walking…

01 Monday Jun 2015

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this morning I took myself to the “A” for breakfast … this is about the fourth time that I have eaten out on my own, so I was feeling rather proud and certainly had those big girl pants on…

walked over to the Park and wandered around the English Garden and the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden…

took a lot of pictures… here are a few…

  
the path in the forest… not exactly like Cathedral Grove…

   
 

thousands of tulips… the main reason I wanted to get over there… didn’t want to miss them…

  
a couple of guys were taping a TV show about the city while I was sitting on my favourite bench…

  
moms with babies were doing some boot camp training beside the Duck Pond… and I got a few shots of ducks and geese…

   
 

spent some time under a canopy of lilacs… I do love the smell and the blossoms… they draw me like a  magnet…

   
   

there was a bit of wind and it was cool, but nice weather for walking…

   

the datura and rose standards were in place and starting to bloom… quite a change from my last visit when the gardens were basically bare…

 wonderful day with a spectacular sky to top it off…

water…

31 Sunday May 2015

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ran out and picked up groceries and then home to spend the day in the garden…

quite a few geese flying today and I caught these ones as they went over honking all the way…

  
lots of reading and relaxing… was so quiet that this guy didn’t even know I was in the garden when he came by for a drink of water…

  
also saw the cutest little brown frog in the pond but didn’t get a picture… very few birds around today…

  
my son-in-law spent some time fiddling with the pump and replaced the fancy one with the sump pump we had used before, and the sheet of water coming over the rock was beautiful… much nicer than the “special” pump produced…

  
he also put in a second pump to be sure the water is cycling through properly… 

had a lovely supper that I cooked on the barbecue and we sat around the pond for a while before they headed home… front and back yards look great as well, now that they’ve been mowed and whipper snipped…

  
kind of like this little bubbler now that I’m getting used to it…

divine…

30 Saturday May 2015

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not sure why, but I am missing George tremendously these days… he would have helped bring the flowers in and figure out what to do with the pond…

the kitchen is a mess with all the plants and pots that I brought in last night… was going to take them out this afternoon but the forecast is a bit iffy, so decided to leave them till tomorrow… cooking at the stove has been an interesting activity with the greenery crowded right up to it…

  
looks like the ones that were left outside are fine…

spent a while topping up the pond… could hear the pump straining while putting chemicals into the hot tub so realized it needed water…

  
have pretty much given up hope that the pond people are going to fix it… think that my son-in-law and I will start trying some stuff… he already put a strainer over the pump which is keeping it cleaner…

  
brought in a few lily of the valley flowers and they smell divine…

zero…

29 Friday May 2015

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cool day and overcast for a good portion of it but mid-afternoon the sun came out… still a biting wind though…

picked up at work by my daughter and we gathered up the rest of the family and went to Fun Days at their school…

kind of chilly but the little boys had fun…

 
 then I came home, having remembered, after a text and phone call, that I was supposed to be home at six for a friend to pick something up, oopsie… luckily they went out for dinner so were able to stop by on their way home…

since then, I’ve been bringing in plants and covering up the ones left outside, because the temperature is supposed to go below zero tonight…

 
not much room at the back door…

 pots in the sink…

  and on the dining room table… 

absolute craziness that it is supposed to freeze on the second last day of May…

beautiful moon tonight…

  
looking forward to the pictures I took with the camera…

been a long day and I am going to bed right now…

six months…

28 Thursday May 2015

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six months ago today I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes…

hard to realize it’s been that long… and on the other hand feels like just a few days…

big changes to my life since then… no more sugar or chocolate, stricter diet with more veggies and less meat, more exercise, needle pokes, weight loss, and lots of research…

feeling better on the whole… been thinking of some of the health issues I’ve dealt with over the last number of years… pancreatitis and gall bladder surgery, cancer diagnosis followed by hysterectomy and hernia repair… 

had to learn to deal with some of these things on my own… miss George so much during these difficult times…

he was always there to help get me through illnesses and looked after me all the time…

on my own, I’ve had to figure out when I need to call someone, who the first call will be to, and what I have to do when I am feeling sick… sometimes I want to put off getting help when I’m not feeling well…

