Well, it’s already been a year since I retired. There was no fanfare on that final day, certainly no gold watch … no handshake either, just a “thanks for everything” e-mail from my boss of almost 25 years (2000 – 2024). We had actually worked together at the Firm since 1993, but left the Firm to go out on our own in 2003. I was laid off briefly, then hired back part-time and had worked remotely since 2011, long before it was fashionable after COVID became a “thing” and, unbelievably, I never saw my boss since he dropped off a work project in the Fall of 2012. That relationship worked for us, maybe not for everyone though.
On March 29th, so ended the half-century working grind, which began way back at age 17, in the Summer of 1973, just after graduating from high school. I was slinging hash at the diner on weekends, school holiday breaks and Summer, before embarking on a hope-to-climb-the-ladder-to-junior-copywriter stint in the Creative Department at an ad agency and eventually as a legal secretary from 1980 until retirement.
“Tempus Fugit” – that’s Latin for time flies and it did. I retired just before my 68th birthday and I haven’t worn a wristwatch since.
I can’t say I found my passion during my work life and I guess I’d use the wellworn phrase “it’s complicated” to describe whether I have found it since. 🙂
The weather exhausted me in 2024 and ditto for 2025.
Spring 2024 was rainy and gray. When it was finally warm enough to go on extended walks with my camera to larger parks , it was buggy with mosquitoes and ticks. Those little buggers did not perish as our 2023-2024 Winter was so mild, so it was imperative while hiking to be mindful of these critters. Once I returned home with a tick in my ear, but luckily it didn’t “attach” – whew!
With all this newfound free time, I WAS able to enjoy longer walks more frequently, not just weekends when I was at the mercy of Mother Nature to play nice. After a wet Spring, we went days, even weeks, without rain and in moderate drought. I got out for many walks, traipsing about in stinkin’ heat and humidity, even when venturing out early in the day. I gleaned a lot of steps on the pedometer and tons of images on the camera card, so all was good and those memories sustained me through this over-long Winter that continues to spar with Spring. I won’t proclaim we’ve turned a corner yet – hardly. We still may have a touch of snow this week and last week, two predicted severe weather events in three days left me a bit fizzed.
Still hopin’ to find my groove ….
I feel like this last year has been full of fits and starts and, while I don’t intend to write a post geared to each retirement anniversary, I do wish I had been more accountable for my free time this last year.
I’ve dabbled in watercolor painting, one in-person class and one online class, yet I’ve not begun to paint on my own, just moved the supplies for this hobby from one place to another.
I’ve bought books a’plenty and there are more TBR books downstairs, however, admittedly I’ve adjusted my Goodreads Reading Challenge a few times when I lagged behind those goals. A good friend sent me a book last week which I immersed myself in and didn’t come up for air until I finished. I remembered how much I loved to read … so why haven’t I been doing so?
I’m on Day #164 of learning French, which I thought would be a bit of a breeze since I studied French for at least 10 years, the latter two in college where we spoke no English in class! I want to say “I am no quitter” but, with nicer weather and the need to finally get out and explore more, I’ve dwindled down to 30-minute lessons from 90-minute lessons. Yikes, the grammar is getting tough and time is getting scarce. I vow to remain committed, but am ever-mindful I’m not planning a trip to Le Gai Paris anytime soon. Thus, I am conflicted … do I swap French for reading or painting?
Hmm – maybe I’ll let my dreams blossom instead of my garden?
I do my best thinking while walking to and from the Park – it has been that way since I began my walking regimen in 2011. I leave the house, my mind a blank, free to think and/or absorb what is around me. So, in that vein, I’ve decided, despite my plans to plant a butterfly garden again, I will not do so. Last Fall I had the garden cleared of debris and stumps removed from the trees that were cut down after the downed wire fire; landscape fabric was laid and mulch spread. I had already tucked away countless ideas for different pollinator plants to try out instead of my tried-and-true Coneflowers and/or Daisies …
… Black-eyed Susans …
… and Butterfly Bushes, all found in my former garden.
I even dug out and perused my old butterfly garden books …
… if only to refresh my mind what beautiful butterflies might gracefully flit through the backyard like so many years before …
Sometimes those beautiful butterflies were seeking refuge from the wind in my butterfly houses …
… or sunning on flat rocks and/or sipping from puddling dishes on hot Summer days.
