Category Archives: nature

stoup…

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

on our way home from work last night we stopped at Safeway and picked up the ingredients for Souper Thursday… my turn… found the recipe on Pinterest and made it without time to test…

  
interesting experience today as I brought the ingredients to the office, put them into the crockpot, and let it do its thing… usually I spend the evening preparing the parts and often getting the soup ready for the next day and then reheat it at the office…

I doubled the recipe and in the process may have put in an excessive amount of tortellini… so we ended up with stoup… a cross between soup and stew… it was good… and easy… certainly the simplest soup I’ve made…

  
been very happy with the irises I took into the office on Monday… last couple of blooms opened up this morning…

  
all in all a good day…

green…

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

been thinking about all things green… 

started this morning with a picture of my manicured lawn which my daughter mowed last night while she was waiting for me to get home…

  
been thinking about money a bit too… wanting to be sure I have enough green for my visit with my other kids… 

years ago George and I decided we wouldn’t take vacations if we didn’t have enough to be able to do what we wanted, after a very bad experience where we spent two weeks in a soaked tent while it poured every day, because we couldn’t afford to stay anywhere else…

love my green hose which is very light and expands or shrinks depending on whether or not there is water in it… makes watering so much easier…

  
tonight I watered everything after planting some morning glory seeds… some in a pot that already has the mandevilla in it…

 
and some in a hanging basket… looking forward to seeing them sprout…

excited to see this bit of green coming through the soil… one of the dahlias…

  
finally, discovered these wild rose blooms in among the jungle of green plants and grass in the other front flower bed… although flower might not be an accurate description, lol…

  
still giggle about how badly I wanted this wild rose in the garden… now it is trying to take over the whole yard… and I am constantly cutting back sprouts of it everywhere…

too funny…

score…

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

early this morning the sky was quite spectacular…

  
it was the aftermath of a storm that put out the electricity in a whole section of the city… the one I live in:-)…

we have a contest going at work about motion of any kind, and I had big plans to walk for half an hour on the treadmill… apparently silly thing needs power…

happily it came on with enough time to walk for twenty minutes…

sitting in a field right now watching my oldest grandson play soccer… bit chilly but great to have the chance to see him play… 

  
great game with a few goals… score!

  

bright…

08 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in life, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

this morning the sun looked very strange in the sky…

  
it was orange with a halo around it…

most of the poppies were blooming… all at the same time… think there might be one left…

  
made sure to get some photos because they often barely last a day…

 
leaving the driveway I got a picture of the front flower bed… looks nice after all my work on Saturday…

I picked two beautiful purple irises to take to the office…

 
they are beautiful and brighten up my space…

as the day went on the light outside changed and it looked as though the sun was covered by fog, which turned out to be smoke…

rather odd…

blooms…

07 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

so excited this morning to see the first open poppy…

  
just love poppies and we have spent years seeing how many bloom each year… numbers have varied from two or three to over fifty… never clear why a certain number come up…

walking over to the Park to meet friends for brunch, took this picture of the sky…

  
wore a hat and brought a rain jacket just to be safe…

had a great visit with my friends and watched clouds come and go while we visited… thunder was rumbling across the sky when I left them, but I did a quick walk around the English Garden before heading home… 

  
smelled delicious… and the rose standards were nearly all in bloom…

  
made it home before the rain, and a while ago turned off the pumps in the pond so that I could fill it… water level is very low… testing to see if the level goes down when the pumps aren’t going…

  
the goldfish were busy finding all the algae they haven’t been able to get at, lol… I could actually hear them eating…

  
strange weather day, from cool and overcast, to sunny, to rainy, to clear and warm…

energy…

06 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

was up early, made a nice breakfast and planned to work in the garden when I was done…

sadly it started to rain when I went outside so didn’t get much done for a good portion of the day… passed the time watching tv :-)…

last night I had a hot tub and sat out in the swing chair watching the colours change on the waterfall… beautiful… this is the cute little remote that works the lights…

  
feeling good and full of energy, when the sky cleared up around four, I spent some time in the front flower bed cutting down wild roses and pulling out grass… filled a pail but only got about half of it done… hope to finish that off tomorrow…

kids came over and we had supper while the hot tub was emptying… after they left I cleaned and filled it… now to wait for it to warm up and put in a few chemicals…

sitting out, with a blanket on and reading by the pond…

 
good news is that the waterfall is still running beautifully… bad news is that the pond keeps needing more water…

