I believe I have read that Zinc can be helpful to alleviate ringing in the ears. I hope your MRI turns out normal.

I have to finish doing weatherproofing on my fences. Last year I bought five gallon cans of linseed oil, thinking it would cover back and front of one fence. It only covered one quarter of the surface! I had no idea it was going to be such an expensive project. Too bad I can't buy those five gallon cans of oil, they are much less expensive but too heavy for me to deal with.

I'm sorry about the loss of your Spyro. A sudden, unexpected loss of a pet is very difficult. You did the right thing in holding your pet as he passed, the final sharing of the love.

Training your new pup, who is a cross of two working breeds, will be a challenge. Consistency is vitally important, as well as lots of exercise. Do you ever watch "The Dog Whisperer" on National Geographic? It is a good show. The Whisperer, Caesar Milan, has excellent strategies on training. His belief is that the people often need more training than the dogs!

Wisconsin is a very pretty state. It might be nice to rent a cabin by a lake for your vacation.

Lorna

OMGosh! A Bon Jovi concert! That would most certainly set the ears ringing for a while. I hope the MRI shows nothing serious.

I'm so sorry for your loss of Spyro. You lov'em so much and when they leave it's so difficult.

Congratulations on your new puppy. Smart you say?...well I'm not surprised, Rottweilers and Shepherds are super intelligent dogs. Also great protectors.

Edna

Ahhh, May is here, someone please tell it to our weatherman, our furnace still cuts in at times most years it's done it's thing by the end of March.

Things are starting to pop in the garden finally, The Rhodos are starting to bloom and as I walk around I can see things are starting to bud up. I have to say the weeds are doing extremely well, I've never seen such vigor.

We gave up on trying to keep the front lawn looking good a few years back, pouring fertilizer and weed killers on it finally got to me so now we just pick out the occasional dandelion and let it do its own thing. The front lawn? is now full of wild white violets, specie crocus, and a escapee from a flower bed (Veronica repens I think), which we are encouraging to spread, I have to say it's very pretty. DH is a wood turner and a lot of the wood he gets has a lot of different mosses on it so we are trying to get more of it in the lawn, some of it is really beautiful and so soft to walk on. Now after saying all this I will probably be digging up some of this in the fall for more flower beds, I have about 30 Lupin seedlings that have to go somewhere.

The big news for me this month is I have a new great granddaughter London Ava 6 lbs. 9 ozs. arrived on the scene in Kelowna as her grandparents were still on the road trying to get there for the big advent, little monkey wouldn't wait. We got the phone call from DD, who had just been talking to the beaming new mommy, cell phones really are great for some things.

MrMorton, so sorry about Spyro, a kitty I had did the same thing, Pussums was 16 and had been in poor health for some time, One night she climbed up on my lap, started to purr, looked up at me as if saying goodbye and peacefully slipped away. Yes, I've been weepy too over the loss of everyones pets, it just goes to show that we are all a bunch of very caring people and although distance keeps us apart we are always there for each other and although we all wipe the tears away at such posts it also lets us know we are not alone.

On a happier note I finally found a seedling of the white flowering variegated Lunaria (Silver Dollar). I bought at a private plant sale over on Salt Spring Island last year, I actually stood there until they were potted up, this doesn't seem to be readily available, I have the purple with the variegated foliage and several of the plain leaved types in different shades of mauve and purple. I usually just cut the stems and give them away , let others do all the peeling LOL. I will harvest the seed off this variegated white so if anyone wants a few seeds of this send me an email. I only have the one plant so first come..., it is planted away from the other colors so hopefully it will come true.

If I manage to get some decent pictures I will post them in the gallery but knowing me and cameras... we'll just have to wait and see.

Happy May everyone
Annette

I'm sorry for the loss of everyone's pets. I worry here that in a few years we will loose them all at once because our cats are all about the same age.

We've been doing more work on the house. The exterior was re-painted (it's still green/purple) and the porch re-screened (with adult cats, we are hoping to KEEP the screens in place longer...). They replaced the side stairs next door and a new crawl space door too. SLOWLY I've been working on the gardens. The front garden to the purple house is all cleaned up and much more is planted. It was ignored last year because the workmen were in and out every door constantly. The interior changes in the house mean that things are more open than they were and cross breeze is much easier. It's been nice and cool inside when both front and back doors are open.
The roses have gone bonkers.
I still have to put down the weed cloth, and errect 5 more veggie beds in the front yard next door. I'm hoping we get time to do that on Saturday. We have to fill the beds with this extra dirt from the basement dig-out and then ammend it. Thankfully with working at the nursery (attached to a hardware store) I get my amendments at cost with free delivery and that has been so helpful! But we've been so busy between volunteering and the nursery that I don't have time to do my own things like I wish I could.
The bobcat guy is coming next week to look at the mess next door and to see what we can do about the grading. I need a professional person's opinion with what is going on over there before doing the "final" landscape plan.
In June I go to the Arctic as my sister is getting married!
DH and I are starting a new band! I'm worried about having enough time to work on it!!

