Category Archives: nature

problems…

23 Thursday Jul 2015

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this morning I watered everything in the garden and finished filling the pond… it has been very warm and was going to continue that way today… all the plants were parched… had wondered why it had taken so long to fill yesterday and realized that both taps were open so it was trying to send the water down two hoses at the same time…

  
as I was watering, the pond stopped running again… big problem… waited for it to fill up but it didn’t start even with lots of water in it… lifted the float and nothing happened… uh oh… thought I was going to have to call my son-in-law to come and figure it out, sigh…

then I realized that the second pump had stopped as well, so I ran downstairs and checked the fuses… they were all fine… took out the plugs and tried to reset the power box… didn’t work… tried one more time and success… felt very big girl pant ish and rather proud of myself for figuring it out… still going when I got home… yay me…

  
also spotted two frogs in the bathtub pond beside the garage… very exciting to see them, but worried that they might not be able to get out… now I like frogs but I have no plan to pick them up, lol… think tomorrow I will search out a board I can put into the pond that will offer a path for them to use to get out… I’d love them to stay but don’t want them to be trapped…

the mandevilla is enjoying the heat…

  
took the hot peppers to the office so someone would use them, lol…

  
lots going on in the garden…

yikes…

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

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the pond wasn’t running when I got up this morning… not good… the water had gone down so low that the float stopped the pump…

took more than twenty minutes to get it to the level that it started to flow again… and I didn’t have any more time to finish filling it…

meanwhile I was running around the house searching for my medical card… which I didn’t find… still have quite a few items to put away as I pulled them out looking for the darn thing… when I went to Ottawa I only took things I felt I would need and left the rest in two places… thought I took it, but it is nowhere to be found…

I needed it because I had a meet and greet appointment with a new general practitioner… 

to top off the trio of issues, the printer wouldn’t spit out an outline of some of my medical history which I wanted to take with me… yikes… emailed it to the office and did it there…

thankfully was able to go and pick up a new card while I was downtown…

took this picture of a spot I used to walk to every day after work to meet my friend and driving buddy…

  
I do like water, lol so it was lovely to see it… felt like 30°C out there…

met the doctor and he was prepared to accept me as a patient, which was great news… he is a recent grad and very personable… and is part of a good-sized clinic much closer to home…

looking forward to getting to know him better…

  
haven’t seen any monarchs snacking on this yet…

fresh…

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

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checked out Vic’s Fruit Market today… what a lovely place… lots of different and interesting items… also got in a visit with someone I haven’t seen much of lately…

collected a great bagful of goodies…

  
the fruit and veggies were beautifully displayed and in excellent condition, much fresher than most places I shop…

the tiny baby potatoes were adorable… usually I have to pick through to find the smallest ones, but they had them already bagged…

brought everything home and made a delicious dinner with some steamed shrimp… enjoyed each mouthful…

 

had my dessert first with a bowl of raspberries and cream… yum… 
  
this water canna is quite spectacular… can’t even count the number of blossoms it is going to have… looks like it will be blooming for days… woohoo…

have I mentioned how much I love summer…

healthy…

19 Sunday Jul 2015

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three years ago today I had surgery to remove a cancerous uterus and repair a large hernia…

 and here I sit, feeling great after a busy day where I walked to and from the grocery store, went plant shopping with my daughter, made supper for my kids, cleaned up after they left and am spending time enjoying the garden, not even tired…

just the other day someone commented on how quickly I had walked from one location to another…

 
so much has changed in just over three years… the devastating loss of my husband… cancer, surgery and slow recovery… diabetes diagnosis with lifestyle changes and forty pound weight loss…

