Category Archives: nature

tub…

02 Tuesday Jan 2024

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many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…

I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…

a lovely way to begin the year…

I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…

I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…

that’s my story and I’m sticking with it;-)…

rosemary…

24 Sunday Dec 2023

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the Mediterranean biome smelled of rosemary and there were many of the plants growing all over the area… the Celebration installation was bright and shiny, with tons of lights on the trees and I was struck by some of the snowflake and icicle ornaments, so cute…

the many holiday trees, poinsettias, and amaryllis were beautiful;-)… the succulent tree is eye catching and I took quite a few photos of it…

I always like to visit the wollemi pine, a very rare tree known as the dinosaur tree…

sadly, we didn’t spot any butterflies in the Shirley Richardson biome…

a lovely visit…

what a treat to have this amazing place here in the city… a great replacement for the old Conservatory;-)…

walkways…

23 Saturday Dec 2023

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nearly a year to the day, we went back to The Leaf in the evening…

we ate dinner at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar and then wandered through the biomes…

the restaurant was very busy, but we were seated by the window at a two-person table, so were quite a distance from the other diners…

we shared chorizo spiced seitan tacos, I had pork and veal meatballs, and my grandson had a fancy hamburger and everything was tasty… we decided to skip dessert and go for blizzards after our visit to the biomes…

as we wandered through the Tropical biome it was quite amazing to see how the plants have grown… the place is absolutely lush;-)… leaves fell over the walkways in a number of spots, lol…

looking down from the bridge on the third floor it was striking to see how much everything has grown…

it was the first time since that inaugural visit that I’ve been at night… unfortunately it was too dark for my Nikon so all my photos were with my iPhone… got to see some bananas, a pineapple, coffee beans and cacao pods…

it looks like the inside of the biomes have been wrapped with plastic, and the fans in the Tropical biome were blowing rather vigorously…

it was exciting to see that there were a great number of various-sized smaller koi in the pond… babies, maybe;-)…

the next post will be about the Mediterranean biome;-)…

bodes…

11 Monday Dec 2023

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so, the strangest thing happened…

I looked out at the bird feeders and discovered this…

I think that maybe the squirrel has stuffed the feeders full of grass and fur…

I have never seen this before…

wonder what it bodes for the winter…

if…

10 Sunday Dec 2023

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well, last Sunday I finally made it into the plunge tub…

didn’t get as deep as my neck… it was chilly, but I made it to two minutes…

maybe, if I do it again, I will try to get down to my neck, lol…

certainly did wake me up, but I was still shivering and my legs were cold half an hour later;-)…

fun😳🤪🤔…

counting…

09 Saturday Dec 2023

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waited for my Fitbit to charge before going out to shovel the sidewalk today…

and when I got back into the house, there was the Fitbit, sitting on the counter, still attached to the charger…

really not counting the steps, lol…

wax…

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

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had a fun trip to Shelmerdine today…

wasn’t going to get anything, but three Christmas gifts jumped right into the cart…

and I found one of the amaryllis plants coated in wax, that grow without water… hummed and hawed, but in the end had to get one…

it is now sitting on the living room table and I can’t wait to see it grow and produce some flowers;-)

shrivelled…

20 Monday Nov 2023

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all of the garden work has now been completed for the winter… yay…

about a week ago I finished cleaning and putting away the last pond pump…

Saturday I finally got around to the dahlias… after watching a few videos, I used a knife to clean out the bits of dirt that were still on the tubers and then cut them to separate those with eyes, which should produce next year…

after doing a bit of research, I left a few (after cleaning them), to see if I will be able to separate them more easily in the spring when they start to sprout…

packaged them in paper bags, put them back in the pot, which went into a box in the coolest area of the basement… and wrote on the box to remember that is where they are, lol…

we will see what shape they are come spring… sometimes when the bags are open, there is nothing but shrivelled up bits of nothing;-(…

always an experiment…

glimmer…

17 Friday Nov 2023

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so excited to see how the sparkle lights work…

the hope was they would work with the wooden lamp standard that we discovered up in the rafters of the garage (since its discovery, I’ve added extra garland to fill it out)…

I’d been waiting for some sunshine since they arrived and on Sunday afternoon the sun finally came out…

I rushed out and set them in the planter on the front step to gather power… then, once it was dark, I hurried out to see how they looked…

nothing, not a glimmer;-(…

on Monday, I searched through the box and found the directions, lol… apparently you need to attach the stand to them before they can work… and, that they can work in a window in the house… so I was outside again and connected them to the fastener…

fingers crossed…

that still didn’t work, sigh… yesterday I took one of them and looked carefully on the back and really pushed the on/off button…

well, that worked… took quite a while to wrap two sets around the lantern post but I am pleased with the results;-)…

and we got it outside…