Tag Archives: garden

Friday Fun Day

It’s Friday – time to par-tay!  I looked outside and didn’t see frost, so I thought I would bike to the gym.  Turns out it was only 28 degrees. 😯  No wonder I was so cold!  I got there and my muscles were stiff from cold.  So much for a warm up.  I was a bicycle-cicle.

I was feeling the Friday relaxed feeling today.  I really lightened up some of the weights and took it easy.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell deadlift 3 sets of 12 at 55# Lower Body
Straight Arm Lat Pull Down 3 sets of 15 at 40# Back
Incline barbell press 3 sets of 12 at 45# Chest
Good Mornings 3 sets 10 with 55# bar Low back and hammies
Reverse Crunch 3 sets 12 Core
Face Pull 3 sets of 15 at 30# Shoulders
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 12 at 140# Calves

Then I froze my way home.  I kept saying “1 mile to coffee.” “Half mile to coffee”.  I was so ready for a hot drink and breakfast.

Breakfast experiment time!  I got some roasted buckwheat kernels (kasha) along with some millet at the health food store on Saturday.   On an aside, it cost $2 for both bags.  I remarked to John about how cheap it was, and his response was “Well it is birdseed, it should be cheap.”   Yeah – this is how he views some of the food I eat, I guess…

Anyhoo – I soaked some buckwheat overnight and cooked them up with pumpkin and egg whites.  Topped with a little molasses and coconut butter.

Interesting, but not my favorite breakfast ever. The buckwheat was soft and didn’t puff up like oats do with the egg whites.  Slightly nutty flavor which was quite nice, but I missed the chew of oats. I’ll finish this bag, but not sure I will purchase again as grain, but only flour.

Going back to the wheat/cravings post from the other day.  I am trying to pick out if it is grains or gluten causing those cravings.  Even on a day with the bagel, my carbs only come in around 175 grams for the day, so not super high and not really that much higher than my 100 grams on my lower carb days.  It doesn’t seem to be a matter of protein as I always shoot for the same amount of that no matter what the other macros are (which is approximately 100 grams per day of protein).  I knew that processed carbs really set me off, but I never really thought that whole grains would do that as well.  I find that mildly irritating.  Could be a bit of a key as to not only why I got overweight in the first place, but why it also was still hard to lose even when I went to whole grains.  On the grain free days, it is such a relief not to fight cravings.  I cannot even tell you what a relief that is.  Those that do get cravings (even when not hungry) really can understand where I am coming from.

I am not sure what this really means for me, as I am not likely to completely give up grains/gluten/whatevers, but it is something to think about.  I am a bit of a nutrition nerd now.  Along with just being an everyday nerd. 😎

Lunch time and I was craving a 1-minute muffin.  Not sure why. Fat maybe?  So I had one topped with peanut flour mixed up with cinnamon and water.

I had one of those days at work today where I was really unmotivated.  I was not productive at all LOL!  I would do a few files, then check my email.  Do a few more files and look at my google reader (scary).  You know the drill.  I had a case of the Fridays big time.

John saved me with an almond milk latte, which I paired with a macaroon. I can’t believe I have these left! Funny how things last when you don’t eat them.

Since it is Friday and that is the traditional What’s Blooming day, I present to you some of garden. The garden is shaping up now.  I love how the sedum is brussel sprouts at first and then becomes like broccoli!

These actually need dividing this year, which I have never done before.

Buddha is basking in the sun.  It only reached the upper 40s today.   Hello spring – any time, you know.

Tulips getting taller.  These are the lovely black and white ones that are so striking.

We almost went out for pizza for dinner, but with me trying to go wheat free as much as I can this month we stayed in.  I made up a stirfry with chicken, some brown rice, broccoli (sedum :mrgreen:  ) and ginger teriyaki sauce all sauteed in coconut oil.

It’s Friday night, so we are out and about tonight.  Tired of Starbucks, so we went on down to Saratoga to Saratoga Coffee Traders.  My cuppa decaf:

I love free wifi and coffee with chitchat!

Not much biking on tap this weekend because the weather is supposed to be kind of yucky.  We should be able to get work done on the half bath, though!

