Category Archives: garden

rock…

06 Tuesday Aug 2024

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doing the happy dance…

Monday, the weather was perfect for being in the garden and my middle grandson came over and worked on the most current project… the soil in this garden bed kept sliding down and covering the stepping stones…

he removed some miscellaneous rocks, dug a trench and then, with my oldest grandson, moved and placed large rocks, which were located all around the garden…

it was interesting to watch as they decided together which rock worked and looked best where…

with my direction, of course…

the rock wall looks good…

so pleased that this project, which has been on my list for quite some time, is now completed…

stalk…

05 Monday Aug 2024

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went out to the veggie garden the other afternoon to see how everything was doing… it had been a much cooler day…

I’ve been spending most of my time in the house in front of the tv…

discovered that a stalk on one of the tomatoes had bent right over, I think from the wind…

I found a stick, put it in alongside the injured stem and then tied a nylon strip (from pantyhose) to the stick in a few spots…

I am hopeful that it will recover because there are two nice looking tomatoes on it…

fingers crossed…

cucumber…

01 Thursday Aug 2024

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this morning I went to the garden to harvest some peas…

while I was out there I discovered that the cucumber I saw on Monday had grown like crazy… apparently they like crazy heat, lol…

I collected the peas, some basil, and the lovely cucumber…

decided on a cucumber sandwich for lunch… with some fresh sourdough and cream cheese…

after peeling the cucumber, I used the mandolin to make thin slices…

enjoyed the sandwich in the garden with coleslaw I’d made on Tuesday;-)…

pergola…

31 Wednesday Jul 2024

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a friend sent me some photographs recently and in amongst them was this picture of my beloved in front of the just finished pergola/gate…

it had the cutest fastener on the gate… I can’t remember when we put all of the pergolas in, but at that time – many moons ago – we still had the waterbed pond beside it…

then I dug out this one from July, 2009 (a bit fuzzy), when he added a shelf for stuff to sit on while we were in the new hot tub… that was fifteen years ago🤪…

and this is how it looks today;-)…

I showed the original picture to my grandsons and it took them a minute to recognize it, lol…

it does need a trim so that the Virginia creeper isn’t overpowering it and the gate could have a prettier fastener…

time flies…

cocoon…

30 Tuesday Jul 2024

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this memory came up from July 28, 2013, lol…

and this photo is from Friday morning, the 26th after a night out;-)…

it was cool with a lovely breeze, so once again no mosquitoes;-)…

the lounge chair was nice, but the air mattress is definitely more comfy…

it is so nice to have a sleep-out… like camping, without the travel, lol…

police…

28 Sunday Jul 2024

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early this morning (Olympics!), about 5:30, I was in the kitchen making tea when I opened the patio door to see what the weather was doing…

I noticed that the back gate was open so I went out to close it… I also saw that the side gate was open… both had been closed when I went to bed…

once they were both secured, I checked the garage/driveway camera and found a photo of what appeared to be a young man with a backpack on, moving toward the front street…

the fuzzy picture shows how quickly he was moving…

then I checked the garage to be sure nothing had been taken, and everything was where it should be;-)…

later in the day, at someone’s recommendation, I called the police non-emergency number and spoke with an officer…

they checked their call records and advised that there had been a report and police had spoken with a person who said they were running away from someone…

the officer also advising that calling the police for something like this was a good thing to do…

the suggestion was to call as soon as I discovered the open gates, just in case the police were in fact, chasing a thief…

and maybe don’t go outside until after consulting the police, lol…

discovery…

26 Friday Jul 2024

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recently, I wrote about all the caterpillars and the butterflies that emerged and my hope that, as the milkweed has new leaves, another monarch mother might stop by and leave a few eggs…

well, on Thursday, this happened;-)…

I was very excited and after she left, and a bit of searching, made the discovery of at least four eggs…

babies, here we come;-)…

re-emerge…

24 Wednesday Jul 2024

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the monarch caterpillars decimated every leaf of the milkweed in June through to the beginning of July…

now, in the last few weeks, the leaves have begun to re-emerge…

some have even started to flower…

I am hopeful that another monarch butterfly might come by and lay a few eggs, not twenty, lol…

discovered…

21 Sunday Jul 2024

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when we got home from our time at the Airbnb we discovered twenty monarch caterpillars…

I had five milkweed plants but toward the end of their growing phase, the caterpillars were running out of leaves to eat…

they had stripped every leaf and I was able to cut some stalks from a friend’s yard…

I tied the new leaves to the old and we had just enough for them before hiding under leaves and building their chrysalides… two died, although there was still some leaves left…

we watched one caterpillar for a while once it moved into its j-shape but didn’t catch it weaving the chrysalis…

we only spotted two chrysalides, one of which vanished… not sure if it fell or something came along and ate it…

I watched it daily and then one day it turned black, which meant it was ready to eclose…

I watched all day, but nothing happened… late that afternoon I spotted the butterfly which had emerged…

it sat for quite a while before finally opening and closing its wings, but it was still on the iris leaf when I went to bed…

during the night the city came around and was spraying for mosquitoes…

In the morning it was hanging in a strange fashion and I was worried whether it would survive…

but, later I went out and she was gone;-)…

since then I’ve seen a total of eight butterflies flying through the garden;-)…

nature is amazing…