Trails of Hats'n Hospitalitea « Uniques of Crafting, Inspiring, Thrifting, Family and the back fence of PEI

Mon May 20, 2013


Checker Board Tulips

From my small garden tulip surprise off to Holland and over to Ottawa is the thoughts behind this mornings blog post.

These our my checkerboard Tulips

 

I’m not sure these checkerboard tulips have a history as amazing as the tulips we share in PEI or the millions of tulips that Ottawa receives from Holland each year but they are amazing looking.

I’m going to feature Brenda’s blog this morning as she visited PEI not long ago and shared her photos of our Tulip Festival that we have here on PEI.  So here is Brenda from Gardeningbren In Nova Scotia.

I love my little Island and the fact that Prince Edward Island shares something in common besides politics with my home town of Ottawa was a reminder of home this past week.

I have another surprise this week, in our bed and breakfast we have  Tamara staying with us from The Netherlands and she has shared stories of her home in ours. This being the month of May a great deal of our conversations have been over the tulips of Ottawa and the lovely display of tulips Prince Edward Island has this year as well.

I took an arm chair travel to Wikepedia this am to get you a little more information on the Canadian Tulip Festival.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.                   In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War.

The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

The festival begins

Princess Margriet returns to Ottawa to attend the Canadian Tulip Festival in May 2002.

In the years following Queen Juliana’s original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first “Canadian Tulip Festival”. Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoyed our little trip down memory lane and all the tulips and friends from PEI to Nova Scotia and Holland. Thank you Tamara and Brenda for being part of my tulip story this am.

Enjoy your week my friends, Cindy

 

 

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Wed May 15, 2013


Time! it sure can fly

 

It looks like another rainy day here on Prince Edward Island.

The city has a completed walkway on the lower Malpeque Rd and I have been very good about walking every morning around the block.  Thinking back to when I lived in the City a block isn’t that far to get around, but this isn’t your usual block. This block is 3km in length from Highway 2 to the lower Malpeque Rd, coming back on Melanie Lane to the Highway and back home. I’ll have to just think about it this am as I’m like sugar and melt when I get wet.

Now we have had some amazing summer like days so far, so I’ll pull ahead and let you know what has been happening.

The girls are getting ready for a tea party at Grandma’s. The time came to help Grandpa put up our signs by the road and that means our little tea room is open, but by reservation only. So on Monday the ladies dressed for tea and picked out a hat and clutch purse and readied themselves to have afternoon tea.

It was a delightful day so a visitor or two stopped by for scones and tea.

When tea was over we hung up our hats and went out to the garden to play

Pulled some weeds around the upper pond

then took pictures of the Magnolia in full bloom. However the blooms are not as full this year.

Then Grandma found a sitting spot where the girls joined for a story time.

Like most, the day came to a close quickly. Mom use to say, “where does the time fly” I never knew what was meant by that when I was a kid but I sure see time fly now that I’m older. 

Enjoy your day my friends, Cindy

 

 

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Sun May 12, 2013


Nesting Mother’s

This time of year can be a busy one in the yard and garden with all the birds and the bees.  Getting ready for the upcoming tourism season at the Bed and Breakfast as well keeping an eye on Wilson for muggles, muggles? yes muggles. 

First, let me wish all my friends, mother’s old and new a Happy Mother’s Day

I picked these just for you!

I got a child’s book for Mother’s Day, yes left me wondering also until I opened it and on the inside cover read, “Happy Mother’s Day, please read me this book when I come visit you in January.” Love baby MacLeod.

What wonderful news after such an anxious week we have had with Matthew.  He has come along way after his motorcycle accident, he is walking without the brace today and the swelling has started to come down. 

Speaking of babies, we found ourselves

peeking in on guests in the garden.

The Blue Jays have been busy hiding peanuts like a Squirrel

Guess what else is ready right now?

Asparagus, yes and plenty to go around.

I feel the hurrier I go the be-hinder I get, funny mom use to say that.

I find myself picking at one job or another and not getting anything fully accomplished.   Have you been there? You know what I mean? Your intentions are good, your day is before you and after that cup of coffee you return to the washing machine that took you an hour to get to earlier because you stopped and did 6 odd jobs along the way only to find you left the lid open, and the washing isn’t done?

Well I have a front end loader but I’m still not getting much accomplished these days, lol. 

