Simple and less expensive are the Croc offs I’ve used for my Croc Pots

Small works of  labour I call “garden art” you have to love this sort of thing. More like eye and purse pleasing little sprinkles of fairy dust.  Speaking of pleasing, I have some good news…. The front gardens have been picked apart, weeded, discarded, sweat over and looking amazing.  

Makes me think of an officer and a gentlemen. I’m back on track, sorry.  I know, I’m in the garden taking pictures again. I wish I could remember the good excuse I had to avoid work this time, It’ll come to me when I don’t expect it.

Remember I mentioned I’d needed help this year in the gardens. The one on the left is my French Gardener, he takes this position often when in the garden, gets right into the dirt you could say. I don’t recall if I mentioned to you the amount of yelling I have done lately as the work is piling up and so another pair of hands was needed. These hands I might say are soft, yes he’s Dutch and doesn’t speak or wine like most, handy to have around. I’ll refer to him as my Dutch Butler and you’ll recognize him from now on.  He’s being prepped by my French Gardener on the way I like things in the garden and they work well together, only thing is he can give up the “yes, mam” all day long thing.  Enough! all this sweaty work is making my skin itch.

Quahog Shells

You’ll be surprised at what you find when you leave two men in the garden.  

I must run along, I have something to do.

~Cynthia~

   These days of Spring I find myself walking about the perennials  

and every so often I have to bend to nip at a weed here and there. While pondering yesterday I seemed to be focused on new bulbs and I could barely imagine the strength a bulb has by the amount of pressure and force taken for a single shoot to move that much earth to push itself from deep underground.  

  Last year the garden suffered neglect in the deepest way. Sometimes we busy ourselves so much with life we forget the small important things around us daily that bring us pleasure like a garden. I’m not able to keep up with all the non-sense and puttering about that a garden needs attending to and I’ll be the first to admit such a thing, besides I’d rather sit and watch the garden grow than to break a nail and have to repair it.

 I’ve come to my senses and decided to hire more help.    I was looking for a person to pick up the slack, a helper for my French Gardener. I needed someone who was well spoken, mature in life and light in appearance – after all I’ll have to keep an eye on him at first.  

I put an add for odd jobs out and it returned an extra pair of hands.  I liked his resume, you could say he has a nice pair of hands. I don’t know what made his resume stand out from others, perhaps it was the fact that in a previous job he stated being a Driver and Butler  for a well to be up Montreal way.  He included her last name as a reference and she had been of the Glastonbury’s of  Westmount, Quebec. “Glastonbury” I’d not seen that name written in awhile, I believe it was on the gravestone of my great auntie I’d last laid eyes on the name.  Anyway, I’d not call in a reference in the event the person on the other end of the phone was a bitter old nip like myself.  

After two days the extra pair of hands although soft and supple has busied himself well. Proved to be strong, hard working and somewhat of a pleasure to be around. I’m convinced of his abilities and at times I seemed to get the impression he will work well with my French Gardener.

I ventured the garden to capture a few photos of flowers, or was that my excuse to watch the two men work?     While clicking pictures my new man smashed his finger between to heavy rocks and I heard a whisper of Dutch coming from the edge of the primrose. “Hum! a Dutch Butler” yes, he will do fine; though he has a womanliness side to him, appearance and  behaviors that I just may have to control… He will be the grace and glory of a RainBow iNN my GarDen.

Today all work has to cease and desist, it is raining and therefore my camera won’t be in the garden nor my eye candy.  The weather will sharpen, there is a lot of Summer yet to come. 

~Cynthia~

My Favourite Find

Amazing is the feeling when you find one of these  bottle stoppers while sea glassing beachcombing.  Early drug bottles were produced for formulas.  Sent empty to local druggists or doctors and they had the task of filling it with dry or liquid prescription.  These bottles called apothecary-style bottles were to protect dry medicines and chemicals from moisture intrusion or oxygen exposure. 

An apothecary stopper is a great prize to a sea-glass hunter  just ask me, I’ll try and re-play my happy dance and video it for You Tube.  Truly, a great number of these bottles were made between 1850 and 1900 and mostly in clear glass.  The glass stoppers in tea drop shape were also made at that time for perfume bottles.

