Category Archives: nature

glittering…

18 Wednesday Nov 2015

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started the day by taking a picture of the chair outside the back door on my way to the garage…

  
it was glittering beautifully in the light… frost…

read an interesting article today, by Travis Bradbury, on genuine people… really resonated with me…

I printed it and plan to highlight a different paragraph every day to remind myself of the important message for me… being real in whatever you do… good to have something to work toward…

hard to focus on anything tonight… the wind is blowing like crazy… and there is a piece of loose siding just outside the bedroom banging against the house… hope it is still there in the morning…

think there is going to be more than frost on the ground when I get up…

changes…

16 Monday Nov 2015

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weather wasn’t quite so nice today… it was cooler and rainy for much of the day…

arrived early at The Forks for breakfast with a dear friend, so wandered along the river walk before the rain really got going… took this picture of the newest sign…

  

looks pretty cool, but then I spotted the mallard ducks… 

  
and geese… I do love my birds…

  
also took a few pictures of St. Boniface Hospital… reminded me that George’s bypass surgery took place in November of 2008 and he enjoyed the next four years… seems like a different life ago…

  
then there were the six weeks I spent there in 2010… many hours of looking out onto the river…

  
was realizing how I have grown and changed over the last few years… 

after breakfast I stopped to visit with a former colleague… not something I would have done before without causing a lot of stress…

went to the mall, had a problem on my phone sorted out, and picked up a number of gifts for Christmas… very happy to have that pretty much done… stopped at a few other spots to finish up the shopping… am feeling more excited about Christmas this year I think…

went to the doctor and was thrilled with the report on my A1C and cholesterol… it was so good that we don’t have to think about drugs for at least the next three months…

he was astonished at how low both numbers were… woohoo… I am sure the cholesterol came down due to the Becel Pro Activ margarine I’ve been eating every day…

also feeling less concerned about checking my blood sugar more often… he had me stop testing when I saw him last and I have felt like I lost a crutch… but I can trust that I know what I can and can’t eat…

haven’t lost any weight according to their scale but I think I am actually at about 160… think I have lost about 38 pounds since last November…

during the appointment I realized that it was last November that I was diagnosed with diabetes… lots of lifestyle changes since then…

some wonderful moments to savour today…

tidy…

15 Sunday Nov 2015

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what a gorgeous day… had an urge to go shopping, but decided to work in the garden getting it ready for winter…

spent an hour taking out the last of the plants and emptying pots to tidy it up…

  
very hard to pull out the alyssum which was still happily blooming… excited to discover lots of morning glory seeds which I carefully packaged up to plant in the spring… hope I can find them then…

even brought in the parsley plant which was still alive… can’t believe things are growing and blooming in the middle of November… also brought in the orange butterfly plant which had tons of seeds that I hope will grow as well…

my grandson came and helped me finish up the work… he used the mower to pick up the last of the leaves, and put away numerous pots and furniture in the shed… great to have his assistance… he even dealt with the smelly dead water hyacinths…

closing down the garden is certainly one of the times when I miss George tremendously…

this is what we discovered when we opened up the shed…

  
the squirrel(s) stuffed many containers with tasty cedar treats for the long winter… 

made me laugh as I shared the story of the year George cleaned out a squirrel nest in the garage and put all the nest material and peanuts into the garbage can… and how the squirrel chewed right through the heavy plastic at the top of the garbage can to get their stuff back… just hoping the city doesn’t notice and want to charge me for a new container, lol…

all the boys were here for dinner… had roast beef and twice stuffed potatoes… very tasty, and we topped it off with chocolate cake, which even I enjoyed… not usually a cake fan and had a very small piece…

stood at the window and waved them on their way… this is something I do with everyone when they leave… started with my Aunty Vi who always waved to us when we left her house… now it is part of my routine…

  

wrapping…

14 Saturday Nov 2015

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did very little today but that was fine… had a really long week…

yesterday morning the sun shone onto the trees across the street and I took this picture…

  
lovely… still really enjoying the days when the sun is shining…

finished up the wrapping of all the presents that I have already purchased… they will still need ribbon added to them but are all ready for that step…

finished my list of what still needs to be picked up and had some lovely phone calls with my girls…

watered plants and put chemicals in the hot tub… it was gorgeous outside… made all my meals and lounged on the bed watching tv…

nice way to spend a day… very relaxing…

lovely sky this afternoon…

  

portobello…

13 Friday Nov 2015

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just finished my first portobello burger… amazed to say it was delicious…

  
put spinach, grape tomatoes – all that I had (and worked pretty well) – and grainy mustard on an English muffin… 

used a Pinterest recipe where the mushrooms were marinated for thirty minutes in oil, balsamic, garlic, basil and cilantro… baked them for twenty minutes at 400 degrees…

  
had heard many people say how great these burgers tasted but I figured it would just taste like a mushroom…