Happy Mother’s Day, I’m taking the rest of the day off,

Smile, Cindy

P.S. Wilson is our rather large hidden geocache in our back yard that gets a lot of company off the Confederation Trail.  

 

 

 

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Fri May 3, 2013


A piece of Gravel from Bagnall Rd

Rounding the end of the week and so far my adrenaline has been on a roller coaster ride, Friday has crept up on me so fast and I’d better start getting ready for our Mother’s Day Tea tomorrow.

But first relax, breath, deeper, ok repeat

A short drive to Charlottetown and I could be in my thinking spot on this bench.

Then I’ll return to work and make some meringues 

These had to be done with a hand mixer, because remember the son who broke my Kitchen Aid?

He called yesterday, he always checks in with his mom.  This time he called from under his motorcycle, on a side road somewhere in NewGlasgow, said he needed me to come, but didn’t’ know the gravel road he was on and that he was hurt bad.

Hang on I need some peace

Somehow flowers just aren’t working right now

Nor sitting by the pond

I called his sister as she was working in Hunter River and could get to him faster than I.  We drove out to NewGlasgow, straight to the farm and he wasn’t on any road, then turned around and found a car in front of me put their 4 ways on and that was an indication to me they were volunteer firefighter as I looked at the license plate.  I’d follow him down a gravel road  Bagnall Road and wonder why Matthew would be on his bike on this road.  

I must have been driving around looking for  awhile because the ambulance, firetrucks and volunteers were already there.  I had to park far away and walk to where I could see his body laying on the road but I wasn’t close enough to see his face, his expression, or hear his voice and know if he was alright.  Victoria came running towards me trying to stop me in my tracks, she had gotten to him….I panicked and kept walking as she said he is all right mom he is just banged up a lot.

Matthew couldn’t remember the name of the road so he called Paul, and Paul was on a tractor in the middle of the field and said he couldn’t get to him and called his dad Reggie who was holding Matthew’s head still when I got there.  Matthew was laying on the ground in shock trembling.  I stood back and let the attendants do what they needed to do. I checked him over with my eyes and convinced myself he was ok, all the time wondering why he didn’t have his bike pants on when he always got full dressed.

When I got into the ambulance and he saw me, he said nothing. I stood over him and asked him if he was scared and tears pressed from the corner of his eyes.  He said, “Mom, there won’t be a third time, I’m not getting back on that bike”.

Funny how a body at rest and relaxation can overturn and become anxious and annoyed

I saw a side of Guy I’d not every seen in the 20 years we have been together

 

Matthew will be ok,  I stood by while the doctor stitched him up. He will be awhile healing. When we got him into a wheelchair I reached down and picked up one of many pieces of gravel off the backer board and stuffed it into my pocket.  I have my son and a piece of Bagnall’s Road with me today.

Last night the sun set

A full night’s sleep and I’m still exhausted,

I’ll have to set that aside for now as I have guests for breakfast and coming for tea.

Being a mom is a tough job,

Cindy 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fri Apr 26, 2013


Gearing up for the Summer

 Nearing the weekend and waiting on Bed and Breakfast guests to arrive, gearing up for the summer season while changing gears and cleaning them on a Kitchen Aid.  

 I really enjoy the Springtime and sometimes it flies by so fast I can’t enjoy it at all.  At this time of yea,r we spend most of our time prepping the gardens, organizing and pricing in the gift shop and seeing new faces in and out of the Bed and Breakfast. But I have been all over the place starting a odd job here, picking apart things that need to get done there and really not getting any one thing on the to do list crossed off, what’s with that?

 Yesterday our signs went into the sign doctor.  I think they need to have a little fix’n up before they go up.  Besides if they are in at the sign doctor they can’t be put up…. did I just say that? Ugh, I’m trying hard to Stretch the Spring, ha ha ha I made a funny. 

One of the odd jobs I got accomplished was to build my Etsy Shop, and now I need to build on it by adding pieces to the shop. I only have a few things there because I’m having a hard time with organizing or separating the items in my on-line shop from my Gift Shop.  

matthew

 

My biggest gear issue comes from the third gear, my son Matthew.  He used my Kitchen Aid with the meat attachment on it which sent me visiting  PartSelect Kitchen-Aid on-line to purchase a gear for the mixer and it came yesterday along with a bag of greese.  I think I know what I’ll be doing over the weekend. The gear box is full of greese adn metal filings.  I know what you are thinking:  have the son come over and fix it. 

