08 Friday Oct 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
07 Thursday Oct 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
allée, big girl pants, blessed, Diversity, flowers, friends, garden, happy, indigenous, moments, nature, photos, plants, The Leaf - Diversity Gardens, walk, widow
finally made it to The Leaf – Diversity Gardens…
what a special place… it is already stunning and I can’t imagine how great it will be as everything grows into the space…
I was so happy to see that a portion of the allée is still there… for years I would walk around it to get my steps in and I thought it had been removed… the trees are just beautiful…
after we crossed it, we moved into the various gardens… they were all distinctly different…
the Indigenous People’s Garden is an enclosed circle of amazing artwork depicting spring to winter, with a fire pit in the centre and seating for numbers of people… I could envision sitting in this quiet space and meditating…
the Kitchen Garden was filled with fruit trees and the most amazing sunflower plants, as well as herbs, flowers and vegetables…
again, nice benches with morning glories growing behind them for sitting…
the Performance Garden is set up as an amphitheatre and reminded me of wonderful times when we camped and attended numerous events at such locations…
part of the Sensory Garden were these great steps up and down some hills… great fun, although going up was better than coming down, lol…
enjoyed all of the critters in the Gardens… I think the butterflies were my favourite…
it was windy and all the grasses were rippling… lovely…
although there are a few ways to enter the gardens, I was very enamoured with this one…
the Water section had the coolest spheres…
all in all, a great place for a contemplative walk or a walking tour with a friend…
looking forward to my next visit…
06 Wednesday Oct 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
at 1:24 this morning I looked out the window after hearing some bells ringing…
I have this cute little frog that holds these bells and when it rains they make lovely sounds…
it wasn’t raining which is what drew my attention…
I spotted two raccoons walking along the edge of the bathtub pond area…
too dark for pictures and I scared them off by banging on the window…
this likely explains the bent over bird feeder from the other day…
good news is that the fish appear to be safe…
05 Tuesday Oct 2021
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, busy, celebrate, Feast Bistro, food, friends, garden, happy, moments, nature, reminisce, special people, sun, time, treat, weather, widow, wind, women
well, I must say I am tired… but what a delightful day it has been…
got up early and set about preparing for the day… moved 14 bags of mulch, a wheelbarrow and compost can, used the leaf blower to clean the garage floor, set up a table with a tablecloth in case it was too windy to sit outside, put out cushions and rearranged lawn furniture, prepped some fruit and whipped cream… cleaned leaves out of the pond, set out dishes, made coffee and sun tea, wrapped a gift and wrote two cards…
sat and read in the garden for half an hour and then welcomed four of the most wonderful women into the space…
visited, ate some delicious food from Feast Bistro, enjoyed the nature around us, laughed, shared stories and celebrated one another with some delicious options…
nearly lost one umbrella to the gusts of wind, but the weather was quite amazing for early October…
when they left, I finished tidying up and got ready for dinner with another wonderful woman…
when she arrived we had fish and chips (which I love), more stories and laughter… what a great visit…
it is dark now and I just finished a bowl of strawberry shortcake with whipped cream as I sit on the deck (quite comfortable in shorts and a sleeveless shirt) and reminisce about all the great parts of the day…
hope you had a good day as well…
04 Monday Oct 2021
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, hip, moments, pain, slow, Technology, treadmill, walk, widow
recently I’ve got back on the treadmill…
I had stopped walking on it because every time I was on it my knee and hip would end up sore…
so for a long time figure eights around the living and dining rooms were how I got my steps in… recently I began taking walks outside with my daughter on the phone (in my ear)…
as I have reintroduced walking on the treadmill, I am using a much slower speed… that seems to be working well…
I am also only walking for a short period because I don’t want to hurt myself again…
I am careful that I don’t get so engrossed in the show I’m watching that I stay on it for too long, lol…
03 Sunday Oct 2021
Posted in health, life, moments, Uncategorized
had a bit of a giggle the other day… I was folding towels and facecloths from the dryer…
I looked at this one and thought oh no my favourite towel lost its colour and is more mauve now… and that was okay, purple and all, but odd…
when I picked it up from the other items, I thought that it also shrank…
at that point I realized it was actually a hand towel that came from the lavender farm in Maui… and it did have mauve stripes…
here is a photo of my favourite towel… not sure why it is the favourite as I have other, purple ones, but this is definitely the most used…
and now I am going out to the hot tub with that very towel…
02 Saturday Oct 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
. soup, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cooked, cooking, cool weather, corn, flowers, fun, garden, moments, widow, zucchini
over the last three or four days I have cooked a lot in the kitchen…
I produced a beautiful corn chowder with some leftover corn on the cob…
then I made zucchini-basil soup with most of my basil and added a bit of chicken to the recipe as well…
and finally I free-styled Calico beans… didn’t have as many canned beans in the house as required nor any molasses, but it came out great anyway, lol… and it was nice to have some of my dahlias around…
there is certainly lots of choice in the fridge just now…
will be putting a few of them into the freezer for lazy days…
01 Friday Oct 2021
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
access, big girl pants, blessed, door, drawers, electrical outlet, handyperson, nature, weatherstripping, widow
yesterday, a handyperson came over and was able to get access to an electrical outlet…
he had to cut a hole in the back of a dresser and make an opening so that we are able to plug things in…
I was very happy that this happened as we have a plan in the works for this area…
then he was able to re-level the front door and add weatherstripping which will keep out the cold and block access to any bugs who might want to enter the house…
for the last few days the ladybugs have been trying to get in through that little opening… hahaha, not anymore;-)…
30 Thursday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bent, big girl pants, bird feeder, birds, blessed, garden, moments, nature, purple, widow
a few days ago I woke up to the bird feeder bent wayyyy over…
not sure what critter would have exerted enough strength to do that…
took quite a bit of energy to get it more or less back to the way it was…
the birds seem happy about it, lol…
29 Wednesday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
afternoon, big girl pants, blessed, fish, friends, garden, happy, moments, nature, pond, sun, time, together, visitors, weather, widow
what a delightful afternoon yesterday…
put out all the cushions and the umbrellas…
next I made coffee and had a few moments to read while I waited for my friends to arrive…
we decided not long ago to meet in the afternoon when it is warmer, as we continue to meet outdoors…
one had something else on, another connected by phone… the rest of us gathered in person…
it was a beautiful day and we sat close to the pond… both pumps were turned off to make it easier to hear one another, lol…
there were lots of visitors while we were meeting… a variety of sparrows, blue jays, squirrels, a cat and we even spotted a mouse racing through the grass… the fish swam around where we could see them as well…
strange to have such warm weather, but we certainly enjoyed it…
herbiggirlpants 