Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Yesterday, spent pretty much the full day at Canada Blooms. Not necessarily of my own choosing -- flower shows are not something I would normally choose to go to of my own volition, but for the past few years I've accompanied my Mother to the event as she comes down for the day with a bus tour of other horticulturalists from where she lives in Keswick. She can't walk very far these days, so we pick out a wheelchair and I "push my Mother around" ;-) for the day. The tour last for 6 hours, so this can make for a very long day. Thankfully, Erika decided to accompany me this year, bringing along Vanessa as well, which of course really made my Mother happy. Vanessa seemed to get a real kick out of the show, what with looking at all of the flowers, gardening gadgets, and what-not. She was really taken by some colourful wind mobiles and pinwheels. In the best grandma-indulgent spirit, my Mother bought one of these for Vanessa. Erika spotted some very comfy-looking hammocks, and she ended up buying two of them -- one ostensibly for her Father. Erika and Vanessa split after lunch, leaving me to push my Mother around the bits of the show we hadn't seen yet. I know she's interested in rock gardening, so I bought her a year's membership in the Ontario Rock Garden Club, which came with a catalog of free seeds, a newsletter, and a half-dozen seed samples. We also attended a couple of talks/demos, looked at the award-winning entries, had some Hagen-Dazs ice cream, and purchased some last minute sales items. In past years I have pretty much dreaded going to this show -- 6 hours is a long time, especially when I'm pushing a wheelchair amidst teeming crowds -- but it was made much easier by having Erika and Vanessa along. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year, when we'll have a 6-month old on the scene.