There you have it, my favourite find a bottle stopper.

blogging my bliss ~Cindy~ 

In the Fall I finally got at painting one of the B&B rooms upstairs. I have only wanted to re-due these rooms since we bought the house and how else do you eat an elephant but one bite at a time.  Only thing is I was having a hard time taking that first bite. 

Then just a little over a month ago I hung the last picture frame and put a few touches back to the other room opposite the hall.  I’ve since changed the curtains and bedspreads.

We finally got an offer on our big old farm house in Greenvale. I’m sad to see it go as there are so many memories in that old house. On the other hand we have been in the poor house keeping two properties going and one of them empty, it will be nice not to pinch pennies so hard.  I have a lot of pictures if the memories start to fade.

I have had to sell all the furniture in the house as we don’t have room for it. That has been a challenge in itself, making a listing, posting, answering email, haggling, and then letting go a piece of your past…moving on.

We built an office over the Winter and now I have a space with two doors that both lock from the inside and I can go and get some work done when I need to and just have some quiet time.  In this office space we left one wall open and painted it the same colour as the walls, yup purple and put shelf up on the open wall and this is where we keep the many  jars of sorted sea glass collection we have.  As well we have all the tea for the tea room here, with a shelf that I can weight and measure out the tea for sales. I love my new little space it gives me a little more room to work. 

I wanted to sort some of my pictures and share them with friends so I created a new page on Facebook called PEI though a lens and added pictures here of places around the Island like the butterfly emporium that Bruce has over in New Glasgow  to some of my favourite pictures of barns and bales, lighthouses and outhouses.  I made a dashboard picture of mums favourite old Brownie camera.

That old house I talked about that we love so much also caused a bit of stress so every now and then we managed to get to the beach even this past winter and do a little beachcombing to just settle our nerves and listen to the rocking of the ocean while we walked and talked. In fact we enjoy this so much we felt others would also so we waited for Canadian Tire to put their longitude and latitude navigational devices, holly crap that is why they call them GPS…anyway they went on sale and we got 2 and spent the better part of  two weeks mapping and hunting locations to send people on an adventure combing our beautiful beaches. The adventure will cost $40 dollars and include a signature map with hints and tricks to find treasures of sea glass as well the GPS that will take you to different locations around the Island. 

We took a trip back to Ottawa to visit family and friends and had a great time. We haven’t been on a road trip in a year and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being on the road. I was able to spend time with my Dad, scrapbook with my sister-in-law, bead with my cousin and take in a few lessons in crochet with Mrs. C. I had a wonderful time and made lots of memories while I was there.

My Dad

We still found time to beachcomb for sea glass this past Winter.

Even though it was muddy

I’m always in my element when by the ocean

We found lots of glass

Found two marbles

Who would have thought you’d find a cut Ruby

Wow! I’m amazed at the colour of sea glass on PEI

Then we found fire glass

Ok, enough with the sea glass….sorry I got off in a tangent.  We were spoiled with about a week of high temperatures and so was the garden and it started to bloom with tulips and daffodils coming up everywhere. The ice left the pond and that was another little clean up. These days I’m bagging sea glass earrings for the gift shop and trying to organize. “Organize,” more like I move a pile from one spot to another and I’m no further ahead. I’m just not feeling up to this coming season, don’t get me wrong I’m excited about it but with little or no energy to be excited.

I had better get my breakfast and do a little or it will be that time again when the lights go out and you rest for the next day. 

199.6   from  239.8  

bye ~ cindy 

I wasn’t about to give up the opportunity to dig in a little dirt yesterday. Finding gloves, shovels & hand held tools was a bit of a challenge but in no time they made their way to the back yard garden.

My Back Yard Garden invites a lot of birds to the feeders, frogs to the pond and don’t forget that squirrel! Yes, the one we tempted into the live trap and then drove it down the the wooded area where Winsloe and Charlottetown meet, that one. He (the squirrel) must have thought we were nuts taking him for a driving and making him walk back.  I say he lives here and we should just keep feeding him if he managed the 2km walk back.  Besides when guests sit outside at the tea tables they just love to watch all the antics this little acrobat preforms. So it is final he stays!

The little dirt devil!

Kinda cute! 

I got this nice bag for my groceries, a fantastic, “Hello, how are you today? Welcome to the store this morning.”  Then when I didn’t think it could get much better I was handed a President’s Choice $10 gift card, wow.

