contrasts…

06 Saturday Apr 2013

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been quiet and busy, kind of odd…

this morning I watched TV and did a few chores around the house…  went shopping with my daughter and son-in-law and got a new ottoman and groceries…  thought I bought a rug to match one in my bedroom but was way off… the new one will work in the basement bathroom… still laughing about how far off I was on the match…

tried to fix my laptop to no avail… which is particularly sad, as Crystal had it so that WordPress would work before I played with it, sigh…

the rest of the day I watched more TV and napped…  I am getting rather used to the PVR…

got some good shots of the snow this morning, and still can’t believe there was more on the ground when I woke up…  although I think what fell since last night has all melted by now…

flowers blooming inside and snow covered outside...

flowers blooming inside and snow covered outside…

was given information from a friend in case anything happened to her… we talked a bit about the whole mortality thing…  and then I watched a show which talked about harvesting body parts… it felt rather close to home and I was wishing I had someone to talk to about it, but didn’t think calling one of the girls would be a good plan…

well, off to bed… maybe tomorrow the computer will get fixed…

fun times…

05 Friday Apr 2013

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had a lovely early birthday dinner out with the BSers… we went to Pad Thai and had a wonderful dinner, shared a couple of cards as we celebrated my birthday and another person’s retirement, and enjoyed lots of chat and laughter…

the BSers out for my early birthday dinner...

the BSers out for my early birthday dinner…

it is always entertaining to get the cards signed… whoever they are for pretends not to notice people signing and passing items under the table, or in a menu, lol…  part of the fun…

it was a great end to a rather strange and busy week…  don’t think we’ve ever been this early for a birthday celebration, but as Pat is in town this week, and we were all available, we went for it…

sadly we came outside to discover snow on the ground… it is April 5th, for goodness sake…

really...

really…

hoping that tomorrow it will all disappear…

technology…

04 Thursday Apr 2013

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can I just say that computers can make you crazy…

for three days now I haven’t been able to get to WordPress on my laptop…  now, I have access to the desktop computer, but unfortunately it doesn’t have any of my current pictures on it…

this has given me some lovely time going through older pictures and remembering things that happened, but it also has meant that it has taken much longer to write and post my blogs…

gorgeous huge hibiscus which we grew one summer...

gorgeous huge hibiscus which we grew one summer…

today at work, our scanner and fax wouldn’t work, because apparently MTS flicked a button last night which has caused problems for many, not just us…

the laptop is a whole other problem… I can’t get some sites open, but other sites open perfectly…

so I am heading downstairs to restart the router and see if that fixes the problem…  maybe the computers at work will be happy after a good night’s sleep, lol…

garden party with some great friends...

garden party with some great friends…

planning…

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

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spent some time in the hot tub tonight thinking about the garden… realized that I didn’t move the planter boxes under the deck, and empty out the pots around the yard like George would have… I hope that none of them will be cracked when the snow finally leaves… there is definitely less every time I come home from work these days, but there is still a lot to go…

still see a whole in the sky where this elm tree used to be...

still see a hole in the sky where this elm tree used to be…

considering changing the side garden… still getting used to the fact that it isn’t a shade garden anymore, now that the elm tree is gone… the barrel running into the kidney shaped pool just isn’t working and I am thinking about possible alternatives… hoping that the big pond will really get redone…  this might happen in June if all goes well…  I don’t want to get too excited about it after last year’s fiasco… but I do have a good feeling…

barrel and pond...

barrel and pond…

will need to find a gardener who can help me get everything in shape, and then I should be able to manage it for the remainder of the summer… last year I had a wonderful woman named Lynn, but I think it was too much for her… she did a great job of weeding and cleaning up the side garden particularly, as well as trimming the virginia creeper so that it didn’t get right out of hand…

must be spring, lol…

support…

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

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was talking with a woman who is coming up to the anniversary of her husband’s death… her colleagues have not been at all understanding or supportive of what she has gone through this past year…

made me realize how blessed I am to have such a wonderful work place… my colleagues have been there for me from the very beginning of this leg of my journey… I think about the visits by small groups of them during those first days, and how they brought all my favourite foods to try to temp my appetite… how they offered to do anything that would make our lives easier… how they welcomed me back into the fold with open arms when I returned to work…

and how they have been there for me every day as this year has unfolded… how they wore purple on the anniversary to let me know they were all thinking of our family on that fateful day…

wow… I wish that everyone worked in such a supportive environment…

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the garden…

01 Monday Apr 2013

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spent a lovely half hour in the hot tub this morning while the birds were singing in the sunshine… I love it when it is warm enough that the jets don’t run and I can enjoy the sounds…

then I did absolutely nothing for a good part of the day…  it was absolutely wonderful…

later I met with Byron, who is a landscaper and is going to redo the big pond in the garden… I am looking forward to seeing some designs in the next few weeks and hopefully the work will happen mid-June…

this is very exciting as last summer I thought I had a company to come and redo it but they never showed up…

the before shot...

