begonia…

the other day I took a photo of some beautiful Virginia creeper berries… they were climbing on the cedars on the back lane side of the garden and were a bright purple…

today I spotted these red berries in amongst the lily of the valley…

I’ve never seen berries on lily of the valley before…

burst…

29 Sunday Aug 2021

Posted by sulis303 in health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Burst, garage, moments, purple, recycle, tidy, widow

had a burst of energy and spent a couple of hours in the garage cleaning…

was able to give away a few outdoor games to a neighbour… filled up the garbage and recycling bins… and cleaned off about half of the bench and one shelf…

thinking about painting the bench purple;-)…

every little step feels like progress;-)…

twenty-one…

10 Tuesday Aug 2021

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, garden, health, life, loss, moments, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, birthday, blessed, car, family, garden, grandson, memories, moments, photos, purple, shopping, twenty-one, widow

today, my grandson turns twenty-one…

apparently I am getting lax in my old age as I haven’t been taking as many photos as usual…

these are three of the most recent ones with him in them, lol… but they cover the important things…

in this first one he is cleaning out the hot tub for me… he often comes over and looks after various household and garden jobs…

currently he has my car and here he driving me home after my first Covid-19 vaccination where he kept me company through the entire process… and suggested we get an ice cream treat…

this last one is him heading out in the car after delivering items off for me… he runs errands for me and drops off bits and pieces whenever needed…

what a wonderful time these twenty-one years have been…

he is a wonderful support…

everyday…

01 Sunday Aug 2021

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anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, everyday, family, garden, George, hands, happy, health, memories, moments, morning glories, pond, purple, remembering, widow

the Olympics have been a distraction as this day has come closer – what would have been our 51st wedding anniversary…

I’ve spent the day thinking of some moments with my beloved…

the everyday things: changing up the configuration of the ponds; working in the garden as it changed over the years; caring for his lawn, trimming the Virginia creeper, fixing whatever needed attention; making the world’s best French fries, fried egg sandwiches and salads; driving the girls and I everywhere; reading and playing with our grandsons; cleaning the garage, packing the car, barbecuing; the strength of his hands that could wring out a cloth so it was dry, massage a sore neck, scrub a pot perfectly clean, and gently hold my hand when we were out walking…

so many little things…

I’ve been remembering our 40th anniversary… I was in the hospital for an extended period of time and he came every day and brought me pictures he had taken of whatever morning glories had opened on that particular day… I took this photo just yesterday…

he also sent me a basket filled with 40 roses… each night they had to be moved into the hall because their scent was so strong I couldn’t sleep with them in the room, lol…

a friend recently lost his partner and has decided to refer to their anniversary as the first celebration of their 41 years together… what a lovely way to describe it…

today I am also enjoying the sentiment of this beautiful card which I recently received in the mail…

what a blessed life I have lived;-)…

hostas…

31 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by sulis303 in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, flowers, garden, gardening, hostas, moments, nature, plants, pond, pruners, purple, water, widow

today I did some actual gardening, lol…

for some reason I do not like hosta flowers, even though they are purple… odd, because I like the plants…

I got my pail, gloves and pruners and tidied up each of the hostas that had flowers hanging over them… the most difficult was the one behind the waterfall… it is a bit tight in that corner and I didn’t want to fall into the pond again, lol… they look so much tidier now…

I moved a couple of impatiens from a spot where they weren’t visible into a pot that the squirrels had dug up and destroyed a plant… I also repotted a dahlia corm that was in a pot and hadn’t done anything…maybe it was planted too deep… if it doesn’t peek through in the next week I will put something else in the pot…

then it was onto my book and relaxing;-)…

anthurium…

30 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by sulis303 in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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anthurium, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, gift, memories, moments, nature, plants, plastic, purple, widow

I’ve been so focussed on the garden I forgot to share the excitement in the dining room…

this anthurium, which I received as a birthday gift five years ago, flowered once last year after not blooming for four years…

on July 7th I spotted this new bloom;-)…

now it is open and beautiful… although it looks like plastic, lol… once open it lasts for ages…

nature truly is amazing…

odour…

29 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by sulis303 in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, cushions, dahlias, flowers, garden, moments, nature, odour, plants, purple, sanctuary, The Dahlia Expert, water, weather, widow

I was up at 6:30 am watching the Olympics;-)…

I had made my mind up to water the garden first thing because it has been getting hot so early in the day…

I think the temperature only reached 28 Celsius which feels cool after the hot days we’ve been dealing with…

it turned out to be a beautiful day, other than the odour of smoke in the air… luckily, you could smell the smoke, but the sky was clear…

after watering, I put out all the cushions and wandered around checking out flowers…

the planter with the milkweed and morning glories in it was looking spectacular as the morning glories have overtaken the container… not sure that the monarchs can find the milkweed anymore…

the dahlias are doing well and one of the buds on the Robann Regal plant has started to open…

excited to see it fully open…

I also realized that there are more buds starting on the Mick’s Peppermint… that plant is huge and didn’t look like it was going to have more than a few flowers… interesting that the second flower was about half the size of the first one, although it is hard to see that in my photo… and the colours are different on every flower;-)…

sat and enjoyed the view…

I love my garden sanctuary…

activity…

22 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by sulis303 in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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activity, big girl pants, birds, blessed, close, garden, moments, nature, open, pictures, pond, purple, squirrels, water lily, weather, widow

hot and partly overcast today, but not nearly as smokey…

and lots of activity in the garden…

must have counted six squirrels at one time and took a few pictures of different ones eating… none of the gray squirrels wanted to have their photos taken, lol…