13 Sunday Oct 2024
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cheated, dinner, family, food, lobster, moments, pie, steak, thanksgiving, weather, widow
for Thanksgiving dinner we had steak and lobster… enjoyed setting the table a little fancier than normal..
a fun change, and happy to have the steak grilled..
and it was delicious…
as was the cute little half pumpkin pie for dessert, lol…
even cheated and used canned whipped cream, which saved time and energy;-)…
11 Friday Oct 2024
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
alert, big girl pants, blessed, bracelet, Calgary, catch up, family, moments, purple, sister-in-law, time, widow
on Monday, I had a lovely visit with my sister-in-law who was in from Calgary for the weekend…
it is always fun to catch-up in person…
and she brought me this beautiful amethyst bracelet…
how blessed am I;-)…
09 Wednesday Oct 2024
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, family, garden, gather, moments, nature, out-of-town, Technology, The Leaf, walk, widow
another wonderful visit to The Leaf… this time with family from out-of-town…
we were there Monday, just after eleven and it wasn’t crowded… we began with a quick walk through the Diversity Gardens…
inside the Tropical Biome, we stopped to visit the three cacao trees, lol…
we had a great time in the Mediterranean Biome checking out the new display – Yasuragi: The Gardens of Japan…
I will be coming again and again to enjoy this serene spot…
from there we had lunch at Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar… delicious, as always…
a visit to the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden, where there were many varieties of butterflies, ended our time before we walked home…
certainly a delightful way to spend the day…
08 Tuesday Oct 2024
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cut down, family, garden, growing, moments, nature, removed, sapling, stump, tree, widow
well, this was a lovely treat…
I’ve been wanting this sapling alongside of the garage to be cut down for ages…
it seems to get cut down on a fairly regular basis, but then grows back, lol…
now it has been chopped…
the trick will be to see if we can stop the stump from growing more branches, lol…
05 Saturday Oct 2024
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, moments, nature, solar, sound, sprinkler, water, weather, widow
for the last few weeks I have been annoyed by a sound I could hear on the deck…
it sounded like wood rubbing against something…
I have walked all around, looking and listening with no success as I’ve tried to figure out what it was…
on Friday I asked my housemate if he could figure it out…
it took him all of two minutes to point out the solar floating sprinkler, which was sitting upside down on a corner of the deck, mainly in the shade…
apparently, a bit of it was catching the sun’s rays and causing it to attempt to run, which caused the sound…
it has now been moved into the garage and there is blissful silence on the deck;-)…
04 Friday Oct 2024
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bridge, family, fishtanks, fixed, grandson, happy, hue, light, lightstrip, moments, remembering, stairs, Technology, widow
during the basement changes the Philips Hue was unplugged…
once we realized that some of the lights weren’t working, it was plugged back in, but it would not start up again…
apparently this does happen, so we ordered a new one…
it arrived on Thursday and my grandson connected it and then had to add all of the units back in, lol…
took a while, but eventually everything was back up… then I added them to the automations and adjusted all their colours… kept having to add more units to the automations, as I remembered which ones were in which…
I was very happy because the lightstrip that runs up the stairs had been off and it has been the nightlight when I am using the stairs at night…
the lightstrip that goes over the fishtanks has been on all the time, so it was good to get it back to being off at night…
I do love technology;-)…
03 Thursday Oct 2024
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
always learning, big girl pants, blessed, family, friends, garden, gathering, grandson, moments, nature, orange, time, TRW, widow
on Monday we gathered at our usual time, all wearing our orange shirts…
before we started, my grandson took a few minutes to take our photo…
we do like to commemorate our gatherings, lol…
during the previous week there had been some interesting TRW lunch and learns which provided some information we hadn’t known before…
it is always good to come together and share our lives and talk about what is going on in the world…
02 Wednesday Oct 2024
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, busy, cleaning, family, garden, gardening, grandson, lively, moments, moving, mudding and taping, plants, Technology, weather, widow
Wednesday was a lively day…
started off with an early breakfast and quick inspection of the house to make sure everything was tidy as the cleaners were coming at nine…
it was raining out when they arrived so I headed up to the computer room to get out of their way… while there I filed paperwork, put items in a pass-along box and tidied the desk… it always surprises me how that desk can get cluttered, all by itself, lol…
as they left, Hilda the Gardener arrived for a final cleanup of the garden… pots and planters were emptied in preparation for our next season, irises were planted around the garden, and the strawberry plant went back into the ground to overwinter…
while she was here, my grandson’s grandfather arrived to work a bit on the newly drywalled sections of the basement…
as they were working inside and outside, I began bringing in the plants that will live indoors during the next few seasons and setting them up in their winter locations…
this year I have set up a few grow lights in the spot where the small fish tank had been located… it will be an interesting experiment to see how they will do in this location…
so, the inside and outside of the house are both lovely, tidy, clean and organized…
then I had a nap;-)…
01 Tuesday Oct 2024
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, changes, family, fireplace, friends, grandson, maneuver, memories, moments, remembering, widow
the fireplace is gone…
in 2019 the chimney came down…
currently my grandson is redoing his space and part of the plan was to remove the fireplace to make a bit more room, as it was a corner unit…
it was quite the job, as they had to saw through the pipe where it went through the wall…
then they recruited some additional muscle and rigged up ropes to help with the weight of the unit… quite a process…
it was touch and go as they maneuvered the stairs and just made it through the doorway…
from the door to the garage was a piece of cake, lol…
now it is waiting for a new home… hopefully someone out there will be able to make use of it;-)…
I don’t remember it being so difficult to bring into the house, but that was years ago when my beloved brought it in😊…
22 Sunday Sep 2024
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
belt, big girl pants, blessed, drum, dryer, family, grandson, Hameed Appliances Repair, moments, repair, Technology, widow
on Tuesday, September 11, the dryer stopped working… they had been here almost exactly a year ago to repair it the last time it stopped working… at that time it needed a belt somewhere in the back…
my grandson took a look and discovered that the belt that goes around the drum had broken… he looked on YouTube and figured he could fix it if we got the part…
I contacted Hameed Appliances Repair by email and asked if we could just get the part or whether they needed to come out to fix it…
they were quick to respond and agreed to drop off the part the following Monday once they received it…
$30 later, and six days without a dryer, the part was delivered to the house…
we were very happy, but when my grandson looked at it he realized it wasn’t the correct belt…
this time he contacted them by phone as I wasn’t sure what was wrong with the one we got, lol…
after a conversation with them, including sending photos, they ordered a different belt and it was delivered on Friday…
as soon as my grandson got home he headed to the dryer and with me holding the top open, and him following a YouTube video, he had it attached in about fifteen minutes…
and it is working perfectly… now he says he is an appliance repair person, lol…
eventually we realized that my description hadn’t been clear enough and they had sent the same belt that was used to repair it the first time…
even though it took quite a while to get it all sorted out, I was pleased that they hadn’t insisted that they needed to come out and fix it;-)…
herbiggirlpants 