Welcome to our new CANADIAN SIZZLING SUMMER THREAD ...

I just know that Canadians are big outdoors people; always have been, so I know you are all just very busy at this time. I suppose it is officially SUMMER now, so it is time to make our new summer thread.

The weather here is still spring-like this week: cool, with lots of during the night but it is helping our grass, trees, flowers and bushes a lot. Thank goodness, we just got some rain and not anything else. It was very cold last night, so I had to put the furnace back on, but it is a bit warmer today (around 16 C).

DH and I spent yesterday hauling out summer linens and such. I change them from winter to summer every year (put the warm thick stuff away and bring out the light & bright airy bedspread and accessories). It's a nice change too.

We got our front beds all prepared for this year; added a new sand/black earth mix and some compost to give them a good boost too. I plan to plant some onions sets, some leaf lettuce, and radishes for salads this week; then later on, plant some green beans too.

We also set up our half rain barrels on the south side in between our peony flower plants; and filled the bottoms with sand & gravel. Then we'll put some soil in them as we get some more to add to them later on. Not sure what to plant in them, maybe some petunias and beans or something like that; we'll see ...

I also bought some cherry tomato plants for salads; plus some raspberry and gooseberry bushes, which will start our mini-fruit orchard in the back yard. Later on, I would like to add in one other kind of berry to round them out (like blueberries, honeyberries, or elderberries). We already have a nice big rhubarb patch.

So hope all our Canadians have a wonderful summer this year. Be sure to pop by and visit us now and then, OK? Don't want to be too lonely over here all by myself now.

Ohhhh man! The last 2 days in Toronto have been CRAZY!!

2 days ago, it rained about 45mm, and due to the construction at Union Station (apparently the busiest GO/subway station in Canada?) FLOODED. And by no means was it fun. It was water + sewage, and fireman had to carry people out at one point. they blocked off like 7 stops on the subway, including the one I needed to get to work HOWEVER - for the first time in my history of having to take a shuttle bus, was it running smoothly! When I got outside there were 3 buses already waiting for us, and they didn't get crowded at all. Apparently there were 100 shuttle buses on route for us. Thats ALOT. But I guess we were talking the busiest part of the downtown core. Bravo shuttle bus drivers. Granted - I had taken the subway/shuttle a few hours after the flood, so maybe it took them that long to work nicely ahah. Normally the mention of a shuttle bus just makes people angry, because we wait in the subway station for like 15 minutes thinking "where's the subway" and then some official guy comes and says, "sorry it's not in service, shuttle buses are on their way" and we all flood to the streets, and NO shuttle buses appear for like another 15 minutes at least, and THEN when they do, there's not NEARLY enough space for people to come on the bus. It does suck, and I'm not one to blame the TTC, because in all honesty they are usually doing their job right, just one or two stupid people who decide to skrew up their reputation. Well enough ranting for me for THAT.

So yesterday I was happy to hear that the station had cleared up and all subway stations were back in service. So I go to Eaton's Centre after work to eat and fix my phone, I left around... 5:45pm, get home around 6:30pm, and guess what is on the news. A shooting in the Food Court at Eaton's Centre. Apparently happened around 6:23pm, needless to say I was SO thankful I didn't stay that long. Apparently 8 people were injured, including one deceased 25 year old, and a 13 year old boy (complete innocent bystander) in critical condition. One of the 8 wasn't shot, but she was pregnant and I guess fell or got trampled on and then I believe went into labour. But still. This is crazyness! my hearts go out to al the families involved.

SF ~ well, I'm just gonna hafta defend the TTC guys becuz one of them is my brother ... and they have to work around the weather and mechanical break-downs too. I'm not surprised that they worked their butts off to get things cleaned up and back to normal.

As for the Eaton Center food court: hate it -- it's just too crowded and you can barely get in to buy anything anyways. The last time my sister and I went there, we just left becuz we were being tossled around by so many men -- eeks! Don't go there at lunchtime; all the men flock there from the businesses from uptown or downtown ...

Sending up ^prayers^ for all those injured people at the Eaton Center Food Court -- the pregnant lady, the 13 y/o boy; and the families of the deceased 25 y/o, and everyone else too. Even the family of the shooter will feel very badly too, I'm sure.


We had very heavy here too the last two days, but it will do a lot for our greenery -- our grass is now nice & green. The is trying to peak out here & there, but the clouds are winning right now. I just did some baking -- making some oatmeal muffins and banana loaves for DH's snacks; and our turkey dinner with sweet potatoes and veggies smells great. Should be ready real soon.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend (I mean anyone who wasn't in TO this weekend, that is). Take good care now ...

You know, sad as that Eaton Center food court incident was -- I was just recalling the last time we went there. Here we are (my baby sister and I), both single young ladies in our mid-late twenties, and we are going one way through this food court; and all of a sudden the doors open, and hundreds of men come rushing in at us. We were being tossled about like little rag dolls, but I have to give those guys credit, we could tell that they were actually trying not to hurt us. All of a sudden, it seemed like the Dead Sea parted and there was a straight path all the way to the doors. Maybe it was the stricken looks on our faces ...

I was thinking that was kinda like a single girl's fantasy dream -- to be literally surrounded by (what seemed like thousands) so many men of all ages, all at once. I thought -- gee, at any other time I would have enjoyed all that male attention, but at the time, it was a bit disconcerting. Honestly, my sister and I were laughing about that incident for some time.

