Category Archives: retirement

sardines…

10 Thursday Jul 2025

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today, as I was making my lunch, I was reminded of my dad…

he loved sardines and would often make a sardine sandwich for his lunch when he was home…

when he worked he had a cheese sandwich every single day🤪…

back to the sardines, lol…

he would smash them up in a bowl with a fork and a bit of the oil from the container and then put the mix onto white bread…

I mashed mine up and then topped up some premium crackers with the mixture… tasty and went well with the cucumber, onion, tomato salad which I also made…

sweet memory;-)…

piccata…

09 Wednesday Jul 2025

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today, we celebrated one of our group’s birthdays by spending the afternoon at Pine Ridge Hollow…

we drove out in a hybrid electric car and spent a couple of hours wandering through all the shops…

we followed that up with an excellent dinner at the restaurant…

our meal started with beet chips and goat cheese ranch dipping sauce, oh my, so tasty…

four members of the group had pickerel piccata while I had the lamb shank…

my lamb was braised and flame-grilled, came with tabbouleh, fennel slaw, whipped labneh, and a drizzle of chermoula… I had to look up a number of the items on Google but they made a delightful combination;-)…

everyone’s meal was delicious and just a touch different than expected…

the birthday “girl” had schmoo, while others enjoyed the frozen lemon meringue…

we conscripted a fellow restaurant member as they were leaving to take our traditional photo…’you can see we were having a lot of fun;-)…

a leisurely drive home ended another of our special days…

disintegrate…

08 Tuesday Jul 2025

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so happy to see that the morning glories are opening…

the butterfly bench hasn’t had any open lately but the planter by the backdoor has been blooming over the last few days… today there were three…

then, as I was driving out of the garage, I stopped the car, got out and took photos of the blooms by the large garage door…

the blooms don’t last long and if it rains they kind of disintegrate, so I wanted to be sure to get a photo of them;-)…

fixing???

07 Monday Jul 2025

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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…

qualifying…

06 Sunday Jul 2025

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lovely start to the day on Saturday, with a 4:30 am hot tub… it was cool, sky was just beginning to lighten, birds were singing, and clouds drifted above…

back to sleep for a while and then got to watch qualifying for Sunday’s F1 race at Silverstone…

and one of my favourites got pole position…

was able to turn off the fans and open all the windows to get some fresh, cool, air into the house, which was wonderful after the last few days of sizzling heat…

out in the garden I spotted a house finch couple enjoying snacks at one of the feeders…

the rest of the day was quiet and peaceful…

frogs…

05 Saturday Jul 2025

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spent a morning in the English Gardens…

before I started my shift, I took photos of the water lilies and frogs in the Leo Mol lily pond…

as a volunteer, I walked around welcoming visitors, taking photos for them, and visiting with some of the guests…

I also saw many birds, particularly yellow warblers, that were flitting through the garden…

as I was leaving, it was great fun to watch a staff person catching frogs from the water lily pond and then moving them to the bigger, natural pond…

there was concern that the shallow water in the lily pond could be a detriment to their health on these hot days…

glad I got my photos when I did;-)…

coneflower…

03 Thursday Jul 2025

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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 😉…

giggling…

01 Tuesday Jul 2025

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been giggling a bit…

I planted many morning glories and have been watching for the first blooms…

yesterday I spotted the first one… it was blooming under the bench of the butterfly chair, lol…

nearly impossible to see…

today I saw the second bloom, on the bench this time and with another bud preparing to open;-)…

hope more will open higher up, lol…

bp…

30 Monday Jun 2025

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was back seeing my doctor today…

my blood pressure medicine was increased a month ago, so the doctor wanted to see how it was doing and didn’t want to wait three months till my next usual appointment…

the only side effect to the increase in the meds had been being exceptionally tired for a week or so…

I’d been taking bp readings since the change and the numbers had been good, so I wasn’t worried…

the numbers were also good in the office…

I mentioned a text I’d received at the end of May recommending a covid booster, but I hadn’t heard anything more…

but apparently, today was the last day to receive the phyzer booster… they still had some in the office, so I got it… the next one will be in the fall around the same time as the flu shot…

hoping not to have any side effects;-)…