As you’ll recall, Luke installed video surveillance on the property after the garage got robbed a few weeks ago.  This turned out to be a very opportune thing, in light of the damage caused by a group of marauding bruins.

On Thursday morning, our garbage day, I let the dogs out as usual, and they didn’t return.  I looked out the kitchen window to see if I could find them, and saw the heavy city garbage can on wheels had been knocked over.  Naturally the dachshunds were busily chomping on the contents.

Once I had the dogs inside, I went out and got a shovel and broom and cleaned the week-old garbage off the carport floor and steps leading up to the sliding door.  While doing that I heard water rushing in the yard.  I went to the water box where all of the irrigation lines originate, and found a line broken, water spewing out and the box full to the brim.

On the way back to the house I looked down do my vegetable garden and saw my bee hive was smashed to pieces!  Now I was beginning to wonder what on Earth had roamed our property in the night, and when Nicky got up I told him to replay the night’s tape.

In the meantime, I was phoning landscapers and Denis, trying to figure out how to turn off the rushing water.  The box was about to overflow, at which point an awful lot of water was going to whoosh into the neighbour’s yard.  And these are the neighbours who are very odd to boot, so it wouldn’t have been good.

The only answer seemed to be to find the valve at the bottom of the box, and turn it off with a big metal T shaped implement.  Nicky and I both tried, but with three feet of turbulent water on top of the valve, and the gushing cold water hitting us in the face, we couldn’t find it.

Finally Brent, the landscaper, sent his stepfather to come and try to turn off the water.  Brent’d been fooling with it the day before, and thought maybe he’d done something stupid.  However, this turned out not to be the case.

When his stepdad came with a friend, they marched to the box, one held a piece of plywood against the rushing water, the valve was now easily visible, and voila! They turned off the water and the catastrophe was averted.

Meanwhile Nicky had replayed the night’s tape, and the story it told was a fascinating one.  First one sees bears bounding toward the camera, their eyes red in the darkness.  Then you hear the garbage being knocked over, and then you see them up close: a mom black and not one, not two, but three cubs!

I guess at first they must’ve slapped the bee hive around, then came up the fence line, and stepped on the irrigation pipes.  Brent later looked at them and said a great deal of weight came down on them to break one like that.  Then the bears found the garbage and enjoyed a feast of that.

Once full they left piles of bear dung in the yard, and I guess sauntered away to sleep it off somewhere.  Now I have the garbage can itself inside the little shed on the top of the driveway, and the door is kept shut.  I love animals, but honestly, I have to draw the line at a family of bears.

Do you know why I know that for a fact? Because my dear friend Liz kept every letter I wrote to her from September 1967 until June 1968.  She, her brother and parents went to Switzerland for a year, and I of course remained in the lovely bosom of Osoyoos.

I was visiting Liz and Liza yesterday, so she lent the letters to me to take home and re-read.  What a joy to be able to re-live the events of 45 years ago as though they occurred yesterday!  What I realize more than ever is that we really don’t change all that much over time.

One letter ends, “I’ll tell you how much I weigh if you tell me how much you weigh!” (We were 13 years old).  It’s also a chronicle of music, “I love the song Lady Madonna,” and fashion, “My mom’s making me the cutest dress with an empire waist and baby doll sleeves.”

I talked about the many Elvis Presley movies we saw every Friday night at the Sunland Theatre, and mentioned that I got the cool new Monkees album.  I wrote about how horribly stupid I was in math and how much I hated band.

But most importantly, the letters chronicle the year of my first boyfriend, Aldo.  It begins in September, with me describing the first kiss in detail.  It continues with movie and dance dates, and ends in June with, “I can’t wait until after the last school dance when I can say good-bye forever.”

I realize I’ve been a bad girlfriend ever since I was 13, and I believe if you’re just no good at something you should leave it alone.  I described events at which I “accidentally” ignored Aldo, or “unknowingly” flirted with someone and made him mad.  Oh My God, I was a little brat even then.

The letters also mention mom attending a Liberal convention in Ottawa, where she planned to support some guy named Pierre Trudea.  A letter sent in June describes my time as a Trudeau Girl and the excitement of campaigning for him.

