The kids

Last year, I got a pink flamingo from my co-worker in Houston. But this year when we tried to blow her up, her neck would not stay inflated. Not wanting to be without a floating bird of some sort, I found a white swan to take her place...

But then hubby and I found the holes in the flamingo, and found the vinyl patch kit, and fixed her up good.

Now the two of them just follow me around the pool. So cute!!

Waiting for Summer

I saw this at Michael's Craft store today, and thought... Yup, that's me!

Pool Party

Today, my niece had a pool party at our place for her (belated) birthday party. Five teenage girls descended on the back yard, played their music, and chatted, laughed, sang, and splashed in the pool for about 2 hours.

The flamingo was happy for all the attention, and was even dubbed "Sir Patrick Squidley" by the group.

Photobombed

On the weekend, I was floating and reading in the pool, and hubby took a couple of pics of me...

I got photo-bombed by a pink flamingo and didn't even notice :-)

Canada Day BBQ

Today, we hosted a BBQ for our family to celebrate Canada Day, and to have an excuse for all of us to get together. The pool was a big hit. The burgers and hot dogs were great. The food (including potato salad, cucumber salad, veggies, and apple cake with caramel sauce for desert) was fantastic. But the real star of the show was the pink flamingo!

Pink Flamingo

When I got back to my office after a few days in Portland, I found a package in my office. It was from a co-worker in the Houston office. A fellow pool owner, who decided that I simply HAD to have a pink flamingo for my pool. So, she sent me one. After taking it home, and blowing it up, I had to admit... it is exactly what I needed!

Pool

I love it when the pool is clean, the sun is shining, and the weather is warm.

It looks so inviting, doesn't it?

Everyone loves the pool

My pool is a magnet for everyone in the neighbourhood. But, not who you might think...
There is me -- always floating around in my chair reading my waterproof e-reader.
But there is also the racoons. Leaving their muddy footprints on the first ladder step, as they wash their hands in the pool at night.
There are the butterflies, that swoop down, grab a quick drink, and fly off.
There is the small black bat, that swoops across the surface of the pool at night to skim mosquitos and other insects.
There are the multitude of spiders, earwigs, worms, bees, flies, and ants that flock to the pool, fall in, and which we have to skim off the surface each morning.
And there are the multitude of birds, hummingbirds, and dragonflies that fly overhead while you are floating around.
I'm not sure we would get as much wildlife in the backyard, if we didn't have the pool. Which makes me happy to know that I'm not the only one that enjoys it.

The end of the summer

Last weekend was the last of the summer type weather. I spent most of the weekend out in the yard, and floating in the pool. I knew the weather was changing (and it got colder and rainy on Monday), and I wanted to spend as much time outside as I could. But this summer has been exceptional. It's been super warm, hot, sunny and dry since the beginning of May. In fact, I got to swim in my pool 77 times this year! From May 9th to Sept 13th!
Fall is my favourite time of year, but I am going to miss the summer, and floating in the pool reading my waterproof Kobo.

Swimming!

I went swimming today!
The outside temps were around 75 degrees (24 Celsius) and the pool was about 65 degrees (18 Celsius). Cold, but not too cold for me. Must be the Swedish blood in me.
Then I saw this online... with the caption:
I feel happy like this when I swim too. I also have a similar tan.

Me too!!

Too warm for May

It's May 9th.
We broke warm weather records yesterday...

 And today, is on route to be one of the warmest May 9's that I can ever remember...

It is so warm, that I went swimming today. Only for a short time. The pool was only 64 degrees. And it was cold. But, it was very refreshing, and cooled me down for the rest of the day.

The neighbour is so cute

We caught our neighbour's cat drinking out of the pool again this morning. She's just so damn cute.

 

But, we are sad. The 2 cats next door belong to the neighbour's son, and he is moving out at the beginning of December. So, this may be our last time to see "Blacky" and her friend "Stubbies".

