greenhouse…

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

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gorgeous day off…

walked over to the Park and through the Gardens…

got a few nice shots during my walk…

  
lovely dahlia…

  
monarch on a butterfly bush… well more like a tree… they have quite a number of plants which spend the winter in the greenhouses… the butterfly bushes and datura are obvious ones… they are all very large… think that many of the plants get an early start there as well…

  
the rose standards were filled with nearly spent blooms… was surprised to see so many because last time I was there only a few were budding…

the pond in the Leo Mol Garden was nice but it is a bit cold for the water lilies to open…

  
always so peaceful in that portion of the Garden…

heard the horses while I was there which was cool… first time I’ve heard them in the Park… don’t think they made any sounds when we were in their area on Saturday…

  
this was what I saw as I was exiting the English Garden… great view of the fountain in the Duck Pond…

giggled when I got home because the pump in the small pond decided to shoot up higher than required…

  
the cold weather is clearing up the water…

had to top up the pond again this afternoon… won’t be long before we shut it down and do some reorganizing of the rocks… and I will have have to ponder what to do with the garden…

special…

07 Monday Sep 2015

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here are a few flower pictures I’ve taken over the last while…

this shot of hydrangea was special to me because of the light…

 

this was in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden and there were dozens of bushes filled with blossoms… quite beautiful…  
yesterday morning I took this shot of wild jolly jump-ups… they are so tiny and cute… could easily have been missed…

  
there are now three little patches of them in the grass in the garden… luckily they are right along edges so should survive mowing…

here is a shot of one of the morning glory buds preparing to open…

 
thought they looked like this the day before they open, but it seems they can stay like this for a few days… will be interesting to see if it opens tomorrow while I am home, lol…

this is a stalk from the calla which I cut off the other day because I thought it was done…

  
it is just stuck into a pot to dry the seeds out, and now it is blooming… pretty special…

this final photo is of one of the phone handsets in a bag of rice…

 
managed to drop it into the toilet yesterday… hopefully the rice will do its magic and dry it out…

busy…

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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had a fairly good sleepover night… little guy was still sick and got up at three for about an hour… saw this out the window…

  
misty… looked ethereal…

  
had a busy day… went to the Children’s Nature Playground at the park and spent a few minutes quietly watching the deer… we saw five in total…

  
great time on the swings… these round ones are very popular… the area was nearly empty so they could play on everything as much as they wanted…

  
then I spotted a few wasps on the butterfly weed… pretty good photo just with my iPhone…

  
on to the crow’s nest… this was the most popular slide for these two…

  
finally headed to the train for a ride… we chose the very back because the last time we took a ride on it with grandpa it was in this spot… here they are making a space for him…

  
the one down side was that apparently all the mosquitoes love this spot…

picked up groceries and had a quiet time when we got home… a bit later in the afternoon the older one mowed the back garden…

  
and the front yard… first time he has done this so we had a bit of a lesson…

 
he did a great job… after supper they headed home… 

writing this and then going to bed…

I am exhausted, but had great fun, lol…

persherons…

05 Saturday Sep 2015

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great fun at the zoo today… the little boys and I got to check out the barn and go on a lovely wagon ride at the new McFeetors Heavy Horse Centre...

  
the guide explained all about this powerful horse breed as we circled the new area…
  
our ride was excellent… we went and picked up some rain ponchos as it was misting on us a bit…  properly attired, we checked out a few other spots…

   
looking for butterflies… most of them were released last week…

 
but finding lots of caterpillars… Mr. Eagle Eyes even spotted a chrysalis…

  
unfortunately the littlest guy had a headache for a good portion of the day… when we got home, having walked from the Park, he napped for a bit…

  
this is a picture of the canna…

  
cannot see the hummingbird that came to it twice while we were in the garden… it was faster than I was…

here’s a picture of two of us taken by the littlest person…

  
was a bit cool by then, but happily rain didn’t start falling again until just after dark…

had its low points, but wonderful time spent together…

water…

04 Friday Sep 2015

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quite a day…

had to top up the water in the pond, so I spent a few minutes enjoying the fish… always makes me feel calm and relaxed…  

  

overcast when we headed to work… but still nice…

around two our fire alarm went off…

  
out we went, and across the street to the approved gathering spot… started to spit while we were out there… 

three fire trucks and two other fire vehicles arrived to check things out… work in the basement may have caused the alarm, so we were back inside within half an hour, once they were able to find the alarm panel and turn it off… that bell is very loud…

within five minutes of our return to the office the sky went black and the heavens opened…

  

picked up by my daughter and grandson and we went to The Burger Place for supper as the concert they were going to was cancelled due to the storm…

  
it was still raining and the puddles were amazing…

  
my daughter took this great shot of the corner where we were having our supper… one of George’s favourite places…

got home and was happy to discover that, although water had come into the basement, it had mainly been soaked up by the towels that I leave on the floor…

  
a bit had run across the floor to the drain, but nothing had gone as far as the carpet…

