Summer chaos

There is no denying it. It is most definitely autumn. I finally brought the last the garden had to offer into the house yesterday. Two zucchini, one tomato the frosts had somehow missed, two tiny but sweet ears of corn and a smattering of rebel sugar snap peas. The winter squash are still out but the frost is still light enough to leave them.

This was my first vegetable garden and it was spectacular! What a great introduction to gardening for sustenance. I can’t wait to do it all again next year – but BIGGER and better 🙂 I’m definitely hooked.

Don’t you just *love* bees?

My son went back to school September 5th. Grade 3. Time really does go by much too fast. I always feel like I don’t do enough with him during our short summers.

Hanging out along the river

My partner was home with us for two months which was great. Although I must say it definitely added to the chaos. You never know what is going to happen until it happens when he is around. Sudden trips to one end of our province or another happened with no more than 5 minutes notice it seemed. Hard for an eight year old who needs routine and even harder on a 42 year old who needs routine and lots of time to shift gears. Not much painting happened between the garden, swimming and unannounced road trips. But it was so nice to have him home every single night. That’s one thing with him working out west, it’s lonely once the boy and the animals are all tucked in for the night.

The late Mr. Fawkes with some of his lady friends

We lost a few chickens over the summer. Three hens died of peritonitis which we traced back to our lovely Mr. Fawkes. The vet figured it was his chronic vent gleet that was infecting the girls cloacas.

Tough guys have bubble baths too…

After months of daily baths he was the sweetest and calmest rooster which made it even sadder that he had to be culled. We were lucky enough to have the handiest handy man ever working on our addition. Jack killed him for us and buried him by the river. The girls have been directionless ever since Big Daddy died last year. They were just starting to accept Mr. Fawkes. Since his untimely demise, my favourite hen, Breeze, has stepped up to the plate and assumed cock of the walk position. She has become quite ornery with me and pecks my legs viciously now instead of gently when she wants to be cuddled. She still stretches to be picked up but immediately attacks when she is set back down. She’s even growing spurs! I haven’t seen her mount anyone yet and I can’t imagine how the two young roosters will make out with her once they come of age. She is one ferocious chicken!

My transgender chicken, Breeze, looking for blackberries and legs to peck.

Breeze angles for a ride to the tim horton’s drive thru

Turn your back for a minute with the car door open or the window down and you may have a stow away on your next trip for groceries…

We had major renovations completed this summer which also added to the chaos. Our front deck is finally done. Hooray! And we knocked a wall out between the original house and the addition. Only took three years to finally make it happen. It was two months of daily renovations and I think I handled it very well. Certainly better than I would have two years ago. We still have painting to do and more renovations once Mom sells her house and makes the move from the big city to join us. But for this year I think we are done.

So with Glenn back to work and Trey back in school, I have almost no excuses to avoid painting. Here are some rough photos of what I’ve been up to…

Work in progress. Working on this today.

Chief Sitting Bull and three wise men. I was really pleased with the way the ravens turned out in this one. It’s only my third ever portrait and I’m quite proud 🙂

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