HOT

The Bad:
It got up to 29 degrees today! Unseasonably warm for this time of year. And too hot for me!
The Good:
I got to enjoy the pool. It's rare to go into the pool in September, so I really enjoyed it today.

babies

Look closely
The big plant at the top

 Had a little baby down on the deck

Pool days

Today, it was warm enough in the afternoon to take a dip in the pool. The pool was chilly, but I went in anyways. But, it makes me wonder if this was the last day to swim this year. The temps are supposed to go down over the next few days, and it gets really cold at night now. So, the pool doesn't hold the heat anymore.
It makes me sad, because the days are getting shorter, school starts next week, and while the official end of summer isn't for a few weeks, I still feel like summer is almost over.

critters

One of the best parts about living in our house, is the close proximity to the nature reserve. As a result, we often see critters, wildlife, or birds in the yard or neighbourhood that aren't very common in other parts of the city.
Take for example, Sunday morning. In less than 1 hour, we found Mr. Salamander in the pool skimmer...

 

(yes, still alive, and yes, we set him free).
And then watched as Mr. Blue Heron decided to fly around the neighbourhood, sit on someone's roof for awhile, and then go and hang out on the neighbour's back deck for a bit (although the picture was taken from a bit of a distance, so he's a little "foggy" looking)... But his wingspan was huge, so when he flew around, he certainly was noticeable, even if he was 2 houses away.

Summer Saturday

Today was beautiful. A wonderful day...
It started with a neighbourhood garage sale. Both of my neighbours on either side of the house were taking part. And I made a point to go over and say Hi to both of them this morning...

The pool looked so inviting, and I jumped in for a couple of hours today.

 But first, I cleaned some peas and picked some beans for dinner.

Then I cut some hydrangeas for the outside table

Then some friends came to visit. They brought Bear with them. He was so loving hanging out in the backyard in the sun!

 

Then top of the day with left over ribs, potatoe salad, and fresh peas and beans from the garden.

 

Told you it was a wonderful day!

Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinner at the in-laws. To sum it up in one word... HOT!
Temps reached 30-35 again today (2nd day in a row).
Which begs the question... What am I doing out of my pool?

Meanwhile, we did have fun. Good food. Good discussions. Nice to see the kids again. They grow up so fast. Little J is such a cutie!

We got home at 9:00, but I still went swimming. It was dark, but there was something kinda cool about floating around looking at the stars. I even saw a shooting star, and a satellite!

Pool side

We had some gorgeous weekend weather this weekend. After a few chores on Saturday morning, and a visit to Grandma on Sunday morning, I spent the rest of the afternoon on both days sitting on the back deck, reading a book (more on that later), flipping through magazines, sipping on mojitos, and floating in the pool… Simply enjoying the sights and sounds of nature all around me. I was floating around in my pool chair, and noticed a baby dragon fly that was sunning himself on the edge of the pool deck. Cute little thing. With a brilliant blue belly, and blue spot on his “tail”. He allowed me to get surprising close to him. At one point, he flew up, and around, and landed on my toe. I leaned back in the chair, so my toe wouldn’t go into the water, and watched him for a few minutes. He was so small, that I couldn’t even feel him. I wiggled my toe, and he flew back to the pool deck again, where I tried to get a few pictures. Ain't he cute?

Cleaning that is not my job...

A few days ago, I asked A to clean out the pool skimmer. We had a couple of wind storms over Christmas, and I had a feeling that the skimmer needed cleaning. I don't know why. It's not my job to clean the skimmer, or to have anything to do with the pool. That's A's job. And I don't usually get involved. I just swim in the summer time, and leave the cleaning, and maintenance to him. But, for some reason, I thought it needed cleaning. But, when I mentioned it to him, he said it was fine, and we left it at that.

Well today, I got that "feeling" again. So, I decided I was going to go clean it out instead. I called to him that I was going to go clean it, and asked him to watch to make sure that when I dumped the basket of leaves out, that I was able to put the basket back in the skimmer properly. So, he came outside to supervise me. Well, we I opened it up, I found a dead mouse in the skimmer!

eeeeeewwwwww!!!

Now, I could have gone all year without seeing that. And, what really messes me up, is that this is the very first time we've found a dead rodent in the pool. And it was me that found it! Why me? A has never found a dead mouse in the pool. But, me... I clean the skimmer for the first time in years, and look what I find?! Why me??