The entire weekend has been a green kind of weekend. In the midst of my labours today, I did find some time to read the paper at Alternative Grounds, browse through my favourite shop, Renaissant (especially the garden doodads!), and pick up a bouquet of daisies for the apartment. I bought two; I carried one and Jake carried the other. I’m trying to teach him to carry bags and small things for me when I do my shopping, because I’m usually pretty loaded down by the time I make it home. He did a pretty good job, carrying the plastic sack that the flowers were wrapped in. Once or twice he dropped it, and picked it up upside down, so the blooms were dragging on the sidewalk. With a little encouragement from passersby, and a lot from me, he managed to get his teeth on the middle of the bag so that the flowers were balanced nicely in his mouth. The sidewalks were crowded because of the Harvest Festival, so the sight of a border collie with a bouquet in his mouth caused quite a stir. Lots of smiles and pointing fingers and “awww, isn’t he cute”. That’s my dog!
Yesterday I went to visit a fellow parishioner of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, an elderly lady whose husband is in the hospital. They’re both avid gardeners and have a fantastic yard just north of Harbord, but for obvious reasons the garden chores have gotten away from them a bit. I took my tools and my gloves and my dog, and put myself to work straightening borders and pruning and weeding and digging. I guess I must have seemed like a hero to my friend, but honestly it was so much fun for me I think I was getting the better end of the deal. After that, I stopped at Happy Girl Hydroponics in Kensington Market. I had a nice chat with the owner, and have arranged for him to order me some supplies, including a light mover for my 1000w grow light. Some of the locals hanging out in the store seemed mighty impressed that a straight-laced looking middle-aged lady like me was a “grower”. I had to smile, this combined with my morning labours was giving my image quite a big, though fraudulent, boost. I didn’t tell them that I only grow flowers — none of them much good for smoking. I have no problem with the stuff they had in mind, but it’s not my area of expertise 😉
After that I parcelled Jake in the car and headed to Metro Hound, a schwanky do-it-yourself dogwash in the Beach. Jake’s getting old, and old dogs get smelly. There were no openings for another hour, so I put my name on the list and headed to Cloud’s Orchids, since it was kinda in the neighbourhood. The woman running the store was a dog lover, a raccoon fan, and best of all a very knowledgeable (orchid) grower, and an hour passed quickly with a very lively chat. I somehow left there with a new orchid as well as a few supplies.
After I got Jake all scrubbed up, I drove home along Queen Street and had a bit of car trouble. Fancy that, the car stalled almost in front of Gardenscape. Heck, it must have been a sign!! So I popped in for a few minutes, chatted with my friend who works there, drooled over many things (especially the leaf patterned concrete stepping stones and bowls — I have a weakness for concrete things), and came out with a couple of new tools. The car started immediately….
POLLENATRIX 