And, if the butterflies were MIA that day, the birds would partake in a drink or a bath …
I WAS willing and oh so ready to expand my horizons with this new garden adventure. By Christmastime, I had the garden planned out in my head, another labor of love like my garden of 15 years ago, that is before the Polar Vortex of 2013-2014, robbed me of that passion by killing every one of the aforementioned plants and butterfly bushes.
As 2024-2025 Winter wore on, with four bouts of bitter temps and a Siberian Polar Vortex to boot, not to mention this past Wednesday’s Biblical rains, or the never-ending high winds, I’m not ready to recreate a garden, only to be anxious over Mother Nature’s whims. I’m already angst-ridden enough over each severe weather event.
Instead, realistic silk flowers will remain as my salvation. I “planted” them in pots around the yard in 2012 after I began my 2011 walking regimen and as they begin to fade, I “plant” new ones. I felt pretty smart and blogging and photography weren’t even on my Bingo card back then.
So, I won’t cringe when I see squirrels bury their treasures, then dig them up a few weeks later when food is scarce, throwing plants over the pot rim onto the mulch. Squirrels have already made holes in the mulch as they bury, then unbury their peanutty treasures provided to them from a neighbor down the street.
Nope, no need to be stressed after the neighborhood Cottontail bunnies strip the Bleeding Heart plant of its hearts, then hop away without thanking me for the snack.
Instead, this once-upon-a-time avid gardener will take herself with her camera to Emily Frank Gardens or the Taylor Conservatory and Botanical Gardens instead. Heck, I’ll wander over to Memorial Park where volunteers tend to the various garden plots there and rejoice when I see Swallowtails and Monarchs flitting about with no muss, no fuss on my part.
The lure of the wildflowers at any of the Metroparks also will leave me shutter-happy with zero deadheading, pruning, nor dealing with sore knees.
Lazy or practical???
Well you pick.
It’s National Garden Month, so if I want to see beautiful butterflies or buzzing bees, just a few mouse clicks will take me to my Shutterfly album circa 2010 and I’ll enjoy a slideshow of the fruits of my labor, when my days revolved around the garden, not walking, blogging, or photography or a myriad of hobbies I hope to partake in down the line.
The pictures in this post are from that garden and were taken during the Summer of 2010 with my first digital camera, a Canon Power Shot A1100 IS with 4X zoom.
I am joining Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge: April is National Garden Month.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
The garden looked wonderful Linda and is how you told me before. First time I have seen the photos. Lovely butterflies.
Slinging hash sounds disgusting unless you’re a hash dealer in Morocco 😂
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Thank you Brian and yes I have told you about my butterfly garden several times, usually while admiring your garden and butterflies. It has taken me two years to decide not to create another butterfly garden and the wacky weather does factor in. You don’t hear the expression slinging hash much anymore as it applies to waitstaff. I always said this as it was a diner-type restaurant, with stools for sitting rather than tables. Working there was the best thing that happened to me though because I was very shy before and you can’t be shy in this type of job, so it brought me out of my shell. 🙂
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OK you didn’t actually sling anything but carried plates of food?
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Yes, I don’t know know where that expression “to sling hash” came from.
I should have mentioned that was just my butterfly garden – I had roses, clematis and lots of annuals as well. I thought about putting the slideshow here – it is about 100 pictures and it is a small house. I did take some clematis and rose pics to use for upcoming Wordless Wednesday posts.
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I understand why your gardening days are numbered at least for now, Linda. I’m not planting many flowers this year, other than what will be in the garden beds. They’re on a timer Hans set up last year, so we can leave for a few days and not worry about potted flowers dying in the summer heat.
Your garden was stunning for sure. Glad you had pics to share. As for Duolingo, just enjoy the process. I still spend 90 minutes a day, an hour in the a.m. then 30 minutes or less in the pm. I’m a bit competitive and need to chill and learn! I’m doing Spanish now. So funny, when I’m doing a speaking lesson in Spanish, if Hans hears me, he’ll answer or comment back in Spanish. I got a loongg way to go.
