Fire and Water

One of the pitfalls of having central air conditioning . . . it’s grey and dismal outside, and it’s nice and cool inside, so it’s easy to assume that it’s cool outside. So when you set foot out the front door the humidity hits you like a fist in the gut.

And here’s something new . . . I was sitting in my office yesterday and thought I smelled smoke. It was a little early, but probably one of the neighbours was burning garden detritus. But no, it was not. It was hazy all day and I later learned the haze was smoke from the fires in northern Ontario. Seriously?

It kind of boggles the mind that we could be so divided, weather-wise. The west (and apparently the north) is on fire and here in the southeast we’re drowning. We’ve had so much rain the hubby has had to take water out of both the pond and the pool a couple of times.

But while I might not be enjoying all this wet weather, the gardens sure have. Every gardener I know is amazed at how well their gardens are doing – how prolific the blossoms, how big and bushy the vegetables. This is the snow pea fence, the snow peas my neighbour plants along the fence so we can pick what comes through on our side.

The picture was taken last week, and already the snow peas are done. Because of the rain I wasn’t able to get out and pick them, and now they’re too big. All we can do is let them go to seed for next year.

This picture of my vegetable garden was taken last week as well.

Everything is even bigger now and I’ve already picked enough beans to last us a couple of weeks. Not only are the tomato plants covered in blossoms, I’ve got tomatoes forming. Who knew my neighbour (who generously planted the garden for me while I was in the hospital) gave me roma tomatoes as well as several other kinds? And tucked under the tomato plants are peppers, with actual peppers on them!

The valiant little cherry tomatoes the hubby likes to plant on the deck are starting to show fruit as well.

So if nothing else, we’ll be eating well on beans, peas (the kind you shell that are also growing on the fence), tomatoes, and peppers. That is provided I don’t mind harvesting in the rain.

How is your garden growing?

June Is Busting Out All Over

Good news first. The second surgery went well, and I’m no longer attached to that leaky bag of goo.

The bad news is, I have to go through the whole recovery process again, which so far has been a whole different ball game.

This surgery didn’t take as long, which is probably why they only kept me in the hospital for two days. But I was not impressed with the lack of support/information I’ve been given since they booted me out – no phone calls, no VON visits, a lot more discomfort. *sigh*

Still, I’m getting better every day and I’m even able to sit at the computer for short periods of time. The rest of the time you’ll find me under the beautiful blanket (pictured above) my sister Nancy made me.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Merry, Merry Month of May

I don’t know which month is the official month for cancer awareness – I think the daffodils get sold in April – but for me it’s the month of May.

My mother died of cancer in May.
My father died of cancer in May.
Three years ago my husband underwent emergency surgery for cancer in May.
This year it was my turn.

Back in February I was feeling a little off and despite the fact I’d had a colonoscopy two years before that came out clear, I wanted another one. And it was a good thing I did. They found a tumour and arrangements were made for me to have it removed.

It was a small tumour, and despite the fact it was in an awkward place the surgeon was pretty confident they could take care of it laparoscopically. Basically, by making 4 or 5 small holes in my abdomen and using special tools to take care of everything with a minimum of fuss.

I felt confident I’d have my four days in the hospital, take a week or two to recover, and then I’d be back to blogging.

But this is me we’re talking about, and things just never seem to go that easily for me. Bottom line, the laparoscopy didn’t work out and I woke up with an incision down the center of my belly (held together with an impressive row of titanium staples) and an ileostomy – also known as a colostomy bag.

It was a bit of a shock, but the doctor told me that it would only take an extra couple of days in the hospital for things to heal up and then they could do the colostomy reversal. So after about five days I had a CT scan that showed everything was healed up the way it should be and I was good for the reversal. However, due to circumstances beyond my surgeon’s control, it was not to be.

Having the surgery to remove the tumour and give me a colostomy was considered essential.

Having surgery to reverse the colostomy was not considered essential (except to me) under Ontario’s lockdown rules.

So they sent me home to wait for a new surgery date, which (thankfully) is May 27.

I don’t want to go into a lot of detail about the mechanics of having a colostomy bag – it’s gross at the best of times and for the first couple of weeks I had to wear a mask every time I had to empty it. It’s supposed to get replaced every 5 to 7 days, but mine didn’t last more than a day or two before they started leaking. Not moving helped, so did taking Imodium 4 times a day, and thank God for the VON – they make house calls and they are amazing.

Anyway, I meant to post this update on my condition a while ago, but I haven’t felt up to sitting at my desk. I probably could have waited until after my second surgery, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be in the hospital for nor how I’m going to feel afterwards.

The moral of this story is, pay attention to your body and if you think something is off get it checked out. It may save your life.

Monochroic Monday

monochroic ~ of one colour

I don’t know about the weather where you are, but here in Southern Ontario it’s been up and down like a yo-yo. In the space of a couple of days we from “should I wear a winter coat or a spring coat” to “how little clothing can I legally get away with,” and as soon as I changed my closet over to summer clothes it got cool again. Every day’s a new adventure – warm or cold? windy or calm? dry or drizzly?

I did get my vegetable garden planted, and for the first couple of weeks it looked like this:

Then we got a whole day and night of steady rain and suddenly it looked like this:

Okay, this picture was taken like a week later, but you could almost see the seeds spouting in the rain. It was crazy.

For those of you curious about such things, the garden in the front has green beans, carrots, yellow beans, and peas. The garden at the back has the tomatoes my neighbour started for me (and who are NOT happy to be outside), beets, and pumpkins. I still haven’t found any pepper plants so there’s also a bare patch in there.

We were very happy that most of the plants in the pond garden came back up this year, and the plants along the back fence.

And we have a new addition to Kelsey Park:

Years ago I painted this horse for my father-in-law for the cottage, and when they sold the cottage it came back to me. The colours were not my choice and I fully intend to re-paint it when we bring it back in, but that will be a project for the winter.