Category Archives: health

clouds…

14 Sunday Jun 2015

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weather has been interesting over the weekend…

yesterday morning I took these pictures of clouds looking in two directions…

   
 

and last night as I was walking home from supper out with the kids…

  
although it had been raining just a while before, in this shot it was beautiful…

today was a bit overcast early in the day and then the sun came out and lit up the garden as I worked in one section… happy with my work…

  
put out all the cushions and we had a lovely visit when the kids came for dinner… 

had supper on the deck, and just finished in time to move everything into the house and garage as the sky darkened…

poured for about fifteen minutes after they drove out of the driveway… left footprints when I went into the garden afterwards…

  
then this:-)…

  
certainly lots of variety…

deck…

13 Saturday Jun 2015

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recently I’ve been coming outside and sitting on the deck to write my blog post… lovely way to end the day and another opportunity to get outside…

today I’ve been on all three decks for some period of the day…

 
started the day with an early morning hot tub… turned the waterfall back on so got to hear the lovely water sounds… sat on the back deck and read and watched the various wildlife that visited…

  
besides the goldfinches there were squirrels, butterflies and a large dragonfly… I think the second goldfinch in this picture was a juvenile, not the missus…

  
went in while it rained, and then sat on the deck by the door to read… while there, a cute little bunny came by…

 
sat there for at least ten minutes before hopping away… 

lovely treat when my kids called and three of them met me for supper at The Captain’s Table… my favourite fish and chip place… luckily I walked there and back to help make up for the fried food I ate…

 
they headed off to wash the car andchauffeur one of the other kids, and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up salad fixins for tomorrow’s supper…

noticed the first clematis bloom when I arrived home… it is doing very well this year…

  

going to make some tea and read a bit more while I’m out here and the sky is blue… enjoying the moment…

exercising…

12 Friday Jun 2015

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was talking with someone recently about eating and exercise… they were noticing that eating and then going for a walk or doing any type of exercise is getting more difficult for them…

reminded me of when I really learned that lesson…

it was 2000 and I had travelled to Banff, Alberta to make a cd with a group of women from across Canada and the U.S… we had an amazing time… it was beautiful there, the studio was great, and the food was wonderful… we stayed midway up a mountain, walked, what felt like straight up, to get to the restaurant and then further up to the studio…

if we ate too much of the delicious food, we could barely make it up the hill to our destination… apparently your stomach needs to work after eating and your whole body is actively taking part in the process…

took us a while to figure it out and then we started to eat much smaller portions, lol… making the music was magical and something I will always remember…

this morning, after my smoothie, I walked around the garden, which, thankfully, is flat, and got a few pictures…

  

this is the last poppy with the sun shining through it…
 
this little sedge (I think) growing in the pond has a lovely “flower” on it… 

and the morning glories are just peeking through the soil… hurrah:-)…

  
the garden is moving along nicely…

stoup…

11 Thursday Jun 2015

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on our way home from work last night we stopped at Safeway and picked up the ingredients for Souper Thursday… my turn… found the recipe on Pinterest and made it without time to test…

  
interesting experience today as I brought the ingredients to the office, put them into the crockpot, and let it do its thing… usually I spend the evening preparing the parts and often getting the soup ready for the next day and then reheat it at the office…

I doubled the recipe and in the process may have put in an excessive amount of tortellini… so we ended up with stoup… a cross between soup and stew… it was good… and easy… certainly the simplest soup I’ve made…

  
been very happy with the irises I took into the office on Monday… last couple of blooms opened up this morning…

  
all in all a good day…

green…

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

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been thinking about all things green… 

started this morning with a picture of my manicured lawn which my daughter mowed last night while she was waiting for me to get home…

  
been thinking about money a bit too… wanting to be sure I have enough green for my visit with my other kids… 

years ago George and I decided we wouldn’t take vacations if we didn’t have enough to be able to do what we wanted, after a very bad experience where we spent two weeks in a soaked tent while it poured every day, because we couldn’t afford to stay anywhere else…

love my green hose which is very light and expands or shrinks depending on whether or not there is water in it… makes watering so much easier…

  
tonight I watered everything after planting some morning glory seeds… some in a pot that already has the mandevilla in it…

 
and some in a hanging basket… looking forward to seeing them sprout…

excited to see this bit of green coming through the soil… one of the dahlias…

  
finally, discovered these wild rose blooms in among the jungle of green plants and grass in the other front flower bed… although flower might not be an accurate description, lol…

