04 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basil, big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, grape tomatoes, happy, moments, nature, pearls, plants, widow
very excited to gather some of the ripe cherry tomatoes to add to my lunch…
also picked basil to go along with the bocconcini pearls that have been waiting in the fridge…
a delicious fresh lunch;-)…
01 Sunday Aug 2021
Tags
anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, everyday, family, garden, George, hands, happy, health, memories, moments, morning glories, pond, purple, remembering, widow
the Olympics have been a distraction as this day has come closer – what would have been our 51st wedding anniversary…
I’ve spent the day thinking of some moments with my beloved…
the everyday things: changing up the configuration of the ponds; working in the garden as it changed over the years; caring for his lawn, trimming the Virginia creeper, fixing whatever needed attention; making the world’s best French fries, fried egg sandwiches and salads; driving the girls and I everywhere; reading and playing with our grandsons; cleaning the garage, packing the car, barbecuing; the strength of his hands that could wring out a cloth so it was dry, massage a sore neck, scrub a pot perfectly clean, and gently hold my hand when we were out walking…
so many little things…
I’ve been remembering our 40th anniversary… I was in the hospital for an extended period of time and he came every day and brought me pictures he had taken of whatever morning glories had opened on that particular day… I took this photo just yesterday…
he also sent me a basket filled with 40 roses… each night they had to be moved into the hall because their scent was so strong I couldn’t sleep with them in the room, lol…
a friend recently lost his partner and has decided to refer to their anniversary as the first celebration of their 41 years together… what a lovely way to describe it…
today I am also enjoying the sentiment of this beautiful card which I recently received in the mail…
what a blessed life I have lived;-)…
28 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cucumber, flowers, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, prickly, sweep, weather, widow
this is the first time I have planted/grown cucumbers and I’ve been surprised at how prickly they are…
the cucumber plants had a ton of flowers on them, but no actual cucumbers…
I read online that I should take a broom and sweep over them… this is supposed to help with pollination…
I decided to give it a try the other day… found one of my beloved’s brushes and brushed over as many of the flowers as I could… that was on Saturday…
today, this is what I spotted… plus two others…
not sure if it was the brushing or whether I just had to wait a bit longer, lol…
but I am absolutely thrilled…
26 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, early, food, fun, garden, happy, memories, moments, Olympics, overkill, remembering, retirement, sports, streaming, Technology, weather, widow
I love the Olympics and have watched them for years… I remember a trip we took once and how we had to have access to TVs at the end of each day so that I could keep up with what was happening, lol…
I like to watch in real time so that means reorganizing my sleep schedule to get the best results…
for these ones I couldn’t decide how I felt about them going ahead this year… but now they are happening, I am in… I usually get a Canada Day t-shirt and had purchased one a while ago, but on July 1st I decided not to wear it… as the games began, I put it on;-)…
on Friday I was up at 5:30 am to watch the opening ceremony and ordered McDonald’s for breakfast so I didn’t have to stop watching to make something…
at one point during the first day I was switching between tv channels and streaming on my phone at the same time and I considered turning on the laptop as well… in the end I decided the laptop would be overkill…
I have slowed down slightly… apparently I need a bit more sleep these days…
the great thing about streaming is that I can watch some of the sports that I enjoy most but which don’t always get shown on tv…
the surfing, gymnastics and dressage have been lovely to watch, even if not exactly as they happened…
I’ve even taken the laptop out into the garden so that I can enjoy the weather and not miss anything, lol…
so happy to be able to watch whenever and wherever… retirement is a lovely thing;-)…
22 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
activity, big girl pants, birds, blessed, close, garden, moments, nature, open, pictures, pond, purple, squirrels, water lily, weather, widow
hot and partly overcast today, but not nearly as smokey…
and lots of activity in the garden…
must have counted six squirrels at one time and took a few pictures of different ones eating… none of the gray squirrels wanted to have their photos taken, lol…