   

oh well, we’ll figure it out… poppies are getting closer to opening every day and at least one of the dahlias I planted has popped through the soil…

  
life is good and I am lucky enough to realize that and enjoy every moment…

well, maybe not every moment… a mosquito just tried to bite me, lol…

fun…

05 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

excited this morning to take a picture of the blooming orchid…

  
spent a bit of time preparing a bag so I would be ready to head out after work for the evening’s soccer game…

picked up from work, drove across town to pick up the boys and dog, and headed back across town for the final game of the soccer series…

luckily, had a big bag of almonds which provided entertainment for the youngest as the game was played…

  
beautiful evening to sit outside and cheer on the nine and ten year olds… heard all about the importance of defence from my guy… did have to giggle as the dads’ were having a bit of trouble giving up being the coaches… fair bit of directives from the sidelines… 

wonderful opportunity to spend some time with my kids and a fun way to start the weekend…

warm…

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

spent a few minutes this morning pulling grass out of a flower bed and topping up the water in the pond…

sun was shining all day and it was warm…

when I got home I sat outside for a while and talked with my daughter about my upcoming visit…

the pond was looking good…

  
and the fish appeared happy… lots of chasing around so maybe we will have babies before too long…

  
things are starting to bloom…

  
a bit amazed that the Veronica is blooming before the poppies… sadly it looks like there will only be seven poppies… the first summer after George died we must have had fifty blooms…

glad to have spent time in the garden before organizing supper… have to take every opportunity to be outside when there is a nice day…

  
the planters around the deck are doing nicely… first time I’ve had this colour lobelia… looks good…

the pond may still be leaking a bit but I am thrilled with the sheet of water falling from the rock… think I will run a hose under the deck and just below the grass to the edge of the pond… then when it needs to be topped up, it will be a simple turn of the tap to fill it…

feeling more energy and getting the odd job done during the week, which has been unusual for quite some time…

  

music…

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

lovely time tonight… 

caught this lilac as we walked into the restaurant…

  

supper out with the performer and his mom… had a very nice, and healthy, spinach salad with almonds, oranges and shrimp…

then an excellent band concert… 

  
three different bands followed by three jazz bands… the director has a wonderful sense of humour and tells stories with each piece… everyone was laughing, although we weren’t able to understand as they were all in French, lol…

lots of toe tapping and humming…

really amazing what these young people have accomplished in just a few years of band class…

  
wonderful treat to spend time with just the two of them… even got to see Kyler’s other grandpa…

music is such an important aspect of all of their lives…

leaving the concert just had to get a shot of the sky…

  
fun time…

positive…

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

many people i know are struggling… many reasons – health, relationships, work… been thinking of them and sending healing vibes their way…

it is always wonderful when they take a step toward wellness… trying to remember to always be positive, with them and everyone I come into contact with… including myself…

recently read an article about focusing on the good, not the negative… an excellent reminder… it is so easy to fall down that rabbit hole and turn into a negative force…

on my walk home tonight I took a slightly different route and went past a gorgeous wild rose hedge… it smelled divine…

 
my wild rose isn’t anything like this one… the roses are trying to take over the yard… they are having a wonderful time in AND out of the front flower beds… need to wear two pairs of gloves when trying to cut them down, lol… apparently wild means they will grow anywhere except where you want them…
  
wonderful moments today…