odour…

29 Thursday Jul 2021

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

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big girl pants, blessed, cushions, dahlias, flowers, garden, moments, nature, odour, plants, purple, sanctuary, The Dahlia Expert, water, weather, widow

I was up at 6:30 am watching the Olympics;-)…

I had made my mind up to water the garden first thing because it has been getting hot so early in the day…

I think the temperature only reached 28 Celsius which feels cool after the hot days we’ve been dealing with…

it turned out to be a beautiful day, other than the odour of smoke in the air… luckily, you could smell the smoke, but the sky was clear…

after watering, I put out all the cushions and wandered around checking out flowers…

the planter with the milkweed and morning glories in it was looking spectacular as the morning glories have overtaken the container… not sure that the monarchs can find the milkweed anymore…

the dahlias are doing well and one of the buds on the Robann Regal plant has started to open…

excited to see it fully open…

I also realized that there are more buds starting on the Mick’s Peppermint… that plant is huge and didn’t look like it was going to have more than a few flowers… interesting that the second flower was about half the size of the first one, although it is hard to see that in my photo… and the colours are different on every flower;-)…

sat and enjoyed the view…

I love my garden sanctuary…

prickly…

28 Wednesday Jul 2021

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cucumber, flowers, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, prickly, sweep, weather, widow

this is the first time I have planted/grown cucumbers and I’ve been surprised at how prickly they are…

the cucumber plants had a ton of flowers on them, but no actual cucumbers…

I read online that I should take a broom and sweep over them… this is supposed to help with pollination…

I decided to give it a try the other day… found one of my beloved’s brushes and brushed over as many of the flowers as I could… that was on Saturday…

today, this is what I spotted… plus two others…

not sure if it was the brushing or whether I just had to wait a bit longer, lol…

but I am absolutely thrilled…

together…

27 Tuesday Jul 2021

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big girl pants, blessed, coffee, deck, friends, garden, moments, nature, solar lights, Technology, time, together, treat, weekly meeting, widow

together at last;-)…

last night I made coffee, set out cushions on the deck, and watched some Olympics while I waited for my BS friends…

everyone is now two weeks since being double vaxed and we met outdoors… one was away, but everyone else turned up in person…

it was the first time we’ve been physically together for our Monday evening gatherings in more than eighteen months…

I was pleased that the coffee turned out as it had been a very long time since I’d made any, but apparently the muscle memory was there, lol… and they told me it was good;-)…

we’ve been meeting via Skype each Monday, but it just hasn’t been the same…we’ve also found that we could only meet in that manner for about an hour as it is so much more tiring…

what a treat to be together… we had snacks, laughs and lots of chat…

after everyone left, I took a wander around the garden as the solar lights came on…

a delightful evening…

overkill…

26 Monday Jul 2021

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big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, early, food, fun, garden, happy, memories, moments, Olympics, overkill, remembering, retirement, sports, streaming, Technology, weather, widow

I love the Olympics and have watched them for years… I remember a trip we took once and how we had to have access to TVs at the end of each day so that I could keep up with what was happening, lol…

I like to watch in real time so that means reorganizing my sleep schedule to get the best results…

for these ones I couldn’t decide how I felt about them going ahead this year… but now they are happening, I am in… I usually get a Canada Day t-shirt and had purchased one a while ago, but on July 1st I decided not to wear it… as the games began, I put it on;-)…

on Friday I was up at 5:30 am to watch the opening ceremony and ordered McDonald’s for breakfast so I didn’t have to stop watching to make something…

at one point during the first day I was switching between tv channels and streaming on my phone at the same time and I considered turning on the laptop as well… in the end I decided the laptop would be overkill…

I have slowed down slightly… apparently I need a bit more sleep these days…

the great thing about streaming is that I can watch some of the sports that I enjoy most but which don’t always get shown on tv…

the surfing, gymnastics and dressage have been lovely to watch, even if not exactly as they happened…

I’ve even taken the laptop out into the garden so that I can enjoy the weather and not miss anything, lol…

so happy to be able to watch whenever and wherever… retirement is a lovely thing;-)…

vegetable…

19 Monday Jul 2021

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big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, hot, moments, nature, treat, vegetable, water, weather, widow

I’ve been watering my neighbour’s vegetable garden when they are away, since it has been so hot…

it makes my few tomatoes, cucumbers and basil look like a joke, lol…

there are raised beds filled with beans, dill, cucumbers, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes of all kinds…

it has been fun to watch the growth when I am giving them a drink…

and look what I received;-)… a bag filled with beans, ready to cook… they will be tomorrow’s supper along with some new potatoes and chicken… yum…

they have shared cucumbers and tomatoes over the years, but it was a lovely treat to get the three types of beans…

bated…

17 Saturday Jul 2021

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bated, big girl pants, blessed, breath, butterflies, eggs, flowers, garden, memories, moments, monarchs, nature, plants, purple, weather, widow

I’ve been watching the monarchs fly around the garden for the last while…

I sit with bated breath, hoping they will find the rather puny milkweed supply… and occasionally they do find it…

I’ve moved the planter, with the milkweed, and a very fast growing morning glory in it, so I can watch from my favourite spot by the pond…

now there are a few eggs on it to watch;-)…

they have even found the butterfly bush…

I have had so many opportunities to remember how blessed I am as I sit and enjoy the nature around me…

clap…

16 Friday Jul 2021

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barbecue, Barbie, big girl pants, blessed, clap, delicious, garden, hail, moments, nature, rain, sky, steak, thunderstorm, weather, wet, widow

I was laying on the bed upstairs yesterday watching the end of a movie when I heard a huge clap of thunder…

jumped up and ran outside to put away the cushions… I don’t like it when they get wet and they were on all of the chairs…

almost got the last ones into the garage when the downpour began… I stood in the garage doorway and watched rain and hail pelt down for a while and then, when it slowed down a little, made it into the house…

all of the windows were wide open as well as the screen door, but luckily only the kitchen and bedroom had issues…

had to take up the rug at the door and wipe up the water in the kitchen… the other rooms were pretty good… thankfully, the blinds were down in the bedroom so the water only came in a bit in one corner of the frame… once I wiped it up it didn’t take long to dry…

it remained overcast for a while, but then the sun came out and it was beautiful…

brought Barbie the barbecue out and grilled a steak for my dinner to go along with the potato salad I had made earlier in the day…

then I sat on the deck and read;-)… crazy weather…

beach…

14 Wednesday Jul 2021

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beach, big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, health, memories, moments, nature, remembering, restored, sand, sunrise, time, treats, vacation, water, widow

I spent five glorious days with friends’ at their beach cottage…

the first thing I always do is jump out of the car and run down to be sure the beach and lake are still there, lol…

what a wonderful time it was… delicious food (that I didn’t have to prepare); wonderful conversations, stories, and laughter; listening to birds and the waves; lots of time on the beach and in the water; relaxing, reading and sleeping…