GGG

Happy May everyone,

The snow has melted and most of the gardens are showing now and lots of plants are just starting to peek out of the ground. The small bulbs are blooming....always brings a smile to my face after such a long winter.

I moved most of the perennials out to the greenhouse yesterday.....and might move the petunias out today. It should only be another week or so before all the plants can be moved out. It is so much easier to water out there and quicker too. I plan to pull out the boxes of dahlia tubers and get them planted this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be good. If I get that finished, maybe there will be time to sprinkle the seed for my (controlled) wild garden. Another plant order arrived this week. Most things looked good. However there was one oriental poppy where the bag was empty except for the peat moss. I called and they are shipping me another one right away. I hope this one is in good condition.

We have taken the back deck down and are now in the process of building a new one with a patio. The new patio will be lower down to get privacy from the neighbours. It will also be much smaller, so there will be room for more plants. :)The fence also needs to be painted again. And the new arbor built and painted....along with 2 new wood chairs.

The moose have visited my yard again this past week, leaving lots of presents to help the garden grow. lol. We are hoping they don't return for a free lunch this summer....that would not be good at all. There is also a fox that has been around the yard. He met DH at the back of the greenhouse yesterday morning......both were startled. DH said the fox turned and ran out the back of the property. There is evidence of a bit of vole damage as well, but not near as bad as last year.

At some point this month, we will be starting on the new pink garden. dig dig dig. I also have to plant up a bunch of planters.....leaving the barrels till the beginning of June.

And after all that it will be time to plant everything out into the garden. Woo Hoo. ;)

Sierra :)

Hi All,
Nice to hear how everyone is doing.
Congratulations on your new GGD, Annette!

Thanks for starting this thread, MrMorton. I hope you will get some relief soon from the ringing in your ears. I've had tinnitus for many years and have trained myself not to "hear" the ringing/hissing/roaring in my ears, and actually go for days and days without thinking about it now. But sometimes it is very loud and I have a hard time concentrating.

The thing I was most thrilled about recently was my Dutchman's Breeches. My Amish friend dug a tiny plant for me from her woods in 2005, when I lived in Ohio. It did not bloom for the first two years. Then I moved to Massachusetts, and by some miracle it survived but still did not bloom last spring either. But THIS year it had 12 little blossoms! So sweet.

Not so sweet was my discovery that helianthus 'Lemon Queen' is downright invasive in sandy soil. YIKES!!! What a time I had digging and pulling it out of my beds! I've relocated a lot of it to the FAR end of the property where it can't do much harm and I can enjoy its beauty and it will still provide food for Monarchs on their way south this fall.

I was heartbroken when I was cleaning out my shade bed a few weeks ago and found that the voles had eaten the roots clean off all of my beautiful astilbes! (like 12 plants!)
I was furious!!! I started stomping around in the bed around each plant, squahing the tunnels. Instead of pulling out the astilbes (which were literally STICKS with no roots) I thought I would try leaving them in the ground, with the hope that there might be a few root hairs that would take hold and grow. AND GUESS WHAT!? At least a half dozen of them are showing signs of life! I'm so thrilled! To think I nearly put the whole bunch on the compost pile!

I guess that is enough excitement for one post.
Thanks for sharing, everyone!
Patti

Oh Mr. Morton - yes, so hard to lose a pet, and good for you, getting right back into it. It does not take away from our love for the lost love. And lol, Pete Townshend of The Who also suffers from tinnititus, which is why they stopped touring for many years - the loudest rock band in the world - who'da thunk!!

My new home is offering me lots of work and challenges, as I try to renovate the sadly neglected beds. Someone, long ago, put lots of work and thought into the layout of this property, and I just hope that I don't screw it up. I got a free truck-load - OK my truck, short box - of 3 years old bs - OK, just had to say that!! It is from Eastern Breeders, and they only have Bulls, so it is the hind end product of said Bulls!! So, I have been working that into the beds, as well as trying to create a veggie bed.

Cheers, All.