21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
20 Saturday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park Zoo, big girl pants, blessed, doors, food, moments, plants, swag, The Leaf, training, weather, widow, zoo
I’ve been enjoying taking any training that I can to learn more about the Leaf and Zoo…
spent an hour Thursday morning to see how volunteering at the front of the zoo works…
afterwards I went to Volunteer Services and collected all the swag I have earned over the last four months…
what a haul;-)…
I was also able to purchase a volunteer hoodie which is going to be well used as the weather gets colder…
I’m thinking the entrance area will be chilly with the doors opening and closing all day…
lunch out, and then a shift at The Leaf…
it was a rather full day…
16 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bee, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, fun, garden, moments, morning glories, morning glory, nature, pictures, shrivelled, Technology, weather, western honey bee, widow
fun with morning glories today…
as I was taking photos of this blue morning glory, a cute little western honey bee showed up looking for a snack…
happily, I got a few nice pics…
then, later in the day, the morning glories shrivelled up into themselves in a very interesting way, so took a few cool photos…
14 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
adventure buddy, big girl pants, blessed, dahlias, flowers, friends, gardens, heated, moments, nature, Park Cafe, roses, walk, water lilies, weather, widow
had breakfast with my adventure buddy at the Park Cafe on Friday… I hadn’t been for awhile, but it was lovely to be recognized by the waitstaff…
enjoyed the classic eggs Benedict with tomatoes instead of hash browns…
then we had a short walk through the English Gardens and a quick look at the water lily pond in the Leo Mol Garden…
the flowers were stunning and we were drawn to all the beautiful dahlias and and roses…
as always the water lilies were blooming in the heated pond…
the frogs do enjoy the warm water, lol…
lovely time;-)…
11 Thursday Sep 2025
Posted in life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, contaminants, fish, fish tanks, goldfish, koi, moments, pond, project, pumps, water, weather, widow
finally got around to filling the fish tanks yesterday…
the process took over an hour, as each tank had to be filled and then the pump was cleaned, plugged in and turned on…
I was pleased as after each pump was cleaned, it started up without any issues…
now the pumps will run for three or four weeks before any fish come inside, to be sure that the water has no chlorine or other contaminants in it…
happy this piece of work is done and I don’t have to think about the fish coming inside until much later;-)… woohoo…
09 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buds, falling, fish, food, friend, friends, garden, happy, hibiscus, leaves, lunch, moments, nature, pond, soaking, wasps, water, weather, widow
another delightful day in the garden, especially after the last number of cool and overcast days…
spotted a hibiscus blossom, so that was a treat…
next, I went into the pond to clean out the pump… the leaves have been falling like crazy and there were a ton in the water… once the pump has been cleaned out, the waterfall always flows beautifully…
all the cushions went out and a dear friend arrived with lunch… we ate inside as the wasps are very busy in the garden…
we moved outside and had a lovely time by the pond catching up on life…
after she left, I read in the garden for the remainder of the day;-)…
soaking up every minute possible in this sanctuary…
08 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
barely, big girl pants, blessed, buds, friends, garden, moments, pond, summer, time, water, water lily, weather, widow
lovely afternoon in the garden…
spotted a new bud coming up on the water lily, even though the first flower barely opened due to the cold weather, sigh…
and then spent a great time with my buddies as we enjoyed the beautiful summer day;-)…
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…
02 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, demonstrate, fire pit, fixed, friend, garden, happy, lane, moments, shed, weather, widow
the other day a friend took away the fire pit, (which hadn’t been working for ages and was currently living in the shed), to see if he could get it going again…
I had almost put it in the lane to get picked up by someone, but decided to keep it and see if anyone could fix the silly thing…
he brought it back with his propane tank to demonstrate how to light it…
it appears that I wasn’t holding the gas button long enough…
so I added in the glass bits, tried to light it, and it didn’t work, sigh…
next, I moved the glass pieces away from the gas tube and when I tried it again, it worked…
I am a happy camper;-)…
30 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blue, fish, flowers, garden, memories, moments, morning glories, nature, purple, shrivelled, treat, weather, widow
I spent a large portion of the day reading in the garden and enjoying the flowers and fish…
as the afternoon progressed I watched the morning glories close up… it reminded me of all the days when I worked and how, by the time I got home, they were all done…
this morning I took a photo of the butterfly bench with a number of blooms on it…
currently the majority of the blooms are the large blue ones with a few smaller purple ones still popping out…
by late this afternoon they had all shrivelled up…
what a treat to be able to enjoy them from start to finish;-)…
herbiggirlpants 