06 Wednesday Oct 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
at 1:24 this morning I looked out the window after hearing some bells ringing…
I have this cute little frog that holds these bells and when it rains they make lovely sounds…
it wasn’t raining which is what drew my attention…
I spotted two raccoons walking along the edge of the bathtub pond area…
too dark for pictures and I scared them off by banging on the window…
this likely explains the bent over bird feeder from the other day…
good news is that the fish appear to be safe…
05 Tuesday Oct 2021
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, busy, celebrate, Feast Bistro, food, friends, garden, happy, moments, nature, reminisce, special people, sun, time, treat, weather, widow, wind, women
well, I must say I am tired… but what a delightful day it has been…
got up early and set about preparing for the day… moved 14 bags of mulch, a wheelbarrow and compost can, used the leaf blower to clean the garage floor, set up a table with a tablecloth in case it was too windy to sit outside, put out cushions and rearranged lawn furniture, prepped some fruit and whipped cream… cleaned leaves out of the pond, set out dishes, made coffee and sun tea, wrapped a gift and wrote two cards…
sat and read in the garden for half an hour and then welcomed four of the most wonderful women into the space…
visited, ate some delicious food from Feast Bistro, enjoyed the nature around us, laughed, shared stories and celebrated one another with some delicious options…
nearly lost one umbrella to the gusts of wind, but the weather was quite amazing for early October…
when they left, I finished tidying up and got ready for dinner with another wonderful woman…
when she arrived we had fish and chips (which I love), more stories and laughter… what a great visit…
it is dark now and I just finished a bowl of strawberry shortcake with whipped cream as I sit on the deck (quite comfortable in shorts and a sleeveless shirt) and reminisce about all the great parts of the day…
hope you had a good day as well…
02 Saturday Oct 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
. soup, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cooked, cooking, cool weather, corn, flowers, fun, garden, moments, widow, zucchini
over the last three or four days I have cooked a lot in the kitchen…
I produced a beautiful corn chowder with some leftover corn on the cob…
then I made zucchini-basil soup with most of my basil and added a bit of chicken to the recipe as well…
and finally I free-styled Calico beans… didn’t have as many canned beans in the house as required nor any molasses, but it came out great anyway, lol… and it was nice to have some of my dahlias around…
there is certainly lots of choice in the fridge just now…
will be putting a few of them into the freezer for lazy days…
01 Friday Oct 2021
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
access, big girl pants, blessed, door, drawers, electrical outlet, handyperson, nature, weatherstripping, widow
yesterday, a handyperson came over and was able to get access to an electrical outlet…
he had to cut a hole in the back of a dresser and make an opening so that we are able to plug things in…
I was very happy that this happened as we have a plan in the works for this area…
then he was able to re-level the front door and add weatherstripping which will keep out the cold and block access to any bugs who might want to enter the house…
for the last few days the ladybugs have been trying to get in through that little opening… hahaha, not anymore;-)…
29 Wednesday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
afternoon, big girl pants, blessed, fish, friends, garden, happy, moments, nature, pond, sun, time, together, visitors, weather, widow
what a delightful afternoon yesterday…
put out all the cushions and the umbrellas…
next I made coffee and had a few moments to read while I waited for my friends to arrive…
we decided not long ago to meet in the afternoon when it is warmer, as we continue to meet outdoors…
one had something else on, another connected by phone… the rest of us gathered in person…
it was a beautiful day and we sat close to the pond… both pumps were turned off to make it easier to hear one another, lol…
there were lots of visitors while we were meeting… a variety of sparrows, blue jays, squirrels, a cat and we even spotted a mouse racing through the grass… the fish swam around where we could see them as well…
strange to have such warm weather, but we certainly enjoyed it…
28 Tuesday Sep 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chair, effort, garden, grandson, moments, nature, rebuilt, rocking lounger, weather, widow
the umbrella for the fancy rocking lawn chair/lounger went in to be rebuilt as the fabric had disintegrated, lol…
the chair has been without the umbrella since spring…
I had been looking around for ages and was very happy that Murray Tent and Awning was able to do the job…
my grandson picked it up and brought it here yesterday so I was excited to put it up this morning…
it took a while to figure out how to get the ribs back into it, but eventually I sorted it out… lots of bending and stretching, lol…
it looks great… the colour goes well with the cushion and the other items in the garden…
I am very pleased;-)…
26 Sunday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, datura, flowers, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, purple, squish, widow, winnow
been collecting seeds for the last week or so…
the morning glories are very simple… I just put one hand under the little pod and squish it with the other… then I winnow the part holding it together by blowing over my hand… the excess blows away and the seeds remain and can be popped into a container…
the datura are a bit more complicated… the seed pods are covered in very sharp spikes which try to hurt me, lol…
I now have a container for each of the two types I have grown this year… the lovely white ones and the smaller, but cute, purple ones…
it is best to wait for the pods to start cracking as they dry, which makes removing them slightly easier… the dryer they are, the easier to remove…
I have quite a collection…
25 Saturday Sep 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, mandevilla, moments, mound, nature, photos, plants, widow
had a great time with Hilda the Gardener this afternoon…
we discussed plans for the next month or so, and for the spring…
she moved some soil for me and I finished filling up the new raised bed…
she also brought the mandevilla up onto the deck… it will be coming into the house before too long..
she moved baby’s breath, silver mound and milkweed to what I hope will be better spots…
and removed some of the weeds in the side garden…
it always makes me happy to see the difference once she’s been here…
24 Friday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, birdseed, blessed, fun, garden, moments, nature, pond, songs, water, widow
so blessed to get to spend time in the garden watching the birds…
yesterday, there were house sparrows, white throated sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, and even a couple of blue jays…
lots of chatter, songs, dust and water baths… also they are gobbling up the birdseed and had many trips to drink from the pond…
only saw a couple of squirrels, lol…
23 Thursday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
busy time in the garden…
last night we moved the filing cabinet raised bed from the garage to the side garden…
today on this beautiful, mostly sunny, day, I lifted and repositioned a number of the rocks in that area to sit around it… some of them were rather large and heavy, lol… I have collected them from all over Manitoba…
I think the area looks good and plan on filling the raised bed with bits of wood and soil to get it ready for spring…
herbiggirlpants 