03 Tuesday Nov 2026
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
on Sunday I put out the poppy that is actually either a bird bath or bird seed container…
yearly, it lives on the rail from November 1st until mid-day on the 11th…
usually it is located in the garden over the summer, and in one of the pots with the big plants in the house over the winter…
but I like how it looks at the front entrance…
30 Friday Oct 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, condo, dark, digs, family, garden, goldfish, koi, moments, pond, weather, widow
recently we started bringing the fish into their winter condo…
the first time we did our fishing, it was at night and raining, and we needed flashlights to see… that evening we collected fourteen fish…
after a while in the pail, they made their way into their winter digs…
the next night it was still light as we searched for more fish…
so far we have seventeen fish in the tanks… I think there are probably a few more for us (I mean my housemate) to catch, lol…
22 Thursday Oct 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, nature, nighttime, perennial, plants, sturdy, walkabout, weather, widow
went out for a little walkabout in the garden…
so happy to see the plants that are still flowering, no matter the low nighttime temperatures…
I bought three of these in the spring… of course I don’t remember their name, lol… they bloomed strongly for weeks once planted, then just a bit and have recently been blooming like crazy again… there is a possibility that they are perennial… we shall see come spring😊…
this tiny sweet alyssum in the wildflower pot looks very cute, and the sunflowers continue to smile…
apparently wildflowers are sturdy 😊…
15 Thursday Oct 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
the lawn was mowed one last time on Sunday…
whatever leaves are left in the front yard will stay there for all the little creatures, although there aren’t very many leaves…
the garden is a different story… currently it is difficult to see the pond as the net is nearly completely covered with leaves… the elm tree next door still has a few leaves to fall so we will likely wait for them to come down before removing the net and putting the leaves in the flowerbed closest to it…
at that point we will probably bring the fish into their winter condo…
05 Monday Oct 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, housemate, inside, moments, orchids, outdoor, plants, pots, switched, trimmed, widow
spent time a few days ago moving plants and rearranging furniture to make space for those coming in from the garden…
first up was getting the maples into the front window, and then I put a number of small plants into the second basket planter…
ferns came in and the divider was rearranged to make space for the grow lights…
my housemate built a shelf to go under the dining room window… it is just the right height and currently holds three of the bigger plants that have come in…
then I spent time with the orchids… they have been struggling and I have kind of ignored that 😳…
I realized that a few had been planted in moss and clearly they didn’t like it… roots and dead leaves were trimmed, and pots were switched…
all of them have gone onto the shelf in the den and they look much better…
we will see how each plant feels about its new spot in the house🙂…
03 Saturday Oct 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
baskets, big girl pants, blessed, garden, grow, Hilda the Gardener, mandevilla, moments, nature, transplanted, widow
the other day, Hilda the Gardener arrived for fall clean up…
instead we focussed on transplanting many of the plants that were coming into the house…
one of the best new pots we did was in the new basket planters that I recently had given to me…
it came out beautifully…
we cut the original mandevilla down by about half and then combined it with the new one I purchased on sale this summer…
excited to see how it grows…
02 Friday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Abkhazi Garden, big girl pants, cane, family, garden, hummingbird, moments, nature, support, volunteers, widow
had a wonderful time at the Abkhazi Garden after we had our tea…
this garden is basically run by volunteers…
they had a few canes available and lent me one, as I forgot my monopole, which has worked out well as a bit of stabilization for me…
it is a lovely space and the highlight for me was sitting under a tree with my daughter while a hummingbird visited and sat in the tree above us… my daughter took both of the above pictures…
found a few ponds with turtles and goldfish…
I was also impressed with the methods they used to support the trees…
amazing what a group of volunteers can accomplish…
01 Thursday Oct 2026
Tags
Abkhazi High Tea, allergy, big girl pants, family, favourite, garden, moments, shade, wasp, weather, widow
we arrived at the Abkhazi Tea Room just in time for our reservation… our Uber driver had a little trouble finding it, lol…
which was fair as it looked like a house on the street…
it was my favourite high tea spot… more relaxed, but also set in the garden…
I wore my fancy hat, but it caused problems with taking pictures as it put my face in the shade…
the umbrella over our table had me in shade and sun, so I ended up moving my tea items into the sun for photos…
once again we had a wasp visitor, but not quite as serious as the one at the Butchart Gardens, lol…
our server was very attentive and quick to change out one of the items that could have caused an allergic reaction for my daughter…
a delicious and very relaxing tea😊…
27 Sunday Sep 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, moving, nature, partially, sunshine, weather, widow
what a delightful day…
I spent a good part of it in the garden, moving from one area to another…
at first it was because I was trying to stay partially in the sun… then out of the sunshine as it was very bright and a bit warm…
then, later it was to get into the sunshine to keep warm again, lol…
and I had some fun taking photos of various flowers…
what a lovely treat, particularly as the weather has been dull, overcast, and rainy for the last few days…
I am blessed…
19 Saturday Sep 2026
Posted in food, garden, health, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
arch, beans, big girl pants, cucumbers, garden, moments, nature, pick, topped and tailed, treat, widow
spent a quiet day resting up from the busyness of the last few weeks…
the main thing I did was pick beans and a couple of cucumbers from the arches…
then I sat outside and topped, tailed, and cut them up…
there were a lot and I will have some tonight and enough for another meal in the next few days…
a lovely treat😊…
