Tag Archives: family

ladders…

19 Tuesday May 2026

Posted by in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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🤪…

wanted…

18 Monday May 2026

Posted by in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

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…

blocks…

17 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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…

circulating…

16 Saturday May 2026

Posted by in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

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…

cucumbers…

15 Friday May 2026

Posted by in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

next part of the project was to install two arches where I am hoping to grow cucumbers and beans and morning glories;-)…

they will be located between the pond and the deck…

I’m hopeful that the light will help grow more veggies and brighten up that section of the garden;-)…

now the arches are in, two planters from other areas of the garden will be placed under them to hold the plants, once the grass/clover comes through the dirt/compost/sand… fingers crossed…

we picked up some wire and fastened it to the arches using zip ties…

it will be interesting to see how long it takes to cover the arches with greenery…

lava…

14 Thursday May 2026

Posted by in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

the Japanese Maple bonsai has moved into a new and much bigger pot…

holes were punched into the bottom and soil, compost, sand, and fertilizer went into the new pot with some used lava rocks…

it looks like a very large container for a small plant, but the hope is that the trunk will grow larger in the bigger pot…

it was moved back into the house and will start transitioning to the garden over the next few weeks… after the summer in the garden, it will move back into the house for the winter…

threshold…

12 Tuesday May 2026

Posted by in life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

for many, many, months the threshold on the front door has been loose…

this week my housemate removed the metal and the old wood…

there was a bit of laughter regarding the tiny size and rustiness of the screws that were taken out…

a new piece of wood was positioned, which sits on the top step of the stairs and should provide more strength in the future… stronger screws and the metal strip reinstalled…

looks great and there is no longer any movement when it is stepped on…

woohoo;-)…

of course, this all took place while I was on a video call with my kids in Ottawa… there was hardly any noise, except for drilling and hammering 🤪…

appear…

30 Thursday Apr 2026

Posted by in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

had fun watching my grandson start to work on his Japanese Maple bonsai…

we picked up the Japanese Maple last spring and it lived in the garden for the summer and moved into the living room in the fall…

over the winter it lost all of its leaves, but new ones have just started to appear;-)…

lots of bits were trimmed off and quite a few types of wire were used to begin the process of bending branches to new spots…

this is the second try as the first one he worked on didn’t make it…

kind of exciting to see how it will turn out, although it is a very slow process…

April…

29 Wednesday Apr 2026

Posted by in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

last night was my first in the hot tub for a really long time…

a screw had come loose on the left side cover and it took quite a while before we were able to screw it back in… then it needed to be filled and it took me ages to get that done…

looking for photos of it, I found this note about the day the hot tub arrived —- April 29, 2009…

and this one from my first hot tub on Mother’s Day, 2009…

the area around the tub has changed a lot since its arrival…

these photos reminded me when the right hand cover came off and was repaired…

these photos were taken on April 28, 2023…

apparently, the end of April has been an important period for the hot tub…

next up will be emptying the tub and figuring out if we can make the right side more stable for opening and closing…