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~ the new reality of a "70 something"

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Category Archives: garden

Butterfly Gardens…

25 Friday Sep 2026

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

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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😊…

High Tea – Butchart Gardens…

24 Thursday Sep 2026

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

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big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, first high tea of the trip, food, high tea, moments, nature, widow

when we first arrived at the Butchart Gardens we went to book our High Tea at the restaurant… unfortunately they weren’t open yet, but my daughter convinced them to add us to the reservation list…

when we arrived at the designated time, we were seated outdoors, overlooking the large green open area…

they had blankets at each table, which was great as it was a little cool…

because of allergies we ended up with a tower each…

one of the little cakes on my tower had jelly on the top… it became the favourite for a wasp that really enjoyed the jelly…

everything was delicious… I needed my fork to hold up many of the sandwiches, lol…

but I didn’t eat the jelly part, lol… and it was sweet that they included a happy birthday chocolate on my cupcake 😊…

the staff were excellent and we had such a fun time… first High Tea of the trip…

then, it was back to the gardens…

pick…

19 Saturday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in food, garden, health, life, retirement, Uncategorized

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arch, beans, big girl pants, cucumbers, garden, moments, nature, pick, topped and tailed, treat, widow

spent a quiet day resting up from the busyness of the last few weeks…

the main thing I did was pick beans and a couple of cucumbers from the arches…

then I sat outside and topped, tailed, and cut them up…

there were a lot and I will have some tonight and enough for another meal in the next few days…

a lovely treat😊…

garden parties…

14 Monday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, food, garden, life, retirement, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, bumblebees, family, garden parties, guide, moments, monarch butterflies, nature, The Leaf, water terrace, widow

started the garden parties with a visit to The Leaf…

after a private tour of the Biomes, with me as the tour guide, we had lunch at Gather…

we shared these…

I’d never had burrata before so was eager to taste it… it went nicely with the peaches and pistachios, but unfortunately, the peaches were under ripe… would likely have been delicious otherwise…

we had them put the blueberries on the side as neither of us really like them, lol, and I quite enjoyed this salad, which was different from what I had had on previous visits…

then it was outside to check out the Water Terrace and the Outdoor Gardens… had a lovely stroll and found monarch butterflies and happy bees everywhere…

had some fun picture taking… by this time it was getting rather hot, so we headed home…

next garden will be on Vancouver Island 😁…

rainfall…

05 Saturday Sep 2026

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

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big girl pants, blessed, early, flowers, garden, moments, nature, rain, sky, weather, widow

got up early and went outside for a look at the lovely sky and my flowers…

the previous evening I’d noticed that one of the buds on a morning glory plant was getting ready to open…

I’ve been waiting for these ones as they are quite stunning but seem to take an extra long time to open…

sure enough it had opened to a beautiful flower… happily I took a few photos before going back inside and back to bed…

when I next got up it had just stopped raining so I went out to check on the bloom…

of course it was a little worse for wear after the rainfall…

so happy I went out early 😊…

exercises…

04 Friday Sep 2026

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

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big girl pants, blessed, exercises, garden, moments, nature, outside, widow, yoga mat

it was a beautiful day, so I decided to do my exercises beside the pond…

when I rolled out the mat, the top end went into the water, so I had to wait for the mat to dry, lol…

what a treat to listen to the water falling and watch the sky and trees overhead while I went through the steps…

my housemate took a video, after I was done, of a few of each of the exercises…

catch…

01 Tuesday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, garden, life, moments, nature, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, blooms, catch, magnolia, Mediterranean biome, moments, nature, scent, widow

one of my favourite trees in the Mediterranean Biome is the magnolia…

it blooms fairly regularly and can have only one flower blooming at a time or as many as six, which I spotted earlier this summer…

today, it had one glorious bloom above a spent flower…

magnolias smell delicious, although our tree is too high up to be able to catch the scent…

met…

31 Monday Aug 2026

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

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arch, big girl pants, blessed, garden, met, moments, scarlet runner beans, weather, widow

I’m so happy with how the plants are growing on the new arch…

the scarlet runner beans have been flowering for a while, but the actual beans have only just begun to appear…

the morning glories have now met up with the scarlet runners at the top of the arch…

it looks so nice from everywhere in the garden 😊…

reorganizing…

30 Sunday Aug 2026

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

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big girl pants, garden, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, plants, pots, reorganizing, widow

spent a little time in the garden reorganizing the plant pots on the steps…

now the hibiscus is much more visible, as is the new mandevilla😊…

jigsaw…

25 Tuesday Aug 2026

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

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big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, grandson, jigsaw, moments, project, rail, Technology, tools, toy, widow

in the final process of replacing the stairs to the side garden, we discovered we needed a jigsaw…

so, of course, we had to go shopping for a new toy, lol…

in the end we found a reciprocating saw which would work for the current project and a variety of future projects…

and I thought it was much cuter than a boring old jigsaw…

we have learned to always buy the same brand as our other battery operated tools😀…

and now, the deck, stairs and rail project is completed… yay…

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