I am so blessed to have my daughters and their partners… we talk on a regular basis and I see the kids here at least once a week… most jobs that need to be taken care of are looked after by them…

seems like those big girl pants are fitting better every day… whether I want them to, or not…

  
dandelions on the walk home… thankfully not in my yard…

  
lovely lilacs… really wanted to bring some home, but I restrained myself, lol…

wander…

27 Wednesday May 2015

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had a lovely wander around the garden tonight… everything is looking great, particularly as I got up early and watered before work…

here are the veggies with a few flowers mixed in… just a few tomatoes, peppers and basil… might still plant some radishes…

  
the planters around the deck and the basket beside are a lovely colour… they will be gorgeous once they fill in…

  

happily the hostas are coming up quickly…

  
lily of the valley are starting to bloom so in a few days it will smell wonderful in the garden…

  
and the poppies have buds now…

  
lots of plants but that doesn’t always mean there will be many flowers… George and I loved the poppies and would count the blooms every day…

 

the unplanted iris is beautiful… must decide where it is going and get it planted…
  have two baskets filled with fushia… I do enjoy these… and I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the colour…

  
happy to see that the mandevilla is already starting to climb up the obelisk…

wonderful how a few plants can add such life to the garden…

blooms…

26 Tuesday May 2015

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lots of blooms today…

early this morning I got a few shots… this one is the orchid that is reblooming…

  
the first bud is almost open… have had this orchid for at least a couple of years, and it has just been sitting in a corner of the dining room, quietly going about its business…

a picture of blooms from a bouquet that came in today…

 

certainly brighten up the day…

finally tonight took this picture of the beautiful orchid my friend brought me in January after I had lent her my car… today it dropped the last flower…

 

amazingly it has been blooming for five months… going to put it in the corner with the other one, lol…  

flower blossoms sure do make me happy… remind me of my beloved who was always bringing  home orchids for me… my life has been so blessed…

relaxing…

25 Monday May 2015

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had a quiet relaxing morning as I didn’t start work until eleven… lovely to be able to putter around the house…

began to unwind on the drive home as we took the scenic route along Wellington Crescent… such a pretty drive, even went through the Park… 

arrived home to find my friends in the garden with the cushions already on the chairs…

 
had a great couple of hours enjoying our time together as the sun set… lots of laughs and interesting conversation in a beautiful setting… although we might have spotted a couple of mosquitoes…

 
the newly potted plants look great…  

I love this weather and the time I get to spend outside…

finished…

24 Sunday May 2015

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up way too early and had a five am hot tub … put out all the cushions so the garden would be ready when I got home from the Diabetes Walk that some of my colleagues and I were taking part in…

 
walked over to the Park and met our group… three were doing the 10 km walk, two of us did the five km one, and one did about three kilometres before getting a bit lost…

It was a beautiful day for a walk and about three hundred people participated in a number of options… we had a great time and saw a few friends doing some of the more strenuous runs… 

this is what we saw ahead of us as we began…

 
the Park is so beautiful at this time of year and we got to walk around the Formal Gardens with their wonderful canopy of trees… had to get a shot of these beauties as we walked by…

  
once we all finished we headed out for brunch and had fun… great to spend time with these amazing folks outside of the office…

got home and rested my weary feet in the garden… sadly I have a few blisters… finally finished book five of Game of Thrones as I sat out there…

kids came for dinner and we ate outside for the second day in a row… still no bugs…

finished planting all the flowers that we picked up yesterday, except for one iris which I haven’t quite figured out where to put, lol…

  
enjoying a few quiet minutes by the pond before heading in… think a hot tub is in the plans for a bit later…

gardening…

23 Saturday May 2015

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what a wonderful day…

up early, had breakfast and headed into the garden… set out the cushions and cleaned all the tables… took out all the plants from the dining room and set them beside the pond…

  
got all the water plants into the pond and then took a little break…

  
still looks a bit empty…

  
before long the water hyacinth will multiply and the water lilies will pop up to the surface and fill in with green lily pads…

the kids came over and my grandson and his friend worked away in the side garden cleaning up two years worth of weeds… looking very nice… I am so happy that we got this done as last year I just pretended there wasn’t anything there, lol…

my daughter and I went to a couple of garden centres and got most of the plants I will need…

the little boys picked up twigs and swept the decks while we were gone… had pizza for supper and they headed home…

filled the planters around the deck, made three baskets, and planted about seven pots before I finally came in tonight…

took a few breaks to read and watch the goldfinches at the feeder…

all around, an excellent day…