05 Friday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, completed, done, family, mailed, moments, presents, Technology, tree, widow, wrapped
enjoyed time in the computer room wrapping up the Christmas presents…
this year there was just a small box to go to Ottawa which went into the mail a few days ago… a few items were ordered and delivered directly to them…
the remainder of the presents are now under the tree…
happy to have this piece of work completed…
27 Thursday Nov 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, blessed, box, boxes, family, flattened, gifts, grandson, mail, moments, Technology, treat, widow
a very large, and heavy, box arrived in the mail…
I am sure that it is full of items for my Advent calendar… woohoo…
just yesterday morning I brought down the bag full of boxes which have been flattened…
my housemate will be rebuilding the twenty-four boxes and inserting the various items from my daughter into them…
then I will get the boxes and set them out to be opened one at a time during Advent;-)…
23 Thursday Oct 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, cacao, cake, daughter, family, food, moments, Ottawa, short, The Leaf, time, treat, visit, widow
had a wonderful, but short, visit with my Ottawa daughter over the last few days…
she had been to Calgary for an event and stopped here on her way home…
lots of time together as we caught up in person… late nights and early mornings while she was here… and lots of laughter…
always cake from Baked Expectations when she arrives;-)…
we spent a lovely morning at The Leaf noticing the growth since she was last here and counting cacao pods…
she also spotted the first chileo on the second tree… made me laugh cause I’ve been looking for ages trying to spot one on that tree…
we visited the butterflies although they weren’t very active as it was cool and overcast but it was fun to see them together… the Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa, currently has a butterfly display as well so we often compare which butterflies we each see, lol…
we worked on a plan for our next trip together and did lots of research on the computer…
dinners in and out as we ate some of her favourites and then we were headed back to the airport for her flight home…
always a treat;-)…
19 Sunday Oct 2025
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, company, den, family, guest, guest room, moments, preparation, ready, widow
took some time on Saturday turning the den into a guest room…
the sofa table makes its way to the dining room window as well as all the plants that are on it… tables and carpet are removed… the bed opens up…
the headboard mattress from the upstairs bedroom comes down to make the sofa bed more comfortable…
fresh sheets go onto the bed, a comforter, and pillows…
and it is done;-)…
all ready for company…
17 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, health, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, magnolia, Mediterranean biome, memories, moments, nature, scent, tree, widow
this magnolia seems to be blooming one or two buds at a time…
saw some beautiful trees filled with magnolia blooms in Courtenay, BC, more than fifteen years ago and I still remember how amazing the scent was…
unfortunately, this tree is too high up to be able to enjoy the scent, but it is lovely to spot new blooms…
07 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cool, family, garden, goldfish, mistake, moments, pet store, pond, released, widow
went to a pet store today… big mistake, lol…
came home with three goldfish… a white one with a bright patch of red close to its tail and two gold with black dots all over them…
set them in the pond in their travel bag for nearby an hour… it is fairly cool in the pond with all this cold weather we’ve been having…
once they were released, I spotted this little one and got a quick photo… then they vanished under the bridge… since then, I’ve spotted the white one, but so far not the other two;-)…
16 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, famous, food, friend, garden, macaroni and cheese, moments, reading, treat, weather, widow, world famous
went to the grocery store first thing on Friday… good time to go as it wasn’t busy and I got my shopping done in less than thirty minutes…
once home and everything was put away, I set out the cushions and spent a lovely time reading…
received a call from a friend driving through and invited them for supper… then I spent the next while preparing my world famous, (well family and friends anyway), macaroni and cheese;-)…
once that was done, I went back to my book…
my company arrived, we had a short visit in the garden, ate the delicious mac and cheese, and off they went… all inside an hour;-)…
had a plan to take a photo of the finished pot, but forgot, lol… did remember to take a picture of my plate… packed up the leftovers for another day;-)…
tidied up and enjoyed the garden as I read outside until it got dark…
lovely treat;-)…
09 Wednesday Jul 2025
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, delightful, lamb, moments, photograph, piccata, pickerel, Pine Ridge Hollow, restaurant, schmoo, shops, wandered, weather, widow
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…
13 Tuesday May 2025
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
annual, big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, happy, high tea, Lilystone Cafe, moments, Rosenort, treat, weather, widow
today we celebrated two birthdays with a drive out to Rosenort and High Tea at Lilystone Cafe;-)… it is becoming an annual tradition as this was our third visit…
and to top it off, we were there on this exact day last year… how cool is that…
this photo was from our last visit…
today we enjoyed the items on the menu and had a variety of delicious teas to go with the tasty treats… I had one of everything, lol…
my tea was Peach Apricot which I just love…
we’ve always found the staff happy to deal with our food issues, and eager to please…
even though it was 38°C, (crazy weather we are experiencing) the room we were in was very comfortable…
such a lovely way to spend an afternoon with this amazing group of women;-)…
27 Sunday Apr 2025
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
accomplish, at last, big girl pants, blessed, garden, gardener, Kingfisher Spa, memories, moments, nature, Technology, widow
had a bit of a giggle when this photo came up in my Facebook memories…
it was from 14 years ago when I was visiting my daughter in Courtenay and we had spent the day at Kingfisher Resort and Spa…
and yesterday, my own gardener was here;-)… just took a few years to accomplish…
and, of course, she isn’t here every day, or just my gardener, lol…
but, still…
herbiggirlpants 