26 Wednesday Nov 2025
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
spent time with the fish and their pumps…
each one was cleaned and the water came streaming over beautifully…
I’ve figured out an easier way to clean them now, so the process is much quicker most of the time… I’ll still need to do the longer process once in a while…
but for now I am happy with this new system…
29 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caught, counted, family, fish, garden, grandson, indoors, moments, nature, pond, water level, weather, widow
a few fish came into the house around Thanksgiving…
on Tuesday morning we went out to collect the rest, as it is seems to be getting cooler every day…
part of the process was to empty a good amount of water, particularly as the pond was as high as I’ve seen it, since we’ve had so much rain lately…
then it was fairly easy for my housemate to catch the remaining fish…
once they were in the tanks, I counted thirty, which is about right, so we were pleased that we’d got them all…
we will check the pond over the next few days to see if there are any stragglers that we missed…
11 Thursday Sep 2025
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, contaminants, fish, fish tanks, goldfish, koi, moments, pond, project, pumps, water, weather, widow
finally got around to filling the fish tanks yesterday…
the process took over an hour, as each tank had to be filled and then the pump was cleaned, plugged in and turned on…
I was pleased as after each pump was cleaned, it started up without any issues…
now the pumps will run for three or four weeks before any fish come inside, to be sure that the water has no chlorine or other contaminants in it…
happy this piece of work is done and I don’t have to think about the fish coming inside until much later;-)… woohoo…
09 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buds, falling, fish, food, friend, friends, garden, happy, hibiscus, leaves, lunch, moments, nature, pond, soaking, wasps, water, weather, widow
another delightful day in the garden, especially after the last number of cool and overcast days…
spotted a hibiscus blossom, so that was a treat…
next, I went into the pond to clean out the pump… the leaves have been falling like crazy and there were a ton in the water… once the pump has been cleaned out, the waterfall always flows beautifully…
all the cushions went out and a dear friend arrived with lunch… we ate inside as the wasps are very busy in the garden…
we moved outside and had a lovely time by the pond catching up on life…
after she left, I read in the garden for the remainder of the day;-)…
soaking up every minute possible in this sanctuary…
30 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blue, fish, flowers, garden, memories, moments, morning glories, nature, purple, shrivelled, treat, weather, widow
I spent a large portion of the day reading in the garden and enjoying the flowers and fish…
as the afternoon progressed I watched the morning glories close up… it reminded me of all the days when I worked and how, by the time I got home, they were all done…
this morning I took a photo of the butterfly bench with a number of blooms on it…
currently the majority of the blooms are the large blue ones with a few smaller purple ones still popping out…
by late this afternoon they had all shrivelled up…
what a treat to be able to enjoy them from start to finish;-)…
18 Friday Apr 2025
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaning, clogging, fish, glass, goldfish, moments, nature, pumps, tank, water, widow
Wednesday, I spent time cleaning two of the pumps…
Thursday was glass cleaning day, lol…
luckily it didn’t take too long and now the tanks look so much better;-)…
seems to me the pumps are clogging up more quickly than previously;-(…
22 Saturday Mar 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, biomes, blessed, butterflies, cacao trees, fish, flowers, koi, moments, nature, nursery, on my own, orchids, plants, The Leaf, weather, widow, zoo staff
had a lovely wander around The Leaf on Wednesday…
I went on my own for the first time and for anyone who knows me, that is pretty good…
the cacao trees are looking a bit sad, but most of the Tropical Biome looked good…
I spent quite some time watching the fish… they were very active swimming around the pond and a number of plants have been trimmed back so they are also much easier to see;-)…
the orchids in the Mediterranean Biome are still doing very well, with tons of blooms on them…
and the biggest surprise was the Butterfly Garden, which had more butterflies flying around than I’ve ever seen here…
zoo staff were letting a good number emerge from the nursery and there were many people admiring them as well… it is always fun to hear what the keepers have to say about the butterflies… they record each one as they release it…
then I took one last walk through the biomes as I waited for my ride…
16 Sunday Mar 2025
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, clean, fish, fishtanks, moments, nature, project, pumps, top up, water, widow
Friday’s project was to clean out the pumps on each of the three fishtanks…
it always slips down towards the bottom of the list, but once I get going, it isn’t that difficult, and doesn’t take that long either…
usually I only do one or two, but this time I did all of them at the same time…
the pumps are now running beautifully, and I topped up the water in each one… usually I do the topping up on Mondays, but was just a bit sooner this time;-)…
11 Monday Nov 2024
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
the other day I had to clean one of the fish tank pumps…
it was a bit dicey to get the pieces that needed to be cleaned out, but I managed it… hope it will be simpler next time, lol…
the fish appear happy and the tank has already started to clear up…
30 Monday Sep 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fish, garden, hose, moments, moving, nature, Nestor’s, plants, pumps, tanks, water, weather, widow, winter condo
following along with taking the netting off the pond and the fish being happier, I’ve been working on their winter condo…
rarely do I clean the tanks when they head out to the pond, lol…
so, I’ve been working on emptying tanks, cleaning them and getting them set up for the big move…
this year I decided to move the small tank from the living room to the dining room credenza with the other two tanks…
the plan is to have plants on the ledge where the tank was…
to do that I had to empty the two big tanks so that I could move them along so there would be room to fit the third one in… they also were scrubbed to get most of the algae off them…
and of course the one is the same depth, but about an inch and a half shorter than the others… we found some wood in the garage that brought it up to the perfect height…
we ordered a pump to use to empty them and after waiting for it to arrive, when I used it on Saturday, it worked for about five minutes and then quit, sigh… so I filled a jug and dumped it into the toilet over and over as well as watering some of the planters outside…
I quite like how they look all together…
after nearly completely emptying them and moving them, I filled them with the outside hose… I am so happy that it extends to a hundred feet so it can do things like this…
two of the three pumps started with no problem… unfortunately, the biggest one did not… it had been giving me a bit of trouble last year so I will be heading to Nestor’s to either replace the pump or the whole system… we have had that one for many years…
once it is running, it will likely be three or four weeks to be sure the water is clean and ready, before the fish come in…
little steps;-)…
herbiggirlpants 