 

 

 This is what gear teeth should look like on your Kitchen Aid

 This is after your son uses your Kitchenaid

 Just a little closer for the full effect 

 The metal filings piled up in the corner

 

Have a wonderful weekend my friends,

I sure hope your weekend is filled with fun and not a messy job.

Cindy

 

 

 

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Tue Apr 23, 2013


DirTy JOBS

 

I use to think cleaning the fireplace was a dirty job but believe you me it has nothing on cleaning out the silt from the bottom of a pond.

Our pond is overdue for a clean up

This is not a job to do in the Fall because you want the silt in the bottom of the pond so the fish have a place to dig themselves into and they can over Winter there.  If you clean it up in the Fall they don’t have a chance at a very good survival.  Besides, we usually take a beachcombing road trip in the late Fall and we usually run from all dirty jobs.  

 

I found these buds on the Magnolia Tree yesterday.

Procrastinating, something I’m good at when it comes to a dirty job.

 

I had to pass by the pond to get back into the house, perhaps I’ll pull out a potted flower or two

 

I stopped when I heard tapping coming from this house

Looks like we are going to have house guests this year

More procrastinating

Lovely to see this bunch of Hens and Chicks survived the Winter.

Oh yes, the pond, right!

Well tomorrow is another day!

If it is warm enough we might get back at it.

Dirty jobs are easier to put off than to get done.

I’m thinking the Yellow Pages could even help.

Do you have any dirty jobs to get to?

Happy Tuesday, Cindy

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fri Apr 19, 2013


Round Up Without a Cent

Nearing the end of April with Tim Horton’s cups everywhere and now people have taken to emptying their pockets of pennies into the streets. 

Even though it is Friday I’m getting my weekend off to a good start. I started walking my 3 km daily ritual and can’t believe this is my first morning out since we returned from the US only 6 weeks ago.  However, like any good procrastinator I’ve a good excuse because it has been cold!

So what did I find on my morning walk?  The Island is in need of a Spring Island wide clean up and clean up day is  May 13th.  On my venture down Stockman Dr I notice that everyone already has their yard clean up done. Then right there, in my path I found a shiny new penny heads up, oh happy dance.  Then onto the lower Rd I come across an empty lot, remember (Island bloggers) the house that was up for sale “to be moved” on the lower Malpeque Rd? Well Tim Horton’s could do a info-mercial just standing on that property today with all the empty Tim Horton’s cups that are there. Onto Melody Lane my thoughts wonder to the many mornings meeting up from behind with gas powered scooter delivering the morning paper. Buddy has cut down a lot of trees on his property and I know if I take hubby with me on my next walk he will return with the truck and overload it with wood for next years burn. Passing the Petro Canada is tricky as people are not doing the speed limit when they are coming off of Route 2 turning into Robin’s Donuts and I avoid becoming a hood ornament.

 Then passing in front of the Irving Tim Horton’s I notice a handful of pennies, remembering my grand-dad who always called them coppers.  Yes, I bent down and picked them up only to walk another 10 feet or so and find another pile this one with dimes in it, oh lucky day.  Then If I didn’t find another pile in the middle of the road and yet another pile of coopers  beside the sidewalk in front of the Tim Horton’s.  Now I have to wonder just what am I going to do with all these pennies, I couldn’t resist picking them up.  

Knowing very well that a few things changed while I was away and one of them being the phasing out of the Canadian Penny.  So what do you do with all your leftover pennies? 

Well you could make a necklace

Or a picture frame

A penny car

Or if you have plenty how about a floor or wall?

I noticed that the stores don’t seem to be charging you the penny or they will round up and give you back your change without the pennies.  

Either way if people keep throwing handfuls of pennies out their windows, and I keep picking them up, I’ll need to make a floor or wall.

Happy Friday, Cindy

 

 

 

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Thu Apr 11, 2013


Everything 3′s

3′s 3″s 3″s 3′s 3′s 3′s 3′s 3′s 3″s

Everything happens in 3′s why?

 

It is very common to hear someone say, “everything happens in 3′s.”  I say it all the time. However, I most often say this when the 3′s are associated with me braking someone, something going wrong, disasters or misplacing something.  So again today I had to ask myself why do things happen in 3′s? Lets face it, if you know me I almost have a 3 tattooed on my back like “kick me.”

