10 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
and the first poppy has popped…
yesterday I went out to have my breakfast in the garden and spotted the bright orange all the way across the garden… with its reflection in the pond…
woohoo, what a great start to the day
looking forward to more;-)…
06 Saturday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dozen, garden, light, moments, plants, poppies, warm weather, weather, widow
the light was shining nicely on the poppies as they get ready to open…
looks to be about a dozen buds, and possibly more to come…
this year everything is quite behind, but the hot weather has made some things bolt;-)…
I always feel that the warm weather is finally here once the poppies start blooming;-)…
still going to be a few days before they open, I think…
05 Friday Jun 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, delicious, food, French toast, friends, Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, moments, mushroom toast, toast, widow
had a lovely lunch at Gather with my adventure buddy… our server, Nicky, was very helpful…
I had the French toast, with a side of bacon…
my buddy enjoyed the mushroom toast…
she also enjoyed the Basque Cheescake
with Strawberry, mint, delivered by Brian, the new GM…
after the delicious lunch, we had a wander through the Gardens at The Leaf…
always happy to find another view of The Leaf;-)…
04 Thursday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blooms, garden, happy, inukshuk, lilac, moments, nature, produced, purple, widow
last year we moved the little lilac bush from the garden to the front yard…
it just didn’t seem happy in the spot we had it and for the last couple of years it hadn’t produced any flowers at all…
the hope was that it would like the extra sun it would get out front…
not too long after it arrived in its new spot we built an inukshuk beside it with a collection of limestone pieces that we had…
this spring it didn’t look as though it had survived and then, all of a sudden, it sprang up…
and, just this morning, I spotted at least four little bunches of buds… can’t wait for them to open…
so exciting;-)…
03 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, dragonfly, frog, garden, moments, nature, rust-coloured, widow
today, I spotted a small black butterfly with rust along the bottom third… it flew away before I got a picture, lol…
not long after, a tiny little wood frog hopped across the deck by the pond…
not much bigger than a thumbnail…
and finally, a beautiful rust-coloured dragonfly…
such fun to see so much nature;-)…
02 Tuesday Jun 2026
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dandelions, flowers, moments, nature, painted turtle, turtle, walk, widow
on my walk from the car to The Leaf, I loved the yellow carpet over many of the fields…
and came upon a painted turtle…
it was very far from any water, and once it spotted me, it turned and headed towards the field…
a great surprise to start my shift;-)…
29 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, garden, grandson, hardening, houseplants, moments, nature, outside, plants, weather, widow
Tuesday afternoon the majority of the larger house plants made it outside…
they have just made it onto the deck and a few will be moved elsewhere soon…
the smaller ones will come out in the next few days as space is made for them in the garden…
I’m being wild and crazy this year and not hardening any of them off…
this is also the first year in quite a while that I didn’t start any plants in the house…
we will see how they adapt to the rather warm weather and bright sun… 🤞
26 Tuesday May 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday morning, I was sitting on the back deck, listening to the waterfall, watching the fish, and reading my book…
all of a sudden a bird flew down to the orange halves I had on the edge of the deck…
it was only there for a second and then flew away… it was in a bit of shadow, but I was pretty sure it was an oriole…
a few minutes later, it came back and I got a few photos… not great, but made me happy…
after it left, I moved the oranges a bit so I could watch better…
and so far, I haven’t spotted it again;-)…
it has been years since I’ve seen any in the garden, although a number of them live along the creek in the next block…
but, I will keep watching and put out a fresh orange in the morning;-)…
25 Monday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
applications, big girl pants, clover, dandelion-free, disappointed, garden, moments, nature, weed and feed, widow
I was using Lawnman (not loving the name, lol) to keep the grass fertilized and dandelion free…
have used them for a number of years and they have been excellent…
recently received a letter in the mail advising they’d been taken over by Eco Green…
they called a few days ago to advise they were coming to apply fertilizer and weed control… which they provide as a liquid mix… but the weed control they use will destroy clover…
as we are mixing clover with the grass in the backyard, it means we can’t have this put down as it will kill clover…
the previous company did feeding and weed control as two separate applications…
so I asked about a lower price as they would only be doing the front yard now…
I was advised that I had only being charged for the front yard previously, which was news to me as they had been doing the fertilizing in the backyard all along… not impressed:-(…
so, I guess this will be the last year for that service…
24 Sunday May 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
herbiggirlpants 