16 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in food, garden, health, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, flowers, food, garden, moments, nature, plants, purple, taller, veggies, weather, widow
had a morning walk around the garden the other day…
it is doing very well with lots of purple and green…
the side/vegetable garden is very happy… the peas and cucumbers in the new planter are especially happy… they are taller than me…
gathered fifteen pea pods from the vegetable garden and added the peas to my new potatoes and slice of ham for my dinner…
tasty…
08 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, move, nature, plants, purple, rearranged, shade, widow
moved a few planters and a chair on the lower deck…
haven’t decided if I like it or not…
and then this morning I rearranged again… I put the dahlia by the door and moved the begonias and columbine to the back of the garden where they will get the necessary shade… I may end up moving that planter beside the rain barrel, but will need help to get it up there…
guess I will live with it for a while and see…
04 Monday Jul 2022
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, camera, dissuade, fish, garden, moments, motion, nature, plants, pond, Technology, water lilies, widow
last Thursday night I think a raccoon (or more than one) came into the garden and attacked the pond…
they got at least two fish and tossed around the water lilies… they don’t care for fish scales, so end up leaving them on the ground… I found two piles on the stepping stones alongside the pond…
the fish were clearly traumatized and have barely come out from under the bridge…
after doing some research, I put down epsom salt all around the pond and hoped that would dissuade them from finding their supper in my garden…
I also put on the motion sensor at the back door and the one on the garage…
since then, they have come back a few times, although I am starting to wonder if it might be the coyote that has been wandering in this area… the plants have been disturbed, but I haven’t found any fish bits…
this Thursday I put up a new wireless camera to see if I can spot whatever has been coming by…
so far, nothing has been spotted…
02 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, friend, garden, moments, nature, planting, plants, pond, thin, wasp next, widow
Monday, a friend dropped off some alyssum and lobelia and Wednesday I got around to planting them…
opened the shed to discover a small paper wasp nest attached to the door… I used the recycling bin to hold the door open and went in carefully to find some pots…
happily there were no injuries and I pulled out a couple of pots and a hanging basket…
got each one filled and popped them over by the garden bed…
this was good as the beds look a little thin now that all the poppies have been removed, lol…
next project will be to get rid of the nest…
26 Sunday Jun 2022
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, clematis, driveway, garden, happy, moments, nature, plants, purple, spot, time, time flies, widow
recently I wrote about how well the clematis is doing along the driveway…
now it is blooming… and I think this is the most blossoms since we planted it many years ago…
it has more stems and leaves too…
now that I’ve done the math… 🤪… I realize that it is about twelve or thirteen years old… I am actually surprised as I hadn’t realized how long it has been in this spot…
time flies;-)…
25 Saturday Jun 2022
Posted in business, family, food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blue cedar, bonsai, dinner, family, garden, happy, irrigation, moments, nature, plants, Technology, widow
I am beyond happy…
Thursday the kids came over and we spent most of the late afternoon in the garden…
my grandson started work on a bonsai tree and it was great fun to see him trim a blue cedar into something resembling a small tree…
it is going to live in the garden for the summer…
then, we finished the irrigation system… yay… the hose was straightened, holes were punched in various places and tubes with sprinklers were connected… they had no trouble connecting the tubes to the hose, sigh… we ran a test and made sure each little piece was spraying appropriately…
we need a few more pieces of tubing, but most planters, baskets and perennials now will be watered when I turn on the tap… I am sure they will all be happy about this, lol…
so excited to see how well the garden will grow when it is watered regularly…
then we had barbecued steak and asparagus, baked potatoes and a salad on the deck…
what a treat;-)…
23 Thursday Jun 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, growing, moments, nature, pads, plants, pond, water lilies, widow
I am so excited to finally see pads (leaves) from the water lilies on the surface of the pond…
they spent the winter in the fish tanks, but did not appear to be growing at all since they’ve been back in the pond…
this was the second year they had been overwintered, so it was very disappointing that nothing was happening…
but a few days ago, the first of the pads floated to the top of the water…
now I am hopeful that they will bloom this summer as well… they did a great job last year;-)…
22 Wednesday Jun 2022
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cherish, flowers, garden, moments, nature, plants, pond, weather, widow
summer is here and I am doing my best to cherish every minute of it…
spent the day in the garden… a bit of deadheading and weeding, and lots of time enjoying my current book, which a friend just gifted me a few days ago…
after the crew came and mowed, whipper snipped, and tidied the grass, I put back a few pieces of furniture that I’d moved to make their job easier…
the clematis is filled with buds and I expect they will open in the next few days…
even managed to water the houseplants and produce a few meals… all of which were eaten outdoors…
the weather was lovely… sunny and warm, not too hot, with a slight breeze…
the poppies are nearly done… they don’t particularly enjoy rain…once they are finished the rest of the perennials will show themselves, lol…
the sounds of the two ponds running and the odd bird made for a relaxing time…
to top off the day I received three water hyacinths which have gone right into the pond;-)… the fish are going to enjoy them and maybe babies will hide amongst their roots…
I am blessed…
15 Wednesday Jun 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
the baskets and planters are doing well and filling out nicely… I had planned on purple and white, but there are pops of yellow and even red…
the poor mandevilla has a bad sunburn and has been covered with a purple umbrella to protect it from further sun damage… I have begun to let it sit with no covering on overcast days and hope it will recover…
the hibiscus spent a number of days in the shade of one of the cedars and has finally moved into a spot along the edge of the pond… I hope it likes it there as most summers it has lived on the deck…
it is fun to look at photos from previous years and see how the garden has changed…
14 Tuesday Jun 2022
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, nature, plants, poppies, tease, walk, weather, weeding, widow
I have been enjoying the garden everyday and particularly my walks around to see what might be breaking through the ground or blooming…
the poppies continue to tease me in their slow process of blooming… each morning I check them out to see if any of them have opened, but not just yet, lol…
the vegetable garden is doing well… peas, beans and a few cucumbers have poked their heads through the soil and are keeping the three tomatoes company;-)…
I have also taken to weeding, which is rather new for me…
I have cleaned up a number of spots in the side garden and am excited to see the painted fern has come back and multiplied…
the wild columbine has popped up in about three spots and I am watching them carefully to ensure they don’t get pulled…
nature is amazing;-)…
herbiggirlpants 