07 Sunday Jun 2020
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deconstruct, family, flowers, happy, moments, purple, smaller, vases, widow
took apart the last of my bouquet and made three smaller ones…
one for the bathroom…
one between the dining room and kitchen…
and the final one for the bedroom…
the original bouquet didn’t seem that purple, but purple has come out in the vases, lol…
31 Sunday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chinese food, dredged, family, fish, frog, garden, grandsons, leaves, lunch, moments, mowing, nature, pond, supper, treat, visit, water, widow
sitting by the pond after my visitors have left and enjoying the last bit of sunlight…
my water shoes are on the deck because I went into the pond once again and dredged up another pailful of leaves… the fish are still not coming out, but I did see the frog hop by earlier in the day…
all three of my grandsons came by just after noon… I made them grilled cheese sandwiches with the wonderful La Belle Baguette whole wheat sourdough that was delivered yesterday…
the oldest left, the middle one mowed the grass, front and back, while the youngest watered plants and pulled weeds…
some days it is hard to realize he is eleven and can reach and do more things…
after the work was done, relaxing happened and visiting took place…
this was the first time I’ve had people in the house and the system was they had access to the basement for cooling down and using the washroom and I had the main floor… worked perfectly…
we ordered Chinese food for supper and it arrived just before the daddy, who had been at work all day… afterwards my downspout got fixed, a stair board tightened and then off they went…
it was a treat to see them and I enjoyed every minute… I missed my nap, but plan on making it an early night;-)…
29 Friday May 2020
Posted in food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chihuly, chocolate, chocolate tasting, daughter, family, garden, happy, mail, masks, moments, purple, stickers, treats, widow
on Sunday as it was raining out a bit I came into the house and decided to do another of the puzzles from the Brain Games Sticker by Number In The Garden book that was one of the treats in the package that arrived from my daughter last Friday…
it included a number of items and was one (or two!) of my Advent All Year parcels:-)… she is trying to only go to the Post Office occasionally… besides the fun sticker book, there was a Chihuly postcard to colour, a Soma Coconut chocolate bar, a very cool magnetic bookmark, two face masks and a chocolate tasting!
pretty fine haul… we’d been expecting it since Tuesday and each day were disappointed when it didn’t arrive…
her app told her it had arrived and she texted and called me to check the mail as she didn’t want the chocolate to be out in the sun for too long, lol… she was on the phone as I brought it in and we had a lovely visit as I opened each piece of the package… right after we got off the phone, I did the first puzzle – a vase filled with lilacs, which we both love…
since then I’ve used the bookmark, eaten some of the chocolate bar but haven’t started on colouring the postcard… I haven’t been out yet so haven’t used the face masks, which one of her good friends made for me…
once she knew I had received the package she emailed me instructions on the chocolate tasting, which she had also sent to 3 friends in Winnipeg… I think we’ve also decided to do a Skype or Google Duo together for the chocolate tasting… should be fun…
not sure which picture I will do next:-)…
25 Monday May 2020
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, family, fish, garden, goldfish, grandsons, memories, moments, pond, pump, remembering, trepidation, waterfall, widow
with a bit of trepidation, a couple of days ago I put on my water shoes, climbed into the pond and removed a pail full of leaves and debris from around the sides and bottom…
I was worried about how slippery it might be and hoped I wouldn’t fall and bash my head on the rocks, lol… of course I didn’t, but I was also careful to move slowly and take breaks where I stood still, before moving on to the next area…
I cleaned around the pump and then added water to fill up the pond… it is still losing water, but at a much slower rate… now the problem seems to be the waterfall… it is not flowing as well as previously… possibly when I added the rock, the levelness might have changed, sigh…
the pond looks much better and I decided to try catching the fish in the tank and moving them outdoors… this isn’t a job I have ever done, as usually my beloved did it, with the help of the grandkids… since he’s been gone, my son-in-law has taken over this task, lol…
last night I caught one, and put it outside… took a while for it to find the hiding spot under the bridge, so I stayed and watched until it made it there… didn’t want a raccoon to come along and eat it…
today it took three tries to get the rest moved… when it came to the last, and largest, one, I got the big net from outside… when it was finally in the pail, it couldn’t swim straight because it is so big…
they are now all ensconced in the pond and I may not see them all summer if they decide to spend it all under the bridge…
had quite a mess to clean up in the house after the complicated catching process…
here are the last two joining their pals…
the pump stopped working so tomorrow I will have to pull it out and wash it down to clear out any bits and pieces… hopefully when it goes back in the waterfall will be stronger and fuller…
18 Monday May 2020
Tags
arrangement, big girl pants, bird feeders, blessed, family, garden, grandson, inukshuk, nature, oriole, personal shopper, shade, shopper, sun, sun shirt, widow
I spent the day in the garden… I stayed in the shade but eventually put on my sun shirt and a pair of long pants to be sure I didn’t get too much sun, as I was feeling it, even in the shade…
I’d sent my grandson a list of things I needed from various stores… currently our deal is that he has the use of my car and acts as my personal shopper;-)… he spent a good portion of the morning gathering things I haven’t been able to order online and then brought them to me in the afternoon…