there was also a great deal of bird action… dozens of house sparrows, numerous finches and chickadees, as well as at least one nuthatch…
such a wonderful way to spend the day;-)…
the water lily bloom continues to open with the light and close as the evening arrives…
19 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, hot, moments, nature, treat, vegetable, water, weather, widow
I’ve been watering my neighbour’s vegetable garden when they are away, since it has been so hot…
it makes my few tomatoes, cucumbers and basil look like a joke, lol…
there are raised beds filled with beans, dill, cucumbers, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes of all kinds…
it has been fun to watch the growth when I am giving them a drink…
and look what I received;-)… a bag filled with beans, ready to cook… they will be tomorrow’s supper along with some new potatoes and chicken… yum…
they have shared cucumbers and tomatoes over the years, but it was a lovely treat to get the three types of beans…
16 Friday Jul 2021
Posted in business, food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
barbecue, Barbie, big girl pants, blessed, clap, delicious, garden, hail, moments, nature, rain, sky, steak, thunderstorm, weather, wet, widow
I was laying on the bed upstairs yesterday watching the end of a movie when I heard a huge clap of thunder…
jumped up and ran outside to put away the cushions… I don’t like it when they get wet and they were on all of the chairs…
almost got the last ones into the garage when the downpour began… I stood in the garage doorway and watched rain and hail pelt down for a while and then, when it slowed down a little, made it into the house…
all of the windows were wide open as well as the screen door, but luckily only the kitchen and bedroom had issues…
had to take up the rug at the door and wipe up the water in the kitchen… the other rooms were pretty good… thankfully, the blinds were down in the bedroom so the water only came in a bit in one corner of the frame… once I wiped it up it didn’t take long to dry…
it remained overcast for a while, but then the sun came out and it was beautiful…
brought Barbie the barbecue out and grilled a steak for my dinner to go along with the potato salad I had made earlier in the day…
then I sat on the deck and read;-)… crazy weather…
14 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beach, big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, health, memories, moments, nature, remembering, restored, sand, sunrise, time, treats, vacation, water, widow
I spent five glorious days with friends’ at their beach cottage…
the first thing I always do is jump out of the car and run down to be sure the beach and lake are still there, lol…
what a wonderful time it was… delicious food (that I didn’t have to prepare); wonderful conversations, stories, and laughter; listening to birds and the waves; lots of time on the beach and in the water; relaxing, reading and sleeping…
what more could you ask for;-)… I am restored…
such a gift…
10 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
quite a while ago I started grape tomatoes from a few wrinkled sad looking ones from the grocery store that hadn’t gotten eaten…
they were slow to grow, but I was hopeful…
I also started a couple of seeds from a full sized tomato I had…
unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to which was which, lol…
I planted them in my new garden planter boxes and they have slowly been getting bigger… some have had blossoms…
recently, I saw the first little tomato starting…
looking forward to a lovely snack…
26 Saturday Jun 2021
Posted in business, family, food, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, books, Dairy Queen, family, garden, grandsons, ice cream cone, moments, nature, pond, son-in-law, treat, vaccinated, widow
Wednesday was a busy day…
got the bathtub pond up and running…
then climbed into the main pond to clean out the pump…
after lunch my son-in-law and middle grandson came by… one levelled the waterfall stone so that water doesn’t leak out and need to be replaced as much… he also spread soil in the front, filled containers and tidied up the dirt pile…
the other mowed and whipper snipped the front and garden, including along the lane (sometimes we forget about that area)… he also helped with the soil cleanup…
they left, and the oldest grandson arrived to take me downtown where I got vaccinated for the second time;-)… as a treat we got ice cream cones on the way home;-)…
once home he changed a leaky hose and carried many boxes of books to the front step for pickup… we put them in plastic bags because they weren’t being picked up until Friday, but were too heavy for me to move, lol…
really was a busy one…
herbiggirlpants 