26 Wednesday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
first morning this season that I didn’t need to turn on the light in the bedroom…
great sign that Spring really is coming…
been overcast for most of the day and it is still quite cool with a bit of wind…
looking forward to some sunshine although it might not turn up until Friday…
been a month since we were on the sun drenched beaches of Mazatlan…
have to channel some of that weather, lol…
23 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, breakfast, buds, early sunshine, family, reading, the "A", walk, widow, wind
lovely walk to the “A” and back this morning…
my grandson was with me on the way there… we caught a few Pokémon and saw the mallard couple in the creek… it was a bit chilly because of the wind, but the sun was shining…
I had been up and made tea for the daddy who arrived after his overnight shift at work… he had a nap for an hour or so before we went for breakfast… on Sunday the “A” doesn’t open until 8… he and I have learned this the hard way…
he and the youngest drove over… was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of my meal, lol…
after breakfast they headed to their house and I walked back home…
warmer with the wind at my back… had to stop and take a few pictures of the buds starting on the big tree, maybe some kind of willow, just before I reached the house…
had a short nap and read in the sunshine in the living room for the remainder of the day…
my daughter and the younger boys came for dinner and a visit and I went back to reading when they left…
listening to the ducks flying over on their way back to the creek… love the sound of ducks and geese as they travel…
19 Wednesday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
app, big girl pants, birthday, Evolution, free, network, Starbuck's, treat, widow
got an email from Starbucks the other day to advise that for my birthday they would give me a free drink or something to eat…
then I had some trouble getting my app to work… had to go in and change my password, lol… not sure if my age is making me forget passwords or what the deal is…
the reward is only good for a few days, so today a colleague and I walked down to a Starbucks which was close by to redeem my treat… for whatever reason the network wouldn’t connect so after a number of attempts, just paid for my Evolution drink, which is one of the only things I can have there;-(…
was kind of sad because I’d been excited about the treat… tonight I tried the app again and it connected just fine and this came up…
but I think I had to redeem it by end of today, lol…
the whole thing is a bit funny because I didn’t need the drink so should have just walked away without it…
then, to top it off, I left it at work when I came home…
maybe I will walk down there again tomorrow and see what happens…
tulips are nearly done…
18 Tuesday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Aschenti Cacao, big girl pants, birthday, cake, cherry pie, chocolate, New York, presents, sing, song, the Wall, tradition, treats, widow
today is my birthday;-)…
I love birthdays, mine and everyone else’s… I like presents too… they don’t need to be big or expensive…
I enjoy the birthday song being sung over the phone, or in person, or nowadays by text… when my kids were little I’d sing it to them the number of years they were turning… eventually you can’t sing it enough times in the day, lol..
last night my BS friends brought birthday cherry pie and presents… so this morning I enjoyed the last piece of the pie with my breakfast…
I’ve never been a cake lover…
busy at work but there was time to spend with visitors, who also brought treats – chips and a lovely purple water bottle… and answer some of the birthday calls and texts that came throughout the day…
purple tipped flowers from my colleagues with a fun balloon and card… one of our traditions is to circulate a card that everyone adds comments to for the celebrant… always a gift to read the kind notes included…
was going to order from SkipTheDishes but made leftover turkey dinner instead, one of my favourite meals…
then had a treat, lol…
had some loose tea in my new left-handed the wall tea cup… works really well and the tea I’d picked up recently at one of the Farmers Markets is delicious – it is similar to one of our all time favourites that was discontinued a number of years ago… and chips with two types of chocolate bars – my favourite Aschenti Cacao 79% with Sea Salt, and one of the bars we picked up in Mazatlan – a Ritter bar that had rum, nuts and fruit in it…
I mean, I’d been good all day, and it is my birthday, lol…
thinking back to a delicious piece of chocolate cake we found and shared by the Flatiron building in New York last year on my birthday…
really was one of the best pieces of cake I’ve ever eaten…
a great day to be alive…
12 Wednesday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, ChefsPlate, Day of Pink, Easter, grocery shopping, ki'xocolatl, Mazatlan, popcorn, treat, widow
was planning to go grocery shopping tonight but was just too tired…
guess I will be going on Saturday morning for the Easter dinner ingredients…
went shopping with my sister-in-law the other day… we picked up a few of her favourite things… one was a mini mozzarella in a herb-based oil… rather tasty…
