03 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, dragonfly, frog, garden, moments, nature, rust-coloured, widow
today, I spotted a small black butterfly with rust along the bottom third… it flew away before I got a picture, lol…
not long after, a tiny little wood frog hopped across the deck by the pond…
not much bigger than a thumbnail…
and finally, a beautiful rust-coloured dragonfly…
such fun to see so much nature;-)…
02 Tuesday Jun 2026
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dandelions, flowers, moments, nature, painted turtle, turtle, walk, widow
on my walk from the car to The Leaf, I loved the yellow carpet over many of the fields…
and came upon a painted turtle…
it was very far from any water, and once it spotted me, it turned and headed towards the field…
a great surprise to start my shift;-)…
01 Monday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
focussed on pumps…
dug out the pump for the bathtub pond and, with some help from my housemate, got it going in the pond…
next the hot tub was emptied with the pump from the basement, which I needed help to find, lol… hoping a friend can come by and offer suggestions on the right hand cover which is not opening well…
finally, my housemate took the fountain pump out of the big pond… it took me awhile to get it cleaned out and then it went back in…
lots of water work;-)…
31 Sunday May 2026
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
after my shift at The Leaf on Friday, I headed over to the zoo to go to the Volunteer Centre…
it was very hot out and it had been hot in The Leaf as well… the car was boiling, lol…
I was excited to get my one year as a volunteer pin;-)…
I now have four pins, one for working at The Leaf, one for being a volunteer, and one to let visitors know that I’m trained to assist those with Hidden Disabilities… that last one is a bright yellow sunflower…
and now the one year as a volunteer pin;-)…
30 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, everywhere, family, flowers, garden, moments, morning glory, parcel, plants, seeds, tea towel, widow
got a parcel in the mail from my daughter in Ottawa…
it contained eight packets of a variety of morning glory seeds and an adorable tea towel covered in flowers…
a wonderful treat, and it means I can plant morning glories everywhere 🤪…
and I am going to…
29 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, garden, grandson, hardening, houseplants, moments, nature, outside, plants, weather, widow
Tuesday afternoon the majority of the larger house plants made it outside…
they have just made it onto the deck and a few will be moved elsewhere soon…
the smaller ones will come out in the next few days as space is made for them in the garden…
I’m being wild and crazy this year and not hardening any of them off…
this is also the first year in quite a while that I didn’t start any plants in the house…
we will see how they adapt to the rather warm weather and bright sun… 🤞
28 Thursday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buddies, clothes, fit, friends, garden, in the garden, moments, shopping, success, widow
recently I went clothes shopping with one of my buddies…
it started in the garden when our group gathered for our first outdoor visit of the season…
she had purchased some items and had taken them home to try on and discovered they didn’t fit… I fell in love with a top and pants, tried them on, and bought them from her on the spot…
then I went with her to the store so she could return others and we both had a lovely time…
she found a few things she’d been searching for, and I picked up two pairs of shorts and two very nice summer tops…
excellent day;-)…
27 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fewer, garden, grandson, moments, petunias, plant shopping, plants, variety, widow
Monday morning it was warm and sunny, so we went plant shopping…
two different places and many plants purchased…
this year I’ve decided to go with fewer varieties, but more of them…
in the end I chose petunias, salvia, and fuchsia…
added a few creeping phlox to go with what I already have, as well as three different varieties of hostas…
finished up with a few vegetables…
pleased that I was able to stick to the plan…
now, they are all laid out in the spots where they will go and will be planted before too long…
26 Tuesday May 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday morning, I was sitting on the back deck, listening to the waterfall, watching the fish, and reading my book…
all of a sudden a bird flew down to the orange halves I had on the edge of the deck…
it was only there for a second and then flew away… it was in a bit of shadow, but I was pretty sure it was an oriole…
a few minutes later, it came back and I got a few photos… not great, but made me happy…
after it left, I moved the oranges a bit so I could watch better…
and so far, I haven’t spotted it again;-)…
it has been years since I’ve seen any in the garden, although a number of them live along the creek in the next block…
but, I will keep watching and put out a fresh orange in the morning;-)…
25 Monday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
applications, big girl pants, clover, dandelion-free, disappointed, garden, moments, nature, weed and feed, widow
I was using Lawnman (not loving the name, lol) to keep the grass fertilized and dandelion free…
have used them for a number of years and they have been excellent…
recently received a letter in the mail advising they’d been taken over by Eco Green…
they called a few days ago to advise they were coming to apply fertilizer and weed control… which they provide as a liquid mix… but the weed control they use will destroy clover…
as we are mixing clover with the grass in the backyard, it means we can’t have this put down as it will kill clover…
the previous company did feeding and weed control as two separate applications…
so I asked about a lower price as they would only be doing the front yard now…
I was advised that I had only being charged for the front yard previously, which was news to me as they had been doing the fertilizing in the backyard all along… not impressed:-(…
so, I guess this will be the last year for that service…
herbiggirlpants 