13 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in life, moments, nature, Uncategorized, weather
the sky is very menacing tonight…
the light is very strange…
from the back it looks like there is an orange visor over the sky…
from the front the clouds are very threatening…
think we are in for a big storm…
04 Saturday Jul 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, flowers, garden, instar, lifecycle, milkweed, molt, moments, nature, plants, pond, weather, widow
it was overcast when I got up yesterday morning, but I went out before 7:30 to see what flowers were blooming and what the caterpillars were up to…
there were a bunch of morning glories and two dahlias were almost completely open…
the caterpillars were going through some of their instars… during the caterpillar stage they molt five times…
I was very excited to spot the largest one with the molt left on the leaf… after a while I noticed that another much smaller one went through the process…
this was exciting as I’d never seen this piece of the lifecycle previously…
the remainder of the day was spent quietly as I was not feeling well, so I slept and read in the shade, although I did check out the caterpillars now and again;-)…
24 Wednesday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, cushions, flowers, friends, garden, lazy, memories, moments, nature, pond, weather, widow
this morning I was up and about fairly early so that I could get the garden ready for a visit with a friend…
I’ve been quite lazy lately and have only put out a few chair cushions rather than all of them, but today I brought all of them out, including a few decorative ones that have been living on the couch, lol…
the garden looked great, freshly mowed and whipper snipped…
the veronica is blooming and the bees are all over it… the daisies are mostly open and the dahlias have buds on them… the lobelia is thinking of trailing and alyssum is growing nicely and starting to scent the air…
baskets are doing well and both ponds are flowing beautifully…
on warm days, visits need to happen before noon as there is little shade for the remainder of the afternoon…
the weather was perfect and finches and squirrels dropped by… we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves immensely;-)…
so nice to spend time with friends… going to organize some more of that;-)…
17 Wednesday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, ceramic, dahlia, flowers, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, pond, weather, widow
one of the pots around the pond was a black pail that I had put a dahlia in and then a butterfly bush as the dahlia didn’t grow… could be the problem was no drainage…
a few days ago, I pulled a ceramic pot out from under the deck and repotted the butterfly bush into it along with one of the pansies that had been in too much shade…
looks much better, I think.. hope the plants like this one better…
17 Wednesday Jun 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, cats, frog, garden, moments, nature, pond, quiet, sparrow, weather, widow
there has been lots of activity in the garden recently…
these critters were photographed over the last few days…
today the forecast mentioned thunderstorms and rain but I decided to put out all of the cushions anyway… it ended up sunny and hot for most of the day…
looks very quiet, lol…
but this morning there were red and gray squirrels, the frog, chipping sparrows, a bunny that shot across the garden, dragonflies and two cats, one that I haven’t seen previously…
and during that entire period a robin, that I couldn’t see, sang…
I am enjoying every moment that I spend here…
16 Tuesday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beforehand, big girl pants, bird feeder, birds, blessed, friends, garden, gift, moments, purple, retirement, weather, widow
this afternoon I had a lovely visit with a friend I hadn’t seen for a long time…
it was very hot in the garden and had rained for a short period beforehand, so I had to put all the cushions away and then bring them back out, lol… thank goodness it stopped as I am still not having guests in the house…
she brought the most adorable purple bird feeder and the sweetest card as a retirement gift;-)…
I have filled it with food for the finches and hung it next to the garage door… will see if it is too close to the house…
what a treat;-)…
14 Sunday Jun 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, blowing, chickadees, elephant ear, garden, moments, nature, pond, sparrows, toppled, trees, weather, widow, wind
the wind has been blowing a lot in the last few days…
today, it was so strong that it toppled the elephant ear plant in the pond… I had thought it was secure, but all of a sudden it blew over… dug out my water shoes, found some very large rocks, and climbed in and stood it back up, circled it with the rocks as well as adding a few on top of it…
the rocks were so big, it raised the water level and a few of the lily pads went back under the water, lol…
I didn’t spot the frog, but a number of house sparrows and a few chipping sparrows stopped by to drink and have a bath…
the chickadees have returned and two of them were really looking around… I was wondering if they were searching for a spot to nest as I hadn’t seen this particular behaviour previously…
11 Thursday Jun 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, BS, campfire, car, drive, food, friends, memories, moments, nature, Outing, physical distancing, pictures, treat, weather, widow
just home from a wonderful gathering with my best buddies… we haven’t been together since my birthday in April, when they came and wished me a happy birthday at a distance with signs and a card…
this was the first time that I have left the house, and driven the car, since mid-March…
everyone brought their own dishes, silverware and mugs, and I even brought my chair, which worked out really well as it has a little table attached where I could put my tea and camera…
we sat – physically distancing, of course – around a lovely fire in our host’s backyard, celebrating another birthday and enjoyed a visit while eating lemon cake with fresh raspberries which she had baked for us… (cake photo from the chef)…
we talked about birds, celebrations, family and wind chimes… and we learned that wind chimes can have different sounds attributed to them… the ones we were listening to were the song of a meadowlark…
it was cool, but we all brought warm clothes and were quite comfortable… a bit crazy that gloves were needed…
it was an excellent first outing and I felt good about getting out for the first time since the pandemic began, although I did wash my hands as soon as I got into the house, lol…
my clothes smell like a campfire… what a treat…
30 Saturday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, clematis, cold, flowers, garage, garden, mandevilla, morning glories, nature, plants, poppies, weather, widow
took this photo of one of the poppies that is growing in the garden…
I am hoping that all of these buds will continue to grow and bloom although the temperature has been a bit crazy the last few days…
Thursday night I brought some of the plants into the house and covered those around the deck…
last night I put all of them into the garage, except for a couple of heavy ones just outside the kitchen… happily, the clematis seems to be doing fine…
I left them there all day because the temperature is going down again tonight…
I think the weather is going to be improving so they can all move back outside tomorrow…
23 Saturday May 2020
Posted in garden, moments, nature, Uncategorized, weather
it has been very hot the last few days and the forecast keeps mentioning rain and possible thunderstorms…
had a few sprinkles in the night, but no real rain…
tonight the sky changed rather drastically in about 45 minutes…
took these photos out the front window… looked like it was going to pour... but then it cleared…
and these were out the back…
once again there were some sprinkles, but not a good rain… hoping for a good soaking… maybe later…
herbiggirlpants 