Happy one year retirement anniversary! It’s amazing how much time our leisure takes. How did we even work? 🤣
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The timer is a good idea Terri … if you have a scorching hot Summer, you spend all your time out there worrying about and watering those plants. I often wonder how I fit the gardening into my schedule when I still worked on site? I hand watered every morning before I left for work and I took the bus at 7:45 a.m., so my morning regimen was timed perfectly … my morning regimen got a bit loosey-goosey after working from home, then with no more garden and now, well … it’s really unstructured. 🙂
That’s funny about your Spanish lessons … at least you have someone to “practice” with in Spanish. While I am not going to leave Duolingo, I am mindful if I cut back any more I won’t remain in Obsidian. I’ve not even been there since I did a quick lesson early today. I want to do it for fun and as a good brain exercise, but, as you said “some of learning French was/is confusing.” But we are not being graded and it’s not “pass/fail” so that makes it a tad easier.
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When we’re traveling or staying in someone’s home, i do the quick practice hub lessons just to say I did something. I can’t believe you managed to water everything and still go to work. We have 3/4 of an acre and it takes some work! But we love it. I think you like walking around your local gardens a little more than caring for your own. 😉
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That’s a good idea Terri to keep the streak and still get XP … you are in no danger of moving out of Diamond League. I have had to resort to that sometimes now that I’m walking more. I have been striving to stay at Obsidian. My goal in October was to reach Diamond by year-end. I did that and it was easier because not as many people were racking up points at the holidays, so Obsidian is the next one down. I did hand water everything, even did some weed picking, deadheading while watering in the morning. I only showed my butterfly garden in this post. I still have most of the rosebushes I had back then. My climbing rosebush, my pride and joy got blackspot and I had to pull it out so it didn’t kill the others. I also had several Clematis which also bit the dust from that Polar Vortex. I had pots and hanging baskets and those hanging bags (which were high maintenance as to deadheading) all over the yard. It was a lot of work, but I did enjoy it then. I am lucky to be able to visit nice flower gardens around here and at two of them, they always try to recruit me as a volunteer if I linger too long. 🙂
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❤️ Wise Freedom ❤️
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Yes, it is TD, but I seem to have done an about face, from a tight morning regimen, where minutes counted, yet I got out there for the garden every day before work to water, sometimes weed if it had rained, then in to get ready for work, then off to work. My regimen has become really unstructured and loosey goosey these days!
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I know very little about gardens other then they seem to take up a lot of time and effort. I prefer Natures garden…….less weed pulling.
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You are right about gardens taking up a lot of time Wayne. My garden was a full-time hobby (I guess you would call it a “hobby”) from April until October when I put the garden to “bed”. I know I could hardly wait to get out there in the Spring, but by Fall, I was glad for a reprieve and to enjoy some of Fall, my favorite season, before Winter descended. I prefer seeing Nature’s Garden as well. There are wildflowers galore, all growing with zero TLC.
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It’s nice to be the boss of your own time. I understand you decision not to garden as it is a lot of work and very time consuming and you do have gardens you can visit and enjoy. And if you felt the need to get your hands in the dirt you could probably join the volunteers at the park. You could also do up a couple of porch pots with some annuals that butterflies like. I did enjoy your garden photos.
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Yes Ruth, it is nice after 50 years of working to be on my own schedule and hopefully by this time next year I have found my groove and am able to manage my time better than I have this last year. I actually omitted a lot of the garden as I had roses and clematis and a lot of annuals back in the heyday of my garden. The volunteer garden has one older woman tending those raised beds of flowers, plus there are high school student who belong to “The Green Club” (I think that is the name), so they do some work on it as well for class credit. It is all perennials and I should visit soon as they have crocuses, daffodils, tulips and irises before the butterfly garden perennials come up. Plus, they have a very nice rose garden. I saw butterfly nectar dishes at Meijer and thought of getting some … I don’t know if they work or not. They sell them with the hummingbird feeders and nectar.
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Wonderful your garden. Beautiful looking all flowers plants. Nice butterfly 🦋🦋 look. Very well you doing work. Linda 🙏
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Thank you Raj, I am glad you liked the garden and butterflies.
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Most welcome dear Linda! Perfect your photography. I like sunflower 🌻.
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Thank you Raj.
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Your garden was beautiful. I’m happy with your decision to enjoy public gardens instead of worrying over your own. Butterfly house — that’s the first time I’ve seen one!
