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Author Archives: sulis303

chickadees…

09 Saturday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, birds, chickadee family, chickadees, computer room, feathers, snow

watered some plants, tidied the kitchen, made myself something to eat… that’s about all I accomplished today…

had big plans to spend some time in the computer room cleaning it up, but never made it… did go through old mail, tossed some and put some aside for shredding…

spent some time sitting in the living room looking out at the wet landscape… last night it snowed a bit, but it melted this morning and throughout the day snow/sleet fell off and on…

chickadee in the middle of the feeder...

chickadee in the middle of the feeder…

watched a chickadee family come to the feeders for some dinner….

chickadee working to get the seed...

chickadee working to get the seed…

in one of the pictures you can see the wind blowing the bird’s feathers…

hope the sun comes out tomorrow…

sunrise…

08 Friday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, couples, enjoy the moment, lonely, lovely sky, miss him, my beloved, sunrise

this morning I was stopped in my tracks when I saw a beautiful sky… had to run, get the camera and take some pictures, because it was just sooooo beautiful…

sunrise...

sunrise…

within five minutes the beauty was gone and as I drove to work it was just a dull overcast sky… amazing that I had that moment to enjoy…

tonight I went shopping with Crystal, who starts a new job on Tuesday and needs more business-office outfits.. we had success at three stores and stopped for a bite in the Food Court…

while I was sitting at a table waiting for her, I watched a couple, maybe ten years younger than me, finish up their supper together and then get up and move on with their evening…

reminded me of George and I having supper out and discussing whatever… then heading off to do the next thing on our list…

I miss him so much… it would have been nice to have him there to see that lovely sky…

 

 

crusts…

07 Thursday Nov 2013

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best sandwiches, crustless bread fingers, crusts, enjoyable undertaking, exhausted, fancy sandwiches, miss my mom and dad, my parents, soft boiled eggs, tea towels

recently was part of a conversation about crusts… someone mentioned asking for some crusts before a family event where there were fancy sandwiches… seemed rather sad that they had to eat crusts…

then she explained that when she and her sisters made fancy sandwiches their mother had taught them to spread the filling generously all the way to the edges and then when the crusts were cut off there were lots of leftover bits of deliciousness for them to share… too funny… didn’t feel so bad for her after that…

brought to mind my parents… they made the best fancy sandwiches and I learned to make them by working with mom and dad as they prepared for special events such as showers, and often, funerals… they had done catering early on in their life together and were both good cooks… my dad made the world’s best fudge and I still think about it…

over the years I, often with a group of my women friends, have made many a fancy sandwich… it is always an enjoyable undertaking as we gather in the kitchen and around the table to mix fillings, spread them onto the bread, cut off the crusts and package them to go into the fridge, wrapped in tea towels, to wait for their final cutting and distribution… all the while sharing laughter and conversation… haven’t done it in a long time…

when we made the sandwiches, we would go to the edges, but not leave much filling on them so the crusts would be just that… and often they would be saved to share with the birds… in those days we didn’t know that bread wasn’t really good for birds… dad always wanted to be sure we buttered to the edge of the bread…

dinner, eggs and crust=less bread fingers...

dinner, eggs and crustless bread fingers…

tonight I was exhausted from a couple of busy workdays and was craving something comforting… so I made soft boiled eggs and crustless fingers for my dinner…

I do miss my mom and dad, although they have been gone for 25 years…

Chihuly Gardens…

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, Chihuly Garden and Glass, Chihuly Gardens, Dale Chihuly, installations, Museum of Fine Arts, Seattle, Seattle Space Needle

recently my daughter made a day trip to Montreal to see Dale Chihuly’s art installations at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, the first major Canadian museum show of his work…

she enjoyed the trip and the amazing art… she had introduced me to his work years ago, and I have read books and watched a number of TV shows about him and the amazing installations he has produced over the years… so, it was a must for us to see some of his work when we had the opportunity…

made me look back at the pictures we took when we went to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle following our cruise to Alaska… seeing it in person made all the previous things I’d seen and read about pale by comparison…

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition...

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition…

we spent an entire morning wandering around the space… must give kudos to Ron, who wasn’t nearly as taken by it all as we were, but he patiently followed us as we went back and forth throughout the space, lol… we were so awed by the beauty and magnitude of the work he and his many colleagues put into the installations…

one small area of the garden...

one small area of the garden…

it was a beautiful day and we spent as much time in the garden as we did in the building…

Dale Chihuly taken by me...

Dale Chihuly taken by me…

the most exciting thing was that we got to meet him, get our pictures taken with him and talk a bit about his work… he was in town for a surprise birthday visit to one of his collectors and stopped by to speak with some school kids who were taking a tour…

he answered questions and then agreed to having his photo taken with individuals and chat with them… we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to see and speak with him in person… felt like meeting a rock star…

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers...

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers…

one of the great things they do is have photographers walking around the building and garden who take your picture and give you a little card… you take the card to a machine, enter your email address and the picture goes directly to you… and it is all free… this was particularly wonderful as we had paid dearly for any photos taken on the ship, lol…

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations...

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations… this picture gives you a sense of the magnitude of the installations…

if you are in Seattle, make the time to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass… it is located at the base of the Space Needle and will absolutely blow your mind…

massage…

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

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gift, healing touch, hot tub, massage, melted away knots, miss time with him, Reiki, talking in the dark

was talking with someone about Reiki and it brought to mind massage…

George was great at giving massages… he got as much enjoyment out of giving someone a neck rub, back rub or complete massage as the person receiving it… he was gentle but was able to melt away all the knots that were hiding…

he didn’t have any formal training, although he took a few short courses and read a lot on the subject…

for a while he was considering taking one of the few programs that were available at the time but the cost was prohibitive in those days…

it was a gift and he was always happy to share… still have the massage table he used… guess I should get rid of that…

we also talked about people who do healing touch and what a gift that is… again, it feels like one of those things where someone has a gift and then it is enhanced by training… one of my friends has saved me a couple of times from debilitating migraines…

April 2011 fun in the hot tub...

