the trees are quite beautiful… took these photos at APC at the end of September…
everywhere you look, the colours are amazing🤩…
APC…
09 Friday Oct 2026
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Category Archives: business
blind…
08 Thursday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, life, retirement, Uncategorized
a few weeks ago we replaced the hall blind…
the old one had broken at the top when the plastic gave up… not even sure how long it has been since it was put up… not that long after we moved into the house… so, could be close to 50 years…
this new blind can be opaque or blacked out, lol…
then I decided to put one in the bedroom…
my housemate took down the old one and put up the new one…
it looks great 😊…
vaccines…
07 Wednesday Oct 2026
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, covid vaccine, flu shot, IDA, moments, shoulders, vaccines, walk, widow
on Sunday, I walked over to the IDA Pharmacy to get my flu and covid vaccines…
I had called on Saturday to get an appointment…
it took all of ten minutes to walk there…
a form got my signature, and then I sat in the little office to wait for the pharmacist…
within a few minutes he was there, with two needles… in a flash it was over and as there was no blood, no bandaids were needed…
in and out within about six minutes…
other than my arms being a bit sore at the injection site, I am feeling fine😊…
Pendray Tea House…
06 Tuesday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fascinators, moments, Pendray Tea House, rainbow, relaxing, seafood, West Coast Afternoon Tea, widow
our final tea was at Pendray Tea House… it had a few options and we chose the West Coast Afternoon Tea… seafood was the focus of the savouries…
these people are serious about tea…
when our tea arrived, so did a timer for the perfect tea…
the sandwiches and dainties were tasty and filling…
my favourite was the Dungeness crab cake…
we enjoyed watching other diners enjoy their tea, a few even wore fascinators😊…
and a rainbow wandered around the room as the evening approached…
Abkhazi Garden…
02 Friday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Abkhazi Garden, big girl pants, cane, family, garden, hummingbird, moments, nature, support, volunteers, widow
had a wonderful time at the Abkhazi Garden after we had our tea…
this garden is basically run by volunteers…
they had a few canes available and lent me one, as I forgot my monopole, which has worked out well as a bit of stabilization for me…
it is a lovely space and the highlight for me was sitting under a tree with my daughter while a hummingbird visited and sat in the tree above us… my daughter took both of the above pictures…
found a few ponds with turtles and goldfish…
I was also impressed with the methods they used to support the trees…
amazing what a group of volunteers can accomplish…
Abkhazi High Tea…
01 Thursday Oct 2026
Tags
Abkhazi High Tea, allergy, big girl pants, family, favourite, garden, moments, shade, wasp, weather, widow
we arrived at the Abkhazi Tea Room just in time for our reservation… our Uber driver had a little trouble finding it, lol…
which was fair as it looked like a house on the street…
it was my favourite high tea spot… more relaxed, but also set in the garden…
I wore my fancy hat, but it caused problems with taking pictures as it put my face in the shade…
the umbrella over our table had me in shade and sun, so I ended up moving my tea items into the sun for photos…
once again we had a wasp visitor, but not quite as serious as the one at the Butchart Gardens, lol…
our server was very attentive and quick to change out one of the items that could have caused an allergic reaction for my daughter…
a delicious and very relaxing tea😊…
hop on, hop off…
29 Tuesday Sep 2026
Tags
Beacon Hill Park, big girl pants, ducks, Empress Hotel, family, Fan Tan alley, flowers, giant trees, hop on hop off bus, moments, nature, ponds, widow
we decided to take the hop on, hop off bus and to do the whole loop to see what we might want to do the next time we took it…
the tour started at the Empress, so while we waited to board we visited the gardens there… we stepped inside the lobby to admire the beautiful arrangements and then wandered the lawns and gardens…
we found lovely flower beds and a few giant old trees…
we decided that the next day we would visit Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park…
after we’d been around once we walked to the Parkside Hotel where we saw the koi and had a snack beside the pond…
we went back to one of the stops and hopped on, and hopped off, just a few blocks from our hotel… very handy…
the next day, after I’d put on just about all the clothes I’d brought because I’d been cold the day before, lol, we caught the bus by our hotel and hopped off at Beacon Hill Park… it is very large…
we hopped on and hopped off again at the Empress and walked up a street to check out the shops… after lunch we walked to see Trounce Alley and Fan Tan Alley, which is only 3 feet wide!!! after buying a few treats, we caught the bus and hopped off at the stop which was close to our hotel;-)…
the hop on, hop off bus was worth every penny as we used it from around 1 pm the first day until around 5 pm on the second day…
Parkside…
28 Monday Sep 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cafe, koi fish pond, moments, Parkside, Parkside Hotel, relaxing, widow
we went to the Parkside Hotel to visit the koi pond, which I had seen on an Instagram post… I was not disappointed…
as you walked up to the hotel there were a number of outdoor ponds with goldfish and water lilies in them…
inside you walked across the koi pond on the way to the front desk… part of the hotel was a cafe, that opened onto the street so that the neighbourhood could stop by for goodies…
I had hummus and some lovely bread to enjoy as I sat beside the pond…
every day at a certain time, they divide the food for the fish into containers, which the hotel guests can take and feed them…
a quiet and serene place for a break from all the busyness of the city😊…
The Gardens at HCP…
26 Saturday Sep 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Bonsai Garden, family, Japanese Garden, moments, nature, relaxed, serene, sleeping mermaid, The Gardens at HCP, widow
after spending time at the Butterfly Gardens, we Ubered to the Gardens at HCP…
these gardens seemed much more relaxed than the others we’d been to and the first few spots we walked through weren’t very exciting…
but then we found the Japanese Garden which had a creek flowing through it with light, shady areas, and ponds… it was quite large and was lovely with little surprises along the way, such as the sleeping mermaid…
the Bonsai Garden had a small building to rest in and was a lovely serene place…
it had close to twenty trees that ranged in age from a few years old to over 150…
it was a quiet place to stop for a few minutes before continuing on through the Japanese Garden area…
well worth the visit 😊…
Butterfly Gardens…
25 Friday Sep 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, birds, Butterfly Gardens, moments, nature, plants, pond, stick bugs, turtles, variety, widow
after two days at the Butchart Gardens, we visited the Butterfly Gardens which were close by…
the first thing you see is an area focussed on stick bugs and poisonous frogs… there were a lot…
then we moved into the Butterfly area… just as we arrived a keeper was letting a box of maybe 50 butterflies out… there were all types inside and one landed on my daughter and climbed up her, lol… another one, a cracker (one of my favourites) landed on the front of a man who was beside us… it stayed on him the entire time he walked through the garden…
besides butterflies, there were a few types of fish, a variety of turtles and tortoises, a flamingo, many parrots and other birds… part of their mission is to take in injured creatures…
they also have some butterflies in all their stages… from eggs, to caterpillars, to the butterflies… that was exciting to see…
the space is very large and it can be difficult to spot the butterflies, although there seem to be more in the front area… but many types and also different ways to display them…
it was fun to see so many creatures in one spot😊…
