22 Saturday Feb 2025
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, flowers, free, garden, moments, nature, plants, Technology, weather, widow
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…
21 Friday Feb 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
1200, amaryllis, arches, Babs Asper Display, big girl pants, blessed, Blooms in Winter, family, flowers, garden, grandson, moments, nature, orchids, plants, Technology, The Leaf, widow
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;-)…
20 Thursday Feb 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
banana, big girl pants, blessed, card, changes, flowers, garden, koi, moments, nature, orchids, plants, registration, The Leaf, thinning, tropical biome, widow
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;-)…
13 Thursday Feb 2025
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, eagle, look up, missed, moments, nature, out the window, pelican, sky, tree, widow
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;-)…
10 Monday Feb 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, daytime, garden, hot tub, lens, moments, nature, pictures, shovelling, snow, Toque, weather, widow
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;-)…
08 Saturday Feb 2025
Posted in life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, books, cleaning, fish tanks, fixed, happy, moments, oopsie, plants, pumps, trickery, widow
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;-)…
03 Monday Feb 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, coyote, den, garden, moments, nature, solar lights, strong, stunned, sunlight, tarp, weather, widow
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 😬…
31 Friday Jan 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chickadees, giggle, happy, memories, moments, mug, nature, widow
had a bit of a giggle the other day…
as I pulled out my newest mug in the morning – the chickadees – I looked up at the kitchen display and saw that it was showing a photo of the first time I took a photo of the mug;-)…
I particularly enjoy the fact that this mug shows two chickadees, one on each side so that I can see the bird, even as a leftie;-)…
seemed a bit serendipitous…
30 Thursday Jan 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cap, crystals, garden, hot tub, ice, icicles, moments, nature, snow, Technology, weather, widow
Monday night I went out for a hot tub…
it had been warm during the day and there were a ton of icicles over the tub, so I sat in the opposite corner from usual so nothing could fall onto my head, lol…
as I stepped outside I could hear the ice crystals falling so I grabbed my cap to protect my glasses…
it was a bit chilly for anything above the water as the ice crystals continued to fall…
I am still having trouble with the Ring light, which I have to turn off from the garage, no matter what I try on the app…
I was out for quite a while and when I came inside I realized how much snow had come down, lol…
25 Saturday Jan 2025
Tags
artists, big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, coat check, designers, displays, family, FDV, Fleurs de Villes, flowers, gardeners, gather, koi, lunch, moments, nature, orchids, The Leaf, violin, widow
on Wednesday, my daughter and I spent six hours at The Leaf…
upon arrival we were surprised and delighted to discover a coat check for members… my coat was free and we paid $2 for my guest…
we were a bit early and shared a Rice Krispies square and hot chocolate while we waited for our entry time to the Biomes…
we had a great time in the Tropical Biome where we came across the head gardener and had an excellent conversation about the cacao trees and chocolate…
we visited the Mediterranean Biome to see the Fleurs de Villes displays and met and talked with at least four of the designers…
lunch at Gather was a delicious tomato bisque and grilled cheese focaccia for me, and duck poutine for my daughter…
for dessert she had the honey cake and I enjoyed the squash creme brûlée, which was delicious, lol…
back to visit both biomes where we learned about orchids from a regular gardener talk in the Tropical Biome, talked with two of the zoo staff who shared lots of information about the butterflies and the 52 koi in the pond…
we also got to hear a few violin pieces by Gwen Hoebig, who was one of the models for the FDV displays… my daughter took this photo…
it was hard to pick a favourite, but this time I chose the hoop dancer…
herbiggirlpants 