poured…

03 Monday Jun 2024

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the bathtub pond has been running for enough days that it was time for the last goldfish to come out from their small condo in the house…

put a large rock in the pond so they could hide under it, added water from the pond to a bucket, and went into the house to catch them…

lucky for me, it didn’t take too long to collect the four of them…

brought them outside and left them in the pail to acclimatize for about twenty minutes and then poured them in;-)…

they went straight for the hiding place, lol…

class…

02 Sunday Jun 2024

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yesterday my memories reminded me that eleven years ago, we went on a cruise and ended up in Seattle where we took a glassblowing class… it was great fun…

we had to wear cotton, which explains my delightful outfit, lol…

I made a purple float for the pond and it came out very well…

later I took a photo of that same float in the pond… oddly, it sat lower in the water than the others, so I got it out and discovered it had water in it…

I couldn’t figure out where the water was getting in so brought it into the house and set it on a yogurt container on the counter, hoping it would drain out…

somehow I moved and knocked it off the container… and it broke into many pieces…

🥺…

pine…

01 Saturday Jun 2024

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I enjoy spending time in the garden watching the birds that come to the feeders, and the pond, for a drink and maybe a bath, lol…

sometimes I will see a new visitor but can’t quite identify them, but the Merlin sound app often gives me something to compare them with…

yesterday I’d seen a cute little bird, about the size of a chipping sparrow, but didn’t have time to look it up… today I was sitting in the garden with the sound app on and discovered it was a pine siskin…

technology is so cool;-)…

hiatus…

31 Friday May 2024

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this morning the mandevilla and Japanese Maple made their annual hiatus to the garden…

the mandevilla is probably four or five years old… it started out on the deck and has come in each fall and lived over the winter in the living room like any other houseplant… it has grown quite tall, but always loses a ton of leaves so I spent time pulling off many brown crispy dead bits, lol… it now has a very tall obelisk in the pot and most of the growth is at the top… looks good now that it is cleaned up…

the Japanese Maple travelled by car from Vancouver island about ten years ago, when it made the trip with the kids as they moved from Courtenay to Ottawa, with a short visit here on their way… it had done well over that time but hasn’t grown much… today I repotted it in a bigger container with some fresh soil… hope it likes it;-)…

they will be in the shade for a few days and then move to their summer locations…

admire…

30 Thursday May 2024

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Wednesday, a ton of work took place in the garden…

Hilda, the Gardener, planted milkweed, beardstongue, and pansies in the garden…

weeds were dug out and she also planted up the pots at the front of the house so it looks great everywhere…

I am so blessed to have someone who can do the heavy lifting in the garden… she has made it look amazing over these last years;-)…

my grandson and I walked the irrigation line and fixed or replaced the tiny hoses that the bunnies find very tasty, lol…

we also worked on the pallet planter using landscape cloth to make bags for a few flowers to grow in…

clearly, I need to have company over to admire the space, lol…

and Wednesday is also the day that the grass gets mowed, whipper snipped, and blown clean…

busy day which meant there was no nap🤪…

scoop…

29 Wednesday May 2024

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at last the bathtub pond is up and running…

took quite a while to empty out the water and leaves… used a pail to scoop out the majority of the water and then the wetvac to finish collecting the debris…

did it in a hurry on Thursday, as it was supposed to rain a lot over the next few days… left it empty after I put the pump in so it could begin to fill with rainwater…

on Sunday it finally got filled up using the hose, then the pump was plugged in and started running…

today, pansies made it into the flower bed in front of the pond;-)…

in a few days I will pop the last four fish, from the smallest tank, in…

collected…

28 Tuesday May 2024

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had some fun on Sunday when the fish moved from their condo, to the pond…

I caught the first few and then my housemate collected the rest from the first tank…

I used water from the pond and left them sitting by the pond for awhile to acclimatize before they went in…

took a bit to catch the rest from the second tank, but eventually they were all in the big pail…

they have barely shown themselves since making it into the pond… amazing how twenty-four fish can fit under the bridge, lol…

measurements…

27 Monday May 2024

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on Saturday, we went to Giant Tiger as I’d seen an ad that had Debbie Travis bed sheets with a pattern I’d been looking for…

I have been searching for a particular leafy pattern without success…

the plan for the lounger was to combine two cushions, that I already have, into one, with a kind of slip-on pillowcase…

the store didn’t have the sheets but did have curtains with the same pattern, although the green is a bit darker than what I had in mind…we checked the measurements, which worked, so brought the curtains home… the fabric feels soft, but also strong…

got out the two cushions and laid them on the dining room table and got to work…

one curtain fit perfectly so I sewed the two sides together by hand and the fit looks nearly perfect…

it wasn’t quite as long as I’d hoped, so I couldn’t do a fold over to slip over the top of the lounger, but with two cushions inside it is a tight fit so it is just right…

I had been looking to have a custom cushion made, but, for less than $40 and a bit of sewing, I got something that was ten times less money and looks very nice in the garden;-)…

newbie…

26 Sunday May 2024

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Wednesday was a plant pickup from a friend’s church fundraiser…

there was alyssum, lobelia, petunias, and silver falls…

transplanted some in two planters that afternoon, hoping that they wouldn’t have a problem with the 4°C temperature that was expected that night…

in the end I covered all the newbie plants with sheets…

they all made it through the night;-)…

quicker…

25 Saturday May 2024

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at 5:30 Tuesday night l started to change the water in the hot tub…

a bit late to start the process, but that was how the day had gone, and it really needed to be done…

turned it off, brought up the pump, connected it to the large hose and within twenty minutes it was almost empty… it is so much quicker with the larger hose…

next I had to climb in and scoop out the last of the water and give it a good wipe down… that part always takes time, usually half an hour or so…

finally, after putting in the new filter, the water started to go in…

forty-five minutes later it was full and ready to be turned back on…

plugged back in and by Thursday morning it was ready for chemicals… it takes about five different ones, which go in one every twenty minutes or so, to get it ready for jumping in;-)…

had a nice time in the hot tub that evening, especially after all the work that had gone on over the last week…

tonight I enjoyed another visit to the tub and although it was overcast, it wasn’t raining or windy, lol… yay…