trip…

13 Thursday Aug 2026

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my daughter recently sent me this postcard to remind me how close we are to our big trip…

for my birthday – the big 75 – I decided to take the train through the Rockies and visit gardens on Vancouver Island…

planning started last summer, and we had to book our train trip by December to be able to travel in September… crazy, lol…

next we searched for gardens that we would like to visit, besides the Butchart Gardens, which were first on the list…

then came looking at other spots in and around Victoria that we would like to see… we are going to have as many afternoon teas as possible, lol…

finding accommodations for our stay took a bit of work, but we found a lovely AirBnB close to the Butchart Gardens (and a Butterfly garden)… our second place to stay is a cute little hotel that faces the ocean in Victoria…

and finally, first class flights were booked back home… as I haven’t travelled for ages, the flights were covered by points… how cool is that;-)…

now to think about what I need to pack for a train trip and fall on Vancouver Island…

viewed…

12 Wednesday Aug 2026

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busy day…

Hilda the Gardener came by in the morning to do some tidying and trimming…

viewed a tiny portion of the eclipse…

went grocery shopping for some time away…

had fun making treats for the ‘away’ time…

and got a bit of time on the deck with my current book and something to drink😊…

bigger…

11 Tuesday Aug 2026

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the few milkweed plants were well used… one ended up with two caterpillars, and the second, and bigger one, only had one on it…

once the leaves had all been eaten on the smaller plant, we moved the two caterpillars to the other plant…

at that point we covered it with a net hamper to protect the caterpillars from birds…

since then they have turned into chrysalises and attached themselves to the top of the hamper…

I check on them each day, and so far they are still green😊… once they turn black they will be ready to change…

excited to see them emerge…

Pizzeria…

09 Sunday Aug 2026

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we went to Pizzeria Gusto for a delicious lunch to celebrate a birthday… last time we were there was 2017😊… and we still liked some of the same things…

the sun came and went as we sat on the patio and we all enjoyed the delicious food… two particular favourites were the

and the

which, besides being delicious was so pretty;-)…

everything else was also very tasty 😋 …

always a great time together…

bumblebee…

08 Saturday Aug 2026

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this morning, as I was looking at the obelisk filled with morning glories and cucumber vines, I watched a large bumblebee flitting from flower to flower…

I wasn’t able to get a photo of the bumblebee, but was very interested to see the pollen on the petals, after the bumblebee left each flower…

overwintered…

07 Friday Aug 2026

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the water lily that had overwintered in the house had been nearly completely eaten by the fish, likely the three koi…

I divided the lily into two and put them in little pots and sank them to the bottom of the pond…

one has been pulled out of its pot and eaten…

the second one has finally begun to send up teeny tiny leaves…

pretty sure there won’t be any flowers this year…

nitrogen…

06 Thursday Aug 2026

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great excitement the other day when I checked the giant tomato plants in the side garden…

I’d read that beans provide nitrogen, which tomatoes like so I planted them between the 3 tomatoes… then I also read that coffee grounds are good for tomatoes, so I dumped the weekly coffee grounds in there as well…

I think the tomatoes loved all of that, because they have grown huge… but, not a single flower was seen…

and then, I discovered numerous flowers on each of the plants… and even two marble sized tomatoes…

very happy, although there are very few beans coming along, lol…

bedding…

05 Wednesday Aug 2026

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first thing the other day, I turned the mattress and changed all the bedding, including putting on a different comforter…

looked pretty good…

when the cleaners came they rearranged it and made it look so much nicer…

maybe I am too lazy to change up the pillows every time I make the bed😂…

reimbursed…

04 Tuesday Aug 2026

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very happy to discover that the physio I’ve been paying for is covered under my insurance…

I had gone online to check for amounts and annual start date but couldn’t find any information…

I finally got around to calling and discovered, after talking to a very helpful woman, that I do have coverage and could submit my claims online to be reimbursed…

made me quite pleased as the visits are costly…

after filing the required information, it just took a few days for the money to make its way back into my credit union account…

and I continue to do new and interesting exercises to get back to my best…