30 Sunday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, garden, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, plants, pots, reorganizing, widow
spent a little time in the garden reorganizing the plant pots on the steps…
now the hibiscus is much more visible, as is the new mandevilla😊…
26 Monday Jan 2026
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, cold, door, hibiscus, locations, mandevilla, moments, move, nature, plants, weather, widow
moved a couple of the bigger plants this morning…
swapped the hibiscus and the mandevilla… the mandevilla has been looking very sad, possibly because of the cold air coming in when the front door opens…
took a few moments to shake off the dead leaves, and then sweep them all up…
the hibiscus didn’t really want to move, even though it is on a rolling platform…
the mandevilla rolled across the floor without any problems…
fingers crossed that both of them will be happy in their new locations…
18 Monday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blooms, daily, garden, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, morning glories, nature, opened, plants, weather, widow
the red hibiscus is very happy with two or three blooms every day…
the new purple one seems pretty happy as well…
they do much better when it rains than the morning glories, lol…
the morning glories do well, as long as they remain dry…
the mandevilla has so far opened one bloom, but a few are getting ready… they take much longer to open than any of the other plants…
it is great fun first thing each morning to walk around the garden to see what flowers have opened…
15 Tuesday Jul 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blossoms, buds, garden, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, scraggly, weather, widow
great excitement over the last while when I discovered two different new buds…
the first one I noted was the tiny little buds on the mandevilla…
it had been looking very scraggly when it came out from the house…
and then, just a few days ago, I spotted a bud on the hibiscus;-)…
can’t wait to see the blooms as they open…
31 Saturday May 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
acclimate, big girl pants, blessed, fern, garden, hibiscus, housemate, indoor, Japanese Maple, mandevilla, moments, move, nature, plants, shade, weather, widow
I (and possibly my housemate) have been bringing out the indoor plants slowly, but surely…
first to come out was the Japanese maple… right now it’s sitting on the ledge that’s mostly shaded, for a few days…
next out came the hibiscus, and it went to the back under the trees, again where it’ll get shaded for the next few days before moving to its final spot…
orchids came out and filled up the little plant stand at the back, looks very cute with the begonias…
brought out a fern and another plant which I can’t remember the name of, that did really well in the top of the rain barrel, so we’ll see how that goes…
when the mandevilla comes out, it is going to sit along the path to the side garden to acclimate…
the lemon tree is still in the house… haven’t quite figured out where it’s gonna go and maybe a few other plants from in there are gonna come outside… we will see…
26 Tuesday Nov 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, mandevilla, memories, moments, ornaments, tree, widow
have been busy working on decorating the house…
so far, the tree is up and has lights and ornaments on it…
once I decided on the tree, I chose some of my favourite silver and white ornaments as well as a few special ones…
I set it on a small table and put two pieces of fabric around it…
as I put the ornaments on I remembered when I first got them…
once the tree was done I added silver balls to the mandevilla…
came out very nice…
then I popped the orchids into the sleigh on the dining room table, added glass balls to the window, trees and stars to the plant section and stockings to the credenza…
got all of that done between Sunday and Monday afternoon so it looked sort of organized when my friends arrived, lol…
next up will be the trees going up the stairway;-)…
06 Wednesday Nov 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
almost-open, big girl pants, blessed, bloom, blossom, flowers, food, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, surprise, treat, widow
in the process of moving the hibiscus and mandevilla, an almost-open bloom fell off…
the next morning I discovered that it was starting to open, even though it was laying in the dirt…
I grabbed it and put it in water and then spent the day watching as it opened and then began to close…
what a lovely treat…
I also found at least five buds on the plant… can hardly wait to see more flowers…
03 Sunday Nov 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, happy, hibiscus, light, mandevilla, moments, monstera, moves, nature, plants, switch, widow
moved a few plants around in the living and dining rooms…
the mandevilla made its way to the dining room…
and the hibiscus moved to the living room and it might still switch with the monstera…
it will be interesting to see if they will be happy in these new spots as the hibiscus has always lived in the dining room…
26 Thursday Sep 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
arranged, big girl pants, blessed, Fall, garden, houseplants, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, vacation, weather, widow
had a bit of fun moving plants around…
I’ve started to bring some of the houseplants in from their summer vacation in the garden…
the mandevilla came in and then plants from around the house were rearranged…
more will be coming in so I will have to decide where they will all go…
31 Friday May 2024
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaned up, garden, hiatus, house, Japanese Maple, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, repotted, shade, weather, widow
this morning the mandevilla and Japanese Maple made their annual hiatus to the garden…
the mandevilla is probably four or five years old… it started out on the deck and has come in each fall and lived over the winter in the living room like any other houseplant… it has grown quite tall, but always loses a ton of leaves so I spent time pulling off many brown crispy dead bits, lol… it now has a very tall obelisk in the pot and most of the growth is at the top… looks good now that it is cleaned up…
the Japanese Maple travelled by car from Vancouver island about ten years ago, when it made the trip with the kids as they moved from Courtenay to Ottawa, with a short visit here on their way… it had done well over that time but hasn’t grown much… today I repotted it in a bigger container with some fresh soil… hope it likes it;-)…
they will be in the shade for a few days and then move to their summer locations…
herbiggirlpants 