24 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deer, little red truck, moments, nature, pumpkins, squashes, water terrace, widow
met a lovely deer as I was walking towards The Leaf early yesterday morning… I think we were both surprised, lol…
I also got to check out the little red truck in the Kitchen Garden… this first shot was from the newly opened Water Terrace;-)…
then I got closer;-)…
it looks very cute, filled with pumpkins, other squashes and mums…
22 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, carpet, family, grandsons, moments, nature, project, replaced, weather, widow
since the spring, we’ve been working on a few projects outdoors and one of them involved removing a rusted out planter from the front steps…
next was to be removing and replacing the carpet which has been on those same steps for thirteen years…
I remember a friend of mine coming and replacing it while I was in hospital, not long after my beloved’s passing… it was such a treat to walk up the tidy steps when I returned home…
over the last few winters the carpet has been breaking down, particularly from my shovelling I think, lol…
we emptied the rusted out planter and dumped it right into the garbage can, kind of in pieces… we had a new one all ready to go but planned to wait for the carpet to be removed and replaced before putting it on the top step…
we picked up carpet and glue… next we planned a day when we had help to remove the old carpet and lay down the new one… unfortunately, it rained for most of that day, but during a break my housemate was able to remove the old layer…
that was on July 21st… it looked dreadful but we anticipated that it would happen soon…
every single time we planned to get the job done, it rained… I was starting to believe my grandson is a rain magnet…
well, yesterday, September 21st, it finally happened…
scraping, glueing, and laying down the carpet took a good portion of the day and there are a few bits that need to be trimmed…
can’t walk on it for a few days, but it already looks a thousand percent better;-)…
21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
17 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, health, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, magnolia, Mediterranean biome, memories, moments, nature, scent, tree, widow
this magnolia seems to be blooming one or two buds at a time…
saw some beautiful trees filled with magnolia blooms in Courtenay, BC, more than fifteen years ago and I still remember how amazing the scent was…
unfortunately, this tree is too high up to be able to enjoy the scent, but it is lovely to spot new blooms…
16 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bee, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, fun, garden, moments, morning glories, morning glory, nature, pictures, shrivelled, Technology, weather, western honey bee, widow
fun with morning glories today…
as I was taking photos of this blue morning glory, a cute little western honey bee showed up looking for a snack…
happily, I got a few nice pics…
then, later in the day, the morning glories shrivelled up into themselves in a very interesting way, so took a few cool photos…
14 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
adventure buddy, big girl pants, blessed, dahlias, flowers, friends, gardens, heated, moments, nature, Park Cafe, roses, walk, water lilies, weather, widow
had breakfast with my adventure buddy at the Park Cafe on Friday… I hadn’t been for awhile, but it was lovely to be recognized by the waitstaff…
enjoyed the classic eggs Benedict with tomatoes instead of hash browns…
then we had a short walk through the English Gardens and a quick look at the water lily pond in the Leo Mol Garden…
the flowers were stunning and we were drawn to all the beautiful dahlias and and roses…
as always the water lilies were blooming in the heated pond…
the frogs do enjoy the warm water, lol…
lovely time;-)…
13 Saturday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bonsai, display, enchanted, forest, gardeners, grandson, moments, nature, plants, widow
spent time at The Leaf Thursday afternoon letting guests know that the biomes were closed until Friday…
happy to spot a gorgeous flower on the tall magnolia;-)…
there were two of us, so we had opportunities to take turns checking out how the work on the Enchanted Forest display was going… the gardeners were moving at warp speed to finish up…
I also had a lovely chat with one of the people from the Bonsai Winnipeg group as they waited to place their tree in the new display…
then, in the evening, my grandson and I attended a members-only viewing of the display… I was especially excited because I was able to bring a buddy… as everyone who knows me knows, I don’t like to do things on my own;-(…
what fun…
10 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
applesauce, baked, big girl pants, blender, blessed, food, homemade, immersion, moments, nature, peel, pork, Technology, widow
made applesauce today…
tried a new recipe which I found online that baked the apples, with the peel on, in the oven…
the recipe suggested using a blender once they were completely soft, but I found the immersion blender worked perfectly…
measured out about a muffin cup scoop and bagged, flattened, and popped into the freezer…
I like to have applesauce when I’m eating pork;-)… and homemade is always a treat…
09 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buds, falling, fish, food, friend, friends, garden, happy, hibiscus, leaves, lunch, moments, nature, pond, soaking, wasps, water, weather, widow
another delightful day in the garden, especially after the last number of cool and overcast days…
spotted a hibiscus blossom, so that was a treat…
next, I went into the pond to clean out the pump… the leaves have been falling like crazy and there were a ton in the water… once the pump has been cleaned out, the waterfall always flows beautifully…
all the cushions went out and a dear friend arrived with lunch… we ate inside as the wasps are very busy in the garden…
we moved outside and had a lovely time by the pond catching up on life…
after she left, I read in the garden for the remainder of the day;-)…
soaking up every minute possible in this sanctuary…
04 Thursday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bud, flower, garden, moments, nature, opening, pond, reemerge, watching, water lily, weather, widow
since August 26th, I’ve been watching a water lily flower bud… first noticed it about four inches under the water…
once it reached the water level, it has come up about an inch and then popped back under the water… then it would reemerge and finally it rose about two inches out of the water…
it finally opened on Tuesday, September 2nd, on a very cool, overcast, and windy afternoon… certainly, not a day to sit by the pond😢…
since then it has remained closed up…
hoping the weather turns warm and sunny before it returns below the surface…
herbiggirlpants 