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Thank you Anne – I’m glad you liked it! I saved a few photos for upcoming Wordless Wednesdays, some of my roses for this week and one of the Nelly Moser clematis plant for next week. I had luck with the clematis and had several varieties up until that Polar Vortex. I should have elaborated on the butterfly houses more. You remove the lid off the top of the house and put in small twigs so that the butterflies just slide through the slots on the front of the “house” and they can sit on the twigs inside, protected from the wind. They’d probably appreciate those houses now because we are one of five states experiencing high winds and have had for months. It took me two years to make that decision, but I think it is the right one for me now.
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I found it took me a fair while to settle into retirement, so do not feel discouraged. As long as you are aware of life’s possibilities and are prepared to try them out, you will be fine.
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I’m glad to hear that Anne because I kept thinking to myself “I’ve got more time than ever before, so why am I not making better use of it?” I still get up the same time as when working, so it makes no sense. I hope Year #2 will be much more productive!
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Forgive me if I’ve shared this before, but I have loved my grandma’s description of her retirement: “When I get up there’s nothing to do, but at bedtime it’s only half done!” 🙂
I don’t blame you on the garden, but then I hate gardening.
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JP, I now know you inherited your quipping ability from your grandmother. 🙂 No, you had not shared that description of your grandmother’s retirement with me before. That’s funny and kind of how I feel – I still get up the same time, so where does the time go?
It took me two years to come to that realization about creating another butterfly garden and starting over with other plants that I lost in the yard, but the weather, not just in the Winter, but all the time now, is so unpredictable and just plain wacky anymore. I’ll be an observer and photographer of beautiful gardens now instead.
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You must have plants that are truly hardy in your area. Your old garden was beautiful. Maybe a berry producing shrub or too will bring in wildlife.
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Thank you Kate – I put a lot of effort into it and was proud of it. You know I find it interesting that the Hardiness Zone charts were changed a couple of years ago. I follow Birds and Blooms magazine on Facebook and when they posted the new chart, I checked on a few of my plants I lost and they were different hardiness factors than when I planted my original garden in 1985, then started the butterfly garden around 2008 and it was at its peak in 2010. I actually began with all tea roses around the yard and found they didn’t bloom enough. One or two buds/blooms, then you had to wait weeks for another one. I removed them on one side and replaced them with shrub roses and a climber (which did miserably as got blackspot, so I yanked it out and replaced it with a hydrangea, which the groundhog destroyed). On the other side I put all perennials which did well until this Polar Vortex. I like the idea of a berry bush for the birds.
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I think your choice of visiting gardens so you can take pictures instead of dealing with deadheading, pruning, and sore knees is the PRACTICAL one. That way you still get to do a lot of walking when the weather is good, and other endeavors (reading, studying, painting) can be done inside where the weather doesn’t matter. It’s nice that you have so many pictures of your previous gardens, to keep memories of that pleasant time of your life. Retirement will eventually bring to you different ways of being happy and content.
Love the picture of the red admiral butterfly on the pole with peeling paint!
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Well Barbara, you know it took me a while to come to this conclusion. I still like your idea of the arborvitae bushes along the back fence, but just this morning on my walk, I passed the house I told you about, the guy that planted about 40 of those arborvitae bushes has even more of them turning brown or already dead. I spoke to him at length about them last Summer as I asked what happened as I considered getting them for my yard. When I was growing up, my father planted arborvitae all along the property line on one side and they grew very tall by the time we moved here in 1966 (I was ten when we left and we moved to Oakville from Toronto when I was two, so that is fast growth and they were hardy – it is climate change and wacky weather).
Oh well, I had told myself I’d sit in the yard and read sometimes, but the two trees are gone after the downed wire fire, so no shade and it’s buggy a lot of the time, so it’s best as you say. I’m glad I took so many photos to remember how it looked. I’ve got some roses from the garden for this Wednesday’s post and a Nelly Moser Clematis for next week, then that’s it for the “garden glory days”.
My mom used to hang the clothes outside for years and there are two poles, one on the other side and she had pulley lines that connected to the back of the house. The poles are cemented into the ground and so they’re there permanently now. She’d bring in sheets in April or November that were frozen in place. I’ve repainted the poles once or twice but they should have been sanded and painted as they peeled again. A perfect butterfly against that pole with peeling paint … such a contrast!
