spent Tuesday in the garden… the first part on the deck reading in the sunshine…
there was no wind, so I was able to flatten out and fold up the tarpaulin…
then I moved to the back deck and did a bit of reading before starting to remove the last of the leaves and water from the pond with the wet vac… it took a number of trips to get it done… but, I did it, yay…
next, I found the hose, hooked it up and started the water running… finally I hooked up the pump and finished filling it…
so happy when the waterfall started up… worth all the work…
what a treat to sit, watch and listen to the sound;-)…
seems like I have been working in the computer room forever, lol…
every time I think I’ve done all the papers, I find another box or bag, sigh…
this time I came across two very old photos…
one of my mom… she was a beauty;-)…
and one of my Auntie Vi, one of my dad’s sisters… she and my uncle lived in a tiny house in River Heights which was packed full of knickknacks… every surface was covered, lol… she made all kinds of things… she painted ceramics, knit numerous things, and always had delicious treats to eat whenever you arrived at the house…
she is also the reason that I stand at the window and wave to everyone as they leave my house just as she always did…
on Thursday we walked instead of going to aquasize…
we had breakfast at the Park Cafe where we waited a few moments before getting our table…
I had falafel eggs Benedict without the English muffin and it was very tasty…
after that, we drove over and walked around the outside of the Diversity Gardens on the road which was clear of snow and ice… we went through the Gardens as well where most of the paths were snow free… it was cold, but basically the only frozen things were our fingers, lol… particularly when I was glove-free taking photos…
we enjoyed our half hour walk and are looking forward to more such walks as the weather improves;-)…
after some issues with the computer upstairs, it finally connected to the internet so I was able to work on the Mylio photo program I’d purchased a few months ago…
at last, after trying for a long time, it was able to delete duplicates pictures in my computer and laptop… I knew there were a lot and of the 192,000 images, it deleted 98,543…
it took hours, but the process has now been completed…
although, it found a whole bunch more photos… yikes…
going to need to spend some time deleting some of the multiples of various shots…
I am getting better at deleting excess shots right after I take them;-)…
had a fun time in the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden at The Leaf on Thursday… it wasn’t too cold outside and bright so there was lots of activity…
a fair number of people were in the space and there were many butterflies…
apparently I was enamoured with the orange ones, lol…
this little one sat and offered different poses;-)…
and, of course, I tried to catch the elusive Blue Morpho… there were quite a few of them, but what makes it elusive is that you need to catch it in flight to capture the blue colour, lol… but I did get a partial shot;-)…
at least you can see some of the blue…
spending time in this space sure does make me happy;-)…
dug out an old watering jug so that I could set the vase of flowers into it and fill it with water so the floral foam inside the vase could soak up all the water it needed…
took a while, but after half an hour or so I was able to get it out with a bit of finagling…
sitting in the container of water…just a touch over the top of the vase…back on the table…
it is amazingly difficult to add fresh water to the container every day, lol…
my grandson and I have been working away in the basement…
we have now been through all of the boxes from after the 2013 hot water tank flood… apparently I didn’t really need the stuff that was in them… we have tossed out, recycled, and packed up a huge amount to give away to the pass-me-over folks…
we even went deep under the stairs and discovered lots more stuff that has nearly all been dealt with…
looked like a bit of a disaster down there, but it is coming along… always interesting how the process moves from stuff everywhere, to more stuff everywhere, to finally organized… apparently it was so bad, I didn’t even take photos of the worst period, lol…
the space was nearly emptied, an item was sold, a few things will be going online for sale, items were given to a small business that helps women starting fresh… and there was a big pile of things for donation… besides filling the garbage bin, a large collection of items is in the garage waiting for the next few garbage days…
we have done a great job and I am thrilled to have this all done;-)… a great stress has been removed from my shoulders…
they are making improvements all the time… it looks like they may soon have machines so you can purchase your ticket without standing in line…
we had a lovely time walking through the biomes… it was quite warm and humid in the tropical biome and there weren’t too many people when we arrived around ten am… by the time we left, just before noon, the place was starting to fill up…
the gardeners were working in the space cleaning up fallen leaves and checking the temperatures around the various areas… had a lovely chat with one of them…
I seemed to focus on orange flowers this time;-)… and I was happy to see the coffee beans even though I don’t drink coffee, lol…
love the banyan tree and got shots of a few others… can’t wait to watch them as they grow… and I found a couple of banana trees…
the waterfall is adding a lot of humidity to the space…
got a nice shot of the other direction from just under the waterfall…
and a view from the catwalk…
looking forward to more visits and to watching the areas change and grow…
spent an hour and a half wandering through The Leaf in the daytime…
we took ample time to search out the plants as we wandered through the tropical biome… and we found the cacao tree;-)…
the waterfall continues to over perform…
I am betting that there are people working very hard to figure out how to end up with less splash, lol…
I spent at lot of time on the bridge, watching the beautiful koi swimming around the pond… a lovely treat;-)…
there were a lot of people there, but it didn’t feel too crowded… we wore masks but the majority of others didn’t… since I was last in the space there have been large fans added, so there did appear to be a lot of noise, but once through the doors into the Mediterranean biome, it was quiet…
the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden was a much busier place with numerous butterflies flitting about… it is always fun to search for the ones that have landed and are blending in with the foliage… as visitors move through this area they are quiet and will sit and patiently watch the action…
there are two elevators to take you up to the canopy and the Butterfly Garden and only one was working… seems to slow the flow down a bit…
there was ample space for jackets in the coat room, many volunteers to answer questions and direct the flow of people, and lots of open space…