Monthly Archives: March 2016

guests…

31 Thursday Mar 2016

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woke early and looked out to see this lovely view of the moon…

 
a bit later I got ready and walked over to the “A” to meet my daughter for breakfast…
  
waiting for my guest… getting easier and easier to sit in a restaurant on my own… big girl pants, lol…

we went to a tile store to look at countertops for my upcoming kitchen reno…

it was great fun to walk through the shop, where they were cutting with giant tile saws, and the yard, looking at all the different options… they had to lift one out of a warehouse and bring it outside with a forklift… I think this is it…

  
made the whole process more real… I am getting a new kitchen…

we ran a couple of other errands before she dropped me at home and I was surprised to see these guests across the street…

  
we do have mallard ducks who live in the creek, but can’t remember the last time I saw geese around here… maybe they will stay and have babies;-)…

Olympus…

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

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last night I happened upon one of those moments… looked out the window as I was heading downstairs and thought I needed to check out the view from the living room… 

 
and this is what I caught… beautiful…

been taking quite a few pictures with the Olympus this week and rather pleased with these ones…

  
colourful balloons as a centrepiece… 

  
and balloons in a plant…

this one came out nicely as well… 

 
lovely feast…

had been worried that the shots wouldn’t come out as I am still working at refamiliarizing myself with the Olympus… 

happily, they turned out well… phew…

excellent…

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

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had an excellent day yesterday…

early in the morning got this great shot of the garage roof which glittered with a thin blanket of fresh snow…


took a few pictures of the buds on the Japanese Maple, which is a sure sign of Spring for me…

  
then it was off to help with the set up for a special event…

a good friend picked me up and we went to Peasant Cookery for a lovely early birthday lunch… delightful…

from there we stopped at UN Luggage where I found a rain jacket… my current one is on the large size and I heard that I should have one in New York…

  

bit of a colour departure for me but the magenta leans towards purple, lol…

our last stop was a walk through the Gardens at Assiniboine Park… it was a gorgeous day…

  

this goose seemed to be looking for the water, lol…

spent some time playing with my Olympus camera as my Nikon is still at the hospital…

rather pleased with this shot…

  

  

cards…

28 Monday Mar 2016

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saw a memory on Facebook a few days ago about my writing thank you cards after George died…

so many people did so many kind things for all of us during those difficult days…

didn’t know what to do with all the beautiful words and cards that were sent to us…

my son-in-law took all of them and scanned the fronts and backs into the computer… what a clever idea…

was able to keep the memories and not have piles of paper gathering dust… and I can go in and look at them now and again… which I did tonight when I was taking a picture of the scans… 

 

lovely to read the heartfelt comments… cried for quite a while…  

was reminded of this a few days ago when I was changing out the drawers in the living room table as I was getting ready for Easter…

the sweet valentine card that my colleagues presented to me was there and I wasn’t prepared to just throw it out…

  
took a few photos, after reading it again, and then scanned it into the computer…  makes putting the original into the recycling so much easier…

  

we write notes of appreciation for our colleagues on a fairly regular basis and pop them into their box… I wrote one for a colleague a few days ago… 

it is wonderful to go into your own box and read a great note… particularly on a day when things aren’t going as well as they could, lol…

I write one for each staff person each year on the anniversary of my starting… I know how much I appreciate hearing their kind words and want them to know how much I appreciate them individually… 

as a society I don’t think we write near the number of cards that we used to…
 

 

Easter…

27 Sunday Mar 2016

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woke up to a phone call from my grandkids wishing me a Happy Easter at 7:30 in the morning, lol… they were very excited to share all about the treats they discovered around their house…

then I went downstairs and on the way spotted the bunny outside…

  

must have just been getting home from all those deliveries…
 
last night I decorated the living room… even put some tulips into the bathroom…
  

flowers make me happy… finished the dining room and set the table for dinner… 

had picked up pencil crayons, colouring books and a few reading books for the boys which I put into the glass drawers in the living room table, along with more of the cute chocolate bunnies from the fundraiser…

  
amazingly, while I was sleeping, the Easter Bunny put mini eggs all over the table and elsewhere on the main floor…

missing my beloved… he had a great connection with the Easter Bunny and the two of them always made sure to find good hiding places for treats…

had a very quiet day as my throat has been sore for a while and I’m trying to rest up and get rid of it… lots of people have been struggling with miserable colds/flu…

kids came, searched and found all of the eggs… we had a lovely lamb roast for our dinner… didn’t realize that daddy wasn’t fond of lamb… oops… maybe that’s why we haven’t had it before… next year we’ll have ham, lol…

  
bit of trouble getting a good photo and some were wondering when they could actually eat… 

after dinner my son-in-law went off to work and the rest of the family headed home…