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What a truly stunning garden you had and those butterfly photos are so lovely. They are truly my favourite insects.
We got an orange butterfly bush last year (or maybe the year before… everything is blurring into one!)lol and it is so striking. Before I’d never seen anything other than pink, purple and white buddlieas.)
I’ve known a few people who seemed to take 2 or 3 years before they really “settled in” to their retirement. After so many years of grinding and grafting, I can imagine it is not always easy to shake it off and sink into retirement fully.
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Thank you Ari – my gardens (and this was only part of them) were truly my pride and joy all those years ago. I put so much effort into maintaining them, only to have most of the perennials wiped out by that Polar Vortex of 2013-2014 and then the back garden was destroyed after a downed wire fire in December 2022. Once we had a fierce wind and it blew over the shed which I had painted to match the house and it blew across the yard, then fell apart. So things just went from bad to worse.
At the volunteer garden they have multiple plots of perennials and roses and a few years ago they planted a few orange butterfly plants. I thought it was Lantana at the time, but later learned, when it came back it was a butterfly plant. It thrived and brought lots of Monarchs and Swallowtails, so hopefully you will see many as well. You’re right – it doesn’t look like the buddlieas and it must be hardier.
I hope I get more done the second year of retirement and going forward. I am glad I am not the only one who has not yet “settled in” to my retirement. I had just turned 17 when I started working at the diner, so 50 years is a long time to unwind from.
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Miss Linda………………………………that was a thoughtful narrative about your past and future activities………………………………just keep going on with your beautiful memories……………………I’m listening!
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Thank you Ann Marie – I am glad you enjoyed it and my memories. Well, now you know the secret to my flowers … silk plants which last for a long time before they finally fade. If I could be just 1/4 as productive as you are I would be happy!
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you had a beautiful garden, I love coneflowers, one of my favourites. I can’t believe a year since you retired! We have been retired 11 years and they have been the fastest years of my life. I need to practice my French too, we are heading to Paris in a couple of weeks. I do a lot of reading and some painting but my paintings are not worthy of showing people ! lol We have been doing yardwork the past two days, it’s never ending. Funny you mention your weather, we are supposed to get snow tonight. This spring has been a joke, one day we are wearing tee shirts and the next day we are wearing touques and mitts to go for a walk! I think we have the same type of weather and I think it’s supposed to warm up NEXT week and be somewhat normal temperatures for this month. Fingers crossed !
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Thank you Susan! This was my garden at its peak, but I did not even include the rest of the garden here … my slideshow was actually 100 photos and it is not a big house at all, but I took a lot of individual pics of all the potted plants and annuals I had too. It was a nightmare keeping up with deadheading and pruning and weeding. I hate weeding. Yardwork is a lot of effort and Spring cleanup takes forever too. By Memorial Day, all the bushes will be overgrown and need trimming. Since it is a small house, I need to keep the bushes in proportion. The weather here is crazy too and we might have snow tonight and also Wednesday into Thursday. I had heard we were having a rainy Spring, all the way through June – ugh!
I hope to be more productive this next year and beyond. After 50 years it was a big change for me being retired – I had no idea you and Clint have been retired 11 years – good for you and you have spent those years wisely, traveling all over the globe. I am envious of those trips, but even more so for your upcoming trip to Paris! I was enjoying learning French, memorizing a lot of vocabulary and genders which that part was not so bad, but now it’s becoming more about grammar and has lost some of the fun aspect from it. I am using Duolingo and they have a free version which I couldn’t use as I use an adblocker on my computer, so I got the paid version which has a lot of nice amenities like personalized practice or highlighting your weakness (grammar for me) and conversations/stories that are fun to listen to and respond to.
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You must have had lots of beautiful flowers but yes you’re right, it is a ton of work. I love our yard but I sure hate the yard work! We have already spent a lot of time trimming trees and raking leaves in between snow falls hahaha Clint has made two trips to the city compost place already with his truck. Next will come the garden weeding when it warms up. It was -2 Celsius here today. I need warmth !! A friend of mine uses Google Translate, not sure how it works exactly. I have Duolingo on my phone but haven’t tried it yet.
