• Dates: May 29 – June 7, 2020
  • Location: Victoria, BC
  • Activity: Staycation

Ok, so here is what I have been up to on the last few days off, poking around the house…

Backyard weeding

backyard weeds

The back corner of our lot attracts a lot of growth over the fall and winter. We picked up a lot of buttercup and comfrey this time. I got rid of the buttercup, and kept the comfrey for a soil enhancer, as it aggregates nutrients.

weeds weeds

Check out all the sun streaming down into that section of the yard. This calls for a new project to spin its way up!

Veggie gardening

We lucked into some veggie starts from the good folks at the growing-together project, so sourced some dirt, and threw them into large pots for them to begin their growing season with us!

Raised garden planter bed

Decided to embark on a project to build a raised planter bed for that space in the back corner of the lot. I went onto the YouTubes, and found some great resources to learn from, including:

Oh yah – 4’x10′ and about 2′ tall. Had my neighbour deliver 2 yards of Garden Blend Soil from Victoria Sand & Gravel Mart, and filled the bed. Should be great for growing veggies back there!

Patio refresh

We actually have a nice brick patio somewhere under all the weeds. A couple of seasons (or more?) of grass and weeds have gotten into all the cracks!

I got a trowel and a hoe out to do some scraping, and actually found that the grass was easy to pull off in large sheets. A project that I thought would take several days of effort was actually quite easy! What a reveal!

International Donut Day

Friday, June 5 was the big day, so me and the kids hopped onto bikes, and headed over to Empire Donuts in Cook Street Village to grab a box of donuts. We went back over to Beacon Hill Park to enjoy our bounty under cloudy skies next to the baseball park.

Baking

I tried out a new cinnamon bun recipe authored by the folks down at the Model Bakery in Napa Valley. The dough chilled in the fridge before rolling, proofing, and baking.

The recipe calls for cream cheese icing, but without any cream cheese on hand, and not wanting to try a “quick” dash to the store, we had them plain – they were quite lovely!

Small home demolition

The neighbours are embarking on some property development this season. The demolition of the old cottage took place last week, so that provided some interesting activity to keep an eye on. The cottage itself is squeezed in between our home, and the multiplex next door. The fellow operating the excavator, from Dr. Hoe, used a steady hand to tear down the home over about 6 hours, with no damage to neighbouring properties.