goosebumps…

17 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Cathedral Grove, family, forest, goosebumps, memories, moments, nature, remembering, time, trees, Vancouver Island, walk, widow

got a message today from someone who I had given a recommendation of places to visit on Vancouver island…

I had suggested Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park… they thought it was amazing…

it is one of my favourite places ever…

within steps of the highway all traffic noises are gone and the walk through the giant trees is meditative and soul filling…

these pictures are from a visit with my beloved in the summer of 2011…

still gives me goosebumps when I remember what a special place it was…

wrangled…

16 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, deep, garbage bin, garden, moments, nature, path, shovelled, snow, weather, widow, wrangled

out in the snow again today…

after clearing a path to the back lane, I wrangled the garbage bin to a spot just outside the gate…

the drift there was about a foot deep so it took me a while to make a spot for the bin…

sure hope they empty it on Friday…

vents…

15 Tuesday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, furnace, moments, nature, shovel, snow, vase, vent, weather, widow

I’m trying to laugh at the snow… it is that or cry, lol… laughing seems more sensible…

when I was out shovelling the sidewalks a few days ago, I walked up the driveway to check on the furnace vents…

and found them nearly covered with snow…

took a few minutes to get them cleared by tossing the snow into the middle of the driveway as I don’t need to get a car in and out of it… and there is nowhere else to throw it…

I was getting out of my jacket and heard a sound… when I turned and saw that one of the amaryllis had fallen off the table… there was mud on the carpet so I quickly picked it up… only to discover that the stalk had bent over and the blooms were hanging down… I got scissors, cut it and put the blossoms into a vase… after sweeping up the dirt I got a few pictures…

I guess it was getting too heavy to hold its head up;-(…

lots of activity… after that I had some time reading in the sunshine…

and, of course, more snow has fallen since then…

red…

14 Monday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, charcuterie, dinner, family, memories, Michael Buble, missing, moments, red, steak, sun, sweatshirt, treat, treats, widow

today I wore a red sweatshirt that my beloved bought for me many years ago on a trip to Banff…

I also wore my leggings that have maple leaves down the side for our team members…

I’ve enjoyed a few treats over the last few days and for lunch finished the charcuterie board that came on Saturday… the board itself is lovely…

for supper I made a steak using a method my daughter recommended… no barbecuing as I haven’t cleaned the path to the garage yet and there is a big drift in front of the door, lol… baked a potato earlier in the day and heated that up to go with it… finished with a cucumber salad… a nice treat as I haven’t had steak for a while…

missing my beloved, but as I sat in the sun, listening to Michael Bublé, enjoyed lots of wonderful memories…

what a great guy;-)…

highlighting…

11 Friday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, happy, highlighting, light, memories, moments, nature, plants, snow, sun, sunshine, weather, widow

enjoyed some lovely time in the living room this afternoon with the sun shining in, highlighting the amaryllis flowers…

the first one started blooming around January 17th and right now has four blooms on its second stalk…

the three that arrived and were planted on January 21st are doing well… of them, one is down to its last bloom and one is just thinking of opening…

happy they have stretched out their growth… they have brought much joy and I have spent time with them every day…

stuck…

09 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, melt, moments, nature, pond, rain, shovelling, snow, stuck, weather, widow

yesterday it rained… crazy eh…

I went out before it really got going to clear the snow in front of the patio door…

for the last week or so it has been stuck and only opened about six inches…

seemed like a good plan to deal with it before the rain, in case it freezes into ice back there…

took quite a while and a lot of effort to get the snow moved… it was much heavier and had more chunks in it… the hill next to the deck is high again, so I’ve had to walk along the path before throwing the snow into the garden…

but, got it done… there is still tons of snow on the deck although the rain and wind and warmer weather have certainly melted some of it…

it will be interesting to see how it is going to melt, or whether there will be more than one pond in the space..

arrange…

06 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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amaryllis, arrange, big girl pants, blessed, bouquet, flowers, moments, nature, plants, snow, vase, widow

took some time to arrange the amaryllis plants…

right now three are blooming, so I put them together on the living room table…

first I took apart the last of my New Year’s bouquet and used the vase to set one of the pots inside…

there is still one plant waiting to bloom on the dining room table… when it opens, I think I will add it to the collection in the living room…

having fresh blooms in the house makes me happy, particularly during these cold and snowy days…

drift…

04 Friday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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beloved, big girl pants, bins, drift, garden, moments, nature, path, sidewalk, snow, weather, widow

yikes, more snow stories…

put on long underwear, an extra vest, mitts over gloves, my Canada Goose jacket, and went out in the extreme cold to shovel a path to the garbage and recycle bins…

I had hoped to put them in the lane for pick up but there was just too much snow… hopefully, next week it will be a bit warmer so I can finish digging the path out all the way to the gate…

thankfully there is a bit of space in both bins so they should be fine for one more week…

there was a huge drift up against the back door and it took a while to get through it…

as I moved further into the yard, the path got narrower… it was cold out there…

it was just wide enough for me to carry out the bags, lol…

sure do miss my beloved, he would have shovelled and snow blowed a great path all the way to the lane, no problem… and had fun doing it, lol… he did love to play with the snowblower…

old-fashioned…

02 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized

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aroma, big girl pants, blessed, chicken soup, dumplings, happy, memories, moments, old-fashioned, remembering, snowflakes, supper, widow

made chicken soup the other day… cold outside and huge snowflakes were falling… seemed like just the thing to do…

although I could use the Instant Pot, I do it the old-fashioned way… I enjoy the aroma as it simmers away on the stove…

I like the time it takes to cool the chicken down and then separate the meat from the bones, adding in the barley, potatoes and other veggies and putting it back on to simmer…