we put away all of the goodies, made some adjustments to the bird feeders – excited to see if the slinky keeps away the squirrels – and had a wonderful visit… nice to have someone to talk with in person (at a safe distance)…
I was very clever and made an oriole feeder;-)… apparently they like oranges…
after supper he put the Inukshuk back together for me, as it had been in pieces, lol… too heavy for me to lift…
am blessed to have such a great kid in my life;-)…
16 Saturday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, hose, losing, memories, moments, pond, vanishing, water, waterfall, widow
I’ve been watching the pond since a week ago Friday, when my son-in-law got it running…
for the last few years when the waterfall is going water vanishes from the pond in a slow but steady manner…
same thing this year… Tuesday it was quite low, but the temperature was near zero so I was afraid to use the outside hose to top it up, but I was also afraid to turn it off in case water froze in the pump and wrecked it…
it was still cold Wednesday, but I had to do something otherwise the pump was going to be sucking air and then die…
after removing a connector which had broken over the winter and reattaching the hose to the main tap, I was able to get the hose running slowly and then more quickly once I was sure it wasn’t full of ice…
took quite a while to fill the pond, but I sat in the sun with a jacket on and watched for birds, lol…
then I placed a thin rock behind the waterfall so that the water would fall directly into the pond and not onto the pads behind it…
I was very excited, because I think this might make a difference to the vanishing water…
yesterday I topped it up again, but it is losing water way more slowly…
going to watch and see what happens…
13 Wednesday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, comfort, comfort food, family, food, meals, memories, remembering, supper, widow
had a bit of a giggle when I told my daughter that I had mushrooms and bacon with croutons for my supper recently…
she wondered if it was an actual meal…
I shared how it was certainly a meal when I was a teenager although then when my mom or dad made it, it was on toast, not with croutons…
so, for me it is comfort food… I feel that we are eating a lot of comfort food these days as we try to figure out what our next steps will be…
so many of the meals we ate a long time ago might not have been considered as nutritious as what is being eaten these days… I think of corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes, spaghetti and meatballs without any vegetables, macaroni and cheese on its own, lol… a lot more fresh veggies are part of our meals today…
but it is fun to remember, and recreate some of those old recipes…
10 Sunday May 2020
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, car, family, garden, happy, moments, pond, pump, rims, tires, waterfall, widow
had the loveliest surprise on Friday… my son-in-law and two of my grandsons arrived in my garden… the oldest grandson was picking up my car so that the winter tires can be removed and replaced with the summer beauties – they have wonderful rims…
I stayed on the deck and they stayed on the grass… it was wonderful to see them and we had a nice visit…
while they were here my son-in-law got the pump running in the pond… I am so happy to hear the water cascading over the rocks… there was ice in the water as it has been below zero for a couple of nights…
they got the tires into their vehicle and we had to ask the moving truck that was parked right at the bottom of my driveway to back up so the car could get out…
too funny considering I haven’t taken the car out in 52 days, and the one day it needed to move, there was a truck in the way, lol…
it was great to see them as we haven’t been together since just before Christmas…
23 Thursday Apr 2020
Posted in business, family, life, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, computer, family, geek, happy, internet, keyboard, laptop, moments, research, son-in-law, Technology, uninstall, widow
today I had some computer fun…
I was watching a program on TV and they were talking about better ergonomics while at home… one suggestion was to use something under your laptop to raise it to eye level which made sense, except typing would be a problem, lol… after a bit of testing, I discovered that three of my resource books have produced what might be the perfect height…
the second recommendation was to plug in a keyboard, duh… I dug one out and plugged it in and am so happy with the more traditional keyboard which I am used to… remembering a dear colleague, I found an elastic and wrapped up the extra cord behind the laptop… she would be proud:-)…
I’ve also been having constant issues with my internet connection… mainly on the laptop… I figured out the program that seemed to be stopping my connection and set up a phone call with my son-in-law (the computer geek) to get his input… it had something to do with VPN, and although I did research, it was still too confusing for me to go ahead and do something on my own…
after less than five minutes with him, I had uninstalled the problematic piece of software and it looks like everything is working beautifully… yay…
always a good day when the technology works or is improved!
13 Monday Apr 2020
Posted in family, food, life, moments, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chocolate, computer, daughter, Easter, family, Google Duo, options, Ottawa, son-in-law, supper, table, Technology, treat, widow
played with some technology so that I could have Easter dinner with the kids in Ottawa…
we tried two or three options and ended up using Google Duo… worked nicely, once we got it figured out after my son-in-law found it, lol…
they got a bit fancier with their table… I was focussed on getting the computer set up, lol…
I had roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnip, asparagus and cranberry jelly… they had homemade pasta, salad and chocolate bunnies:-)…
everything was delicious and it was a nice treat to eat with others…
