Saying Goodbye to Henry

Hello dear friends, yesterday was a very sad day at the farm.  As he was walking to the barn my husband saw Henry sleeping in the shade under the cedar hedge.  On closer inspection however he discovered that Henry had in fact passed away.

Henry joined our family 5 years ago as a very tiny kitten.  He was found my friends that lived a couple of lines away from us in a pile of wood chips.  Thankfully our friends are also animal lovers and immediately brought him inside.  After unsuccessful efforts to find his owners he ended up here.

Although he started out small Henry grew into quite a large cat, weighing about 10 pounds.  He had very long silky fur and enjoyed being brushed.

Henry and his brother Horatio never developed much of a relationship with each other.  Horatio ruled the main floor of the house and Henry was the ruler of the second floor.  Random cat scuffles were usually instigated by scrappy little Horatio.

Even though he was very affectionate Henry was also a very accomplished hunter.  He had recently taken to bringing offerings into the house during the night with ensuing chaos if the victim managed to escape.  In the end Henry was always the victor.

Henry was our eighth cat which netted him the "Henry the Eighth" nickname.  Our previous cats were Tigger, Zachary, Liza, Sylvester, Chantalaria, Charlotina, Horatio and of course Henry.

Henry had lovely big eyes and would admire himself in the mirror while I was putting on my makeup.

Henry also liked to sleep with me at night and was a very accommodating afternoon napping companion as well.

Henry was a healthy cat and we had no indication that he would be taken so suddenly.  It is always hard to lose a pet but especially when it is unexpected.  We have so many questions that wont be answered.  

Every pet we have ever had has been buried here on our farm so they are always with us in sprit.  Henry was buried yesterday in our new little coniferous forest with his resting place marked with a new shrub.  Rest in peace sweet Henry.

 

Winter Scenes

Hello dear friends and Happy New Year!  We have had a few busy weeks here at the farm so there is much catching up to do.  

Last year's winter was a non-event but this year we are having a good old fashioned Canadian winter!  Although I will tire of the snow and cold eventually for now I am really enjoying it, especially as being a Retired Person means I dont need to drive in it!

 

A few weeks ago we purchased a great "herd" of grapevine deer. I absolutely love them however as they are currently buried under snow it is hard to see them.

The little gazebo is nestled in snow.  I usually put a Christmas tree in the gazebo but this year for whatever reason it didn't happen.

Our kitchen deck is also snowed under as is this Christmas tree.  I had originally put the tree up in the corner of our front veranda but the wind was blowing out the ornaments and garlands.  It is much happier in this location.

Our evergreens didnt produce many pine cones this year.  I had wanted to use pine cones to make little feeders for the birds, especially as we have had some very cold temperatures.  As luck would have it though we found this large (slightly worn) pinecone wreath at a thrift shop for $5!  We immediately brought it home and added suet and bird seed and it has been a great success.

The pine cone wreath was originally hanging on our wooden gate but at within a few days it vanished.  We found it back, added more feed and hung it horizontally from a tree.  The chickadees and woodpeckers are quite happy to eat from it while hanging upside down.

A cozy little shot of the wrought metal bench on our portico deck dressed up for Christmas

A view from our pergola dining terrace.

A view of our koi pond and lower deck.

Our snow covered fire pit.

My husband added this picket fence along our driveway this past fall.  The arbour was originally located at our vegetable garden but became collateral damage when we had our garage constructed.  It has been repaired and will now give access from the driveway to our front gardens.

Looking towards our front veranda.

Kodiak Gate guards the laneway to our barn.

A different view of our pergola dining terrace.

The vegetable garden and holding beds are buried in snow.

We added lots of big ball ornaments to our trees.

The driveway is buried in snow.

 Our old house is snuggled in the snow.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little winter update!  Thank you for visiting my blog!

Building Our Lakehouse

Hello dear friends, I hope everyone is enjoying summer.  After some hot and humid conditions we feel that there is a touch of autumn in the air!

Today I am popping in with some information on our little lake house.   For some time (a few years! ) we had been thinking that it would be fun to have a little cottage at Lake Ophelia.  It was just a half baked idea to be honest but we thought perhaps we could occasionally sleep there during some of the hot summer nights, read, entertain, use it as a guest house...but after consulting with the county we were disappointed but not surprised to find out that building a little cottage would not be approved.  So our idea just simmered in the background.