April 2011 fun in the hot tub…

tonight, as I was sitting in the hot tub, I was thinking about what fun it was when we would go in together… another person always adds to the water level and it was a game to be the first one in and then have the water rise when the other climbed in… we did some of our best talking in the dark while we sat enjoying the steamy water… of course I don’t have any pictures of the two of us in the hot tub, lol…

I miss that..

 

ReImagining…

04 Monday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, changed and grown, dinner from Homer's, Jets traffic, ReImagining, seven stages, twenty years

had a great evening… dinner with my ReImagining friends… chicken souvlaki from Homer’s, which was particularly delicious tonight…

then, a great discussion about how we can get stuck in any one of seven stages throughout our lives and that the right stage for me might not be the right stage for you…

that brought the conversation around to the fact that twenty years ago (to the day) we travelled to Minneapolis for the first ReImagining Conference… it was an amazing gathering of 2200 people with presentations by theologians from around the world…

we were a small group tonight but enjoyed the conversation and how we have changed and grown over the last twenty years… before we went (about 20 of us, if I remember correctly), we spent many weeks reviewing videos by those who would be presenting at the event… it was something that none of us will ever forget…

then I got dropped off at the office to pick up my car and got stuck in the Jets traffic as the game just finished a few moments before I got into the car… thought I was being very clever to get a ride from work and only have to drive from downtown to home… too funny… took well over half an hour to make a trip that should take 15 minutes tops…

as we were sitting in the car on our friend’s street we noticed snowflakes… just a few, and the sky was quite overcast… made me think of the lovely sky yesterday morning when I first got up…

lovely patterns in the sky yesterday morning...

lovely patterns in the sky yesterday morning…

raking…

03 Sunday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, dinner, elm trees, Grandpa and Kyler, jumping in piles of leaves, leaves, raking, ready for cold weather, tidying up pond

this afternoon Jeff, the boys, and I cleaned up the back yard…

although it had been raked a while ago, there were tons of leaves… we don’t actually have any trees that drop leaves in the yard, but the neighbourhood elms do love to share their bounty with us at the end of the season…

jumping in the "bed"...

jumping in the “bed”…

the little boys mainly helped by jumping into the pile of leaves… I was amazed at how patient their daddy was as they leaped and tossed and cavorted among the raked leaves… then, of course, they had to be raked up again…

daddy trying to uncover faces...

daddy trying to uncover faces…

while they worked on that, I dumped out pots, dug up dahlias and bundled pots into the shed… planters went under the deck and the umbrella was put away to wait for the spring…

one left... had to move fast to get pictures...

one left… had to move fast to get pictures…

Jeff spent a fair bit of time working on the pond… getting leaves out of it with the net and then vacuuming around the edges to clean it up… he tried to find a way to remove the pump completely, but the cord is stuck under some rocks and we didn’t want to disturb them…

trying to get the pump cord loose...

trying to get the pump cord loose…

the yard looks great, all ready for the cold weather and snow that will be coming… today it was 10 Celsius as we were working, which was pretty warm… usually we have snow on Halloween so we are doing very well…

somewhere I have a great picture of George and Kyler raking leaves in the front yard… couldn’t find it tonight, though…

after all that hard work we had a lovely dinner together…

procrastinating…

02 Saturday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, George's death, have to do it, make phone calls, one step closer, procrastinating

was talking with someone recently about procrastinating…

I need to follow up on two items that have to do with George’s death and I am having a very difficult time making the calls…

files to deal with...

files to deal with…

of course, both of them need to happen in the daytime as the places are closed by the time I get home at night, and neither is open on the weekend…

so I have to find an appropriate time that I can make the calls and also a time that I am ready to deal with them…

haven’t been able to find that place just yet, but I have to get on both of these items…

well, now I’ve pulled out the files… one step closer, lol…

views…

01 Friday Nov 2013

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big girl pants, Canada, stats, views

so today is my 351st blog…

my stats tell me that people from 47 countries have read at least one of them…

quite amazing when you think about it… of course, most people are from Canada but it is still kind of cool that someone across the world is having a peek at something I have posted…

have just over 3300 views, and am still enjoying writing each night, although some nights are much more interesting than others…

20131101-223016.jpg

happy halloween…

31 Thursday Oct 2013

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big girl pants, glow sticks, halloween, no candy, Spiderman, subs from Subway

had a lovely evening…

got a call as I was driving home from work and met Crystal and Kyler at the Subway just up the street from home… got subs for everyone, which was rather sad for the people in line behind us, cause everyone likes their sub a little different and there was only one person working…

got home and had a great dinner with Spiderman flashing in and out of the room… everyone ate their dinner, they all love subs…

then we got down to the serious business of getting our costumes on and posing for our annual Halloween photos… each boy gets a photo with Grandma on their own and then there is the group shot, lol… sometimes it takes quite a while to get them all done, but we did very well tonight…

most everyone cooperated and we got a few great shots…

one of the group shots...

one of the group shots…

then, like a flash, they were off to collect goodies…

I played on the computer between the groups of kids who stopped by our house… in the end there were 23… this year they got glow sticks and I must say that nearly everyone was excited to get them…

although now there is no candy in the house for me to snack on, sigh…

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beloved big girl pants birds blessed chocolate Christmas cold delicious dinner family fish flowers food friends fun garden George grandson happy health hibiscus hot tub light lunch memories moments morning glories nature orchid photos pictures plants pond purple rain remembering shopping sky snow sun sunshine supper Technology time treat trees walk water weather widow

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