really enjoy wandering through a grocery store with someone else… you get such great ideas of different things and ways to eat them…
it is especially good when you have fallen into that eating rut… you know, buying and cooking the same things over and over…
think that’s partly why I am enjoying the ChefsPlate meals… it’s an opportunity to consider and try different things… and without having to go to the store…
must find some others to hit the grocery store with…
today I wore a pink shirt for International Day of Pink… happened across the reminder while checking out my social media feed… had to run back upstairs and change, lol…
this was my treat tonight on my new tray which was sitting on the shirt… popcorn and the last two pieces of the ki’xocolatl bar that we picked up at the Mazatlan airport… yummy…
04 Tuesday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, camera, Chihuly, favourites, hibiscus, ladybug, shells, tree, widow
in my camera app you can save favourites…
when I like a picture for some reason or other, I put it into the favourites folder and wait for the right time to use it…
today I have a few that I’ve been saving and thought I would share…
on one of our walks on vacation I took this picture of a lovely hibiscus…
this shot of the new shell additions to the living room table… one square has the purchased ones and the other all of the ones we found along the beach…
newest page on my Chihuly calendar…
I love April…
this cute little ladybug was wandering along the baseboard in the bedroom the other day…
wonderfully gnarled tree in the English Gardens…
once I’ve used them I remove them from Favourites… and on to the next;-)…
02 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, branta, bridge, geese, honking, hot tub, outside, walk, widow
so, today it was all about the geese… and a few ducks… found the Latin name for them – branta – as I was doing some research…
wrote about my mom’s drawing of a goose a while back…
early this morning I was out in the hot tub and watched hundreds of them flying overhead…
took my first walk since the fall to Assiniboine Park and wandered around the English and Leo Mol Gardens…
lovely day although a bit windy, and I was very happy to be outside walking… the sidewalks were all clear and dry…
as I was crossing the walking bridge by the Park I caught these geese along the riverbank…
as I looked from the Boy with the Boot to the flag on the Pavilion, a few more were walking on the ice at the Riley Family Duck Pond…
there was open water as well as ice, lol…
on the tour of the Gardens I could hear the geese honking as they flew over and talking to one another in the river…
before crossing the bridge to come home took this picture of a pair… one was guarding while the other was eating…
they are so majestic and beautiful… and their honking still makes me stop and look up, wherever I am…
too bad about all the fertilizer they leave behind…
01 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
. soup, beloved, big girl pants, ChefsPlate, chocolate, cold, eat, hyacinth, jammies, meals, meatballs, missing, omelette, recover, sick, smell, widow
have really taken the day to rest and recover from the cold I’ve been struggling with all week…
these are some of the times when I most miss my beloved… he always did a great job of looking after me…
jammies on all day and the only thing I did was prepare meals…
for breakfast I really wanted to order something, but dragged myself down to the kitchen and took inspiration from the cute woman at the resort who made all the egg dishes… cooked up mushrooms, green onion and spinach and made an omelette with a little cheese in it as well… came out very nicely…
for lunch I chose the last bit of my zucchini basil chicken soup with chips and some Mexican chocolate… seemed like just the right combination, lol…
for supper made one of the ChefsPlate meals… still enjoying the process of preparing the meal… and it tasted great…
turkey and spinach meatballs…
as I was sitting in the living room waiting for the meatballs to finish cooking I could actually smell the hyacinth…
hurray, the cold is starting to let up…
29 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
started taking Cold FX just before leaving for vacation as I was sensing a cold starting…
this morning the cold arrived… funny voice early in the day with a sore throat and my nose has been running like mad… of course it was wonderful that it held off while we were away…
when I got home from work I made zucchini basil chicken soup which was very tasty, and climbed into bed…
two more days before I can hibernate for a bit and get well…
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
been thinking recently about exercise…
today an article came up in my email about walking… was fun to take… got 10 out of 13 correct…
nearly finished our 30 day challenge at the office and I have done my exercises every day… will be taking a break when we are finished… I’ve pulled something in my right side and I think it needs a rest so it can recover…
really looking forward to getting over to the Park and wandering through the English and Leo Mol Gardens… should be soon…
purple hyacinth blooming…
herbiggirlpants 