03 Tuesday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
the weather has been decidedly crazy lately…
last week I wore sandals to work… since then there have been threats of snow almost daily…
happily, for many of the days, at least the sun was shining…
nearly everyone I talk to has been feeling crummy with the up and down temperatures… hard to know whether to wear a light jacket, the middle jacket or the really heavy duty cold one…
hard to believe we haven’t had much snow at all this winter considering that it’s been so cold…
crazy…
05 Monday Feb 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
happy that my grandson made it over on Sunday to shovel…
he drove his brother to a birthday party and then came to get the job done…
it was really cold out… it was -27 when I wrote this but quite a bit colder while he was here…
a few days ago it snowed for most of the morning, but lightly, so there wasn’t too much to remove… I was very happy because it is always nice to have the sidewalks and driveway clean for everyone…
after he finished, we had lunch, he studied and I read, until he had to go back and pick up the little guy…
03 Wednesday Jan 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, family, furnace, fuse, nest, process, son-in-law, thermostat, widow, wire, work
so the smoke detector was installed on Thursday afternoon… and I am loving it… a cute little ring of blue (a nightlight) appears when I walk under it… so far no alarms, which is good, nor has it talked to me yet…
on Friday my son-in-law went out and found the Nest thermostat at a good price and on Saturday he began the process of installing it…
it was a long complicated piece of business… by 7 pm that night, it was 63 degrees Fahrenheit in the house because after the first install, and putting back the original thermostat, the furnace refused to circulate any heat… the furnace service people came out around 8 pm and discovered that a fuse had blown, so they went back to the shop and brought a new one and installed it… this particular fellow didn’t know how to install the Nest product so we left it so that the house could warm up… it was rather chilly…
on Tuesday my son-in-law tried again, after he had gone out and bought more fuses, in case we blew another one in the process of hooking up the new thermostat…
once again, the new one wouldn’t work so he reinstalled the old one… he walked over to the furnace company’s office and left a message for the owner to give us a call… a while later we heard back and they figured out that there needed to be another wire…
which meant that the drywall ceiling in the basement hall had to come down so he could run the cable… he removed it and cleaned everything up beautifully, but by then it was too late to move to the next step…
today, while I was at work, he was able to pull the wire (without cutting into the plaster in the hall, yay), connect everything, and set the temperature, because it finally worked perfectly…
we added it to my app and I can now change the temperature from my phone… although it does say it is -8 outside, whereas the weather app says it is -22, lol…
seemed like such a simple little job, but he didn’t stop until it was done;-)… I sure am blessed…
30 Saturday Dec 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, boots, Canadian Footwear, castles, chocolate, cold, ice, membership, sign, widow
out and about today…
found some warm and non-skid boots for my daughter at Canadian Footwear… they still measure your feet there… who knew… these will keep her on her feet when there is ice on the sidewalks in Ottawa…
had a lovely visit and some delicious hot chocolate with Constance as we browsed and found just the chocolate that we needed at Chocolatier Constance Popp…
stopped in at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to pick up my membership…
got a few pictures with the Winnipeg sign, being as we’ve done the Ottawa and Kingston ones, lol… a lot warmer when we did them… there is a new ice rink in front of the sign now… very cool…
and then popped over to see the ice castles, although they don’t open for another week… already look spectacular…
pictures came out rather well considering that my glasses were foggy from the cold…
pretty full morning…
16 Saturday Dec 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, burgers, cold, grandson, memories, power, quiet, shopping, snow, walk, widow
bit of an odd day… woke up at 6:15, made a thermos of tea and went back to bed… it had snowed a bit in the night…
at 7:30 the power went off and didn’t come back on for two hours… happy to have the warm tea as the temperature in the house dropped to 69 Celcius…
it is always so quiet when the power is off… and with the fresh blanket of snow it felt very cozy… particularly because I didn’t have to go out…
