Ann's Weblog

Today I didn’t book any dog grooming. It’s selfish of me, but I’ve had a rather busy week and feel I need the break. Silly thing, though, I woke at 6:15 and was unable to go back to sleep.

Here I sit in Gary’s recliner, with my second cup of coffee. I’ve finished all my turns in online Scrabble, read David’s weblog, listened to a song which inspires me, let the dogs out and back in. I thought I should take a moment to catch up with you, my friends.
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Ok, back. I took a few minutes to make breakfast for hubby and I. There are quite a few dogs boarding (“quite a few” being relative… there are seven today), so I can’t linger too long.

What a time I’ve had in the last week! I went to Calgary to help two daughters celebrate their birthdays. On Friday night I “danced like no one was watching” for five hours straight, and Saturday there was a lovely house party with excellent company and food. On Sunday we were together and ate and visited some more.

On Sunday afternoon I had coffee with a dear friend who happens to be the mother of my most treasured childhood friend. Helen is a person with whom I can chatter for hours, and we can talk of my late mother with love, reminding each other of so many pleasant times. It’s sobering, also, because we speak of previously vibrant, happy people who have died or are struck down by Alzheimer’s or other catastrophic illness.

On Monday in Calgary, I met with a fellow who was my stepmother’s financial guru. What an enlightening meeting that was! Although what I have to invest is relatively little, I was treated very well, and Ron and I spoke of Myrtle, life, death, divorce, children, Calgary and more… I was there for hours and didn’t feel I was taking up his valuable time. He even gave me corporate gifts such as tumblers, pens and coffee mugs (*shrugs*).

Since my return home, we held a dinner party with East Indian food… I pulled out all the relevant ingredients I could find in the cupboards, and bought a little more. I hadn’t had enough though we had such an ethnic feast the week before I went to Calgary, and while visiting in the city too.

During the last few days, I’ve been quite occupied with pet grooming; after even a short absence the work seems to pile up. Yesterday I groomed one large dog and three small ones. I had to deal with a (human) psych patient. I was completely exhausted and Gary reminds me that I couldn’t sleep in this morning because I went to bed so early.

Anyway… at the moment I’m overhearing hubby and his brother discuss, on iChat, volatile family situations (while we are planning a trip to an important family function). I must get out to care for the boarding dogs and then… attend a craft fair and no fewer than five yard sales! It’s going to be another great day in the Valley.

Love you guys. Thank you for listening to my distracted ramble.

~ Ann

I woke before the alarm rang at 6:30 in order to greet a customer at quarter to 7 or so. So I’ve had my first mug of coffee and felt like talking to you!

We went to an amazing concert last night, the Jesse Peters Trio. I had been feeling tired in midday, and had orchestrated my part of the dinner for the artists and “board” (of the Robson Valley Roundhouse Theatre Society). There was a thought in my mind of sending the food with Gary, or attending the dinner and then coming home. I’m so glad I decided to push myself just a little to stay out late.

Here’s what I took to the Indian dinner, along with homemade chutney from homegrown ingredients.

Most of the dinner was completely gobbled up… naan, papadums, rice dishes, lentils, the butter chicken, lamb and other curries. We came home with a couple of servings of the chicken, so guess what Gary’s having for supper tonight?

Business has been steady, in both the pets and plants departments. That’s all relative, y’know… if I have two dogs per day for grooming, I’m happy, and sometimes that seems like more than a full day. Depends on the size of the dogs and the condition they’re in, and also whether I get “interrupted”. Interruptions are almost always welcome: it might mean lunch or coffee with friends, consoling or otherwise helping someone, or getting sidetracked with, say, adding to my blog.

Here are but a few of the pets who have been through the Pet Hostel lately:

I have to run away…. will talk to you fine folk later.

Love you! ~ Ann

Last Friday evening we went out for dinner and then attended an art show. I’ve been admiring our friend’s paintings for years, and glad that he enjoyed a little fame.

I will include his website address so that you can see his art, read about his fascinating technique and visit his daily blog entry. The painting that he is working on now is a view of the valley from our driveway!

