24 Monday Jun 2013
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found a picture of the front bed on the weekend… here’s the one from the other day…
front left flower bed overrun by wild roses…
and the one from last year…
front left flower bed 2012…
I remember that Crystal came and planted all the allysum because I couldn’t do anything at the time as I was waiting for my surgery…
obviously needs a bit of work including planting this year’s allysum… it will be interesting to see if the hostas, Jacob’s Ladder and monkshood are still in there, lol…
23 Sunday Jun 2013
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big girl pants, can you believe it, missed party, more flooding, plants into pots, poured rain, pump into pond, towels, water running across the floor, worked in the garden
worked for quite a while in the garden this morning… had a lovely time… got the last of the purchased plants into pots… pulled some weeds, although it is really hard to tell…
two more pots planted…
tidied the bed beside the garage and got a pump going in that pond… hopefully that will help with the mosquitoes…
pond and bench…
then the skies opened and it poured rain for quite a while… for some reason, I went downstairs to check for water and found some about two feet from the new carpet…
put towels down and stopped it… it was coming in from the back corner, likely from under the air conditioner outside… kept changing towels and ringing them out and eventually the rain stopped and the water dried up… since then it started to rain a couple of times, but it was lighter and nothing seems to be coming in…
Jeff stopped by to pick up potato salad and spinach dip that I had made for the 8 year old’s birthday party, which I decided to miss, just to be sure nothing else leaked…
have been downstairs at least twenty times to check… washed and dried the towels so they will be ready if needed again… hope to sleep through the night, although I might just put some towels down for safety…
can you believe it…
22 Saturday Jun 2013
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had the leaking water heater and had to have someone come in and replace it… that was on the Thursday… was told that the gas people would have to come and make sure it was fine…
on the Saturday a person came from the gas company to replace the meter outside of the house… he looked at the water heater and said it was fine and he would note that it had been inspected…
after I got home from the cruise I found a message saying the tank had to be inspected… called on Monday and the person I spoke with said it was all fine…
got a recorded message on the phone this afternoon saying if I didn’t call and have it inspected they would shut off the gas… called and spoke with a person who said it still needed to be inspected and then put me on hold for a while and came back to say it was fine…
hope it gets recorded before they turn off my gas, sigh…
clematis blooming close to the gas meter…
21 Friday Jun 2013
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took a picture of the pond this morning, filled with the rain from last night… they haven’t been to work on it for a few days but they are waiting for the slate and pump to come in…
pond after rain storm…
as I was driving out of the garage I stopped and took a quick pic of the clematis ready to bloom… we must have planted a dozen clematis over the years, but this one seems to be happy…
clematis ready to bloom…
and the wild roses at the front of the house, in the right bed… once they bloom will need to cut them back… they really like to take over, lol…
wild roses in front bed…
couldn’t manage to get those big girl pants on today… really missing my beloved…
20 Thursday Jun 2013
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flowers blooming, flowers in the garden, lifted my spirits, lily of the valley, poppies, purple columbine, torenia, wander
a few nights ago I watered the plants when I got home and took a little wander around the garden…
five orange poppies were blooming… this was the night before the pond construction began so it was the last of the poppies…
poppies…
a myriad of lily of the valley…
lily of the valley…
the torenia have perked up now that I am watering them regularly although I’m not sure if the fushia is going to come back…
torenia happier after watering…
the purple columbine at the side of the house is doing very well…
columbine…
still lots to do, but just having a few flowers blooming has already lifted my spirits and encouraged me to keep working at it…
19 Wednesday Jun 2013
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eager to arrive home each day to see what has happened with the pond…
today I found a fellow out front moving the dirt, sand and rocks onto a trailer… went into the back yard and saw this…
pond, construction day 4…
wasn’t very happy because there was a lot of gravel around the outside of the pond where I thought there was going to be soil and plants…
spoke to the fellow and he contacted Doug the person in charge of my project… Doug called and came right on over…
we talked about the gravel which I did not want and the fact that I couldn’t see any flat spots in the pond for plants… and we agreed to some changes which will look after my concerns…
it was great to meet him in person and no doubt we will meet again to check out mulch and other things…
then I met with Mike from Service Masters and signed off on the basement work… busy day…
18 Tuesday Jun 2013
