such a beautiful view…

hard to tell, but there are a zillion diamonds shining in that snow…
24 Monday Jan 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, weather
23 Sunday Jan 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
activity, big girl pants, blessed, bunnies, garden, learning, moments, nature, photos, snow, squirrels, tracks, weather, widow
one of the things I enjoy after a snowfall is seeing the tracks that the bunnies, squirrels and birds make…

it is fairly obvious that one or more bunnies are living under the deck… they climb a snowbank and then head underneath… there is lots of space under there…
the squirrels have been running around on the deck… likely the red ones are chasing the other squirrels and birds away from their stash…

soon the bunnies will be able to eat directly from the front feeders because the snow is getting so high, lol…

it is wonderful to have such a great view of nature just by looking out the windows…
21 Friday Jan 2022
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dug, moments, nature, neighbours, shovelling, snow, snow plows, weather, widow
as I was watching a show last night I heard a noise in the driveway and discovered my next door neighbour shovelling… there was a ban on street parking so he cleaned two-thirds of the driveway to make room for their cars…

a bit later, as I was getting my last steps in, I watched the snow machines go up and down the street clearing the snow…
they do a great job and also are efficient at leaving the bottom of the driveway accessible… for years my beloved would have to shovel the end of the driveway before being able to get the car out…
unfortunately, in the process of being sure the driveway and fire hydrant are clear, they dump a bunch of snow over the front sidewalk…
this morning I went out and dug through an area about three feet long and two feet deep… there was a blowing snow warning but I’ve learned that it needs to happen as soon as possible…

it had been blowing and snowing and the snow on the path was already packed… I managed to get a narrow path cleared…

the neighbour on the other side came a little later and did the main part of the sidewalks…

it is quite a bit wider than what I managed, lol…
20 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in business, health, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, bins, blessed, deep, drag, driveway, furnace, garden, moments, nature, shovel, sidewalk, snow, vents, widow
back to shovelling…
it was cold out there – felt like -35 Celsius – but I had to take out the garbage and recycling…
Friday is garbage day, so I wanted to check whether the bins needed to get to the back lane or not, lol…
happily, once the path was cleared, there wasn’t enough in them to need to drag them out this week, but next week may be a different story…
the snow is getting deeper and the pile alongside the deck is higher than the deck boards… this time I was really working at tossing it further, but it is a struggle…

I also dug a narrow path along the driveway to get to the vents for the furnace, to be sure they were clear of snow…

there is a ton of snow on the driveway, but I just moved it over so I could make my way…
19 Wednesday Jan 2022
Posted in garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, coleus, garden, hopeful, moments, morning glories, nature, planting, plants, sticks, widow
on November 22nd I transplanted the coleus that had been rooting in water… and for a while they grew… then, they all died off…
yesterday I used the soil from one of the containers to plant some morning glory seeds…

also added three sticks so that when they grow there will be a place to climb…
hopefully they will do better than the coleus did…
18 Tuesday Jan 2022
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
out this morning to shovel the sidewalk…
it was still snowing but I thought it better to clear it a few times if needed…

only did it once… the snow stopped shortly after I finished, but the wind is going to be strong overnight so I will decide tomorrow if it needs to be done again…
later in the day the sun came out and I got some lovely photos…

so interesting how the view changes from moment to moment… I am so happy to have the time to observe the changes…
17 Monday Jan 2022
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deep, front, moments, nature, photos, pictures, sky, snow, sunrise, weather, widow
today I woke to this view of the sky…

and a bit later I took this photo of the front yard to show someone how much snow was on the ground…

a tiny bit of snow had fallen yesterday and overnight and we are waiting for a storm tonight so I expect there will be more to shovel tomorrow…
16 Sunday Jan 2022
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, happy, hot tub, moments, nature, orchid, photos, purple, sweater, Technology, widow
had some fun with my bouquet… it is changing… the orchid stalk was removed and now the carnations are getting ready to come out…
used the table from the hot tub, a purple sweater, and the purple wall to get a few shots…

it was fun to gather up the items and set up for the shoot…


and the photos came out quite well…
14 Friday Jan 2022
Posted in business, garden, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
art, big girl pants, blessed, card, flowers, garden, gift, moments, photos, pictures, poppies, project, purple, widow
this year my Christmas project was Post-It notes made with one of my photos on them…
took a while to decide on just the correct picture… in the end I chose a picture of a poppy that I took in the garden this summer… my Ottawa kids did some work removing the background for me…

always happy when I am able to use one of my photographs for a project…
I also produced cards with four different winter pictures to go with them…

working with my art always fills me with happiness…
13 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cache, Cornell Lab, crew, food, garden, gray, learning, moments, nature, red, snow, squirrels, Technology, widow
recently watched an interesting Cornell Lab webinar about chickadees and learned something about squirrels…
gray squirrels hide their food – one seed, peanut, or acorn – at a time, with each item in a different place… and they remember where each bit is…
red squirrels hide theirs in one spot…
now it makes more sense to me as to why they scare birds and other squirrels away from any of the feeders as they consider them to be their property, lol…
this little red guy was at it this morning, chasing away the crew of sparrows…

and a bit later, this gray one was sharing the deck happily with the sparrows;-)…

maybe the red one was having a nap, lol…