David’s website

There you go. Two blog posts in one day! XXX

It has been more than a week since I composed a draft for a new “post” in blog… then didn’t get back to find pictures. I’ll take another run at it…

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I don’t get out much. It doesn’t take a lot to amuse or even thrill me.

This week I went on my annual tree-buying trip, for nursery items that were ordered during the winter. Usually my wonderful friend Eunice accompanies me, but our schedules didn’t work out this spring for the journey.

In January and February, I was feeling a bit fatigued. Although I was not depressed, I felt tired a lot of the time, and when people started asking me about my choices in nursery stock and questioning the choices on the list that I was making, I felt that I wanted to give up my little garden centre enterprise. Finally there was a now-or-never day… I had to either send the order in or “call it quits” for the year or permanently.

One of the factors in my decision to continue the tree and perennial plant sales was that I felt I could afford to stay overnight on my trip. In the past, we would drive about 7.5 hours each way, with approximately an hour for loading, and rarely stop for anything except fuel and washrooms. Obviously each trip was an extremely long day.

This time, I left home in daylight and drove along without the sense of urgency. Because I am slightly more familiar with Kamloops than Kelowna where I get the trees, I thought I’d stop at the Costco in Kamloops, but I missed the off ramp. It feels like you’ll end up in Vancouver before there’s any place to get turned around on that highway, so I decided to go to Kelowna via Merritt.

I had never travelled the connecting freeway between Merritt and Kelowna, but the route is expedient when the weather is good, as the posted speed limit is high. However, I ran into winter driving conditions… fog, sleet and snow, so I had to poke along in places. Even so, I was happy to see a different part of our province.
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That was my excerpt from a week ago. How does my friend David manage to make blogging a perfectly regular part of his routine?

For all the years that I’ve been making my tree-buying trip, I have passed this old willow tree near the side of the road. Because it exists farther north than most weeping willows of any variety, I was tempted to take a branch or two and try to root it for myself. Keeping me from doing this was the fact that it was on private property, well within a fence line, and there were buildings near it.

Imagine my surprise when, as I sped by on my way home, I realized that not only were the decrepit buildings demolished, but the fence had been MOVED. There also were quite a number of branches from this tree lying on the ground. As you can see, the tree now overhangs an accessible “pull out”, looking very public. I turned the truck and horse trailer around to go back to the tree and got my “cuttings”.

I had lunch and coffee with a small group of friends yesterday and that cheered me. The almost constant rain is getting to me. The clouds are so heavy that it feels like spring will never come, the mud is awful. Hope the sun starts shining in earnest soon.

Love you lots! ~ Ann

p.s. I shouldn’t give the prick any press, but I have to say… a “lurker” in the Chat room mocks me, saying that I couldn’t possibly make a profit from the small garden centre business. I should have asked him when I had the chance, “What does it matter? Do you assume I have to make money at everything I do?”. He said he worked in this industry for many years; I wonder if that’s true and how he couldn’t imagine that I DO enjoy a modest profit. My trips, including motel room now (tax deductible), cost less than the horrendous cost of freight, and I can still undersell some larger nurseries. I’ve got it made in the shade, baybee… back off!

I haven’t been able to get into my blog for days. Actually, I’ve been trying every so often since my last post.

Now that that I’m “in”, my Dashboard says that there are NO posts. Therefore, the draft that I did manage to save has disappeared. On a cheery note, the contribution to this blog that I had “saved to Draft” was no more profound than most of my writing!

I was going to entitle the post the same as above, but I was alluding to a craft work that I had put together and hung on the wall. And now I see that iPhoto has disappeared from my bar. I’ll be right back.

After the steampunk picture, I started a fairy door. I haven’t had time to look at it again:

I’ve been busy with dogs. Sorry I haven’t taken or posted many pictures. The last couple of days were hectic for my little shop… I clipped four large border collies short, as well as having a couple of small dogs to groom.

Over Easter, Shelly and Merv came to visit; it was a change of plans for them, and an exciting development for us! We were so glad to have their company for several days.

