Category Archives: technology

plants…

25 Saturday Jun 2016

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another lovely day…

up early, had a smoothie for breakfast, and made potato salad – at my son-in-law’s request, for a birthday party tomorrow… 

took a few shots of the first bloom on the hibiscus… very nice…


then I was picked up and went plant shopping at three different garden centres… amazingly I was able to find something at each place, lol…


one of the most exciting purchases was a purply-blue water fountain for the front step… been watching it for awhile and today it was on sale, yay…


found a few plants to add to the garden and a couple of hanging baskets…  one is going to go into a planter at the front… really enjoyed the time with my friend…

topped it off with fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes, dill and tomatoes from the J & H Garden Centre… 

such fun to shell the peas once I got home…


after a nap and a few chores, ended the day with a fabulous dinner of smoked goldeye, with tiny new potatoes, peas and dill… yum…


ahhhhh… 

lots of work to do tomorrow…

landscape…

24 Friday Jun 2016

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up early, took a walk to the Park, and had breakfast and a walk through the Gardens with a friend…


arrived home about the same time as my grandson… we worked in the garden for hours…

mowed, dug, planted, weeded… ended up with a lot of yard waste…


ran out for lunch with my daughter and son-in-law and then back to work… pulled out tons of string algae from the pond…


then we tackled one of the front flower beds… we cut down just about everything… I have to pick up something to deal with the grass and next week we will put down landscape cloth and mulch…

put some of the pots in it to get them out of the way for now…


after he left and I’d done a bit more weeding, I took a break and got to spend a few minutes enjoying how much better the space looks…

excellent day…

air…

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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had to run and get my camera this morning when I saw these squirrels… one was running up a telephone pole and the other was standing at attention on the peak of the roof…


so cute…

after work I walked over to the Park and watched some Ultimate… had a lovely visit with a friend and on my way home stopped to smell the air in a few spots where the lilacs were blooming… it was wonderful…

got a nice shot of one of the Duck Pond fountains… different angle…


also came across this little manicured garden by the Pavilion… took a few moments to breathe in the peace…

story…

22 Wednesday Jun 2016

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just yesterday a colleague and I were discussing how best to look after orchids…

I was sharing the story of my IKEA orchid which I purchased in October… it bloomed until about a month ago and now a new stem is blooming…


I treat orchids like cut flowers… well, basically that’s how I deal with all plants…

I water them sparingly on Saturday… some people use an ice cube weekly to be sure they don’t overwater… my orchids have all liked being in the sun for a good portion of the day…

if they last longer than a bouquet that’s great, if not they get tossed…

way less stress and I am often pleasantly surprised when they last a long time… 

I have a bamboo which one of my daughter’s friends brought me when I had surgery in 2010… still going strong…

tonight I was sitting outside while the pond was filling and admiring the daisy explosion in the garden…


they are everywhere…

flowers inside and out… what a treat…

cheers…

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

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started my post sitting in a soccer field as my youngest grandson practiced before his game…

was picked up at work, had a lovely home cooked dinner of chicken wings; mashed potatoes with corn, shredded cheese and gravy; and a kale salad with the family… what a treat… also had a quarter of a waffle cake (cake batter cooked in the waffle maker) with butter cream icing on it… yum… these were a treat for the birthday boy’s soccer team, at their practice…

after the soccer game, was picked up and went to see Finding Dory with the 11 year old birthday boy, a friend, his mom and dad…

brought some chocolates back so he and I had a cheers with ours…


great soccer player going by as they practised before the game…


something for everyone else to do too…


the game was excellent and our little guy scored in the first few minutes… shortly after that he got another goal which I  caught …


he kicked that ball right into the net… this boy has no fear… 

after his game was finished, went to the birthday boy’s practice where the kids devoured the waffle cakes…


saw Finding Dory, which was very cute, dropped everybody off and my son-in-law drove me to my car which was still at the office…

took this selfie of all of us in the car with our 3D glasses on, lol…


lovely way to spend my first day home from Atlanta…

home…

20 Monday Jun 2016

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woke up to another great day in Atlanta…


lazed around a bit and packed up our bags… always interesting how difficult it is to get the same stuff back into your bag, lol…

headed to the airport hoping we could get seats together on the plane… apparently you need to book online as soon as you can because when we went to check in there were no empty seats and we were at opposite ends of the plane…

decided to head out early and have a nice breakfast at the airport… not to happen… when we finally got to the correct terminal – after taking the train again – all they had was a food court, sigh…

