Butchart…

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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amazing, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart, Butchart Gardens, family, flowers, gardens, moments, nature, Vancouver Island, widow

we made it to the Butchart Gardens…

what an amazing place it is… the first day, we spent six and a half hours wandering the many gardens and had a delightful high tea with a wasp guest…

I was absolutely stunned (in a good way) when I stood at the top of the sunken garden… it is so beautiful it brought me to tears, and what a way to start the tour…

we saw giant trees, beautiful beds, topiaries, and rows of stunning dahlias…

we also saw beautiful Japanese Gardens where I took maybe one picture and then just absorbed the quiet beauty around us…

many water features, a carousel, and so many flowers;-)… awed by the wonderful combinations of plants that made every corner more interesting than the last…

day two, we arrived later in the day with plans to see the gardens lit up at night… we visited some of our favourite areas, especially the Japanese Gardens and took an electric boat tour… sadly, I ran out of steam and we headed back to our AirBnb just as dusk was taking over the gardens…

train…

20 Sunday Sep 2026

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, daughter, family, moments, mountains, new friends, train, trip, VIA Rail, widow

we booked a train trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver on VIA rail… these trips are so popular, you have to book (and pay for the entire trip) nine months ahead…

the start of the trip was a bit stressful as we were expecting to leave at 9:30 pm and ended up leaving the city at 5:11 am…

it was amazing to see how every inch of space was used… during the day we had two chairs to look out the window and at night the space turned into an upper and lower berth… I got the bottom one, lol…

we found guests from all over and loved hearing laughter and voices speaking numerous languages throughout the days…

we’ve discovered that train travel is completely different here than across Europe, for example… and not necessarily to the good🤪…

the food was delicious and we enjoyed meeting new friends at mealtimes…

we spent a lot of time in the observation car and the morning the mountains came into view, I took two pictures and then just sat and soaked up the beauty😊…

and then we were there😳…

it has been a fun learning opportunity for me, and I see my beloved more and more every day in my daughter, who makes friends wherever she sits, or stands, or, just is🤗… what a delight…

trains…

17 Thursday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, family, moments, trains, widow

trains and sky trains and buses and double deckers and Ubers and boats and ferries and feet…

it has been a busy and amazing time…

tomorrow it will be planes and cars🤪…

exercises…

04 Friday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, exercises, garden, moments, nature, outside, widow, yoga mat

it was a beautiful day, so I decided to do my exercises beside the pond…

when I rolled out the mat, the top end went into the water, so I had to wait for the mat to dry, lol…

what a treat to listen to the water falling and watch the sky and trees overhead while I went through the steps…

my housemate took a video, after I was done, of a few of each of the exercises…

catch…

01 Tuesday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, blooms, catch, magnolia, Mediterranean biome, moments, nature, scent, widow

one of my favourite trees in the Mediterranean Biome is the magnolia…

it blooms fairly regularly and can have only one flower blooming at a time or as many as six, which I spotted earlier this summer…

today, it had one glorious bloom above a spent flower…

magnolias smell delicious, although our tree is too high up to be able to catch the scent…

met…

31 Monday Aug 2026

Posted by sulis303 in food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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arch, big girl pants, blessed, garden, met, moments, scarlet runner beans, weather, widow

I’m so happy with how the plants are growing on the new arch…

the scarlet runner beans have been flowering for a while, but the actual beans have only just begun to appear…

the morning glories have now met up with the scarlet runners at the top of the arch…

it looks so nice from everywhere in the garden 😊…

settings…

28 Friday Aug 2026

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big girl pants, camera, lunar eclipse, moments, nature, settings, Technology, tripod, weather, widow

last night there was a partial lunar eclipse and, since it was lovely out, I sat on the deck with my camera and tripod and got a few pictures…

had some fun with different settings on the camera…

I spent about an hour and a half enjoying the show and only went in once it had reached the peak and my camera battery died, lol…

lizards…

27 Thursday Aug 2026

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big girl pants, eagle eyes, fun, lizards, moments, nature, plants, The Leaf, tiny, tropical biome, widow

one of the fun things about volunteering at The Leaf has been seeing how many little lizards we can spot on a shift…

one of our colleagues has eagle eyes and knows all the spaces where they might be… that has encouraged many others to search for them as we move through the biomes…