Category Archives: nature

aphids…

16 Monday Nov 2020

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I brought in one of the pots with datura in it, hoping it would last through the winter… I didn’t spray it with soap like I did for the other plants I brought in…

I have now discovered that it brought aphids into the house and they were feasting on my avocado plant…

I put the avocado in the tub and soaked it with the soapy water and covered it with a bag… after leaving it for a day I removed the bag and put the plant in a room without any plants in it… there were still lots of aphids so I cut off some leaves and nearly drowned it in the soapy water…

then I cut down the datura to the base… after soaping it up I will watch to see how it does…

fingers crossed that this will get rid of them and the avocado will be happy…

flew…

14 Saturday Nov 2020

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last night, as I was putting on my water shoes to go out to the hot tub, I spent a few moments thinking of when I wore them in Hawaii…

I have two pair… the others are in perfect shape, but don’t fit as well or feel as comfortable on my feet… even though these ones have holes in the toes, they were the ones that flew to Hawaii…

when I put them on here, it is to protect my feet from the cold and snow… it was my son-in-law who suggested I wear them rather than slippers which could get filled with snow, or might not be in the right spot when I get out of the tub… they work perfectly and I wear them right into the tub and back to the house…

on Maui I wore them to keep sand off my feet and to keep from being burned on the boiling hot sand…

from minus 20 to plus 20 and back…

roots…

13 Friday Nov 2020

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I went around the house and counted my orchids…

there are five in the dining room, all of which are more or less in a dormant state… I went to move two of them and discovered that they had put roots into each other’s pot… how cool is that… reminded me of the amazing banyan tree in Lahaina…

there are seven in the living room, three small ones and four large ones…

right now, this is the only one blooming;-)…

the other three full size ones in the living room have buds starting;-)…

smack…

11 Wednesday Nov 2020

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I’ve collected all my egg shells since I read about using them to add nutrients to plant water…

they have to be crushed, but I was worried that if I used my food processor they might dull the blade, so decided to put them in a bag and use a wooden spoon to crush them…

the bag sits on the counter and every time I go by it I use the wooden spoon and smack it a few times…

kind of cathartic;-)…

downy…

10 Tuesday Nov 2020

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sat in the sun in the living room and watched the birds at the feeders…

finally found one that likes the homemade suet;-)… yay for the downy woodpecker…

nice to see the house finches again…

I’ve only ever seen them in the garden…

corms…

04 Wednesday Nov 2020

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had a lovely time on the deck this afternoon with the dahlias…

I had watched a video from Dahlias by Julie on how to separate them and was looking forward to the process…

turned out it is much more difficult than I learned… not sure I ever spotted the eyes… it will be interesting to see if any of them grow when planted in the spring, lol…

in the end I put the corms that I separated into a paper bag which then went into a dark basement closet…

but it was a beautiful afternoon…

downspout…

03 Tuesday Nov 2020

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I was still in bed when the doorbell rang…

ran downstairs to find Travis and Wayne from Bresara Window Cleaning here to clean the eavestroughs…

they were getting an early start on this beautiful day… they had cancelled a few weeks ago when the weather turned and everything was frozen, so they were going all out to get their appointments caught up…

they did a great job and now the loose eavestrough is connected so I won’t have to worry that it will fall into the hot tub when I’m in it;-)…

apparently, in the spring, we will have to replace a downspout which has cracked…

maybe there won’t be so many icicles over the hot tub this winter…

and while they were working on my eavestroughs, my neighbour had his ladders up and was installing his Christmas lights on his eavestroughs…

heavy…

02 Monday Nov 2020

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it has been below zero for a number of days and I had not remembered to empty the rain barrel… a lot of water had frozen in it and it was too heavy for me to flip it…

today, the temperature went to double digits and I just went out and opened the tap… and the water is running freely…

tomorrow, when it is empty I will turn it over for the winter;-)…

saved by the warm weather…

suet…

31 Saturday Oct 2020

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had some fun in the kitchen a few days ago after I took out the garbage from the den closet cleanup…

last week I found a recipe for homemade suet and added a few of the items to my grocery order so that I could make some for the birds…

it seems like a simple recipe with just 5 ingredients…

while making this, tomato sauce for my supper was simmering on the stove…

I made a double recipe so hope the birds like it, lol…

I used a sushi container and another container I found… after melting and mixing everything together, they went into the freezer to solidify…

I’ve put some out front in the suet holder and also put a bit in one of the saucers in the garden… so far it doesn’t seem to have the birds swarming to it;-(…

my problem now is that I am nearly out of sunflower seeds and won’t likely be getting any for at least a few weeks…