'Artsy' Pic From Algae

 Tim jr, said "Maybe you could get an artsy shot of the pollen on the green water?"

Here's the Photoshop fun I had with that:

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Pool's OPEN - Summer's Comin'

 The winter seemed long because of our isolation due to COVID 19. It sure will be nice to be able to swim again. We all need the exercise. 

There was a lot of pollen that worked its way through the safety cover mesh and with the recent warmer weather the green algae was quite prolific.

The new safety cover came off with little effort.

We put our (12 years) old safety cover out at the curb and it was gone within the hour. I hope it went to a good home.

Wendy and Tim rolled up the new pool cover to store away for the summer. Fall rolls around all too quickly.

I had already reassembled the two swing benches and put up the umbrellas after re-installing the pool ladders. Bring on the summer!

Mice have been living under the pool heater cover.  It might be better with no cover at all.

They made a nest from the fluffy lining. 

It doesn't look too appealing yet but the pump, filter and heater are running.

As soon as the temperature rises above 60 F the chlorinator will begin making chlorine and by tomorrow we should see a difference. The water was already up to 57 F when we opened, which explains why it was so green.

UPDATE: 

Saturday - The next day it's always hard to believe how much the pool water improves in such a short time. 

The test shows good chlorine and ph normal and that's with only 2 bags of salt and a jug of chlorine. Of course the electronic chlorinator ran all day yesterday. I switched it off at midnight and back on around 7am this morning.

Monday - The green colour is all but gone and now you can see the drain in the bottom of the deep end. The water temperature reached 77 F (25 C)  Sunday with our target over 85 (29-30 C). The weatherman is calling for air temperatures up to 29 C this week so we WILL be swimming soon.

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Nobody Likes A Clogged Drain!

Last night Wendy announced that the dishwasher was pumping dirty water back up into the kitchen sink. This is not something anybody wants to hear after dinner, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Three or four hours later after disconnecting the plumbing under the sink and trying numerous stabs with a cheap hardware store 25 foot drain auger, we all gave up and went to bed. There's always tomorrow. 

The next morning:

Of course we didn't want to call a plumber due to our isolation plan and the fact that Tim jr hasn't had his shot yet. (He's due to get his 1st Pfizer shot Friday) After I tried a few more times, unsuccessfully in the kitchen, Tim went up on the roof and inserted a huge and much longer 1/2 inch x 75 foot sewer snake (...inherited from Wendy's dad Howard)  After a fair amount of physical encouragement and hard work the snake was forced around a few right angle bends and finally hit a mushy blockage of kitchen grease mung at 50 feet from the vent stack. Well, it could have been worse. It could have been winter!

Tim sits on the roof straddling the roof vent pipe where we accessed the clog.

You can't take nice pictures of someone unblocking a drain so I posted this picture of Tim cleaning up after his success! Wow! We were extremely lucky to have a long enough auger! This could have gone very, very badly.

Bright Ideas/Failed:

Remove under-sink plumbing and auger drain.  -  Auger came out clean. (not long enough)

Force water from garden hose into the drain.  -  Water filled up the vent and overflowed on roof.

Cap off kitchen drain and force water down vent  -  Water leaked from vent stack inside wall.

Quite a few hours of dirty work and stressful worry went by before we finally got to the root of the problem and resolved the clog. The learning experience will allow a quicker response if (when) it happens again. Hopefully on another nice day like we had.

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Dogwood Blossom

 

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Backing onto a golf course we are very fortunate in that even though we are in the city, we often see a wide variety of wildlife from our windows. I hope the hawk didn't get our favorite Woodpecker.

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Another 'No Driving' Healthy Walk

 Today we just walked out our back door and we were there! Wow!

Our hour-long walk took us around most of the periphery of the golf course.

 

It was an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this prestigious course without the presence of any golfers. A rare event indeed!

For over three weeks now, since the shutdown the course has been closed to golfers. The maintenance people have been working tirelessly as usual, meticulously keeping things just so.

 

The rough areas and swampy wetland is budding into Spring splendour.

We've never seen a sign like this before. It looks like they don't mind visitors as long as they don't have a golf club with them.

In over thirty years we have never been able to stroll around on the course when the golfers were active.

Today we only saw two other walkers and two maintenance workers on the whole course. 

A view looking back towards the clubhouse with the city in the background. It's almost surreal. 

The fairways are like greens and everything looks perfect. No wear and tear from the golfers and carts. Not a stray leaf or anything out of place. A contradiction of nature.

Hopefully we can get out a few more times before the course opens back up. What an amazing place to have in our back yard.

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Happy Mothers' Day Wendy...

Since Erin moved out last year in order to continue with her work and her life, Wendy has taken over her bedroom as a TV sitting/reading room. For Mothers' Day this year we ordered a new reclining chair which replaces a well used old wingback. 

Wendy invites our cat to join her in her new chair but Benzy is apprehensive of this mechanical marvel and not yet completely on board.

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Keep Those Planes Coming!

 

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No Driving Required - Healthy Walk Local

The map below charts our course and where I clicked each picture below.

We didn't have to go very far to get to our 'Healthy Walk" this week. In fact it started as we stepped out the door of our house. 

I almost hate to admit it but... can you believe that in the 33 years or so that we've lived here, this is the first time I have ever explored this public trail? Picture taken on the map as #1.

 

You can tell by the path and the wear and tear, that there have been many many people who have have enjoyed the views before me. It doesn't feel like we're even in the city. Picture taken at #2 on the map.

Over a year on isolation with little exercise has definitely taken its toll on me as I huff and puff to keep up with Wendy. We definitely need to do more walking!

Our trek was only about a kilometer which really doesn't count as much of a 'Healthy Walk" but it certainly showed me that you don't have to drive all over town to find places of interest. The picture above is looking back west to our street in the distance. See the map #4.

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My Irish 'Artoon"

 

Ooooh, that's bad!

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Our Dogwood Is Blooming

Just outside our kitchen window, the Dogwood tree is in bloom.

Things are really becoming lush with the recent rainfall. The garden path to the backyard is turning into a walk through a beautiful jungle.

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As Phoney As...

 I've got your back! We're all in this together. We'll do whatever it takes.

"Oh and uh, I've, uh come up with something, uh that every Canadian needs. A Three Dollar Bill."

I think this would be perfect. Where else on Earth could could you find Loonies, Toonies and Three Dollar Bills? ...And with recent money-printing and inflation, you'll need $3 to buy what a single Loonie bought before.

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Trust Me!

 The Trudeau government really cares about me...

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Healthy Walk - Back To Riverside Park

 We returned to the forbidden place by the railway tracks for our walk today. Being Sunday we thought the locked gate would provide us a little more privacy than the more public areas in the city. 

Good thing we did our walk down behind Wendy's old family home last week because down by the river the city has added a brand new sign prohibiting access. They must have been getting complaints from the landowners.

Fortunately our plan involved exploring the other direction along the river past the railway bridge. You'll recall that earlier we explored the other side of this bridge from Greenway Park.

The graffiti artists were just as busy here, beautifying this aging edifice from the past century.

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Trudeau And The Great Canadian Reset...

 My 'Artoon' for today:

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