early Tuesday morning I was sitting on the back deck, listening to the burbling of the pond, as a bunny came right up next to me… we chatted, well I chatted and the bunny twitched its nose for a few minutes, before it hopped away… pleased that it felt comfortable as I sat there reading quietly… well, maybe it didn’t notice me, lol…
reminded me of how truly blessed I am… and what a wonderful life I lead…that I can sit in the sunshine and shade in my garden and enjoy the nature around me – the birds, and squirrels, and bunnies, and bees – every day that I want…
and while I was there, to hear about the ducklings that hatched yesterday, and today crossed a busy street with their momma, (protected by two different people families) in Ottawa to find a swimming pool to start the next portion of their journey…
later in the day I stood up from a chair on the upper deck and spotted a goldfinch at the feeder… it flitted about nervously for a few moments and then, when it felt safe, called its partner to come and eat… they were happy for a while, until a squirrel came and chased them away…
if I hadn’t stood up at just that moment I would have missed them… a lovely treat…
made chicken soup from the leftovers of Sunday’s dinner and tested out a few new purchases which arrived at the door…
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…
spent Tuesday in the garden… the first part on the deck reading in the sunshine…
there was no wind, so I was able to flatten out and fold up the tarpaulin…
then I moved to the back deck and did a bit of reading before starting to remove the last of the leaves and water from the pond with the wet vac… it took a number of trips to get it done… but, I did it, yay…
next, I found the hose, hooked it up and started the water running… finally I hooked up the pump and finished filling it…
so happy when the waterfall started up… worth all the work…
what a treat to sit, watch and listen to the sound;-)…
spent most of it on the deck, reading in the sunshine…
I also spent time working at the pond… we tried to take off the tarp a few days ago but it was too heavy as it still had a lot of water and a ton of soggy leaves in it… the plan was to wait for another person to help us…
I put the pump in the pond again… the other day when I tried this the hose popped off and gave me a pond-water shower;-(… this time I got rid of most of the water… then I put it into the tarp and got a fair bit of water out of it…
after that I was able to drag it out of the pond and bag the leaves… they filled half of a garbage can, lol…
then the tarp was spread out in the grass, hopefully drying, so it can be folded up and put away…
maybe in the next few days I will vacuum the bottom of the pond and fill it with water…
four years ago in April, we arrived on Maui to celebrate my birthday…
I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never made it happen until then…
I have been enjoying the memories that have come up in my social media…
on our way into our first hotel, we spotted orchids in the lobby…
we went to the beach to watch the sun set, got our toes in the ocean, found a great spot to watch, settled in to wait, and then had this group of people walk right in front of us to get their pictures, lol…
I have the amethyst heart that I purchased on my bedside table and enjoy seeing it all the time…
one of my favourite memories is of our time at the orchid farm… a huge space bursting with the most beautiful plants, most of which were in full bloom…
it was delightful…
there were fish and sea turtles…
saw cacao trees with cacao pods on them, jacaranda trees in bloom (purple), and the most amazing banyan tree which took up an entire block…
it was an amazing time and we enjoyed every minute… it lived up to all of my expectations and then some… so lucky this happened before covid…
on Friday we emptied, moved and cleaned the hot tub, put it back and refilled it… this time I used a larger hose that I have and it emptied the tub in fifteen minutes… usually it can take hours, so this was a great improvement…
I am always happy when the jets start up after the refill, because sometimes it takes a few tries to get them working… happily, they started right away…
unfortunately we could not replace the arms as the screw for one of them would not come out…
we also left the seal for them to look at, and hopefully repair or replace…
so I have a call in to Krevco to see about having a technician come out and see what they can do…
Wednesday is the day I water my plants… I have quite a few, lol…
I combine tap water with some banana skin water and wander around the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and den, with constant trips to the kitchen to refill the watering can…
I have had this watering can forever and have repaired the handle a few times as I enjoy the feel of this one…
seeing all of the blooms on the African violets and orchids, and the lovely purple anthurium blossom brings me so much happiness and makes me smile…
and currently, there are the seedlings that need attention as well…
it is quite a meditative experience and I enjoy the weekly time spent doing this…
cleaning the pumps is not one of my favourite jobs, but I have gotten pretty good with it now that I have no choice, lol…
both tanks were getting murky which is the sign that the entire pump needs to be cleaned… that means the tube and the three different filters in each pump…
yucky, but necessary to get done… small one went fine… I don’t even make a face when I am rinsing them by hand whereas before I wouldn’t even consider touching them…
those big girl pants…
when I dealt with the big pump it was cleaned and put back without any issues…
but, when I plugged it back in nothing happened, sigh…
tried plugging it into a few other outlets, but no luck… brought it back into the kitchen, dumped the water out of it and removed the actual pump, which is quite tiny…
then I took the two pieces apart, used a Q-tip to clean both and rinsed it out without getting the outside of it wet…
got it back together, plugged it in and it worked, phew… when the pumps stop working it is rather worrisome because there is the concern about the stress on the fish in the tank…
now to see how long it takes to clear up the water and get rid of the murkiness…