Catch you all on the flip side of the weekend!

What’s Blooming and Hot 100 update

Okay, I guess I am a complete dork with the sandals and socks 😳   (along with Jan LOL).

It’s Friday!  That means only half a day of work for me, yippee!  I also did not go to the gym this morning as I am running a race tomorrow, which means no lifting the day before.  So, I started right in on work to get it done for the day.  Then made some Fall breakfast.  Pumpkin cream of wheat topped with fluff and pecans!

Gotta use that candy corn dish 😀

When I was poking in the garden the other day, I saw some new blooms, can you believe it?

Expected:  The burning bush.

We planted this 3 years ago as a tiny bush and it now looks lovely!  We tried growing them in IL, but the bunnies kept eating them to nubs, so I am happy now.  Don’t those daylilies look like some kind of squid next to it?

Of course, the mums just give a hand to the frost and keep going:

The knockout rose bush is *still* going.  If you have a black thumb, get the knockout.  You cannot kill it.

Surprise gaillarda:

And a hidden doppleganger ecchinacea.  This is sheltered amongst other plants and actually has 2 buds on it.

My personal truffula tree:

And the pink item of the day – snapdragons!

The Breast Cancer Site

You wouldn’t think it was almost Halloween, would you?

Lunch tine and I had a hankering for peanut butter.  Homemade blueberry jam on top.

I am glad I only got 2 of these plums…

Okay – here is this week’s Hot 100 Update:

  1. Maintain my weight. I really need to work on this big time.
  2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!  Not in stores yet.
  3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. Did the home duathlon.  5K coming up tomorrow!
  4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least.  Did 6 days!!
  5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on.  Been visiting.
  6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.  Done.

I am doing fine on all but the eating.  I really am struggling with the snacking.  It’s the evening stuff that is the problem.  I am having a tough time regulating the less exercise with eating less.

So, with that update said, this is the snack I had.  Remember last night I said John had out the puff pastry?  He made apple strudel.

Yeah – it’s good.  At least he made a small one LOL!

I finished up work and did some retail therapy at TJMaxx.  I picked up some Philosophy shower gel!  Yay!

Dinner time had some extra carbs in it in the form a potato!

I want to also say good job to the people involved who intercepted those explosive devices.  Scary stuff…

Tonight is keeping warm, as the temps at race time tomorrow will be 37!  That is a chilly race.  I plan on being a bumblebee, but I may nix that in favor of warmth 😀

What’s Blooming and Hot 100 update!

Wow – lots of great thoughts from yesterday’s post!  Don’t worry, I hope I did not give the impression I was giving up blogging.  I will be jabbering on for a while 😀

It was a beautiful morning, albeit a bit chilly (39 degrees).  I biked to the gym and did a lighter workout (weight wise).

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Squat 4 sets of 10 at 45# Lower body
Close-grip lat Pull Down 3 sets of 12 at 50# Back
Incline push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Single-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 each leg with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 each side at 20# Core
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Nose breakers 3 sets of 15 with 25# bar Triceps
Front Raise 3 sets of 12 with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders
Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 at 45# Low back and hammies

John met me there and we biked to Maude’s for breakfast.  I won the football picks last week – so that meant my choice for a meal!  Yay!

I love Maude’s.  It was really busy and noisy, though – just like you expect a diner would be.

I ordered the usual cheese omelet and homefries.

Not pictured is my wheat toast, which came a couple minutes later.  I was hangry and ate every little bit of this!  Yum.  It had warmed up a  bit for the ride home.  Maude’s is 10 miles round trip, which makes it a nice little ride.

I got a chunk of work done this morning and worked up an appetite for lunch. I was really struggling to think of what to eat when my body was wanting an oaty-type meal. I decided to go ahead and honor that and had some pumpkin cream of wheat.

My body knew what it wanted! This bowl filled up my tummy and kept me satisfied for a couple of hours. Imagine that.

I got out into the beautiful weather and worked on the side garden bed some. I just have a small patch of grass left to lift up and it will be ready to amend for the winter. I am only doing about a 10-foot span of it this year. It’s going to be a long project. Still have a few blooms. A surprise dahlia:

My mums are now filling out (the ones that were in ground).

