Category Archives: family

dredged…

31 Sunday May 2020

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sitting by the pond after my visitors have left and enjoying the last bit of sunlight…

my water shoes are on the deck because I went into the pond once again and dredged up another pailful of leaves… the fish are still not coming out, but I did see the frog hop by earlier in the day…

all three of my grandsons came by just after noon… I made them grilled cheese sandwiches with the wonderful La Belle Baguette whole wheat sourdough that was delivered yesterday…

the oldest left, the middle one mowed the grass, front and back, while the youngest watered plants and pulled weeds…

some days it is hard to realize he is eleven and can reach and do more things…

after the work was done, relaxing happened and visiting took place…

this was the first time I’ve had people in the house and the system was they had access to the basement for cooling down and using the washroom and I had the main floor… worked perfectly…

we ordered Chinese food for supper and it arrived just before the daddy, who had been at work all day… afterwards my downspout got fixed, a stair board tightened and then off they went…

it was a treat to see them and I enjoyed every minute… I missed my nap, but plan on making it an early night;-)…

raining…

27 Wednesday May 2020

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more deliveries yesterday…

Shelmerdine delivered plants and two new bird feeders… it was raining when the truck arrived and the driver offered to put everything in the garage, which was very nice…

not much later UPS arrived with the items I had purchased online from Costco about ten days before…

this one really made me laugh because the parcel came from Airdre, Alberta, rather than the store that is less than four kilometres from my house… don’t think I will be ordering from there again;-(…

today I called and spoke with someone at Costco to see if my grandson could shop using my card and it is possible, so I won’t have to get things sent all the way from Alberta… I will call and let them know the date he will arrive to shop each time, but that is much better than having things travel from two provinces away… the person I spoke with advised that they are currently testing Instacart…

seedlings…

20 Wednesday May 2020

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so excited this morning to discover these two little seedlings… they are morning glories…

once I’ve put out the cushions for the furniture, I walk around and check all of the pots that I have planted…

I’d been worried that the morning glories weren’t going to come up… at the same time I also planted some datura in pots in the front yard and they haven’t come through yet… but now I am hopeful that they still might…

we’ve grown both morning glories and daturas for many years… I am looking forward to seeing some this year, particularly as the garden may be the only place I travel to, lol…

most of the dahlias and tomatoes are doing nicely… it looks like a couple of the dahlias aren’t going to make it…

waiting for plants from Shelmerdine to arrive and make their way into the ground… they were a birthday gift from the kids in Ottawa…

I enjoy planting pots and planters but hope to have the items that are going into the ground planted by Hilda the Gardener;-)…

shopper…

18 Monday May 2020

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I spent the day in the garden… I stayed in the shade but eventually put on my sun shirt and a pair of long pants to be sure I didn’t get too much sun, as I was feeling it, even in the shade…

I’d sent my grandson a list of things I needed from various stores… currently our deal is that he has the use of my car and acts as my personal shopper;-)… he spent a good portion of the morning gathering things I haven’t been able to order online and then brought them to me in the afternoon…

we put away all of the goodies, made some adjustments to the bird feeders – excited to see if the slinky keeps away the squirrels – and had a wonderful visit… nice to have someone to talk with in person (at a safe distance)…

I was very clever and made an oriole feeder;-)… apparently they like oranges…

after supper he put the Inukshuk back together for me, as it had been in pieces, lol… too heavy for me to lift…

am blessed to have such a great kid in my life;-)…

move…

15 Friday May 2020

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I’ve spent a good part of the day watching the activity as the new neighbours move into the house next door…

looks like they are a young couple and they have been coming and going since around 7:30 this morning…

last Friday I watched the moving van arrive and take away all the belongings of the couple who had lived there for over 10 years… well he lived there for that time, and recently got married… since then they have come and gone a number of times to do the last bit of clean up and removal… his adult kids had all been by to fetch their bits and pieces and a couple of days ago a truck came and picked up the hot tub…

it made me think of a couple of things…

first was the day we moved into this house… it was in August of 1973… we had purchased the house from an older couple and on the day we were to move in, we arrived at nine in the morning to discover them sitting at their kitchen table having tea… it appears that they had forgotten they had to be out that day… we were freaking out at our end, because we had to be out of the apartment we had been living in by the end of that day… amazingly, their son arrived and they were out of the house by 3 pm…

second is the thought of what my kids will have to do when I leave the house… we have lived here for 47 years so there is a lot of stuff… I keep thinking about how I need to be decluttering more than I have, although right now isn’t really the time to do that, as organizations are not taking donations at this time, lol…

but it does remind me to get onto that project as soon as possible… we won’t even discuss the state of the garage, which has not been dealt with since my beloved’s death over eight years ago…

