Easter - unexpectedly simplified

My brother was supposed to arrive on good Friday, but due to what he refers to as "Chicago issues", (canceled flights and overbooked later ones) the trip didn't happen. Boohoo. This is the second time in a few weeks that a trip was canceled, and so he has now been nicknamed Mr.Mirage.

 It's too bad, because it hasn't been that cold. But it did rain most of the day Saturday. That annoying fine rain that you can't see but gets your hair soaked in no time.

So the traditional Easter meal of ham, cheese, onions, eggs and horse radish was moved back to Sunday, and reduced to dinner for two. And he missed out on the creme caramel french toast. Definitely not to be eaten more than perhaps twice a year, but soooo good.

On Sunday the sun came out, and we went for a walk along the Rideau river. The carefully controlled water level is still very low, they should be raising it sometime in the next week or two. The canal is normally filled for the start of the tulip festival, and it opens to boaters on May 20th.

The low level of the river exposes some mud flats in which the runoff of the melting snow carved deep channels. The area is littered with rocks, driftwood, and unfortunately also some trash. A wheel from a car with no tire, strips of metal belonging to who knows what.

The photographer is gifted with above average agility, and hops quickly over the rocky shore down to the level of the mud, and away from the shore, onto some stray flat rocks. Down there he discovers some natural garbage you don't see every day. At first I thought this jaw was from a deer, but a little internet research corrected me. Deer jaw is much smaller. It could be moose, cow or horse. I don't think I can find out for sure. Prior to the 1970's this area was all farmland, and it is very possible some farm animal drowned in the river. Would there still be bone 40 years later?

From the water's edge the river looks even smaller than in actually is. It appears reduced to a stream in the mud. In reality the river is currently at least 150 feet wide.

Further down the shore is a dead tree in which a woodpecker has made a nest. 

All the trees are in bud now, but there is nothing really to be seen yet. 

It won't be long now.

 

The squeaky wheel - beyond repair!

Some years ago we had a bad case of chinch bugs in our lawn. These bugs attack the grass from the underside, and suck sap from the plants. We had impressive bare patches in the lawn. Over-seeding was not enough, and I was developing a perma-frown about it.

I had no idea what to do, because I had no idea what was causing the magically disappearing lawn. So we called in a lawn care company to diagnose the problem. This was in the "bad" old days before recent legislation banning a host of herbicides and pesticides for residential use. (All still available to farmers......but they are bad for us........let's not go there. As a rule, I don't eat my lawn!)

Greenspace lawncare  offered a plan to control the bugs and rehabilitate the badly damaged lawn, and they delivered. Within about two months we went from a patchy lawn in which weeds were taking over the bare spots to a lush green lawn, thick and free of weeds. They marketed themselves as environmentally friendly, even back then, and this was attractive to us. We had resisted this kind of treatment in the past, feeling that most of these companies over-apply the chemicals. So when the season ended we signed up for another season of lawn care.

Annoyingly they called regularly to up-sell additional services.  They always expressed concern about something the technician had seen on his last visit. There was always something else that could be done. We declined these services, and were mildly annoyed at the calls, always at supper time. They always warned us about the decision.

Then came the legislation that banned most of the compounds they used. (Not so different from the rest then.......) They sent us information about what they would use instead, and we signed up for one more year. Soon it became clear that they could not deliver anymore, and we canceled the contract at the end of that last season, and started pulling the weeds ourselves, and doing research on how to control them from now on. Clearly three or four visits a year from a lawn care company lost its purpose, and we would have to employ our own elbow grease at much greater frequency.

That is when the fun started. After canceling by phone we received an "authoritative" sounding message on our answering machine from some manager at the company who informed us that he could  process the cancellation of the contract once we had called him back to discuss the matter. The message was left with the tone more appropriate for a highschool principal who wants to know why his star athlete is quitting the team.

Seriously?

We made no call, we had called and canceled, process it! We were not informed of any such requirement when we called to cancel.

