24 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deer, little red truck, moments, nature, pumpkins, squashes, water terrace, widow
met a lovely deer as I was walking towards The Leaf early yesterday morning… I think we were both surprised, lol…
I also got to check out the little red truck in the Kitchen Garden… this first shot was from the newly opened Water Terrace;-)…
then I got closer;-)…
it looks very cute, filled with pumpkins, other squashes and mums…
23 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, connector, electrician, fuses, live person, Manitoba Hydro, moments, outage, power, widow
so, we thought the problem with the electricity had been solved with the replacement of the two fuses last week…
apparently, not so…
Saturday and Monday it happened again and lasted for two hours the last time… we weren’t able to get in touch with the electrician so called Hydro… of course we couldn’t get to a real person but left a power outage message… not long after, a real person did call and advised a technician would be out in the next while…
they arrived around dusk, and of course, the power had come back on, lol… that makes it much more difficult for them to figure out the problem…
after checking the recently replaced fuses, which were working properly, they checked the wires on the outside and discovered a connector that was hot and shouldn’t have been…
power was turned off (on purpose!), the connector was replaced, and the power turned back on…
hoping this has actually fixed the problem…
22 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, carpet, family, grandsons, moments, nature, project, replaced, weather, widow
since the spring, we’ve been working on a few projects outdoors and one of them involved removing a rusted out planter from the front steps…
next was to be removing and replacing the carpet which has been on those same steps for thirteen years…
I remember a friend of mine coming and replacing it while I was in hospital, not long after my beloved’s passing… it was such a treat to walk up the tidy steps when I returned home…
over the last few winters the carpet has been breaking down, particularly from my shovelling I think, lol…
we emptied the rusted out planter and dumped it right into the garbage can, kind of in pieces… we had a new one all ready to go but planned to wait for the carpet to be removed and replaced before putting it on the top step…
we picked up carpet and glue… next we planned a day when we had help to remove the old carpet and lay down the new one… unfortunately, it rained for most of that day, but during a break my housemate was able to remove the old layer…
that was on July 21st… it looked dreadful but we anticipated that it would happen soon…
every single time we planned to get the job done, it rained… I was starting to believe my grandson is a rain magnet…
well, yesterday, September 21st, it finally happened…
scraping, glueing, and laying down the carpet took a good portion of the day and there are a few bits that need to be trimmed…
can’t walk on it for a few days, but it already looks a thousand percent better;-)…
21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
20 Saturday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park Zoo, big girl pants, blessed, doors, food, moments, plants, swag, The Leaf, training, weather, widow, zoo
I’ve been enjoying taking any training that I can to learn more about the Leaf and Zoo…
spent an hour Thursday morning to see how volunteering at the front of the zoo works…
afterwards I went to Volunteer Services and collected all the swag I have earned over the last four months…
what a haul;-)…
I was also able to purchase a volunteer hoodie which is going to be well used as the weather gets colder…
I’m thinking the entrance area will be chilly with the doors opening and closing all day…
lunch out, and then a shift at The Leaf…
it was a rather full day…
19 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, electrician, family, fuses, memories, moments, power, widow
the power has gone off a few times over the last few days… only for a few seconds, and only in some parts of the house…
the only way to know for sure was the stove and microwave both flashing or showing 0…
many years ago we had an electrician tell us that there are two fuses that cover half the house each, but I couldn’t remember where they were, lol… my beloved had always dealt with those issues…
we called an electrician and he turned up early in the evening…
he knew right where those fuses were located (in a big gray box!) and then had to search online for where to find them as the electrical supply stores were already closed… so happy he found them and was able to pick them up and change them…
apparently this is an old way of putting electricity into houses, lol…
of course our house would have it, 🤪…
18 Thursday Sep 2025
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
today I went out for a meal before my shift at The Leaf…
all
by
myself!!!
had the falafel breakfast, with tomatoes instead of hash browns…
it has become one of my favourites…
then it was off to The Leaf… way to go me;-)…
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…
16 Tuesday Sep 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bee, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, fun, garden, moments, morning glories, morning glory, nature, pictures, shrivelled, Technology, weather, western honey bee, widow
fun with morning glories today…
as I was taking photos of this blue morning glory, a cute little western honey bee showed up looking for a snack…
happily, I got a few nice pics…
then, later in the day, the morning glories shrivelled up into themselves in a very interesting way, so took a few cool photos…
15 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, books, compare, family, JD Robb, list, moments, need, Ottawa, Technology, widow
been working on my list of needed JD Robb books…
my daughter found a bunch in a used bookstore on a walk in Ottawa…
that meant I had to find, and compare, my list with the titles she sent me… found the list, phew, and sent her four that I could use…
this morning my housemate helped me double check the books on the shelf with the list, and I forwarded that list to my daughter… she found another four…
so, now that the comparison has taken place, it appears that I only need ten to complete my collection;-)…
woohoo…
herbiggirlpants 