16 Sunday May 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
air, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, fresh air, garden, hibiscus, leaves, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, purple, shade, sunshine, weather, widow
this morning the plants went out for a breath of fresh air…
I managed to get them all into the shade where they spent most of the day…
so far they look pretty good… hope they are as good in the morning, lol…
I’ve just moved them into the garage for the night and will bring them back outside in the morning…
09 Friday Apr 2021
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fish, garden, grandson, gunk, leaves, moments, nature, pond, sump pump, weather, widow
even though it was chilly and overcast my grandson arrived this morning to clean up the pond… it was filled with a ton of decaying leaves…
our time didn’t start very well… the pump that worked perfectly in the fall when it came out of the water would not work… felt like we tried everything, but no luck… so, he had to run to the store to replace it, sigh…
eventually, after getting most of the water pumped out, he used the shopvac to suck up the majority of leaves from the bottom…
this technique worked well, but took quite some time, and was very smelly… then we rinsed it, and I filled it back up… he plans to come back, we will drain it again, and finish sucking up the gunk…
then we will fill it and get the waterfall flowing… I don’t think the fish will go in for another few weeks, when the chorine has dissipated and the water temperature has warmed up a bit;-)…
happy with our progress and looking forward to sitting and enjoying the beautiful sound…
31 Sunday Jan 2021
Tags
bare, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, hibiscus, leaves, moments, pictures, plants, twigs, widow
as I was walking around the living and dining rooms today I had a good look at the hibiscus..
it has filled out with leaves and looks great…
it wasn’t that long ago that it was nearly just twigs;-)…
I dug through my photos and found this one from the end of September, after I brought it into the house… the leaves were starting to turn yellow and fall off… apparently I didn’t take any when it was bare, lol…
it did bloom for quite a while even as the leaves fell off…
looking forward to more flowers before too long…
16 Monday Nov 2020
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
I brought in one of the pots with datura in it, hoping it would last through the winter… I didn’t spray it with soap like I did for the other plants I brought in…
I have now discovered that it brought aphids into the house and they were feasting on my avocado plant…
I put the avocado in the tub and soaked it with the soapy water and covered it with a bag… after leaving it for a day I removed the bag and put the plant in a room without any plants in it… there were still lots of aphids so I cut off some leaves and nearly drowned it in the soapy water…
then I cut down the datura to the base… after soaping it up I will watch to see how it does…
fingers crossed that this will get rid of them and the avocado will be happy…
06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, crunch, Fall, garden, leaves, listen, moments, nature, noise, photos, pine siskins, pond, widow
spent a lovely afternoon in the garden before the rain…
pulled more leaves out of the pond… more are coming down into it every day…
I read and listened to the birds as they crunched through the leaves looking for bugs and seeds… considering how small they are, they made a lot of noise…
flocks of white-throated, song, and house sparrows, as well as pine siskins landed in the grass and around the pond where they would carefully jump from rock to rock to get a drink…
then off they went…
04 Sunday Oct 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birdseed, fish, fishnet, garden, garden visits, leaves, moments, nature, net, plants, pond, pump, weather, widow
went outside to see if I could get the waterfall going… it stopped for some reason early in the week so I had gone out and unplugged it… I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect…
I took a ton of leaves out of the pond and dug around the pump with my hands to clear out some of the muck… the water was cold…
got everything working, moved the milkweed, and emptied some of the pots which held dead plants… I left the fishnet in the water hoping the fish will get used to it so when we go to catch them they will be more cooperative, lol…
then I spent time cleaning out the morning glories, adding plants to a pot by the hot tub and rearranging furniture around the lower deck…
it looks lovely and will be a great place for any garden visits that might happen on nice days;-)…
by the time I was finished, I was very happy and pleased with all that had been accomplished…
28 Monday Sep 2020
Posted in garden, life, nature, Photography, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, clean-up, deciduous, Fall, garden, leaves, moments, nature, photos, pond, sky, weather, widow
it was dull, cool and windy yesterday with a few sprinkles of rain…
I made soup… seemed like a good thing to do on what sure felt like a fall day…
as I went up and down working on it I took some photos of the garden…
hard to tell from these pictures that I don’t have any deciduous trees in my yard, lol…
cleaning up the leaves with the lawnmower isn’t that big a problem, but getting them out of the pond takes quite a while;-(…
looks like I won’t be working on that until Thursday when the weather might be a bit better…
25 Friday Sep 2020
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, eavestrough, family, garden, leaves, moments, nature, pond, remembering, virginia creeper, widow
dragged the ladder onto the deck, hoping I could reach the eavestrough to clean it out…
had my pail ready and my gloves on, but the height was more than I could manage… was not prepared to take that last step…
moved the ladder over to the garage, set it up and it worked perfectly… was able to clean about four feet of the eavestrough… clearly it needs to be cleaned out more than once every eight years, lol…
will need helpers to clean the rest of it, but it already looks better after I cut down some of the Virginia creeper…
12 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, common frog, fish, frog, froggie, garden, hiding, leaves, lilies, lily pads, moments, nature, pond, quiet, time, widow
saw the frog a number of times yesterday while I was listening to a program on my iPhone…
it has hopped past me a few times over the last while but never when I have a camera in my hand…
yesterday froggie was out sunning on the rocks around the edge of the pond… when it jumps in it swims across in just a few seconds…
according to research it appears to be a common frog… interesting, as for the last few years we had leopard frogs…
got some nice pictures;-)…
and another exciting thing is that the water lily leaves are just starting to rise above the water… this first photo was from last night and only the top corner of one lily pad was peeking out of the water…
now four lily pads are above water on one plant and two on the second plant…
31 Sunday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chinese food, dredged, family, fish, frog, garden, grandsons, leaves, lunch, moments, mowing, nature, pond, supper, treat, visit, water, widow
sitting by the pond after my visitors have left and enjoying the last bit of sunlight…
my water shoes are on the deck because I went into the pond once again and dredged up another pailful of leaves… the fish are still not coming out, but I did see the frog hop by earlier in the day…
all three of my grandsons came by just after noon… I made them grilled cheese sandwiches with the wonderful La Belle Baguette whole wheat sourdough that was delivered yesterday…
the oldest left, the middle one mowed the grass, front and back, while the youngest watered plants and pulled weeds…
some days it is hard to realize he is eleven and can reach and do more things…
after the work was done, relaxing happened and visiting took place…
this was the first time I’ve had people in the house and the system was they had access to the basement for cooling down and using the washroom and I had the main floor… worked perfectly…
we ordered Chinese food for supper and it arrived just before the daddy, who had been at work all day… afterwards my downspout got fixed, a stair board tightened and then off they went…
it was a treat to see them and I enjoyed every minute… I missed my nap, but plan on making it an early night;-)…