the before shot…

George and I have designed and built (well mostly he did the work) our entire garden…  this particular pond is the focal point of the garden…  it has been there for at least fifteen years but for the last few the main portion has been leaking and we haven’t been able to fix it…

checking out the fish with the boys...

checking out the fish with the boys…

George always went on about how they were my ponds, but he spent a lot of time making sure the pumps were working, the plants were growing and that the fish were doing well… he enjoyed them just as much as me… he built a lovely deck that is sculpted to match the edge of the pond and this is my favourite spot to sit and relax and contemplate life…

looking forward to sitting back there soon… if the snow ever melts, lol…

Easter…

31 Sunday Mar 2013

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was a bit odd today…

spent a good portion of the day getting ready for dinner with the kids and our young friends… I do enjoy preparing the space and food and it was great to use the new table…

it was the first time in over thirty years that the Easter Bunny didn’t stop by… I had got some cute puppets for the boys from the Zoo store, but the Bunny never came by to hide any treats around the house…

Easter puppets for the boys...

Easter puppets for the boys…

we had a lovely dinner which everyone enjoyed and all the boys ate very well, which doesn’t happen that often… certainly not at the same meal…

Easter dinner with family and friends...

Easter dinner with family and friends…

we all cleaned up and the house is all tidy again…

after some wonderful conversations, everyone headed off, and I had a rest… four boys between the ages of two and seven can wear a person out, lol…

I am looking forward to resting up tomorrow…

 

 

putting things together…

30 Saturday Mar 2013

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bought a new dining room table from Ikea today… it was on special (not a sale, my daughter tells me)… it is replacing one we purchased from SuperValu (which tells you how long ago it was) a number of years ago…  that table is still good, but the top is badly scratched and marked up… it will go downstairs for crafts and games… we could put ten people at it but I think we can actually fit a few more at this new one…

things from Ikea come in many, many pieces and have to be put together… my son-in-law came by after work to help me… well, mostly he did the work and I stood there to provide support and pass tools or bits and pieces…

panorama of new Ikea table...

panorama of new Ikea table…

we talked about how George liked to put things together and when the two of them worked on something, it always went swimmingly…  sometimes when I would help him, it wouldn’t go so great…  why is it that often one’s partner just can’t do the correct thing when trying to work on a project together…

another view...

another view…

the exciting thing was that when we were finished we didn’t have any leftover pieces…

last Easter fun in the hot tub...

last Easter fun in the hot tub…

looking forward to having Easter dinner at the table tomorrow with family and some young friends…

last year was the first dinner we had since George died… I think that this year we will be able to celebrate him a bit easier…

the weather…

29 Friday Mar 2013

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wasn’t going to do anything today… a day to rest, as tomorrow and Sunday will be busy…

last night before bed I took some nice shots of the moon through some trees behind the house… I had been on my way to bed but it was so beautiful that I had to run and get my tripod and camera and take a few pictures…

moon through the trees...

moon through the trees…

so this morning when I woke up to fog, I took some pictures of that as well…

had a lovely time cleaning out a portion of a closet…  it was great fun to pack stuff up to give away, dump things into the recycling and garbage and find some space…

then I called and booked an appointment for a hair cut and purple and got in right away…  took my camera when I headed out because there was gorgeous hoarfrost on the trees…

the house with the lonely tree...

the house with the lonely tree…

after my hair appointment I drove through Assiniboine Park and took some pictures… later I spent quite a while on the computer uploading the pictures and organizing…

trees covered in hoarfrost...

trees covered in hoarfrost…

driving through the Park reminded me of the fun George and I would often have there… I took pictures of some trees that we often stopped at…

it was a lovely day… very re-creational…

UCC information…

28 Thursday Mar 2013

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Tuesday I received the UCC pension information in the mail… now this may seem like a normal thing, but I have been trying to get this information since about a month after George died…

Kingfisher Spa Massage Hut on the beach...

Kingfisher Spa Massage Hut on the beach…

I have spoken on the phone with a number of people over the past 10 months or so…  every one of them tells me they will request the information and I should get it in six to eight weeks… no, nobody said anything about six or eight months…

my last call was two weeks ago and a lovely man told me I would have the information within two weeks or he would give me a call back to clarify any issues which might cause a delay…

on our way home on Tuesday, my colleague and I were talking about the UCC pension plan and I was laughingly telling her she might never get the information that she was asking for (on behalf of her mother)…

when she dropped me off, I opened the mailbox and there was the envelope, lol… apparently we should have talked about this sooner…

now for my finance guy to review it and then we will decide what the next steps are… this is the last piece of information we have been waiting for as we have received all the other pension information about my options…

we have transferred his pensions over to me and moved money from this place to that… now we will figure out what the possibilities for travel and retirement are…

cruise ship off the beach in Mexico...

cruise ship off the beach in Mexico…

George would have liked to retire and travel… thanks to him, I will have a better opportunity for those things… already I have been to Mexico… and in a couple of months will be cruising to Alaska…

amazing how one’s life can change in a breath…