28 Wednesday Aug 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bag, big girl pants, blessed, books, buddy, friend, library, moments, plants, pond, restocked, stair library, widow
so excited when I got a text from my book-buddy saying she was on the way over with a couple of bags of reading material for me…
woohoo…
it was a drop and run as she had places to be, lol…
and then I restocked the stair library;-)…
09 Friday Aug 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
anticipate, big girl pants, blessed, experiment, fish, friend, garden, goldfish, grow, koi, moments, nature, neighbour, pond, widow
a few weeks ago a friend brought me some koi that a neighbour had given her for me… they are a fair bit smaller than the goldfish, but I anticipate they will grow quickly…
I’ve never had (or wanted) koi, so it will be interesting to see how it goes… this photo shows one of them (mainly black and white) amongst the much larger goldfish…
my fish are fairly tough… they don’t get any special treatment so we will see how the koi manage in that environment;-)…
an experiment…
15 Monday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, dirty, dust bath, garden, moments, nature, path, pond, sand, swept, walkway, weather, widow
we’ve tidied up the walkway between the pond and garden and I had swept the path a few days ago…
yesterday I looked at it and discovered that it was once again covered in dirt, sigh…
as I watched the sparrows having their dust baths it occurred to me what the problem was, lol…
today I swept it again, pretty much knowing that it won’t stay tidy for any length of time…
maybe I will put down that fancy magic sand that turns solid once it has water put on it…
it will be interesting to see how the birds respond…
08 Monday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cascading, filter, garden, moments, pond, pump, waterfall, weather, widow
on Sunday, I put out all the cushions as there was no rain in the forecast;-)…
the waterfall was running very slowly so I climbed into the pond and cleaned out all the muck that had accumulated in the filter of the pump…
then I trimmed up some of the plants in one of the floating baskets as the fish swam around my legs, completely unconcerned…
now the waterfall is cascading beautifully;-)…
29 Saturday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decimated, family, garden, happy, milkweed, moments, monarch caterpillars, nature, photos, plants, pond, twenty, widow
on Tuesday we counted twenty monarch caterpillars on the milkweed in the garden…
they were all over the newest batch that was recently planted and have nearly decimated all the leaves…
they were also on the ones near the waterfall which were planted last summer… we’ve now taken out all the poppies so there is more room to be able to see the caterpillars…
there were none on the ones from last year which were located around the edge of the pond… these were the ones that I planted in a spot where I could see and photograph any butterflies, eggs and caterpillars that came along, lol…
there were some chives next to them so when Hilda the Gardener was here the other day I had her take them out… maybe the butterflies don’t like the smell…
so excited to have so many;-)…
14 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday I went into the pond to take out the small pump and clean it…
it was very dirty, ugh… the process of getting in and out of the pond involves a chair, towel, watershoes, and this time, a bucket to put the bits that needed to be cleaned…
then I used the hose to clean everything… dirty business, lol…
after I put the pump back, it was working better, but not as well I was hoping for…
and I cleaned out the main pump while I was in there;-)… glad that job is done…
09 Sunday Jun 2024
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bin, blessed, completed, deck, family, fence, garden, happy, moments, patched, pond, projects, repairs, widow
Saturday, a few more projects around the garden were completed…
the final board that joined the back flowerbed to the fence was replaced and one of the yardwaste bins fits perfectly there…
the broken edge board by the bathtub pond, thanks to the hanging chair blowing over and breaking it last spring, was patched…
it looks so much better over there now…
a box was built to hold the mandevilla on the top deck so that the plant won’t blow over on windy days…
and two pots were moved to finish off the area around the pond…
the garden is looking very nice;-)…
07 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, columbine, cucumbers, cushions, flowers, garden, growing, hibiscus, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, pond, poppies, purple, reading, slips, walk, weather, widow
this morning I started my day with a wander around the gardens…
I started with the vegetable garden and checked on the two tomatoes, miriad of peas, beans, and the couple of cucumbers that appear to have made a go of it…
the cucumber and butternut squash seeds have yet to reach the surface…
the columbines are getting ready to flower and it appears that the ones with double petals are happy in their new location along the house…
the dahlias are growing taller every day and the ivy slips from the house are holding their own…
next I checked out the pond garden, where the irises are blooming and the poppies are raising their heads slowly to get set to open… I had to detour back around the deck so that I didn’t brush against any of them… the hanging baskets are filling with flowers as they recover from the hail storm…
the petunias around the deck look good, but I need to find a way to raise up the new planter boxes as they are just a tiny bit too narrow…
the begonia and orchid in the back shady area seem to be doing well and the pansies by the bathtub pond are growing nicely…
the hibiscus is still in the shade since coming outside recently and the begonias and verbena are happy… sadly the pansies in between them are not doing well…the strawberry pot and dahlia next to the back door look excellent as do the morning glories as they come up…
on the deck the mandevilla seems content in its new location and the clematis continues to wind its way up the obelisk… the lobelia and alyssum on the table are doing very well…
after that lovely stroll, I brought out all the cushions, uncovered the deck chairs, and sat with my tea and read some of my book as the birds sang their morning welcome;-)…
04 Tuesday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fair-sized, fish, garden, goldfish, moments, nature, pond, pump, rock, weather, widow
spent a little time in the pond Sunday afternoon…
for whatever reason (that I can’t figure out) the pump at the end seems to keep tipping up… I decided to put a fair-sized rock in to hold the edge of the pump down and give the fish somewhere to hide under, other than the bridge, lol…
and I removed the two dead water lilies which were clearly not coming back…
we will see if it works… well, look…
it seems as though the fish have finally decided that they can swim around the entire pond…
03 Monday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bathtub pond, big girl pants, blessed, catch, condo, garden, goldfish, moments, nature, pail, pond, poured, rock, weather, widow
the bathtub pond has been running for enough days that it was time for the last goldfish to come out from their small condo in the house…
put a large rock in the pond so they could hide under it, added water from the pond to a bucket, and went into the house to catch them…
lucky for me, it didn’t take too long to collect the four of them…
brought them outside and left them in the pail to acclimatize for about twenty minutes and then poured them in;-)…
they went straight for the hiding place, lol…
herbiggirlpants 