21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
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…
19 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, electrician, family, fuses, memories, moments, power, widow
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, 🤪…
13 Wednesday Aug 2025
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
attempts, big girl pants, blessed, blocks, friends, garden, grandson, leaking, meltdown, moments, new liner, pond, rocks, Technology, time, water, waterfall, widow
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;-)…
08 Friday Aug 2025
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bird feeder, blessed, garden, glass, metal, moments, nature, sliding, squirrel-proof, squirrels, widow
the red squirrels have been able to fit inside the frame that is supposed to protect the squirrels from getting to the seeds…
I wasn’t particularly worried about them sliding into the feeder until I looked at the feeder today, sigh…
they have eaten through the plastic and pretty much destroyed the feeder…
so, the next feeder needs to be only made of metal and glass, because plastic cannot win against squirrel…
04 Monday Aug 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, boyfriends, door, friends, garden, gate, memories, moments, repaired, widow
on Tuesday evening one of the doors on the side gate was taken away to be repaired by one of my beloved’s boyfriends…
a number of the “rays” had broken over time so it needed a delicate touch to return it to its former glory…
it was odd that only this one door had the broken pieces…
at bedtime I put a chair up in the empty space as I didn’t want the deer to come and visit (ie, eat) anything in the garden, lol…
Wednesday afternoon it was returned all beautiful and restored…
we screwed it back into the hinges and it looks excellent…
03 Sunday Aug 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, body, family, gone, left, meltdown, memories, moments, remembering, widow
earlier this week I had a bit of a meltdown…
it wasn’t until Wednesday that I realized the reason for the meltdown was my body getting ready for Friday…
would have been our 55th wedding anniversary… we only made it to 42 together…
it is hard to believe that 13 years have gone by since my beloved left me…
01 Friday Aug 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
55th, anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, garden, giggles, leaking, love, memories, moments, morning glories, nature, pond, remembering, squirrels, time, widow
today I’ve been giggling over a couple of things as I remember 42 years together, on what should have been our 55th wedding anniversary…
first thing I wandered the garden and took pictures of the morning glories…
some, where they were planted, and some that have just found a spot they like, lol…
I remember my beloved bringing me pictures of the ones blooming in the garden each day when he came to visit me in hospital around our fortieth anniversary…
he was just getting used to the camera on his phone, so it was a big deal for him to take the time to take pictures of flowers…
the second thing is the pond…
it has been leaking for ages, but only when the waterfall is running…
we had the leaking problem for a year or so before he died and it was driving him crazy, trying to figure out the problem…
finally, as I was reading on the back deck, two red squirrels were having a battle over one of the feeders… he and squirrels never got on, so it was funny to have them yelling at each other today…
18 Friday Jul 2025
Posted in food, garden, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
07 Monday Jul 2025
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, fixing, friends, garden, grandson, hose, leaking, moments, pond, still leaking, Technology, waterfall, weather, widow
we’ve been working on the pond to try and fix the leak that only seems to happen when the waterfall is running…
we purchased a new hose from a pond store and it took a while to get here… then we had to wait for a good day to work on it…
took extra help to pull the old hose and insert the new one… next a new connection to the pump had to be purchased and finally on Sunday evening the waterfall was turned on… the pump hadn’t been cleaned, but the water was coming through the waterfall much stronger that previously…
we thought the problem was where the water meets the deck on the deck side…
this how it looked at the end of Tuesday…
and it was still leaking, sigh…
this is how it looked on Thursday, although we may be getting closer to the problem…
03 Thursday Jul 2025
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blooming, coneflower, family, flowers, garden, memories, moments, nature, plant, remembering, weather, weed, widow
the coneflower has finally bloomed… this one was planted on the south side of the house, next to the furnace vents… I think this is a much better spot than the pergola garden…
whenever the hose has been put out it has gotten water and has been growing nicely since it was planted…
not too long ago it produced a bud and it has slowly been opening over the last few weeks…
the petals still need to bend completely, but it is looking pretty good now;-)…
seeing it reminds me of how every year I would buy one, we’d plant it in the garden, and then in the spring my beloved would pull it out thinking it was a weed, lol…
memories 😉…
herbiggirlpants 