In the letters I’m reminded how unfairly I felt I was being treated by my mom, who wouldn’t allow me to attend Teen Town dances.  Many of my letters to Liz ended with “of course mom wouldn’t let me go.”

But perhaps it was all to the good, and here I am, 45 years later, reading my words and feeling highly bemused by them.  The main message I got from that year’s worth of letters is this: thank God I didn’t have a girl.

It took quite a while to read that many letters, as I think there are about 40 of them!  They’re all at least one tightly-written page, but some run to as many as three pages.  So, like this blog, it seems I’ve had a long-running attachment to describing my week’s activities to some hapless reader.

You know how Gene Kelly sings, “Gotta dance!” in the musical Singing in the Rain?  I guess my motto’s going to have to be, “Gotta write!”

The country mouse visited the city mouse, and had a good time!  Alison lives near the corner of Yonge and St. Clair, so we were minutes from the city by foot or subway.  We also drove around in the car, so I was able to see quite a lot of Toronto in four and a half days.

When leaving the house Alison has to program the motion-sensitive alarm.  As I secretly felt smug because of where we live, you can only imagine my chagrin at a call from Luke that we’d been robbed while I was away!

Nicky was home alone, and fast asleep, as were the dogs, so someone just helped themselves to a bunch of car parts and tools in the unlocked garage.  Luke came home from Thailand the following day, and found out about it from a freaked-out Nicky.

Thankfully Luke is a computer and all-around electronics genius.  In one day he and his pal Tyson layered on the security.  Thanks to them we have cameras, alarms and motion-sensitive lights, and now the place feels as secure as its nickname, The Compound.

But back in Toronto, there wasn’t a thing I could do about it, except to feel briefly perturbed.  I was too busy.  We began with all-out cultcha in the form of the Picasso exhibit, followed by the play War Horse.  A sob fest if you love animals, so just a heads up.

I had the first manicure of my life, as there are several Vietnamese-owned nail salons near Alison’s house.  I bought a vintage half-slip at a store in Kensington called Courage My Love.  We later did a driving tour of Cabbagetown and Rosedale.

The morning always began with lovely coffee and a great read.  Alison and J.T. are avid newspaper readers, so I was in my element.  I’ve decided I simply have to try to find the Sunday New York Times someplace in Kelowna. 

Because I’ve been pals with Alison since we were six we have our own way of interacting.  For example, when I developed blisters from all the walking, Alison stopped and said, “Okay, give me your shoes.”  Because we have the same size feet she decided by switching shoes I could survive because the pressure points would be different.

And speaking of shoes, we went to the Bata Shoe Museum, which is well worth it.  We also saw a cute French farce one evening entitled The Game of Love and Chance.  Lunch one day was at the cutest restaurant I’ve ever been in in my life, called The Red Tea Box on Queens.

Alison pointed out the author John Irving two tables over one night when we all went out for dinner.  Walking along Yonge it’s like this: “Hana!” (Gartner) “Alison!” They hug, and chat.  Celebs by the bucket.

Alison said, “Oh there’s Geddy Lee (from Rush).  He and I go to the same gym.”  I just adore knowing Alison.

And all too soon, the country mouse had to pack and leave, my suitcase filled with fabulous finds.  But now that I know how pleasant it is in Toronto, I’ll certainly be planning to do that again.

I forgot to write this blog yesterday so I’m writing today in a passionate haste.  I still have to finish packing, and am leaving in two hours for Toronto!  I’m not sure why I have this terrible penchant for doing things at the last minute.

Yesterday, instead of packing, I was at the local nursery, shopping for my xeriscape project.  I’ve never had a list when shopping for plants, so that was novel.  As well, I’ve never experienced such quantities.  For example, Lisa ordered 41 dianthus plants!

But I didn’t question it.  I just loaded up 20 balloon flowers, 17 stonecrop, 12 switch grasses, etc.  I also didn’t even flinch at the till, so that was quite brave of me.  They didn’t have any of the shrubs on the list, and Lisa still has to find those, so the plant bill will grow.

