nature’s beauty…

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a few days ago I took this picture with my phone as I was heading down the stairs… since then the temperate has been a bit warmer, the sun has been shining and sadly this effect on the pergola is gone…

lacy effect for a few short days...

lacy effect for a few short days…

sitting in the hot tub I have enjoyed the beauty of the snow… seems like mountains of it this year… at night it is particularly lovely…

I was very excited tonight as we turned down the street to discover that the huge ruts at the corner were gone… it had come to the point that my colleague who I ride with wasn’t able to take the turn for fear it would harm her vehicle… we had tried a couple of other routes, but the ruts have been gigantic and the bottom of her car has been rubbing all the way down the street… today the street is cleaned right to the concrete…

I’m hoping to see a bunny when I go out for a hot tub tonight… when the kids slept over they saw one late at night, eating seeds that the birds had tossed out of the feeder…  I often see bunnies in both gardens in the summer, but not during the winter…

been thinking of a couple of people who have or will be travelling today or tomorrow and hoping that the weather doesn’t cause any problems for them… some are travelling around the province, some to Saskatchewan and one to Asia… seems to be lots of coming and going in my life just now…

wonderful curled leaves, almost as if we'd used the scissors on them...

wonderful curled leaves, almost as if we’d used the scissors on them…

oopsie…

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usually my kids come for dinner on Sunday… a few times when we’ve had payday Chinese dinner on a Friday they haven’t…

early Sunday morning I dug out a chicken from the freezer and peeled potatoes, assuming they were coming, but wasn’t in touch with them…

just after noon I discovered that they wouldn’t be here but I carried on with making the roasted chicken and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy…

it was kind of lonely without them and very odd to eat this type of meal all on my own…

so, in the end we had leftover roast chicken and all the fixings for our dinner on Tuesday which worked out well as George and I both loved roast chicken…

been thinking about how hard the last few days have been, but really, they were no comparison to what we went through last year…

now that we have made it past the anniversary of George’s death, I am feeling a bit more relaxed and looking to enjoy what each day brings…

tonight I am enjoying the gift of blooms… usually this cactus only has one or two flowers…

tons of blooms in these days of moving forward...

tons of blooms in these days of moving forward…

what a day…

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this morning, as I sat at my desk trying to stay composed, my colleagues all gathered around my desk, and before they could say anything I was crying…  they were all wearing something purple, from clothing to pieces of jewellery… one had on a blue top which reminded me of how she mentally holds people in a blue blanket when they are in need of prayer…

colleagues wearing at least one purple item...

colleagues each wearing at least one purple item…

now you don’t see many pictures of me, but I am a bit purple-crazy… I nearly always wear something purple – have purple highlights in my hair, purple glasses, shoes, jackets, tops, etc, etc…

I was wearing a new top that one of them had given me the day before and she shared the story of going to one of her favourite stores and telling them she was looking for a purple top to wear for this day at work… everyone in the store went on a hunt to find her just the right piece of clothing, and then found something for me as well… and to top it off they gave her a bag of purple jewellery, in case someone didn’t have anything purple…  so now I have a collection of purple jewellery at my desk for days when people have a need to be purple-y

it was a lovely gesture of solidarity on the part of my colleagues… I already knew that they were all thinking of me… it was a touching moment…

my kids picked me up from work and we stopped to get milkshakes to have with our dinner… George did enjoy a good milkshake… while we was warming up the leftover roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing – and pepperoni pizza – a couple of the boys were outside snow blowing and shovelling…

leftover chicken and pizza... with milkshakes...

leftover chicken and pizza… with milkshakes…

Cyndi joined us by FaceTime from Calgary and we all had roast chicken leftovers for dinner… Ron joined us after we were finished by phone from Courtenay…  we gathered in the living room and remembered special things about Grandpa…

everyone would have given anything to have had him with us… we remembered his grumbling, playing in the garden without a shirt, cleaning up after dinner, snow blowing and shoveling, the way he could figure out exactly what was needed to complete a project, and just having him to talk with…  some could barely talk…

Cyndi and Ron with us to remember George...

