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~ the new reality of a "70 something"

herbiggirlpants

Tag Archives: friends

witness…

22 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, carols, chocolate shop, Decadence Chocolate, friends, house sit, husband, Stella's Bakery, sunrise, treat, widow, witness, wrapping

full day of fun…

up just in time to witness the beautiful sunrise…

we had smoothies to start our day… hers had fruit in it to sweeten it up a bit…

my daughter headed out with friends for the day…and I finished off the wrapping as the carols pumped out of the iPod…

all done and packed up ready to go…

we met up in the afternoon and visited a local chocolate shop and a bakery…

picked up her husband when he landed and had a tasty treat…

they have headed off to house sit and I am relaxing in front of the box…

now for a quiet evening…

gifts…

17 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, friends, gifts, group, memories, order in, SkipTheDishes, treats, widow

wonderful time with my BS buddies this morning…

we weren’t all available this coming Monday evening, our usual time to gather… so we arranged to meet today…

when we come together for a meal we usually go out to a restaurant, but we decided to meet here and ordered breakfast from The Original Pancake House, using SkipTheDishes…

it was great… I had my favourite chicken livers and others had crepes and pancakes… even the eggs that came were beautifully cooked… we had a wonderful visit as we ate and shared gifts…

these women are an integral part of my life and spending time with them is always a gift… we’ve met most Monday evenings for years and have shared everything, from the everyday through children’s shenanigans and growing pains, work changes and life changing events…

we try to get a photo when we have one of these special gatherings, could be Christmas, or a birthday celebration… nearly forgot today… thankfully the youngest one remembered, lol…

lots of laughter as we set up and tried to get a good remote shot, lol…

we don’t need gifts, but some of us — me especially — love them… they come from the heart… today there was fruit bread and shortbread, jam, soup mix and chocolate, lotions and towels, donations, ornaments and beautiful cards…

so blessed to have these moments together…

shower…

02 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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Baby, beloved, big girl pants, friends, gifts, party, shower, special people, widow

what a lovely time tonight… a group of sixteen gathered to celebrate the coming birth of a baby… pretty cool timing, eh…
had a cup of tea and looked over the space before everyone arrived…

we had lots of fun, conversation, good food and there were some great gifts as well…

this was the first big party that I’ve hosted since my beloved left me…

it might have been here, but there were many others who helped make it a success… from the planning team who decided on each step of preparation, to the friends who came and helped with Christmas decorating, to the ones who set up the planter, to the ones who made the centrepieces, to the ones who came at noon and helped with salad prep, to the ones who picked up the pasta and organized the kitchen… to the ones who brought various bits and pieces of yummy treats and gifts, to the ones who cleaned up and left the house the same as it was before anyone arrived…

my life is filled with such special people… 

decorations…

27 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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Advent, big girl pants, bubbles, Christmas, decorations, feather, friends, glitter, pottery, purple, trees, widow

what a wonderful afternoon… two dear friends came over to help me put up my Christmas decorations… one focussed on the living room and the other made the pottery on the dining room wall sparkle… we had such fun and great conversation as we worked away… well, mostly they worked, and I sat on the couch… my knee was not happy with the fall yesterday…

one tree went into the bay window inside one of my favourite sleighs… two of the drawers in the table were filled with silver and purple ornaments…

the second tree went across the room next to an angel and a large purple glitter ball…

purple feather trees and a family-made nativity lamp go together beautifully…

the stunning glitter trees with glass reindeer are lovely on the fish tank… of course there is glitter everywhere on the main floor now, lol…

these bubbles have lived in the dining room window at Christmas for the last three years… love how they look with the various ribbons that hold them up…and they reflect so nicely…

and all the pottery looks beautiful, newly organized in the nooks…

things can look so different from another viewpoint…

now all that’s needed are my advent boxes;-)…

embrace…

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, ChefsPlate, De Luca's, Embrace, friends, ladybug, moments, tempeh, widow

spent last night with my amazing friends… to celebrate a birthday we went to De Luca’s Cooking School for dinner… we were lucky to have the birthday woman’s sister with us as well…

the demonstrations of the various courses by Chef Anna Paganelli were wonderful and the commercials by Tony De Luca were informative and funny…

we received all of the recipes and had them to follow along with during the preparation phase of each course…

my absolute favourite was the Farfalle with Vodka Porcini Cream Sauce… my oh my, was that ever delicious… 

a lovely treat and we all enjoyed it… might need to get a small bottle of vodka so I can make this… although whether it would taste as good is a question, lol…

tonight I made Tempeh Tikka Masala with heirloom carrots, whole wheat couscous and curry dressing… I am really enjoying the process of preparing the recipes from the ChefsPlate boxes…

first time I’ve had tempeh… still a bit unsure about how I feel about it but want to try it again…

my company tonight was this little ladybug…

happy to try new things… makes for special moments… and I continue to embrace those moments… hope you are able to as well…

camping, day 8…

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, boat, camping, camping day 8, ducks, friends, loon, Milky Way, space station, sunset, toys, widow

another day in paradise…

about 12:30 am my grandson came and woke me… we went out and looked at the stars… saw the space station going over and the Milky Way…

took a while to get to sleep after that because I was so pumped… tonight we have removed a portion of the tent cover so I will be able to watch them from the comfort of my bed;-)…


we slept in after that and didn’t get up until 8:45, when the groundskeepers decided to start mowing the grass in the campground…

saw the ducks at the beach and my grandson took a few pictures… so I got one of him…