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It was a lot of work, so I think I made the right decision to not plant another butterfly garden. I have not done any yard cleanup yet as it’s been so cold. We also had -2C this morning – I would not normally know that off number, but I just converted it from 28F for another Canadian blogger. My property is not big so it won’t take more than afternoon – when it was warmer, we had all the rain, so it was muddy back there … now the grass is growing and greening up.
Interesting you mention the Google Translate. This morning I was talking to the guys who walk at the Park and mentioned my French lessons – I did so because my computer is having an audio issue where it crackles and we were discussing Microsoft’s push to buy Windows 11. So I said it’s not old … maybe all the French lessons. So the one guy travels – he pulled out his smartphone and pointed to the Google Translate app on the phone. He said “I point the phone in the direction of a sign or anything else and it translates it to English.” He said he tried it out at the grocery store where all the signs are in Spanish and English and it works. Duolingo is a fun way to learn, but it won’t translate for you, but simple phrases are good and I have been loosely following a French/English Duolingo Group on Facebook – people often give hints or native-born French people give hints for conjugation and pronunciation and they said whenever you travel to France, going into a store to buy something, say good morning sir/madam, how are you and then whatever you ask for say “please” because it goes a long way with shopkeepers. They said that often those niceties aren’t part of our everyday interactions at stores, etc.
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Your photos remind me that I promised myself that I’d plan out a butterfly garden in one section of our landscape beds. I want to devote more time to making it look pretty and wild-ish. I want to see bees and butterflies… if the deer will allow the flowers to grow.
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I intended to make this butterfly garden unstructured, wild and free, like you planned Ally. I did a post last year about a pollinator garden at Heritage Park near the old wooden cabin. They had a lot of Bee Balm mixed in with the Coneflowers and that Bee Balm drew the butterflies and a lot of bees. I also planned to use wild Butterfly Weed instead of the Butterfly Bushes. It is a vibrant orange and I see it at the volunteer garden – no one really tends to that garden after cleaning it out and putting in fresh mulch each Spring, yet I go over there and see Swallowtails and Monarchs on the Butterfly Weed mostly. I originally thought it was Lantana which looks similar but Lantana is an annual. I did not know about these two plants when I planted my butterfly garden. I actually had more flowers, perennials and gardens, around the yard, including roses and clematis. You mentioned getting a bee house and I had intended to do that with the “new” garden, but won’t now. My friend in New York loves to garden – she has hostas and she has deer. They are NOT a good combo. The deer demolish the hostas. They are hardy and are perennials, but they don’t even get a chance to flower.
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Bee Balm is on my radar as is the orange Butterfly Weed that I see at the garden nursery store but never buy. For some reason. I like coneflowers but so do the deer. We gave up on hostas and dayliillies here. They are a deer buffet.
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You can always plant milkweed too. You can buy it in seeds or plants. I remember that my friend in NY with her deer issues is able to grow milkweed around the house and deer don’t bother with it. She sent me some seeds a while back but they didn’t take. So I just Googled and it might work for you:
“While milkweed plants are essential for monarch butterflies, deer generally don’t favor them due to the plant’s milky sap and bitter-tasting compounds, but they may nibble on them in times of scarcity.”
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We have some white milkweed from our local garden nursery in a different part of our yard. It’s doing great. I may buy more of it for this new area. 🤔
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Yes, try Milkweed Ally. A woman in a nearby city has devoted all her free time to saving Monarch butterflies from extinction. Her entire backyard is filled with Milkweed, the only host plant for Monarchs to lay their eggs and the Monarch caterpillars eat. She collects the Monarch caterpillars and once each one emerges from its chrysalis, she releases it. She also is a skilled photographer of Monarchs and the releases.
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You may not think you have found your niche in retirement yet, but isn’t it nice to have all the options?
Your butterfly garden was beautiful, but when a garden becomes work rather than a pleasure, it’s time to move on.
I’m betting on you, Linda. You will find your groove.
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Now, that is very true about finding my niche Laurie. I feel like I’ve frittered away time this first year, scrambling to complete projects that have been in my mind forever. The projects got interrupted, but the reading – how does reading not get done? I do hope to find my groove in year two (or beyond). Thanks! I am glad you liked the garden and there were other flowers and plants I didn’t include in this post. It was a lot of work back at its peak. I know with climate change and other hobbies, not to mention walking/photography and blogging that encompass a lot of time, it would no longer be enjoyable but a chore. I think of you and Bill with your three-day mulch spreading job … yes, I’ve been there as well. 🙂
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I don’t think many people KNOW what they will do in retirement… and those who think they know are often surprised. I’ve tried a little this, a little that too. I haven’t yet settled on anything, but I do enjoy the process.