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bothered me, car, car dealership, CRA, financial people, George, iris, phone call, remnders, when I die
sent off the fax to CRA this afternoon… rushed home for a meeting with my financial people… I know, I have people… part of the conversation was about what would be left for my kids when I die… I have to think about that type of stuff now that it’s only me left…
iris from the garden that George had planted a few years ago…
yesterday I got an envelope in the mail with George’s name on it… it was from the car dealership inviting him to a sale… the thing is, I’ve been to the dealership a number of times since his death, gone through all the fancy paperwork and cost – to change the car from his name to mine, they required a $200 safety check – so they should know that I’m the person they should be in touch with…
thought it hadn’t really bothered me, but tonight I got a phone call from a man asking to speak to George… I asked who he was and he advised he was from the car dealership… I told him that George had died over a year ago… he said he was sorry and they didn’t know, and I kind of lost it, saying that they did know and really ought to keep their records up-to-date…
lots of reminders this week…
17 Monday Jun 2013
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this morning when I got up I had to search THE files to find George’s Last Will and Testament and a death certificate…
apparently they didn’t know that he had died over a year ago, even though they had happily accepted a payment from me for his 2011 taxes which clearly said regarding the estate of…
this year they sent me a cheque made out to the estate of, after we filed his final tax return…
anyway, although I have talked to numerous people in the government through this whole process I hadn’t told the right people or sent them the right documents…
I called just after 8 am our time to learn they open at 8:15… when I called back an hour later the phone was busy, and remained busy until just before 1 our time…
I spoke to a woman who advised I had to send the information to the CRA Winnipeg office… and of course it couldn’t go by email but could go by fax, sigh…
I had scanned it all into the computer thinking I would email it, but there you go…
after all that I didn’t get a minute to write the letter she wanted to go with it… first thing tomorrow I guess…
when my accountant called to tell me I had to do this, she was very apologetic about bringing all this stuff up after all this time and I said it wasn’t a problem… but amazingly it did touch a nerve and bring back the memories of was I contacting the correct people, was I giving them the correct answers to ensure I received whatever I was expecting from that particular organization… did I cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s…
it’s been a year and three months since he died and in some ways it seems like it was years ago, and in others, it seems like it was just a few days ago…
I even find it difficult to know how to say my husband recently died… now that a year has gone by, can I still say that??? feels like it to me, but I don’t know…
oh the ongoing learnings in this journey of the big girl pants…
16 Sunday Jun 2013
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big girl pants, blessed, dinner on the deck, Father's Day, marathoners, missing George, moving forward, planting flowers
spent the day planting flowers… listening to the drums at the Park as marathoners went past, heard birds singing, lawn mowers going and geese flying overhead…
planters around the deck…
took breaks, but worked until the kids came for dinner just after 3… got 6 of the 9 planters around the deck done and numerous pots…
planters around the deck filled with lobelia and alyssum…
still have a few more things to plant, but they will have to wait for another day…
dinner on the deck…
had a lovely dinner on the deck – ribs (thanks to Crystal for barbecuing them) and Caesar salad were the request so that’s what we had… then Jeff went out and mowed the front yard…
mowing the grass on Father’s Day…
this morning I was missing George a fair bit, but as I worked away in the garden, I spent my time remembering what great fun we had in the garden and with our kids… I thought back to last year on this day and today was much better… that day was the worst day since he died… glad to be moving forward…
truly, I am blessed…
15 Saturday Jun 2013
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big girl pants, D J Paterson, impatiens, planting, plants, run to Rona, wasp nest, Woodhaven Toyota
ran to Rona this morning to look for plants… didn’t have exactly what I wanted, but I did find two lovely orchids, a nice tomato plant and some begonias…
white begonia and rose waiting to be planted…
after lunch I went to D J Paterson’s on Portage and found the alyssum and impatiens I wanted as well…
more things to plant…
and then to Woodhaven Toyota to get a little refresher on how the air conditioner worked… then I headed home to have a nap…
went out later and planted the impatiens around the white tub pond…
bed filled with impatiens… mainly white with a hint of pink…
as I was closing up the garage I discovered a little wasp nest which we will have to get rid of… picture’s a bit fuzzy but a little something was flying around it and I didn’t want to take it again, lol…
wasp nest starting in the garage…
those darn big girl pants seem to be going on easier and easier…
