30 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, everywhere, family, flowers, garden, moments, morning glory, parcel, plants, seeds, tea towel, widow
got a parcel in the mail from my daughter in Ottawa…
it contained eight packets of a variety of morning glory seeds and an adorable tea towel covered in flowers…
a wonderful treat, and it means I can plant morning glories everywhere 🤪…
and I am going to…
29 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, garden, grandson, hardening, houseplants, moments, nature, outside, plants, weather, widow
Tuesday afternoon the majority of the larger house plants made it outside…
they have just made it onto the deck and a few will be moved elsewhere soon…
the smaller ones will come out in the next few days as space is made for them in the garden…
I’m being wild and crazy this year and not hardening any of them off…
this is also the first year in quite a while that I didn’t start any plants in the house…
we will see how they adapt to the rather warm weather and bright sun… 🤞
27 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fewer, garden, grandson, moments, petunias, plant shopping, plants, variety, widow
Monday morning it was warm and sunny, so we went plant shopping…
two different places and many plants purchased…
this year I’ve decided to go with fewer varieties, but more of them…
in the end I chose petunias, salvia, and fuchsia…
added a few creeping phlox to go with what I already have, as well as three different varieties of hostas…
finished up with a few vegetables…
pleased that I was able to stick to the plan…
now, they are all laid out in the spots where they will go and will be planted before too long…
15 Friday May 2026
Posted in family, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
arches, beans, big girl pants, blessed, cucumbers, family, garden, light, planter, plants, weather, widow, wire
next part of the project was to install two arches where I am hoping to grow cucumbers and beans and morning glories;-)…
they will be located between the pond and the deck…
I’m hopeful that the light will help grow more veggies and brighten up that section of the garden;-)…
now the arches are in, two planters from other areas of the garden will be placed under them to hold the plants, once the grass/clover comes through the dirt/compost/sand… fingers crossed…
we picked up some wire and fastened it to the arches using zip ties…
it will be interesting to see how long it takes to cover the arches with greenery…
06 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
allium, big girl pants, growing, kaleidoscope, memories, moments, nature, plants, purple, The Leaf at Assiniboine Park, widow
just after I took this photo of a beautiful allium, a visitor asked me what it was…
then I had a lovely conversation with another visitor who was telling me about the allium that grew in her garden outside of the city… she said they grew six feet tall and took over the garden…
made me laugh as I shared how this was one of my beloved’s favourites and no matter what we did, they would not grow for us…
we ended the conversation noting that, in our experience, some plants will or won’t grow for certain people, lol…
30 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
appear, big girl pants, blessed, bonsai, family, grandson, Japanese Maple, moments, nature, plants, slow process, widow, wire
had fun watching my grandson start to work on his Japanese Maple bonsai…
we picked up the Japanese Maple last spring and it lived in the garden for the summer and moved into the living room in the fall…
over the winter it lost all of its leaves, but new ones have just started to appear;-)…
lots of bits were trimmed off and quite a few types of wire were used to begin the process of bending branches to new spots…
this is the second try as the first one he worked on didn’t make it…
kind of exciting to see how it will turn out, although it is a very slow process…
27 Monday Apr 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, broken, mess, moments, orchid, plants, purple, sopped, vacuum, watering, widow
so, this orchid started budding in the den, in an east window…
and it was living in water…
many of the orchids in that room love being in water constantly, even though all the resources say not to do that, lol…
once the buds began to open, I moved it to the plant table in the west window of the living room…
today was watering day and after I gave it some water, I turned to another plant and knocked the orchid onto the floor… in the process I broke off the branch with all the new buds on it…
picked it up, put most of the bark back in it, sopped up the water, and vacuumed everything up…
then I put the branch in a small vase and am hoping for the best…
not how I planned watering day to go, sigh…
28 Saturday Mar 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, biome, bright colours, crystals, display, family, flowers, garden, kaleidoscope, moments, nature, orchid, plants, rainbows, widow
Thursday night I picked up a cute little orchid after we attended the Member Preview of Kaleidoscope at The Leaf…
one of the many benefits of membership is that often there are previews of new displays… always great fun…
this new display is filled with bright, colourful, flowers and lots of crystals… I am looking forward to seeing if they produce rainbows on sunny days;-)…
and the neatest thing is a piece that has three kaleidoscopes on it with a platform of flowers which turn and produce the kaleidoscope effect… such an entertaining time, either looking through the three options or spinning the saucer for others to see…
I am also going to go later in the evening to see everything lit;-)…
the orchid is from the Apothecary display, so it is a lovely reminder of that display…
there is always something new or different every time you walk through the biomes…
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…
14 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, lights, melt, moments, nature, peek, plants, sleigh, snow people, solar, Technology, widow
I’ve been watching the amaryllis that I purchased in early November…
it is now in the sleigh with some of the snow people and it seems to be doing okay… I added some of the solar lights in and around the melt (group of snow people)… I kind of like it…
both of the little babies on the sides of the main bulb have started to shoot up, and even the original bulb is starting to have a bit of green peek out…
herbiggirlpants 