McKenna is staying in the country for a couple of weeks. Shelly and Merv feel that she is happier here than in the city, and she is welcome to stay:

This morning I went to a Community Gardening Conference, and although I’m not the most community minded individual, I found myself inspired. I promised at least the donation of a tree from my business and some labour from my hand (and shovel). It was SNOWING as I drove into town at 9 a.m.! The day, for as long as I attended, was very pleasant, with slide shows and guest speakers and workshops and great refreshments. I came home early because I felt tired, wanted to bake something for Gary to take to a potluck dinner tonight, and possibly do something creative besides dog grooming. I’ve been reading and thinking and talking to you folks, but no artistic muse has come to me. I’m just going to rest now.

Love, Ann

I’m back in the house, sitting in Gary’s recliner and waiting for something to bake. This “something” is one of the strangest objets d’art that I’ve ever created.

It would be hard for me to describe the steampunk style, but if you Google the word, you might gain some understanding of what the genre is. YOU might… but I hardly have. While looking for books about making polymer beads which resemble real stone, I came across a book called “Steampunkery in Polymer Clay”, or some such, and I bought it. Certainly this is not the first time I’ve looked at steampunk art and jewellery, and I think the term “steampunkery” is the author’s own word, but I felt inspired to make this chameleon; it will be a pendant or part of a bigger piece of “art”… and I use the term loosely.

I’ve enjoyed making him and I might wear him to town. I don’t know what the “other” senior people in my circle of friends will think. If this phase lasts for me even a week or two, I’ll likely be the oldest steampunk artist/enthusiast in the world.

I have a late and senior loved one to thank for this new interest… Myrtle. I have inherited or been given the most amazing and bizarre collection of STUFF you could imagine. While pondering on the subject of what to do with all the bits such as non-working watches, tiny screws and upholstery rivets.. it came to me. I have no idea what Myrtle would think of this “art”, but I suspect she would find it peculiar, and we’d have a good laugh. Gary had previously thought I’d made some “scary-looking angels” out of polymer clay: things might just get scarier.

I guess I’ll just have to embrace my peculiar side. Stay tuned.

Love you!

I haven’t been anywhere except in my happy home or favourite town.

This morning, I’m waiting for a very large cat to arrive with his owner. The cat gets his mats clipped or shorn every year. There are boarding dogs due to arrive also.

Oh! Lo and behold, my Friday morning appointment is here a day early. I have plenty of work today now.

It amazes me how much time can be spent at the computer doing the simplest things. I had decided that I could find you a picture or two for this blog, and though there might be a way to display all the pictures on this Dell the way iPhoto does on the Mac, I don’t know about it. I have a folder with dozens of other folders with pictures, all labelled only by date, and it is taking hours to go back through them. I guess it’s like house-keeping in general… if you stay up-to-date, the job isn’t onerous later.

A few weeks ago, I took care of a tiny diabetic dog named “Fudd”. He was quirky and comical just like my daughter’s dog, “Seltzer”, and this guest needed a daily insulin shot. Now, though I’m well able to perform many veterinary-related tasks, I felt reluctant to “stick” this wee doggy, I felt so tender toward him. When the final moment came (with me realizing that the animal would be worse off without his meds), Fudd didn’t flinch or even give me a dirty look… he just went on his merry way. While he was here, I also sewed him a little blanket to take home.

Like Seltzer, this dachshund had been in and out of the animal shelter until he was pretty much on “death row”. I’m so glad our new friends saved Fudd, and Shelly saved Seltzer.

Lunch time for Gary and I… leftover kugel and chicken for him, and maybe a “diet” lunch for me. (How difficult it is to keep the weight off!).

Love you, my friends. XXX

How do the days and weeks fly by so fast?

I’m sitting here on a crisp, overcast morning with my third cup of coffee, waiting for others to take their turns in online scrabble. The dogs are taken care of, Gary too (I mean BREAKFAST you guys), and there is some barely amusing movie on the TV.

