a few weeks ago a friend brought me some koi that a neighbour had given her for me… they are a fair bit smaller than the goldfish, but I anticipate they will grow quickly…
I’ve never had (or wanted) koi, so it will be interesting to see how it goes… this photo shows one of them (mainly black and white) amongst the much larger goldfish…
my fish are fairly tough… they don’t get any special treatment so we will see how the koi manage in that environment;-)…
it was a beautiful day for an adventure yesterday… and we hadn’t been on one for awhile…
my adventure buddy and I drove out to Pineridge Hollow for lunch and a wander around the new shops that are there…
we had a lovely drive out and only got a little lost, lol…
we were just in time for our lunch reservation so we ate first… we shared a number of things…
rosemary and salt beet chips with a goat cheese ranch dipping sauce… my oh my, those were addictive…
next we shared a small Pineridge salad with mixed greens, apples, candied pecans and smoked Gouda tossed in a maple Dijon dressing… I forgot to take a photo before we dived in, lol… the small was more than enough for the two of us… and it was delicious… actually it was my favourite of all we ate…
she had the pulled pork tacos and I had the carpaccio – seared beef tenderloin, pickled rhubarb, strawberry gastrique, fresh herbs, arugula, pistachios, and a garlic scape aoli…
it was fun to try something different;-)…
and because we hadn’t eaten enough, she had schmoo and I had panna cotta with haskap berries…
we could have just had the beet chips and salad, maybe with a bit of chicken in it…
but we enjoyed everything and had leftovers to bring home…
from there we wandered through the shops and picked up a few items before heading home for naps, lol…
what a delightful time I had on Friday for my first visit to Voyage by Fleurs de Villes at The Leaf…
went with a friend who hadn’t made it to The Leaf before and it was such a treat to show her this gem…
we went around 2 pm and the parking lots were all full… we found a spot when someone left, at the very end of the gravel lot… even though there were many people, there were a good number of hangers to make leaving coats outside the biomes easy…
there was a lineup to get into the biomes, but it moved quickly and most people went directly into the Mediterranean Biome for the display, but we went through the Tropical Biome and admired the lush growth… my friend said she thought it was like the old Conservatory, but on steroids, lol… the plants are getting enormous and we were dripped on a few times, maybe from the humidity…
from there we moved into the Mediterranean Biome to see all the beautiful mannequins…
there were many people when we started our tour, but by the end it had thinned out nicely… I took photos of all the descriptions as it was so crowded around each one, lol…
after we sat and reviewed all the pictures we took, we decided on our favourites and filled out our ballots before heading home;-)…
Tuesday, a friend picked me up and we had a wander through the Diversity Gardens…
it was her first time there and I enjoyed being the tour guide, lol…
we were so busy catching up that I barely took any photos…
I did take some of a few grasses we thought might work in the garden between the cedars which might cover it a bit more of the chain link now that the neighbours have removed their planters…
from there, we drove over and walked through the English sand Leo Mol Gardens…
we spent some time relaxing on a bench by the pond and learning about Pokémon as I have just started playing again and now have my own account;-)…
herbiggirlpants 