Aimeé has gone to Guanajuato for six weeks for a plethora of reasons and I am taking the opportunity to paint the living room. I took me two days to remove all the furniture and cover the floor. Moving my 500 lb piano by myself while protecting the hardwood was an interesting puzzle. Today was my first day of surface preparation. While I like making progress, I am not enjoying the work.
The new car is scheduled for production on July 26. The Jeep is still available and its sale will be more feasible once I have an ETA for the new car.
I have a new Ford Escape Platinum Hybrid on order. Today I was informed of a scheduled build date of July 31 so I hope to take delivery early September. These are different times where there is little inventory on the lot, limited production and dealer allocation, and we are happy to pay MSRP.
My 2016 Jeep Patriot has only 51,000 km and is in excellent shape, a great used car for the right buyer. The Ford dealer has offered a low trade-in price so I am trying to sell the Jeep privately. The sales manager said it would be difficult to sell because it has FWD manual transmission but I am encouraged by the responses so far to my ads.
The primary reason for getting a new car now is to have automatic transmission for Aimeé to drive. She wants to learn and I think the latest safety features on the new car will help us both. I have to admit that I am attracted to all the latest technology as well.
We have been back six weeks now and they have been busy ones. A number of my projects have come to completion these last few days and I feel the glow of accomplishment.
the ornamental gardens are growing well
the vegetable garden has been planted
the hall has been repainted
the workbench is made
new shelving built in the garage
We went to Victoria for the weekend in April and enjoyed being tourists. Aimeé is working part-time with a friend cleaning houses so we should have more time to recreate this year.
It rained today and the forecast for tomorrow is mixed, giving me time to review my TODOs and set priorities. I need to get back into the garden soon and get ready to open up the cabin, maybe next weekend.
I had been using Quicken for bookkeeping since 2000. As I moved away from Windows and retired those devices, it became more difficult and inconvenient to continue using Quicken. I searched for cloud-based alternatives and finally found CountAbout last year. The basic plan costs only $9.99 US per year and it does everything I need. I highly recommend this service.
Over the past year of using CountAbout I had occasionally thought about developing an equivalent application myself, not to save money but as a fun project. Two weeks ago, with nothing else to do, I finally started prototyping and today my replacement application does everything that I had imagined. I learned OO PHP and Javascript, and used extreme programming techniques to create the prototype. My application is not pretty but the UI is efficient and I improved on some of the CountAbout workflow.
During the project I reverted to the obsessive software engineer that I used to be. I resented interruptions and was constantly thinking of the various technical problems that I was facing. While that’s how I got things done, it didn’t make me a better person. I like myself better as a gardener.
We arrived in Garden Bay on March 21. Today, March 22, was sunny and I spent the afternoon outside cleaning fallen branches and inspecting my messy garden. Next priority will be rose bush pruning.
I was scared off welding but have embraced woodworking as a practical hobby, while gardening is a life-long pursuit.
Above is my first woodworking project for 2023, a solid workbench for the garage, which will be a great workshop. I decided to follow the design from the book, relying on the experience and wisdom of the author, even after reviewing many alternate designs on YouTube which is a fabulous resource for woodworking ideas, tips, and instruction.
The second project will be to add shelving to the garage walls. Having lots of free time here, I’ve watched many videos on YouTube to help me decide on the design, which although simple there are many options to consider. One goal is to move tool storage from the shed to the garage.
Part of planning these projects is developing material lists so that I can order the lumber for delivery when I get home. Another aspect is considering construction techniques and identifying new tools to purchase. So I have been window shopping on the Amazon, Home Depot, and Lee Valley websites, comparing products, prices, and filling shopping carts ready to hit the buy button.
We return to Garden Bay on March 21 and it will be time to start seeds for the vegetable garden. It is my turn this year to grow food so that has been another project to plan. I will place my seed order soon so that it arrives when we do.
We returned this morning from our beach vacation in Puerto Vallarta. The restaurant in the picture served the best tacos I have ever eaten in Mexico. The place is small and unpretentious but in the heart of the Romatic Zone and around dinner time every day one has to line up and wait for a table. While in line you indicate your order on a paper form so you have ordered as soon as you sit down.
We ate well every meal in a different restaurant and the options seemed endless. Prices are of course higher than in Guanajuato but still less than in the USA/Canada. PV is a very popular destination for all ages and in particular for gay men giving the street scenes lots of colour. There are tons of activities including shopping and night-life for those so inclined.
Boca de Tomatlán
Besides eating we focussed on getting to know the place by walking around and taking the bus. The beach at Boca was our favourite as the ones in PV were either packed or too wavy. The weather was perfect 25-29C there and it is a cool 21C back in Gto today.