I’m curious about the greenish flowers (?) next to the white butterfly house… what are those?
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I guess I will enjoy the process as well Janis; perhaps I expected too much of myself this first year and didn’t give myself enough time to settle in. As to the greenish flower next to the big butterfly house, it is called a Multi-Blue Clematis planted on a trellis with a bird at the top. That Clematis was an early bloomer here (May) and that is how it looked after blooming with each round shape representing what had been a flower. I had three types of Clematis plants on trellises – this was a solid lilac color and I also had a purple-striped Nelly Moser and dark purple Jackmanii.
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I totally get why you might not want to invest the time and effort to recreate your garden. Been there, done that, other things to do, and other gardens to visit without all the backbreaking work! It does look like it was a lovely space.
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Thank you Eilene – I did put a lot of work into the butterfly garden and I also had roses and perennials, plus a lot of annuals in pots/baskets around the rest of the side and backyard, so any Summer free time pretty much was spent in the garden back then. I guess I thought for all these years I would have loads more time to “play in the garden” once again, but like you, we’ve done that and know the backbreaking work and time invested to make it look good, plus the wacky weather now is an even bigger consideration. I think this go-around it would become more of a chore than a passion.
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Thanks for sharing the photos of your garden. So much beauty there, and a wonderful haven for the butterflies, bees and birds. It takes a lot of hard work, special care and imagination to create such a special spot. I always wished that I had a green thumb, but this was never to be. My garden is comprised of plants that you can stick in the ground, and they take care of themselves year-round. Now, if only they would learn to weed themselves. 🙂
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Thank you Rebecca – I am glad you enjoyed seeing my garden. I probably inherited my green thumb from my grandmother, who loved to “take a snip of something” and put it in a glass jar when she got home and it would grow into a lovely plant. I was really gung-ho to create another butterfly garden, but I don’t have to tell you about wacky weather – you have been dealing with it for awhile and I hope your massive flooding you had last week did not damage your home/property. It took me two years to make this decision – I think it the right one for me. I would like to find a solution for weeds because they seem to triple before my very eyes, especially the dandelions!
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The weather has been quite wacky. Our home, which sits on a hill, is fine, though so many around the area weren’t so fortunate. We’ve really enjoyed the sunshine this week and are hoping for more next week. Sounds like a good decision that you’ve made. There are so many beautiful flowers that you can photograph in parks and other outdoor areas. In retirement, you should do what you really enjoy.
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Yes, it has been wacky weather. We got 1.5 inches of snow overnight, but we had an all-day rain so it melted. That’s good that your house is on a hill with all that flooding, so you were spare – your poor neighbors and residents of the city though. At least the sunshine will help dry things up an sunshine puts a better spin on everything. I think this is the right decision for me Rebecca. I have watched this often erratic weather the last few years and what we are enduring because of it and that is a big factor in my decision as well.
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Your garden was a beauty, but that must’ve taken a lot of time and energy to upkeep. Silk flowers to the rescue…once they fade, you replace them with vibrant ones again. And they always look fresh and pretty.
I think you’re doing great trying different things in your first year of retirement. Maybe try more reading and painting this year! Don’t be too hard on yourself on not feeling like you’ve made good use of your free time.
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Esther, it is so much easier to just do the silk flowers and I replenish them once they start to fade, but no deadheading, watering, fertilizing – I spent hours on end, picking petals, whew! I keep telling myself that I should be acclimated by now but …. I know I won’t write a yearly post about what I’ve done (I usually do that as a wrap-up to year end along with my favorite photos of that year), but I hope in my heart and mind, I know I have been more productive at this time next year.
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It was your first year of retirement and getting into the groove of things! I hope that you will find that niche of things you want to do this second year of retirement. But I think you’ve been productive exploring French lessons, dabbling in painting, and revving up your reading list.
Silk flowers all the way! Target also has a small but pretty selection of silk flowers in the house decor section and they are seasonal too.
