Meadow Sweet drawing to a close

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It's 20.36 on the 19th of May. Probably won't be too much of a long blog today, as if often the case with blogs about the regular working days.
Having said that, the first day, Sunday, was a day off for us. We got up nice and late again, about 10, and made some breakfast. It was another hot day - max 23•c and completely cloudless - so we were out by 11 on the lawn and sunbathing. I took a short break to Skype the parents, before Matt, Rosie and I headed up to the Tim Hortons to grab some lunch. We walked up through the fields again, but this time in the noon sun beating at our backs. Luckily, Tim Hortons is only twenty or so minutes away, so before long we had air conditioning and a cold drink.
We walked back, getting home around 2. To be perfectly honest, we did very little of note between around 2 and 6, except mill around - reading, cooking, napping and the like. At around 6, Molly burst in and told us that Sandy and Adam were doing fireworks up on the hill of the wildlife reserve across the road from the farm so we headed over with Adam to find a good spot to watch. Soon after Mel, Max and Mollie came up with the Gator, a load of fireworks and, of course, a crate of beer.
So we sat, chatted and drank while Adam lit the fireworks, often several at a time - and occasionally holding the tubes like a flare as the fireworks shot out. We had a bucket of water on hand in case we set the hill on fire - and it was used on several occasions. As it got properly dark we headed home, and took up our usual place around the table - with the remaining beers and pitchers of lemonade-rum I had made. We sat and chatted for a while and, as usual, Matt and I drunk considerably more than the girls. Indeed, I made the bad decision to finish off the cocktails - which didn't taste half as strong as they were.
Matt and I waking up in the morning would have been very funny to observe. As the alarm penetrated our restless dreams, the bad decisions of the last night came flooding back, and we tentatively assessed the levels of nausea and severity of headache that we had inflicted upon ourselves. It was not good. I won't go into the details but Matt was badly hungover, and I was more hungover than Matt.
I managed drips and drabs of work throughout the day, and Matt did slightly more. Luckily, it was a bank holiday so it was only us working - otherwise I would felt a lot more guilty for taking 2 long sleeps throughout the day. I felt awful.
I woke up from the second sleep at around 6pm and started feeling a little better. I tried some food, which stayed down (even water hadn't earlier in the day) and felt my strength returning. Dakota had arrived back from seeing family a little later, and had agreed to go with us up to the Tim Horton in his car, where we bought a whole heap of junk food which we ate watching our new favourite show Rick and Morty. It was to bed early that night, turning in at around 9. Oh, and I forgot to mention - it was the hottest day so far I think, hitting 26•c, which a stormy feel in the air.
We got up and were out by 8.30 this morning and reported to Mike for our daily duties. It is the day before the boxes of assorted goods go out to the locals, so we were pretty much focussed on getting those boxes together most the day. It had clouded over and was considerably chillier, around 15-17•C, with rain in the air.
In the morning we did a little potting, watered the greenhouses, harvested chives and Chinese leeks and 'trained cucumbers' - which involved clipping the plants to string hanging from the roof to keep them growing straight. A lot of the jobs sound mundane, but it is important to remember we always have a good sound system, good company, often good weather, and are only doing one thing for a maximum for a hour before we switch up - plus we are constantly learning new skills.
For lunch Matt and I ventured into the chicken run to grab some fresh eggs, and were harassed mercilessly by the hens, then again we were stealing their unborn children. I cooked a vegetable omelette, all the ingredients coming straight off the farm, before we headed to the large barn to get the produce ready for packing. We cut the garlic, washed the leeks, weighed the artichokes, bunched the rhubarb and bagged the chives. It's a great atmosphere with everyone mucking in, and the boxes were ready to go by 5.30.
Sandy had given the girls some money to buy food for our last couple of days, so Mike gave them a lift to the local shop while Matt and I stayed at the farm. I trained, then went for a run in the wildlife park. Currently we are sitting around the dining room table - reading and facebooking while dinner cooks.
Only 1 full day left before we move on, and my next blog will come from the other side of Toronto - in Oakville.
Until then.

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