Category Archives: life

surplus…

18 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

raindrops on everything in the garden…

  
started out bright and sunny, then clouded over and rained…

  
then it cleared for a while and repeated the whole process… really a surplus of drops…

  
talked to my daughter and she was making pesto from her surplus of basil… so I tried making some this afternoon… found some recipes on Pinterest and went from there…

  
hard to tell but this plant is about half what it was before I used it for the pesto…

  
came out very nicely,  and I added it to spaghetti for my supper…

  
tasty… think I will make some more and maybe freeze it… the basil is growing like crazy…

beauty…

17 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

took a few pictures of the gladiola flowers in the living room as I was waiting for my travel buddy…

 they sure aren’t lasting the way they have in previous years… not sure what that is about… but they look beautiful…

on my way back to the office from the post office I had to stop and get a picture of Emptyful as the sun was sparkling on the fall of water… such a lovely sight…

  
arrived home to my daughter preparing supper and the boys arriving at the house… after dinner I noticed that one of the plants in the pond is starting to bloom…  

  
I think it has grown about a foot since yesterday… looks like the flower is going to be a beauty…

  
great end to a very full week…

power…

16 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature, technology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

  
the mandevilla looks amazing… even though it rained last night it was in good shape…

  
picked up some peas and baby cucumbers at the Farmers Market downtown today, so I added them to my dinner plate… I also went outside and picked a few of the green peppers… 

unfortunately they are hot and powerful… put one in my mouth and started to cough and choke… had to take quite a few drinks of water to get my breath back, lol… and there are tons of peppers on the plants…

  
got a letter in the mail saying that Hydro were having trouble getting a reading on my power meter… they suggested I take a picture of the meter so they could read it… I must say reading it has been difficult… wondered why they hadn’t suggested this before… way simpler for me and they get the reading much quicker, without it being done incorrectly…

power in a number of places…

appreciation…

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

had a wonderful day…

checked the garden and saw that one of the mandevilla buds had finally opened… they are beautifully structured, but take a long time to open…

  
we didn’t have to be at the office until an hour after our usual time as today was staff appreciation day…

  
while we ate breakfast snacks, which can be a bit complicated as we have a number of food issues, we played a serious game of Pictionary… some of us can be a bit competitive…

  
at the same time, taking turns getting henna tattoos… 

  
they were beautifully done by @dahliahenna…

then, a walk to The Forks where we got to take a water taxi tour on the Assiniboine and Red rivers… great fun… nothing like the wind in your face riding on the water…

  
got a nice shot of the Legislature… things always look so different from the water…

  
lunch on the patio of the Beachcomber with an incredible group…

walk back to the office and then home…

truly blessed to work in an organization which does appreciate and care for all staff members…

followers…

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

kind of excited to see that I have 223 followers…

in 2015 I have had 2,251 visits but the most interesting thing is that people from ten countries have read one of my blogs…

  
not big numbers if you compare them to others, but big numbers to me, lol…

getting likes and comments and new followers certainly gives me energy…

always fascinating which posts get the most response… I might write something and think it isn’t particularly interesting and then have lots of activity… another time I will feel I’ve written something which everyone will resonate with and it gets no interest at all…

started out as a method to share how I was dealing with the loss of my husband and now it is more general, although everything I do is really about moving forward on my own without my beloved…

this bouquet, in the living room this morning, reminds me of how he always made sure I had fresh flowers…

  

hot…

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

was another hot day… got up and was out of the house before 8 to go for a walk… didn’t want to be out there when it got really hot…

  
crossing over the bridge got a few shots of the barn swallows... in Ottawa they have just built houses for their barn swallows where they were doing some work on a bridge… apparently they are endangered there… not here, lol…

the English Garden had very few visitors but was filled with gardeners… they were working in every area… looks beautiful…

  
usually I am drawn to the purple/blue flowers but today I kept leaning toward the orange ones…

   
 
my friend loved that colour…

  
can’t even guess how many pictures I have taken of the water lilies in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden… hundreds for sure… the tropical lilies are just starting to bloom…

got home, welcomed a new cleaning crew and went into the garden to be out of their way… mowed and whipper-snipped the back yard… did some weeding and watering… was dancing around on the deck and in the garden because the ground was soooo hot…

  
finally got to sit down in the shade… nice…

beautiful hot summer day… really enjoying my Mondays off…

loss…

12 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

recently lost a good friend to cancer… she was a very special person and many people are feeling her loss…

  
this morning I sat in the hot tub looking into the garden crying, for her and for me…

always shocking how the loss of one person brings back other losses you’ve experienced in your own life…

been reliving the day that George died… I can remember some of it… but I don’t really want to… not sure I have done anything harder than call each of my girls to tell them their dad was gone…

interesting that I haven’t thought about my cancer… the diagnosis, wait, surgery, recovery and finally results of the pathology… just about losing my beloved…

life goes on and I wear those big girl pants more and more… but I don’t have to like it…

and some days I just need to wallow in that feeling sorry for myself place…

  

  

storm…

11 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

am dripping wet right now…

  
hard to see but there is a rainbow in this picture… this is what it looked like after I ran out in the pouring rain and put away all the cushions… first time they have been soaked, sigh… should have put them away before supper…

the day had been perfect up till the storm…

  
fish were out and about…

  
watered all the planters and baskets and they are doing well…

  
found a small tomato…

  
couple of green peppers…

  
and an eggplant… woo hoo…

  
mandevilla is ready to open…

  
and the million bells basket is beautiful…

the rain has ended but the thunder is still rolling… 

yum…

09 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in health, life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

great food today…

met a good friend for lunch at Chamberlyn’s in Winnipeg Square and had Crepes St. Jacques…

  
very tasty, even with the tomato in it, lol… 

just saw a chef on tv the other day saying just try it the way we made it for heaven’s sake… so that’s what I did… reminded me of The Garden Creperie which was one of my favourite restaurants a long time ago…

had a wonderful visit too, catching up on each other’s lives and events…

tonight decided to use up the last few left-over whole wheat tortillas from Sunday’s tacos for my supper…

 so, picked basil, cut up Brie and some tomatoes, and put the “pizzas” on the pizza stone in the oven…

  

  
when I took them out, added a little drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and then gobbled them up…

  
yum… finished my dinner with a handful of peas which I shelled and ate one at a time…

been doing a much better job of using up everything in the fridge and pantry and having less go bad and into the garbage…

gosh darn those big girl pants, lol…