22 Tuesday Feb 2022
Posted in garden, life, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
21 Monday Feb 2022
Posted in life, loss, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, drifts, fallen, garden, moments, nature, record amounts, snow, weather, widow
after all these days of snow I hadn’t felt like that much had fallen…
this was the garden Saturday at 3:06 pm…
and this was the same spot yesterday at 7:40 am… the gazing ball on its stand is no longer visible…
I guess more came down than I thought, lol…
the last few years we haven’t had much snow, but we appear to be making up for that now… a number of reports are suggesting that we’ve hit some records…
in this photo from yesterday, you can see how high the snow is on the railing… and the lovely drifts along the sidewalk…
20 Sunday Feb 2022
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, nature, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blizzard, furnace, knee-deep, moments, nature, Olympics, shovel, snow, Technology, vents, weather, widow
got up at 5:30 am to watch the Olympics closing ceremony…
while I was cozied up in the bed, I could hear the furnace turn on and then off, and on and off, and on and off… I knew immediately what the issue was…
for the last three days we have been under a blizzard warning… I hadn’t thought that much snow had fallen, but I was wrong…
put on leggings, socks and my outer gear and went out the front door with a shovel and a straightened coat hanger… over the last years I have learned how to clean out the vents and be sure there is no snow inside them…
the snow was knee-deep in many places and I didn’t shovel, I just climbed through…
the vents weren’t visible except for a small hole where the exhaust vent was still blowing out air… the intake was under about eight inches of snow…
only took about ten minutes to dig them out… the snow was tossed into the middle of the driveway because there isn’t anywhere else to put it… did a quick swipe with the hanger and headed back in…
once I was in the house I could hear the furnace working… yay…
climbed back under the covers and watched the rest of the show, although about half an hour later my legs started to feel cold…
another example of those big girl pants, lol…
19 Saturday Feb 2022
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized
the violets are doing well…
I moved one that was rather one-sided and put it onto the living room table… it straightened out nicely…
another is in the front window now and I hope it will straighten out as well…
the third has a few blooms on it and has started a new plant on the side…
nature is quite wonderful… so happy to have the time to watch each little step…
18 Friday Feb 2022
Posted in garden, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beginning, big girl pants, blessed, blooming, flowers, happy, moments, nature, opening, orchid, plants, purple, widow
had the opportunity to watch the beginning of the opening of one of the orchid buds…
in the morning…
through the afternoon…
and into the evening…
really, nature is spectacular;-)…
17 Thursday Feb 2022
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Cathedral Grove, family, forest, goosebumps, memories, moments, nature, remembering, time, trees, Vancouver Island, walk, widow
got a message today from someone who I had given a recommendation of places to visit on Vancouver island…
I had suggested Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park… they thought it was amazing…
it is one of my favourite places ever…
within steps of the highway all traffic noises are gone and the walk through the giant trees is meditative and soul filling…
these pictures are from a visit with my beloved in the summer of 2011…
still gives me goosebumps when I remember what a special place it was…
16 Wednesday Feb 2022
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, deep, garbage bin, garden, moments, nature, path, shovelled, snow, weather, widow, wrangled
out in the snow again today…
after clearing a path to the back lane, I wrangled the garbage bin to a spot just outside the gate…
the drift there was about a foot deep so it took me a while to make a spot for the bin…
sure hope they empty it on Friday…
15 Tuesday Feb 2022
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, furnace, moments, nature, shovel, snow, vase, vent, weather, widow
I’m trying to laugh at the snow… it is that or cry, lol… laughing seems more sensible…
when I was out shovelling the sidewalks a few days ago, I walked up the driveway to check on the furnace vents…
and found them nearly covered with snow…
took a few minutes to get them cleared by tossing the snow into the middle of the driveway as I don’t need to get a car in and out of it… and there is nowhere else to throw it…
I was getting out of my jacket and heard a sound… when I turned and saw that one of the amaryllis had fallen off the table… there was mud on the carpet so I quickly picked it up… only to discover that the stalk had bent over and the blooms were hanging down… I got scissors, cut it and put the blossoms into a vase… after sweeping up the dirt I got a few pictures…
I guess it was getting too heavy to hold its head up;-(…
lots of activity… after that I had some time reading in the sunshine…
and, of course, more snow has fallen since then…
12 Saturday Feb 2022
Posted in business, food, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, charcuterie board, chocolate, cookies, delicious, flown, food, memories, moments, nest, not-for-profit, Oak Hammock Marsh, supper, treat, Valentine's Day, widow
I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day… from getting flowers from my beloved, to making heart shaped sugar cookies for the girls’ classrooms for years, to taking roses to my colleagues…
in later years, once the girls had flown the nest, we would have a special dinner… often steak and lobster…
this year I ordered a charcuterie board from Oak Hammock Marsh, one of our local not-for-profits, for my dinner tonight…
it was delivered to my door and looked festive…
there were cheeses, olives, crackers, cold cuts, fruit, nuts, herbs, even a bit of chocolate… and it came on a nice wooden board…
tonight I enjoyed half of it, and will finish it either tomorrow or Monday…
was thinking of my beloved as I enjoyed this treat…
11 Friday Feb 2022
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amaryllis, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, happy, highlighting, light, memories, moments, nature, plants, snow, sun, sunshine, weather, widow
enjoyed some lovely time in the living room this afternoon with the sun shining in, highlighting the amaryllis flowers…
the first one started blooming around January 17th and right now has four blooms on its second stalk…
the three that arrived and were planted on January 21st are doing well… of them, one is down to its last bloom and one is just thinking of opening…
happy they have stretched out their growth… they have brought much joy and I have spent time with them every day…
herbiggirlpants 