Plus the knockout rose bush. Note how dark the sedum has gotten!

Then I found the World’s Tiniest Mum!

That is my finger there for reference. How cute!

That cream of wheat kept me satisfied enough that I didn’t have anything with my latte:

Worked a little more (nothing like dragging it out… ) then got dinner on. I was craving hot sauce, so I made an open-faced buffalo chicken sammie. I do like the blue cheese laughing cow, but only on some things. Think I prefer the regular swiss.

It was so beautiful out today. Took advantage of a warm evening and I got the rest of the tulip and daffodil bulbs planted – hooray!

Okay- time for the Hot 100 Update:

  1. 1. Maintain my weight. I actually am in losing mode right now from September and the scale is drifting down again. Yay!!
  2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!  Not in stores yet.
  3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. Training for.
  4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least.  I think I did 3 days.  I really need to work harder on this.
  5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on. I visited several.
  6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.  Done.

Tonight is finishing up work (just 45 minutes or so to do) with some of the cobbler that John made the other day.  It’s quite tasty.

Pink item of the day: My mom’s Vera Bradley bag. I am not cool enough to own a Vera Bradley, but that’s okay.

Don’t forget to click!

The Breast Cancer Site

What’s blooming for spring?

It’s gonna be a warm one today! I lied the other day when I thought shorts to the gym were not going to happen while biking. I quaffed my protein and headed out.

Gym was fairly quiet today, as it normally is Friday morning. All the friendly people were there 😀

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-leg deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 70# Lower body
Close Grip Lat Pull down 3 set of 10 at 60# Back
Lying Leg Press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Lower Body
Incline Chest Fly 3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total) Chest
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 15 Core
Face Pull 3 sets of 12 at 30# Shoulders
Lower Back Extension on machine 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low back
Triceps Pull Down 3 sets of 15 at 30# Triceps

After that, I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at 5.5 mph. That is my comfort pace, which is about a 10:49 mile. I have to be careful because I just fall into this pace and don’t really challenge myself too much. Still got nice and sweaty, though!

After biking home, I was ready for breakfast. I made a layered bowl of cream of wheat (with egg whites) and blueberry sauce. Yum!

Today is the half day of work, so that is good,  not to mention I got a box delivered to me today. :happy dance:

Good thing I have pictures of the garden from spring so I can figure out where I already have tulips.

I really struggled to get myself to sit and work today. I would work for a while, then get up and do things, then work some more. Not a bad thing to do, but it makes it seem like a longer work day than it really is.

Lunch time was some of the chicken I grilled last night with basil-tomato Laughing Cow spread on it. Tasty that way.

I went outside to the garden after this. It still has some color.

You can see my fall mums are budded out, but not open yet. Still more blooming to come!

The gazanias are still going.

I am totally infatuated with the color of the sedum. It just gets deeper and deeper (then it turns brown).

Buddha and the gaillardas.  Sounds like a rock band, doesn’t it?

This is the side yard that I am going to do something with.

Looks pretty lame, doesn’t it? That bare patch is where we dug up a couple mulberry stumps.  The task this fall is to take it to bare ground and maybe move a couple plants over.

There is also a problem around here.  See this lady?

She has been coming around since spring.  Very young and obviously homeless as she is thin.  Very skittish until today.  She came over and rolled on the ground while I was planting tulips and inched her way over to me little by little.  Then she let me pet her.  My heart died a little.

I really worry about her as the road is so busy.  Not to mention winter is coming up and I have a feeling she may be in the family way if she is one of the pair that were doing unmentionable things in the yard across the street a couple weeks ago.

Do you hear that long, drawn out nooooooooooo?  That was John.  I saw fear in his eyes today when I was talking about the cat.

Afternoon snacks:

Fresh baked. This bread has raw walnut butter on it.

I have to say, raw nut butter just doesn’t do it for me.  Give me at least roasted and preferably  salted.

Like these:

Which goes pretty well with this:

Quite a nice evening out.  I got about half of the tulips planted.  I bought 65 bulbs.  I really don’t know what I was thinking.  Well, one pack is daffodils and they only came in a set of 25, so that is a chunk right there.

