Tag Archives: garden

fresh…

02 Sunday Aug 2015

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out and about this morning… picked up painting supplies so my daughter can paint the front and back doors… they are purple, but very faded so she is going to freshen them up for me…

  
also picked up some gray trim paint to go around the back door and patio door… will look lovely and fresh when this is done… 

  
right now the paint is peeling horribly…

thrilled today to see a morning glory from the deck…

  
to see the others I had to be in the garden area…

spotted two of the tiny tomatoes starting to turn colour, oh yay!

  
looking forward to eating them soon…

yesterday I purchased some fresh green and yellow beans which we included with our dinner tonight, although only my daughter and I eat them…

also picked up the fixings for steak and lobster dinner today… that was usually our anniversary splurge… amazingly, all of the grandkids like lobster already… don’t think our girls even got to taste it until they were in their teens, lol…

dinner was great and the lobster delicious… lobster is fine for me, but that butter, not so much…

now I am sitting in the garden, with a blanket on, watching a red squirrel do acrobatics to get seeds out of the bird feeder…   

it had been there for ages, but as soon as I went to take the picture it darted away, lol…

been a busy day, and the light is fading… 9:40 and I had to put a light on in the garage to put things in their places…

natural…

27 Monday Jul 2015

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the pond tonight… waterfall is not running, not sure why, but my son-in-law is coming tomorrow morning to see if he can figure it out…

bad start to the day… looked outside first thing to see that the waterfall wasn’t running and the water was very low… ran out to turn the hose on… the gazing ball was in a strange place and the bubbler was at an odd angle…

  
and then I spotted the fish carcasses all over the deck and the bridge…

I think a family of raccoons must have come by after the storm last night and had a sushi buffet…

all of the big fish are gone and I could only count about six small ones still swimming…

looked like a crime scene with fish corpses and plants ripped out of the pond…

miserable job to clean it up… had to use a shovel and disposable gloves to pick everything up, and then hose it down… still fish scales left on the deck, even after spraying it twice…

  
tomorrow I will pick them up by hand…

I am usually thrilled with all creatures that wander through the garden… maybe not so much for ones who destroy the natural setting…

problems…

23 Thursday Jul 2015

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this morning I watered everything in the garden and finished filling the pond… it has been very warm and was going to continue that way today… all the plants were parched… had wondered why it had taken so long to fill yesterday and realized that both taps were open so it was trying to send the water down two hoses at the same time…

  
as I was watering, the pond stopped running again… big problem… waited for it to fill up but it didn’t start even with lots of water in it… lifted the float and nothing happened… uh oh… thought I was going to have to call my son-in-law to come and figure it out, sigh…

then I realized that the second pump had stopped as well, so I ran downstairs and checked the fuses… they were all fine… took out the plugs and tried to reset the power box… didn’t work… tried one more time and success… felt very big girl pant ish and rather proud of myself for figuring it out… still going when I got home… yay me…

  
also spotted two frogs in the bathtub pond beside the garage… very exciting to see them, but worried that they might not be able to get out… now I like frogs but I have no plan to pick them up, lol… think tomorrow I will search out a board I can put into the pond that will offer a path for them to use to get out… I’d love them to stay but don’t want them to be trapped…

the mandevilla is enjoying the heat…

  
took the hot peppers to the office so someone would use them, lol…

  
lots going on in the garden…

beauty…

17 Friday Jul 2015

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took a few pictures of the gladiola flowers in the living room as I was waiting for my travel buddy…

 they sure aren’t lasting the way they have in previous years… not sure what that is about… but they look beautiful…

on my way back to the office from the post office I had to stop and get a picture of Emptyful as the sun was sparkling on the fall of water… such a lovely sight…

  
arrived home to my daughter preparing supper and the boys arriving at the house… after dinner I noticed that one of the plants in the pond is starting to bloom…  

