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~ the new reality of a "70 something"

herbiggirlpants

Category Archives: loss

stunning…

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, dark, flowers, gladiolas, Olympics, sky, stunning, widow

been getting up around six so that I can get in a bit of the Olympic coverage before work…

today it was dark enough that I needed to turn on the light in the bedroom, sigh…

then I went down the stairs and saw this…

absolutely stunning sky… took out the screen so that I could get a clear picture… 

made me realize that I’d just opened that window and I had to run and close it so no bugs came in, lol…

yesterday I picked up some gladiolas when I was at the grocery store as a special treat…

although they are white, (I love the purple ones) they are stunning… in the process of checking on the correct spelling I discovered some interesting facts about flowers and birth months, lol…

decided to take a few stems to the office to brighten up my space…

so they travelled in the passenger seat…


a number of colleagues asked if they were from my garden… would be amazing if I could grow something like this in the garden…

coexist…

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, coexist, family, hummingbird, jazz, Leo Mol Garden, lilies, Pokémon Go, pond, widow

out and about today…

to the grocery store for veggies and a few other things…

the kids came over for lunch and we made individually designed sandwiches along with chocolate milk, pickles and grapes…

they downloaded Pokemon Go on my phone so my middle grandson had his own device to play on…

we went to the Park and wandered through the English Garden and the Leo Mol Garden where there was a jazz concert…

music aficionados filled the space… there was every kind of portable chair you could think of…

and many Pokemon Go players…

four of whom were from my family…

was impressed how well the two groups coexisted in the space… lots of respect, clapping, and quiet play…

got some great photos at the lily pond…

and a few from the English Garden, where the eagle eyes of the oldest spotted two hummingbirds… what a treat… was able to watch them flit about and land on a branch for a moment before darting off…

this was my favourite shot from the English Garden area…

swarm…

13 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, ducks, frogs, grandson, Leo Mol Garden, peaceful, Pokémon Go, quiet, swarm, weddings, widow

in the last few days I’ve been to the Gardens three times…

twice I wasn’t able to get to my favourite spot as there were weddings taking place…

but the biggest oddity was the huge number of Pokemon Go hunters who are swarming the area around the tropical lily pond in the Leo Mol Garden…

at one point I counted 36 people sitting on the edge of the pond, and not one of them was looking at the lilies or statues…

did find this a bit sad… such a beautiful place and it seems as though many of those present weren’t even looking… 

although there were many of the hunters, it appears that about half of the people today were there to admire the Gardens… I spent a while waiting for my kids by the Boy with the Boot and was happy to see so many visitors who were excited and taking lots of photos as they entered the English Garden area…

my youngest grandson and I were able to spot a few frogs…

and also had some fun checking out the Duck Pond…

he’s at a phase where he doesn’t want his picture taken but he didn’t know I was taking this one, lol…

and then his daddy gave a little assist for this one…

had a few minutes to focus on some beautiful leaves… the colours were amazing…

the purple waterlilies are still my favourite…

happy that my usual time to visit is early in the morning, when the Gardens are quiet and peaceFULL…

crowds…

12 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, bunnies, crowds, English Garden, Leo Mol, Lyric Theatre, people, water lilies, widow

today, if I’ve seen one bunny, I’ve seen twenty-five…

this was the first one on my first walk to the Park…

saw at least two more on the way and then spotted this one in the English Garden…

there were crowds of squirrels as well…

on my way home spotted this one and its partner…

at nine in the morning the Lyric Theatre looked like this…

at nine at night it looked like this…

and that doesn’t show the other two-thirds of the people that crowded in behind us…

in the Leo Mol Garden, early, there were a handful of people and the water lilies were still closed…

bit early for them to bloom… 

but by five pm they were all open…

and the Gardens were jam packed with Pokemon Go players…

what a difference ten hours can make…

electricity…

11 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blue jays, dark, electrician, electricity, Emergency, garage, George, Hydro, power, widow, wire

took this picture of the sky when I got home and was planning to write about the sad fact that it is getting dark earlier every day…

who knew that I’d be writing about electricity instead… as I was making my supper I heard a loud noise on the deck… looked out to see the electrical wires had pulled away from the house… were still attached, but hanging at least a foot lower than before…

and about six blue jays flying off the wire… think they must have been the last straw to pull the wire away…

only caught this one … very odd to see so many of them in one place…

power was still on, but I decided to call the Hydro emergency number to see if someone needed to come and check the situation out… 

I always dislike calling emergency numbers because there are likely real emergencies they need to be dealing with, not my little problems…

anyway, they did think it was an emergency and a truck arrived about two hours later…

it was still light when they arrived just after nine… he said I’d need an electrician to fix the problem, but that he would turn off the power for a few minutes, remove the piece of vinyl, tape up some wiring, and turn the power back on until I could get the electrician to come, likely tomorrow… because Hydro can’t fix the electricity, just turn it on or off, sigh…

it was getting darker as he worked and my young electrician friend, who lives close by, said he would come over to see what had to be done… he couldn’t do anything until later tomorrow as he didn’t have his tools with him…

he arrived and once he saw what the problem was, felt he could do a fix tonight… we searched in the garage and found a small piece of 2×4 and he went home and got a drill and some longer screws… I could only find 3 inch ones in the garage… although I bet there are some out there somewhere… George had just about anything you could need in that garage… it is one place I haven’t been able to go through and clean out since his death…

