First of all, thank you so much. I have no idea how I'm so lucky to have such amazing internet friends. It was a lovely birthday weekend (thank you for your wishes!)  I was a very happy girl, and a busy one at that – idle minds turn to fretting and I've had too much on my mind lately. I thought twice about sharing it, but you all are brilliant. Thank you. You make a very big place like the internet feel incredibly small, as always.

This weekend, to keep from being idle, a project sounded amazing. So Mister and I took to reclaiming part of the backyard from the dandelions and converting part of it for a garden & part of it for a dog run.

I don't know how easy I thought gardening would be, but digging up sod that's 40% sod 60% alarmingly boisterous dandelion roots, bagging the astoundingly heavy mixture, hauling it away into the back lane, building frames for raised beds and then filling them with soil was not gardening. It was a test of patience and of my ability to walk/stay awake the next day.

But I finally got the new dog run all cedar chipped so the puppies can hang out properly now and not come in even muddier than they usually look. So where we used to park now houses…a dog run for the beasts!

My plan for this summer is to make my first run at a kitchen garden. I have four 15 sq foot beds and am going to grow all vegetables to better feed us – mostly with as many tomatoes as I can fit, different kinds of lettuce, squash, beans, chives, herbs left right and centre, cucumbers & dill for making my own pickles with in the fall, and my own dilly potato salad with in the mean time. We're just throwing as many seeds at it as possible and are going to see what happens.

I'm also scheming to find a rig that will allow me to have a drying line in the back yard too – like proper old fashioned people. I want to put my sheets out to air and get wrapped up in the cool wild smells when I fall asleep. This is one of the things that I love about living in an neighbourhood that's still growing into its self, there are always people out in the neighbourhood and someone always has their laundry on the line. In the middle of the city. There is something about that I just adore.

I'll tell you something I've been worrying about though- it has been SO COLD in the prairies that I will die next weekend in Las Vegas. It has only stopped going below freezing this past week, and the trees are just starting to bud. I am going to have to carry around a fan and be constantly brought back with smelling salts/fizzy gin drinks. And let's remember that I'm also the only one going who is used to having her money colour coded, so people are going to need to make sure I'm not tipping with my $20's.

So much to look forward to over the next little while. Even if I end up tipping with $20's, I'm sure it'll be worth it.

{image: aussiegall}