31 Friday Oct 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blue morpho butterfly, eclosion, moments, nature, Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden, volunteering, watching, widow
had a wonderful time watching the blue morpho eclosion this morning in the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden;-)…
so happy to have the opportunity to watch this taking place during my volunteer shift;-)…
by the time I left, seven of them were in the process of eclosing…
04 Thursday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bud, flower, garden, moments, nature, opening, pond, reemerge, watching, water lily, weather, widow
since August 26th, I’ve been watching a water lily flower bud… first noticed it about four inches under the water…
once it reached the water level, it has come up about an inch and then popped back under the water… then it would reemerge and finally it rose about two inches out of the water…
it finally opened on Tuesday, September 2nd, on a very cool, overcast, and windy afternoon… certainly, not a day to sit by the pond😢…
since then it has remained closed up…
hoping the weather turns warm and sunny before it returns below the surface…
27 Saturday Jul 2024
Posted in life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cast, moments, Olympics, opening ceremony, silver, Technology, time, watching, widow
well, the Olympics have begun;-)… started with about four hours for the opening ceremony yesterday afternoon…
woohoo… I will spend the next two weeks in front of the tv watching all my favourite sports…
I like to watch as it happens as much as possible… so, there will be a great deal of middle of the night watching and daytime sleeping, lol…
looks like 4:00 am will be my start time although I did cast some rowing to the tv at 2:30 this morning… I’ve added a new Favourites list with just the six channels that have Olympic programming on…
I also have an app that shows the schedule and send me reminders when events I am interested in are starting…
happy, happy, happy;-)…
04 Thursday May 2023
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, clever, food, growing, light, micro greens, moments, nature, present, seeds, soil, Technology, time, treat, watching, water, widow
on Monday I received a birthday present in the mail…
it is a plastic envelope with a disk of soil, a popsicle stick and seeds…
it will turn into sunflower micro greens…
this morning, after going online for directions, I added water, stirred up the soil, added the seeds, stirred it a bit more, misted it and put it into the sunshine;-)…
will be checking it out daily to see how it grows…
what a clever idea and lovely gift;-)…
04 Wednesday May 2022
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Sunday afternoon I spent at least fifteen minutes at the front window…
I had looked up from my reading and spotted something moving in the field across the creek…
when I got up to take a closer look, I saw a deer looking around for something to eat…
as I stood and watched, another one materialized and I watched the two of them go right into the yard of the last house…
even when a person and their dog walked past on this side of the creek, they kept munching away… they can blend right in to grass or bushes…
it was a surprise to see them here, and I am thinking the winter has been hard for them and food is scarce…
I took a few photos although they were still fairly far away, but what a treat to catch the moment…
05 Saturday Feb 2022
Posted in life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
the Olympics are on, the Olympics are on;-)…
I am so excited… I like to watch live if possible, so it means I am up at all times of the day and/or night, depending where they are happening… my days and nights are currently upside down…
retirement makes this much easier… when I worked, my colleagues knew I might be kind of groggy some of the time…
I like both summer and winter versions… although for these ones I am not that fond of hockey and curling (hard to believe I am a Canadian, eh)…
I really enjoy the skating, skiing and snowboarding…
and I always want everyone to do their best… such fun to watch…
not much is going to be happening around here for the next few weeks, lol…
February is going to flash by…
21 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
aquarium, babies, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, happy, lilies, moments, nature, overwinter, pictures, plants, pond, shubunkins, watching, water, widow
was very surprised to see a water lily flower in the pond a few days ago…
I’d been watching for buds, but hadn’t spotted any… these two lilies had overwintered in the aquarium so I wasn’t sure how they would do, which made it even more thrilling…
I took many, many pictures trying to get just the right one… it is difficult to take one that shows the yellow in the centre of the flower correctly…
eventually, I put down a cushion and laid on it taking pictures and then watching the fish…
the waterfall has been off for a few days and they seem to come out from under the bridge more often…
I must have laid there for half an hour watching to see if I could spot the babies…
so far, I’ve seen two shubunkins (the multi-coloured ones) and at least two goldfish… the goldfish (yellow) are hard to spot as they look black… I tried to get pictures but they hide really well and are also very quick…
but what a fun time watching…
04 Sunday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Baby, big girl pants, blessed, exciting, fish, garden, gold, goldfish, moments, nature, patience, pond, remembering, watching, water hyacinth, waterfall, widow
I spent a lovely and quiet hour sitting right next to the pond this morning…
I had planned to turn the waterfall on as soon as I got into the garden, but decided to sit close to the pond and watch the fish…
yesterday, when I was in the pond cleaning it up, I spotted a baby swimming by… they move really quickly, so I only saw it for a moment…
my goal this morning was to check for any others that might be there…
and I spotted two… maybe the whitish one I saw yesterday and an actual gold one… they are much harder to spot in the pond as they look black… of course I didn’t get any pictures, lol…
great excitement and I will keep watch for more;-)…
sure miss the water hyacinth as its roots were a wonderful safe hiding place for babies as they started their journey as the goldfish eat them when they are very small…
02 Sunday May 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blanket, blessed, feeders, garden, juncos, moments, nature, sorrows, time, watching, weather, widow
spent the most wonderful hour in the garden…
it was chilly, but I’d seen numerous birds at the feeders so I moved a lounge chair next to the garage door, wrapped myself up in a blanket and sat still and watched for the visitors coming to the feeders…
there were juncos, white throated sparrows, maybe a song sparrow, a couple of chickadees, and either male and female purple or house finches… they were all over the feeders and on the ground…
there were also two mice… which is okay, as long as they are outside…
I was thrilled to sit and watch and didn’t take out the camera until just before I came in…
this is one of my favourite pictures…
19 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fish, fish tank, goldfish, moments, nature, pond, suspended, watching, widow
I’ve been watching the fish more lately and have come to realize that they have favourite places to rest…
one little one looks like it is stuck under a rock on a regular basis… makes me think of how they always rest under the bridge in the garden…
it is interesting to watch them suspended in the water, often for quite some time…
herbiggirlpants 