01 Monday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
focussed on pumps…
dug out the pump for the bathtub pond and, with some help from my housemate, got it going in the pond…
next the hot tub was emptied with the pump from the basement, which I needed help to find, lol… hoping a friend can come by and offer suggestions on the right hand cover which is not opening well…
finally, my housemate took the fountain pump out of the big pond… it took me awhile to get it cleaned out and then it went back in…
lots of water work;-)…
30 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, everywhere, family, flowers, garden, moments, morning glory, parcel, plants, seeds, tea towel, widow
got a parcel in the mail from my daughter in Ottawa…
it contained eight packets of a variety of morning glory seeds and an adorable tea towel covered in flowers…
a wonderful treat, and it means I can plant morning glories everywhere 🤪…
and I am going to…
29 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, garden, grandson, hardening, houseplants, moments, nature, outside, plants, weather, widow
Tuesday afternoon the majority of the larger house plants made it outside…
they have just made it onto the deck and a few will be moved elsewhere soon…
the smaller ones will come out in the next few days as space is made for them in the garden…
I’m being wild and crazy this year and not hardening any of them off…
this is also the first year in quite a while that I didn’t start any plants in the house…
we will see how they adapt to the rather warm weather and bright sun… 🤞
27 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fewer, garden, grandson, moments, petunias, plant shopping, plants, variety, widow
Monday morning it was warm and sunny, so we went plant shopping…
two different places and many plants purchased…
this year I’ve decided to go with fewer varieties, but more of them…
in the end I chose petunias, salvia, and fuchsia…
added a few creeping phlox to go with what I already have, as well as three different varieties of hostas…
finished up with a few vegetables…
pleased that I was able to stick to the plan…
now, they are all laid out in the spots where they will go and will be planted before too long…
22 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, double, family, garden, jobs, moments, nature, warm, water, weather, widow
got more done in the garden on Wednesday… thankfully the weather cooperated and the sun was out for most of the day and the temperature was in the double digits…
we figured out how to make the planters fit better around the deck and even used up some wood that we had saved from a bed;-)…
another piece of the bench got replaced which made me happy…
planters were moved and others brought out of the shed as I work on where to put them this year…
a few plants went into the ground and the rhubarb got moved to a much better location…
looking forward to some rhubarb crisp;-)…
20 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in family, food, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
. soup, bbq, big girl pants, blessed, chicken, family, food, Glowy, grandson, homemade, moments, spatchcocked, widow
on Sunday we (well, my housemate) cooked a spatchcocked chicken on Glowy for dinner…
afterwards I took the leftover bones and meat and started chicken soup…
finished it in the morning and had a delicious cup of soup for lunch;-)…
19 Tuesday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, boards, cleaned, eavestroughs, family, garden, grandson, ladders, moments, sails, weather, widow
my middle grandson came over on Saturday to help with some projects…
it started with removing the virginia creeper from the house and garage eavestroughs which involved a few ladders, big boards, buckets, and a number of yardwaste bags, lol…
from there he worked with his brother on adding copper mesh to boards to go along the garage to keep the squirrels out… hopefully it works…
the final piece of work was helping with getting the sails up in the garden…
happy we got so much done, particularly since then the weather has been cold🤪…
18 Monday May 2026
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, healthy, hospital, mango, memories, moments, sick, wanted, widow
lately I’ve been using frozen mango in my morning yogurt rather than my usual raspberries…
it has reminded me of the six weeks I spent in St. Boniface hospital over fifteen years ago…
for five of those weeks I was unable to eat, or drink anything… feeding tubes and IVs…
finally, towards the very end of my stay I was allowed to drink something…
and, for whatever reason, I wanted mango juice… my family searched high and low, but were unable to find any…
finally, after I returned home, some was produced, lol…
so my yogurt with frozen mango in it has been a reminder of that time in my life…
these reminders make me realize how blessed I am…
17 Sunday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blocks, family, garden, moments, nature, pond, running, sparrows, waterfall, weather, widow
I can’t explain how happy I am…
Wednesday, after hours of work in and around the pond we got it cleaned, filled with water and the waterfall and second pump going;-)…
a hose was dug into the dirt and blocks tidied up from last year’s construction…
there were a dozen various sparrows snacking on the grass and clover seed that went down last Saturday, lol…
they have also been enjoying the water with baths and drinks…
the back deck is not quite set up, but I managed to get a cushion on one of the chairs and sat out enjoying the wonderful sound of the water cascading from the waterfall and over the rock…
and while we were working on the pond, Hilda the Gardener was tidying up all the flower beds, in the hope that someday we will be able to plant, lol…
16 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, circulating, family, garden, moments, music, pond, prep, pumps, widow, working
started work on the pond…
first step was to empty out the water… that was done last Saturday…
on Wednesday, after using the wet-vac and vacuuming the leaves and other crud out of the bottom, the pumps were set in place…
then the water flowed in and the pumps started circulating… which also means the waterfall began making wonderful music…
what a treat…
herbiggirlpants 