once the power was back on I spent some time working on a project and later met up with my daughter and eldest grandson at the mall… oh my… what was I thinking…
cars and people everywhere… good news is that I now have just about everything I need…
stopped to pick up A & W teen burgers, onion rings and fries and then home… teen burgers from A & W were a treat we would sometimes have on our way home from work… nice to enjoy them with my grandson who is spending the night and helping me with some chores around the house tomorrow…
a number of people say he looks just like my beloved;-)…
15 Friday Dec 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, cold, fingers, friend, gloves, lunch, membership, purple, widow
a few days ago I walked over to TheForks to meet a dear friend for lunch…
on my way I got this shot of the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights… it is such a beautiful building… just yesterday I renewed my membership…
it was a lovely day but a bit cold… I was wearing these amazing purple leather gloves which a friend gave me a few years ago… they look great but are not tremendously warm… so eventually I pulled the sleeves down over my fingers to keep them toasty…
looked just like my eight year old grandson, lol…
17 Sunday Sep 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, chicken soup, cold, dizzy, dumplings, ear, widow
yesterday I did very little as I am dealing with a cold which has invaded my ear and made me rather dizzy…
the only thing I managed was to make some chicken soup…
didn’t even get out of my nightie… had some fun using the 10 second timer to take the picture on my iPhone, lol… thankfully no one came to the door…
had enough to fill 3 containers with plain soup and then made my mom’s dumpling recipe to go in the remainder of the soup…
one bowlful for my supper and a container which I had for lunch today…
my Friday night supper from SkipTheDishes worked for 3 meals… supper, part of my breakfast, and then lunch;-)…
really happy that I did that because the weekend has been very low key…
15 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, cold, colours, cool, Friday, overcast, SkipTheDishes, sky, virginia creeper, widow
this morning the sky was overcast and dull…
and it was rather cool…
got a few pictures of the Virginia creeper growing up the fireplace chimney at the front of the house…
the colours sure are cool…
very happy that it is Friday… seems like it has been a long week…
I am getting the start of a cold, which is not cool, sigh, so I treated myself to a lovely Thali dinner via SkipTheDishes…
26 Wednesday Jul 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
air conditioning, beloved, big girl pants, cold, cool, George, morning glories, purple, widow, windows
last week I gave in and turned on the air conditioner to cool down the house…
George and I would always struggle over when to put it on, at what temperature and when to turn it off…
at night I would want to turn it off and open the windows to let in fresh air… he would want to keep it on with all the windows closed to keep the cool/cold air in the house…
made for interesting conversations, lol… I would be so happy to still be able to have one of those conversations…
another negative is once you get into the cool house you don’t want to go outside again…
since turning it on, I’ve been leaving the house closed up during the day and the temperature not too cold… at night I’ve been opening the windows to let in the fresh air…
this shot of one of the morning glories today reminded me not to hide in the house but to get outside and enjoy the peace and beauty of the garden…
22 Monday May 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blooming, cold, English Garden, groceries, nap, overcast, rain, Save-On-Foods, seafood, tree, walk, widow, wind
another overcast and rainy day… but, I decided to go for a walk anyway…
made it to the Park and part way around the Gardens before the rain began…
took at least six pictures, from various locations, of this tree in bloom… just stunning…
this shot has tulips and lilacs… the pond on the right is now filled with water and the fountains are running… excited for the water lilies to be added in…
this year the tulips are red and white, I’m thinking a nod to Canada 150… usually they are multi-coloured…
had to open the zoom and dry the camera when I got home to be sure it wasn’t damaged by the rain…
had some tea to warm my hands which felt frozen by the time I got home…
went to Save-On-Foods and did a grocery shop… been enjoying shopping there… they have the very best coconut Greek yogurt… with a low sugar content… they also carry the Pro Activ margarine that can be difficult to find… was nearly blown away trying to get to the car with the bags…
got home, put away the groceries and had a nap…
focused on seafood for the week’s meals…
made jumbo prawns with rice, fresh asparagus and green onion for dinner…
