01 Friday May 2026
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
took Indi to have a bath this morning…
spent a few minutes before leaving home to empty out the trunk so it could be cleaned as well…
when I arrived there were maybe 10 or 15 cars lined up, but I decided to wait…
took about 25 minutes to get in and then about 15 to run through the machinery…
she always looks gorgeous when she comes out, and with her summer rims on, lol…
when she was done there were about 40 cars waiting…
good thing I waited, lol…
30 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
appear, big girl pants, blessed, bonsai, family, grandson, Japanese Maple, moments, nature, plants, slow process, widow, wire
had fun watching my grandson start to work on his Japanese Maple bonsai…
we picked up the Japanese Maple last spring and it lived in the garden for the summer and moved into the living room in the fall…
over the winter it lost all of its leaves, but new ones have just started to appear;-)…
lots of bits were trimmed off and quite a few types of wire were used to begin the process of bending branches to new spots…
this is the second try as the first one he worked on didn’t make it…
kind of exciting to see how it will turn out, although it is a very slow process…
29 Wednesday Apr 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
last night was my first in the hot tub for a really long time…
a screw had come loose on the left side cover and it took quite a while before we were able to screw it back in… then it needed to be filled and it took me ages to get that done…
looking for photos of it, I found this note about the day the hot tub arrived —- April 29, 2009…
and this one from my first hot tub on Mother’s Day, 2009…
the area around the tub has changed a lot since its arrival…
these photos reminded me when the right hand cover came off and was repaired…
these photos were taken on April 28, 2023…
apparently, the end of April has been an important period for the hot tub…
next up will be emptying the tub and figuring out if we can make the right side more stable for opening and closing…
28 Tuesday Apr 2026
Posted in business, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, cloudy, four hours, helpers, hot tub, moments, move, neighbours, professional, reading, u-haul, widow
spent the morning between reading and watching the move-out next door…
luckily, there were lots of helpers, although it still took four hours to fill the u-haul, two trucks, and two cars before they left…
an hour or so later, as the sky was clouding over, a hired crew came to move the hot tub to its new home…
next up will be seeing who moves in;-)
27 Monday Apr 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, broken, mess, moments, orchid, plants, purple, sopped, vacuum, watering, widow
so, this orchid started budding in the den, in an east window…
and it was living in water…
many of the orchids in that room love being in water constantly, even though all the resources say not to do that, lol…
once the buds began to open, I moved it to the plant table in the west window of the living room…
today was watering day and after I gave it some water, I turned to another plant and knocked the orchid onto the floor… in the process I broke off the branch with all the new buds on it…
picked it up, put most of the bark back in it, sopped up the water, and vacuumed everything up…
then I put the branch in a small vase and am hoping for the best…
not how I planned watering day to go, sigh…
27 Monday Apr 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, birthday celebration, blessed, French high tea, friends, jewellery, moments, mothers, Pauline’s, tasty, Tea, truffles, widow
had a delightful time with my friends on Sunday to celebrate my birthday;-)…
we went to Pauline’s Bistro for their Sunday French High Tea…
there were a number of teas to choose from with tasty savoury items and dainties…
the platter I shared with a friend included a candle to celebrate my birthday;-)…
I really enjoyed the scones, but my favourite savoury bite was the: Thank You For The Truffle – Wild Mushroom Pâté, Black Truffle Oil, Thyme, Grilled Cherry Tomato…
it was very tasty…
my favourite sweet was: Sophie’s Sweet Surprise – Pistachio Sponge, Raspberry Confit, Pistachio Cream, Vanilla Chantilly, Fresh Raspberries…
we each wore a piece of our mothers’ jewellery to celebrate them… brooches, earrings, a necklace, and rings… we had fun sharing stories of the pieces we’d chosen…
lots of laughter and great conversation as we enjoyed our “tea”…
what a special treat;-)… and what a gift these women are in my life…
26 Sunday Apr 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blew, deck, feet, garden, moments, nature, slippers, sunshine, weather, widow, wind
sat out on the deck on Thursday morning…
it was fairly warm, but windy…
I took my slippers off to get some sun on my feet and had one foot on a slipper, but crossed my leg with the other…
all of a sudden the second slipper blew right off the deck, lol…
I hopped on down, brought it back up onto the deck, and slid both of them under my foot;-)…
25 Saturday Apr 2026
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, English Garden, friends, frogs, moments, nature, scarf, tails, walk, weather, widow, windy
went for a walk to the English Garden on Thursday morning… it was so windy that I couldn’t wear my hat, and my scarf ended up with the tails blowing behind me…
had a little break beside Sargent Sundae as I waited for my walking buddies…
hadn’t been yet this spring so it was interesting to see the state of the gardens as it has not been long since the snow melted…
the gardens were clean and tidy, but not much was growing yet, lol…
we did come across some photographers who were looking for birds;-)…
the most fun was counting the frogs by the pergola… in just a few minutes I saw at least twelve…
got all my steps in between walking to, around, and home from the Gardens…
24 Friday Apr 2026
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, electric, garden, lightening, moments, nature, rain, storm, thunder, weather, widow
there was a lovely electric storm late Wednesday evening…
it lasted for quite a while, with lots of thunder and lightning…
I watched it from the open patio doors as well as the living room window and the bedroom…
it lit up the neighbourhood like daylight a number of times, and the lightening flashes were beautiful… although I hope they didn’t hit anything…
eventually it rained, but not for too long or too hard… I heard from a friend that it rained like crazy where they live, not that far from here…
I was so busy watching that I didn’t take a single picture, lol…
here’s how the garden looked the next morning…
23 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, lawn furniture, moments, nature, rain barrel, reading, shed, Spring, weather, widow
had a great day in the garden yesterday… at last it was nice enough to put the cushions back on the deck…
sat on the top deck reading in the sun for ages… eventually I had to move to the lower deck to sit in the shade because it was so hot…
I tried to open the shed to bring out the rest of the lawn furniture, with no success…
but, I turned over the water barrel and yard waste bin, and emptied pots into the yard waste bin…
then there was sitting, lunch, and reading for the remainder of the afternoon…
once my housemate arrived home, he got the shed open and brought out some of the furniture…
summer is coming 😊…
herbiggirlpants 