painting…

03 Wednesday Jul 2024

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while we were at the cottage a dear friend of my daughter came to spend the day…

they had fun visiting, walking the beach, going in the water and playing with paint…

it was lovely to see them enjoy their time together…

I was reminded of the many times they spent together, and with their friends, when they were much younger, lol…

watching them painting brought back their project when they were in their teens… three of them spent a few days painting the bedroom door of my daughter’s room…

since then the door has moved every time she has…

currently it lives in her hallway…

it is so good to see these young people maintaining longtime friendships…

sprinkled…

02 Tuesday Jul 2024

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Monday, while supper was cooking on Barbie, the barbecue, my housemate sprinkled grass seed over the non-grassed areas in the garden…

it had been raining off and on all day and was supposed to continue all day today…

after putting down the grass he used the last of the soil to cover everything and then raked it over…

now I have been directed to water every single day unless it rains;-(…

stripped…

01 Monday Jul 2024

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yesterday I moved five monarch caterpillars from one area of milkweed, where all of the leaves had been devoured across the path to the group that were caterpillar-free…

this picture is before every single leaf had been gobbled up…

I used a stick to move them because I didn’t want to get injured, lol…

at least one of the caterpillars was miffed because it opened its mouth wide and felt like it was hissing at me…

I guess they also travelled on their own, because today I discovered eleven on those plants… and I moved another one that seemed to be trying to eat the stem of the stripped milkweed…

hope there are enough leaves to get them to the correct size to move into the chrysalis phase;-)…

crashing…

30 Sunday Jun 2024

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the other day my grandson came to the door and said something had happened to my plants… he heard a crash as he was showering and came out to the shower caddy that we had installed in January laying in pieces on the floor with bits of orchids everywhere…

I was so shocked I didn’t even take a picture of the carnage…

it took a while to pick up the plants, sweep up the broken bits, and dump out the soil…

then, we ignored it for a few days, lol…

when we put it back up, we decided to use strapping and screws…

I still need to replace the one broken pot…

hopefully this time the whole shelf won’t come crashing down, lol…

decimated…

29 Saturday Jun 2024

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on Tuesday we counted twenty monarch caterpillars on the milkweed in the garden…

they were all over the newest batch that was recently planted and have nearly decimated all the leaves…

they were also on the ones near the waterfall which were planted last summer… we’ve now taken out all the poppies so there is more room to be able to see the caterpillars…

there were none on the ones from last year which were located around the edge of the pond… these were the ones that I planted in a spot where I could see and photograph any butterflies, eggs and caterpillars that came along, lol…

there were some chives next to them so when Hilda the Gardener was here the other day I had her take them out… maybe the butterflies don’t like the smell…

so excited to have so many;-)…

producing…

28 Friday Jun 2024

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spent more time at The Leaf on Tuesday morning before my daughter headed home… it is such a wonderful point of happiness for me, and my daughter…

we discovered, after chatting with Linda, one of the gardeners, that the second cacao tree has now got two cacao pods on it… this is very exciting as only the first tree had been producing pods…

we spotted a little lizard on the third tree… apparently it arrived with one of plants, lol…

Linda was very excited to show us the mango tree that had just been planted…

we also learned there are fifty fish in the pond, and all the smaller ones were babies from the largest ones… the excess fish have been moved to another location to keep the population stable…

replaced…

27 Thursday Jun 2024

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not too long ago (well, it was mid-April) I watched a crew take down one of elms up the street…

in the Fall they had taken another one down close by…

last week Hydro came and marked gas lines and left yellow flags in front of two houses next to me…

this morning I watched as a number of pieces of equipment came by… the first dug two holes on the boulevard and went away… a little while later another few trucks came and planted a tree in each of the holes… then a protective barrier went around the bottom of each of them…

it will be interesting to see if they will come and water them until they get established…

not quite sure what type of tree they are but very happy that the elms have been replaced;-)…

Gibson’s…

26 Wednesday Jun 2024

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had a wonderful day on Saturday…

we had ordered bread and some goodies from Village Green Bakery online and went to pick the order up…

while we were in the store next to the bakery I came across a butterfly net which will work perfectly for catching fish in the pond…

next we went to Saffie’s in Albert Beach and found an adorable long dress – purple – with pockets… woohoo…

across the street at Gibson’s Glass & Art, I found a beautiful purple mug and a delightful stained glass dragonfly…

lovely treats and reminders of our excellent week at the cottage…

OEB…

25 Tuesday Jun 2024

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this morning I discovered OEB… it is a restaurant that my daughter had encountered in Calgary and said was excellent…

we ordered last night and it was delivered first thing this morning…

I chose the French Toast Trifle… it looked delicious on the website and was exactly the same when it arrived…

there were two pieces of brioche smothered in custard with blueberries and strawberries… and to top it off there were three cute little meringues on top…

and it was delicious;-)…

vireos…

24 Monday Jun 2024

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I used Merlin a great deal at the cottage…

I found that when the Sound ID told me which birds were around it made it easier to help spot them as I knew what they should look like…

the vireos and yellow warblers were with us all the time;-)…

we also spotted pelicans, seagulls, eagles, and hummingbirds…

such fun…