A Good Day

Green Gold

 Yesterday we actually had a good day.  Is that even possible in this weird time?  Apparently it is.  I am carefully watering and caring for our pink petunia and purple calibrachoa starters that my friend got me from the greenhouse that closed.  I will share half of this with Mom but won't take them over until they are ready to plant.  And yes, those are casserole dishes being put to good use as water catchers underneath the flowers and seedlings.  I had bought those little peat seedling starters a couple years ago, didn't quite have enough so used a plastic container that previously held fruit for a couple pea starters.  It acts as a mini greenhouse.  These will all live on the end of our dining room table until time to plant.  It is next to the patio doors so gets good sunshine.  In case the pea plants fail I held back a couple of peas to plant directly in the ground once our frosts are done.

Hopefully soon to be sugar pea, cucumber and tomato seedlings

 Why was it a good day?  We actually got a new contract signed.  With our original client from 8.5 years ago.  It is small but will help pay the bills in what is a super challenging year.  I am so thankful we do have many months of salary tucked away in company savings as had been careful after last year's turbulence.  So that will keep us a bit busy the next few weeks.  We have also decided any of our clients who need some help but no billing in this timeframe will get it from us.  We also got 3 corporate cheques that we have been waiting for in the mail.  Thursday we have to go pick up our grocery order so we will also go to the bank that day.  Some banks are closed but at least 1 branch from each bank is open in each town. 

Tomorrow would have been the day we were to fly off to Mexico.  Instead of whining about it I am sharing some things I bought on our last trip.  These beautiful pottery mexican lamps are 2 pieces and you place a candle underneath.  When lit they give off the most beautiful patterns and as I have a thing for Mexican pottery, especially blue and white, they were a no brainer. 

There is a back story to how I bought them.  We were in a an open air restaurant and a teenage girl came in selling items to the table.  This is very common in Mexico.  She didn't have exactly what I wanted when I asked if she had any blue ones she immediately offered to go get some.  20 minutes later she came back and offered me these.  I bought both and she was supremely happy.  I might have had a couple of margaritas at that point and likely overpaid but to her family that money was worth far more than to me.  I can't actually remember what I paid but about $10-15 CAD per.  Right now they live in our bedroom on our dresser.

Mexican lamps

When I got home from Zihuatanejo last year what should I see on our bidding site but the beautiful orange Mexican lamp that is on the center of the table below for $3 so I snapped that one up too.  It lives outside on the patio. This is our older patio furniture that we got out on the weekend.  It is starting to rust but we intend to keep using it along with our new furniture as it really does go well together.  Eventually, we will pick up some brown rustoleum paint to fix the rust spots in the coming months to try and extend the life of this furniture even more - it is about 7 or 8 years old now.  I got out some of the pots, empty until I can plant but all the colour of the pottery pieces helps make up for lack of plants out there.  The little Mexican bowls either side of the lamp below I also found in thrift stores for about $1 each.  All our thrift stores, as well as bidding sites, are now closed so I will probably share more thrift finds in coming posts as I really haven't been good at sharing my finds.

We shut the news off and I hardly looked at the television.  We took a walk with Buddy and looked at the ducks.  They have had to close the playgrounds and many public parks as people were congregating too close to one another and parents weren't making their kids social distance (I understand it is nearly impossible but so super critical at this point).  No matter what we can always walk to our duck pond as long as we are not on full lockdown.

Anyway, try and have the best day you can!