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We chopped down most of our sunflowers

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On Monday afternoon and into the evening we finally got around to cutting down / trimming our Sunflowers as per the notice that we received from the city last week.

Last Tuesday or Wednesday we were given notice that our Sunflowers that grow in the boulevard in front of our house were causing an obstruction and had to be trimmed to three feet in height.

They weren’t obstructing anything, but I wasn’t about to find out what the fine might be for not complying with the bylaw order.

So on Monday, Chris started torturing our sunflowers by cutting down the biggest one which I’m sure was at least 14 feet tall. We had to go out for an appointment in the afternoon so we didn’t finish trimming the rest of the sunflowers – perhaps 20 in all – until we returned in the early evening.

What a shame.

Some of the sunflowers grew multiple sunflowers at various heights so there are still some flowers growing on the three foot tall stumps. Still, I don’t know if the sunflowers will survive as we cut so much off the plants that they might just die down now.

People passing by kept stopping to ask us what we were doing and when we told them what and why they couldn’t understand what the problem was. The whole neighborhood loves our sunflowers and it’s a fact that we grow them and other flowers in the boulevard to help beautify the neighborhood.

One of my site visitors had suggested, when I first posted about this city bylaw order, that we take the cut sunflowers and hang them from a window so that the birds could still use the flowers. I took that suggestion and expanded on it.

We have two flower boxes hanging outside the two windows at the front of our enclosed front porch. Since I didn’t feel well most of the summer I never did get around to planting annuals in the window boxes so they were bare all summer.

I decided to stick several of the cut flowers on their stems in the window boxes. It actually looks quite nice and the flowers are holding up well. I scattered a few of the remaining flowers in the garden bed below the window boxes and the flowers that had been almost finished or that were starting to dry into seed heads were cut off and scattered in the boulevard at the base of the sunflower plants.

I’m sure the neighborhood squirrels will scatter the dried out sunflower heads throughout the neighborhood. Did you know they nibble on the whole head? I find bitten sunflower heads in the strangest places sometimes!

The nicest cut sunflowers were set aside and when we were done cleaning up our mess I brought them inside and put them in two vases.

I figure we might as well enjoy the flowers for as long as we can.

Stupid city bylaw.






Get outside and get active!

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When I was growing up I remember being outdoors all the time. Playing with other kids from the neighborhood – hide and seek, jumpsie, skateboarding and rollerblading. There was non of this staying inside to play video games! Heck if I’d wanted to stay indoors to watch TV my parents would have though something was wrong with me, and if there’s wasn’t there’s no way I’d be allowed to just sit around and watch TV anyway.

Now as an adult I’d love to get back into that active outdoors lifestyle again. Living in a city such as Toronto sure does make it easy to get outside and do things!

I’ve been looking around for something to motivate me to get outside more and when I saw the heelys at Fritz’s Skate and Surf I thought “Well now this looks interesting!”. As I could certainly use a pair of heelys to whip around the neighborhood.

I’d go further than if I were just walking and I’d certainly get a bit of a workout as a result.

I actually like the wide selection of Healys and rollerblades at Fritz’s Skate and Surf. It’s a popular action sports shop in Miami. They have a wide selection of sporting goods from surfing gear to inline skates and all the accessories you can think of. They ship to both US, US military addresses, and Canada.

I think I’ll take a look through their selection of heelys and rollerblades to see if I can find any styles that I really like.

Did you rollerblade or skateboard as a child?

Sizzle, pop, bang – BOOM!

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On Saturday our neighbors tree caught on fire! One of the branches fell down onto the electric power line below and it started sizzling away.

I was upstairs when this happened. I looked out the window because I saw a person circling in the intersection looking down the street beside our semi detached house. I wrote it off as just someone doing something a little weird.

A few minutes later someone knocked on our door to tell us that the tree beside our neighbors- the neighbors who’s house is attached to ours was on fire!

Ahhhh!

Chris ran outside to see how bad it was and I picked up the phone to call the fire department! I got 911 on the phone and in a shaky voice told them ” the tree next to our house is burning! It’s a big maple, a branch fell on the electric power line!”

Of course, as would happen, I’d just had a shower and my hair was wet and all over the place. Never the less I ran outside to have a look for myself.

By this time it appeared the fire was stopping or slowing down. I went back inside the house to at least comb my hair … our houses weren’t on fire and the tree didn’t look like it was going to fall .. and the phone rang. This time it was the police calling me just to verify the info that I’d told them and to let me know that fire trucks and police were on the way.

As I was on the phone there was a loud explosion! A big bang! Of course I’m freaking out a bit as I’m talking to the police after that! LOL

I later found out that the explosion was the electric box that the wires powering the adjoining street, and our neighbors house went into. Amazingly we still had power.

In the end the fire contained itself and Hydro – our Toronto power company, came along to reset the electricity – one whole street was out but our house still had power – and I think they trimmed the tree too.

It was an exciting few hours but in the end didn’t amount to all that much.

I did learn a few things though … the tree was burning for at least 10 minutes before I called the fire department. Others were aware that there was a fire – especially when you consider the person walking strangely across the street that I’d seen from my upstairs window.

I was the only person to call 911.

The neighbor who’s house was affected was so scared he stayed inside the house!

Hello people .. if your house has a huge chance of catching on fire get the heck out! Number one rule!

So I guess I live in a neighborhood filled with people who have no clue what to do in an emergency situation. Gee that makes me feel better.

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