a few days ago my housemate made salsa… he even put on the new apron that he got for Christmas while he was chopping the ingredients…

it is delicious;-)…
29 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
17 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, adventure calendar, big girl pants, blessed, family, heart, heart shaped, memories, moments, shortbread, sixteenth, widow
Monday’s shortbread was heart-shaped and tasty;-)…

when I was looking at memories, I discovered that many years ago I also received something heart-shaped on the sixteenth;-)… and both from the same person, lol…

it is fun to go down memory lane…
10 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, family, hopeful, housemate, Japanese Maple, moments, nature, plants, solar lights, Technology, weather, widow, wrapping
I came up with the idea of wrapping my Japanese Maple with some solar lights…
so, my housemate lifted the plant onto the living room table and then I spent an hour walking in circles with the string of lights…

had to stop occasionally when I got a bit dizzy, lol…

it came out nicely, although I had to wait a day so that the power in the solar panel had a chance to charge…

I am hopeful that I can leave the lights on, even in the summer when the Maple moves outside;-)…
08 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, day and night, falling, family, grandson, moments, nature, pretty, shovelling, snow, soundless, weather, widow
it has been doing this since before I woke up this morning…
and it is still going on… it feels like it is soundless, quietly encompassing everything…

it is causing a lot of work…

but so pretty;-)…
04 Wednesday Dec 2024
Posted in family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, burgers, family, food, memories, moments, remembering, seventy-six, Technology, time, widow
today would have been my beloved’s seventy-sixth birthday…
I have come across a few lovely memories…

from visiting beaches, playing with grandkids, eating with family, cold weather fun, to barbecuing dinner…
such wonderful memories…

tonight burgers were eaten in Winnipeg and Ottawa to remember a very special person…
03 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bedtime, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, decorations, family, health, lights, memories, moments, trees, walk, widow
I’ve been enjoying the trees up the stairs…


wound through them is a string of lights which I would turn on in the morning and off at bedtime…
now I’ve decided to leave them on all the time…
my beloved didn’t like having trees or snow people on the stairs as his walking was uneven and he sometimes stepped on one of the decorations, lol…
so far, I don’t have that problem;-)…
01 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Advent calendars, big girl pants, blessed, boxes, daughter, family, magnets, moments, purple, treat, various, widow
going through my Facebook memories on December first is a great reminder of the various Advent Calendars I’ve had over the years…
they started a number of years ago, when I received 24 decorated magnets that went on 2 muffin tins… the items to go into them were provided and a colleague filled them;-)…

since then I have received fancy chocolate calendars, a repurposed frame with purple inserts that my daughter made, and individual boxes that have been refilled numerous times…

I’ve also received handmade cards with daily readings…
this year a Walker’s Shortbread calendar was delivered;-)…
I am blessed…
30 Saturday Nov 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
advent calendar, art, big girl pants, blessed, contemplate, daughter, family, gift, handmade, moments, purple, quotes, widow
one of my previous Advent Calendars, which my daughter gave me, is a lovely set of 24 hand painted cards with interesting quotes…

although it isn’t Advent yet, I have been choosing one each day to contemplate;-)…
it is fun to spend some time each day thinking of the quote…
27 Wednesday Nov 2024
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, family, handmade, holidays, lights, memories, moments, remembering, stairway, string, trees, widow
the trees made their way up the stairs…
a string of lights went up first and then each tree was removed from the box…

once they were all out, I had a fun time deciding where each one would go and then adding the smaller ones to every step…
I am always happy to add the various wooden ones that my beloved made;-)…

there are a couple left that will find their way into other rooms to bring holiday cheer;-)…
26 Tuesday Nov 2024
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, mandevilla, memories, moments, ornaments, tree, widow
have been busy working on decorating the house…
so far, the tree is up and has lights and ornaments on it…
once I decided on the tree, I chose some of my favourite silver and white ornaments as well as a few special ones…
I set it on a small table and put two pieces of fabric around it…

as I put the ornaments on I remembered when I first got them…

once the tree was done I added silver balls to the mandevilla…

came out very nice…
then I popped the orchids into the sleigh on the dining room table, added glass balls to the window, trees and stars to the plant section and stockings to the credenza…



got all of that done between Sunday and Monday afternoon so it looked sort of organized when my friends arrived, lol…
next up will be the trees going up the stairway;-)…