Well, we sure have a sizzler out there today, so we are indoors under the fans. It's so nice to see that even with outdoor temps at 32 C (in the shade with quite a strong breeze), it is still quite nice & cool in this house. We haven't had to turn on any air conditioners here so far -- just a ceiling fan, and I'm almost chilled!

With brick all around the outside of our house, plus two porches (east & west sides); we are staying pretty cool, I think. We won't bother with the A/C's this year, if we don't have to (and will save some $$$ on that for sure).

The seeds I planted in the front beds are already coming up; I'm gonna have salad after all. I have delayed transplanting the berry bushes becuz we still had a few low night temps; research said to delay to late spring to avoid any frosts, so I am being cautious, just in case.

We did yardwork yesterday AM. My SNOWBALLS on my hydrangea bush are getting bigger and whiter each day. I always wanted one of those as we had one when we were kids almost everywhere we lived. This is the first year it has bloomed (I fed it, watered it, and mulched it well).

WE put support rings around the light pink peony plants and now they are standing up proudly (not splatted all over the ground like last year). I purchased protective rings on sale (just good tomato cages) for the berry bushes and some fence for the bigger ones too.

We'll start one 1/2 barrel this week coming to spread the veggies out; then do one about end of June as well. The front garden plants are doing much better this year with the pruning, and adding compost and more soil to the beds. Oh, and my Yellow Cinequfoil Bush did survive after all; I thought we lost it. Well, someone said that they are hard to kill; my sister was right -- she said just wait til spring, maybe it will come back, and it did.

So did the SandCherry Bush and my Yellow Day Lily but it got hacked off a bit by accident, but it is fighting back. I know from past experience that it can come back and bloom still. I just love all these perennial plants and bushes.

I hope all our fellow Canadians have a wonderful second week of June ...

Gee, I didn't realize when I called this thread the "Canadian SIZZLING Summer Thread" that it would be somewhat prophetic, cuz it's been unusually here so far this year. It was a scorcher again today, but it was bearable, at least (in the mid-80 F or 30 C).

I sent DH a hunting for our air conditioners down in the basement, but he could only find one (the portable) and it's hose, but not the window brace which you need to vent the hose outdoors. I may have to get really creative and make one out of cardboard.

If it was me, I would just keep looking until I find it, but he has no patience. I can't get down there as there are not hand rails in our stairway, and it has really narrow steps. Not going to chance it as I've had some bad falls down stairs in the past; and I'm still living with the consequences of those injuries today. So, I will get inventive, if I have to.

My eating has been good this month; very happy about that and I've lost another 6.5 lbs to bring me over the 100 lbs mark. This is quite a milestone for me; and I am well over halfway in my goal's department. Onward and downward, I go ...

Hope all our Canadian friends are having a nice summer so far. Someone in another thread said that summer doesn't actually start until June 20th -- I didn't realize that. Oh well, I was a bit early, I guess.

checking in from the west coast here.

TRANCEDREAMER ~ WOWIE, look how much weight you have lost; you look G-R-E-A-T!!!

We usually have many more posters in here, but the summers are the slowest. I guess Canadians just love the outdoors so much they don't have time to pop by. I know that we are outdoors almost every day too, if the weather allows for it.

HAPPY CANADA DAY -- to all our Canadian friends out there ...


I meant to come in here yesterday, but was busy & forgot; then was reading just around the time the fireworks were going off here. We could hear them quite clearly as we live only a few blocks away. We didn't go this year as we have no wheels; and I don't like getting eaten by skitters -- they seem to come out in droves on this day. At our last place, we could see them from our kitchen window and back deck; that was nice.

Hope you are all enjoying the day off today, and the nice weather we are having here as well ...

I think all our Canadians have gone on camping vacation this month. This is the most popular month for holidays in Canada. They say that camping in our area has increased by 30% this year; I'm not surprised.

It has been here the last two days (in the 90' F or 30's C today). Had to break down and put on the portable air conditioner late this afternoon so we could eat dinner and be relatively comfortable. We just had homemade mini-subs (6") for dinner; nice and light and no cooking ...

Hope you are all keeping and enjoying your summer in spite of these weird temps we are having. It is supposed to drop back down into the 70's (20's C) for the next few days and have some more too -- we'll take it. Back to more typical Canadian temps.

Have a great weekend everyone ...

another west coaster here! just joined to site too!

ROSA ~ glad you dropped by; this is a great site. Lots of nice people here and wonderful ideas, tips, plans, and support.

thank you for your kind words!

vancouver is still mild. yet another cold summer.

Good Wednesday Canucks!! Just a quick check in ! I finally tried out the zumba and it was ridiculously funny. I don't have the moves. Any moves really. It was a good work out regardless. Anyways, Weather is lovely and the summer is rolling on! I've been walking my dogs 4k every day and trying every leisure services drop in class I can. Still hate the spin class!! Makes my back sore! Anyways trying to get back inot fitness day by day!! What's everybody's plans for the summer?
xxT

TAM ~ glad that you finally got to try out the Zumba classes and had some fun. We don't have much planned for this year as we don't have any "wheels" anymore; so that sure puts a cabosh on any travelling plans for us -- but we are really enjoying this first year in our new house. Who knows what next year will bring though?

TRANCEDREAMER ~ you should share your success story in the GOALS FORUM of this site, as I am sure many people here would love to hear how you lost so much weight, and how you are working to keep it off; plus I am sure they would be very encouraged by your story as well.

The weather is really nice here this week (in the 70's F/20's C); and we are loving that. Eating is going well too and that makes me really happy. We have been spending our time gardening and doing stuff around here; there's lots to do to keep us busy.

Have a Fabulous Friday tomorrow ...