28 Wednesday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
the surprise of my daughter’s visit was delightful…
she had booked a pedicure for us once she arrived home and we had a lovely time at one of our favourite haunts…
dark blue and mauve toes ended our visit there…
13 Wednesday May 2026
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
the other day I picked up a hanging basket that was “free” because we spent a zillion dollars on groceries, lol…
the plan is to use it in the front planter beside the door as it had lots of plants and flowers flowing down the sides…
brought it out of the garage today to get a bit of sun because it still isn’t warm enough for it to go into the pot, lol…
while it was sitting out, a lovely big bumblebee stopped by for some pollen…
it buzzed around the various flowers for quite a few minutes before heading off to find other treats…
what a great start to the day…
25 Monday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
around, bench, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, growing, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, surprise, vine, weather, widow
the other day I posted about the morning glory that had grown through a space in the back of the bench on the deck…
I was hoping that the vine would have flowers on the front of the bench;-)…
today I looked carefully and discovered this, lol…
it went around the 2×4 and back out on the same side…
too funny;-)…
12 Wednesday Feb 2025
14 Thursday Nov 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cacao trees, daughter, doorbell, family, koi, moments, nature, ring, surprise, Technology, The Leaf, time, treat, widow, Yasuragi
what a wonderful surprise I received this morning;-)…
as I was taking my poached eggs out of the water, I heard the doorbell ring… I was expecting a parcel so wasn’t surprised, but when I opened the door, my daughter was standing in front of me…
she had come to town to attend a concert with one of her friends and had planned to include a day with me;-)…
what a super treat…
we quickly booked a trip to The Leaf so she could see her beloved cacao trees… we had a great time there, checking out the trees, watching the koi, and realizing how much growth has taken place since we were last there together in June…
she was able to get a few nice shots of the koi which she shared with me.
we enjoyed time in the Yasuragi display and read up on all the bonsai, including new ones which hadn’t been there the last time I visited… the stories behind them are very interesting…
spent a few minutes with the butterflies…
it is sad that they are still in the netted enclosure and not flying freely around the space…
one last wander to see the cacao trees and koi, a bit of fun in the gift shop, and then we headed home…
some relaxing time together and then I dropped her off at the airport to head home…
I am blessed;-)…
06 Wednesday Nov 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
almost-open, big girl pants, blessed, bloom, blossom, flowers, food, hibiscus, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, surprise, treat, widow
in the process of moving the hibiscus and mandevilla, an almost-open bloom fell off…
the next morning I discovered that it was starting to open, even though it was laying in the dirt…
I grabbed it and put it in water and then spent the day watching as it opened and then began to close…
what a lovely treat…
I also found at least five buds on the plant… can hardly wait to see more flowers…
29 Thursday Aug 2024
Posted in moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, close, Cooper’s, garden, hawk, moments, nature, surprise, visit, widow
was on the deck reading last evening when a Cooper’s Hawk flew onto the ledge about six feet in front of me…
moved too fast for me to get a photo, but this is where it was…
it flew to the top of the garage, sat there for a few minutes, and then on to the neighbour’s yard…
hope the little birds are okay…
07 Wednesday Aug 2024
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, corms, dahlias, flowers, garden, happy, hues, Lilystone Gardens, moments, nature, pink, plants, purple, surprise, treat, weather, white, widow
I have been so excited…
for a number of years, I’ve been overwintering dahlia corms, but haven’t had tons of luck… sometimes I know what they are and other times they are a surprise when they get put away…
one white one has proven very prolific and it has produced at least a dozen blooms so far this year in three different pots…
these are about the size of my palm…
a delightful feathery one that I purchased last year at Lilystone Gardens has come back nicely and has a number of blooms and buds in one pot…
each bloom is bigger than my hand…
these have all been white so I was particularly excited to see one come up in a pot that looked like it was pinky/purple…
it is a bit smaller than the white pompom-looking ones, but stands out in all its pink and purple hues…
nature is so amazing…
07 Sunday Jul 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
11 Tuesday Jun 2024
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bird feeders, blessed, deer, discourage, food, hostas, lane, moments, nature, pictures, snacking, surprise, widow, wildlife, window
Sunday morning I saw a deer in the field across the creek… I pointed it out to my neighbours so a couple of them went over to watch it…
apparently it had been eating their hostas…
later in the day we had a visitor at the bird feeder…
I had wondered why the seeds in one feeder had gone down so quickly, lol… eventually I opened the door and it headed across to the lane and out of sight…
today I was looking out the window only to see it back again…
as it came to the feeder I knocked on the window but it didn’t care… finally I opened the door to encourage it to leave the birdseed alone… and off it went…
I’m happy to see wildlife but don’t want to encourage eating of sunflower seeds… I may have to bring the feeders in for a few days to discourage the snacking…