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I resolve to try harder in my second year of retirement Esther and so far in this second year of retirement, I have read one book, taken two sketching classes over this weekend, one Saturday and one today and signed up for more online classes. I have more put more hours into French the last two weeks too. As to decluttering and making more room, my project for Winter 2024-2025, well I did well last weekend as it rained and I was looking for something, so I did well. We have a rainy week, off and on, so I foresee more things happening there. I have to keep re-evaluating my “pie chart” of my hours in the day. 🙂
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I love butterfly bushes but have given up on them. I’ve had several over the last few years, and each one has died.
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My butterfly bushes were a butterfly magnet and bloomed all Summer back then and supposedly this area was the correct hardiness zone at the time, but I see the hardiness zones were reconfigured a few years ago, so perhaps that is the problem with yours dying off. When I saw the article on “Birds and Blooms” site on Facebook, they were no longer good for my area which surprised me!
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You may be right; I need to double-check the hardiness zones. At least we still have Lantana, and the butterflies love it.
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I like Lantana too, another butterfly magnet.
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Happy one year retirement anniversary! Your garden was gorgeous, but I understand why you’d rather go with the silk flowers now. They are still pretty, and you can spend your time on other things, like your wonderful photography. Definitely practical!
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Thank you Debbie! Well this year seems like it flew by and I haven’t accomplished much, but I am glad I came to the conclusion that silk flowers, not a butterfly garden and a ton of annuals would be my preference going forward. A lot of that decision was due to climate change and wacky weather. If the Polar Vortex in the Winter of 2013-2014 taught me nothing else, I learned that you can put your heart and soul into a garden, only for the wiles of Mother Nature to destroy it in a heartbeat. I am glad you liked the butterfly garden. I am going to spotlight one of my clematises next Wednesday, then put the garden to bed so to speak. 🙂 Thank you for that compliment too – I hope I can focus more on picture-taking which will give me more joy.
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This puts us in the mood for spring 🙂
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Yes, I think so too Sandra – when Spring gets here is anyone’s guess this year. We got 1 1/2 inches of snow last night, which has since melted, but not from warmth, but because it rained.
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One year retired already Linda, where did that time go? I never have put up a butterfly house, I didn’t think they would work, I sure was wrong. I lost my butterfly bushes about then too. I think your smart admiring nature from afar. I will be cutting back on mine. When it becomes a chore and not enjoyment, it’s time to change.
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Yes, this year flew by for sure Diane and I wish I could have it back as I would have done a few things differently and been more regimented, but here we are …. I should have probably mentioned more about the butterfly houses as the butterflies do go into there, as I personally saw them go through the slots. You take off the “roof” and put twigs inside for the butterflies to perch on if there is a predator, or for them to seek shelter on a windy day. I had two of them, the large one that you see in several pictures and a smaller one in the corner of just one picture. I had flat sunning rocks and puddling dishes of play sand in low containers which you kept moist for them to sip from.
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It sounds pretty easy maintaining the butterfly house. We have two bats every year. We talked about putting in a bat house but they must have a home somewhere since they are here every year. We have a security light and they run the same path over and over scooping up the bugs. They are fun to watch until they get too close. When we had the eclipse last year the bats actually came out of their home! lol
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Yes, the butterfly houses are easy to maintain and the butterflies don’t make messes in it like the birds do, so there is a plus. 🙂
I never knew anyone who had a bat house Diane. I have a friend in New York and she has a deck and sits out there in the wee hours of the morning and they zoom all around her. She is near a wooded area. Yikes – the bats coming out during the day thinking it was night!
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I like that bridge for its reflections too Diane – it is very pretty in the morning, especially when it is calm. Those Buffleheads males are very colorful. I have seen photos of them on the Detroit Audubon site which I follow on Facebook, plus I follow a birder who lives near Chesapeake Bay and she posts photos of birds and a lot of ducks I have never seen, nor even heard of. She has had Buffleheads too. Strange name for this pretty duck. I am pleased that Osprey are back too. I am going to go again in a week or so (after this rainy and stormy week we will be having) and see if I can get more pics.
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What a pretty space. This reminded me too, that I’m on the hunt for a dwarf butterfly bush.
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Thank you Kirstin. If you want a butterfly magnet, a butterfly bush is perfect and I never knew they came in a dwarf size. Butterfly weed will get you loads of butterflies too.
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