19 Monday Oct 2026
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dark, lit, moments, nature, plants, solar lights, widow, window
was walking past the dining room and spotted the solar lights across the three plants that are in the window…
they only stay lit for a few moments so I often don’t see them…
what a lovely treat 😊…
11 Sunday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, dining car, family, food, meals, moments, options, train trip, widow
I’ve been thinking of the great meals we had on the train… the first morning we didn’t know where the dining car was and made the best of what we found in another car,,,
then we discovered where the dining car was, and had excellent meals from then on, lol… at each meal you got to choose between three options…
and at each meal we ended up sitting with people who we hadn’t met before…
10 Saturday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
2 seats, big girl pants, blessed, extra, family, first class, moments, snacks, Technology, WestJet, widow
because I had many, many, WestJet points, we flew home from Victoria first class…
happily it meant that our bags were free to check so we didn’t have to worry about them, and there were two seats instead of three, which meant we had more space…
the first flight was early in the morning and our Uber driver got us there in ample time…
we left a few minutes late but had excellent service, lots of snacks and real glasses for our beverages;-)…
the mountains looked stunning as we flew over them and landed right on time in Calgary… then, we had to literally run all the way across the airport to the gate for the final leg of our journey… I was very worried we wouldn’t make it and we arrived with just a few minutes to spare, and we were the last to get on the plane…
I was a little bit peeved as I had paid extra to have the WestJet person on the phone make all the reservations so there wouldn’t be any problems… not only did they get the birthdates wrong for both of us, but they booked 45 minutes between the flights which is too close to move from one end of the airport to the other… a rather exciting end to our trip…
but, we arrived home safe and sound and with our luggage😥…
07 Wednesday Oct 2026
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, covid vaccine, flu shot, IDA, moments, shoulders, vaccines, walk, widow
on Sunday, I walked over to the IDA Pharmacy to get my flu and covid vaccines…
I had called on Saturday to get an appointment…
it took all of ten minutes to walk there…
a form got my signature, and then I sat in the little office to wait for the pharmacist…
within a few minutes he was there, with two needles… in a flash it was over and as there was no blood, no bandaids were needed…
in and out within about six minutes…
other than my arms being a bit sore at the injection site, I am feeling fine😊…
03 Saturday Oct 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
baskets, big girl pants, blessed, garden, grow, Hilda the Gardener, mandevilla, moments, nature, transplanted, widow
the other day, Hilda the Gardener arrived for fall clean up…
instead we focussed on transplanting many of the plants that were coming into the house…
one of the best new pots we did was in the new basket planters that I recently had given to me…
it came out beautifully…
we cut the original mandevilla down by about half and then combined it with the new one I purchased on sale this summer…
excited to see how it grows…
29 Tuesday Sep 2026
Tags
Beacon Hill Park, big girl pants, ducks, Empress Hotel, family, Fan Tan alley, flowers, giant trees, hop on hop off bus, moments, nature, ponds, widow
we decided to take the hop on, hop off bus and to do the whole loop to see what we might want to do the next time we took it…
the tour started at the Empress, so while we waited to board we visited the gardens there… we stepped inside the lobby to admire the beautiful arrangements and then wandered the lawns and gardens…
we found lovely flower beds and a few giant old trees…
we decided that the next day we would visit Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park…
after we’d been around once we walked to the Parkside Hotel where we saw the koi and had a snack beside the pond…
we went back to one of the stops and hopped on, and hopped off, just a few blocks from our hotel… very handy…
the next day, after I’d put on just about all the clothes I’d brought because I’d been cold the day before, lol, we caught the bus by our hotel and hopped off at Beacon Hill Park… it is very large…
we hopped on and hopped off again at the Empress and walked up a street to check out the shops… after lunch we walked to see Trounce Alley and Fan Tan Alley, which is only 3 feet wide!!! after buying a few treats, we caught the bus and hopped off at the stop which was close to our hotel;-)…
the hop on, hop off bus was worth every penny as we used it from around 1 pm the first day until around 5 pm on the second day…
28 Monday Sep 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cafe, koi fish pond, moments, Parkside, Parkside Hotel, relaxing, widow
we went to the Parkside Hotel to visit the koi pond, which I had seen on an Instagram post… I was not disappointed…
as you walked up to the hotel there were a number of outdoor ponds with goldfish and water lilies in them…
inside you walked across the koi pond on the way to the front desk… part of the hotel was a cafe, that opened onto the street so that the neighbourhood could stop by for goodies…
I had hummus and some lovely bread to enjoy as I sat beside the pond…
every day at a certain time, they divide the food for the fish into containers, which the hotel guests can take and feed them…
a quiet and serene place for a break from all the busyness of the city😊…
27 Sunday Sep 2026
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, moments, moving, nature, partially, sunshine, weather, widow
what a delightful day…
I spent a good part of it in the garden, moving from one area to another…
at first it was because I was trying to stay partially in the sun… then out of the sunshine as it was very bright and a bit warm…
then, later it was to get into the sunshine to keep warm again, lol…
and I had some fun taking photos of various flowers…
what a lovely treat, particularly as the weather has been dull, overcast, and rainy for the last few days…
I am blessed…
24 Thursday Sep 2026
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, first high tea of the trip, food, high tea, moments, nature, widow
when we first arrived at the Butchart Gardens we went to book our High Tea at the restaurant… unfortunately they weren’t open yet, but my daughter convinced them to add us to the reservation list…
when we arrived at the designated time, we were seated outdoors, overlooking the large green open area…
they had blankets at each table, which was great as it was a little cool…
because of allergies we ended up with a tower each…
one of the little cakes on my tower had jelly on the top… it became the favourite for a wasp that really enjoyed the jelly…
everything was delicious… I needed my fork to hold up many of the sandwiches, lol…
but I didn’t eat the jelly part, lol… and it was sweet that they included a happy birthday chocolate on my cupcake 😊…
the staff were excellent and we had such a fun time… first High Tea of the trip…
then, it was back to the gardens…
21 Monday Sep 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
my daughter brought tulips for our trip, as it was all about gardens and flowers…
we had them on the train…
at the AirBnb…
and in our hotel… as well as some fresh ones…
currently they are residing in the bathroom where I can see them every day and be reminded of the spectacular time we had together 😊…