On the weekend I went to a funky rock place, and picked out rocks for the edging of the berm and paths.  Later in the day it was horrible to see a large truck, steam stacks puffing away, coming up my narrow, steep driveway to deliver them.  But the driver was obviously a master at it, because not even a blade of grass was damaged.

Then I had the good fortune of having the City send a work crew my way to clean up old logs and fallen pine needles on the strip of City land right beside my driveway.  I was going to try to remove the needles myself, and I’m glad I didn’t try, as the guy said they took 6 half-ton trucks full of them to the dump!

It’s hard to know what to pack for this trip, but I think a few basics should leave me with a half-empty suitcase.  And we all know that that means, don’t we?  However Alison’s idea of shopping (Holt Renfrew) and my idea of shopping (Value Village) are opposites.

I’m returning on Tuesday and Nicky’s to pick me up at the airport.  I think Luke should be back from his trip to Thailand, too, so we can exchange stories of our experiences.  Hopefully he’ll have the sense to tone his stories down a bit for his poor old mother.

I feel somewhat under control as I leave, because I’ve left three tightly-written pages of instructions for Nicky.  I don’t like to leave anything to chance, as he’s not used to running the place on his own.  One of the women at the gym was very surprised to learn he’s never used the dishwasher, and is 22 years old.

Before leaving, I have to be sure to mail the blood money to the government that they slap out of entrepreneurs every spring.  God knows Bev Oda needs it, as she certainly can’t afford to pay for that limo out of her paltry income, and needs some of my earnings to help her.

As soon as I’m back next week, the landscaper’s going to be here with a brawny fellow, and the three of us are going to slap this yard into shape.  So I figure I may as well eat as much as I can while I’m away, as I’m pretty sure moving 15 yards of soil and rocks will burn off a lot of calories.

You know how some tradespersons act like they’re asking what you want, and then when you tell them, they do what they wanted to do right from the beginning anyway?  And when I say “some” I mean the vast majority, as that’s been my experience.

After a charade of playing “pick a colour” with the contractor who built our rental house six years ago, and ending up with what he planned on right from the start, I got wise to the whole game.  I said, “Look, Bob, let’s just stop right here and you just go ahead and pick the roof, siding and all other parts of the house yourself.”

Another hazard of being near them is the way the trades fight with each other.  When we did house reno’s we lived in fear the painter would hold up the carpet layer, and so on.  And now with my xeriscape project, I’m right in the middle of two really nice landscape companies and their sometimes opposing views.  Fun!

One landscaper said, “I want to use this sod to build a berm.” The other landscaper refused to have anything to do with that plan.  So today when Landscaper A wasn’t here, Landscaper B removed all the sod, loaded it up, and said no way to leaving any for that crazy berm idea!

Now I’m scared of what’ll happen tomorrow when the first landscaper arrives.
The landscaper:  Okay, where’s the saved sod for my berm?
Me: Um, they said they wouldn’t leave it because your idea is um, no good or something…..

But the fear of tradespersons is dwarfed by the fear of Nicky’s appetite after walking through orchards from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM daily.  He works for the Regional District, in the coddling moth program.  They go orchard to orchard, hanging traps on apple trees.

You may recall my descriptions of what Nicky used to eat when bored.  Now when he’s worked up a day’s worth of appetite, it’s quite remarkable.  The other day he ate his usual two cups of heavily buttered cooked rice, topped with curried chicken.  Then he came upstairs and heated a large bowl of leftover spaghetti and meat sauce from the night before.

That kind of thing just starts him off.  He then downs a full 8 ounce glass of 18% creamo with a box of cookies.  Or a box of those Cinnabon cookie things they were demonstrating at Costco the other day.  They were a big hit.

But finally, more fearsome than the tradespersons, or Nicky’s whale-like appetite, is the call I received from Luke from Thailand yesterday around noon.  He said he was phoning because he wanted to tell me how much he loved me.  I said, are you drunk?  He said, kinda.  Then he said he was deeply in love with a girl from Bangkok.