Then, a couple of years ago we decided to attend an open house at Bunkie Life, a small company not far from us that makes pre-fabricated bunkies that don't require a building permit.  The bunkies are smaller that we had originally wanted to build but we quite liked what we saw and thought that the kits were brilliant.  Unfortunately my mother became ill right after we attended the open house and the whole project fell to the side.

Last year my husband thought that we should buy a little boat that he saw advertised on line.  Off we went on a Saturday to look at the boat and I frankly thought it was the ugliest thing ever.  But as it happens that day was also the Bunkie Life open house so instead of buying an ugly boat we bought a bunkie instead.  That is the abbreviated version of how our lake house came to be!

So...we attended the Bunkie Life open house and barbecue and had a lovely lunch.  We also bought the Bunkie Life kit which was delivered very promptly.

All of the parts of the bunkie were precut and labelled.  It was my job to sort all of the parts and load them on one of our hay wagons so that we could easily access them by part number and make sure that they could be covered by a tarp to protect them from any rain.

The assembly was really quite easy!  It was like building a kit from Lego or lincoln logs.  The instructions were very clear, the quality was very good and between my husband and I we went gangbusters building our little bunkie.

The only part that was a little challenging was putting up the rafters.  We used our farm tractor and a good friend came over to help us.

It only took us a few days to get this far in between all of the other things happening on the farm.  Then my husband contracted Covid19!  And of course he gave it to me!!  So our construction project was put on hold.  We were so tired. Neither one of us had contracted covid before which astonished so many of our friends who had already had 2 or 3 rounds of covid.  So our bunkie ended up on hold.  We didn't want our friend that had helped with the rafters to come back as he has 2 young children and we didn't want to take a chances that they could get covid from us.  We were both so tired and it took weeks before we felt our energy levels starting to return to normal.

Well, even bad things come to an end and we recovered enough to carry on with the construction.  At this point to be honest I think I might mean my husband carried on with the construction.

We added a red metal roof.  The windows and doors were part of the kit.  The floor went in last but as it was already so very late in the season we covered it with contractors' paper to protect it, loaded it up with some garden furniture and shut it up for the winter.

Spring arrived quite early this year followed by another round of winter so we didn't get around to working on the lake house until early summer.  I knew that I wanted the lake house to feel beachy so we bought a semi transparent stain for the walls in a light colour and a different colour for the floor and the rafters.  The weather was most uncooperative with heat, humidity and rain but eventually I managed to get the walls, ceiling and floor done.

Next we wanted to add furniture!  We moved our old kitchen table and chairs to the bunkie using our lawn tractor and a utility trailer.

Around Lake Ophelia we go!

Ta da! The first round of furnishings complete!

We had a wonderful Canada Day barbecue for family in the lake house.  It was a great success!

We sometimes have lunch in the lake house.  On this particular day we were surprised by a quick but powerful burst of rain.  The open window is the perfect height for Vera.

And finally a view back towards the house.  It is just a 5 minute stroll from the house to Lake Ophelia and the lake house.

There is still much work to be done but that will need to wait for another post!

Thank you for visiting my blog and wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

 

Late Afternoon Garden Views

Hello dear friends, our gardens are quite lush with the rain and warm temperatures we have been having so far this summer.  I took a little walk around a couple of days ago and have some photos to share with you.

A view from our pergola terrace.  I am not sure where time goes as we built this several years ago now and haven't really used it.  This area needs a little love which it should receive in the next couple of weeks!

A view from our fire pit with Lake Ophelia peaking through the trees in the distance.  Our blue spruce was purchased as a wee little tree so many years ago and then was run over by the company that used to mow our lawns.  :(  It is starting to recover nicely and is now really taking off.

This is our fire pit which has gone through many evolutions over the years.  We are still working on landscaping this area.   It was a last minute rush to get this done when we had a service for my mother after she passed away two years ago.  Last year we had such a hot dry summer with so many fire bans we didnt get a chance to use it.  This year has been seen a lot of rain (this month may be the wettest July on record!) so we still havent used it.  When the evenings cool down it is a lovely place to sit with friends and a glass of wine.

A different view looking towards the house.

Walking around the front of the house with a different view towards our dining pergola.

We have been expanding our memory garden this year.  Some unruly perennials have been removed and we are adding others.

My husband built Rose Cottage after he retired.  We wanted to build a little structure to store outdoor furniture and he decided that in addition to being functional it should be pretty!  Which it is.  

Vera is demonstrating an ability to come when called!

And Abby is demonstrating the same ability!

A view towards the side of our house.

And finally another view of our pergola area.

Thank you so much for visiting and wishing everyone a great week!