Tags
big girl pants, creeping, garden, nature, plants, trim, virginia creeper, widow
I think I need to trim some of the Virginia creeper around the garage door soon… it is creeping across the doorway;-)…

if not I won’t be able to get in there, lol…
06 Friday Aug 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, creeping, garden, nature, plants, trim, virginia creeper, widow
I think I need to trim some of the Virginia creeper around the garage door soon… it is creeping across the doorway;-)…

if not I won’t be able to get in there, lol…
05 Thursday Aug 2021
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, calendar, dinner, fun, google, learning, moments, steak, supper, Technology, widow
today I learned that if you put the word supper in the title of an appointment in the Google calendar, this is what it shows…

but, if you put dinner in it, you get a cute little picture;-)…

clearly Google doesn’t know that supper and dinner mean the same thing to me, lol…
always enjoy learning new things, particularly concerning technology;-)…
04 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basil, big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, grape tomatoes, happy, moments, nature, pearls, plants, widow
very excited to gather some of the ripe cherry tomatoes to add to my lunch…

also picked basil to go along with the bocconcini pearls that have been waiting in the fridge…

a delicious fresh lunch;-)…
03 Tuesday Aug 2021
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, critters, dragonfly, dry, garden, happy, moments, nature, pond, struggle, widow
was watering the plants when I spotted movement in the pond…
when I looked more closely, I realized that a dragonfly was struggling in the water…
I was able to get it out of the water and set it down where it could dry out…

it wasn’t moving so I thought that it took too long to lift it out…
I checked on it a few times and it was very still…

later I went over, and happily, it had flown away;-)…
yay;-)…
02 Monday Aug 2021
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fun times, garden, grandson, happy, hot tub, lifesaver, memories, moments, photos, remembering, treat, water, widow
came across this photo yesterday… it is one of my all time favourites…

it was taken twenty years ago (so it isn’t quite as crisp as I would like) in a rented hot tub in our yard…
for a few years we would rent a hot tub for our anniversary weekend… it was such fun and a wonderful treat… so lucky to now have my own hot tub to use whenever I want;-)…
the lifesaver is so cute and his little face is adorable;-)…
our grandson just loved it then, and he still enjoys using hot tubs…
makes me smile to remember special times…
01 Sunday Aug 2021
Tags
anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, everyday, family, garden, George, hands, happy, health, memories, moments, morning glories, pond, purple, remembering, widow
the Olympics have been a distraction as this day has come closer – what would have been our 51st wedding anniversary…
I’ve spent the day thinking of some moments with my beloved…
the everyday things: changing up the configuration of the ponds; working in the garden as it changed over the years; caring for his lawn, trimming the Virginia creeper, fixing whatever needed attention; making the world’s best French fries, fried egg sandwiches and salads; driving the girls and I everywhere; reading and playing with our grandsons; cleaning the garage, packing the car, barbecuing; the strength of his hands that could wring out a cloth so it was dry, massage a sore neck, scrub a pot perfectly clean, and gently hold my hand when we were out walking…

so many little things…
I’ve been remembering our 40th anniversary… I was in the hospital for an extended period of time and he came every day and brought me pictures he had taken of whatever morning glories had opened on that particular day… I took this photo just yesterday…

he also sent me a basket filled with 40 roses… each night they had to be moved into the hall because their scent was so strong I couldn’t sleep with them in the room, lol…
a friend recently lost his partner and has decided to refer to their anniversary as the first celebration of their 41 years together… what a lovely way to describe it…

today I am also enjoying the sentiment of this beautiful card which I recently received in the mail…
what a blessed life I have lived;-)…
31 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, flowers, garden, gardening, hostas, moments, nature, plants, pond, pruners, purple, water, widow
today I did some actual gardening, lol…
for some reason I do not like hosta flowers, even though they are purple… odd, because I like the plants…
I got my pail, gloves and pruners and tidied up each of the hostas that had flowers hanging over them… the most difficult was the one behind the waterfall… it is a bit tight in that corner and I didn’t want to fall into the pond again, lol… they look so much tidier now…

I moved a couple of impatiens from a spot where they weren’t visible into a pot that the squirrels had dug up and destroyed a plant… I also repotted a dahlia corm that was in a pot and hadn’t done anything…maybe it was planted too deep… if it doesn’t peek through in the next week I will put something else in the pot…
then it was onto my book and relaxing;-)…

30 Friday Jul 2021
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
anthurium, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, gift, memories, moments, nature, plants, plastic, purple, widow
I’ve been so focussed on the garden I forgot to share the excitement in the dining room…
this anthurium, which I received as a birthday gift five years ago, flowered once last year after not blooming for four years…

on July 7th I spotted this new bloom;-)…
now it is open and beautiful… although it looks like plastic, lol… once open it lasts for ages…

nature truly is amazing…
29 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cushions, dahlias, flowers, garden, moments, nature, odour, plants, purple, sanctuary, The Dahlia Expert, water, weather, widow
I was up at 6:30 am watching the Olympics;-)…
I had made my mind up to water the garden first thing because it has been getting hot so early in the day…
I think the temperature only reached 28 Celsius which feels cool after the hot days we’ve been dealing with…
it turned out to be a beautiful day, other than the odour of smoke in the air… luckily, you could smell the smoke, but the sky was clear…
after watering, I put out all the cushions and wandered around checking out flowers…
the planter with the milkweed and morning glories in it was looking spectacular as the morning glories have overtaken the container… not sure that the monarchs can find the milkweed anymore…

the dahlias are doing well and one of the buds on the Robann Regal plant has started to open…

excited to see it fully open…
I also realized that there are more buds starting on the Mick’s Peppermint… that plant is huge and didn’t look like it was going to have more than a few flowers… interesting that the second flower was about half the size of the first one, although it is hard to see that in my photo… and the colours are different on every flower;-)…

sat and enjoyed the view…

I love my garden sanctuary…
28 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cucumber, flowers, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, prickly, sweep, weather, widow
this is the first time I have planted/grown cucumbers and I’ve been surprised at how prickly they are…
the cucumber plants had a ton of flowers on them, but no actual cucumbers…
I read online that I should take a broom and sweep over them… this is supposed to help with pollination…
I decided to give it a try the other day… found one of my beloved’s brushes and brushed over as many of the flowers as I could… that was on Saturday…

today, this is what I spotted… plus two others…

not sure if it was the brushing or whether I just had to wait a bit longer, lol…
but I am absolutely thrilled…