-end and went camping with other friends last week-end. My weeks have been spent looking for work, gardening (when not raining), and doing a few small marketing, pr or writing jobs on the side for some old clients I had when I did full time consulting. Oh, I'm also struggling with not spending lots of money too.

In August I'll be looking forward to a friend visiting from Hungary (who used to live in Toronto but retired in her native land), taking a week-end in the country to enjoy corn-on-the-cob season and maybe doing some small renovations in my basement that are labour rather than financially intensive. .... and if I'm lucky ..... negotiating new employment when all the offers come in !!!!

Hopefully, I'll get more words back to write in a blog. Until then .... bisous

My cats were the heroes of my Christmas!

Who would have thought that my cats would have saved my Christmas for me? Let me explain.

Jim and I drove up to my parents empty cottage on two acres of land nestled above a lake in the wonderful Laurentian Mountains on Christmas Eve with my two cats.

Leaving Toronto we had pouring rain - this right after receiving a mighty 25 cms of snow - so driving conditions were messy. On the major highway we drove thru torrential rain and large fog patches, which made the drive long and slow. Once leaving the major highway about five hours later, we drove along secondary highway routes where weather conditions were changing - the winds were gusting and the temperature was reaching freezing and so there were large puddles of water on the road when there were dips in the road and black ice on the hills. We passed two cars who skidded into the snowbanks so we drove even slower. Slow and steady is best under these conditions, but with every passing minute the temperature and road conditions were degrading. I was starting to wonder whether we would make it up the big hills which would lead us into the mountains.

My mind was turning to where we could stay if we couldn't make it - the two of us, the two cats and a carful of groceries, including the uncooked Christmas turkey. But luckily we made it up the hills - very carefully - without slipping off the road. We did slip, but thanks to Jim's careful driving we made it past the tiny town of Lost River to the 1km dirt road that leads to the house.

It was just before midnight when we got to this road. The first part of the road was "crunchy" so there was no problem because the "crunch" provided lots of traction, but as we passed some fields where the winds were whipping all the water away - it was sheer ice! We had to drive down the first steep hill towards the little bridge that went over the fast currents of Lost River (the same river that runs through the town of the same name). We drove with two wheels along the side of the road in the snowbank to get traction - but woops we slipped - but thankfully ended up right in the middle of the bridge and were that much closer to the cold, empty house awaiting our arrival. Further along, we had to make a sharp right corner and go up a slight incline. Woops, we couldn't make it up on our first attempt. We were so close about .25 km from the house. Second attempt to no avail. I got out of the car and slipped right away. There was absolutely no traction under my winter boots. ... Oh no, how could we abandon the car and get all our bags, food and cats into the house along a road with no traction in the pitch black darkness??? I brought my shovel in case of emergency, but no sand. I was wracking my brain as to how we could get up this incline when Jim blurted out that we had kitty litter! Kitty Litter provides perfect traction - so he got out of the car (the stuff was on the floor behind his seat) and laid the stuff on the road. Voila! On the third attempt we made it and were on our way. After a dicy trip down the steep hill to the cottage - again with one side of the car in the snowbank - we made it.

If it weren't for the cats and their necessary supplies - our Christmas arrival would have been much different! So that's why I say that my cats, Leo and Rory, were the heroes of my Christmas!

Life is busy

The end of the year rush is on at the office and parties are in full force, keeping my life busy and blessedly fulfilled.

Can you believe we're approaching another year so soon? It seems like only yesterday that I was celebrating last new year's - yet in some ways it does seem like a long time as 2008 was a year of adventure and expense!

I've lapsed in here the last little while and have missed you guys - but with curling, singing, pneumonia, house renovations etc. my life has been occupied.

Christmas will be spent in the laurentian mountains for about four days and then back to the "old smoke" for a week of R&R in this drafty little house.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all .... in case I'm not on here before Jan 1.

Sorry - too busy, tired and occupied to say something insightful or brilliant.

The end of a life

Sad news this week. A few years ago I used to go to a great hairdresser who I just learned died over the week-end at the age of 52 of a heart attack! This funny and animated native Scotsman was an amazing stylist who worked and lived in the downtown core of Toronto. The big joke that people used to tell him was that he was a far better hair dresser than a bassist.

You see, this wonderful man, Kenny, was also a member of one of Canada's most popular "New Wave" 80's band called Platinum Blonde. This band had some great Canadian and international hits that filled the airwaves with funky music while girls donned their shoulder pads and frizzed their hair with lots of hairspray.

Music never left his life, even though the 80s are long gone. Perhaps he just liked styling hair - which he certainly had with the band! On his own, he released three solo albums - including one that was just released this month! A previous album was produced by the same producer who did my CD last year.

The Canadian music community is in mourning this week along with many of his hair dressing clients like myself.

A real life illustration as to why it's impotant to clean your house ducts!!!

When I sadly had to begin to turn on the heat this Autumn I started to get really stuffed up and sneezy. Lucky for me, I decided to change the duct work in my new (to me) home. This is what we discovered. I doubt the ducts had been cleaned since the house was built ... 55 years ago!!! Now I'm hoping that all this dust is gone that my sinus' will clear up.