12 Thursday Aug 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
on Monday the slinky arrived in the mail…
we’d been looking for a while and apparently everyone has been buying them as there were none available nearby…
this one was ordered on Thursday and turned up just four days later…
once the rain stopped I put it on the bird feeder pole…
I didn’t pin the bottom down as I read that this wasn’t required…
we will see if it keeps the squirrels from getting to the feeder…
29 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
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…
28 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cucumber, flowers, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, prickly, sweep, weather, widow
this is the first time I have planted/grown cucumbers and I’ve been surprised at how prickly they are…
the cucumber plants had a ton of flowers on them, but no actual cucumbers…
I read online that I should take a broom and sweep over them… this is supposed to help with pollination…
I decided to give it a try the other day… found one of my beloved’s brushes and brushed over as many of the flowers as I could… that was on Saturday…
today, this is what I spotted… plus two others…
not sure if it was the brushing or whether I just had to wait a bit longer, lol…
but I am absolutely thrilled…
26 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, early, food, fun, garden, happy, memories, moments, Olympics, overkill, remembering, retirement, sports, streaming, Technology, weather, widow
I love the Olympics and have watched them for years… I remember a trip we took once and how we had to have access to TVs at the end of each day so that I could keep up with what was happening, lol…
I like to watch in real time so that means reorganizing my sleep schedule to get the best results…
for these ones I couldn’t decide how I felt about them going ahead this year… but now they are happening, I am in… I usually get a Canada Day t-shirt and had purchased one a while ago, but on July 1st I decided not to wear it… as the games began, I put it on;-)…
on Friday I was up at 5:30 am to watch the opening ceremony and ordered McDonald’s for breakfast so I didn’t have to stop watching to make something…
at one point during the first day I was switching between tv channels and streaming on my phone at the same time and I considered turning on the laptop as well… in the end I decided the laptop would be overkill…
I have slowed down slightly… apparently I need a bit more sleep these days…
the great thing about streaming is that I can watch some of the sports that I enjoy most but which don’t always get shown on tv…
the surfing, gymnastics and dressage have been lovely to watch, even if not exactly as they happened…
I’ve even taken the laptop out into the garden so that I can enjoy the weather and not miss anything, lol…
so happy to be able to watch whenever and wherever… retirement is a lovely thing;-)…
23 Friday Jul 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dahlia, flowers, food, garden, moments, nature, plants, pond, rain, spitting, The Dahlia Expert, tomatoes, water lily, weather, widow
a few days ago, I spent the day in the house, other than a few short walks around the garden when it wasn’t raining…
I was happy to find one of the tomatoes starting to turn colour… there are a lot, so it is going to be fun to snack on them as they ripen…
the water lily opened again, even in the rain… I took this picture from upstairs…
and I brought in the Mick’s pepper dahlia bloom to enjoy inside…
seemed odd to not be outside much… but, every time I stepped out the door it was spitting…
22 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
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…
there was also a great deal of bird action… dozens of house sparrows, numerous finches and chickadees, as well as at least one nuthatch…
such a wonderful way to spend the day;-)…
the water lily bloom continues to open with the light and close as the evening arrives…
19 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, hot, moments, nature, treat, vegetable, water, weather, widow
I’ve been watering my neighbour’s vegetable garden when they are away, since it has been so hot…
it makes my few tomatoes, cucumbers and basil look like a joke, lol…
there are raised beds filled with beans, dill, cucumbers, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes of all kinds…
it has been fun to watch the growth when I am giving them a drink…
and look what I received;-)… a bag filled with beans, ready to cook… they will be tomorrow’s supper along with some new potatoes and chicken… yum…
they have shared cucumbers and tomatoes over the years, but it was a lovely treat to get the three types of beans…
17 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bated, big girl pants, blessed, breath, butterflies, eggs, flowers, garden, memories, moments, monarchs, nature, plants, purple, weather, widow
I’ve been watching the monarchs fly around the garden for the last while…
I sit with bated breath, hoping they will find the rather puny milkweed supply… and occasionally they do find it…
I’ve moved the planter, with the milkweed, and a very fast growing morning glory in it, so I can watch from my favourite spot by the pond…
now there are a few eggs on it to watch;-)…
they have even found the butterfly bush…
I have had so many opportunities to remember how blessed I am as I sit and enjoy the nature around me…
17 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bird feeders, blessed, closer, flowers, garden, Hilda the Gardener, hot, moments, nature, pond, purple, sparrows, squirrels, weather, widow
another great day in the garden…
it always looks particularly nice after Hilda the Gardener has been;-)… she spent a few hours in the morning weeding and trimming…
she also helped me move one of the bird feeders to a new spot closer to the pond where, just possibly, the squirrels won’t be able to get to it…
I am hoping that it isn’t so close that sunflower shells find their way into the water…
once she left, I watched sparrows having a garden party, testing out the feeders and enjoying drinks from the pond…
after a short nap, through the hottest part of the afternoon, I finished my book on the deck…
16 Friday Jul 2021
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
barbecue, Barbie, big girl pants, blessed, clap, delicious, garden, hail, moments, nature, rain, sky, steak, thunderstorm, weather, wet, widow
I was laying on the bed upstairs yesterday watching the end of a movie when I heard a huge clap of thunder…
jumped up and ran outside to put away the cushions… I don’t like it when they get wet and they were on all of the chairs…
almost got the last ones into the garage when the downpour began… I stood in the garage doorway and watched rain and hail pelt down for a while and then, when it slowed down a little, made it into the house…
all of the windows were wide open as well as the screen door, but luckily only the kitchen and bedroom had issues…
had to take up the rug at the door and wipe up the water in the kitchen… the other rooms were pretty good… thankfully, the blinds were down in the bedroom so the water only came in a bit in one corner of the frame… once I wiped it up it didn’t take long to dry…
it remained overcast for a while, but then the sun came out and it was beautiful…
brought Barbie the barbecue out and grilled a steak for my dinner to go along with the potato salad I had made earlier in the day…
then I sat on the deck and read;-)… crazy weather…
herbiggirlpants 