21 Wednesday Jan 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Fleurs de Villes, flowers, friends, laughs, moments, The Leaf, time, weather, widow
had a wonderful time today with friends at The Leaf…
we travelled together and had a lot of laughs in the process, then checked out all of the displays, and had one of the volunteers take our photo…
ended the day with a lovely lunch and visit at Gather;-)…
dropped off one of us and had a short visit…
what a fun time we had;-)…
19 Monday Jan 2026
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Fleurs de Villes, food, friends, Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, gyro, lunch, moments, striploin, widow
had lunch at Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar before checking out Fleurs de Villes WONDER in the Mediterranean biome with my BS buddies…
it was nice to be inside after the -30°C walk from the car, lol…
I had the gyro – beef striploin gyro, grilled naan, cucumber relish, arugula, garlic tzatziki… I have had this before and, as previously, it was tasty…
other items at the table included the classic burger, the pasta with shrimp, and the house salad…
everyone enjoyed their meal and there were a few desserts afterwards, lol…
it was rather busy, so it did take a little longer than usual for our meal…
always a treat;-)…
15 Thursday Jan 2026
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
apples, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, crisp, family, food, housemate, moments, snow, vacuum sealer, widow
my housemate decided to make apple crisp with all the apples he purchased and then forgot to eat, lol…
I found a recipe and we peeled, cored, and sliced what felt like a ton of apples before they went bad…
next he mixed in the sauce and then used the vacuum sealer to package two bags of the apples…
when he decided to make the apple crisp, he gathered the ingredients for the crisp portion, put everything together and baked it in the oven…
it came out delicious… reminded me of my beloved whose favourite thing to bake was apple pie;-)…
12 Monday Jan 2026
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
alphabetizing, big girl pants, family, label maker, moments, revolving tray, shopping, spices, Technology, widow
we were looking for brown sugar and somehow decided to tidy the cupboards, duh…
everything came down, quite a few rather old items were discarded, and the remaining containers went back in…
then we headed to the grocery store and while we were there, found a couple of revolving trays and new spice jars…
once we were done putting groceries away, we added the trays, which of course meant taking all of the containers out again…
it is going to be so much easier to find the item I am looking for now…
then, we got out the label maker, which I am still learning how to use, and made labels as we filled the jars that would fit in the two spice racks…
now we are working on alphabetizing them;-)…
such fun, but we were both exhausted…
09 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, delicious, devoured, food, friends, maple pecan stuffed French toast, moments, Park Cafe, Technology, widow
was picked up by a friend and we headed to the Park Cafe for brunch…
I had seen a new January offering they had, and wanted to try it out…
the place was jumping when we arrived, but we had a great visit while we waited to be seated, which took less than ten minutes;-)…
we both ordered the special – maple pecan stuffed french toast – and hoped it would look as good as the picture, lol… and it did…
aaaaand… it was delicious and we both devoured the whole thing;-)… what a lovely treat…
if you have a chance this month, you should go and check it out…
28 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
appetizers, big girl pants, blessed, busy, Christmas, family, food, grandson, mid-day, moments, shrimp, weather, widow
my grandson usually arrives here on Christmas day around noon…
our current tradition is to have appetizers for our mid-day meal as he may have already had breakfast and will be heading out for dinner a bit later in the day…
we had wandered the aisles at the grocery store picking up things that looked fun…
we had shrimp dumplings, fancy cheese fries, tempura shrimp, wontons, veggies and dip, sausage rolls, and a shrimp ring… lots of shrimp on that list, lol…
this year we did stockings for each other, which was great… it has been many years since I had a stocking…
it was filled with a great many treats…
then the second round of presents were opened, and I was royally spoiled;-)…
although he only had a few gifts he was very pleased with them…
we sat around and visited before he had to leave for his next engagement, lol…
I truly am blessed to have this thoughtful young man in my life;-)…
26 Friday Dec 2025
Posted in food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas morning, dripped, moments, strawberries, waffles, whipping cream, widow
on Wednesday I made waffles to have on Christmas morning…
of course a few were too filled and the batter dripped out around the edges, lol…
most went into the freezer, but two stayed out for the morning…
fresh strawberries were sliced into a jar and a teaspoon of sugar went in as well…
in the morning, the cream was whipped with the immersion blender and one waffle went onto a baking tray to warm in the oven…
then, everything was combined for a delicious breakfast;-)…
24 Wednesday Dec 2025
Posted in food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
baton, big girl pants, blessed, cookbook, family, famous, moments, spinach dip, Technology, widow
had a bit of a giggle this morning when I went to make my ‘famous’ spinach dip…
I haven’t made it in ages and decided to check the recipe to be sure I remembered it correctly… took me ages to find where that particularly recipe was located… NOT in the recipe book I’d prepared a few years ago…
eventually I remembered that it was in the Baton cookbook that I’d help prepare when the girls were maybe ten and twelve🤪…
hadn’t forgotten anything and it turned out great 😊…
looking at that cookbook now reminds me how much things have changed in thirty years… at the time it was very well done… now I think it looks rather dreadful… although the recipes are excellent, lol…
06 Saturday Dec 2025
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
adventure, big girl pants, blessed, fish and chips, friend, liver, moments, onions, widow
after aquasize, my adventure buddy and I did some Christmas shopping…
then we had lunch out…
we chose Silver Heights Restaurant and had a great meal…
she had fish and chips and I was so happy to have liver and onions in gravy with mashed potatoes…
meals that we had each been craving;-)…
it was delicious and we are planning another lunch there as there were a few other items on the menu that were calling to us…
04 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, Christmas stocking, family, grandson, memories, moments, Technology, widow, widowhood, WordPress
as I sit here quietly in the living room I am thinking of two big events that took place in the last few days…
the first was a congratulatory note from WordPress… on December 1st, 2012 I began writing about my journey into widowhood… and have continued that since then, moving into commenting on my life…
the second was today, which would have been my beloved’s 77th birthday… this year we had burgers here, one of his favourite foods, while the kids in Ottawa had an apple galette… he loved apple pie… we had a video visit between the burgers and galette, lol…
my grandson is going to use his Christmas stocking for the first time…
I sure do miss him🤗…
herbiggirlpants 