Tag Archives: poppies

blooming continued…

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

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today the African Violet blooms were open…

African Violet blooming...

African Violet blooming…

talked with a friend about how flowers can open so quickly…

thought about the morning glories and how they are all closed up in the morning and then by mid day are all open… hibiscus open in a similar fashion… and they are usually only open for one day…

you have to be paying attention or you can miss the whole thing…

my absolute favourite to watch though are poppies… if you sit quietly and watch you can actually see them open and the cover pop off…

always a wonder to spend the few minutes it takes for them to open…

makes me think about life and how we need to enjoy and celebrate every moment as we don’t know what is in store for us, or for others…

just spent an hour searching for four pictures of George to use for a project… was bittersweet… I miss him so much…

remember to tell the important people in your life that you love them… never know if you will have another opportunity to do that…

Remembrance Day…

11 Monday Nov 2013

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slept poorly last night and did not feel at all well for most of today…

so, I did very little… watched the live ceremony from Ottawa, and think I may have seen my son-in-law marching by… spent some time in the hot tub, remembering…

reminded me of George’s dad, who had served in the military… he had a heart attack on November 11, 32 years ago… he died shortly after that and I remember making fancy sandwiches with my mom and dad for the family gathering following his funeral… it was the first time I rode in a limo and I will always remember that… I think George always thought about his dad especially around Remembrance Day…

I remember how George’s mom was so worried about me as I was pregnant with Crystal and Isabel hovered over me the whole time, worried that something was going to happen to the baby…

I think of my dad’s health… he was a great athlete, but after the war his lungs didn’t work very well, something to do with sleeping in wet foxholes the entire time he was overseas, which moved to emphysema… from the time I was young he struggled with his lungs and his health… of course smoking didn’t help…

I remember the work my mom did to ensure that there was a statue by the Legislature to commemorate all of the women in the Armed Forces who went to war, but were rather invisible… she spent the war in England touching up photos of ships before they went to the media, so that it wasn’t possible to see where they were, or exactly what they looked like… not the kind of work anyone would do today, lol…

so many people, who have gone, to be thankful for…

poppies in the garden...

poppies in the garden…

 

the poppies in our garden always reminded us of these and so many other special people… wondering if there will be any next summer after all the pond construction that took place this June…

flowers in the garden…

20 Thursday Jun 2013

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a few nights ago I watered the plants when I got home and took a little wander around the garden…

five orange poppies were blooming… this was the night before the pond construction began so it was the last of the poppies…

poppies...

poppies…

a myriad of lily of the valley…

lily of the valley...

lily of the valley…

the torenia have perked up now that I am watering them regularly although I’m not sure if the fushia is going to come back…

torenia happier after watering...

torenia happier after watering…

the purple columbine at the side of the house is doing very well…

columbine...

columbine…

still lots to do, but just having a few flowers blooming has already lifted my spirits and encouraged me to keep working at it…

 

Scattered Pictures…

25 Monday Feb 2013

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on Saturday I took some time at the computer to gather pictures of flowers as I have been asked for some by a friend who wants to decorate her new space with a number of framed photos…

water lily and wasp at the park in 2011...

water lily and wasp at the park in 2011…

it was a lovely hour or so that I spent going through all the pictures taken in 2012 and 2013 and copying the flower shots into a folder…  apparently, I really like morning glories, poppies and orchids…  on Sunday we went through the 600 pictures that I had moved and she chose a hundred that will need to be sifted through…

after she left on Sunday I spent another hour or so doing the same thing with 2011 pictures…  found another 500 or so…  she has those now to sort through as well…

one of the things that I have found about writing posts for my blog is that I have taken the time to find pictures that have come to my mind as I write…  some of them have been easy to find, and others have taken a bit of digging, and along the way I have discovered many pictures that I had completely forgotten about…

I have come across a number of my BS group… often when we go out for a special event we will have a picture taken of all of us…  it is fun to remember where we were and what we were doing when the photos were taken…  it has made me think I need to do some cross-filing by group as well as date…

birthday celebration November 2011...

birthday celebration November 2011…

tonight we had a good visit although it felt a bit poignant to me as we only have one more gathering before one of us leaves to work in another city… she will be returning home every other weekend but we won’t all be together on Monday nights for quite some time… we have done this before when one of us moved to the States for a few years but being on the phone isn’t the same as being in the same room…

so, now another half hour has gone by as I searched for just the right pictures to add into this post, lol…

the words to The Way We Were by Marvin Hamlisch have been running around in my head since last night’s Oscar performance by Barbra Streisand…

what a wonderful life I lead…

The Garden…

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

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it was a long day today… I woke up with a headache and felt out of sorts all day long…

have just come in from a restorative hot tub and as I was getting into the tub I realized that the headache is finally gone, thank goodness…

as I was sitting there looking out at the snow covered garden I thought back to the 10 weeks I spent there this summer as I was recovering from my surgery… it gave me time to think about all that had happened since George’s death…

the garden is a sanctuary where birds, animals and people come to rest and recuperate from life’s events…  this year we had our largest crop of spring poppies ever… Crystal thought her dad had something to do with it, lol…

poppies

poppies

I had been hoping to have the pond redone, but that didn’t end up happening…  the weather was quite lovely for most of my recovery time and as soon as I was able I was out on the deck and once I could manage the steps I moved to my favourite spot at the back of the garden beside the biggest pond…  we were visited by a leopard frog again this year, although we hadn’t seen any over the last few years…

of course there were lots of birds… actually an amazing array…  we had purple finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees and a variety of sparrows… one day I looked out and found at least 5 male goldfinches at the feeder…

goldfinch at the feeder...

goldfinch at the feeder…

the garden has always been a healing place for me and I found that spending time there helped with the grieving process, not just for me, but for many of those who visited me over those many weeks…

right now, I can’t even see the pond from the hot tub because there is so much snow…  we haven’t had this much in many years…  after work tonight I went out and shoveled to the hot tub so that I would be able to walk out in my slippers later on…

had those big girl pants on and was thinking of all the times George would be sure to shovel the area to and around the hot tub so that I would have an easy walk to get there in the evening…

I sure do miss him…