2025.
September 1st. It has been a difficult summer for
gardeners. After a cold May, June was better but July was
very hot and dry. Growing conditions were awful for young
plants, and we lost squash. We only have seven squash, and
most are undersized. July was unhealthy for humans too,
with heat exhaustion for those who spent too much of a day
outdoors, and bad air quality from forest fires - a repeat of
2023 when we purchased an air filter. August was better,
and we now have plenty of beans, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and
a great surprise: our strawberries kept producing continuously
in the bins I set up for them, now going into the fourth month
of eating them every day with our yogurt. We have seven
bins.String band was great. It is still my favourite weekly musical activity. We played in the gazebo at Rosetta McClain several times. We also played three more times at Variety Village for the adult day programs, but they prefer pop tunes. My cuatro tuner stripped a gear, so it is now a nine string. We can get a replacement tuner strip but we're hesitating because of tariffs and uncertainty over the final price. Everything else works fine. 5 string remains my favourite instrument for sound and mental challenge, and it is physically easy to play.
On the 20th we had a meal at Pho Metro with Moe and Jennifer, which was delicious. On the 28th we ate with Ursula, Ian, Adam and Inhee, and Blanca. We went to Arc and Angela's for Canada Day and on July 5th we ate at a Doly Begum appreciation lunch. We sat with Dave Gracey, and our friend Patrick had been hired to play the piano, which was neat to see. On the 6th we had lunch at Jackie's and I took her some seedlings. On the 13th we had Ian and Ursula to our house for supper; we do reciprocal suppers with them about every two weeks.
Tennis continued twice a week through the summer and we were able to keep up with gardening, cleaning eaves, etc, although I got quite lazy about mowing the lawn. Language study continued and I'm beginning to make inroads on Brazilian Portuguese verb conjugation. I understand videos in Easy Portuguese without English subtitles; and also in advanced Spanish, generally.
June 1st. It has been a month since we returned from three weeks in Spain. In late February I got an M-Audio I/O and was able to use it to play along with Anne Delong on Sunday evenings. However, I lost my good ear buds on my trip to Spain. We had various ear buds from the plane and from bus tours but they were inadequate so I bought a Sony pair which seemed to have a good frequency range, but they were actually overly bright. The search continues.
Upon our return we picked up our usual activities: tennis, music, language study, etc. Through May we prepared the garden and started seedlings. I filled black pots and lined them up on the driveway. On May 27th we sold our GMC Sierra Hybrid truck. We bought it for $14,000, held it for sixteen years and trips to Alberta and through the southern States, including towing our boat to Florida on our first year of retirement, and towing our T@B trailer. We got $1,000 for it and could have set up a bidding war and got more, I suspect. But except for replacing the hybrid batteries for $3,000, and the brake lines, it was relatively trouble free. There was an ugly process of resolving a short in the system, being ripped off by a local GMC dealer and having it towed to the extreme west end to someone who was smart enough to resolve the issue - the memory of that will keep me from ever owning another hybrid before we ensure that local mechanics will know how to repair them. So we are down to one car for now.
We had meals with Ian and Ursula a few times; Ursula took care of my orchids while we were gone, and they bloomed upon our return. Some are large and showy. I might have to get rid of those that aren't, rather than spraying them every day to end up with dried buds and small blossoms.
On May 23rd our string band performed at Variety Village for the day program participants and their care-givers. There were eleven or so musicians and about twenty-five in the audience. They were very appreciative. We'll go again in June to sing and play. We learned that they strongly preferred songs rather than instrumentals.
May has had a few warm days for garden prep but has generally been quite cold this year. June is forecast to be much warmer, as usual, perhaps even including some heat waves. I mowed my lawns twice, but haven't yet turned the soil in the back window garden.
Feb 22nd. A year ago I gave Don some sixty year old whiskey for his birthday but it seemed that he wasn't that excited. His bar was full and his whiskey appetite was diminishing. This year I gave him maple syrup because a birdie told me he makes a mean pot of baked beans using maple syrup. However, most of his other party guests brought him alcohol.
My performance list is complete with happy faces, hearts and green highlighting for my best tunes. We have lost three fiddle players but gained two new ones, Petr and Mia, along with a new mandolin player named Linda. Elizabeth has been recovering in hospital from being hit by an Amazon delivery truck while walking. We heard from her once in her recovery, but not within the past two weeks. She had surgery on her knee, and eight broken ribs. We hope she'll be back some day, but it won't be soon. Bill, at 96, can't manage on his own at home so he is in care somewhere; we'd visit him, but we haven't been told where.
We can't go away for at least another week, until Deb finishes her two months of weekly anti-wasp venom desensitization. By then it may be pointless to go. We enjoy being here to play music; we've been buried in a cold arctic vortex and deep snowfall for all of February, but the forecast is for warmer daily highs beginning next week. Also we worry about the rush of airplane crashes since the Trump/Musk cuts to government agencies, and the value of our dollar in the face of Trump's tariff threats.
We'll play for BBNC in early March when the date has been hammered down (the 6th or 7th); we were booked for Feb 13th for a senior's Valentine day dance but a massive snowfall led to a cancellation.
I get to Variety Village now two to three times a week. I'm up to eleven laps on the track before doing some upper body resistance machines. The whole routine takes forty-five minutes. I feel good when I complete each session.
I'm playing accordion but only at home since even Deb tells me it is too loud for our string band. I'll hunt for a smaller one. I play piano once or twice a week, always for jazz standards and sometimes for Wednesday pop. For string band I play 5 string, sometimes cuatro, sometimes tenor guitar, tenor banjo or fiddle. I have other instruments that I play at home but never outside the house because there's no call for them. I play my trumpet on Tuesday jazz standards night.
Ursula gave Deb a cyclamen that is extremely attractive. It sits in her kitchen window pumping out pink blossoms. We had a small poinsettia for Christmas but it didn't last long. I'll try to give it fresh soil in a larger pot and see what happens.
January 3rd. We began the musical year with a really great two hour string band session today. We had seven players, including two fiddlers and two guitarists, and a bass player. I'm on a multi-week project to sort my tunes and indicate on which stringed instrument each is easiest to play. I'll have that on my phone and be able to pick up the correct instrument quickly, And I'll use happy face stickers in front of each one that's solo performance ready. I'll begin taking video of our group next week.
Don's 80th birthday was yesterday. On Sunday we'll go and have a party for him to celebrate. I'll give him maple syrup; I understand he makes a mean pot of baked beans using maple syrup.