Store open

Doors open

I was first in line looking back at the people coming in

Gift Card and bag

The produce department looks great, wonderful job, bright, colourful

Gift Card and Bag

New look to the store with a lot more No Name Yellow products

everything looks great

“Thanks for coming out, today Mam.”

“We hope you enjoyed your visit today?”

Thank you superstore, now it is time to go beachcombing, see ya.

Cindy ~OO~

Guy and I have put together a unique GPS Sea Glass Beachcombing Odyssey.  

 With a GPS, we plan to send you “Beachcombing PEI” to a number of beaches that have treasures washed ashore. “What kind of treasure?” I’m glad you asked, you could find sea glass, shells, marbles, pipe ends, glass bottles, doll parts, wine stoppers, pottery and more. These are just a few of the things I’ve found on our beaches. With all the number of ship wrecks along the coast, every tide brings a new discovery each day. We started Beachcombing about 11 years ago. Then we took our adventure on the road and beachcombed the East Coast from Prince Edward Island to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and followed through down to Key West exploring beaches and inlets. We consider ourselves Beachcombers and you can read about our Sea Glass Vacation on our Blog. We started beachcombing just for fun, for exercise, for peace and relaxation, now we have the bug and we can’t stop. We have turned our passion for beachcombing into an expedition for all to enjoy. This is a great way to see the Island and explore the many beaches of PEI.  Beachcombing, truly a must do adventure while on your Prince Edward Island vacation.

In order to bring you this unique experience package, we have included: a treasure map for a  fun, how to beachcomb for the adventure, instructions on where to look for beach treasures using one of our GPS. This is a great way to adventure PEI while outdoors, getting exercise and making a lasting memory. It’s a beachcombing scavenger hunt! 

Once we set you up with the GPS unit and show you how to use it, we then hand over the treasure map and off you go from beach to beach in a sea glass odyssey, searching for beach glass or a sea shell adventure, or a quest for a treasure  that might have floated a shore from the Titanic.

This piece of sea glass was picked off the shores of Prince Edward Island and turned into a beautiful pendent. Bring me your beachcombing treasures and I’ll teach your to wire wrap your favourite piece into a treasured souvenier.

Your adventure will also take you to a few Gift Shops along the way that will have beachcombing items to seek out and purchase.  By now you have worked up an appetite,  so we also point you in direction of some of the best food on Prince Edward Island.

This can be a Half and or full-day experience $40.  Wire wrapped treasures $10 per item.  We have a treasure chest full of Sea Glass for those who have not come across their favourite piece to wire wrap and you may dig for treasure in the chest.

Beachcombing Experience $40

• Adventure  Treasure Map
• GPS and instructions
• Adventure Touring Beaches, Gift Shops, Restaurants
• Bring your treasure back to the Island Made Gift Shop and I’ll teach you to wire wrap your treasure into a wearable jewellery or key-chain souvenir $10 per item  

Book your Sea Glass Beach Odyssey today.

Happy Hunting ~ Cindy

Hi! If you are new to Hats’n Hospitalitea, you might want to   subscribe to Rss feed to get updates to my latest blog post.

With these hands!

We made these

 Red and Purple tea pot drip catchers for the Red Hatters

This past short trip took us to Ottawa to see some amazing people in our lives, Guy’s parents, my dad, my grandfather who is 101 and was the lock master at Hartwell locks. I visited and beaded with my first cousin for a day and Scrapbooked with my sister-in-law for a day.  The visit was short but it was packed full of fun.

While I was there I took up a collection from Canadian Tire….more to come on my next blog post about reuse/recycle/restore.

See you then!

cindy 

What a wonderful way to get together with entertainers and partygoers! Members of Islanders By Choice Alliance (IBCA) had a successful event last year and needed to look for an even bigger, better event this year. So it is about to happen tonight with a number of parties taking place across the Island, simultaneously and the best yet, live. Why is live so important? The Islander’s By Choice Alliance is a group founded on PEI who felt the need for Islander’s and people from away to all come together to live, love and enjoy life, many of the members of IBCA are away, moving to the Island or about to do so. “Having a kitchen party,” is an example of coming together and having fun.