I decided to go into a Zen-like mental space at that moment and just thought of the bright side: the Thai revere the elderly, and love kids, so I might be a loved mother-in-law with a huge number of grandkids.  Don’t worry, be happy!

 As you know, I’ve been searching for a Tilden apricot tree, as they’re the only kind that’s self-pollinating, so you only need one.  Because I was going to Osoyoos for the Easter weekend, I decided to have a look in the Sandhu Nursery.

If you’re ever in Osoyoos and enjoy gardening, please visit this nursery.  I found my Tilden apricot tree there, and was amazed at the huge variety of shrubs, trees and flowers.  You have no idea how massive it is until you go in there.

You’d think that’d be enough joy for anyone, but no, it continued.  Mom saved a bunch of Life magazines from 1962 (Marilyn Monroe’s death) and 1963 (the Kennedy assassination).  They’re all in mint condition, and as mom doesn’t want to store them any longer, I said I’d take them.

She also gave me two books printed in Germany in 1886 which I remember being allowed to look at very carefully when I was a small child.  They’re colour drawings of animals and people from around the world, or the world as they knew it at that time.  Fascinating!

The week had started well anyway, as last Tuesday I was invited to spend a spa afternoon with three other women.  We had a full body massage, facial and pedicure, which took from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.  I’ve never experienced such relaxation.

And I always love to spend time with Pat, the woman whose guest I was for this extravaganza.  Her real name’s Petra, which I think is a much nicer name than Pat, but you know how it was in the old days.  Petra would’ve been too odd for Canadians, so when she arrived from Germany in the 1950’s she changed it to Pat.

And speaking of change, last week I saw a front-end loader type machine unloaded in front of a house across the road.  Suddenly, whammo, the trees and house were being pulled down and for the first time in 22 years I could see through to the road on the other side!

At first I felt sick because I thought some behemoth’ll be built there and people will be able to look into my dining room window.  But fortunately, as it turns out, the old neighbour is just building a brand new house right on the same old spot.  Phew!  I always pride myself in not needing window blinds on that side of the house.

My house looks very nice with its new stucco.  Now the wood siding on the lower half need re-painting, but I figure I can do that over the next few weeks.   I’ll hire Larry the Handyman to get on a ladder to paint the fascia board as I don’t need to risk my life for home improvement.

I picked flowers like pentsemon, holly hocks and echinacea for my new water wise garden, and the irrigation expert’s coming this Friday.  So as far as I can tell there’s no end in sight for happiness.

As you know, a xeriscape landscaper’s going to help me turn this yard into an indigenous paradise.  But you know how that goes, you decide to work on one area, then look around the place with a jaundiced eye.  So when I looked at the house critically, I thought the old shack needs a sprucing up, too.

I idly googled stucco, and found a nice-sounding company here in Kelowna.  I contacted the Stucco Surgeon, and even as I type, he and his crew are working away.  The house has ugly white stucco on it from 1960, but by the end of today it’s going to have nice new taupe-coloured stucco on it instead.

And good news about the dog, too.  For only $168 I found out from the vet that she doesn’t have diabetes.  She had some type of mild infection, so was put on antibiotics.  The vet said if the incontinence continues, then the old mutt’s going to have to start taking hormones.  Like owner, like pet, I suppose.

Luke arrived home on Thursday with his pal Nathan.   They were on their way to Vancouver fom Alberta and stopped in for a night of food and hilarity. Then the two of them, plus Luke’s friend Felix, who lives here in Kelowna, headed off to Thailand for a month

Luke’s taking his little tablet with him, and left his phone here.  He said you can call me on this.  I said, on what, your little computer there?  And he said, yeah, let’s try it.  So I dialed the number, his wee, tiny laptop rang, and he said hello into it.  I was quite amazed, as this thing can do almost everything except prepare a meal.

With all of my homemade apricot jam eaten, I’m in a bit of a quandary as I just hate commercially-prepared jams.  I tried one of the Smucker’s strawberry, and it was barely passable.  The one nice thing it did for me was remind me of the old days at the Cavalier Grill in the Georgia Hotel in Vancouver.

