23 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cool weather, exploded, family, garden, moments, morning glory, nature, rain, self-sown, weather, widow
the self-sown morning glories in the front flowerbed have exploded with all this rain and cooler weather…
I took this first photo yesterday and the second one this morning;-)…
22 Friday Aug 2025
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, donor, English Garden, falafels, family, food, Leo Mol Garden, lilies, moments, muskrats, nature, Park Cafe, pond, rose, walk, widow
finally walked over to the Park this morning…
started with breakfast at the Park Cafe… I really enjoyed the falafels…
from there it was over to the English Garden which is just gorgeous right now…
I found a lovely rose, just after we saw a hummingbird, although it moved too fast for me to get a photo…
in the Leo Mol Arbor we spotted one of the muskrats;-)…
had some fun with water lilies and frogs at the lily pond…
the gardens were being prepped for the big donor event this week… pressure washers were cleaning up the concrete, while lights were being added to the trees throughout the space… it will look lovely in the evening;-)…
21 Thursday Aug 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blades, blessed, company, family, fans, fixed, help, list, moments, power post, projects, snaking, Technology, thermostat, widow
yesterday was a great day;-)…
my company magically touched the power box beside the pond and got it working…
we need a short extension as the pump in the pond has moved a little further away, and I will be very happy to remove the orange extension cord that has been snaking through the grass, lol…
I’d been hopeful that the photos which have been sent to my electronic frame could be copied before deleting from the frame, but it was clear that isn’t possible…
then, three rooms got new fan/light combinations to replace the thirty-year-old ones that were beginning to break down… my job was to join the blades to the connecting hardware;-)…
the thermostat, which since it was installed two years ago, hasn’t been able to run the fan continuously when the furnace was off was finally fixed, yay…
so happy to remove these items from the project list;-)…
20 Wednesday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beauties, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, vine, widow
this morning, when I was checking out the morning glories, I discovered this part of the vine which was growing from one side of the deck boards to the other side…
hopefully it will be one of these beauties that opens on the other side…
nature is so clever…
18 Monday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blooms, daily, garden, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, morning glories, nature, opened, plants, weather, widow
the red hibiscus is very happy with two or three blooms every day…
the new purple one seems pretty happy as well…
they do much better when it rains than the morning glories, lol…
the morning glories do well, as long as they remain dry…
the mandevilla has so far opened one bloom, but a few are getting ready… they take much longer to open than any of the other plants…
it is great fun first thing each morning to walk around the garden to see what flowers have opened…
17 Sunday Aug 2025
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, corn on the cob, family, garden, moments, sandwich, technique, tomato, widow
as a child when we had corn on the cob it was always with fresh tomatoes, lol…
yesterday I had some excellent corn with a bit of garlic sausage…
today I made a delicious toasted tomato sandwich with another tomato from the garden…
seems like my technique of bringing them in just as they start to turn from green and putting them on the shelf in the kitchen has been working…
16 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, famous, food, friend, garden, macaroni and cheese, moments, reading, treat, weather, widow, world famous
went to the grocery store first thing on Friday… good time to go as it wasn’t busy and I got my shopping done in less than thirty minutes…
once home and everything was put away, I set out the cushions and spent a lovely time reading…
received a call from a friend driving through and invited them for supper… then I spent the next while preparing my world famous, (well family and friends anyway), macaroni and cheese;-)…
once that was done, I went back to my book…
my company arrived, we had a short visit in the garden, ate the delicious mac and cheese, and off they went… all inside an hour;-)…
had a plan to take a photo of the finished pot, but forgot, lol… did remember to take a picture of my plate… packed up the leftovers for another day;-)…
tidied up and enjoyed the garden as I read outside until it got dark…
lovely treat;-)…
15 Friday Aug 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
bed, big girl pants, blessed, company, cozy, family, flowers, happy, mattress, moments, pullout, Technology, widow
spent some time yesterday changing the den to a bedroom;-)…
furniture was moved inside and outside of the room… a second mattress was brought down from upstairs to make the pullout couch more comfy, a quilt came up from the basement, and then the bed was made up in anticipation of company…
a basket of towels was put together, a bigger fan moved into the space, and a little rosebush was added to brighten it…
post its were added to advise the proper names to use when speaking with the household technology so that lights would go on and off as requested, lol…
looks very cozy…
14 Thursday Aug 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, carpet, family, grandson, helpful, moments, mortar, nature, steps, tidy, weather, widow
last evening my middle grandson arrived after his workday…
we had supper and then he patched the steps, making the mortar in small batches…
as he worked he tidied everything up, which I really appreciate;-)…
it took about an hour and a half to get the job done and it came out very nicely;-)…
next will be scraping the steps in preparation for laying the carpet…
we’ve had to postpone this work a number of times due to the weather, lol…
13 Wednesday Aug 2025
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
attempts, big girl pants, blessed, blocks, friends, garden, grandson, leaking, meltdown, moments, new liner, pond, rocks, Technology, time, water, waterfall, widow
the work on the pond waterfall area started in early June… when the first two fixes didn’t work we moved on to more serious attempts…
the water in the upper pond was removed, and all the gunk was vacuumed out…
a group of three attempted to lift out the waterfall rock… unfortunately, it broke in the process… one of us might have had a meltdown;-(…
next the remaining blocks were removed and a new liner was installed… then the blocks were put back in… a bit of a puzzle to remember where each one went, lol… possibly they should have been numbered;-)…
the next step involved filling cracks with foam and gluing down some of the rocks…
with help from a friend the main piece of the waterfall rock was carefully lowered back into its spot…
it took three of us, but the three pieces of the waterfall rock were joined together with special rock cement and we waited a week for it to cure…
then the flat rock portion was glued down and left to cure…
next the hose was put down inside the liner and the waterfall spillway was placed back into the waterfall rock… there were a lot of crossed fingers at that point…
finally, on Sunday night, August 10th the waterfall was turned on…
it was too late for a good picture, so this one was taken the next morning…
there is no leaking 🤪…
a great job by my housemate and various friends throughout the process as issues arose and heat and rain caused stoppages…
what a treat to hear the water running and not have to worry about adding water all the time;-)…
herbiggirlpants 