24 Thursday Jul 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cacao, fruit, gardener, learning, mango, moments, nature, plants, tropical biome, widow
had fun in the Tropical Biome today checking on all the fruit…
saw cacao pods just beginning to grow…
also spotted jackfruit, star fruit, two bunches of bananas, and many breadfruit…
also spotted flowers on the mango, but a gardener advised the tree is too young to produce fruit, so likely they will die off…
I learn something new every time I am in the space;-)…
27 Sunday Apr 2025
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
accomplish, at last, big girl pants, blessed, garden, gardener, Kingfisher Spa, memories, moments, nature, Technology, widow
had a bit of a giggle when this photo came up in my Facebook memories…
it was from 14 years ago when I was visiting my daughter in Courtenay and we had spent the day at Kingfisher Resort and Spa…
and yesterday, my own gardener was here;-)… just took a few years to accomplish…
and, of course, she isn’t here every day, or just my gardener, lol…
but, still…
28 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in business, family, food, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cacao, family, fish, gardener, koi, moments, nature, plants, pods, producing, The Leaf, widow
spent more time at The Leaf on Tuesday morning before my daughter headed home… it is such a wonderful point of happiness for me, and my daughter…
we discovered, after chatting with Linda, one of the gardeners, that the second cacao tree has now got two cacao pods on it… this is very exciting as only the first tree had been producing pods…
we spotted a little lizard on the third tree… apparently it arrived with one of plants, lol…
Linda was very excited to show us the mango tree that had just been planted…
we also learned there are fifty fish in the pond, and all the smaller ones were babies from the largest ones… the excess fish have been moved to another location to keep the population stable…
20 Friday May 2022
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, gardener, happy, health, moments, nature, plants, purple, rooting, weather, widow
spent a delightful hour with Hilda the Gardener a few days ago…
we discussed our plans about what will go where in the garden as well as some options for variety this year… even just talking about how the garden might look is energizing…
she brought me shoots from her spider plant which I have now put in water and set on the rooting ledge, lol…
and we set a date to go plant shopping together… not sure if this is a good thing or a very bad thing🤪… her vehicle has lots of room in it…
so much fun…
17 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dahlias, fish, furniture, garden, gardener, moments, nature, plants, weather, widow, winter-proof
yesterday Hilda the Gardener came to winter-proof the garden…
she trimmed back ferns and hostas; emptied pots in front and back; brought all the dahlia pots onto the deck and cut them back; pulled weeds and trimmed the wild rose in the front flowerbed…
my job will be to remove the dahlia tubers, separate and pack them up for the winter… I’ve had to bring them in to thaw so that I can break up the soil, lol…
we are not raking up the leaves, but will have my grandson do one last mulch in the garden once the furniture is put away…
happy and sad that the garden is nearly prepared for winter…
still a few fish to catch and furniture to move…
03 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, moments, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fluffing, garden, gardener, happy, moments, nature, plants, purple, shopping, treat, weed, widow
what a full and hot day…
Hilda the Gardener came by to do some weeding… she has been busy and hasn’t been here since May so there were lots of weeds for her to deal with, lol… her comment was that possibly the fluffing of the earth when she loosened it last time, made a great space for the weeds to come back;-)… so clearly I shouldn’t weed, lol…
she filled four large bags, and I filled one very small pail;-)…
but it looks lovely everywhere including behind the back deck… she also brought some purple gladioli and added them to the flower bed… below are before and after photos… they do not do justice to her work;-)…
and then my books arrived from Chapters/Indigo… nine in total… lots to read for the next while…
this batch are hard cover, not my favourite, but they were all a great price;-)…
20 Wednesday May 2020
Posted in family, garden, life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
angel trumpet, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, datura, flowers, garden, gardener, memories, morning glories, nature, planters, seedlings, walk, widow
so excited this morning to discover these two little seedlings… they are morning glories…
once I’ve put out the cushions for the furniture, I walk around and check all of the pots that I have planted…
I’d been worried that the morning glories weren’t going to come up… at the same time I also planted some datura in pots in the front yard and they haven’t come through yet… but now I am hopeful that they still might…
we’ve grown both morning glories and daturas for many years… I am looking forward to seeing some this year, particularly as the garden may be the only place I travel to, lol…
most of the dahlias and tomatoes are doing nicely… it looks like a couple of the dahlias aren’t going to make it…
waiting for plants from Shelmerdine to arrive and make their way into the ground… they were a birthday gift from the kids in Ottawa…
I enjoy planting pots and planters but hope to have the items that are going into the ground planted by Hilda the Gardener;-)…
22 Monday Jul 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
before, big girl pants, blessed, busy, flower beds, garden, gardener, grandson, hot tub, lawn, list, moments, pictures, widow
productive day on Sunday…
topped up the hot tub, did laundry, prepped a few meals for the coming week, spent some time relaxing in the garden…
finished a book, watered plants, cleaned the fish tank, and consulted with Hilda the Gardener…
she very kindly sent me some before pictures…
had lunch out with my grandson, grocery shopped and got home to see the beautifully tidied front flower beds…
put away the groceries while the lawn was being mowed… went out and took a few photos of the tidied front beds…
fit in a nap, warmed up some leftovers for supper and watched a few PVR’d shows…
phew…
06 Saturday Jul 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
this morning, Hilda, the gardener, came over and worked away in the back while I continued gathering items for the camping trip…
before she started, we spent some time walking the area and deciding on what needed to happen where and when…
she weeded, divided and moved hostas, and trimmed the lilac…
looking good…
26 Wednesday Jun 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, garden, gardener, landscape, perennials, removed, weeds, widow
great excitement when I got home…
the back garden looked very different than first thing this morning…
before I left home…
and this is how it looked tonight…
all the weeds have been removed… next step will be to place landscaping cloth down around the perennials and then cover the entire area with rocks or mulch…
so happy that my gardener has been here to get things done…
herbiggirlpants 