23 Wednesday Aug 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Monday I cleaned up after supper…
the deal is whoever makes supper doesn’t have to clean up…
so, I was happy to be doing the dishes;-)…
had a delicious meal of shrimp, red pepper, and Shanghai noodles with a delightful sauce…
the food was prepared while I relaxed and watched some tv…
what a treat;-)…
22 Tuesday Aug 2023
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, claws, Cooper’s Hawk, flying, garden, kerfuffle, moments, nature, pergola, sparrow, widow
last week I watched a hawk chase a sparrow down the lane… I didn’t hear any screeching, so was hopeful that the sparrow made it to safety…
on Saturday, I was quietly sitting on the back deck, drinking my tea and reading when I heard a kerfuffle…
suddenly, a juvenile Cooper’s hawk came off the shelf in the pergola by the driveway gate… it had a sparrow in its claws…
it flew to the ledge on the main deck with its prize… after sitting there for quite a few minutes I walked over to get it to leave the garden… I got very close to it before it finally decided to fly up to the wires above the deck, and then, away…
the whole time it was in the garden the sparrows and chickadees were sounding the alarm…
hope it doesn’t come back again…
21 Monday Aug 2023
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, completing, digging, family, fence, garden, gate, grandson, level, moments, nature, rain, sky, weather, widow, wind
we’ve been working away at completing projects that have been started, but not quite finished;-)… I’m sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else, lol…
Wednesday, it was the back gate in the new fence…
the dirt was dug up under the gate area, two old concrete pads were discovered under a few inches of the dirt… they were removed and then some quarter down was laid, packed down, levelled, and new blocks put down, level with the lane… soil went into the spots on either side and some work on the slope up to the shed took place…
this is going to make the taking out and bringing in of garbage and recycling bins so much easier…
meanwhile the sky filled with threatening clouds, spots of sun, and then more of the “going to rain” cloud variety…
the project is not quite done, and just as we came in for lunch the wind went crazy and some rain started down…
good timing;-)…
20 Sunday Aug 2023
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
apartment, big girl pants, blessed, declutter, family, goal, light, memories, moments, parents, put away, rearranging, Technology, widow, working
as we declutter the basement, we have found a few things to move into other areas of the house… and our goal is to set the items up as they get moved, lol…
most recently, a light fixture that originally came from my parents’ apartment made its way into the den…
it got screwed into the wall, a smart bulb was added to it and connected to Google Home…
working nicely and it will be great for guests when the couch transforms to a bed;-)…
19 Saturday Aug 2023
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cutting board, family, grandson, kitchen, moments, oiled, sanded, treated, widow
one of the projects that has been in the works was to replace the cutting board in the kitchen…
many weeks ago, the board was cut to the right size… it was a little thick and needed to be sanded a bit…
time went by… then it was sanded, but needed to be oiled… the oil was purchased…
it finally got two layers of oil and made its way into the slot under the counter…
looks amazing;-)… maybe too pretty to cut on, lol…
18 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
BBBS, big girl pants, blessed, boxes, dates, email, giveaway, house, moments, oops, preparation, surprise, Technology, widow
last night I ran around the house gathering all the boxes for a Big Brothers Big Sisters pickup today…
had all the boxes in the dining room and marked as required…
set the alarm to be sure I was up at 7:30 to put the boxes on the front steps…
made sure they were all on the steps before 8 but then when the boxes weren’t picked up by noon, I went back and reread the email from them…
apparently they are coming next Friday, not today… oops…
so I went out and brought all the boxes back in, lol…
17 Thursday Aug 2023
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beds, big girl pants, blessed, dirt, flower beds, garden, grandson, grass, level, moments, neighbour, rake, soil, widow
Tuesday, our neighbour, who had moved away, came by to remove a couple of very large planters that were filled with great soil… they had been using them for their veggie gardens and decided to take the beds apart and shovel the soil into their trailer to reuse at the new house as they are renting this one out…
happily I was allowed three wheelbarrows full of the great soil…
then it had to be raked across the grass to help level it out…
looks bad now, but I am excited to see how it will look in a few weeks…
16 Wednesday Aug 2023
Posted in food, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bird feeder, blessed, chairs, dirty, garden, launching, messy, moments, nature, rain, red squirrels, table, weather, widow
this little red squirrel bounces around the garden like crazy, along with some other friends…
usually I don’t mind, but a few days ago I had to clean two chairs and a table from where their little paw prints covered everything, after the previous night’s rain, lol…
they are currently jumping onto the chair, then the table, and launching onto the bird feeder…
after wiping the chairs, I had to wait for them to dry before putting on the cushions… I’d cleaned up quite a bit of the mess, before I thought to take these photos…
little beggars…
15 Tuesday Aug 2023
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
arch, beans, big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, happy, moments, nature, photos, pictures, plants, veggie garden, veggies, widow
on Saturday I took a photo of the veggie garden arch…
I’ve taken lots, but haven’t felt they were just right…
finally I figured out that I should take one from the front yard, lol…
looks pretty… maybe next year I won’t have the beans growing across the top, where I can’t reach them, lol…
14 Monday Aug 2023
Posted in family, health, life, loss, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, family, gifted, International Left-Handers Day, left-handed, memories, moments, remembering, widow, writing
Sunday was International left-handers day…
made me laugh as I thought about the cute magnet that my son-in-law got for me a number of years ago…
it is certainly one of my favourites;-)…
apparently both my beloved and I were gifted…
sad about the kids, lol…
herbiggirlpants 