I had cereal for breakfast but everyone else had s’more cakes, ie. pancakes with Reece’s spread and roasted marshmallows… very popular…


and then the loon started calling… close to us… and there it was in the water just off our site…


so pleased with the pictures… this was the very first one…


on the water again in the boat, and today I had fun on the tube with the oldest grandson and then all on my own… going very slowly, lol…

friends joined us and the kids had a blast with all the water toys…



great fun for everyone…

tonight after a supper of perogies, onion, bacon, cauliflower and pea pods got this lovely shot of the sun as it was setting…


every evening the sunsets have been beautiful… the weather has been excellent which certainly helps make the time enjoyable…

thunderstorms…

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, friends, hail, moments, rain, sky, thunderstorms, weather, widow, wise, wonderful

interesting weather day…

started off at 19 Celsius and sunny… but it did say something about thunderstorms later in the day…

when I got into the car at the end of the day it registered 32 and the sky was starting to get dark, but it didn’t rain on my drive…

once I was home and ate my dinner the rain began…


not that we really need more rain… the hibiscus has many yellow leaves from too much water…

and then the sky opened up and dumped so fast that it was difficult to see out the window and it looked like smoke was coming from the neighbour’s roof as the wind blew the rain across it…


it didn’t hail here, although it certainly made me think it was going to… but it did about 15 streets to the west…

by the time my friends arrived it had stopped raining and while we were visiting the sky started to clear and the sun came out…

when they left the sun was shining from the backside of the clouds so I had to get a picture of the lovely pink highlights…


always think how lovely it is to be able to enjoy these special moments in time… not only the weather but the opportunity to spend time with these wonderful and wise women…

friends…

02 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, bunny, dragonflies, duck, English Garden, friends, George, Leo Mol Garden, missing, recovery, walk, widow

yesterday I discovered this plaque that a dear friend had given to me… it had come down from the bedroom wall four years ago when my older daughter arranged for her friends to come and paint the room for me before my surgery… the bedroom had been looking very worn and we knew I would be spending a lot of recovery time in it…


when I discovered it yesterday it went right down into the bathroom where it has a place of prominence…

on my walk in the Gardens at the Park today I was also thinking of friends…

often meet a friend to take this walk but she is away so I was on my own…

beautiful iris…

one of the gardeners was busy with the ongoing work in the gardens but happily answered my questions…

like why so many of the benches were tipped over… apparently some of the concrete needed repair… kind of funny, because they just put them in about two weeks ago after they had redone many of the walkways…

spotted this leopard frog having a look over its domain… that was just after a turtle slipped into the water on the other side of the pond…

my other question was about the string algae which is rather prominent in their pond as well… they are having pump troubles and also dye the water so the sunlight can’t get through and cause more algae… 

dragonflies were everywhere… didn’t even see this one on the lilypad when I took the picture…

this one posed very nicely for me…

sat on “my” bench – where George and I would often take a break on our walks through the Gardens – and the cutest teeny bunny came out from the undergrowth five or six times… but when I finally spoke to it, it left for good…

not sure why, but I have been missing him terribly for the last month or so…

as I toured around the Duck Pond I caught sight of this mallard mom and her babies having a rest in the sunshine…

while I was walking thought a lot about my friends and how blessed I am to have them…

view…

04 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, envision, friends, kitchen, light, open mind, snow, sun, view, widow

the sun was shining brightly into the living room tonight as I sat waiting for my friends to arrive… four of the five of us were going to be together…

  
so amazing to be sitting in the bright light at seven thirty at night… yay… 

unfortunately there is still a bit of snow on the ground…

received the first drawings of the kitchen today… trying to look at them and decide whether it is just what I want…

  
interesting to see the kitchen from someone else’s point of view… 

been doing a lot of looking at things with an open mind lately and need to stay in that state of mind…

it is so easy to only see things the way you’ve done them for ages… much more difficult to envision possibilities…

need to keep that open mind…

lobster…

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, nature, technology

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beloved, big girl pants, celebration, charcoal, Cornish hen, fireworks, friends, lobster, memories, New Year's Eve, steak, tradition

for most of our married life we would celebrate New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… started this tradition when we were newly married with a couple of longtime friends…

I can remember the first year, before we had kids, when we were in their yard and the old style charcoal bbq melted the snow all around it… the guys were in their shirtsleeves, it was giving off so much heat…

what great fun we had… over the years we kept up the tradition with appetizers early on, and then the steak and lobster very late in the evening, usually with at least one other couple… for much of the time the girls didn’t participate as New Year’s was our adult celebration…

when the girls were adults, they started to come for the dinner before going out with their friends, so we began eating earlier so it would fit with their plans…

the last few years before George died we would spend the remainder of the evening reading or watching tv and heading to bed after the midnight glass of bubbly…

last year I decided not to have steak and lobster on New Year’s Eve and instead had it on New Year’s Day with the family… I spent a quiet evening, watched fireworks at our community club from the dining room window… tonight I could hear the fireworks at The Forks…

  

I roasted a Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and cauliflower, with a carrot and raisin salad… a lovely remembrance… for years having a Cornish hen was a special treat for the two of us… a tasty reminder of my beloved…

  
the lobster is thawing in preparation for tomorrow’s dinner… 

  
everyone in the family loves it now… not sure why we ever fed it to the little boys, lol…

likely I will be asleep at midnight…

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beloved big girl pants birds blessed chocolate Christmas cold delicious dinner family fish flowers food friends fun garden George grandson grandsons happy health hot tub light lunch memories moments morning glories nature orchid photos pictures plants pond purple rain remembering shopping sky snow sun sunshine supper Technology time treat trees walk water weather widow

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