Category Archives: nature

micro-climate…

02 Sunday Mar 2025

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spent a delightful hour on the deck in the sunshine…

last evening my housemate dug out one of the deck chairs from under the tarp so there would be a place to sit when the weather is cooperative…

I found a set of cushions in the garage and brought out my Assiniboine Park blanket…

pulled over a small table and put my current book on it…

I did have my winter jacket on, but the sun on my face as I was reading was wonderful;-)…

there is still lots of snow in the garden, but the deck is always its own little micro-climate…

I even filled up a few bird feeders…

strength…

27 Thursday Feb 2025

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to continue with the strength of the sun, I got this photo of one of the solar-powered lights…

it is one of four that I received from the Ottawa kids… I had put three away, but left this one out…

rather excited to see the lovely pattern of light on the deck;-)…

spring is really coming…

freezing…

26 Wednesday Feb 2025

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for most of the winter the bedroom window has been closed all the time, partly because it was frozen shut and partly because it has been incredibly cold…

a few nights ago it was finally warm enough to open it and keep it open for the night…

and I also opened the screen door during the day for a little while to let some of that – not freezing – fresh air into the house;-)…

free…

22 Saturday Feb 2025

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the butterflies are free;-)…

the closed in piece is still in the centre, but the door has been removed…

butterflies were flitting about all over the space… yay…

there weren’t too many, but it may have been the end of the two week cycle…

so happy to see them free and all the people sitting in the space watching them…

arches…

21 Friday Feb 2025

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as you enter the Mediterranean biome there are dozens of amaryllis in various stages… some nearly done, while others are fully open… many with multiple petals…

absolutely gorgeous…

and then you step into the Babs Asper display area… twelve hundred orchids in one place;-)… heaven…

the Blooms in Winter display is so lovely, a perfect place to enjoy the beauty of orchids…

there are a number of arches to walk through and benches to sit on and enjoy the views…

orchids everywhere, beautiful shapes and sizes…

what a delight;-)…

can’t wait to go back;-)…

thinning…

20 Thursday Feb 2025

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had a wonderful time at The Leaf on Tuesday…

first I spent time at the registration desk where they had to make me a new card as mine had stopped working… apparently the website has been misbehaving a bit, so hopefully the new card will solve that issue;-)…

then we went through the biomes… there were a number of baskets of orchids throughout the Tropical biome…

very humid, and it was obvious that there had been a serious trim and thinning of many of the plants…

the cacao trees had been cutback and all the pods have been removed…

the koi were very active… while we were there one of the zoo keepers came along and fed them… clearly the fish were waiting for them, lol…

the dwarf banana is just starting with a new set of banana fingers…

my housemate pointed out the difference between the dwarf and regular bananas… the dwarf has the banana fingers coming out of the flower, whereas the full-size banana has a flower at the end and the fingers below…

there are always subtle changes in the Tropical biome each time I visit;-)…

eagle…

13 Thursday Feb 2025

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as I sat on the couch reading and occasionally looking out the front window, I spotted a large bird soaring high in the sky… at first I thought it was a pelican, but as I watched it more closely, I realized that it was a bald eagle…

got my camera out, but didn’t get a good shot, it was very fuzzy, lol…

watched it until it disappeared from view…

right behind that tree…

such a treat;-)…

lens…

10 Monday Feb 2025

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went out for a hot tub on Sunday afternoon… and tested out my new toque…

can’t even remember the last time I was out in the daytime… it has been too cold at night and when it wasn’t the deck hadn’t been shovelled, lol…

I went out a few days ago and got the space cleared off so it was ready…

it was only -21°C and I had a lovely time, although the mitten that I had put the phone into got wet while I was taking pictures, lol…

sometimes the lens gets a bit foggy when taking pictures from the tub…

the mountain of snow is quite high and I am hoping we can move some of it because it is getting difficult to throw the snow over the top of it;-)…

trickery…

08 Saturday Feb 2025

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had an oopsie yesterday as I was in the process of cleaning out two of the pumps…

the pothos that sits on the shelf above the tanks had gotten really full and long, so I decided to trim it, sigh…

apparently I should have measured, lol…

the reason the plant is there is to cover up the space between two of the tanks where the pump fits…

so, once the pumps were cleaned up, a little bit of trickery took place…

I found a vase and filled it with the cut off pieces of the plant trying to have as many as possible high inside the vase…

it was still obvious that there was a space, so I added three paperback books that I had already read and put the vase back….

can’t even tell now… and once all the cuttings take root, I will pot them up and add them to the indoor garden, whew;-)…

coyote…

03 Monday Feb 2025

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I’ve been watching the solar lights in the garden over the last few days and have noticed that they are lighting up, having not been working for the last few months…

clearly the sun is getting much stronger, even though it has been cold…

so, tonight I was trying to get a shot of the solar light on the deck working and was stunned to see a coyote cross the pond and go behind the tarp which covers the outdoor furniture…

of course, I wasn’t fast enough to catch it in a photo…

I am a bit worried that it might be using the tarp as a den, so we will have to check into that in the morning 😬…