26 Tuesday Oct 2021
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
25 Monday Oct 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dahlias, digging, Eveline, flowers, garden, moments, nature, plants, purple, tubers, weather, widow
spent time outside in the garden digging up some of the dahlia tubers…
although it was sunny, it was cool and it got windier as I worked… my fingers were cold inside my work gloves and I had a cup of tea to warm them up when I got in, lol…
I only ended up bringing in the tubers from two of them… one is still out there but I will finish digging it out in a few days…
these are the tubers from my favourite Eveline… there are quite a few pieces and it took a lot of work to get them out of the planter…
once they dry out I will take off the rest of the soil around them… then I will put them into paper bags in a dark and cool part of the basement…
there were two of these in one pot and they bloomed a lot and made me very happy… I hope that there will be more next summer…
and this clump came out in one piece… it is the Robann Regal and also had multiple blooms… I am hopeful that they will be viable in the spring…
the flowers were a bit smaller than I expected but the plant produced many blooms…
looking forward to bringing in the Mick’s Peppermint, which also bloomed beautifully…
19 Tuesday Oct 2021
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, flowers, ghosts, moments, nasturtiums, nature, sunflower, walk, weather, widow, windy
had a nice walk this morning although it was 4° Celsius and windy…
saw some nasturtiums and a very tall sunflower… apparently it was a yellow day, lol…
and these cute little ghosts flying in the wind..
quite a few Halloween decorations out there…
17 Sunday Oct 2021
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
be kind, big girl pants, blessed, celebrate, chocolate, dad, flowers, friends, generosity, happy, ingrained, memories, moments, nuts, remembering, thank you, time, treat, widow
I’ve been thinking about generosity quite a bit lately…
recently a friend treated me to dinner and another one to lunch… such a gift;-)…
when I think of generosity, I think of generosity of spirit, kindness, and sharing the wealth as much as possible…
I think of my dad, who taught me to be kind and treat people nicely… he would have given anyone the shirt off his back…
I remember whenever he or my mom were sick and in hospital, it would be my job to fetch nuts and chocolates from Morden’s to share with the staff… that was something we did to thank individuals and groups for their help…
many years ago a colleague suggested that I did nice things for others to get attention and compliments… they were not able to understand that this generosity habit was part of who I am…
thanking those around me just seems to be ingrained in me…
for many years I would treat colleagues to flowers, chocolate and/or nuts, or something else I made, to celebrate special events… often my anniversaries or birthday… it was always great to see their enjoyment of whatever the treat happened to be…
it also brings much happiness and always reminds me of my dad…
nowadays, I am working toward sharing with others in as many ways as I can…
what makes you generous;-)…
11 Monday Oct 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, happy, hibiscus, mandevilla, naked, nature, plants, transplanted, widow
Hilda the Gardener came by this afternoon and cleaned up the garden… there were still flowers blooming, so I was happy that she was dumping them and I didn’t have to, lol…
she emptied all of the planters and transplanted the two butterfly bushes… the plan is to try and overwinter them in the basement… we will see if they make it…
the only plants left are the dahlias which I will remove when they die back…
it looks rather naked in the garden… and the pots in the front yard are empty now… will have to decide what to put in the one on the steps for the winter…
the mandevilla and hibiscus are still on the deck but they will likely come in tomorrow…
I’m going to cover each of them with a garbage bag and leave them for a few days… hope that deals with any bugs, lol…
07 Thursday Oct 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
allée, big girl pants, blessed, Diversity, flowers, friends, garden, happy, indigenous, moments, nature, photos, plants, The Leaf - Diversity Gardens, walk, widow
finally made it to The Leaf – Diversity Gardens…
what a special place… it is already stunning and I can’t imagine how great it will be as everything grows into the space…
I was so happy to see that a portion of the allée is still there… for years I would walk around it to get my steps in and I thought it had been removed… the trees are just beautiful…
after we crossed it, we moved into the various gardens… they were all distinctly different…
the Indigenous People’s Garden is an enclosed circle of amazing artwork depicting spring to winter, with a fire pit in the centre and seating for numbers of people… I could envision sitting in this quiet space and meditating…
the Kitchen Garden was filled with fruit trees and the most amazing sunflower plants, as well as herbs, flowers and vegetables…
again, nice benches with morning glories growing behind them for sitting…
the Performance Garden is set up as an amphitheatre and reminded me of wonderful times when we camped and attended numerous events at such locations…
part of the Sensory Garden were these great steps up and down some hills… great fun, although going up was better than coming down, lol…
enjoyed all of the critters in the Gardens… I think the butterflies were my favourite…
it was windy and all the grasses were rippling… lovely…
although there are a few ways to enter the gardens, I was very enamoured with this one…
the Water section had the coolest spheres…
all in all, a great place for a contemplative walk or a walking tour with a friend…
looking forward to my next visit…
02 Saturday Oct 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
. soup, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cooked, cooking, cool weather, corn, flowers, fun, garden, moments, widow, zucchini
over the last three or four days I have cooked a lot in the kitchen…
I produced a beautiful corn chowder with some leftover corn on the cob…
then I made zucchini-basil soup with most of my basil and added a bit of chicken to the recipe as well…
and finally I free-styled Calico beans… didn’t have as many canned beans in the house as required nor any molasses, but it came out great anyway, lol… and it was nice to have some of my dahlias around…
there is certainly lots of choice in the fridge just now…
will be putting a few of them into the freezer for lazy days…
26 Sunday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, datura, flowers, garden, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, purple, squish, widow, winnow
been collecting seeds for the last week or so…
the morning glories are very simple… I just put one hand under the little pod and squish it with the other… then I winnow the part holding it together by blowing over my hand… the excess blows away and the seeds remain and can be popped into a container…
the datura are a bit more complicated… the seed pods are covered in very sharp spikes which try to hurt me, lol…
I now have a container for each of the two types I have grown this year… the lovely white ones and the smaller, but cute, purple ones…
it is best to wait for the pods to start cracking as they dry, which makes removing them slightly easier… the dryer they are, the easier to remove…
I have quite a collection…
25 Saturday Sep 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, mandevilla, moments, mound, nature, photos, plants, widow
had a great time with Hilda the Gardener this afternoon…
we discussed plans for the next month or so, and for the spring…
she moved some soil for me and I finished filling up the new raised bed…
she also brought the mandevilla up onto the deck… it will be coming into the house before too long..
she moved baby’s breath, silver mound and milkweed to what I hope will be better spots…
and removed some of the weeds in the side garden…
it always makes me happy to see the difference once she’s been here…
21 Tuesday Sep 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized, weather
herbiggirlpants 