Wishing you a fresh start with renewed energy and confidence throughout the New Year.
With 8 billion people in the world, and living in Mexico for five months of the year, I realize how fortunate I am. I have excellent health, personal security, financial independence, and a loving partner. At my age (68), looking forward to the future means the rest of my life, and looking at the situations of contemporaries and elders for perspective and guidance.
Back to the here and now, I enjoy the annual review and objective setting for the coming year. Near the top of my list is to figure out what to do with myself here in Guanajuato as I often wish I was in Garden Bay, despite the weather there, where it is easier to fill my day with satisfying activities. Our return flights have been booked for March 20.
We are going to Puerto Vallarta Jan 4-11. A trip to the beach will be a welcome change of routine. I plan to make a beach escape an annual part of our time in Mexico and hope that PV becomes a favourite destination as it is just a one hour flight from BJX.
We arrived in Guanajuato the day that Cervantino started and the city is packed with visitors. You can see selected performances on YouTube here. We have tickets for a number of events starting next week after Blair & Jennifer arrive.
The photos below are of a display around La Alhondiga summarizing the history of the Cervantino Festival. Click on a photo below to expand in another tab.
This is a new planting plan for the original garden bed in the front yard. The bed was created by the previous owners and was filled with great plants. The right half was planted with bearded iris that had stopped flowering and needed to be divided. Given that it meant tearing up the bed I decided that I needed a design.
My first step was to measure the area to create its outline on a drawing. I was surprised by how symmetrical the bed is. The previous owners did an excellent job in its construction. Two years ago I removed some non-performing shrubs on the left side and planted two David Austin own root cuttings that I had made. As this bed is prime rose territory and I continue to propagate my favourite roses, I decided to fill this bed with roses, shown as large white circles above.
I then plotted one foot circles around the roses to mark the spaces for perennial plants. Using the palette of plants I already have I used colours to indicate which plant goes where. The planting is very symmetrical with lots of repetition. Creating the drawing was the easy part.
As August is the recommended time for dividing iris, I dove in even though this is the wrong time to move anything else. I only dug where necessary and tried my best to salvage everything. I ended up with a large number of surplus irises and spread them around the other front beds.
We continue to have hot, dry weather and I am chomping at the bit to continue the replanting, but I know better and impatiently wait for rain. We are flying to Ottawa on October 4 to visit my sister, and to Mexico October 12 for five months. With so much to do in the garden I am feeling the pressure already.
I am spending most of my free time in the garden this year as I purposely do not have any other projects on the go. While this makes me very sensitive to the weather, it also focuses my thoughts on the garden: the good, the bad, and the problems.
I have been gardening here in Garden Bay for seven years now, and the yard has been transformed. I started by adding shrubs for structure and solving the deer problem with fencing. Then I started my rose collection which stands at 48 varieties and 60-odd bushes. I then greatly expanded the perennial beds in the front garden. Today there is a solid design and the whole yard is garden.
Now I am propagating my favourite roses instead of buying new ones. I have a handful of problem rose bushes that *maybe* would be better on their own-roots. Before I “shovel prune ” a rose I ‘d like to give it a second chance. I have learned what gives me the most joy in a rose and replacing non-performing roses will probably start this fall.
After seven years I’ve had to learn how to prune shrubs as I prefer a light touch and many have grown to become problems. I’ve got books and the Internet, but trial and error is how I’ve learned the most. And yes, I ‘ve killed a shrub or two along the way. I did a lot of pruning this year and now have a clearer annual pruning plan.
A great example of evolution is the wisteria that came with the house. I enjoyed cultivating the plant on a trellis. The light touch soon got me in trouble and I had to learn how to prune and train the beast properly. This year I realized that for my garden the wisteria was too much work with insufficient reward and was in the way of my real interest of growing roses. I recently removed the wisteria and have no regrets.
Another example is a row of three lilacs that I planted at the side of the house for structure. I chose lilacs for their fragrance and memories of growing up. As the rose collection expanded I planted roses in between the lilacs. Now the lilacs are large, shading the roses, and occupying prime rose territory. I have decided that shovel pruning those lilacs is best. I do have two other smaller lilacs in the garden anyway.
Our annual summer drought started late this year and we are in the middle of a heat wave. There is lots of colour in the garden but most of the roses are resting. The climbing roses that I planted for the pergola are putting out strong new canes 🙂 There’s not a lot to do in the garden in the summer but watch and enjoy, and add to my TODO list for the fall.
