I went on my own for the first time and for anyone who knows me, that is pretty good…
the cacao trees are looking a bit sad, but most of the Tropical Biome looked good…
I spent quite some time watching the fish… they were very active swimming around the pond and a number of plants have been trimmed back so they are also much easier to see;-)…
the orchids in the Mediterranean Biome are still doing very well, with tons of blooms on them…
and the biggest surprise was the Butterfly Garden, which had more butterflies flying around than I’ve ever seen here…
zoo staff were letting a good number emerge from the nursery and there were many people admiring them as well… it is always fun to hear what the keepers have to say about the butterflies… they record each one as they release it…
then I took one last walk through the biomes as I waited for my ride…
Friday’s project was to clean out the pumps on each of the three fishtanks…
it always slips down towards the bottom of the list, but once I get going, it isn’t that difficult, and doesn’t take that long either…
usually I only do one or two, but this time I did all of them at the same time…
the pumps are now running beautifully, and I topped up the water in each one… usually I do the topping up on Mondays, but was just a bit sooner this time;-)…
the weather has been a bit crazy lately… it was warm and then it changed and has been cold and windy for the last while…
today I took some photos…
the snow on the driveway had melted a bit and after the wind today, it looks like glass all the way up… hoping the car will still be able to make it without sliding down…
and in the backyard the new snow has put a slight blanket over the decks…
the ones in the den have been getting buds and have also been sitting in water, sort of by accident, lol, so I decided to try that for all the other ones…
had a fun time remembering the “installation” which a friend helped me install a number of years ago as I was making adjustments to them…
the installation consists of twenty-nine photos of water lilies which I had taken…
over the years a number of the pictures had slipped in the frames and I finally got around to removing them one by one and taping the photos to the matting before reinstalling them on the wall…
there had been wine and a lot of laughter as we worked away to get all the pictures up on the wall, lol…
this time my housemate was able to help with the pieces I couldn’t reach, lol…
I’ve been a bit off, and grumpy, for the last little while, and it wasn’t until I was talking with my daughter that I realized the cause…
I hadn’t been paying much attention to the calendar as most of the time feels like Saturday or Sunday now that I am retired, lol…
it has been thirteen years to the day since my beloved passed…
feels a bit like it snuck up on me although in the past month I have had several dreams about finding him in the hospital with a disconnected breathing tube in his mouth… no one had told me he was dead…
seems strange that after all this time I can still be whacked with the grief…
the good news is that once I figure out what has been causing the discomfort, it usually passes and I am able to move forward in a more positive frame of mind…
I don’t forget him, but can get back to remembering all of the wonderful times we had together and make new memories of the wonderful life that I do have…
this photo of trees is one of the last I took with him… we had taken a drive through the park to see the hoarfrost…
time to change up the drawer in the living room table for this next season…
put away the L O V E letters, butterflies, and dragonflies that have been in it since sometime after Christmas… I also packed up all of the heart decorations that had been out…
I put a colourful sarong in each of the four squares and then put all the crystals, which had been part of the last display, back on top of them…
looks good and I topped it off with my rock bowl filled with my Crystal Oracle cards;-)…