05 Friday Jan 2024
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
accurate, big girl pants, bird, birds, blessed, calendar, Christmas, family, gift, moments, nature, widow
one of my Christmas presents was a bird calendar from my grandson… it arrived a few days ago and is titled Extremely Accurate Birds…
I hung it up on Monday morning…
it has made me laugh every time I walk by…
02 Tuesday Jan 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, health, hot tub, moments, nature, New Year's Day, plunge, selfie stick, Technology, tub, water, weather, widow
many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…
I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…
a lovely way to begin the year…
I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…
I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…
that’s my story and I’m sticking with it;-)…
01 Monday Jan 2024
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, brown, charcoal, doorbell camera, fireworks, first-foot, girl power, goodies, memories, moments, nature, New Year's Eve, research, Technology, tradition, widow, winter
New Year’s Eve hasn’t been a big deal for the last few years… in fact, I’ve slept through it a few times, lol…
usually I’ve had a dark haired person to first-foot the house on New Year’s Day, but this year no one with dark hair was available… currently my hair is gray but in my earlier days it was a dark brown;-)…
I did some research and discovered I could first-foot myself as long as I was out of the house before midnight…
I also learned about the tradition of opening the backdoor to let out any bad vibes and then opening the front door to let in the good…
so I packed up my little bag of goodies, opened the back door to leave the house just before midnight and left it open for a few minutes…
then I went into the garage and out the big door, walked up the driveway and watched some fireworks across the creek for a few minutes before entering the house through the front door… the doorbell camera caught me as I entered;-)…
the tradition is supposed to be a tall, dark haired man, but really, I have had a few women do this cause why not…
my bag held a candy cane, heel of bread, an orange, 3 pieces of charcoal, a little bottle of Baileys, and a cookie…
it was fun to have the actual charcoal, because that is what my dad procured just before New Year’s each year to add to the little bags that he distributed to family and friends just after midnight;-)…
I did laugh when I discovered that I did the same thing last year, although on New Year’s Day morning, lol…
28 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, health, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bandages, beloved, big girl pants, bled, blessed, cut, family, injury, memories, moments, remembering, screwdriver, widow
one of my gifts was a cool screwdriver…
as I was trying to remove it from the packaging before bed, I cut my finger… it bled quite a bit so I put a bandage on it…
it reminded me of my beloved;-)…
he had bandages everywhere in the house, garage, the car, his pockets…
and that was because he was always injuring himself as he worked away at whatever project was happening…
memories;-)…
27 Wednesday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, computer, difficulties, early, family, food, gifts, leftovers, moments, relaxed, Technology, time, widow
had a quiet and relaxed day on Christmas…
got up late for me, about eight;-)… made tea and watched a Christmas movie while I had my breakfast and waited for the Ottawa family to contact me…
after some technical difficulties, we had a lovely visit and opened presents;-)… technology really is an amazing thing…
after saying goodbye to them, I got the chicken into the oven and may have watched another Christmas movie, lol…
my grandson arrived home from one set of parents, we opened gifts, and had a lovely lunch…
then he was off to visit the other set of parents and I may have had a nap…
tv shows and leftovers took up the rest of the day…
26 Tuesday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chicken, Christmas, Christmas lunch, dinner, family, grandson, gravy, memories, moments, potatoes, preparing, stuffing, thawing, tradition, turnip, widow
I found out in the morning on Christmas Eve that we were going to have lunch on Christmas Day between trips my grandson was making between his various family clans;-)…
it was a quick trip to the freezer to pull out a beautiful chicken and get it thawing… I had been planning on a Cornish hen, with all the fixings, so it wasn’t a lot more to do to cook the chicken;-)…
a turnip was peeled, cut, boiled (so that the water would be available for the chicken gravy), and mashed…
mashed potatoes were also prepared and put into the fridge which helps with making a resistant starch…
stuffing was made and packaged, ready to go into the chicken…
took most of the day to thaw the chicken, lol, but it was ready for the oven in time…
everything turned out beautifully and we had a delicious Christmas lunch…
possibly a new tradition;-)…
23 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, biomes, blessed, dinner, evening, family, Gather Kraft Kitchen and Bar, grandson, koi, lush, moments, nature, night, plants, plastic, pond, The Leaf, walkways, widow
nearly a year to the day, we went back to The Leaf in the evening…
we ate dinner at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar and then wandered through the biomes…
the restaurant was very busy, but we were seated by the window at a two-person table, so were quite a distance from the other diners…
we shared chorizo spiced seitan tacos, I had pork and veal meatballs, and my grandson had a fancy hamburger and everything was tasty… we decided to skip dessert and go for blizzards after our visit to the biomes…
as we wandered through the Tropical biome it was quite amazing to see how the plants have grown… the place is absolutely lush;-)… leaves fell over the walkways in a number of spots, lol…
looking down from the bridge on the third floor it was striking to see how much everything has grown…
it was the first time since that inaugural visit that I’ve been at night… unfortunately it was too dark for my Nikon so all my photos were with my iPhone… got to see some bananas, a pineapple, coffee beans and cacao pods…
it looks like the inside of the biomes have been wrapped with plastic, and the fans in the Tropical biome were blowing rather vigorously…
it was exciting to see that there were a great number of various-sized smaller koi in the pond… babies, maybe;-)…
the next post will be about the Mediterranean biome;-)…
21 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, family, grandson, grandsons, happy, moments, time, treat, visit, widow, wishlist
one of the items on my Christmas wishlist was a visit from my grandsons, so I was excited on Sunday to prep for their visit…
had fun setting the table all fancy for our dinner…
I haven’t seen them since the summer so this was a great treat…
it was fun to watch them open their Christmas presents after dinner…
thanks to the oldest for making this happen;-)…
14 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, efficiency, furnace, heat, high efficiency, installation, M1 Mechanical, moments, nature, replacement, Technology, warm, weather, widow
yesterday morning the furnace people arrived around 8 am, just when they said they would… the temp had made it up to 18°C…
people came and went, bits and pieces were removed and then the new high efficiency furnace made it into the basement after tarps were laid down to protect the stairs… Harry worked all day, with helpers coming and going as needed…
it took two of them to get the heavy oldie out of the house…
I was out for the afternoon and when I arrived home the temperature was at a toasty 20°C…
the basement was perfectly clean, all of the bits and pieces which had gone into the backyard were gone and the vents had been raised so the snow shouldn’t be a problem in the future…
and this pretty thing was snuggled into the space… reminds me a bit of Barbie, the barbecue;-)…
I am very pleased with the whole process and would happily recommend M1 Mechanical for furnace replacement or repair…
10 Sunday Dec 2023
Posted in family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
well, last Sunday I finally made it into the plunge tub…
didn’t get as deep as my neck… it was chilly, but I made it to two minutes…
maybe, if I do it again, I will try to get down to my neck, lol…
certainly did wake me up, but I was still shivering and my legs were cold half an hour later;-)…
fun😳🤪🤔…
herbiggirlpants 