Dinner was cooking while I was out planting.  Sweet potato chips and fish sticks.

The fish sticks had a date with Frank’s.  Yum.

Notice anything missing from today’s eats? Added sugar!  Since that is part of my Hot 100 challenge to do once a week, figured I may as well do today.  Evening snack will be some more fruit.

Tomorrow will be a lot cooler.  We are doing a shorter ride and just going to the lake.  Probably no cupcakes, but there will be a sweet in store, that’s for sure!

Question: Any great and fun plans for Saturday?

What’s Blooming today!

I slept better last night. I woke up at 7 and headed out to the gym. Not as cold today, 50 degrees 😀

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Squats 1 sets of 10 at 45#

2 sets of 10 at 55#

 Lower body
Dumbbell Chest Fly 3 set of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total) Chest
Stationary lunges 3 sets of 10 each leg holding 35# plate Lower body
Bent over Row 3 sets of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total) Back
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 each side at 30# Abs
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 15 with 25# bar Triceps
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 with 30# bar Lower back and hammies

I hopped on the treadmill and ran for a mile, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Not that it felt bad or anything, but I felt extremely bored and still a little tired, so I just biked home.

I had soaked some steel cut oats overnight so they were ready to cook up with a mashed nanner today.  We are out of nut butter (horrors!!!),  and let’s just say I had a date with Nutella and crackers last night during my Project Runway marathon, so nuts and jam it was!

Got my half day of work done.  Thank you.  Now it is what passes for my weekend.

Lunch time was a piece of fresh bread that John made with some of last night’s chicken.

It was still warm so I didn’t even toast it.  Gotta love life sometimes!

The garden is still going.  Some stuff is starting to brown up of the year as the roots hunker down, but still some gas left.  The mums are blooming.

Okay, I bought these mums.  Mine still look like this –

I forget what color these are, so that will be a surprise.  I think they are orange.

Sedum keeps getting darker and darker.

Can you believe this is only 3 sedum plants?  Must divide.

I cannot remember the name of this one for the life of me.  It begins with ‘g’, I think and I have posted before.  I have some good CRS going on right now.

The big asters are blooming now.  I am actually going to move these to the side of those house. 

Another snapdragon.

Few new blooms on the black-eyed Susans.

I received some samples in the mail today which I will be reviewing and hopefully doing a giveaway on.  Here’s a hint:

I had to sample a few 😳  Ah-mazing and they went awesome with a latte.

I also got a couple books at the library today that I will be reviewing once I finish.  Quite interesting.

We are eating a bit early and heading on out to the Irish Fest tonight!  Had a quick bowl of yogurt:

Plus an unpictured piece of toast.  Seems Nibbler has not quite been corralled yet.

We will see how well I will avoid the overpriced snacks at the Fest 😀

What’s blooming and bagels!

Friday! I have trouble keeping track of the days when the schedule gets a little out of order, don’t you? I had a protein drink and went to the gym at the usual time.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Straight leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 at 65# Lower body
Close grip lat pulldown 3 set of 12 at 50# Back
Cable squat to row 3 sets of 15 at 50# Full body
Dumbbell chest press 3 sets of 15 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 12 Core
YTWL 3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders

John arrived at the gym, so we headed on out for breakfast! It was pretty warm already, I have to say. Today is more humid than the last couple of days.

Sunflower bagel and coffee!! I how I missed the bagel.   This was an awesome bagel today. I was pretty hungry.

It was nice to relax and eat, since I don’t have a set work time for my 1/2 day today.  13 mile ride this morning.  Trying to figure out if we will be able to bike tomorrow or if Earl will send too much wind our way. Supposed to be windy with rain possible tomorrow….

The garden had a couple surprised in it for me today.  It still is looking quite good for this time of year.  A little tired in spots, but still weeks of color left!  As requested, here is an outside shot of the house.

Victorian style.  Note the front yard?  This is the only yard we have.   Not kidding.  There is no back yard (it is totally covered by our shop) and no real side yards (just strips).  Makes for easy mowing, though 😀

Impatiens with a weed sticking in there.

Butterfly bush is going like crazy:

This bloom was at nose level:

My multi-blue clematis has a bloom on it.  I saw this while watering today and was so pleased!  I thought it was done.

