22 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blurry, fish, garage cam, goldfish, in the garden, moments, nature, pond, raccoon, tail, Technology, weather, widow
I was surprised to see this on the garage cam yesterday morning…
it is a bit blurry, and at first I thought it was a cat, but then I recognized the tail…
thought these guys were gone for the winter, lol… although I don’t care if they come by when there aren’t any fish in the pond for them to eat;-)…
20 Friday Jan 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
Assiniboine Park Conservancy, big girl pants, biomes, blessed, cacao, elevators, fish, flowers, garden, koi, moments, nature, photos, plants, pond, splash, Technology, The Leaf, time, water, waterfall, widow
spent an hour and a half wandering through The Leaf in the daytime…
we took ample time to search out the plants as we wandered through the tropical biome… and we found the cacao tree;-)…
the waterfall continues to over perform…
I am betting that there are people working very hard to figure out how to end up with less splash, lol…
I spent at lot of time on the bridge, watching the beautiful koi swimming around the pond… a lovely treat;-)…
there were a lot of people there, but it didn’t feel too crowded… we wore masks but the majority of others didn’t… since I was last in the space there have been large fans added, so there did appear to be a lot of noise, but once through the doors into the Mediterranean biome, it was quiet…
the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden was a much busier place with numerous butterflies flitting about… it is always fun to search for the ones that have landed and are blending in with the foliage… as visitors move through this area they are quiet and will sit and patiently watch the action…
there are two elevators to take you up to the canopy and the Butterfly Garden and only one was working… seems to slow the flow down a bit…
there was ample space for jackets in the coat room, many volunteers to answer questions and direct the flow of people, and lots of open space…
19 Thursday Jan 2023
Posted in business, food, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
arctic char, big girl pants, blessed, char, fish, food, gather, health, moments, Park, potato salad, service, The Leaf, treat, widow
went to The Leaf, had lunch at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, and then wandered through the biomes…
lunch was relaxed and delicious… the burger was juicy… the arctic char on potato salad was smoky with a touch of dill and very tasty…
as our food arrived we went online and purchased our tickets… wanted to be sure we didn’t have to rush our meal…
ended with chocolate mille-feuille and Earl Grey Creme Brûlée, both of which were delightful…
a sharp knife made eating the mille-feuille much easier and the spoon worked perfectly for the brûlée, lol…
we watched bus loads of folks arriving to tour the gardens as we enjoyed our lunch…
the space is comfortable, the staff attentive, and the company excellent;-)…
looking forward to the next visit…
29 Thursday Dec 2022
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cleaning, fish, fish tank, garden, happy, moments, murky, nature, outside inside, struggle, tank, water, widow
it has been a quiet few days here…
time has been spent watching bunnies and birds and squirrels through various windows…
but in the house there has been a problem with one of the fish tanks… it has been very murky… I’ve tried a few things without success…
Wednesday was spent taking about a quarter of the water out of the tank, deep cleaning the pump and filters and finally, adding fresh water…
yesterday I could see the difference… and I was very pleased with how clear the water is so far…
excited to see if it gets even better over the next few days…
25 Friday Nov 2022
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cream cheese, fish, food, Gimli Fish Market, Goldeye, happy, lunch, moments, shopping, smoked, treat, widow
I love smoked Goldeye and don’t have it too often…
yesterday, when I was out with a friend we stopped in at Gimli Fish Market and I was able to pick one up…
today, I made Goldeye cream cheese for the future and had Goldeye with cucumber and onion salad for my lunch…
delicious, what a treat;-)…
13 Thursday Oct 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, Fall, fish, garden, goldfish, leaves, moments, nature, plants, pond, tarp, weather, wetvac, widow
spent a good portion of Tuesday afternoon in the pond…
I removed the last of the water, by hand scooping, and then using the wet vac…
caught the last three small fish but only found two of the babies…
after that, I vacuumed up most of the leaves I could reach, and then covered the pond with a large tarp…
happy that it will catch the rest of the falling leaves and should make cleaning the pond in the spring much easier…
sadly, it doesn’t look exactly pretty, lol…
04 Tuesday Oct 2022
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fish, garden, goldfish, grandson, moments, nature, pond, sneaky, water, weather, widow
my grandson came over to help with some garden jobs… he cut down baby elm trees, emptied rain barrels, and then spent a lot of time trying and catching the sneaky fish in the pond…
after a few minutes, we decided to pump out a good portion of the water, hoping it would make the catching easier, lol…
it did, a bit… the fish still found all the nooks and crannies amongst the rocks…
eventually he caught most of them and we are down to about six left… so far we haven’t been able to catch any of the babies…
later in the afternoon I sat on the bridge with my feet in the pond, not moving at all… after about fifteen minutes I gave up… not a single fish went by… the minute I stepped out they swam right past, lol…
02 Friday Sep 2022
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bridge, creeper, family, fish, garden, grandson, moments, nature, Nestor’s, pond, shubunkin, tad, widow
Wednesday, the kids met us for breakfast and then came by to pick up a few items from the giveaway collection…
while they were here, they pulled down some wayward Virginia creeper along the garage and moved some unsightly cord off the pond bridge…
then they ran over to Nestor’s to get me a shubunkin to add to the pond… there weren’t any available, so they came home with this beauty…
which was a tad bigger than I expected, lol… they all seem to be getting on fine in the school so we are good;-)…
14 Thursday Jul 2022
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, fish, garden, moments, nature, pond, raccoon, rain, squirrels, sunshine, turkey, weather, widow
had a good morning on Tuesday…
listened to house sparrows, chickadees and a few crows… I am just loving the sound ID on the Merlin app…
spotted the wild turkey that had been wandering the street yesterday, thanks to my neighbour knocking on the door…
and apparently the turkey frightened one of the neighbourhood bunnies…
there was no sign of the raccoons and the fish appear happy and all present… one of the biggest ones has been scraped up though… not sure if it was from the raccoon the night before last or from hiding under a rock, sigh…
the red and gray squirrels have been wandering around and threatening one another…
but the sun was out, except for a ten minute shower, and I was able to eat outside…
13 Wednesday Jul 2022
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, camera, fish, garden, hidden, moments, nature, pictures, pond, raccoon, treats, widow
something has been getting into the pond…
I hadn’t seen anything on the camera until a few nights ago, when the camera caught this…
the night view makes it a bit hard to recognize, but the rings on the tail were the confirmation that it is a raccoon… it didn’t appear that any fish had been caught…
I think the fish are being careful to stay hidden under the bridge…
on Sunday night they came by again and the camera caught them right in the pond…
I spotted one of the fish sort of wedged under a rock, so I moved the rock and the fish swam away… it looks a bit scraped up, so I hope it will be okay…
I put two chairs across the spot where I think they are going into the water and then sprinkled Epsom salts around the rest of the pond…
herbiggirlpants 