This Kitchen party is stretching the full of the Island and with the help of the service provider Bell Alliant we are having our Kitchen Party Live Streamed all over the world so everyone including  my friends and family from away in the USA and other parts of Canada will be able to see just how much fun we Islander’s have.

FYI— The term “kitchen Party” might be familiar to all in and around Atlantic Canada but I thought I’d give you the setting in the event ya’ll don’t have kitchen parties. These events usually were frequent, you didn’t have to dress up for them, it included family, friends, acquaintances, even strangers, ya people just stopping by to see who might have been singing or who might have been on the guitar or fiddle, with great conversation along with tid bits of food and fun and plenty of laughter. Living in the times of oil lamps and wood stoves these big old farm houses had large kitchens in them, it was the warmest by the wood stove and had the best scents considering everyone brought food, and everyone would gather to socialize eat food, drink and play music, those were the days. I remember my uncle Arthur couldn’t play an instrument or sing and he sure knew how to play the spoons.

This is a good example of a kitchen party in PEI, I hope you enjoy.

http://youtu.be/CVsA7-LHQ-g

That has got to be fun, and so will tonight, stay tuned to peikitchenparty.ca 6-9pm, be sure to can grab your spoons and join in the fun.
~cindy

Seems today everyone is talking about this Dad who shot his daughter’s laptop with his .45 after she makes a fool of the family to her friends on Facebook.  I got to hand it to him, he grew a set of balls, took off his belt and put on his big boy pants and  took care of the situation.  Seems kids today are disrescpectful to their parents and perhaps they don’t know it because these parents, ya you and I,  have let our kids walk that red carpet that lays right over top of us.  

I think I have it figured where we went wrong, but it started with our parents and I’m going to blame them before I blame myself. We were raised with little or nothing, we respected our father like it was our job, we wanted something like a pair of North Star runners, we bought them second hand and changed the laces all by ourselves. We never got caught doing anything wrong like talking back at school because we would be afraid of the old man when we got home, because the school called ahead. and ya we had phones just no need for cell phones nothing was that important that it couldn’t wait. We talked back to our mother and got a back hander and that wasn’t something we were handed gracefully it was a cuff with the back of a hand.  I’m not sure if we were taught respect or if the fear taught us to respect. 

Then we made the mistake of giving our children everything we thought we didn’t have. I was raised by two parents who felt they had to be strong all the time so they never showed any weakness by hugging me. But I remember telling myself I wouldn’t be like that because when I had kids I was going to hug them all the time.  Back then I was given $10 for a pair of shoes and if I wanted the $15 dollar pair of shoes I had to work for the other $5 dollars.  Not me today, no I think if a child needs a pair of shoes it is up to the parent to buy them… I did, even up to the age of 26 I still bought your shoes.  I was not to leave my kids with my parents when I had children as my mother told me, “she was done raising kids.”  I felt hurt by what my mom said so when I got grandchildren I also got bruises on my knees from all the floor races and I babysat them whenever they needed a babysitter.  We spent so much time giving them everything we thought they needed–we forgot to teach them respect.  

Parents are not here to save you money on a babysitter, were not here, to teach you things you felt you didn’t have time to learn the first time around, were not here as your bank when you need to fix your car, were not here to answer your phone calls each time your car breaks down on the road, to buy you new tires, drive you to places, loan you our car, type out your girlfriends resume because she doesn’t know how, to offer you a house to live in, or let you store your furniture and toys, and Christmas trees. We don’t stay home for you to drop in whenever you feel like, and if we are busy you get upset, we have tools we need and although you don’t have any and borrow ours we would like it if they made their way back so we don’t keep buying new ones.  We don’t want to feel like your psychiatrist so stop complaining to us about your spouses, your plans, your money issues. We also think for ourselves god forbid we ask you each day what you think we should do.  We never went to school to become doctors, so please don’t  call us about everything that ails you or your children because we don’t have all the answers. But most importantly we are your parents, we feel you haven’t respected us lately and that is why we have asked you two stay away and give us some space.  After all when do you remember the last time we asked you for a favor or do you think we never need anything? Why did I use Facebook to ask you? Because I knew you would be listening there, just be glad I sent you both a private message, and didn’t send one like this father did.        

Dad stands by public punishment of his rebellious 15 year old daughter.