scum…

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

spent the better part of yesterday and today working on the fish tanks… I’ve been thinking about how far I’ve come from the person who admired the tank, but had no desire to get my hands dirty… that was all for my beloved…

yesterday I used the pump (for emptying the hot tub) to remove the majority of the water that was still in them… then I removed the rocks and scrubbed down the sides… never leave a tank partly filled because the scum on the glass becomes rather difficult to remove, lol…

next I used the wet vac to remove the last of the water…

in between all that, I scrubbed each and every rock from the tanks… that took a while as I did it between reading times;-)…

rocks were placed back in, and then the hose brought in from outside to fill them up…

finally I put both pumps back in and got them working…

big job and it looks great…

luck…

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

besides being my support group, my friends bring me good luck

I’ve only spotted swallowtail butterflies two or three times so far this summer and two of those were when they were over…

a few days ago I caught this long shot of one on the deck…

and then I found eggs on both of my parsley plants… which I only buy for the butterflies;-)…

maybe, just maybe, there will be caterpillars…

then I spotted this one… they sure move quickly, lol…

woohoo…

guilt…

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been enjoying my time reading in the garden…

the one issue has been a lack of steps, lol…

recently, I’ve set a timer for twenty minutes of reading and then five minutes of walking, either around the garden or in the spot…

I’ve had some success with a few days of over ten thousand steps… which makes me happy…

now there is no guilt whatsoever about spending the entire day reading😊…

morphed…

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

started the day looking at photos of my beloved…a few tears were shed in the process… we were married 52 years ago today… I still remember looking out the window of the apartment to see him dropping off the decorated car… in those days, getting the car turned out with paper flowers was the thing to do, lol…

then I had a walk around the garden… in the 49 years we’ve been in this space, it has morphed from a square green grass covered area, to a swing set with some cedars, to a small swimming pool space, to a huge sandbox with a two story playhouse, to a parking area for a camper trailer… to a space filled with ponds and lovely gardens…

thanks to the help of Hilda the Gardener, a lawn service, and the kids, it is looking wonderful and I know that he would be pleased…

I am truly blessed, but I miss him every day…

hoop…

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

I’ve been spending a good deal of time watching the fish as they swim around the pond in their school

they are doing well and growing nicely…

I made a hoop for the water hyacinth (handyperson me!) and it is filling quickly…

part of the reason I gathered it together was to provide a safe haven for any babies that might turn up…

and, just yesterday, I spotted one tiny little goldfish swimming close beside the hoop… excited to see if more show their little faces…

chance…

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

this picture came up on my Facebook memories a few days ago…

it was a reminder of the frightening ride we had on the chairlift at Mount Washington eleven years ago…

we sat at the bottom of the chairlift for a long time… both of us had a fear of heights… but we decided to do it…

we got on the lift and started up, but the person who helped us didn’t put the bar down…

I felt so scared that I may have bent the side and back bars on the chair, lol… when we came down they were careful to make sure all the safety features were in place…

we were proud of one another;-)…

this photo came up too…

it was from a few years ago when my kids tried to get me up on a wakeboard…

we tried for what felt like hours to do it… one was in the water with me and one was driving the boat carefully… it just never happened…

but, once again, I was pleased that I had taken the chance and tried new things, lol…

my beloved would have laughed and laughed, although he didn’t love being on the water…

slinky…

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

I watched as one of the little red squirrels figured out how to climb the slinky on the pole by the garage… it made a cool sound as the squirrel climbed it like a ladder…

so, I reset the solar light that was holding it down so it is loose and hope that will keep the squirrel from getting up there again…

and look what I spotted;-)…

these pictures are a little fuzzy, but when the squirrel was flying up and down the slinky, they were moving very quickly…

snatching…

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

dragonflies have been flying around the garden like crazy…

some have been dropping eggs into the pond, but most of them are clearly snatching mosquitoes out of the air…

I’ve managed to catch a few when they are taking a little break;-)…

woohoo…