trip…

13 Thursday Aug 2026

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

Tags

afternoon tea, Airbnb, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, moments, Technology, train, trip, Victoria BC, widow

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

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, busy, eclipse, Hilda the Gardener, moments, shopping, treats, viewed, widow

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

Posted by sulis303 in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, bigger, blessed, caterpillars, chrysalis, garden, leaves, milkweed, moments, nature, net, widow

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…

bumblebee…

08 Saturday Aug 2026

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, blessed, bumblebee, flowers, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, pollen, widow

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

Posted by sulis303 in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, goldfish, koi, nature, overwintered, plants, tiny, water lily, widow

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

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beans, big girl pants, coffee grounds, flowers, food, garden, growing, moments, nature, nitrogen, tomato plants, tomatoes, widow

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…

rosebud…

03 Monday Aug 2026

Posted by sulis303 in garden, life, loss, nature, retirement, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, bitten, flowers, garden, growing, moments, nature, plants, rosebud, squirrel, widow

I’ve been watching this little rose for a number of days… it was very close to opening…

when I went out this morning, the rosebud was no longer on the plant… but bits of it were on the table…

I’m guessing that a squirrel bit it off, and then didn’t even eat it🥺…

but it reminded me that I enjoy nature in the garden, lol…

temporarily…

01 Saturday Aug 2026

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big girl pants, blessed, family, fixed, garden, grandson, moments, temporarily, vinyl siding, widow

this morning my middle grandson arrived with a coworker to silicone the vinyl siding that he’d temporarily fixed a while ago…

they were here for less than fifteen minutes, and in that time fixed the siding and checked out an issue on the shed roof which he will come back to sort out when he has time…

and then, off they went 😊…

I certainly am blessed…