My parents liked to stay there, and so we’d eat downstairs in the hotel’s restaurant.  In the mornings at breakfast, they brought that adorable little metal rack filled with the single servings of jam, honey and peanut butter. I loved that so much.

So I’m determined to find an apricot tree to plant in the yard, and then have more apricots and jam than I know what to do with.  But the local nurseries don’t seem to have any tildens, which is the variety I want as it’s one of those where you only need one tree and it’ll bear fruit.

I’ve received a timeline from the xeriscape gardener, and this year’s project should pretty well be wrapped up by the end of April.  What I’m enjoying about this project is I got to pick out an entire new garden full of flowers and shrubs.  It’s garden renovation at its finest.

Then with the house re-stuccoed and the landscape re-done I can return to some of my interior projects.  I want to paint a couple of rooms, and I’ll be sure to choose colours tha are all very zen and Earth-mothery to match the new exterior.  Ohm.

You may be surprised to know that a backhoe, bobcat or some form of heavy equipment’s required for my xeriscape project.  Lisa, the nice landscaper, said that’s how the lower lawn will be removed, and then the pieces are heaped here and there, and then they’re covered in bark mulch to form the hillocks.

There’ll be paths made of pebbles for the dachshunds.  Also, the indigenous plants going into these hillocks may be attractive to the quail.  Then the dogs’ll have even more territory for finding delicious baby quail snacks.

But poor old Mojo’s going to the vet today for a check-up as I’m afraid she may have developed diabetes just as Arnie did at around that same age.  I’ve noticed some fairly serious, and obviously very disturbing, incidents of incontinence on the dog’s part.

But as everyone with a house and pets knows, both are a great way to get rid of huge piles of money.  I don’t know why, but otherwise rational people will think nothing of spending insane sums of money on both.

And then there are the smaller blow-outs when I make this fatal error in thinking: I say to myself, “I’m just going to look around in Winners for a while, but I don’t need anything, so it’ll be fun just to browse.”  Nearly $200 later, I stagger out of the store, wondering what just happened.

My brother’s daughter Julie’s getting married in August, so I bought a dress at Winners that may be appropriate for the event.  It makes me feel an awful lot like Betty Draper, so I suppose that’s a good thing.  It has a fitted bodice, with darts and then the skirt is fullish, as it’s made with box pleats.

And then there’s the general hilarity of having seen my visioning regarding the yard and garden, as well as the new direction for the business, coming to fruition.  The yard’s going to be a joy, and now the business is starting to feel that way again, too.

I received another couple of on-line orders, and felt great to be able to custom-make them as the customers wanted.  I simply can’t stand high-volume production, as so much of what artisan food is, IE hand made, can’t be done like that.

Nicky has a job starting this week with the Regional District of the Central Okanagan.  He’ll be riding through orchards on a quad all day, hanging coddling moth traps on apple trees.  It’s just a seven-week gig, but he’s hoping it may be an in with the Regional District, and he’d like to work for them.

Luke’s coming through Kelowna this week on his way to Vancouver where he and his friend Felix are catching a plane to Thailand, where they’re spending a month.

So almost all’s well in our little corner of the world, as spring’s just around the corner.  I just have to think positively as I drive toward the vet’s office with Mojo today.

 67 years ago today, my dear parents were wed.  My dad died long ago, but I like to remind my mom of the event whenever it comes around.  I send her an e mail every morning, so sent her a reminder of it today.  I also told her to look for my monthly newsletter, which I sent out this morning.

As fast as the newsletters go out, orders come in!  No kidding.  I received a repeat order for 6 fruitcakes from one nice person in Burnaby, and then another corporate order from Source Furniture.  They want 250 pieces of chocolate bark for a spring convention.

So sending out newsletters definitely works.  And when Margaret was here last time she made me start a Facebook page for the business, so now I really do have to try to get with the social networking program.  I think it’ll suit me, as I’ve decided to post whatever I’m making here for dinner.