I am climbing into bed…

active…

26 Saturday Mar 2016

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started off the day listening to a lovely song that a friend had posted on Facebook… it was so nice…

then I headed out to do a bit of shopping… took a shot of the animal tracks in the backyard on my way…

  
went to pick up the pro-activ margarine I’m using and a few potatoes for tomorrow’s dinner..

had a bit of fun and came home with these…

  

three pairs of pants, three tops and a pair of shorts… most will be great for New York I think…

emptied, cleaned and refilled the hot tub… going to try a new process that is more natural and uses less chemicals…

  
takes quite a long time to empty, but a short time to fill… I had to take out a few bucketfuls before I could turn it on, lol… that’s never happened before…

for supper I made chicken and dumplings made with whole wheat flour… decided to divide the recipe in half, which I did for the dry ingredients… but then I used the liquid measurement for the whole recipe… came out a little interesting… and very light, lol…

  

not quite the usual colour and the pot looks disgusting as it was full and some of the dumpling overflowed down the sides… maybe I need to write the proportions down right in the recipe book…

enjoyed the day…

 

flowers…

25 Friday Mar 2016

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woke up to snow on the ground this morning… really, lol… it was lovely because I didn’t have to go outside into it… 

  
there was also a beautiful moon…

  
spent the entire day in my jammies taking it easy… 

did walk for half an hour on the treadmill and made zucchini basil soup… I might be a bit addicted to that one…

the whole house is permeated with the smell from the hyacinth… so I took a few pictures of all the flowers in the house today…

  
the light was wonderful in the dining room…

  
the sunlight on them was lovely… 

and finally I got a picture of the sun streaming into the living room…

  
so happy to have the flowers filling the house…

they make me happy… 

remembering my beloved who would make sure I had lots around, particularly at this time of the year…

sweet…

24 Thursday Mar 2016

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last night I made soup for today’s Souper Thursday… stopped on our way home and picked up sweet potatoes, carrots and coconut milk… this sweet potato and carrot soup is really easy…

  
it turned out very well… veggies, salad, crackers and fruit appeared and we had a great lunch… and everyone enjoyed it… every last drop was eaten…

a while ago I ordered a number of chocolate bunnies for a fundraiser, so this morning the Easter Bunny dropped them off at each person’s desk…

  
made some cute little notes to go with them…

such fun…

  
spent a few minutes admiring my beautiful new orchid this morning… the older one still has four or five blossoms on it…

although I’ve been struggling with a headache it was a pretty sweet day…

pictures…

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

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over the weekend I took a few interesting pictures…

this one is of the glittering snow on the roof of the garage…

  
a lovely pattern showed up as well…

when we were coming out of the store on Sunday I could hear the geese and when I looked up I saw them… it was so bright that I couldn’t see them, but snapped a few pictures…

  
not bad when I couldn’t actually see…

and finally I got this shot of the sun behind haze…

  
pulled over to take the shot… it was a strange sky…

the light was bright for all of these, lol…

view…

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

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this morning I wanted to take a few pictures in the living room… the hyacinth is almost in full bloom and the orchid is quite lovely…

my camera wouldn’t work… tried all the things I could think of but nothing seemed to make a difference…

was very stressed because we were going to a photoshoot and I wanted to record the process with pictures…  


finally put the camera away and used my iPhone… this was my view of the new orchid… beautiful…

the photoshoot went well… I find it fun to watch the photography team work with the client…

  

my view of them keeping the conversation going to relax the person being photographed…

  
my teammate produced a smile even as she was feeling stress about the whole process… she really didn’t want to have her picture taken…

  
checking out how the shots came out…

when it was my turn we talked about how much easier it is to be behind the camera as opposed to in front of it… I posed as requested and didn’t bother to see how they came out… one thing I’ve learned is that the person in the picture isn’t usually able to see how great they look, so I was happy to trust the professionals…

watching Ian take the pictures you could often see when he knew he had the photo he wanted… in my own way sometimes I have that feeling…

he had a peek at my camera and figured out that one of the buttons was stuck… I couriered it over to a local repair shop and hope they can fix it… haven’t heard back yet…