26 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bookcase, books, family, grandson, happy, imagined, moments, perfect fit, widow
so I’ve been thinking about where to put the 100 books, lol…
my housemate had a bookshelf stored elsewhere and we arranged to have it delivered…
it fit in the spot I’d imagined perfectly 😊…
took a while to empty the boxes and bag, but I was so happy when it was done…
and, in the end, the 100 books fit exactly…
25 Tuesday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, grandson, jigsaw, moments, project, rail, Technology, tools, toy, widow
in the final process of replacing the stairs to the side garden, we discovered we needed a jigsaw…
so, of course, we had to go shopping for a new toy, lol…
in the end we found a reciprocating saw which would work for the current project and a variety of future projects…
and I thought it was much cuter than a boring old jigsaw…
we have learned to always buy the same brand as our other battery operated tools😀…
and now, the deck, stairs and rail project is completed… yay…
19 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, deck, family, garden, grandson, moments, pond, snoopervise, widow
while I was away for a few days, the back deck got replaced…
it was interesting how nervous I felt, not being there to snoopervise, lol…
luckily, I received photos and was able to check some of the work with the garden camera🤪…
once that deck was finished, they moved on to the stairs and small deck which leads into the side garden…
when I got home, I checked both spots out and am very happy with the final product…
one single board needs to be screwed in on the stairs by the side deck…
I am feeling a bit melancholy as these are the last of the decks that my beloved built… all the rest have been redone…
even when I had the pond rebuilt, I had them leave that deck just as it was…
time moves on…
14 Friday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, food, health, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday, we went to Dairy Queen to get blizzards to support the Children’s Hospital Foundation…
it was all for the children… you have to do whatever is needed to be supportive 😂…
13 Thursday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, health, life, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
afternoon tea, Airbnb, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, moments, Technology, train, trip, Victoria BC, widow
my daughter recently sent me this postcard to remind me how close we are to our big trip…
for my birthday – the big 75 – I decided to take the train through the Rockies and visit gardens on Vancouver Island…
planning started last summer, and we had to book our train trip by December to be able to travel in September… crazy, lol…
next we searched for gardens that we would like to visit, besides the Butchart Gardens, which were first on the list…
then came looking at other spots in and around Victoria that we would like to see… we are going to have as many afternoon teas as possible, lol…
finding accommodations for our stay took a bit of work, but we found a lovely AirBnB close to the Butchart Gardens (and a Butterfly garden)… our second place to stay is a cute little hotel that faces the ocean in Victoria…
and finally, first class flights were booked back home… as I haven’t travelled for ages, the flights were covered by points… how cool is that;-)…
now to think about what I need to pack for a train trip and fall on Vancouver Island…
07 Friday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, goldfish, koi, nature, overwintered, plants, tiny, water lily, widow
the water lily that had overwintered in the house had been nearly completely eaten by the fish, likely the three koi…
I divided the lily into two and put them in little pots and sank them to the bottom of the pond…
one has been pulled out of its pot and eaten…
the second one has finally begun to send up teeny tiny leaves…
pretty sure there won’t be any flowers this year…
01 Saturday Aug 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fixed, garden, grandson, moments, temporarily, vinyl siding, widow
this morning my middle grandson arrived with a coworker to silicone the vinyl siding that he’d temporarily fixed a while ago…
they were here for less than fifteen minutes, and in that time fixed the siding and checked out an issue on the shed roof which he will come back to sort out when he has time…
and then, off they went 😊…
I certainly am blessed…
29 Wednesday Jul 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dwarf morning glory, envisioned, family, flowers, garden, nature, obelisk, plants, widow
I planted these morning glory seeds that my daughter sent to me from Ottawa as part of my Advent Calendar…
I didn’t read anything about them and envisioned they would grow up this obelisk…
apparently, they are dwarf morning glories…
and that means they don’t climb, lol…
25 Saturday Jul 2026
Posted in family, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chocolate, chocolate-covered, family, grandson, macadamia nuts, sarong, sea turtle, spoiled, widow
my housemate was away on vacation and just returned…
I was treated to an absolutely beautiful kitchen towel that has a sea turtle on it…
a light and airy sarong…
and 3 boxes of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts…
Costco used to carry them in a big plastic jug, but they haven’t had them for ages…
talk about spoiled 😊…
21 Tuesday Jul 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, grandson, moments, silicone, vinyl siding, widow
I was surprised today when my middle grandson arrived…
I had messaged him on Sunday about a piece of siding that looked to be coming off the house and I was worried it might come right down…
today, he stopped by on his way home from work to check it out and see if he could fix it…
with a little bit of ingenuity, he managed to get the piece of vinyl back up, although we will need to pick up a tube of silicone and he will come back and do a permanent fix…
my job, when anyone is on the ladder, is to hold the sides and make sure the bottom of it is flat, lol…
herbiggirlpants 