Milkweeds.

This is a volunteer.  Actually, I cut it down earlier in the summer and 4 came up in its place.  Kind of like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.    I am leaving these up for a bit and checking for monarch eggs, since that one has been hanging around.

Red geranium.

Lunch time!  I did find the heel of the bread left, so I made a PBJ sammie.  Yum.

After a little more work, I decided to go out and have a little fun.  Am I the only one that enjoys shopping here?

I practically lived here when I did my flip houses.  Checking out curtains and paint swatches.  I have the  renovation itch again (as does John).  Too bad I don’t have money LOL!

Since it is so close, I had to stop for a snack.  I really looked hard at the pumpkin scones.  Really hard, but I just couldn’t justify getting one.  So I got a pumpkin muffin instead.

I don’t know if that was really a wiser choice LOL.  It was pretty tasty and seemed fatty.  I just love pumpkin anything.

Speaking up pumpkins – now it seems like fall!

I cannot believe that I bought another rose bush!  They were on sale for $6 each, so I could not pass one up.  It met all my criteria for roses:  Easy care, hardy, reblooming, fragrant, and not a tea rose.    I just need to find somewhere to put it.  Side of the house is going to get a makeover, I think!

Dinner time included a baked crab cake and some baked fries (OreIda)!

Hot sauce was sprinkled liberally. :mrgreen:

Need to do a little more work tonight and some chillaxin’ – like this:

Any fun plans on tap?

What’s blooming today!

It’s Friday and you know what that means! What’s blooming! But first, the daily stuff. I proteined up and biked to the gym. I know a lot of you are in a heat wave, but it was in the upper 50s biking there this morning 😯

Warmed up with 1 mile on the treadmill and then set to lifting.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell dead lifts 3 sets of 10 with 65# bar Lower body
Barbell Incline Chest Press 3 set of 10 with 45# bar Chest
Wide grip pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 15 Core
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 with 35# bar Lower back and hammies
Stationary Lunge 3 sets of 10 holding a 25# plate Lower body
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Bench Dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps

Then I hopped onto the treadmill for another mile.  I was super sweaty today as the AC wasn’t on at the gym because it was chilly out and they had the doors open.  It felt good to bike home in the cool air.

I came home to a cute scene:

Pixie is a heat-seeking lap missile now that it is cooler in the mornings.

In honor of Banana Lovers Day, I had banana custard cream of wheat topped with peanut butter and fluff and joined John at the table (rare):

Deliciousness!   Since today is pretty much just a half work day for me, I was able to relax some in the morning.  I don’t have a set start time with job 2, so no rush to log in.  I wrote that book review (click here for review and giveaway) and then worked.

Lunch break.  Egg sammie.

I am not afraid to eat eggs.  I do like runny yolks, but most times I cook thoroughly.  Plus we buy locally produced eggs, so I worry less.

Nice stuff in the garden right now.

More asters:

A grasshopper!

Buddha being all peaceful with the clematis:


Purple Liriope:

This is the white Liriope in it’s neat little mounds:

Twin gaillardia:

And a little dahlia:

Came back in and did more work.  John made me a latte 😀

And I pulled out a mighty awesome looking loaf of bread out of the oven!

I said I wanted to just pick it up and take a huge bite out of it.  John suggested I could slice it instead, but where’s the fun in that??

Finished up work and I almost don’t know what to do with myself.   Since John cooked up a bunch of chicken, you know I had to have a salad for dinner!

Funny how there was no real urge to snack or anything today.  It seems like yesterday just filled whatever needs my body had.  I think sometimes we concentrate on staying in a specific calorie range and the body just pushes back against that at times because it actually has different needs than an assumed calorie count each day.

You know the evening snack includes some of that bread.

Best loaf to date, I think.  It’s a wheat challah bread.  I just didn’t braid it (lazy).

Tomorrow is a long ride.  Going to shoot for 50 miles.  A very nice day on tap, so hopefully it will happen.  Likely frozen yogurt tomorrow!

Question:  Are you eating eggs right now?

What’s blooming today!