That way, people can have a look and get an idea for something relatively quick, cheap, easy and healthy to make.  Of course the pressure is a killer, as now I’ll have the weight of the world on my shoulders as I think of something mundane for dinner.  Then I’ll have to think harder, as I know my fans will be watching.

I’ve had quite a lot of yard excitement lately.  Lisa from Waterwise Garden Design’s been here twice, and is now going to sketch out a design for me.  I’m almost completely insane with excitement about it.  The next time she comes she said she’s bringing photos of indigenous plants so I can get started choosing some.

And there are flowers I already love that are water-wise, so things like holly hocks, rudbeckia and poppies are going to be mixed in with the indigenous plants.  I think it’s going to look great, and be so easy to manage.

Then Nicky surprised me by going to the vegetable garden where he and his pals Ryan and Taylor worked like dogs weed-whacking and re-digging the beds.  They have the whole place looking totally inviting for the upcoming gardening season.

And here’s another great thing from social networking.  I sent out the newsletter, and mentioned I had lots of perennials that needed homes, and already found local gardeners who are ga ga with excitement to get these mature plants.

So as crazy as all of this stuff sounds, I have to hand it to Margaret that Facebook, newsletters and all of that do get the word out, and quickly.  I just wish I was better at Tweeting, but always seem to forget.

To reward the boys I’m making spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, and I made a pumpkin loaf which they’ll enjoy warm, slathered in butter.  I’m having none of it, as I’m off to Toronto at the end of next month to visit Alison, so am on a strict diet.

Nothing would make Alison happier than if I arrived well-fed and plump.  No, I have to eat like a bird so I can arrive thin.  But once there, the gloves are off, and I plan to eat my way through the city of Toronto.

It was two years ago yesterday that precious Arnie died.  That’s basically when I decided as that beautiful dog had lived for love, and was willing to give it all for his mom, I felt I had to honour his memory by following my heart.  I owe so much to that dog!

But due to the high cost of divorce, it’s taken me until now to be able to fully appreciate the things I and I alone can decide to do in the house and yard.  I tell ya, it’s a heady feeling.  The only downer is Nicky.  He continues to flap his gums, and interfere in things that have absolutely nothing to do with him.

I was so thrilled when Lisa Masini of Waterwise Landscape Design came over on Wednesday.  She spent over an hour here, and we decided we’re starting with the lower lawn.  All of it will be removed, and I have to take out every perennial!  I e mailed my sister-in-law Wendy who’s a gardening freak, and even she replied, “So are we crazy, or what??”

She’s watched me put all of the beds in over the past 22 years, and provided me with the phlox that I have throughout my garden.  She and Freddie just bought a house which is on two acres, so I said to her, “Please take some of your phlox back home to the Coast from whence it came.”  Wendy really likes that idea, and so do I.

This will engender a trip from Maple Ridge to Kelowna, to dig out dozens of clumps of heliopsis and phlox, and transport them back to the Coast to re-plant.  But we’re true gardeners, so we both shrug, and say, “What’s so impractical about that?”

Lisa’s then going to have bark mulch and pea gravel brought in, and will make nice paths and hillocks.  Then she said we’ll call in an irrigation company, and get this, I won’t be watering the flower beds by hand anymore!

Nicky was nattering the whole time about how long this would take, and what it’ll look like, and so on.  I just kept saying, “What’s the difference?  It’s what I want and I’m doing it.”  Once Lisa’s filled the hillocks with gorgeous self-spreading indigenous plants, he’ll forget all about the useless lawn.

I’ve similarly gone mad inside the house.  I bought a new couch, and now decided I need the matching chair.  I love the look of rattan, and as I have lots of plants and windows, it kind of makes sense in my living room.  Plus, the reality is that any fabric couch will be turned into rags by Wrecks within months.

Because the living room looks so different without the old sectional, the new couch started a domino effect of furniture-moving.  It’s been going on for the past two days, but I think I have the place under control.  But it’s been so much fun that yesterday morning I felt so giddy with excitement I wondered if Nicky’d slipped some mushrooms into my cereal.

But it turned out he hadn’t, and I’m just going to have to learn to live with very high levels of euphoria.  I suppose there could be worse things.