I am one of the lucky ones… free of cancer and healthy…

  
and life goes on…

surplus…

18 Saturday Jul 2015

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raindrops on everything in the garden…

  
started out bright and sunny, then clouded over and rained…

  
then it cleared for a while and repeated the whole process… really a surplus of drops…

  
talked to my daughter and she was making pesto from her surplus of basil… so I tried making some this afternoon… found some recipes on Pinterest and went from there…

  
hard to tell but this plant is about half what it was before I used it for the pesto…

  
came out very nicely,  and I added it to spaghetti for my supper…

  
tasty… think I will make some more and maybe freeze it… the basil is growing like crazy…

beauty…

17 Friday Jul 2015

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took a few pictures of the gladiola flowers in the living room as I was waiting for my travel buddy…

 they sure aren’t lasting the way they have in previous years… not sure what that is about… but they look beautiful…

on my way back to the office from the post office I had to stop and get a picture of Emptyful as the sun was sparkling on the fall of water… such a lovely sight…

  
arrived home to my daughter preparing supper and the boys arriving at the house… after dinner I noticed that one of the plants in the pond is starting to bloom…  

  
I think it has grown about a foot since yesterday… looks like the flower is going to be a beauty…

  
great end to a very full week…

power…

16 Thursday Jul 2015

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the mandevilla looks amazing… even though it rained last night it was in good shape…

  
picked up some peas and baby cucumbers at the Farmers Market downtown today, so I added them to my dinner plate… I also went outside and picked a few of the green peppers… 

unfortunately they are hot and powerful… put one in my mouth and started to cough and choke… had to take quite a few drinks of water to get my breath back, lol… and there are tons of peppers on the plants…

  
got a letter in the mail saying that Hydro were having trouble getting a reading on my power meter… they suggested I take a picture of the meter so they could read it… I must say reading it has been difficult… wondered why they hadn’t suggested this before… way simpler for me and they get the reading much quicker, without it being done incorrectly…

power in a number of places…

appreciation…

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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had a wonderful day…

checked the garden and saw that one of the mandevilla buds had finally opened… they are beautifully structured, but take a long time to open…

  
we didn’t have to be at the office until an hour after our usual time as today was staff appreciation day…

  
while we ate breakfast snacks, which can be a bit complicated as we have a number of food issues, we played a serious game of Pictionary… some of us can be a bit competitive…

  
at the same time, taking turns getting henna tattoos… 

  
they were beautifully done by @dahliahenna…

then, a walk to The Forks where we got to take a water taxi tour on the Assiniboine and Red rivers… great fun… nothing like the wind in your face riding on the water…

  
got a nice shot of the Legislature… things always look so different from the water…

  
lunch on the patio of the Beachcomber with an incredible group…

walk back to the office and then home…

truly blessed to work in an organization which does appreciate and care for all staff members…

hot…

13 Monday Jul 2015

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was another hot day… got up and was out of the house before 8 to go for a walk… didn’t want to be out there when it got really hot…

  
crossing over the bridge got a few shots of the barn swallows... in Ottawa they have just built houses for their barn swallows where they were doing some work on a bridge… apparently they are endangered there… not here, lol…

the English Garden had very few visitors but was filled with gardeners… they were working in every area… looks beautiful…

  
usually I am drawn to the purple/blue flowers but today I kept leaning toward the orange ones…

   
 
my friend loved that colour…

  
can’t even guess how many pictures I have taken of the water lilies in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden… hundreds for sure… the tropical lilies are just starting to bloom…

got home, welcomed a new cleaning crew and went into the garden to be out of their way… mowed and whipper-snipped the back yard… did some weeding and watering… was dancing around on the deck and in the garden because the ground was soooo hot…

  
finally got to sit down in the shade… nice…

beautiful hot summer day… really enjoying my Mondays off…

loss…

12 Sunday Jul 2015

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recently lost a good friend to cancer… she was a very special person and many people are feeling her loss…

  
this morning I sat in the hot tub looking into the garden crying, for her and for me…

always shocking how the loss of one person brings back other losses you’ve experienced in your own life…

been reliving the day that George died… I can remember some of it… but I don’t really want to… not sure I have done anything harder than call each of my girls to tell them their dad was gone…

interesting that I haven’t thought about my cancer… the diagnosis, wait, surgery, recovery and finally results of the pathology… just about losing my beloved…

life goes on and I wear those big girl pants more and more… but I don’t have to like it…

and some days I just need to wallow in that feeling sorry for myself place…