Monday, June 1, 2009

More from the garden

Well, truth be told it's not my garden (except for the second shot of the lily-of-the-valley) but my neighbour's garden where Eldest toils in the soil every summer.





I completely missed the tulips this year except for that last photo. However, I did wander over to the garden the other day and took a few shots. This is where my daughter works on bended knee, planting and weeding and coaxing the flowers into bloom with a little sweet talk and a lot of manure.
Kathy is the kind of boss everyone should have. She emailed me to say she wouldn't be there this morning to hand my daughter a coffee and homemade muffin, so could I please make sure she has a coffee in hand before she leaves the house. What a sweet deal. That's not to say Eldest doesn't work hard. She does, gardening every day for about six hours, and she has the achy breaky knees and lower back to prove it. Coffee and baked goods certainly ease the pain.Do you remember your first job? I used to babysit for 25 cents an hour, then I moved on to the local A&W for a huge pay raise of $1.35. For that I had to dress in dark brown and orange polyester, work a full shift until 1 a.m., then sweep out the parking lot, clean the toilets after the drunks got through with them, swab the floors and counters, clean the machines and balance my float. If I came up short, I didn't get paid because I had to make up the difference. Then I had to walk home around 3 or 4 a.m. depending on how much cleaning there was (i.e. how badly the drunks aim was off in the toilet.) No coffee and muffins, but we got all the root beer we could drink.

6 comments:

Deniz Bevan said...

Gorgeous photos! Oh, and congratulations on all the weekend events :-)
As for jobs... my first and cushy job was stuffing envelopes for my dad... then I scanned journals for him; for both jobs I was gloriously overpaid. Then I started at Dairy Queen and jumped down to minimum wage. Yet I miss making cakes :-(

Anonymous said...

I am loving these photos!

My first job was at McDonalds. Despite the grease and polyester uniforms, I had some of the best times of my life with the people I worked with. Both at work and at play!

A Novel Woman said...

I think everyone should work in food service at some point. It gives you a lifetime appreciation for wait staff.

Deniz, did you ever drop a cone into the chocolate coating bucket? I dropped a couple of milkshakes off the tray and down a car window (he had to remove the whole door to clean it.)

Deniz Bevan said...

Oooh, you worked the car window? Not on roller skates, I trust :-) Actually, I think I dropped a cone in the chocolate only a couple of times - and both times it was because I was too hesitant, not cos the ice cream was soft. I miss getting everything at half price...

nightsmusic said...

Gorgeous pictures. I'm still waiting for the rest of my flowers to bloom *sigh* Once again though, it's barely past 60 here. Even my hummers left home. :(

My first non-babysitting paying job was behind the concession counter at the local movie house. For $1 an hour. From 3 in the afternoon until the last movie of the night finished. I worked my rear off with everything that had to be done (believe it or not, there was a lot! scrubbing, cleaning the butter bin (eww) crawling in the popcorn machine to clean it...you get the idea)

I hated that job.

*angelic smile*

A Novel Woman said...

Jobs like we had build character.

At least that's what I keep telling my kids.