Cyndi and Ron with us to remember George…

it was a wonderful collection of memories, and a great way to commemorate this day…

hard day, but good night…

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it has been a hard day but a good night… there were tears throughout…

friends and colleagues have been emailing and sending prayers and thoughts, which is wonderful, but also difficult…

although the anniversary of George’s death is tomorrow, it was on a Monday evening that he died…  my BS friends were at my house when the police came…

the officers drove me and one of my friends to the hospital advising that it appeared that George had suffered a heart attack and had been taken by ambulance to the hospital…  they didn’t know anything further…

the drive to the hospital was slow, which did make me wonder if they knew more than they were saying, and when we arrived the staff took us right through to the room where he was…  as soon as I walked into the room I knew that he was dead… they had intubated him and the tube wasn’t connected to anything…  I think the hospital people assumed the police had told me, but they hadn’t…

my friend stepped out and the doctor came to speak with me and advised that George had had a massive heart attack and they had done everything they could, but weren’t able to revive him…

then I had to call my daughters… thankfully the one here was home with her husband, so she had some support to receive such horrible news… my other daughter was home alone in BC, as her husband was across the country on a training course, and after we spoke she tried to find him but it took hours for her to be able to speak with him…  both calls were unbearable…

I remember everything from that evening and much from the following days…  I remember sending the email to those who needed to know… I remember way too much, and I forgot lots too…

we will commemorate this sad anniversary tomorrow night with dinner with all the kids…  the ones from away will be on Skype or Facetime so that we can be together…

I sit here with a piece of butter tart square (one of George’s favourites) and a little glass of Baileys after my BS buddies have gone home… the streets are deep with snow, but they came anyway and brought flowers and memories…

lovely flowers from my BS friends...

lovely flowers from my BS friends…

we talked about how George would often stand in the doorway to the living room to greet everyone before I would send him down to the basement so that we could have our time together… how when we had our dinner last week no one other than me could even mention him, but that everyone was thinking of him… how I had set the table so no one could sit in his place…

and the miracle that they were here with me when the police arrived…

we talked about the fact that a year has gone by but it also feels like just yesterday… and all the things that I have accomplished in that time…

I have grown tremendously in this past year, from necessity, but I remember my beloved every single day and all the special ways that he looked after me and those around me…

a year can go by in the blink of an eye…  remember to tell those around you how much you care…

adventure…

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my friend picked me up and we headed out to get another friend before meeting the other BSers at a local restaurant for a birthday celebration lunch…

for a number of years we would purchase a gift for the birthday person and it became a very difficult process as we really all have everything we need or want…  so it has moved to doing whatever the birthday person would like to do, and usually includes eating out…

we were celebrating two birthdays because we hadn’t been able to make up our minds about what we would like to do or find a time…

on our way we drove up a street one over from our friend’s house and ended up in front of a woman in a van who got stuck in the ruts on the street…  right now many streets have deep ruts due to all the snow we’ve had lately…

the snow is above the heron's belly... first time ever...

the snow is above the heron’s belly… first time ever…

we sat and waited a few minutes as she struggled to get her vehicle out, but between the ruts, her lack of skill and the car parked behind her, she was having a rough time… finally we got out and went to help…  she was a young mom with at least 2 kids in the car… we tried directing and pushing the van as she tried to move it, but we weren’t quite strong enough… eventually a neighbour came out and he actually lifted the van as we pushed, and we finally got it moved…  it was quite the adventure…

once again it made me appreciate that I am completely over my surgery and well enough to be able to push a van with no side effects…

thanks be…

very full day…

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wow, been quite a day…

the kids all slept over last night and the adults headed off for a couple of days of snowboarding around eight this morning…

cleaning the tank...

cleaning the tank…

the little boys spent the morning with me and we cleaned the fish tank – something they always did with Grandpa, fed the fish, read books, did a puzzle and watched cartoons…

after which we fed them...

