I searched through my photos and it looks like August 11 was the first time I took a photo of the buds on the mandevilla… this was the first time this summer that this houseplant has even started to get buds…
this morning, 26 days later, the first bloom is open…
they take an incredible amount of time to open;-)…
my updated licence arrived… I had gone to the insurance office about two weeks ago and was pleased that it turned up today, particularly with all the driving I’m doing… NOT…
I also received a parcel with three new face masks from Canadian Chocoholic… they are made from her newest fabric purchases and are beautiful… they aren’t screen printed, but two of them have elastic instead of the t-shirt yarn the others use… this was so I could wear them to get my hair cut, lol…
I love the ones with t-shirt yarn around my head because they are very comfortable, and hang nicely around my neck when not on my face, but they don’t work that well when someone is trying to cut your hair, lol…
spent the morning in the garden watching chickadees, monarchs, nuthatches, squirrels and fish…
the nuthatch was not interested in a photo op and even the chickadees were not particularly cooperative…
the monarch was happily guzzling nectar from the butterfly bush, so I was able to get a number of photos… I am very happy to finally have this plant in the garden and hope that I can get some seeds from it for next year or maybe even try to bring it into the house to see if it will overwinter…
it looks like there will be two more water lily flowers with a possible third one… very exciting…
I hadn’t been out in the garden for a few days and really enjoyed time with the members of my garden sanctuary;-)…
two very large goldfish… a white one and an orange one…
they came from a family who plan to move to fancier fish… the grandma brought them over with the oldest grandson’s Nanny, who connected us…
they left them with me once they put the bags in the water… after the fish acclimatized for about half an hour I freed them so they could meet everyone else…
once they were safely in the pond, I took some pictures to send to the family, via Nanny, so that the grandkids could see they were in a good home…
the pond and fish bring me such peace… what a lovely gift;-)…
I was without internet and cell service for five days… just to be clear, in case you were worried, I did survive;-)…
all my phone could do was take pictures, act as a flashlight and let me play my solitaire game on occasion… if you wanted to speak to someone who wasn’t there you had to use the landline…
as I was preparing to leave for the trip, I would think of things like – oh, I can change the lights in the house occasionally so it looks lived in, or I can text my daughter with information she would need, or I can call my grandson to remind him about watering the plants, or I can add my meals to MyFitnessPal, etc. etc… nope, no, I could NOT…
when you don’t use the phone, you don’t need to carry it around so much though… although it was handy if my camera wasn’t close by… there was a good deal of reading of paperbacks, doing newspaper crosswords and talking with one another…
while there, the discussion arose as to what was more needed – internet access or a shower… I mean, the lake is right there, so clearly the answer is the internet;-)…
it was like the old days, lol…
on the return trip, all of a sudden, the phone started to beep and buzz and ding as it came into cell range and emails and messages starting downloading… it was funny…
finished tidying for the cleaners and left the house just as they arrived… always feels like an accomplishment when everything is ready, lol…
I still don’t want to be in the house while they are here and don’t usually go back in for an hour after they leave, lol… once they are done they send a list of what they accomplished which is nice to review…
nineteen and sunny as I walked along a nearby street and many of the bunnies were out and about;-)…
this house caught my eye with the lovely flower beds… and lots of shade…
way more people out and about at 9 am than at 7, lol… got quite a few more steps as I crossed streets to stay out of their way…
had a great day: phone calls with two special friends, a garden visit with another great friend, and three hours with Hilda the Gardener where I did a lot of deadheading…