12 Saturday Sep 2020
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Bruce Park, flowers, garden, health, moments, nature, traffic, walk, water, weather, widow
walked through Bruce Park the other day…
much less people traffic than the area around Assiniboine Park… quiet and peaceful…
got to see water flowing, flowers blooming and shaded green spaces…
lovely…
02 Wednesday Sep 2020
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, birds, Cornell Lab, datura, family, flowers, garden, learning, migration, moments, nature, weather, widow
it was rather chilly yesterday morning… I wore pants, a long sleeve shirt and my spring/fall jacket for my walk;-(…
after the walk, with my daughter on the phone, I had breakfast and checked out the garden, but it was still chilly, lol…
deadheaded the datura in the front flower bed, did some reading and watched a very informative webinar on bird migration…
seemed like a busy day, lol…
30 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, coverage, garden, moments, nature, rain, shade, sky, sun, test, turn, umbrella, weather, widow
not too long ago we got a new shade umbrella… it has worked well for a portion of the day, providing shade for one chair but I was hoping it might adjust to provide more coverage, depending on the time of day…
yesterday I learned how to turn it, which I didn’t think was possible… very exciting…
unfortunately, the sun had already put the whole backyard in shadow so we couldn’t test it out… I’d hoped to see what it could do today, but it has been overcast followed by a thunderstorm… no sun expected, but tomorrow should be sunny all day;-)…
no testing today, lol…
15 Saturday Aug 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, garden, grandson, home, moments, monarchs, plants, thirst, water, weather, widow
happy to check out the garden after being gone for a short time… enjoyed walking through and seeing what was about to bloom, what had just about finished and checking for caterpillars… unfortunately I haven’t found any more monarch or swallowtail babies…
I had asked my grandson to come by and water it while I was away and was very happy that he did…
the front flowers were a bit sad, as he hadn’t remembered to water them. but a quick dose of water and they all revived…
the ability of most plants to recover from thirst is quite amazing, lol…
24 Friday Jul 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, burger, carpet, family, garden, helpful, lunch, moments, muggy, treat, walk, weather, widow
yesterday my son-in-law came by and we had a lovely visit and cup of tea on the deck… it was quite cool at that time…
he fixed the chairs I’ve been trying to redo, without any problem, lol… I did learn how to cut through plastic using the clamp on the counter in the garage…
it got really hot and muggy as he cleaned up some bits of carpet that had been dissolving alongside of the garage… after he finished, we walked over to pick up burgers from The Burger Place…
we had lunch in the garden and he headed out to his next activity…
what a treat;-)…
17 Friday Jul 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Captain's Table, dinner, fish and chips, flowers, food, garden, grandson, lightening, memories, moments, morning glories, nature, purple, weather, widow
busy day…
my middle grandson was dropped off to mow the grass and do a few other pieces of work for me…
he mowed, whipper snipped, pulled weeds, moved furniture and the new umbrella, filled bird/squirrel feeders, and cleaned up patio stones…
it was a hot day for digging around the stones, but it looks so much better… still have more to do the next time he is here… he is a lovely young man and I enjoy the time we have together;-)…
the front yard and garden look tidy and fresh… I sat out for a while after he left but then came in as rain appeared to be on the way and arrived with thunder and lightning…
a most amazing woman brought Captain’s Table fish and chips over (one of my favourites) for supper and we ate inside… the downpour had finally stopped, but it was cool outside… eventually we were able to take a tour of the garden and visit on the deck…
I am so blessed with all the special people who are, and have been, in my life…
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…
