03 Sunday Dec 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, careful, Christmas mug, holiday season, labelled, memories, moments, mug, Tea, widow
I was happy to have my first cup of tea in one of the Christmas mugs last Friday…
for a few years I couldn’t find them as they had been put away carefully in a closet that was packed overly full…
when I found them a while back, I was careful to put them in a location which I labelled so I couldn’t miss them, lol…
the holiday season has clearly arrived…
02 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blog, congratulations, day-to-day, moments, Technology, widow, WordPress
yesterday, WordPress sent me congratulations on my blog, which turned eleven…
since then I have posted 4031 blogs, which is slightly over one per day…
the blog began 271 days after I lost my beloved, and many of the first ones covered the complications of moving forward as a widow… a lonely business…
sometimes I have deep thoughts, although most of the time they are just about what is happening around me and in my day-to-day life…
it is still fun to think of something to write about…
eleven years…
01 Friday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, blessed, calendars, chocolate, family, grandson, memories, moments, nuts, Technology, treat, versions, widow
happy first day of Advent… it has always been a special time for me…
this year there are three different calendars for me…
the first is a digital version which comes via email every day with things to do or think about;-)… all focussed on chocolate, without any calories… this was the first one, which provides an opportunity to check items off over 25 days…
the second is on the wall in the living room and this year is filled with nuts and seeds and the odd bit of chocolate…
the third climbs the stairway… it is made up of twenty-four different sized boxes with items in them from the kids in Ottawa… last week a parcel arrived addressed to my grandson, who then filled each one… they look very cute on the stairs…
as I empty a box, I am breaking it down and stashing it at the top behind the last few… I don’t want to lose any of them…
every day is a treat;-)…
30 Thursday Nov 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bungee, bungee cord, doorknob, family, garage, grandson, moments, neighbour, project, weather, widow
last spring the doorknob on the garage door seized up… the door hadn’t been closing properly for a long time as it had shifted… I’d been using a bungee cord to close it from the outside for ages, lol…
I had done research on how to remove the doorknob, but no matter what I did, couldn’t get it off the door…
eventually my neighbour came over and removed it although he had to hammer it off in the end, lol…
since then the bungee cord has been the way to keep the door closed…
I need a new door, but that didn’t make the project list this year, so I hadn’t done anything about fixing this…
last week we were at the hardware store, picked up a new doorknob, and on Monday while I was visiting with my friends, my grandson installed it…
woohoo…
29 Wednesday Nov 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, gifts, growing, moments, Shelmerdine, shopping, wax, widow
had a fun trip to Shelmerdine today…
wasn’t going to get anything, but three Christmas gifts jumped right into the cart…
and I found one of the amaryllis plants coated in wax, that grow without water… hummed and hawed, but in the end had to get one…
it is now sitting on the living room table and I can’t wait to see it grow and produce some flowers;-)
27 Monday Nov 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decorations, disco, enjoy, memories, moments, purple, reduce, reindeer, silver, slowly, snow people, snowflakes, time, tree, widow
the Christmas boxes came out from under the staircase last Sunday… the goal is to reduce the size of the collection as each box is gone through…
Monday, the snow people were moved into the den… they look very cute in there… none were disposed of…
Tuesday, a great number of glass balls were hung in the dining room window… this involved separating ones which had been hung together previously and then hanging them individually… took some time, but came out nicely I think…
Wednesday, more ornaments were put up with the pottery and some of the most beautiful ones were hung on the dining room chandelier…
Thursday was about reindeer and sleighs… and even some snowflakes…
Friday involved the tree… it is filled with purple, silver and glittery ornaments… quite different from my usual choices…
there are lots of little disco balls on it and the ceiling and walls were quite sparkly as the sun shines through the window;-)…
I have been enjoying the process of focussing on one item each day and taking my time completing the decorating…
I did decide to give away some blue and red ornaments and a few wreaths, lol…
way to go me;-)…
24 Friday Nov 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, centre, droppings, holidays, kitchen, memories, moments, reindeer, snowflakes, widow
decided that snowflakes and reindeer were not taking centre stage this holiday season… most were put away…
a few snowflake cards made it onto the bathroom door…
the Advent reindeer made it into the kitchen with a couple of others, mostly clear… and there appear to be chocolate droppings in the calendar…
bit by bit, the transformation is happening;-)…
23 Thursday Nov 2023
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
5°, big girl pants, blessed, garden, heater, moments, nature, plunge, Technology, tub, water, weather, widow
last week a big black tub landed on the deck…
a few days later, in the evening, it got filled up with water…
then a cover went over it… and a heater to keep the temperature at 5° Celsius was added…
now, after a shower, someone uncovers the tub and sits in it for 3 minutes, which seems like a long time, lol…
this is what I spotted this morning;-)…
I am going to give it a try on a Sunday morning… wish me luck…
22 Wednesday Nov 2023
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buds, dining room, flowers, happy, moments, nature, newest, orchid, plants, time, widow
so happy to see new tiny buds on all of the orchids on the dining room table…
it was an exciting surprise to see the newest buds on the one plant that hadn’t had a new stalk…
looking forward to some blooms around Christmas…
20 Monday Nov 2023
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaned, dahlias, dirt, experiment, garden, jobs done, moments, nature, paper bags, separated, shrivelled, Technology, tubers, widow
all of the garden work has now been completed for the winter… yay…
about a week ago I finished cleaning and putting away the last pond pump…
Saturday I finally got around to the dahlias… after watching a few videos, I used a knife to clean out the bits of dirt that were still on the tubers and then cut them to separate those with eyes, which should produce next year…
after doing a bit of research, I left a few (after cleaning them), to see if I will be able to separate them more easily in the spring when they start to sprout…
packaged them in paper bags, put them back in the pot, which went into a box in the coolest area of the basement… and wrote on the box to remember that is where they are, lol…
we will see what shape they are come spring… sometimes when the bags are open, there is nothing but shrivelled up bits of nothing;-(…
always an experiment…
herbiggirlpants 