Lane, the very nice Hydro man, did what he had to do and my friend found screws and was able to connect the mast (maybe?) back up and then the Hydro fellow hooked the lines up and turned the power on… by then it was pitch dark… 

the whole process only took about an hour…

events like this remind me that I am lucky to have people to call on but that my being a little old widow lady might have provided me with some additional power to get a bit of extra help, lol…

so, I guess I did talk about the dark, after all…

sixteen…

10 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, birthday, daughter, gift, Grandpa, grandson, sixteen, widow

today my oldest grandson turned sixteen…

he is a lovely young man and we’ve been able to spend a portion of our Fridays in the garden over the summer… I have really enjoyed having this time together…


took this shot on Sunday at his birthday party… I’d got him the newest Harry Potter book… he enjoys reading and we’ve both been fans since the first book came out… looking forward to reading it once he’s done…

all of a sudden he looks like a man, not a boy… his grandpa would be so proud of the kind young person he has become… 

the day he was born changed my life… in two ways… 

being a grandparent is by far one of the most amazing things that has happened to me… grandchildren are such a gift to be enjoyed and we’ve been privileged to have our grandkids here and be able to spend time with them on a regular basis since they’ve been born…

it also brought my daughter and I together… before he was born I was not one of her favourite people… we were connected, but her daddy was much more important to her… well, that never changed, lol…

I hadn’t been invited to the hospital as they prepared for the baby’s birth, and was waiting at home with baited breath to hear results of how they were doing and when the baby would be born…

then the phone rang, and my daughter was calling asking me to come to the hospital… from that moment we have had a much better relationship… 

so, this young man has been a gift in more ways than one…

what a wonderful sixteen years it has been… and how lucky am I…

watering…

09 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, BS buddies, hot tub, mandevilla, plants, watering, widow

last night my BS buddies came over and we had a hot tub while we caught up with one another’s lives…

although the wind had been whipping around the house not too long before they arrived, it calmed down and we had a lovely time…

we settled on the top deck to continue our visit…

I was admitting to not watering as much as I need to so the plants are a bit sad… been spending all my time in front of the tv watching Olympics, lol…

next time I go away, I will have to find someone to come and water, so the plants don’t give up on me…

so, tonight, while my supper was cooking, I went out and watered everything…


the Mandevilla is very happy with the heat and being a bit dry…

butterflies…

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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backyard, big girl pants, butterflies, chrysalis, FaceTime, monarch, swallowtail, widow

this morning I was closing the curtains in the dining room and caught sight of a swallowtail on one of the hostas…

so pretty, but I didn’t move fast enough to get a picture…

part way through the morning my daughter texted me to see if I could FaceTime with her… very unusual for her to want to do that when I am at work, but I said okay…

she wanted to show me the Monarch that was just emerging from its chrysalis… she knows how I love them… a neighbour of hers had brought them a twig with some chrysalides on it so the family could watch the process…

around noon she sent me a picture of them letting it go in the backyard…

it reminded me of the August that I was on vacation and was able to document the caterpillars growing, turning into the chrysalides, and then emerging as butterflies… 

I made a wonderful PowerPoint of the experience and keep thinking I should make it into a picture book…

we didn’t see many butterflies last week at the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden, but did get a picture of this little one…

birthday…

07 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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baby fish, Baked Expectations, big girl pants, birthday, cake, George, Olympics, Perimeter, pond, widow

quiet morning watching Olympics… just as well as I wasn’t feeling too great…

drove to my daughter’s after lunch for the birthday party for the nearly 16 year old… 

getting much better at making the drive around the Perimeter… of course, it helps that it was bright and sunny… 


beautiful day and we were outside, which was great, because there were a lot of people there, probably around 30…

they were everywhere, visiting and playing… caught a group of friends and cousins playing a water bottle game in the garage… kept them entertained for easily forty-five minutes…


always a high point when the cake comes out… no candles, as requested by the birthday boy, but we did get to sing, lol… he cut the first piece… a tiramisu cake from Baked Expectations…


he looks like a man now, and some say he looks like George…

when I got home I added water to the pond and spotted a baby fish… will have to sit out and see if I can spot more of them…


lovely way to spend a Sunday…

groceries…

06 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, groceries, Olympics, potato salad, present, spinach dip, walk, widow

woo hoo… the Olympics are on… I love to watch and have spent a good portion of the day glued to the tv…

they started early so I was watching rowing by about 6:30… enjoyed some of the men’s bike road race…

making potato salad and spinach dip for tomorrow’s birthday party for the 16 year old has certainly put a kink in my viewing, lol…

headed out fairly early to pick up potatoes at the grocery store and realized after I got home that I didn’t have any mayonnaise for the spinach dip… made the potato salad in stages, between the sports I wasn’t as interested in…

five pounds of potatoes… hope it is enough…

later in the afternoon I walked over to the grocery store and picked up the missing ingredient… also found fresh green beans and little cucumbers… so, for my dinner, had goldeye, a tiny bit of the potato salad, the beans and cucumbers…

very tasty, and easy, as I wanted to keep watching swimming and tennis…

finished the spinach dip and everything is ready to go…

present is wrapped, which took about half an hour to finish… 

and now I can focus back on the games…

bye…

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beloved big girl pants birds blessed chocolate Christmas cold dinner family fish flowers food friends fun garden George grandson grandsons happy health hibiscus hot tub light lunch memories moments morning glories nature orchid photos pictures plants pond purple rain remembering shopping sky snow sun sunshine supper Technology time treat trees walk water weather widow

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