  
still giggle about how badly I wanted this wild rose in the garden… now it is trying to take over the whole yard… and I am constantly cutting back sprouts of it everywhere…

too funny…

score…

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

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early this morning the sky was quite spectacular…

  
it was the aftermath of a storm that put out the electricity in a whole section of the city… the one I live in:-)…

we have a contest going at work about motion of any kind, and I had big plans to walk for half an hour on the treadmill… apparently silly thing needs power…

happily it came on with enough time to walk for twenty minutes…

sitting in a field right now watching my oldest grandson play soccer… bit chilly but great to have the chance to see him play… 

  
great game with a few goals… score!

  

blooms…

07 Sunday Jun 2015

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so excited this morning to see the first open poppy…

  
just love poppies and we have spent years seeing how many bloom each year… numbers have varied from two or three to over fifty… never clear why a certain number come up…

walking over to the Park to meet friends for brunch, took this picture of the sky…

  
wore a hat and brought a rain jacket just to be safe…

had a great visit with my friends and watched clouds come and go while we visited… thunder was rumbling across the sky when I left them, but I did a quick walk around the English Garden before heading home… 

  
smelled delicious… and the rose standards were nearly all in bloom…

  
made it home before the rain, and a while ago turned off the pumps in the pond so that I could fill it… water level is very low… testing to see if the level goes down when the pumps aren’t going…

  
the goldfish were busy finding all the algae they haven’t been able to get at, lol… I could actually hear them eating…

  
strange weather day, from cool and overcast, to sunny, to rainy, to clear and warm…

energy…

06 Saturday Jun 2015

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was up early, made a nice breakfast and planned to work in the garden when I was done…

sadly it started to rain when I went outside so didn’t get much done for a good portion of the day… passed the time watching tv :-)…

last night I had a hot tub and sat out in the swing chair watching the colours change on the waterfall… beautiful… this is the cute little remote that works the lights…

  
feeling good and full of energy, when the sky cleared up around four, I spent some time in the front flower bed cutting down wild roses and pulling out grass… filled a pail but only got about half of it done… hope to finish that off tomorrow…

kids came over and we had supper while the hot tub was emptying… after they left I cleaned and filled it… now to wait for it to warm up and put in a few chemicals…

sitting out, with a blanket on and reading by the pond…

 
good news is that the waterfall is still running beautifully… bad news is that the pond keeps needing more water…

   

oh well, we’ll figure it out… poppies are getting closer to opening every day and at least one of the dahlias I planted has popped through the soil…

  
life is good and I am lucky enough to realize that and enjoy every moment…

well, maybe not every moment… a mosquito just tried to bite me, lol…

fun…

05 Friday Jun 2015

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excited this morning to take a picture of the blooming orchid…

  
spent a bit of time preparing a bag so I would be ready to head out after work for the evening’s soccer game…

picked up from work, drove across town to pick up the boys and dog, and headed back across town for the final game of the soccer series…

luckily, had a big bag of almonds which provided entertainment for the youngest as the game was played…

  
beautiful evening to sit outside and cheer on the nine and ten year olds… heard all about the importance of defence from my guy… did have to giggle as the dads’ were having a bit of trouble giving up being the coaches… fair bit of directives from the sidelines… 

wonderful opportunity to spend some time with my kids and a fun way to start the weekend…

warm…

04 Thursday Jun 2015

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spent a few minutes this morning pulling grass out of a flower bed and topping up the water in the pond…

sun was shining all day and it was warm…

when I got home I sat outside for a while and talked with my daughter about my upcoming visit…

the pond was looking good…

  
and the fish appeared happy… lots of chasing around so maybe we will have babies before too long…

  
things are starting to bloom…

  
a bit amazed that the Veronica is blooming before the poppies… sadly it looks like there will only be seven poppies… the first summer after George died we must have had fifty blooms…

glad to have spent time in the garden before organizing supper… have to take every opportunity to be outside when there is a nice day…

  
the planters around the deck are doing nicely… first time I’ve had this colour lobelia… looks good…

the pond may still be leaking a bit but I am thrilled with the sheet of water falling from the rock… think I will run a hose under the deck and just below the grass to the edge of the pond… then when it needs to be topped up, it will be a simple turn of the tap to fill it…

feeling more energy and getting the odd job done during the week, which has been unusual for quite some time…