I will certainly have another…

service…

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

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spent the morning remembering those in my family who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces…

dug out a book which had some information on my mom and dad’s service…

it also included this poem which she wrote…

  
George’s dad also served, and he died just a few days before Remembrance Day so it added to the specialness of the day for us…

and my son-in-law is currently in the Air Force…

enjoyed watching the service on Parliament Hill which has been a tradition for as long as I can remember…

then headed to the Zoo with my kids and some of their friends – little girls, lol…

  
not everyone wanted their picture taken… although I did catch one sliver of someone…

it was very chilly and I should have had another layer on and a pair of gloves… luckily was able to borrow a pair of my grandsons’ gloves…

happily we stopped for some hot chocolate along the way and also got to see some polar bears while we were enjoying it… they are very dirty just now… not exactly white…

  

there was quite a group of us, lol…

  
thank goodness for my toque… if my head wasn’t covered I would have been absolutely frozen… although I was very cold by the time we left…

wore one out for my hot tub tonight too… definitely getting cooler out there…

healthy…

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

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started my day with blood work for my doctor’s appointment next week…

it was very foggy on the drive to the clinic…

  
this picture came out very clear considering how foggy it was, lol…

apparently the longer you press on the spot where your blood was taken the less bruising there will be…

  
not too bad today…

been a bit worried about how my blood sugar is doing so will be glad to see the results of this test…

we tried to go to aquasize but it was cancelled… on the way home I was fantasizing about either pho soup or Clay Oven for my supper…

but instead I made chicken and spinach on a whole wheat pita and warmed up some of the zucchini soup…

  

how healthy am I…

of course I did have a small bowl of chips after the healthy dinner, lol…

dumplings…

09 Monday Nov 2015

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today at lunch I enjoyed some of the zucchini basil soup I made on Saturday… it was delicious and a lovely shade of green…

  
I had turned down a sandwich from a local deli because I knew I was having dumplings for my supper which meant I couldn’t have any bread during the day…

while we were eating we talked about dumplings… 

for dinner I was planning on chicken soup with dumplings… made the base last night and tonight skimmed the fat and added in the barley… usually it has peas, potatoes, corn and carrots, but none of those are on my good for me to eat list… 

the dumpling recipe is one of the few I have from my mom… we always had them, whenever there was chicken soup…

someone mentioned that they never had dumplings… it wasn’t a tradition in their household…

always interesting to me what items were traditional in different people’s homes… I just assumed that everyone ate dumplings with chicken soup, lol… 

  
nowadays when I make the dumpling recipe I cut it in half so that I am not tempted to eat more than I should… well, probably I shouldn’t eat any…

my learning today is that you can’t use the full amount of liquid with half of the dry ingredients in a recipe, lol…

looked a little beige but tasted good enough for me to eat two bowls full…

it’s a great tradition in my life…

sunny…

08 Sunday Nov 2015

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just can’t get over the sunshine… blue sky when I woke and the sun rose above the trees a bit later… feel so much better when it is sunny outside…

had a lazy day with just a few chores and prepping for dinner with the kids…

took a few pictures of the sun shining into the living room… new shoots are coming up in the water plant barrel…

  
and the orchid looked great today…

  
went to Ikea for a short spell in the afternoon with my daughter…

yesterday I wore these jeggings which I just had hemmed this week… this is my first experience wearing this type of pant/leggings and I’m not sure how I feel about them…

  
will need to show them to the fashionistas in my life to see what they think, lol…

during supper I had to get up and step outside to get a picture of the sky with my iPhone… so great to have that quick access to a camera without having to run to find it…

  
it was exactly that shade of red… quite beautiful…

the sunsets have been awesome this fall… 

I’ve almost forgotten how dull it has been for the last few weeks…

wonderful how a bit of sunlight can perk me up…

treat…

07 Saturday Nov 2015

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so excited this morning to see the moon out the window… made me jump out of bed to take a picture and I discovered that there was a planet just above it…  couldn’t decide if it was Venus or Mars, lol, but cool… this was a wonderful treat because it has been overcast for days…

a little later I got this shot of the sun shining brightly…


what a treat… wasn’t out in the garden for long but took the time to look out the windows to enjoy the sunshine whenever I could…

picked up groceries and made zucchini basil soup, which is becoming a staple in my house, for my dinner… it is so tasty and easy…

got the ingredients chopped and cooking…

  

within half an hour was blending it together…

  

enjoyed it with some lovely Tuscan garlic bread from Safeway…

 

walked into the living room and enjoyed this topper to the day…

 
now spending the evening drinking chocolate rocket tea and watching ice skating on tv… 

funny how the rough days make the ones that follow more special as you realize how wonderful life really is…