16 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, circulating, family, garden, moments, music, pond, prep, pumps, widow, working
started work on the pond…
first step was to empty out the water… that was done last Saturday…
on Wednesday, after using the wet-vac and vacuuming the leaves and other crud out of the bottom, the pumps were set in place…
then the water flowed in and the pumps started circulating… which also means the waterfall began making wonderful music…
what a treat…
15 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
arches, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cucumbers, family, garden, light, planter, plants, weather, widow, wire
next part of the project was to install two arches where I am hoping to grow cucumbers and beans and morning glories;-)…
they will be located between the pond and the deck…
I’m hopeful that the light will help grow more veggies and brighten up that section of the garden;-)…
now the arches are in, two planters from other areas of the garden will be placed under them to hold the plants, once the grass/clover comes through the dirt/compost/sand… fingers crossed…
we picked up some wire and fastened it to the arches using zip ties…
it will be interesting to see how long it takes to cover the arches with greenery…
14 Thursday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bonsai, family, garden, Japanese Maple, lava, moments, nature, planted, widow
the Japanese Maple bonsai has moved into a new and much bigger pot…
holes were punched into the bottom and soil, compost, sand, and fertilizer went into the new pot with some used lava rocks…
it looks like a very large container for a small plant, but the hope is that the trunk will grow larger in the bigger pot…
it was moved back into the house and will start transitioning to the garden over the next few weeks… after the summer in the garden, it will move back into the house for the winter…
13 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
the other day I picked up a hanging basket that was “free” because we spent a zillion dollars on groceries, lol…
the plan is to use it in the front planter beside the door as it had lots of plants and flowers flowing down the sides…
brought it out of the garage today to get a bit of sun because it still isn’t warm enough for it to go into the pot, lol…
while it was sitting out, a lovely big bumblebee stopped by for some pollen…
it buzzed around the various flowers for quite a few minutes before heading off to find other treats…
what a great start to the day…
11 Monday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
spent time in the garden Saturday morning…
the job was to level out the ground as much as possible…
soil, compost and sand were mixed by the wheelbarrow full and then dumped and levelled across the grass using a handmade levelling rake…
it took quite awhile but eventually the space seems much flatter…
next, a mix of grass and clover seed was spread over the entire area and then gently raked in…
finally, the entire area was watered…
now to wait for it to grow…
09 Saturday May 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday we began the newest garden project…
we started with trimming the cedars at the back of the garden…
we filled two bags with branches…
it is always a process to decide when enough has been trimmed, and it is time to stop, lol…
step one, done…
06 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
allium, big girl pants, growing, kaleidoscope, memories, moments, nature, plants, purple, The Leaf at Assiniboine Park, widow
just after I took this photo of a beautiful allium, a visitor asked me what it was…
then I had a lovely conversation with another visitor who was telling me about the allium that grew in her garden outside of the city… she said they grew six feet tall and took over the garden…
made me laugh as I shared how this was one of my beloved’s favourites and no matter what we did, they would not grow for us…
we ended the conversation noting that, in our experience, some plants will or won’t grow for certain people, lol…
04 Monday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
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the chair covers have not really been doing their job so the cushions have been inside the patio doors and kind of clogging up the kitchen…
I am testing using both covers on one chair to see if that will protect the cushions and keep them dry…
fingers crossed…
we will see how it works out;-)…
03 Sunday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, grandson, grass, moments, planters, pump, raking, reading, tarp, weather, widow
spent time in the garden on a lovely day…
used the pond pump to empty the water on top of the tarp and then took the tarp off the pond…
took a few minutes to lay it out on the grass to dry out…
we moved a few planters to new places and will see if they stay in those spots…
did a little bit of raking of leaves, but there is still a lot to do…
and also spent some time reading in one of the chairs which recently came out of the shed…
30 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
appear, big girl pants, blessed, bonsai, family, grandson, Japanese Maple, moments, nature, plants, slow process, widow, wire
had fun watching my grandson start to work on his Japanese Maple bonsai…
we picked up the Japanese Maple last spring and it lived in the garden for the summer and moved into the living room in the fall…
over the winter it lost all of its leaves, but new ones have just started to appear;-)…
lots of bits were trimmed off and quite a few types of wire were used to begin the process of bending branches to new spots…
this is the second try as the first one he worked on didn’t make it…
kind of exciting to see how it will turn out, although it is a very slow process…
herbiggirlpants 