after which we fed them…

they were picked up just after noon and I headed out for a birthday lunch with my BS buddies…  we had a lovely time after which I went to a purse party with one of the group…  we had to head out of the city for about half an hour and it was a good day for a drive…

we shopped and had lots of fun and returned home slightly poorer, but with some very nice items ordered…

once home, I headed to bed for a nap because the littlest boy was up a few times during the night and I had a very difficult time getting to sleep… and of course waking up at 6:30 didn’t help either, lol…

I had thought that the coming anniversary of George’s death wasn’t going to be that difficult to deal with, but my level of anxiety has been rising since yesterday… I am not looking forward to Tuesday, but also want to commemorate George’s passing…

last year's February sleep-over...

last year’s February sleep-over…

I hope that the next few days will be filled with calm and happy memories…

Sounding Board…

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a few days ago I was told something that really ticked me off…  what I needed was to talk the matter over with someone – that would have been George…  made me realize how much I miss him…  I would have vented, he would have made all the appropriate noises, or said something about how dumb the situation was and got all mad about it, wanting to protect me, but not knowing exactly how to do that…

I wasn’t able to talk the situation over with anyone and it really ate at me… finally I was able to get another person’s opinion and then let it go…

another example of some of the simplest but most important things that are now in a deep empty place…

the house is full tonight, with a family sleepover, as the big kids plan to leave the little kids here in the morning and head out for some snow boarding…

 

lonesome tulip...

lonesome tulip…

but it also feels kind of empty…

my car…

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went to Woodhaven Toyota a few weeks ago… they had sent out an email to owners of 2010 Corollas advising they needed them to sell and would give a great deal…

took my daughter and met with a young man who got us into the 2013 Corolla S, for a test drive… it was fine, but not that different from my current car…

their numbers weren’t that great, basically they were going to give $1500 towards   a credit or new vehicle lease…  the last time we were there, they were able to lower our payments and give us a newer vehicle… not so much this time…  the other piece of information I learned was that my lease, which I thought was up this year,  isn’t up until 2014…

he also advised that my car would be worth less because it had been in an accident – when George had his heart attack he drifted over the curb and into a fence… this piece of information kind of made me mad, because when I went in to have the lease changed from George’s name to mine, and I asked about it, the fellow I spoke with advised that the accident wouldn’t change the value of the car at all…  they also didn’t seem to feel that the 16,000 mileage was a selling benefit…

stock shot of the car...

stock shot of the car…

I thought about what they had to say and have decided they don’t really want my 2010 that bad, and I will keep it until the lease is up…

 

Moon set…

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had a wonderful time early this morning watching the moon set…

was ready for work early and was sitting checking out Facebook when I looked up and saw a beautiful moon…  I took the next twenty minutes to dig out my tripod, set it up and get some great shots as it went down…

just going below the trees.

just going below the trees.

it always amazes me how quickly the moon appears to move… at night, in the hot tub I can tell how long I’ve been out just by watching where the moon is in the sky…

through the trees...

through the trees…

I hadn’t taken any shots out the back when it was at its peak the night before…

going down...

going down…

what a wonderful treat to start the day…

 

Tweeting…

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tonight I walked part way home after getting a much needed haircut…as I walked along the sidewalks in the warm sunshine, I could hear birds chirping and tweeting to one another…  it was lovely to realize how close spring is…

as I was sitting in the hot tub a few minutes ago I was looking at the bird feeder… there were no birds as it was already dark, but there is lots of proof that they have been here… the ground is covered with shells from sunflower seeds…

it reminded me of the amazing sight this summer of the five goldfinch males at the feeder at the same time…

the fifth one was around back...

the fifth one was around back…

and also of some of the cool birds we saw in Mexico…

beautiful black and blue Yucatan Jay...

beautiful black and blue Yucatan Jay…

beautiful blue parrot looking right at me...

beautiful blue parrot looking right at me…

I wonder what feathered friends I will spot at the feeders in the coming weeks…