Last night I was delighted to get a phone call from our lovely niece, Sarah. She has established herself in Edmonton in her chosen career. Sarah was saying that the job she landed was, in her mind, an interim step, but it has turned out to be fulfilling and challenging.

In mid-week I heard from Susan, in KENYA now, by phone. The connection was as great as if she was phoning from a mile away. What a thrill. She is studying the ability of a certain lark to handle the bacterial load on the surface of the eggs… the maternal antibodies that are involved. I think that’s it. We know everything is connected, and this is relevant to her studies in ecology. Although her posting in Africa is not a “vacation”, it is marvelous to hear of hippos and zebras strolling all around Susan’s tent, her plans to climb a volcanic mountain, and the challenges of living at the equator (while we’re pushing around snow and dodging deer on our mountain roads).

I heard from my other daughters this week, as well, and they are fine. It’s always wonderful to catch up with my chicks.

Gary and Rob had their usual couple of days in Jasper this week. When they arrived home, they said that they had wished for a road closure so that they’d have to turn around and go back to the ski hill, there was so much NEW SNOW on the slopes. So sad… here I am wanting spring; we are not experiencing the balmy weather that seems so prevalent across the continent.

I did manage to get my orders for trees, shrubs and perennials placed! Because I was so late in ordering, I accepted substitutes for some items and have to live with some cancellations, and must face a few customers who won’t be getting what they asked for (at least not from me). I was dreading the marathon trip to pick up the nursery stock, but decided that I could make a two day journey out of it. I believe my dear friend who usually accompanies me will enjoy the road trip even more. Spring will come eventually!

Must go see what mischief I can get into in my craft studio aka grooming shop aka kennel building. Take care, everyone… did I tell you lately that I love you? Thank you for visiting my blog, even though I don’t post regularly.

I’ll try to get back later with some kind of pictures. All have a good day!

~ Ann (and please spell it right, my chat enemy: how difficult is it to spell a three letter “word”?)

Had she lived long, Mom would have been 88 years old today. When one has such thoughts, we only imagine that our loved one would be well and happy. I envision her as a gentle and soft-spoken old lady with the chuckle that she was famous for, which she used often as she was full of good humour, except when annoyed by her youngest daughter.

It was not very many years before Mom’s death that she said to her older sister, “Janette, I think I’m going to beat this thing!” A miracle was not to be, unless one considers that the diagnosis of lupus yielded a prognosis of two years duration. In other words, Mom was given approximately two years to live and lived more than twelve. This is my understanding. The treatment for lupus drove the disease into remission, but at the same time, its side effects contributed to many symptoms at the end.

I’m going for lunch with Gary. Busy day here. I’ll be back later! XXX

Before it’s another month since I last posted, I thought I’d better touch base with you!

Things have been fine here. The weather is gradually warming and looking like spring, though we all know that there can be some freaky weather… bitter cold and storms… in March. Que sara. (sp?)

I had been on the horns of a dilemma for awhile this month. I hadn’t sent an order for trees and shrubs to the big nursery wholesaler, and I had been plagued with a general feeling of fatigue which affected my enthusiasm for the whole perennial and nursery stock business. The idea of a 17 hour marathon journey seemed untenable, and that’s what it has taken to pick up the stock for resale. I kept remembering that for the last couple of years, during the trip, the voice in my head said, “You’re too old for this shit…”, and I had a bad feeling in general.

Finally, after spending quite some time pondering the situation, and though I had helpful advice from friends about hiring drivers (the freight situation is impossible where we live, for this type of delivery), I came to the conclusion that I could make an overnight trip out of the yearly pilgrimage. Now that I have faxed my order for trees, I will book a motel room for whatever day in April is appropriate. Done!

The grooming business has been brisk, and the boarding business likewise. Rarely do I panic when I have a “slow” day or week, as work always seems to pick up again. Last week we had 15 dogs staying with us before owners started coming home!

I thought I’d have more time to write today, but duty (a shih tzu) calls… I need to dry one dear pet before the next one arrives. I’ll come back later to talk to you, with my next pot of coffee. Love you guys!

~ Ann