unpack…

17 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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Airbnb, big girl pants, blessed, cottage, deck, family, groceries, moments, nature, plants, Technology, treat, unpack, water, widow

well, after grocery shopping and packing up what felt like tons of stuff, we set off on our adventure…

we have returned to the superb Airbnb that we spent a week at last year…

it took about two and a half hours from leaving the house to sitting on the deck with tea and a refresher…

didn’t take very long to unpack the groceries and our personal stuff… then we headed to the upper deck to enjoy the scenery and our drinks…

as I sat there I listened to the waves gently lapping the shore, and heard the warblers, vireos, and sparrows singing in the trees nearby… and we’d already watched a couple of ducks working on their afternoon snacks as a pelican fly by…

what a delightful treat this time together is;-)…

father…

16 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, cook, dad, family, father, food, light, lunch, memories, moments, scrambled eggs, widow

was thinking of my dad as I was making scrambled eggs recently…

he was a great cook and always used a fork when scrambling eggs… he said it made them fluffier… he always added a touch of milk or water as he prepared them…

it was a lovely memory around Father’s Day;-)…

he was a very special person and I think of him often…

thirty-two…

15 Saturday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in family, garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, buds, family, flowers, garden, happy, memories, moments, nature, orange, pictures, plants, poppies, thirty-two, weather, widow, wild

the other day I counted thirty-two poppy buds…

since then twenty-six have opened… I go out every morning to take pictures and count them, lol…

they look so beautiful weaving back and forth in the breeze…

they were one of my beloved’s favourite flowers… maybe because they signalled the beginning of summer…

they decide where they will pop up and I am always so happy when they turn up each year… this time they are in the front of the garden;-)…

patched…

09 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, bin, blessed, completed, deck, family, fence, garden, happy, moments, patched, pond, projects, repairs, widow

Saturday, a few more projects around the garden were completed…

the final board that joined the back flowerbed to the fence was replaced and one of the yardwaste bins fits perfectly there…

the broken edge board by the bathtub pond, thanks to the hanging chair blowing over and breaking it last spring, was patched…

it looks so much better over there now…

a box was built to hold the mandevilla on the top deck so that the plant won’t blow over on windy days…

and two pots were moved to finish off the area around the pond…

the garden is looking very nice;-)…

niggly…

08 Saturday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, boards, deck, family, finished, garden, happy, moments, niggly, project, shovelling, widow

Friday, we spent some time finishing the bottom deck area…

in a section under the main deck there had been boards to hold the box of soil that was there for any planting requirements…

when the deck reconstruction was completed, it was decided we would finish this piece…

Friday afternoon a bit of shovelling took place to remove the dirt on the blocks and then the new saw was put to work cutting cross boards and then the pieces to fill in the deck area…

it looks great and the big dirt box can slide in and out easily… it sits back there to keep the soil from getting wet when it rains…

looks great and has finished off the deck build;-)…

yay, always happy when a project is completed without any niggly little bits left unfinished;-)…

spirit…

06 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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Alaska, big girl pants, blessed, family, flowers, Free Spirit Spheres, gardens, happy, memories, moments, nature, Seattle, spirit, treehouse, Victoria, widow

this morning a memory came up from our night at Free Spirit Spheres on Vancouver Island…

it was the cherry on top of our trip that took us on a cruise to Alaska; visiting Chihuly Gardens and Glass, and blowing glass in Seattle; tea and a carriage ride at the Empress Hotel in Victoria; and a morning taking photographs in Butchart Gardens in Brentwood, BC…

it was delightful and we enjoyed every minute… delightful times…

class…

02 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, class, family, float, garden, glassblowing, happy, moments, purple, Seattle, water, widow

yesterday my memories reminded me that eleven years ago, we went on a cruise and ended up in Seattle where we took a glassblowing class… it was great fun…

we had to wear cotton, which explains my delightful outfit, lol…

I made a purple float for the pond and it came out very well…

later I took a photo of that same float in the pond… oddly, it sat lower in the water than the others, so I got it out and discovered it had water in it…

I couldn’t figure out where the water was getting in so brought it into the house and set it on a yogurt container on the counter, hoping it would drain out…

somehow I moved and knocked it off the container… and it broke into many pieces…

🥺…

hiatus…

31 Friday May 2024

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, cleaned up, garden, hiatus, house, Japanese Maple, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, repotted, shade, weather, widow

this morning the mandevilla and Japanese Maple made their annual hiatus to the garden…

the mandevilla is probably four or five years old… it started out on the deck and has come in each fall and lived over the winter in the living room like any other houseplant… it has grown quite tall, but always loses a ton of leaves so I spent time pulling off many brown crispy dead bits, lol… it now has a very tall obelisk in the pot and most of the growth is at the top… looks good now that it is cleaned up…

the Japanese Maple travelled by car from Vancouver island about ten years ago, when it made the trip with the kids as they moved from Courtenay to Ottawa, with a short visit here on their way… it had done well over that time but hasn’t grown much… today I repotted it in a bigger container with some fresh soil… hope it likes it;-)…

they will be in the shade for a few days and then move to their summer locations…

nearly…

23 Thursday May 2024

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, deck, dirt, family, garden, gates, happy, moments, nearly, project, weather, widow

the work started on Saturday with three of us…

Sunday my housemate and I worked away at the process and Monday we were back to three strong… a ton of work was accomplished and the job was nearly finished…

Tuesday we worked on a few bits and pieces, including levelling the back gate…