Category Archives: loss

face-to-face…

25 Thursday Dec 2025

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all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…

put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…

woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…

laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…

made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…

we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…

what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…

such a lovely Christmas morning;-)…

widowhood…

04 Thursday Dec 2025

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as I sit here quietly in the living room I am thinking of two big events that took place in the last few days…

the first was a congratulatory note from WordPress… on December 1st, 2012 I began writing about my journey into widowhood… and have continued that since then, moving into commenting on my life…

the second was today, which would have been my beloved’s 77th birthday… this year we had burgers here, one of his favourite foods, while the kids in Ottawa had an apple galette… he loved apple pie… we had a video visit between the burgers and galette, lol…

my grandson is going to use his Christmas stocking for the first time…

I sure do miss him🤗…

restrung…

03 Wednesday Dec 2025

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spent Sunday setting up the Christmas tree…

first I had to move the plants in the front window to other spots and move two tables out of the way…

then I spent some time removing two strings of lights… one that didn’t work and one that I restrung on the tree…

then, six or seven boxes came upstairs and were gone through to see what was in them and decide on the theme for this year’s ornaments…

chose glass pieces that have rarely been out since my beloved’s passing…

once it was decorated, I was advised that it needed more purple🤪… can you believe it, lol…

so I added more purple…

button…

09 Sunday Nov 2025

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on Thursday I cleaned the poppy bird feeder and attached it to the front rail…

I noticed that I’d set it out a bit earlier last year…

I also dug out two poppies to put on my jacket and t-shirt…

last year I had purchased some little button pins to keep from losing them, lol…

I still make sure to make a donation as, before the pin, I ended up losing a couple and needing to replace them, lol…

cleaners…

07 Friday Nov 2025

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my tea towel on the stove, folded very nicely by the cleaners who were here a few days ago, reminded me of how blessed I am…

for years we couldn’t afford a cleaner…

but for the last number of years I’ve had a company come in once a month to do the basics which makes me feel like the house is mainly clean, lol…

I am ever thankful to my beloved who made this wonderful gift possible;-)… I continue to miss him every single day…

miserable…

30 Tuesday Sep 2025

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what a lovely day… I’ve spent most of it in the garden…

I’ve been dealing with a miserable cold for the last three or four days… today it has finally started to improve so it has been quite enjoyable sitting outdoors…

there were a number of things on the calendar, but nothing got accomplished which is often the way it is… there is either nothing happening or a whole bunch of things all at once…

as I am beginning to come out of the fog of illness I am reminded of how truly blessed I am with good health…

here’s to the next few days of overcoming runny noses, coughs, and sore sides;-)…

carpet…

22 Monday Sep 2025

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since the spring, we’ve been working on a few projects outdoors and one of them involved removing a rusted out planter from the front steps…

next was to be removing and replacing the carpet which has been on those same steps for thirteen years…

I remember a friend of mine coming and replacing it while I was in hospital, not long after my beloved’s passing… it was such a treat to walk up the tidy steps when I returned home…

over the last few winters the carpet has been breaking down, particularly from my shovelling I think, lol…

we emptied the rusted out planter and dumped it right into the garbage can, kind of in pieces… we had a new one all ready to go but planned to wait for the carpet to be removed and replaced before putting it on the top step…

we picked up carpet and glue… next we planned a day when we had help to remove the old carpet and lay down the new one… unfortunately, it rained for most of that day, but during a break my housemate was able to remove the old layer…

that was on July 21st… it looked dreadful but we anticipated that it would happen soon…

every single time we planned to get the job done, it rained… I was starting to believe my grandson is a rain magnet…

well, yesterday, September 21st, it finally happened…

scraping, glueing, and laying down the carpet took a good portion of the day and there are a few bits that need to be trimmed…

can’t walk on it for a few days, but it already looks a thousand percent better;-)…

wearing…

21 Sunday Sep 2025

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when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…

I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…

sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…

fuses…

19 Friday Sep 2025

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the power has gone off a few times over the last few days… only for a few seconds, and only in some parts of the house…

the only way to know for sure was the stove and microwave both flashing or showing 0…

many years ago we had an electrician tell us that there are two fuses that cover half the house each, but I couldn’t remember where they were, lol… my beloved had always dealt with those issues…

we called an electrician and he turned up early in the evening…

he knew right where those fuses were located (in a big gray box!) and then had to search online for where to find them as the electrical supply stores were already closed… so happy he found them and was able to pick them up and change them…

apparently this is an old way of putting electricity into houses, lol…

of course our house would have it, 🤪…

attempts…

13 Wednesday Aug 2025

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the work on the pond waterfall area started in early June… when the first two fixes didn’t work we moved on to more serious attempts…

the water in the upper pond was removed, and all the gunk was vacuumed out…

a group of three attempted to lift out the waterfall rock… unfortunately, it broke in the process… one of us might have had a meltdown;-(…

next the remaining blocks were removed and a new liner was installed… then the blocks were put back in… a bit of a puzzle to remember where each one went, lol… possibly they should have been numbered;-)…

the next step involved filling cracks with foam and gluing down some of the rocks…

with help from a friend the main piece of the waterfall rock was carefully lowered back into its spot…

it took three of us, but the three pieces of the waterfall rock were joined together with special rock cement and we waited a week for it to cure…

then the flat rock portion was glued down and left to cure…

next the hose was put down inside the liner and the waterfall spillway was placed back into the waterfall rock… there were a lot of crossed fingers at that point…

finally, on Sunday night, August 10th the waterfall was turned on…

it was too late for a good picture, so this one was taken the next morning…

there is no leaking 🤪…

a great job by my housemate and various friends throughout the process as issues arose and heat and rain caused stoppages…

what a treat to hear the water running and not have to worry about adding water all the time;-)…