I baked sugar cookies to deliver next door and share with a few others…

 

 

 

comfort…

13 Wednesday May 2020

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had a bit of a giggle when I told my daughter that I had mushrooms and bacon with croutons for my supper recently…

she wondered if it was an actual meal…

I shared how it was certainly a meal when I was a teenager although then when my mom or dad made it, it was on toast, not with croutons…

so, for me it is comfort food… I feel that we are eating a lot of comfort food these days as we try to figure out what our next steps will be…

so many of the meals we ate a long time ago might not have been considered as nutritious as what is being eaten these days… I think of corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes, spaghetti and meatballs without any vegetables, macaroni and cheese on its own, lol… a lot more fresh veggies are part of our meals today…

but it is fun to remember, and recreate some of those old recipes…

rims…

10 Sunday May 2020

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had the loveliest surprise on Friday… my son-in-law and two of my grandsons arrived in my garden… the oldest grandson was picking up my car so that the winter tires can be removed and replaced with the summer beauties – they have wonderful rims…

I stayed on the deck and they stayed on the grass… it was wonderful to see them and we had a nice visit…

while they were here my son-in-law got the pump running in the pond… I am so happy to hear the water cascading over the rocks… there was ice in the water as it has been below zero for a couple of nights…

they got the tires into their vehicle and we had to ask the moving truck that was parked right at the bottom of my driveway to back up so the car could get out…

too funny considering I haven’t taken the car out in 52 days, and the one day it needed to move, there was a truck in the way, lol…

it was great to see them as we haven’t been together since just before Christmas…

taste…

05 Tuesday May 2020

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someone recently talked about taking the time to enjoy eating, whether it is a snack, a meal, a treat…

tonight I had shrimp with cocktail sauce for my dinner…

while I was eating, I was remembering…

many years ago I flew to Florida with a dear family friend on vacation… I was there in case she had any problems with her health… we had a wonderful time and I enjoyed every minute with her…

one of the things you could do there was order cooked shrimp while shopping at the grocery store… while you shopped they were boiled and bagged for you to take home fresh… many evenings we peeled these delicious cold shrimp for our dinner as we discussed our day and life in general…

the other special memory was when we were in Hawaii last year and went to Shrimp Hale… it was a little restaurant in a strip mall just a short walk from where we were staying that we just happened upon…

the shrimp were boiled, butter, garlic and fresh lemon were added, and it was brought hot to the table in a plastic bag… we were given plastic bibs and gloves… the shells just went onto the paper on the table… it was such fun and so delicious…

such wonderful and special moments and memories… how blessed I am…

made my dinner taste even better…

internet…

23 Thursday Apr 2020

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today I had some computer fun…

I was watching a program on TV and they were talking about better ergonomics while at home… one suggestion was to use something under your laptop to raise it to eye level which made sense, except typing would be a problem, lol… after a bit of testing, I discovered that three of my resource books have produced what might be the perfect height…

the second recommendation was to plug in a keyboard, duh… I dug one out and plugged it in and am so happy with the more traditional keyboard which I am used to… remembering a dear colleague, I found an elastic and wrapped up the extra cord behind the laptop… she would be proud:-)…

I’ve also been having constant issues with my internet connection… mainly on the laptop… I figured out the program that seemed to be stopping my connection and set up a phone call with my son-in-law (the computer geek) to get his input… it had something to do with VPN, and although I did research, it was still too confusing for me to go ahead and do something on my own…

after less than five minutes with him, I had uninstalled the problematic piece of software and it looks like everything is working beautifully… yay…

always a good day when the technology works or is improved!

 

messages…

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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this morning I started my day with the last bag of Twinning Blackcurrant Tea…

texts, phone calls, and Facebook messages came throughout the day…

and the biggest surprise was my BS buddies singing happy birthday on the road with a sign on a six foot pole so that the two holders wouldn’t get too close… what a treat…

seeing friends, even at a distance, brought such warmth to my heart… thanks to my buddy for sharing her photo;-)…

took Barbie (the BBQ) out and grilled steak and lobster for my dinner… ate with my Ottawa kids via Google Duo… they had McDonalds, lol…

very different from last year, but certainly this birthday will be remembered…