today I ate my lunch on the deck… first time this year…

yay… it has been a very, very long winter and spring has not been welcoming…
afterwards I sat, enjoyed some tea and read for a while…

looking forward to many more such opportunities…
03 Tuesday May 2022
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
today I ate my lunch on the deck… first time this year…

yay… it has been a very, very long winter and spring has not been welcoming…
afterwards I sat, enjoyed some tea and read for a while…

looking forward to many more such opportunities…
30 Saturday Apr 2022
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
it took me three days and a number of tools to get the lid off of this pail of fish food flakes…
I removed the plastic band around it and then tried to pry open the top…
no matter how I yanked and pulled, it would not open…
by that time I was out of food for the fish and was hoping my neighbour might turn up in their driveway and I could ask for help… no such luck…
desperate, I used a bottle opener and a butter knife and circled the top, one inch at a time…
finally I was able to pull it off;-)…

gave the fish some food and prepared to package it into small bags that hold as much as my small jar…
with breaks it took most of the day to get seventeen bags organized…

they will go into the freezer and come out one at a time as I need them…
whew, those big girl pants…
24 Sunday Apr 2022
Posted in food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
. soup, big girl pants, flowers, garden, gloomy, homemade, moments, morning glories, rain, snow, widow
it feels as though the weather has been all anyone is thinking about these days…
it has been raining for days and then it turned into snow… there are puddles (or lakes) everywhere and many people have been struggling with water in their basements…

with another gloomy day, I decided to make soup… I used up not-so-fresh zucchini, carrots, onions, celery, and the last of the frozen cauliflower in the freezer… then I added various bits and pieces to season it up…
the result came out nicely and I will have some tasty lunches over the next few days…

felt like a good use of my time on this dull day…
20 Wednesday Apr 2022
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
19 Tuesday Apr 2022
Posted in business, family, food, life, loss, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, card, family, food, moments, nature, nervous, out and about, Park Cafe, restaurant, semi-normal, weather, widow
today, I went to a restaurant… first time in over two years…
I wasn’t sure how I would feel… whether I’d be nervous or stressed out, lol… happily I didn’t feel either of those things…
we arrived and there were few people in the space, so that was good…

we were seated near the windows and watched many geese fly up and over the building…
our server, one of my favourites, was masked and pleasant… after breakfast I ordered a beet salad and some falafels to have for my lunch…

it was nice to do something semi-normal…
a bit later in the day a friend dropped by with a beautiful handmade birthday card and we had a brief chat on the steps…

a bit of shovelling, a nap, and reading took up the rest of the day…
18 Monday Apr 2022
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, bonbons, bouquet, chocolate, Decadence Chocolates, flowers, friends, moments, seventy-first, treats, weather, widow
today, for my seventy-first birthday, I’ve been treated to phone calls, texts, and messages on social media…
I’ve also received a gift of a flower bouquet subscription, an actual bouquet of flowers, and chocolates… these people know me well, lol…

my buddies also came by and sang to me on the sidewalk…

our birthday bag has travelled many a mile from one house to the next and has been repaired a number of times… it has even gone missing for a year or two, but always turns back up…
just before they surprised me, I had been listening to music released in 1951… much of it seems very old, lol…
first thing this morning, I went out and shovelled the steps and sidewalk after more snow over the last few days… it was a treat to have blue sky, sunshine, and weather warm enough to wear a spring jacket… and the snow on the trees was pretty…

I also did some yoga, had a nap, took flower photos, got some reading done in the sunshine, attended a Zoom meeting and possibly ate a bonbon or two with some tea…
pretty fine way to spend a birthday…
17 Sunday Apr 2022
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, Easter, food, happy, lunch, memories, microwaved, moments, supper, treat, widow
today is Easter, so I decided to make all my meals a treat;-)…
for breakfast I had two poached eggs with a potato patty…

there may have been a little chocolate eaten…

lunch was the last of my dimsum from Gimli Fish… the three packages are around $10 each and they provide three meals… it is a great option for me…

I did have a laugh when I microwaved the first batch… instead of using the timing for the microwave, I used the ones for steaming… it didn’t taste quite as good as usual that time, lol…
supper was a version of stuffed pork chops which I used to make for my beloved and I all the time… I used country style spareribs over my homemade stuffing…

came out beautifully and the bottom of the stuffing was deliciously crisp…
great food;-)…
06 Wednesday Apr 2022
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, happy, moments, morning glories, nature, purple, seeding, seeds, snow, tomatoes, widow
this morning I was happy to discover two blooms on one of the morning glories…

that encouraged me to do some seeding for the garden…
I had decided not to do any, but felt a need to start morning glories so they can begin blooming earlier…
I cut toilet paper rolls in half, then cut slits at one end, folded them and put a piece of tape across the bottom…
then I put all of those into a spinach clamshell, filled them with soil, and dropped a few seeds into each one… I also planted three of them with grape tomatoes…

watered each one and closed the clamshell…
now for the waiting game… and we won’t mention the snow that was falling as I wrote this, sigh…
30 Wednesday Mar 2022
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bunnies, carrots, garden, moments, nature, snow, tracks, vanished, weather, widow
looked out the window after yesterday’s snow and spotted many tracks…

not sure if it is just one bunny or many, many bunnies, lol…
throughout the day carrot chunks vanished from the deck… got some photos of the visitors… no idea how many, but it sure was fun to spot them whenever I was in the kitchen…

by end of day, all of the carrot bits were gone…
27 Sunday Mar 2022
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chocolates, daughter, family, hot tub, mid-day, moments, packed, suitcases, Tony Roma's, weather, widow
today, we had one hot tub mid-day and a final one is planned for just before bed…
laundry was done and bags were packed…

a favourite meal was ordered and enjoyed…

we visited, napped, and ate chocolate…

things are lined up at the door for the very early morning trip to the airport…
it was a wonderful time and I enjoyed every single minute;-)…