this was my breakfast…


wasn’t quite what we imagined it would be… it was a full moon after all…

at the gate we were advised we were stuck in the seats we had been assigned… I ended up in the furthest window seat at the back of the plane, where there is no window and the seats don’t recline at all… really felt claustrophobic the whole flight… strange that they were far apart as we booked them together…

my daughter had purchased some duty free liquor and when we arrived in Toronto and made it to the security line we were advised it wasn’t in the right bag, duh, so we had to leave the area and go back to WestJet check in and leave her bag, with the liquor there to be checked… luckily we had a spare cloth bag… then we had to go back through security again… omg… good thing there was time before our flights…

we ordered some lunch in an Irish pub place and it took a long time to arrive… thankfully it was right beside the two gates we needed…

after lunch we spent a last few minutes to say goodbye between the two gates before we each headed to our flights…


standing in line I could see her waiting for her flight…

two and a half hours later and I was home… unpacked a bit, had a bite of supper and heading off to bed as I work tomorrow…

a great trip and lots of fun… 

now, back to reality…

Atlanta Day 4…

19 Sunday Jun 2016

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another spectacular day in Atlanta…


weather was great, and not too hot…


spent a few hours at the ABG and even had a glass of wine to toast the great time we’ve had… back to the hotel for a snack and nap… 


had our picture taken at the hotel since we were all dressed up… then our final visit to the garden for dinner and a final night tour…


enjoyed some relaxing time on the swings while we waited for our dinner reservation…


even had a glass of champagne… when we were done it was dark and we strolled through the gardens one last time, under a nearly full moon…


spent the last bit of time at the goddess site… apparently she was designed and built by a Montreal company, lol…

final shot was of the first installation in the garden entryway…

and then back to the hotel where we rode the glass elevator to our room for the last time…


I am so blessed to have the resources to enjoy a once in a lifetime event such as this;-)…

Atlanta Day 3…

18 Saturday Jun 2016

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another lovely day… cooler but with a nice breeze…


got a quick picture beside one of the water features at the W…


we started our day at the Green Farmers Market where we found a few things to eat and buy… then it was on to the Atlanta Botanical Garden… we found a shortcut to get there;-)…

it was the purple things that jumped out at me today…


this purple hibiscus was beautiful…

we finally spotted the bullfrog we’d heard yesterday… big one…

the water lilies looked great against the multi-coloured lily pads…

this purple fountain at dinner was nice too…

Atlanta Day 2…

17 Friday Jun 2016

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this morning I stood at the window looking out over the city of Atlanta taking pills and chugging them back with a bottle of water…


for many years getting pills down was very difficult and I always had to have juice or tea because I didn’t drink water… 

now, they slide down easily and water is something I drink all the time…

and I have travelled a whole lot more…

I’ve come a long way baby;-)…

here are just a few shots of things that made me happy throughout the day…

a cacao tree… later in the day we stopped and had some excellent chocolate…

a huge purple orchid…

a stunning blue and purple installation which we nearly missed…

a lotus blooming…

dusting of one of the glass pieces…

a ginormous bumblebee…

fun at the Midtown sign which we just discovered this morning…

being quite naughty and disobeying a few rules…

Atlanta Day 1…

16 Thursday Jun 2016

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met up with my daughter in Toronto… took a while, but we finally found one another… on the plane we were catching up with pictures…


once at the W Atlanta-Midtown, an excellent choice I must say, we had a bit of lunch…


the place is sleek and modern and hip…

then it was off to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to see the Chihuly exhibition… the weather channel said it was over 40 degrees Celsius… we walked about half an hour to get there, and then wandered the Garden for an hour and a half…


there are a number of installations and we didn’t get to see them all, yet… 

but this is why we came…


spent quite some time in this spot… there are benches throughout the Garden and here they were under a pergola with nice music playing… the sound of the falling water was peaceful…

another long hot and muggy walk back to the hotel… thirty minutes at plus forty is rather tiring… had a nap and found a great place for supper, the South City Kitchen… 


we asked a man who was walking by to take our picture and he happily obliged…

then back to the Garden for an evening walk to see the installations lit up…


we ended with a bit of retail therapy in the ABG Chihuly Gift Shop – where I did not buy the $8000 bowl that I really wanted…

below is the first Chihuly that my daughter saw when she came to Atlanta many years ago and which has led us to Seattle, Montreal and now Atlanta…


what a spectacular day it has been;-)…