Since the start of spring this year we have received a bunch more phone calls asking us to justify our decision. The last one (hopefully) was today, they should now understand that we don't want to receive another! The approach is really annoying. They call wanting to know why we canceled. The answer is always the same: because we don't need the service anymore. No we do not care to elaborate, we don't need to give you a reason. We don't want to get trapped in a half hour up-sell spiel about what they can do for us.

In the back of our minds we wondered if they really needed an explanation, never mind a justification. We can't be the first people to have canceled since their treatments became so much less effective, and require so much of our own added energy that they are no longer worth it.

Which brings me to my point. I get it, really I do. I used to be in sales. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Show your customer that you are interested in them. Keep yourself visible to them. Show them what you can do for them.

Up to a point that is.

You don't want to be treating your customer like some errant child that needs to explain their decision, and there is a point where showing interest becomes hounding. And don't pretend you know everything better than us. Do not talk down to us. Do not tell me we are making a mistake, or that we need to justify our actions to you.

The sad thing is that if new environmentally safe methods were developed that would be acceptable under the current legislation, and a lawn care company could once again save us time and effort, we would now not contract with them again, and would call someone else. Their handling of this simple cancellation has turned us off for good. We want to be treated with a little more respect and consideration as the customer.

This squeaky wheel was junked.

Finally some nice weather.

Environment Canada stated in early March that we were to have a colder than normal spring. I am so used to ignoring weather predictions that I filed this in the same place in my brain where I file commercials and background noise.

Unfortunately they were right. We've had a few more snowfalls (even some yesterday, but at least no accumulation) and we had a lot of rain. It was colder than expected, and we all complained about it endlessly. This is your second job as a Canadian, to bitch about the weather.

I developed that annoying "drive". I am ready for spring, but it is not here yet. I started a spring cleaning thing. A very disorganized effort, an hour here, and hour there. One day this shelf, the other day that closet. Boxes are being filled with stuff that needs to be donated, and  the wardrobe got the good old scrutiny. Like everyone who does this, I am amazed at the amount of stuff you can accumulate. Even some furniture was axed.

Imagine the pleasant surprise when today there is bright sunshine, and it is not even a workday! Just one degree above freezing this morning, but dry enough to attack the front lawn. Out came the rakes, and it got a good thorough raking. One whole  lawn-waste bag full of dead grass was collected. And I picked up every stone that the snowblower had thrown onto the lawn over the winter. (The fun part of the unpaved driveway.) Really the whole lawn needs it, but this is our limit for the day. Unfortunately the photographer developed some ugly blisters, even with gloves.

My supervisor was there too. Whenever I am in the garden there is a robin that stays at about 20 foot distance, and watches what I do, so I have nicknamed him my supervisor. This has been going on for years, and I can't imagine it is the same bird all this time.  It makes you wonder, what don't they want me to find.........?

Apart from the grass greening from all the rain and the tulip tips which have not grown much, there were some unexpected signs of life. In one flowerbed there are some glory of the snow blooming. They are an accidental transplant that came in years ago with some elephant ferns, and I always forget that we have them. They look very much the worse for wear this year, as if they suffered quite a bit from the cold and the wet.

While taking the picture a honey bee appeared and began to collect from one of the flowers. You have to look carefully, the bee is on the middle flower. Click on the image to blow it up.

When I trimmed away the dead stalks of the sedum to expose the new growth, I discovered that something has dug a hole right next to it. A single bird feather is left in the hole.

And look at this "great" discovery:

Just what I needed to find. We have grubs in the lawn! The damage is from (likely) skunks and birds digging to get at the grubs. The exposed ground is peppered with hundreds of small round holes. So far we have been lucky enough not to have to deal with this pest. I have been searching around on the internet since I came back inside to try to figure out how to get rid of them. It seems the only thing available to us is nematodes, as everything else has been outlawed.

I quickly removed some dead plant material in the back as well, but it is a little depressing to see the damage done by the sewer connection last November. The holes dug were filled with in sand, and nothing is going to grow there without major effort first to amend the ground.

Tomorrow again rain, but Sunday is supposed to be dry again. It looks like it will be in fits and starts this year.