04 Wednesday Sep 2024
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, floating, hot air balloon, memory, moments, remembering, time, weather, widow
ten years ago I was floating over Gatineau in a hot air balloon… along with dozens of other balloons;-)…
I’d been waiting over twenty years for this experience… for my fortieth my beloved bought us tickets to fly at home, but the company ran away with the money…
it was everything I imagined and a very special moment in my life… the memory continues to be bright;-)…
26 Monday Aug 2024
Posted in food, garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bites, blessed, bruises, compost, food, garden, moments, nature, plants, ripe, squirrels, tomatoes, widow
it’s been fun watching the tomatoes grow over the season…
last week they started to turn orange and then red…
a few, closer to the bottom of the planter, were taken off the plant, had a few bites out of them, and I found them on the ground…
I decided to leave them there and a few days later discovered they were completely gone… just an outline left on the stepping stone, lol…
today I went out to pick the ripe ones only to discover that they all had large bruises on them…
decided to compost them, sigh…
11 Sunday Aug 2024
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chihuly, hat, memories, moments, Olympics, shopping, Technology, widow, worn
I’ve been wearing this Chihuly hat since we visited Atlanta in 2016 and love it…
it has turned that very sad gray/black colour and looks completely worn out…
haven’t been able to figure out how to save it, sigh…
got this new hat a few days ago… it was part of the 2024 Canadian Olympics clothing line and I hope it lasts as long and as well as the Chihuly…
02 Friday Aug 2024
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, furniture, garden, grandson, grass, irrigation, memories, moments, nature, pressure, remembering, sorry, supper, treat, weather, widow
yesterday I woke up feeling a bit sorry for myself…
it would have been our 54th wedding anniversary, but instead it is the 12th year without my beloved…
I went out early and watered the grass as we’ve been working on adding some to bald spots in the garden… my beloved loved it when the grass looked good, lol…
I also ran the irrigation system at the same time… first time I’ve done that and it worked fairly well… the pressure for the grass watering portion was not as strong as usual, but it meant that I could get all the watering done at once…
I turned the PVR on so I wouldn’t miss any Olympics, lol…
then I reorganized the lawn furniture… took a bit of effort to get the lounger where I wanted, but I think it should work for the next while… all of the cushions came out…
while there was still shade, I filled up the four bird feeders and then I sat on the back deck to read and enjoy the garden before it got too hot…
later we went out for supper as a treat from the Ottawa kids;-)…
was feeling much better by the end of the day…
31 Wednesday Jul 2024
Posted in family, garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, construction, garden, gate, grandsons, memories, moments, nature, pergola, photographs, remembering, time, waterbed pond, widow
a friend sent me some photographs recently and in amongst them was this picture of my beloved in front of the just finished pergola/gate…
it had the cutest fastener on the gate… I can’t remember when we put all of the pergolas in, but at that time – many moons ago – we still had the waterbed pond beside it…
then I dug out this one from July, 2009 (a bit fuzzy), when he added a shelf for stuff to sit on while we were in the new hot tub… that was fifteen years ago🤪…
and this is how it looks today;-)…
I showed the original picture to my grandsons and it took them a minute to recognize it, lol…
it does need a trim so that the Virginia creeper isn’t overpowering it and the gate could have a prettier fastener…
time flies…
18 Thursday Jul 2024
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, family, health, hernia, hysterectomy, memories, moments, remembering, surgeons, surgery, widow, without
it was twelve years ago today that I had surgery for a hernia and a hysterectomy… it took a while to get organized as two different surgeons were required to work together so that both issues could be taken care of at the same time…
it was particularly difficult because it was the first time I went through a serious health issue without my beloved there to support and look after me…
thinking back to that time, I realize how far I have come and how well I am doing now…
I still miss him every single day…
30 Sunday Jun 2024
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, broken, crashing, family, fix, grandson, mess, moments, orchids, photos, plants, shelf, shower caddy, widow
the other day my grandson came to the door and said something had happened to my plants… he heard a crash as he was showering and came out to the shower caddy that we had installed in January laying in pieces on the floor with bits of orchids everywhere…
I was so shocked I didn’t even take a picture of the carnage…
it took a while to pick up the plants, sweep up the broken bits, and dump out the soil…
then, we ignored it for a few days, lol…
when we put it back up, we decided to use strapping and screws…
I still need to replace the one broken pot…
hopefully this time the whole shelf won’t come crashing down, lol…
27 Thursday Jun 2024
Posted in life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
not too long ago (well, it was mid-April) I watched a crew take down one of elms up the street…
in the Fall they had taken another one down close by…
last week Hydro came and marked gas lines and left yellow flags in front of two houses next to me…
this morning I watched as a number of pieces of equipment came by… the first dug two holes on the boulevard and went away… a little while later another few trucks came and planted a tree in each of the holes… then a protective barrier went around the bottom of each of them…
it will be interesting to see if they will come and water them until they get established…
not quite sure what type of tree they are but very happy that the elms have been replaced;-)…
16 Sunday Jun 2024
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cook, dad, family, father, food, light, lunch, memories, moments, scrambled eggs, widow
was thinking of my dad as I was making scrambled eggs recently…
he was a great cook and always used a fork when scrambling eggs… he said it made them fluffier… he always added a touch of milk or water as he prepared them…
it was a lovely memory around Father’s Day;-)…
he was a very special person and I think of him often…
15 Saturday Jun 2024
Posted in family, garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, buds, family, flowers, garden, happy, memories, moments, nature, orange, pictures, plants, poppies, thirty-two, weather, widow, wild
the other day I counted thirty-two poppy buds…
since then twenty-six have opened… I go out every morning to take pictures and count them, lol…
they look so beautiful weaving back and forth in the breeze…
they were one of my beloved’s favourite flowers… maybe because they signalled the beginning of summer…
they decide where they will pop up and I am always so happy when they turn up each year… this time they are in the front of the garden;-)…
herbiggirlpants 