I asked Wikipedia about the

Rule of three (writing)

 
 

The rule of three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader or audience of this form of text is also more likely to consume information if it is written in groups of threes. From slogans (“Go, fight, win!”) to films, many things are structured in threes. Examples include The Three Stooges,Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

A series of three often creates a progression in which the tension is created, built up, and finally released. Similarly, adjectives are often grouped in threes to emphasize an idea.

That is according to Wikipedia

According to Cindy, here is what I think of 3′s

I don’t think things happen in three’s but I think we expect them to happen, so we notice more often than not when they do.   One thing is for sure, when 2 things have happened I”ve always waited for the shoe to drop and the third thing to happen and it usually does.

So here is my 3 last week

We arrived home to replacing a stove, washer and bedroom.

This week the door on the fireplace, a window, and a chimney lining.

Oh and BTW I’m liking my stove all the way. When the electric one gave out on me I decided to start cooking with gas again.

See the bottom, I can’t put my frying pans there anymore as it is a warming tray.

 Do you have the same association with 3′s as I do?

Have a great weekend ~00~ Cindy

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Sat Apr 6, 2013


In My GarDen

Curious to see snow drops announcing themselves in the garden. Surprised to see I’ve been tanked.

 

The snow hasn’t been melting in my backyard as fast as I’d like it too, perhaps I’m too impatient,

or a little hosta about the whole situation

 

either way, I’ll keep my Tulips sealed

“Quick, grab a bench and put it under me, I’m about to weaken at the knee.”

(earlier last week in conversation)

The installer: “This is a good location for the tank.”

Me: “Why would you put something so ugly in a garden?”

The installer: “Mam, we can hide it behind the bushes no one will even know it’s there.” 

Me: “Right, as ladies round the garden for the tea room they won’t see the tank?”

The installer: “We can put the tank anywhere as long as it is code.”

Me: “Alright then it’s settled, put it in the neighbours yard and run the line underground”

 

As Violet Crawley would say from Downton Abbey, “I doubt Mr Travis has much of an eye for fashion.”

I’m going to cringe each time someone enters the garden. Can you picture this monstrosity? I can’t imagine this being my worst sight, but it is.  How will I ever hide this over-sized marshmallow?

devastated by what I see with my glasses on    ~OO~ Grandma

 

 

 

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Thu Apr 4, 2013


Just Around the Corner

April is showing her true signs of Spring with guests arriving at the B&B and eggs around every corner.

I think I am never convinced Spring has arrived until Easter is over.  I spent all of Easter weekend in bed sick with the flu.  The girls waited until grandma was feeling better on Easter Monday to have an egg hunt.

We awoke Easter Morning and it was bright and sunny and the temperature was cold -8 C (17.6F). Then as the day went on it warmed up to an amazing high of  5.8 C (42.4F).

Over the past week our Bed and Breakfast has been busy with guests from Boston, Montreal, & Maine.  On Easter morning we surprised  our guests with an egg hunt.

The month of April is so unpredictable for weather here in the Maritimes.  Last Saturday and Sunday were beautiful bright sunny days. Monday when the girls came over it was on the cold cloudy side, Tuesday and Wednesday again crispy and cold it only got to +2C (35F). Today there is ice on the fish pond out back and the high is going to +3C (37F).  Not much to look ahead to around the corner but if we are patient like all good things the nice weather will come. 

 Speaking of just around the corner, Victoria’s wedding is August 17th and I was planning on getting together with Vicki and Darla to do a little wedding planning, but I had to cancel as I’m still not up to snuff.  At least I was able to stay out of bed for awhile yesterday and I started making a few paper flowers for a centre piece I am working on for a client.  
 
I also needed an excuse to stay out of the way of the installers who came to put in our gas stove. Yes, my electric stove gave up on me and it was time I went back to propane. 

 Today I’m off to the vet college with M’J our 11 year old Border Collie.  We returned home and took her to “Paws on the Beach” to be groomed.  She was excited when we picked her up and she has gone down hill every day since, yesterday we had to pick her up off the floor to take her outside and she won’t put any weight on her back hip.  Sometimes you wish they could just talk instead of sitting looking so pitiful at you.

Enjoy the day ~ Cindy

 

 

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