07 Thursday Sep 2023
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, faded, garden, Maui, memories, moments, nature, pictures, rain, rainbow, rainbows, remembering, sky, weather, widow
on Monday night, just before supper, I looked up and spotted a beautiful rainbow…
it faded and then a double one started up, and after it faded, there was a third one, with very bright colours…
what a treat…
reminded me of our time in Maui when we saw five different rainbows in an hour…
03 Sunday Sep 2023
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, Diversity Gardens, fence, flowers, friend, fun, garden, grasses, guide, moments, nature, photos, plants, Pokémon, pond, purple, Technology, walk, widow
Tuesday, a friend picked me up and we had a wander through the Diversity Gardens…
it was her first time there and I enjoyed being the tour guide, lol…
we were so busy catching up that I barely took any photos…
I did take some of a few grasses we thought might work in the garden between the cedars which might cover it a bit more of the chain link now that the neighbours have removed their planters…
from there, we drove over and walked through the English sand Leo Mol Gardens…
we spent some time relaxing on a bench by the pond and learning about Pokémon as I have just started playing again and now have my own account;-)…
02 Saturday Sep 2023
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, flowers, friends, garden, happy, hummingbird, moments, nature, nectar, plants, shade, time, weather, widow
had a wonderful day Monday…
it was overcast but I put out all the cushions and set up the chairs for the afternoon gathering with my buddies…
then I sat quietly in the garden as a sweet little hummingbird flew around gathering nectar from a few flowers… it particularly liked one of the hanging baskets that has deep purple flowers… it came and went a number of times before heading off to its next destination…
of course I didn’t have the camera out so the photos I got with my phone were pretty bad, lol…
after lunch my friends arrived and we had a great visit together… these days I make suntea and we always have pistachios as a snack, maybe with some chocolate;-)…
once everyone left, I followed the shade around the garden, enjoyed my book and the visit from one of my bunny friends…
I am certainly savouring these beautiful days in the garden…
01 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deeper, falling, flowering, flowers, garden, grandson, hole, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, weather, widow, wind
a few days ago my grandson dug the hole deeper where the mandevilla has been residing for most of the summer… it lives in the house during the winter months and has just started to bloom…
it has also been blowing over fairly regularly and I’ve had to bungee cord it to the upright umbrella on really windy days so it wouldn’t fall over again… I had dug the hole to what I thought would work, but it wasn’t deep enough, lol…
Thursday, the wind was very strong and the mandevilla stayed put with no leaning or falling at all;-)
31 Thursday Aug 2023
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, drive, eavestrough, extension, friend, garden, grandson, happy, Home Hardware, moments, Selkirk, shopping, sunburst, water, widow
went for a drive to Selkirk with a friend and found the eavestrough extension that I’ve been looking for…
once at home we extended it, drilled holes in the bottom, and laid it out along the back of the pond garden…
a few twist ties and the trough portion came down straight along the sun’s rays and then was hooked into the extension…
we might straighten it out a bit more once everything dies back in the garden, but by next spring it won’t be visible at all and will put rainwater all along the garden;-)…
30 Wednesday Aug 2023
Posted in business, family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
allée, Assiniboine Park, benches, big girl pants, blessed, family, flowers, grandson, happy, hot, long walk, moments, nature, path, people, plants, Pokémon, pond, sunny, Technology, water lilies, weather, widow
on Sunday we went for a walk around Assiniboine Park to catch Pokémon… apparently it was a special event around the world… it was hot and sunny…
there were people everywhere… many of them with their heads down, focussed on their phones, with cords connecting to power packs in their pockets, lol…
we walked around the allée that circles the Diversity Gardens… it was fully shaded and there were many people along the way…
from there we walked across the Park to the English and Leo Mol Gardens… it was a long way, lol… we stopped now and then for a rest and sip of our water, and got to walk down one of my favourite paths…
it has been months since I’ve been to the Gardens, so it was a treat… besides all the people, there were lots of flowers in bloom with beautiful water lilies, and frogs, in the English Garden…
the cricket fields had some good items as we headed back to the car…
nice to enjoy a walk, although my feet were a little tired;-)…
26 Saturday Aug 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, datura, flowers, garden, happy, moments, nature, photos, plants, pods, purple, seeds, supper, volunteer, weather, white, widow
the volunteer purple datura in the front garden has grown huge over the summer…
when I was out watering the other day I noticed that many of the seed pods had already popped open so I went out and collected some for next year…
this one is a shade of mauve and opens upwards rather than hanging down…
the flowers are also quite small…
the seeds have already started to pop out into the bowl and I will let them dry a bit more before putting them into an empty pill bottle to store for the future… and I will be sure to label them;-)…
in a pot in the garden there is another white datura… this flower is much bigger and also opens up rather than down…
I will save some of those as well, being careful of the prickly bits, lol…
24 Thursday Aug 2023
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
there has been a loose board on the lower deck for quite some time now, which has tried to trip people up for ages…
it was a bit warped and we had tried screwing it down at the two ends, but clearly the wood underneath was not in good condition in those spots… recently, the hose got stuck in it, lol…
finally, I lifted it right up and checked underneath only to discover that the screws in the middle were too short, so I brought out the drill and screwed in much longer ones…
and now it is no longer moving… yay me;-)…
22 Tuesday Aug 2023
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, claws, Cooper’s Hawk, flying, garden, kerfuffle, moments, nature, pergola, sparrow, widow
last week I watched a hawk chase a sparrow down the lane… I didn’t hear any screeching, so was hopeful that the sparrow made it to safety…
on Saturday, I was quietly sitting on the back deck, drinking my tea and reading when I heard a kerfuffle…
suddenly, a juvenile Cooper’s hawk came off the shelf in the pergola by the driveway gate… it had a sparrow in its claws…
it flew to the ledge on the main deck with its prize… after sitting there for quite a few minutes I walked over to get it to leave the garden… I got very close to it before it finally decided to fly up to the wires above the deck, and then, away…
the whole time it was in the garden the sparrows and chickadees were sounding the alarm…
hope it doesn’t come back again…
21 Monday Aug 2023
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, completing, digging, family, fence, garden, gate, grandson, level, moments, nature, rain, sky, weather, widow, wind
we’ve been working away at completing projects that have been started, but not quite finished;-)… I’m sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else, lol…
Wednesday, it was the back gate in the new fence…
the dirt was dug up under the gate area, two old concrete pads were discovered under a few inches of the dirt… they were removed and then some quarter down was laid, packed down, levelled, and new blocks put down, level with the lane… soil went into the spots on either side and some work on the slope up to the shed took place…
this is going to make the taking out and bringing in of garbage and recycling bins so much easier…
meanwhile the sky filled with threatening clouds, spots of sun, and then more of the “going to rain” cloud variety…
the project is not quite done, and just as we came in for lunch the wind went crazy and some rain started down…
good timing;-)…
herbiggirlpants 