came across this little viceroy in the garden this morning as I was putting out the cushions…
looks like it has been through a lot…
was careful not to trod on it and hopefully give it space to recuperate…
12 Monday Aug 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
11 Sunday Aug 2024
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chihuly, hat, memories, moments, Olympics, shopping, Technology, widow, worn
I’ve been wearing this Chihuly hat since we visited Atlanta in 2016 and love it…

it has turned that very sad gray/black colour and looks completely worn out…

haven’t been able to figure out how to save it, sigh…

got this new hat a few days ago… it was part of the 2024 Canadian Olympics clothing line and I hope it lasts as long and as well as the Chihuly…
10 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, growing, memories, memory, moments, nature, orange, plants, red, ripe, Technology, tomatoes, weather, widow
this memory came up in my feed on Thursday… it was from a year ago and clearly the tomatoes were ripe and nearly ready to eat…

this one is from the garden this Thursday…

obviously these ones are quite a ways behind, lol…
09 Friday Aug 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
anticipate, big girl pants, blessed, experiment, fish, friend, garden, goldfish, grow, koi, moments, nature, neighbour, pond, widow
a few weeks ago a friend brought me some koi that a neighbour had given her for me… they are a fair bit smaller than the goldfish, but I anticipate they will grow quickly…
I’ve never had (or wanted) koi, so it will be interesting to see how it goes… this photo shows one of them (mainly black and white) amongst the much larger goldfish…

my fish are fairly tough… they don’t get any special treatment so we will see how the koi manage in that environment;-)…
an experiment…
08 Thursday Aug 2024
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
author, big girl pants, blessed, books, family, Fern Michaels, grandparents, grandson, happy, library, moments, Nora Roberts, reading, stair, supper, treat, visit, widow
we went to the oldest grandson’s other set of grandparents the other day for supper and had a lovely visit…
before we left I had access to their library where I got a bunch of books by an author that I had just discovered – Fern Michaels… the shelves looked much tidier before all the books came out, lol…

she also had two new Nora Roberts books I have been waiting for…
we filled a grocery box, woohoo…

I added them to the stair library in order and now I have reading material for the remainder of the summer;-)…

what a wonderful treat;-)… once the Olympics are over I will get down to some serious reading…
07 Wednesday Aug 2024
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, corms, dahlias, flowers, garden, happy, hues, Lilystone Gardens, moments, nature, pink, plants, purple, surprise, treat, weather, white, widow
I have been so excited…
for a number of years, I’ve been overwintering dahlia corms, but haven’t had tons of luck… sometimes I know what they are and other times they are a surprise when they get put away…
one white one has proven very prolific and it has produced at least a dozen blooms so far this year in three different pots…

these are about the size of my palm…
a delightful feathery one that I purchased last year at Lilystone Gardens has come back nicely and has a number of blooms and buds in one pot…

each bloom is bigger than my hand…
these have all been white so I was particularly excited to see one come up in a pot that looked like it was pinky/purple…

it is a bit smaller than the white pompom-looking ones, but stands out in all its pink and purple hues…
nature is so amazing…
06 Tuesday Aug 2024
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, digging, family, garden, garden bed, grandsons, heavy, help, moments, nature, plants, project, rock, rocks, weather, widow
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…
05 Monday Aug 2024
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, moments, nature, nylon, pantyhose, plants, stalk, tied, tomato, veggie garden, weather, widow, wind
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…
04 Sunday Aug 2024
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
bedroom, big girl pants, blessed, drill, glass, glass shelves, happy, installed, moments, screwdriver, shelves, Technology, widow
well, I pulled out those big girl pants and installed two glass shelves in the bedroom…
both shelves had been broken during cleaning over the last few years but I had one available to replace the first one…

after the second one broke, the cleaning company was able to find some that were similar, but they used different hardware than what was on the wall…
the shelves have been sitting in the box they arrived in for quite a few weeks, but today I brought out my screwdriver and the drill and went at it…


took awhile because I had trouble with getting just the right screw head for the screwdriver…
but I persevered and did it and they look good;-)…

I am very pleased because the bedroom has been looking untidy, which makes me a bit crazy, and I have spent a lot of time in it over the last week, with another one to go…
03 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, casting, learning, live, moments, night, Olympics, Technology, tv, widow
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the bedroom, lol…

during the Olympics I try to watch as many live events as possible… so this year that means quite a lot of middle of the night viewing…
and, if what is on isn’t one of my favourites, I cast shows to the tv… currently that only happens on the bedroom tv…
I do love casting… particularly as I’ve finally figured out how to do it easily, lol…

I’ve been able to watch surfing, sailing, equestrian, rowing, and trampoline that way…
I am sure I could win a medal if watching the Olympics was a sport🤪…