17 Monday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, coneflowers, garden, leggy, moments, nature, petunias, vases, widow
played a bit with a coneflower after I brought some into the house…
they last in a vase for a number of days, which is always good… they are very intricate…
I’ve also been bringing in some of the petunias as they get trimmed back… currently they are getting a bit leggy…
I’m not sure why I’ve never thought of them as cut flowers🤪…
16 Sunday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
ageratum, big girl pants, deadheaded, garden, moments, nature, pretty, spent, widow
had some fun in the garden… once I figured out how to raise the flower pot with the ageratum in it so I could trim out all the spent flowers…
it looks much nicer now, and I am feeling very accomplished, lol… every little job means more time to read😂…
now the butterflies will be able to find the lovely purple flowers without any problem…
15 Saturday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, butterflies, cats, garden, moments, navigate, squirrels, widow
the garden has been very busy with visitors lately…
the bunnies have been stopping by, some of them rather tiny…
the young red squirrels seem to spend their time chasing one another through the area, including right under my chair as I’m reading, lol…
a variety of cats have been checking out the pond as they navigate through the garden on their way to who knows where…
and the monarchs have snacked, laid eggs, which became caterpillars and chrysalises… now we are waiting for three of them to eclose…
nature is such a treat to watch 😊…
13 Thursday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, health, life, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
afternoon tea, Airbnb, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, moments, Technology, train, trip, Victoria BC, widow
my daughter recently sent me this postcard to remind me how close we are to our big trip…
for my birthday – the big 75 – I decided to take the train through the Rockies and visit gardens on Vancouver Island…
planning started last summer, and we had to book our train trip by December to be able to travel in September… crazy, lol…
next we searched for gardens that we would like to visit, besides the Butchart Gardens, which were first on the list…
then came looking at other spots in and around Victoria that we would like to see… we are going to have as many afternoon teas as possible, lol…
finding accommodations for our stay took a bit of work, but we found a lovely AirBnB close to the Butchart Gardens (and a Butterfly garden)… our second place to stay is a cute little hotel that faces the ocean in Victoria…
and finally, first class flights were booked back home… as I haven’t travelled for ages, the flights were covered by points… how cool is that;-)…
now to think about what I need to pack for a train trip and fall on Vancouver Island…
11 Tuesday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bigger, blessed, caterpillars, chrysalis, garden, leaves, milkweed, moments, nature, net, widow
the few milkweed plants were well used… one ended up with two caterpillars, and the second, and bigger one, only had one on it…
once the leaves had all been eaten on the smaller plant, we moved the two caterpillars to the other plant…
at that point we covered it with a net hamper to protect the caterpillars from birds…
since then they have turned into chrysalises and attached themselves to the top of the hamper…
I check on them each day, and so far they are still green😊… once they turn black they will be ready to change…
excited to see them emerge…
10 Monday Aug 2026
Posted in business, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
08 Saturday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bumblebee, flowers, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, pollen, widow
this morning, as I was looking at the obelisk filled with morning glories and cucumber vines, I watched a large bumblebee flitting from flower to flower…
I wasn’t able to get a photo of the bumblebee, but was very interested to see the pollen on the petals, after the bumblebee left each flower…
07 Friday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, goldfish, koi, nature, overwintered, plants, tiny, water lily, widow
the water lily that had overwintered in the house had been nearly completely eaten by the fish, likely the three koi…
I divided the lily into two and put them in little pots and sank them to the bottom of the pond…
one has been pulled out of its pot and eaten…
the second one has finally begun to send up teeny tiny leaves…
pretty sure there won’t be any flowers this year…
06 Thursday Aug 2026
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beans, big girl pants, coffee grounds, flowers, food, garden, growing, moments, nature, nitrogen, tomato plants, tomatoes, widow
great excitement the other day when I checked the giant tomato plants in the side garden…
I’d read that beans provide nitrogen, which tomatoes like so I planted them between the 3 tomatoes… then I also read that coffee grounds are good for tomatoes, so I dumped the weekly coffee grounds in there as well…
I think the tomatoes loved all of that, because they have grown huge… but, not a single flower was seen…
and then, I discovered numerous flowers on each of the plants… and even two marble sized tomatoes…
very happy, although there are very few beans coming along, lol…
03 Monday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, loss, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bitten, flowers, garden, growing, moments, nature, plants, rosebud, squirrel, widow
I’ve been watching this little rose for a number of days… it was very close to opening…
when I went out this morning, the rosebud was no longer on the plant… but bits of it were on the table…
I’m guessing that a squirrel bit it off, and then didn’t even eat it🥺…
but it reminded me that I enjoy nature in the garden, lol…
herbiggirlpants 