Mom is finding her comfort level at home with us now.  She has been planting flowers and weeding the garden bed but the best part of having her with us is she cooks some great meals.  We’ve been doing kitchen stuff together and that’s been good for her.  In the evenings she watches Idol, Desperate Housewives and a few other shows.  I am not much of a TV watcher these days, preferring to read instead or cook while she is watching her shows.  So what I am saying is that we’ve finding our own space to do the things we like to do without feeling that we have to entertain each other.  Today she’s gone on a day trip to Warroad, Minnesota. She looks forward to the trips as she gets to meet some of her friends.  I hope that in the Fall, she’ll get involved in other seniors’ activities that will also keep her busy.

It’s been such a cloudy and rainy week for us in Manitoba.  Some of you may know that the province has been contending with a lot of overland flooding – very severe in some areas but fortunately for us in Winnipeg, it has not adversely affected us.  But for those of you who lived in Guyana, you know that after the floods, the mosquitoes are plentiful.  Well, we are now getting ready for a huge infestation of the little beasts.  They have just started but they are expected to get much worse.  Sunita said that for the first time since she moved there more than 11 years ago, there are mosquitoes and they come in clouds.  That’s the norm for Winnipeg. You’d think we live in a tropical jungle. The land is flat prairie so water has nowhere to drain so its the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. 

My neighbour has a sump pump that is very active all year so now there is a big, soggy pool of water at the front of our house and his that can’t drain because he’s added a whole bunch of bark to his shrubs and it’s blocking the water drainage.  I will need a canoe soon (a slight exaggeration) but the spot looks very messy especially since he ran his lawn mower over it and there are now muddy tire tracks everywhere on his lawn.  Don’t you just love neighbours?  To be fair, he is a good neighbour so I should be lucky – this time.  The first neighbour in that house was apparently an exhibitionist but I only found out after she left.  Imagine that – in a nice quiet suburban neighbourhood, right next door, I am living right next to an exhibitionist. 

This afternoon I am going to pick up some plants and bulbs I bought from Sahana’s school as her fundraiser.  Last year I did the same but forgot that I bought them so I bought some more the week before they were to be delivered so I had about 28 tomato plants and about 50 pounds of tomatoes by the time the summer was over.  This year, I made a note of it in my calendar so I wouldn’t forget.  With the wet and soggy ground, I don’t know when they’ll actually get into the ground.  I bought some yellow canna lilies so those should be pretty when they grow.  Last year we had so many red canna lily bulbs that multiplied, that we gave away about half of them and still we have too many.  If you want some, give me a call and you can come and pick them up before I put them in the compost bin.