I made an executive decision to take a rest day today.  I probably should have worked out, because I had a date with cereal and chocolate chips last night while watching Project Runway….

Yesterday my muscles were sore and stiff, and I woke up today feeling the same.  It was a combo of increased reps at the gym Wed and getting used to my new bike.  Since we are planning a long ride for Saturday, I decided to just take it easy today.   I had a nice quiet start to the morning outside watering the garden, then came back in for some pumpkin oats:

I topped it with strawberry jam.  I wish I had cranberry sauce (although no excuse there because I have frozen ones), but this was quite good.

Then I started work.  Just job #2 today.  So that is only about 4 hours or so. 😀

Had a lunch break of greek yogurt, strawberries, and Uncle Sam cereal.

So many great textures in this bowl.  After that, I mowed the lawn and clipped around the garden bed.

So it’s not the botanical gardens, but my garden is nice, and I can park my bike here and have it not be stolen…..

The 100-pound rose bush is blooming again (and I still have 100+ pounds off LOL!)

Butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa), which I grew from seed this year.  This is in the milkweed family.

Self-seeded snapdragon.  I love the white color:

Sometimes I remove self-seeded plants, but most times I just don’t have the heart to and get some interesting combos.

Annual asters:

Remains of the scentimental rose bush:

Liriope:

Knockout rose.

This thing never quits.  I just wish it were fragrant.

My mums aren’t even close to blooming yet.  Funny how the stores have blooming mum pots and mine are just starting to form their buds.  I will get some of those for pots, though.

Afternoon snackage:

It’s amazing how much time I have when I am not working 9-10 hours in a day.  I was able to have some fun for dinner.  I did sort of a chana masala with some chicken put in there for protein.

I’ll post the recipe at some point (and put it in the recipe book!).  It was tasty.

John invited me out for a kiddie cone down the street.   It was nice to get a little walk in for that.

No eyes on this cone 😐   Mint chocolate twist.  Nom!

John thinks I am pretty silly.

I think he is pretty cute….

I am off with my mom to her gym tonight.  She is going to show me all the moves she does and ask for some pointers.  I’ll get her in the squat cage yet! :mrgreen:

Long ride on tap for tomorrow!

C’est la vie.

Thanks for all your kind words regarding the stolen bikes.  It was just so bizarre.  I was so incredibly happy and having such a wonderful time in the gardens and then we came out to the disbelief of the missing bikes.  Talk about crashing down to earth.  The bikes were not expensive, but my bike and I did a lot of things together.  I lost weight, did a triathlon, duathlon, rode 100 miles.   Not to mention that I have that 62 mile charity ride coming up in just about a month – so I have to replace the bike quickly.  This was not an expense we really can afford right now as we just dropped $6600 on new windows for the house that are coming soon.  We were thinking of upgrading the bikes next year, but guess it has to happen sooner, and not to the degree that we would have upgraded.  I don’t want to wish ill on anyone, but I hope the person that stole these gets herpes or something.

Anyway, the botanical garden itself was absolutely stunning.  Funny how I offered to treat John to the gardens, and we found out it was the one weekend a year where it was free.  I got off lucky on that! Other than losing my bike, of course….

Enjoy the Montreal version of my what’s blooming post:

Stevia plant:


Quinoa – interesting, don’t you think?

And flax.  Look at all these good healthy foods!

Echinacea milkshake – pretty cool:

Biggest hibiscus ever:

Stunning dahlias:

Flowering tobacco – Nicotiana sylvestris, which I hope to grow next year:

I took 150 pictures in the botanical gardens!  I might pull some more to show.  I was just in complete joy here.  I had asked John if it was possible to explode from happiness and his answer was “no” or I already would have. 😀

After we came out and saw the bikes gone, we kind of sat for a while and I had a little cry while we figured out our options.  We ended up using the Bixie rentals to work our way back to the B&B.  We were actually famished at this point, and stopped along the way to try a bagel:

I had a multigrain bagel:


Very different than a NY style bagel as it was more like baguette type bread rather than a chewy bagel like I am used to.  But it was tasty.

