18 Tuesday Aug 2020
Posted in garden, health, life, nature, Uncategorized
my grandson was over for dinner and he spotted wasps going under the siding where the power connects to the house…
he brought out a step stool and used a can of spray to, hopefully, get rid of them…
not sure what the spray will do to the siding, but happy to get rid of the nest…
wondering if this is a new spot after a number of nests were removed along the edge of the shed…
will be paying close attention over the next while…
17 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, Uncategorized
was just in the bathroom and was thinking about how blessed I am…
the fixture has an odd bulb which I can usually remove when one burns out, but for the life of me, I cannot install the replacement…
this is just one of many things that my son-in-law and grandson help me with on what feels like a fairly regular basis…
I am learning and doing more on my own, but it seems there are always things I need them for…
such a gift;-)…
16 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in business, food, health, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Black Market Provisions, blessed, delivery, food, friends, gift, gift certificate, provisions, retirement, salad, shopping, treat, widow
one of the gifts I received for my retirement was a gift certificate to Black Market Provisions…
a few days ago I ordered one of their Care Packages… it arrived right at supper time the next day and included the most delicious salad with beets, goat cheese, chicken, and greens… I also enjoyed some garlicky bagel crisps…
there were a few frozen items, more crackers and some delicious looking cookies…
I am excited to taste all of these as well…
15 Saturday Aug 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, garden, grandson, home, moments, monarchs, plants, thirst, water, weather, widow
happy to check out the garden after being gone for a short time… enjoyed walking through and seeing what was about to bloom, what had just about finished and checking for caterpillars… unfortunately I haven’t found any more monarch or swallowtail babies…
I had asked my grandson to come by and water it while I was away and was very happy that he did…
the front flowers were a bit sad, as he hadn’t remembered to water them. but a quick dose of water and they all revived…
the ability of most plants to recover from thirst is quite amazing, lol…
14 Friday Aug 2020
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, Photography, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, camera, chocolate, commemorate, dinner, food, friends, garden, moments, photos, pond, sun, time together, treat, treats, widow
what a wonderful evening we had on Wednesday…
our BS group met for dinner in the garden to celebrate a birthday…
I spent a good portion of the day ensuring that there were enough chairs available and physically distanced… it was very warm and the sun was shining in most of the garden…
in the end, we ate on the deck as it was shaded, lol… had dinner and dessert delivered and it was tasty…
after dinner we moved to the garden and carried on our visit…
took a very distanced photo as we usually commemorate special times together and I used my phone as the remote to take the shot…
although we video call each Monday night it was lovely to be together again in person…
13 Thursday Aug 2020
Posted in life, loss, moments, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
flashlight, friends, herbiggirlpants, landline, phone, pictures, shower, solitaire, speak, survive, talking, widow
I was without internet and cell service for five days… just to be clear, in case you were worried, I did survive;-)…
all my phone could do was take pictures, act as a flashlight and let me play my solitaire game on occasion… if you wanted to speak to someone who wasn’t there you had to use the landline…
as I was preparing to leave for the trip, I would think of things like – oh, I can change the lights in the house occasionally so it looks lived in, or I can text my daughter with information she would need, or I can call my grandson to remind him about watering the plants, or I can add my meals to MyFitnessPal, etc. etc… nope, no, I could NOT…
when you don’t use the phone, you don’t need to carry it around so much though… although it was handy if my camera wasn’t close by… there was a good deal of reading of paperbacks, doing newspaper crosswords and talking with one another…
while there, the discussion arose as to what was more needed – internet access or a shower… I mean, the lake is right there, so clearly the answer is the internet;-)…
it was like the old days, lol…
on the return trip, all of a sudden, the phone started to beep and buzz and ding as it came into cell range and emails and messages starting downloading… it was funny…
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in life, moments, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, friend, happy, making memories, massage, moments, nail polish, pedicure, polish, purple, toes, widow
my toenails are purple again… I think they’ve been naked since January…
while we were at the cottage my friend and her daughter combined a red nail polish with a dark blue polish and produced a one-of-a kind, just for me, purple… it was lovely to have a foot massage and get my nails painted…
I keep looking down at my toes and thinking what is that, lol…
what a wonderful treat… I am so blessed…
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beach time, dangerous, feet, floating, friends, fun, great conversations, her big girl pants, mussels, sharp, vacation, water, widow, zebra, zebra mussels
we had wonderful times at the beach and in the water… the area is quiet so that means the beach is too the majority of the time…
I did watch kids from a few cottages over as they kneeboarded and that was fun…
we went in the water often and it was refreshing… we floated on pool noodles and had deep conversations and lots of laughter…
we also found tons of zebra mussels… only a couple the first few days, but after a really windy evening that blew into shore there were many clusters under our feet… one day we spent at least an hour or so feeling them with our toes and then having someone lift them up with their feet so we could collect them and bring them to shore to be disposed of… it was great exercise…
they are very sharp and all three of my companions ended up with cuts on their feet that had to be taken care of to be sure that no infections occurred… I nearly always wore my water shoes so happily was able to feel the clumps or sticks or rocks with them on and not get injured…
it was rather concerning to see so many…
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beach, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cooks, cottage, delicious, dinner, fed, food, friends, happy, memories, moments, treat, treats, vacation, widow
for five days I have been fed by others… what a wonderful treat… the majority of time I am fine with cooking, but some days I particularly miss my beloved, because he would often take a turn preparing our food…
the variety and complexity of meals was amazing… we had crepes, with freshly made blueberry sauce; spatchcock chicken with potato salad, pan stuffing and green beans; sausages and toast; hot dogs with onions; steak, baked potatoes and salad; bacon, eggs and toast; pork tenderloin, rice and roasted cauliflower; homemade enchiladas with guacamole and homemade sour cream; and the most tasty almond bars and Rice Krispie squares… plus many snacks…
my friends are both excellent cooks and they had nearly as much fun preparing the food as we had eating it…
my contribution was dishwashing, lol… and they use Dawn, which makes bubbles if you squeeze it;-), which I did, numerous times… I may have to switch to Dawn because the bubbles bring me such happiness…
I am glad to do dishes because it doesn’t involve any complicated activity and saves the cooks from cleanup after all their work to produce a meal;-)…
09 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in life, moments, nature, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, friends, fun, kayak, learn new things, memories, moments, water, widow
had a great time learning to kayak this week…
for some reason I imagined that my legs would be uncomfortable, but that wasn’t the case at all…
I had a great instructor which made the whole process fairly smooth… of course the getting in and out was a process, but I had helpers;-)…
I really had fun and would like to do a bit more of it…
herbiggirlpants 