Category Archives: travel

harbinger…

31 Sunday Dec 2023

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on Thursday the blue screen of death showed up on the laptop…

apparently on Monday, when the camera kept failing during our video call, it was a harbinger of the computer’s end of life…

I spent quite a bit of time on Friday morning searching for the sales slip from January 2nd, 2020, when I purchased it in Ottawa, without success… I did find the record in my credit card statements, but after contacting Best Buy, discovered there was no extended warranty…

did some research and went to Best Buy… had a plan to purchase the same computer, but an updated version…

in the end I found a slightly higher quality machine and was happy they actually had it in the store… after consulting with my two computer geeks, brought it home and we spent time in the afternoon getting it filled with all “the stuff” I need…

the old machine fit beautifully into the box the new one came in, and will take a trip to my son-in-law to see if he is able to save anything on it…

I had some fun in the evening doing some personalization and making it my own, lol…

it will be interesting to see what I forgot I needed, lol…

thawing…

26 Tuesday Dec 2023

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I found out in the morning on Christmas Eve that we were going to have lunch on Christmas Day between trips my grandson was making between his various family clans;-)…

it was a quick trip to the freezer to pull out a beautiful chicken and get it thawing… I had been planning on a Cornish hen, with all the fixings, so it wasn’t a lot more to do to cook the chicken;-)…

a turnip was peeled, cut, boiled (so that the water would be available for the chicken gravy), and mashed…

mashed potatoes were also prepared and put into the fridge which helps with making a resistant starch…

stuffing was made and packaged, ready to go into the chicken…

took most of the day to thaw the chicken, lol, but it was ready for the oven in time…

everything turned out beautifully and we had a delicious Christmas lunch…

possibly a new tradition;-)…

faded…

07 Thursday Sep 2023

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on Monday night, just before supper, I looked up and spotted a beautiful rainbow…

it faded and then a double one started up, and after it faded, there was a third one, with very bright colours…

what a treat…

reminded me of our time in Maui when we saw five different rainbows in an hour…

extension…

31 Thursday Aug 2023

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went for a drive to Selkirk with a friend and found the eavestrough extension that I’ve been looking for…

once at home we extended it, drilled holes in the bottom, and laid it out along the back of the pond garden…

a few twist ties and the trough portion came down straight along the sun’s rays and then was hooked into the extension…

we might straighten it out a bit more once everything dies back in the garden, but by next spring it won’t be visible at all and will put rainwater all along the garden;-)…

barn…

27 Sunday Aug 2023

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drove out to Dugald on Thursday to pick up some roasting chickens from a new place – Hoogies Ranch…

it was a lovely drive and the weather vacillated between sun and cloud…

besides two dogs wandering the yard, these cute barn cats were very friendly…

so far, we’ve had one of the chickens and it was delicious… there was lots for supper, a chicken salad is in my future, and chicken vegetable soup with dumplings has been requested;-)…

I’m sure we will order from them again…

nervous…

30 Sunday Jul 2023

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this picture came up on my Facebook memories recently…

I can still remember that day… we were in Courtenay and drove up Mount Washington… there was no one else around as it was summer… we sat at the bottom of the ski hill for a very long time as we were both afraid of heights…

but we decided to go for it…

we got on the chairlift but the person didn’t put the safety bar down… we realized this as we were moving upwards… I think that the bars along the back and beside me, that I was holding onto for dear life, probably had dents from the grip I had on them😳…

there are no pictures because of the death grip… we were both terrified…

when we arrived at the top the staff person didn’t seem that worried about it, but did say they would ensure that the bar was put in the correct position when we descended…

there was still snow on the ground and the views were beautiful, but I was still nervous about going back down…

of course, we had no choice about going down… after being safely secured correctly, we made the trip down and I even enjoyed some of the views, lol…

but, once we made it back to town, we stopped and sat in a coffee shop for quite a while to let our nerves settle;-)…

an unforgettable memory, lol…

stars…

10 Monday Jul 2023

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as I was sitting in the hot tub on Saturday night and watching the few stars that I am able to see from there, I was reminded of a Saturday night we spent at the lake…

we went out, with blankets and warm clothes, and laid on the couch on the cliff deck and watched the stars through the tree canopy…

it was a beautiful night with few bugs and the sky was spectacular…

we saw satellites, constellations, and shooting stars… even some fireflies;-)…

and I even got a few photos with my iPhone…

rug…

08 Saturday Jul 2023

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pleased to get back to my usual schedule…

my daughter had been staying with friends and my grandson was working so I’ve had the house all to myself…

finally got everything put away from the trip and was able to set up the new chair cushions and the cute little rug I picked up…

I am loving how the garden is looking and have been spending as much time as possible in this, my favourite space…

thrilled…

04 Tuesday Jul 2023

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on Friday, before my daughter left to return home to Ottawa, we went one last time to The Leaf…

we walked through the Diversity Gardens in the daylight and were happy we went early, because the temperature was rising quickly…

we checked out the Water area and were thrilled to discover water lily blooms…

then it was on to the Tropical Biome to visit the cacao trees… while there, she provided a little education for a few visitors;-)…

some of us stayed in that spot, and the rest of us checked out the other areas… we weren’t able to see the Butterfly Garden or walk on the skywalk as they were closed for the day, but it was fun to check out both biomes…

we had an early lunch at Gather, one last visit to the cacao trees and then home to nap and finish packing for the flight…

tomato…

01 Saturday Jul 2023

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we had a wonderful time away, but it is always lovely to return home;-)…

after everything was unloaded, the first thing I did was check out the garden… it looked good, other than the veggie patch in the side garden… it may have got missed in the watering schedule, lol… both of the tomato plants looked dead…

got out the hose and gave everything a good drink, and then I sat on the deck with a cold drink and my book… sigh…

although the tomatoes looked dead, the water revived them and they look 100% better…

had a hot tub and sat outside reading until it was too dark to see;-)…

glad to be home;-)…