We then changed out of bike clothes and just walked around.  We did try to at least enjoy ourselves some, but we both just felt so deflated and I was ready to go home.  However, we had paid for 2 nights, so we decided against that.  Found a good place to eat dinner that wasn’t super crowded.  Indian, of course.  You can always count on finding a seat at an Indian restaurant.  I am looking pretty pathetic here:

I was happier when food came out.  Chana Masala

Must recreate at home.  Plus some of the fluffiest nan bread ever:

The food was really good, but the service was terrible.  John ordered a diet coke twice and never got it, and they never checked back on us.

Gelato makes it all better, though.

We are actually going to start looking at some bikes n Sunday when we get back to the US  (can’t wait for that).  Gotta cram in bike research quickly!

What’s blooming and good eating day.

Woke up to some refreshing coolness today!  The humidity is gone, thank goodness.  I had a protein drink and biked on out to the gym.

To ‘warm up,’ I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at 5.5 mph.  That way I could get all nice and sweaty before hitting the weights. 😳

Not a heavy duty workout today.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Dumbbell pulloever 3 sets of 10 at 25# Back
Stationary Lunges 3 sets of 10 with 25# plate Legs
Dumbbell incline fly 3 sets of 8 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Lying leg press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Legs
Horizontal cable woodchop 3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30# Abs
Face Pull 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders
Triceps pulldown 3 sets of 15 at 30# Triceps

Then I hopped on the treadmill for another 1.25 miles.  Total of 3.25 miles of running today.  Then I biked home thinking of waffles all the time!

I made that apple topping again.  I also noticed that Foodbuzz has this apple topping recipe on the Healthbuzz home page!  Last week they had my deadlift video on there.  Cool.

Worked job #2 this morning.  I have to say I like this orthopedics account.  It is so interesting!  I am trying to decide whether to just get another part time job and do 2 part times, or try to work this one full time and give up job #1.    It’s hard to know if one company can keep you busy enough.  The nice thing about working from home is that I can pop from one job to another during the day without commuting.  Definite bonus there.

Lunch time!  I had a bigger than normal lunch today.  Love these baked clam strips:

The garden is going well.  A couple things will be blooming soon that aren’t yet.  The Scentimental bush that I talked about last week in the video with the buds is now popping out and I so wish we had smell-o-net so you could get a whiff of this plant.  It is heavenly!

The baby gaillardas have some tiny blooms on them.

Hopefully these will make it to next year and be bushy.

More snaps.  The nice thing about letting snapdragons reseed themselves is that the offspring is always a different color than the original, so it is a surprise each year.

Those of you on facebook already saw this shot, but this little guy has been hanging around all week.

I actually entered this shot in a contest just for kicks.  My garden is really dedicated to plants that butterflies and hummingbirds love.  Have not seen hummingbirds this year, but definitely more butterflies than last year.  Last year there was a lot of mosquito spraying, which probably killed a lot of butterflies.  Now they are coming back.

Did a little more work while John made me a latte and I had some dark chocolate:

Bottom’s up!  Fashion Friday going on with those earphones, too.

After I finished up for the day, I treated myself to some reading and a Pomtail – seltzer water mixed with a splash of pomegranate juice.

Then it was time for dinner!  I made up one of those quick stir fry dishes with broccoli, a bit of cooked rice, shrimp and stir fry sauce (ginger).  I love how it takes 10 minutes to make this.

Tasty.

The evening is cooling off already.  We are supposed to have a low of 47.  When the heat breaks around here, it doesn’t mess around.   I spent time out doing some weeding.  I really am doing great on project weed control this summer!  John read on the porch while I toiled.

Actually it wasn’t really toiling.  I may be weird, but I enjoy weeding.  It’s kind of cathartic.  You get in close and personal in the plants and the bed gets cleaned out.  I do enjoy it more when it is just maintenance weeding like I am doing and not the  “holy crap – how did all these weeds get here?” type of weeding.

Came in for the evening snack.  I did make up some strawberry jam, so I had to have some on toast.

Good stuff, I tell you.  One of the best things to learn in life is to enjoy the simple things, don’t you think?

Good eating day as well.  Funny how yesterday I was so snacky and today I had no urge at all.

Tomorrow will be a picture perfect day on tap, and you know that means a long bike ride!