15 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in family, food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Audubon, big girl pants, birds, calendar, chickadee, cold, eating, hand, memories, moments, nature, remembering, seeds, train, travel, widow
the Audubon calendar for Friday and Saturday was a chickadee…
and yesterday a memory came up on Facebook of me feeding a chickadee in Mer Bleu three years ago while I was visiting…
I had hoped to train my chickadees to eat from my hand, but so far, no luck…
I did catch this little one dashing to and from the feeder, lol…
05 Thursday Jan 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bare, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, memories, moments, stairs, taking down, trees, undecorating, widow
spent Tuesday putting away the little trees…
now the stairs look a bit naked…
the front trees are put away but that space looks filled with the plants that returned from the den…
I’ve been trying to add a new tree to the collection most years, but didn’t manage it this year… maybe next year;-)…
04 Wednesday Jan 2023
Posted in family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishwasher, escargot, family, food, home, lobster, memories, moments, New Year's, preparations, remembering, steak, time, treat, widow
for years we celebrated New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… this started with friends before we had kids;-)…
at some point it moved to New Year’s Day as the kids wanted to participate but were off celebrating on the night before…
this year I enjoyed the preparation as I worked on getting escargot stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and sautéed Brussels sprouts ready…
the kids arrived, got the barbecue going and then grilled the steaks and lobster tails…
dinner was delicious and we had a great time…
on Monday, as I emptied the dishwasher and put away all of the pieces we used, I revisited the fun and special moments…
and the tradition continues…
02 Monday Jan 2023
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Audubon, big girl pants, birds, blessed, calendar, Chihuly, garden, memories, moments, nature, pictures, Technology, tradition, widow
January first was new calendar day…
for many years we have had Chihuly calendars… either my daughter or I would get two and give one to the other person;-)…
one year I even made one filled with photos from our trip to see his installation in Atlanta…
this year I changed it up…
I found an Audubon calendar online that shows a different bird each day… ordered two and sent one off with the other Christmas presents…
took down the old one and put up the new one…
I think I will learn a bit and maybe it will even help me with bird identification in the garden…
01 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
blessed, coal, dark, definition, family, first footing, garden, her big girl pants, home, loss, memories, moments, remembering, tradition, widow
we have done first-footing since I was a little girl… for us, it meant that just before midnight on New Year’s Eve my dad, who had dark hair, would jump in the car and drive around to all our aunts and uncles and grandparents’ houses and take them an offering – it always included coal, bread and sometimes oranges and a little drink of something… I also remember how my dad would have to search out new coal every year because no one ever kept it from year to year, lol…
from Dalhousie Castle:
“Stemming back to the time of the invading Vikings in the 8th and 9thcentury, it is believed that the first person to enter a house, the “first foot”, can bring luck – or misfortune – for the year ahead. In Scottish tradition good luck comes in the form of a tall, dark-haired man being the first footer.” Dec 7, 2020
I spent time this morning looking back at some of the different ways it has happened for me…
my daughter being the first female to cross the threshold first when she was here in 2017…
my middle grandson taking home a bag and making sure to bring it and be the first one to cross my threshold…
my daughter arranging for friends to come by with a box of items she had sent to them…
while visiting the kids in Ottawa, having a diamond necklace in the bag because there wasn’t any coal, lol… and I did have to give it back🤪…
this morning I went out the back door in my housecoat, walked around to the front door, and first-footed myself…
those big girl pants 😂…
31 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beginnings, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, endings, enjoy, friends, Life, memories, moments, remember, struggles, widow
been thinking of those in my circle who are struggling… sometimes it is hard to remember that not everyone finds joy at this time of year…
holidays are often a time filled with grief and pain for many… and often it comes out of the blue…
maybe the rush to get everything done and perfect adds to the stress that then can bring on ill health or sad memories…
as one year is ending and another beginning let’s all sit in the moments and enjoy as many as we can;-)…
blessings to all…
30 Friday Dec 2022
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, lifted, memories, moments, ornaments, put away, shelf, squashed, waiting, widow
on Wednesday I took all the ornaments off the trees in the living and dining rooms… the dining room one looked a little lonely and empty as it sat on the table…
the ornaments ended up on two tables and are still there, lol… but I have washed out a bin and it is drying as I write this…
Thursday I brought up the box that the trees live in and was able to squash them in…
then I taped it closed and was able to get it downstairs but not onto the shelf where it lives… will have to wait for someone else to lift it up;-)…
28 Wednesday Dec 2022
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cheers, computer, family, happy, internet, memories, moments, shopping, Technology, time, treat, widow
Sunday we opened gifts over the internet, lol…
we always like to cheers together and being 1330 miles apart doesn’t stop us although it took a bit of direction from the kids for me to get my mug in the right spot, lol…
there were lots of treats and great minds thinking alike as we all opened Chapters/Indigo cards…
technology has made such a difference in our lives…
what a treat;-)…
25 Sunday Dec 2022
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
banging, banging pots, big girl pants, blessed, chocolate, Christmas, Christmas Day, dinner, early start, family, food, friends, gifts, grandson, kids, moments, purple, reading, relaxing, special day, Technology, treats, tree, visits, widow
I wasn’t expecting to get up early, but apparently my body remembers previous Christmas mornings, lol… although it was 6:47 am when I woke up, for many years it was often around 4… and I would eventually start banging pots in the kitchen to encourage all of the sleepers to wake up…
around 7:30 I got up, made breakfast and then read for a while in the living room enjoying the tree lights…
there were matching pyjamas, calls, texts, visits and naps throughout the day… the naps may have had something to do with the 6:47 wake-up, lol…
spaced amongst all of that were relaxing dinner preparations… beautiful mashed potatoes, delicious stuffing and tasty gravy went perfectly with chicken, turnip, ham, and previously homemade cranberry sauce…
I was absolutely spoiled with a myriad of wonderful gifts…
a lovely day… amazingly blessed, as always…
24 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
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my dad insisted on turnip water to make the gravy… felt it added just the right flavour… so I cook turnips for every holiday meal, lol… and I’ve also passed along the need for this important ingredient to others;-)…
of course when I ordered the turnip I got two good sized ones, lol…
happily I was able to give one to a friend…
I peeled and cut up the other one and after boiling it, saved the water for gravy, and mashed it up…
had a bowlful and put some away to go with Sunday’s dinner;-)…
