20 Monday Oct 2025
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cushions, Fall, living room, moments, October, traded, weather, widow
traded cushions in the living room from the summer ones to the fall ones…
seems like October is flying by;-)…
next up will be the coffee table, lol…
13 Friday Jun 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cushions, flowers, fountains, furniture, garden, goldfish, happy, moments, nature, pond, sanctuary, weather, widow
the garden looked lovely today…
all the chair cushions were out and the throw cushions as well…
the daisies were blooming and the fish were happily swimming about after I topped up the pond…
even the new bee fountains, a Christmas gift, were out…
rearranged a bit of the furniture and think I like it…
what a great day to spend time in this sanctuary😍…
25 Sunday May 2025
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, clover, cushions, garden, grass, moments, nature, raked, seed, sprinkler, water, watered, weather, widow
early this week the garden was aerated with a huge machine…
watching the young man muscle it around the space made it clear how big and heavy the machine was…
a few days later, after watering the grass to soften it, clover and grass seed was scattered…
then the spots that weren’t doing well were raked and levelled out…
the new rake worked beautifully… the old one had separated quite a while ago, but it was likely thirty or forty years old, lol…
since then the grass has been watered daily to encourage the seed to take…
all of the cushions are put away before the watering begins…
it is a process, as the sprinkler has to be moved five or six times to ensure every bit gets a good soaking;-)…
fingers crossed that it does better this year than it did last year…
15 Thursday May 2025
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
anniversary, beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, consulting, cushions, enjoy, family, garden, happy, moments, nature, outdoor furniture, pots, shade, supper, umbrellas, weather, widow
Sunday was a glorious day… I was up early and put out all the cushions for the first time this year…
on Saturday all the umbrellas, hanging chair and planters made it out of the shed, so it is starting to look like a lovely place to be…
spent the majority of the day outside moving around, finding the shady spots…
eventually I ended up on the main deck…
after a very nice dinner of steak, baked potato and mushrooms, all cooked on the barbecue, I just couldn’t go inside, so I sat in the dark and enjoyed listening to the leaves as the warm wind blew and contemplated what else might happen in the garden…
throughout the day, had fun consulting with my kids in Ottawa about plants for their garden and chatted with them a few times… besides being Mother’s Day, it was also their anniversary;-)…
02 Sunday Mar 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blanket, blessed, book, chair, cooperative, cushions, deck, family, feeder, garden, micro-climate, moments, nature, reading, weather, widow
spent a delightful hour on the deck in the sunshine…
last evening my housemate dug out one of the deck chairs from under the tarp so there would be a place to sit when the weather is cooperative…
I found a set of cushions in the garage and brought out my Assiniboine Park blanket…
pulled over a small table and put my current book on it…
I did have my winter jacket on, but the sun on my face as I was reading was wonderful;-)…
there is still lots of snow in the garden, but the deck is always its own little micro-climate…
I even filled up a few bird feeders…
07 Saturday Dec 2024
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, cushions, decorations, moments, widow, wreath
Thursday, the wreath went up on the front door…
Friday, the winter cushions came out to brighten the space…
and I was really enamoured with the quote from my cards…
24 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
I have had the cushions for my outdoor chairs for over a year and I love them…
last Sunday I discovered a much simpler way to put them on the chairs, lol…
previously I would open them up and push down the bottom cushion and then make sure to raise the top cushion above it…
the new method puts both cushions on the chair and push it to the back, then raise the top (back) cushion…
so much easier;-)…
too funny, lol…
07 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, columbine, cucumbers, cushions, flowers, garden, growing, hibiscus, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, pond, poppies, purple, reading, slips, walk, weather, widow
this morning I started my day with a wander around the gardens…
I started with the vegetable garden and checked on the two tomatoes, miriad of peas, beans, and the couple of cucumbers that appear to have made a go of it…
the cucumber and butternut squash seeds have yet to reach the surface…
the columbines are getting ready to flower and it appears that the ones with double petals are happy in their new location along the house…
the dahlias are growing taller every day and the ivy slips from the house are holding their own…
next I checked out the pond garden, where the irises are blooming and the poppies are raising their heads slowly to get set to open… I had to detour back around the deck so that I didn’t brush against any of them… the hanging baskets are filling with flowers as they recover from the hail storm…
the petunias around the deck look good, but I need to find a way to raise up the new planter boxes as they are just a tiny bit too narrow…
the begonia and orchid in the back shady area seem to be doing well and the pansies by the bathtub pond are growing nicely…
the hibiscus is still in the shade since coming outside recently and the begonias and verbena are happy… sadly the pansies in between them are not doing well…the strawberry pot and dahlia next to the back door look excellent as do the morning glories as they come up…
on the deck the mandevilla seems content in its new location and the clematis continues to wind its way up the obelisk… the lobelia and alyssum on the table are doing very well…
after that lovely stroll, I brought out all the cushions, uncovered the deck chairs, and sat with my tea and read some of my book as the birds sang their morning welcome;-)…
27 Monday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, curtains, cushions, Debbie Travis, garden, happy, leafy, lounger, measurements, moments, money-saver, sewing, shopping, widow
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;-)…
11 Saturday May 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cushions, deck, elm seeds, garden, leaves, moments, nature, pond, thermos, trees, weather, widow
for the last little while the outer shell of the buds on the elm trees have been coming down…
then, when I looked outside on Friday, the ground and decks were covered with elm seeds…
after I put out the cushions and went to sit down, they were already covered, lol…
used a thermos for my drink to keep the seeds out…
spent time with the net to collect as much of the debris as possible from the pond… filled two nets, lol…
herbiggirlpants 