12 Friday May 2023
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, garden, in the garden, listening, Merlin App, migration, moments, nature, sounds, sparrows, Technology, weather, white-throated, white-throated sparrows, widow
sitting on the deck I listened to a couple of the white-throated sparrows calling to one another from here and the neighbours’ trees… that was after Merlin confirmed which birds they were, lol…
a lovely treat…
and I got a few photos…
the last one was having a bath;-)…
10 Wednesday May 2023
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deck, garden, gloves, hard work, leaves, moments, nature, planter boxes, raking, twigs, widow, yardwaste
last week, after aquasize, lunch, and a nap, I got to work in the garden…
first up, all the planter boxes under the deck came out and went into their spots around the deck… will need to add some compost and additional soil in them before too long so they will be ready for plants…
after a break to do some reading, lol, it was on to raking up some of the leaves… wore my new Christmas gardening gloves… not only are they made from recycled material, they are purple and fit nicely…
filled a yardwaste bag with the dead cedar and elm leaves… looks better but will still need a bit of work…
08 Monday May 2023
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, delicious, food, friends, greenhouse, high tea, Lily Stone Cafe, Lily Stone Gardens, memories, moments, orchid, rain, Tea, time, weather, widow
had a great time with my BS buddies…
we gathered in two vehicles and drove to Rosenort for our 1 pm High Tea reservation at Lily Stone Cafe…
what a delight… we climbed up stairs, went down a narrow hall, and into a beautifully decorated room ready for our tea…
we just happened to get this space, but for a 20% gratuity you can book one of the private rooms for your group… no one wore gloves, but there were pearls, jewellery, and some fancy clothes, lol…
there were so many teas to choose from it took us a while to decide, and everyone enjoyed their picks…
then the tiered stands with a number of items for us to devour arrived, and devour them we did;-)…
they were able to deal with a food issue for one of us, and everything we ate looked lovely and was tasty… although it didn’t appear like a lot of food, we were all full once we’d cleaned the plates…
from there we drove a few kilometres to Lily Stone Gardens where we toured the Gift Shop and the one open greenhouse…
I found a beautiful white dahlia that is now sitting next to the tubers, which I hope will encourage them to get growing, lol…
the drive took just over forty-five minutes each way, and even in the rain and overcast, it was enjoyable… lots of conversation and laughter in both vehicles…
what a wonderful way to spend an afternoon;-)…
03 Wednesday May 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
begun, big girl pants, blessed, garden, happy, moments, nature, photos, pond, pump, reading, Spring, sunshine, tarp, tarpaulin, water, wet-vac, widow
spent Tuesday in the garden… the first part on the deck reading in the sunshine…
there was no wind, so I was able to flatten out and fold up the tarpaulin…
then I moved to the back deck and did a bit of reading before starting to remove the last of the leaves and water from the pond with the wet vac… it took a number of trips to get it done… but, I did it, yay…
next, I found the hose, hooked it up and started the water running… finally I hooked up the pump and finished filling it…
so happy when the waterfall started up… worth all the work…
what a treat to sit, watch and listen to the sound;-)…
garden season has begun…
02 Tuesday May 2023
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, leaves, moments, nature, pond, popped, pump, reading, sunshine, tarp, water, weather, widow
had a great day in the garden on Sunday…
spent most of it on the deck, reading in the sunshine…
I also spent time working at the pond… we tried to take off the tarp a few days ago but it was too heavy as it still had a lot of water and a ton of soggy leaves in it… the plan was to wait for another person to help us…
I put the pump in the pond again… the other day when I tried this the hose popped off and gave me a pond-water shower;-(… this time I got rid of most of the water… then I put it into the tarp and got a fair bit of water out of it…
after that I was able to drag it out of the pond and bag the leaves… they filled half of a garbage can, lol…
then the tarp was spread out in the grass, hopefully drying, so it can be folded up and put away…
maybe in the next few days I will vacuum the bottom of the pond and fill it with water…
30 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amethyst, amethyst heart, banyan, beaches, big girl pants, blessed, cacao trees, flowers, Hawaii, jacaranda, Maui, memories, moments, nature, once-in-a-lifetime, orchids, pictures, remembering, trees, turtles, vacation, water, widow
four years ago in April, we arrived on Maui to celebrate my birthday…
I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never made it happen until then…
I have been enjoying the memories that have come up in my social media…
on our way into our first hotel, we spotted orchids in the lobby…
we went to the beach to watch the sun set, got our toes in the ocean, found a great spot to watch, settled in to wait, and then had this group of people walk right in front of us to get their pictures, lol…
I have the amethyst heart that I purchased on my bedside table and enjoy seeing it all the time…
one of my favourite memories is of our time at the orchid farm… a huge space bursting with the most beautiful plants, most of which were in full bloom…
it was delightful…
there were fish and sea turtles…
saw cacao trees with cacao pods on them, jacaranda trees in bloom (purple), and the most amazing banyan tree which took up an entire block…
it was an amazing time and we enjoyed every minute… it lived up to all of my expectations and then some… so lucky this happened before covid…
29 Saturday Apr 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, empty, fill, garden, grandson, hot tub, improvement, Krevco, lid, moments, move, pump, repairs, Spring, water, widow
on Friday we emptied, moved and cleaned the hot tub, put it back and refilled it… this time I used a larger hose that I have and it emptied the tub in fifteen minutes… usually it can take hours, so this was a great improvement…
I am always happy when the jets start up after the refill, because sometimes it takes a few tries to get them working… happily, they started right away…
unfortunately we could not replace the arms as the screw for one of them would not come out…
we also left the seal for them to look at, and hopefully repair or replace…
so I have a call in to Krevco to see about having a technician come out and see what they can do…
26 Wednesday Apr 2023
Posted in business, food, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
art, big girl pants, blessed, Connie Bart Hamel, drive, friends, fun, happy, ice cream, lunch, moments, mushrooms, nature, Roxy’s, sunshine, Syl’s, treat, widow
Tuesday we went to aquasize as my buddy had an appointment on Thursday…
from there we drove to Oak Bluff, where we had lunch at Roxy’s Restaurant & Lounge… I was very excited to find battered mushrooms on the menu, so we started with those… and they were delicious;-)… then I had a tasty beef dip with Caesar salad… the service was excellent, the food good and it was a nice spot…
onward to Carman where we visited the Golden Prairie Arts Council to see an exhibition by Connie Bart Hamel which was filled with a variety of mediums… she is very talented and a neighbour of my friend…
we stopped at Syl’s for ice cream and had a lovely drive home in the sunshine…
wonderful day;-)…
25 Tuesday Apr 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
arch, big girl pants, blessed, boxes, chill, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, perfectly, plants, seeds, trellis, water barrel, weather, widow
had a bit of fun in the garden Monday…
there was a chill in the air, but we were able to install the arch in the side garden, and then I put up the trellises on the planter boxes…
the arch fits perfectly and it will be exciting to see what will grow up and over the path;-)…
while I was outside I managed to get the slinky back on the bird feeder pole and flipped the water barrel over…
started the day planting some tomato seeds and trying again with the datura, which hadn’t started a single sprout…
we will see if there are any sprouts this time… maybe one day it will be warm enough to plant outside, lol…
23 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blanket, blessed, living room, moments, pillows, purple, quilt, sofa, widow
my sofa had a blanket on it for most of the winter…
when the weather changed, I used the back of the handmade quilt produced by my friends on it…
the reason for the covering involves two pillows I have put on the sofa so that it isn’t so deep…
now I’ve used two pillowcases and pinned them to the back cushions…
think I like it…
herbiggirlpants 