16 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, circulating, family, garden, moments, music, pond, prep, pumps, widow, working
started work on the pond…
first step was to empty out the water… that was done last Saturday…
on Wednesday, after using the wet-vac and vacuuming the leaves and other crud out of the bottom, the pumps were set in place…
then the water flowed in and the pumps started circulating… which also means the waterfall began making wonderful music…
what a treat…
15 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
arches, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cucumbers, family, garden, light, planter, plants, weather, widow, wire
next part of the project was to install two arches where I am hoping to grow cucumbers and beans and morning glories;-)…
they will be located between the pond and the deck…
I’m hopeful that the light will help grow more veggies and brighten up that section of the garden;-)…
now the arches are in, two planters from other areas of the garden will be placed under them to hold the plants, once the grass/clover comes through the dirt/compost/sand… fingers crossed…
we picked up some wire and fastened it to the arches using zip ties…
it will be interesting to see how long it takes to cover the arches with greenery…
14 Thursday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bonsai, family, garden, Japanese Maple, lava, moments, nature, planted, widow
the Japanese Maple bonsai has moved into a new and much bigger pot…
holes were punched into the bottom and soil, compost, sand, and fertilizer went into the new pot with some used lava rocks…
it looks like a very large container for a small plant, but the hope is that the trunk will grow larger in the bigger pot…
it was moved back into the house and will start transitioning to the garden over the next few weeks… after the summer in the garden, it will move back into the house for the winter…
11 Monday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
spent time in the garden Saturday morning…
the job was to level out the ground as much as possible…
soil, compost and sand were mixed by the wheelbarrow full and then dumped and levelled across the grass using a handmade levelling rake…
it took quite awhile but eventually the space seems much flatter…
next, a mix of grass and clover seed was spread over the entire area and then gently raked in…
finally, the entire area was watered…
now to wait for it to grow…
08 Friday May 2026
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
last week I bought a lovely scarf at The Leaf…
today, while I was working my shift at the Mediterranean Biome exit spot, I watched a woman unfold a purple t-shirt in the Gift shop which is just outside the exit and perfectly in my view, lol…
so at the end of my day, I went and found one for me…
it is lovely and I know I will enjoy wearing it this summer;-)…
I may have to stop looking through those doors, lol…
a bit later, after I got home, a friend stopped by with a delicious piece of cake… we’d talked earlier in the week about this exact dessert… a lovely treat and visit…
I did share it with my housemate;-)…
pretty fine day…
03 Sunday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, grandson, grass, moments, planters, pump, raking, reading, tarp, weather, widow
spent time in the garden on a lovely day…
used the pond pump to empty the water on top of the tarp and then took the tarp off the pond…
took a few minutes to lay it out on the grass to dry out…
we moved a few planters to new places and will see if they stay in those spots…
did a little bit of raking of leaves, but there is still a lot to do…
and also spent some time reading in one of the chairs which recently came out of the shed…
30 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
appear, big girl pants, blessed, bonsai, family, grandson, Japanese Maple, moments, nature, plants, slow process, widow, wire
had fun watching my grandson start to work on his Japanese Maple bonsai…
we picked up the Japanese Maple last spring and it lived in the garden for the summer and moved into the living room in the fall…
over the winter it lost all of its leaves, but new ones have just started to appear;-)…
lots of bits were trimmed off and quite a few types of wire were used to begin the process of bending branches to new spots…
this is the second try as the first one he worked on didn’t make it…
kind of exciting to see how it will turn out, although it is a very slow process…
29 Wednesday Apr 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
last night was my first in the hot tub for a really long time…
a screw had come loose on the left side cover and it took quite a while before we were able to screw it back in… then it needed to be filled and it took me ages to get that done…
looking for photos of it, I found this note about the day the hot tub arrived —- April 29, 2009…
and this one from my first hot tub on Mother’s Day, 2009…
the area around the tub has changed a lot since its arrival…
these photos reminded me when the right hand cover came off and was repaired…
these photos were taken on April 28, 2023…
apparently, the end of April has been an important period for the hot tub…
next up will be emptying the tub and figuring out if we can make the right side more stable for opening and closing…
23 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, lawn furniture, moments, nature, rain barrel, reading, shed, Spring, weather, widow
had a great day in the garden yesterday… at last it was nice enough to put the cushions back on the deck…
sat on the top deck reading in the sun for ages… eventually I had to move to the lower deck to sit in the shade because it was so hot…
I tried to open the shed to bring out the rest of the lawn furniture, with no success…
but, I turned over the water barrel and yard waste bin, and emptied pots into the yard waste bin…
then there was sitting, lunch, and reading for the remainder of the afternoon…
once my housemate arrived home, he got the shed open and brought out some of the furniture…
summer is coming 😊…
21 Tuesday Apr 2026
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birthday treat, blessed, blizzard, chilled, Dairy Queen, delicious, family, food, gloves, grandson, moments, weather, widow
was treated to a blizzard to celebrate my birthday…
was kind of funny, because I was cold after getting chilled in an air conditioned restaurant…
so I sat there eating the blizzard in my winter coat, with the seat warmer going, and gloves on…
but it was a wonderful treat… and half of it did go into the freezer for another day, lol…
herbiggirlpants 