  
I think it has grown about a foot since yesterday… looks like the flower is going to be a beauty…

  
great end to a very full week…

power…

16 Thursday Jul 2015

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the mandevilla looks amazing… even though it rained last night it was in good shape…

  
picked up some peas and baby cucumbers at the Farmers Market downtown today, so I added them to my dinner plate… I also went outside and picked a few of the green peppers… 

unfortunately they are hot and powerful… put one in my mouth and started to cough and choke… had to take quite a few drinks of water to get my breath back, lol… and there are tons of peppers on the plants…

  
got a letter in the mail saying that Hydro were having trouble getting a reading on my power meter… they suggested I take a picture of the meter so they could read it… I must say reading it has been difficult… wondered why they hadn’t suggested this before… way simpler for me and they get the reading much quicker, without it being done incorrectly…

power in a number of places…

appreciation…

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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had a wonderful day…

checked the garden and saw that one of the mandevilla buds had finally opened… they are beautifully structured, but take a long time to open…

  
we didn’t have to be at the office until an hour after our usual time as today was staff appreciation day…

  
while we ate breakfast snacks, which can be a bit complicated as we have a number of food issues, we played a serious game of Pictionary… some of us can be a bit competitive…

  
at the same time, taking turns getting henna tattoos… 

  
they were beautifully done by @dahliahenna…

then, a walk to The Forks where we got to take a water taxi tour on the Assiniboine and Red rivers… great fun… nothing like the wind in your face riding on the water…

  
got a nice shot of the Legislature… things always look so different from the water…

  
lunch on the patio of the Beachcomber with an incredible group…

walk back to the office and then home…

truly blessed to work in an organization which does appreciate and care for all staff members…

hot…

13 Monday Jul 2015

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was another hot day… got up and was out of the house before 8 to go for a walk… didn’t want to be out there when it got really hot…

  
crossing over the bridge got a few shots of the barn swallows... in Ottawa they have just built houses for their barn swallows where they were doing some work on a bridge… apparently they are endangered there… not here, lol…

the English Garden had very few visitors but was filled with gardeners… they were working in every area… looks beautiful…

  
usually I am drawn to the purple/blue flowers but today I kept leaning toward the orange ones…

   
 
my friend loved that colour…

  
can’t even guess how many pictures I have taken of the water lilies in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden… hundreds for sure… the tropical lilies are just starting to bloom…

got home, welcomed a new cleaning crew and went into the garden to be out of their way… mowed and whipper-snipped the back yard… did some weeding and watering… was dancing around on the deck and in the garden because the ground was soooo hot…

  
finally got to sit down in the shade… nice…

beautiful hot summer day… really enjoying my Mondays off…

storm…

11 Saturday Jul 2015

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am dripping wet right now…

  
hard to see but there is a rainbow in this picture… this is what it looked like after I ran out in the pouring rain and put away all the cushions… first time they have been soaked, sigh… should have put them away before supper…

the day had been perfect up till the storm…

  
fish were out and about…

  
watered all the planters and baskets and they are doing well…

  
found a small tomato…

  
couple of green peppers…

  
and an eggplant… woo hoo…

  
mandevilla is ready to open…

  
and the million bells basket is beautiful…

the rain has ended but the thunder is still rolling… 

hazy…

02 Thursday Jul 2015

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 getting a bit tired of the hazy sky we have had for the last week or so… this morning I decided I’d taken enough pictures of the morning sun, until I spotted the crows on the wire… rare to see them in this area of the neighbourhood…

fires are burning to the west of us which is causing the constant haze…

as I was preparing my supper tonight, looked out the patio doors and spotted this goldfinch sitting in the cedars, like a Christmas decoration…

  
a few minutes later, when I was sitting outside, two of the male goldfinches chased one another all through the cedars nattering at the top of their lungs… for a while I was thinking we had a dad, mom and son, which might be true, but there is also another male and they don’t like sharing a feeder… 

luckily there are three feeders in the garden so they don’t have to fight over the seed…

so happy to have the time to spend outdoors and enjoy these moments…