10 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
and the first poppy has popped…
yesterday I went out to have my breakfast in the garden and spotted the bright orange all the way across the garden… with its reflection in the pond…
woohoo, what a great start to the day
looking forward to more;-)…
09 Tuesday Jun 2026
Posted in business, family, food, health, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bbq, big girl pants, blessed, family, food, garden, Glowy, grandson, hamburgers, lobster, moments, pre-made, sear, widow
since our new bbq – Glowy – arrived in April, we (my housemate!) have been barbecuing much more often…
recently we had hamburgers which were delicious… I’ve gotten a bit more lazy and have been buying premade patties, but they are much tastier than previous versions…
this bbq has extra btu, so it is easy to get good heat for searing and lovely grill marks;-)…
we’ve also done chicken, steak, lobster, sausage, and lamb, as well as zucchini, potatoes, and onions…
wondering what we might try next;-)…
08 Monday Jun 2026
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
air conditioner, big girl pants, blessed, family, fixed, garden, happy, moments, old, repaired, splits, Technology, virginia creeper, weather, widow
great anticipation and excitement on Saturday…
we’ve been looking into air conditioner splits, as well as a new air conditioner for a while now…
the current air conditioner hasn’t worked for at least three years, and maybe even five… I can’t remember…
when I had someone in to look at it, they said it was leaking freon and couldn’t be repaired… it has sometimes been very hot upstairs but I managed with a tower fan…
last year I’d been quoted around $5,000 to replace it and that just seemed too much, particularly as the cold air never really made it upstairs, lol…
we had an HVAC person in the other day and the splits just weren’t going to work here… before moving forward with a new air conditioner, they suggested trying to get the old one working… they came back on Saturday to see if they could get the old one going…
they were here for a couple of hours and got it working😁😆😄…
the problem was the virginia creeper which had wound its way around the motor… I guess the other company was just wanting me to purchase a new air conditioner…
it is recording 13 something and the optimum is 20, so that sounds quite wonderful to me…
my housemate is going to be exceedingly happy…
06 Saturday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dozen, garden, light, moments, plants, poppies, warm weather, weather, widow
the light was shining nicely on the poppies as they get ready to open…
looks to be about a dozen buds, and possibly more to come…
this year everything is quite behind, but the hot weather has made some things bolt;-)…
I always feel that the warm weather is finally here once the poppies start blooming;-)…
still going to be a few days before they open, I think…
04 Thursday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blooms, garden, happy, inukshuk, lilac, moments, nature, produced, purple, widow
last year we moved the little lilac bush from the garden to the front yard…
it just didn’t seem happy in the spot we had it and for the last couple of years it hadn’t produced any flowers at all…
the hope was that it would like the extra sun it would get out front…
not too long after it arrived in its new spot we built an inukshuk beside it with a collection of limestone pieces that we had…
this spring it didn’t look as though it had survived and then, all of a sudden, it sprang up…
and, just this morning, I spotted at least four little bunches of buds… can’t wait for them to open…
so exciting;-)…
03 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, dragonfly, frog, garden, moments, nature, rust-coloured, widow
today, I spotted a small black butterfly with rust along the bottom third… it flew away before I got a picture, lol…
not long after, a tiny little wood frog hopped across the deck by the pond…
not much bigger than a thumbnail…
and finally, a beautiful rust-coloured dragonfly…
such fun to see so much nature;-)…
01 Monday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
focussed on pumps…
dug out the pump for the bathtub pond and, with some help from my housemate, got it going in the pond…
next the hot tub was emptied with the pump from the basement, which I needed help to find, lol… hoping a friend can come by and offer suggestions on the right hand cover which is not opening well…
finally, my housemate took the fountain pump out of the big pond… it took me awhile to get it cleaned out and then it went back in…
lots of water work;-)…
30 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, everywhere, family, flowers, garden, moments, morning glory, parcel, plants, seeds, tea towel, widow
got a parcel in the mail from my daughter in Ottawa…
it contained eight packets of a variety of morning glory seeds and an adorable tea towel covered in flowers…
a wonderful treat, and it means I can plant morning glories everywhere 🤪…
and I am going to…
29 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, garden, grandson, hardening, houseplants, moments, nature, outside, plants, weather, widow
Tuesday afternoon the majority of the larger house plants made it outside…
they have just made it onto the deck and a few will be moved elsewhere soon…
the smaller ones will come out in the next few days as space is made for them in the garden…
I’m being wild and crazy this year and not hardening any of them off…
this is also the first year in quite a while that I didn’t start any plants in the house…
we will see how they adapt to the rather warm weather and bright sun… 🤞
28 Thursday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buddies, clothes, fit, friends, garden, in the garden, moments, shopping, success, widow
recently I went clothes shopping with one of my buddies…
it started in the garden when our group gathered for our first outdoor visit of the season…
she had purchased some items and had taken them home to try on and discovered they didn’t fit… I fell in love with a top and pants, tried them on, and bought them from her on the spot…
then I went with her to the store so she could return others and we both had a lovely time…
she found a few things she’d been searching for, and I picked up two pairs of shorts and two very nice summer tops…
excellent day;-)…
herbiggirlpants 