  

probably didn’t need to top up the pond, lol…

follow…

03 Thursday Sep 2015

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been getting a few more followers lately…

each one makes me so happy… still haven’t figured out how to thank people for following me… need to study up a bit to see how to use some of the widgets available I think…  


have over 230 followers as some follow by email… 

always fun to check the stats… for a while I couldn’t see them on my phone, but eventually I figured it out… 

these days I rarely use the computer to check and write my posts… 

was just talking with someone who also mentioned that they do everything on their phone… nothing on their laptop or computer…

I still use the computer for a few things, particularly if I have pictures on my camera that are going to be part of my post… 

was speaking with someone recently and we talked about what makes one post receive more likes than another… we didn’t come to any conclusion… seems like something that I don’t imagine as that interesting gets a lot of attention and something else that I think will get lots of attention, gets very little…

thank you for liking and/or following me… I appreciate it:-)…

  

senior…

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

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before leaving this morning I took a few pictures of flowers in the garden…

the mandevilla is filled with blossoms and flowers…

  
it is just loving its spot in the garden and the weather…

  
looking toward the pond from the deck, got a nice pic of the canna with the waterfall in the background… happy that it is going through another set of blooms…

stopped on my way home to get my hair cut… bit short, but it will grow…

  
I always go on Wednesday because that is seniors’ day… today I mentioned that Wednesday is my day because of the savings and the woman gave me back a toonie and said I needed to tell them because she would never have thought I was a senior… should have given her a bigger tip… it did make me feel good, lol…

been talking with different people about reaching senior status… depending where you are, the number can be anywhere from 55 to 65… I have been quick to access the discounts because I am happy to have reached whatever the age is… at Perkins they have a 55 plus menu which has smaller size portions… perfect for me… at a number of attractions when I was in Ottawa, there were discounts for ages 64 and over…

looking forward to collecting Old Age Security when I turn 65… friends have had different reactions when they started collecting it… some were thrilled to be getting some additional funds and others were shocked that their lives were coming to a close, and they wondered what they had done with it…

interesting how we all see things differently… guess that’s what makes us us, lol…

 

simple…

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

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a gorgeous evening… 

  

the temperature right now is 27 degrees and I am sitting on the back deck by the pond enjoying the sounds…

well not really… as I write this an ambulance is going by and the neighbour is running his shopvac, lol… up until that point I was listening to the waterfall and chickadees flitting about the garden and watching a little red squirrel dash across the main deck…

the canna is blooming again… bright and beautiful, it was the first thing I saw when I looked out the window this morning…

  
I am continually surprised by how much happiness a blossom or two can give me…

  
on a recent walk through the English Garden at the Park I got a lovely shot of some Lisianthus…

  
next year I am going to grow some, although I’m not sure where I will find plants…

there were very few water lilies open but this one caught my eye…

  
some of them have the most interestingly patterned leaves while others are simply green…

simple things really do make me happy… 

once again, as I spend these precious minutes steeped in the beauty of a late summer evening, watching the fish swim around the pond as the light fades, I realize what a gift my life is and how blessed I am…

humid…

31 Monday Aug 2015

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it has been extremely humid here for a good portion of the summer… this is not the norm… well it wasn’t before…

for the last few weeks there has been fog or heavy dew nearly every day…

  
yesterday I took this picture of the front windows… first time it happened a few weeks ago I nearly had a heart attack thinking the seal had gone on the windows… not sure I’ve ever seen that before then…

  
this close up shows how thick the moisture covering the window was…

even though it was wet, decided to mow the grass in the garden because it was so long I didn’t want to sit out there… had the bag on and finished to discover there was nothing in the bag… had my neighbour come and look at it to see if the bag was on right… it had all stuck on the inside… so I spent quite a while scraping it off, lol… apparently I should have waited for it to dry up a bit…

the squirrels were busy… early in the day this red squirrel decided to have a snack at the front feeder…

  
later in the day either the same squirrel, or a relative, had a great time at the garden feeder while I was reading…

  
interesting because for most of the summer the grey squirrels have been the only ones I’ve seen…

felt under the weather for a good portion of the day, but was much better by the evening… certainly kept me from the gardening I had hoped to finish up…

dishes…

30 Sunday Aug 2015

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have had a few different conversations recently about doing dishes…

when we were camping I took on the dishwashing duties… often, one of the boys would dry and we would both help put things away… or I would do it all… happy to give them a break…

was doing dishes at the kids’ new house on our last camping day and my grandson advised someone that I loved doing the dishes…

I shared that I don’t mind doing the dishes, but that it is something I can do to be helpful… he was surprised…

was talking with someone else and they also found doing the dishes a great way to free up time for others to do things that need to happen…

yesterday I had lots of dishes to do after making walnut pesto…

  
fresh basil out of the garden…

  
with walnuts, garlic, Parmesan, and olive oil…

  
finished product… yummy, even froze a bit…

when we were first married neither of us liked cleaning up in the kitchen so it would get rather piled up before we’d finally do the dishes, lol… as the years have passed it seems easier to clean up as the mess is being made…

usually do the dishes when I’m in Ottawa too…

hmmm, maybe I do love doing them… uh, no…

spent a few hours on the deck the last few nights and got a couple of good shots of the full moon…  

  

guess I better go and do my supper dishes, lol…