04 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basil, big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, grape tomatoes, happy, moments, nature, pearls, plants, widow
very excited to gather some of the ripe cherry tomatoes to add to my lunch…
also picked basil to go along with the bocconcini pearls that have been waiting in the fridge…
a delicious fresh lunch;-)…
03 Tuesday Aug 2021
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, critters, dragonfly, dry, garden, happy, moments, nature, pond, struggle, widow
was watering the plants when I spotted movement in the pond…
when I looked more closely, I realized that a dragonfly was struggling in the water…
I was able to get it out of the water and set it down where it could dry out…
it wasn’t moving so I thought that it took too long to lift it out…
I checked on it a few times and it was very still…
later I went over, and happily, it had flown away;-)…
yay;-)…
02 Monday Aug 2021
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fun times, garden, grandson, happy, hot tub, lifesaver, memories, moments, photos, remembering, treat, water, widow
came across this photo yesterday… it is one of my all time favourites…
it was taken twenty years ago (so it isn’t quite as crisp as I would like) in a rented hot tub in our yard…
for a few years we would rent a hot tub for our anniversary weekend… it was such fun and a wonderful treat… so lucky to now have my own hot tub to use whenever I want;-)…
the lifesaver is so cute and his little face is adorable;-)…
our grandson just loved it then, and he still enjoys using hot tubs…
makes me smile to remember special times…
01 Sunday Aug 2021
Tags
anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, everyday, family, garden, George, hands, happy, health, memories, moments, morning glories, pond, purple, remembering, widow
the Olympics have been a distraction as this day has come closer – what would have been our 51st wedding anniversary…
I’ve spent the day thinking of some moments with my beloved…
the everyday things: changing up the configuration of the ponds; working in the garden as it changed over the years; caring for his lawn, trimming the Virginia creeper, fixing whatever needed attention; making the world’s best French fries, fried egg sandwiches and salads; driving the girls and I everywhere; reading and playing with our grandsons; cleaning the garage, packing the car, barbecuing; the strength of his hands that could wring out a cloth so it was dry, massage a sore neck, scrub a pot perfectly clean, and gently hold my hand when we were out walking…
so many little things…
I’ve been remembering our 40th anniversary… I was in the hospital for an extended period of time and he came every day and brought me pictures he had taken of whatever morning glories had opened on that particular day… I took this photo just yesterday…
he also sent me a basket filled with 40 roses… each night they had to be moved into the hall because their scent was so strong I couldn’t sleep with them in the room, lol…
a friend recently lost his partner and has decided to refer to their anniversary as the first celebration of their 41 years together… what a lovely way to describe it…
today I am also enjoying the sentiment of this beautiful card which I recently received in the mail…
what a blessed life I have lived;-)…
31 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, flowers, garden, gardening, hostas, moments, nature, plants, pond, pruners, purple, water, widow
today I did some actual gardening, lol…
for some reason I do not like hosta flowers, even though they are purple… odd, because I like the plants…
I got my pail, gloves and pruners and tidied up each of the hostas that had flowers hanging over them… the most difficult was the one behind the waterfall… it is a bit tight in that corner and I didn’t want to fall into the pond again, lol… they look so much tidier now…
I moved a couple of impatiens from a spot where they weren’t visible into a pot that the squirrels had dug up and destroyed a plant… I also repotted a dahlia corm that was in a pot and hadn’t done anything…maybe it was planted too deep… if it doesn’t peek through in the next week I will put something else in the pot…
then it was onto my book and relaxing;-)…
29 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cushions, dahlias, flowers, garden, moments, nature, odour, plants, purple, sanctuary, The Dahlia Expert, water, weather, widow
I was up at 6:30 am watching the Olympics;-)…
I had made my mind up to water the garden first thing because it has been getting hot so early in the day…
I think the temperature only reached 28 Celsius which feels cool after the hot days we’ve been dealing with…
it turned out to be a beautiful day, other than the odour of smoke in the air… luckily, you could smell the smoke, but the sky was clear…
after watering, I put out all the cushions and wandered around checking out flowers…
the planter with the milkweed and morning glories in it was looking spectacular as the morning glories have overtaken the container… not sure that the monarchs can find the milkweed anymore…
the dahlias are doing well and one of the buds on the Robann Regal plant has started to open…
excited to see it fully open…
I also realized that there are more buds starting on the Mick’s Peppermint… that plant is huge and didn’t look like it was going to have more than a few flowers… interesting that the second flower was about half the size of the first one, although it is hard to see that in my photo… and the colours are different on every flower;-)…
sat and enjoyed the view…
I love my garden sanctuary…
28 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cucumber, flowers, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, plants, prickly, sweep, weather, widow
this is the first time I have planted/grown cucumbers and I’ve been surprised at how prickly they are…
the cucumber plants had a ton of flowers on them, but no actual cucumbers…
I read online that I should take a broom and sweep over them… this is supposed to help with pollination…
I decided to give it a try the other day… found one of my beloved’s brushes and brushed over as many of the flowers as I could… that was on Saturday…
today, this is what I spotted… plus two others…
not sure if it was the brushing or whether I just had to wait a bit longer, lol…
but I am absolutely thrilled…
27 Tuesday Jul 2021
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, coffee, deck, friends, garden, moments, nature, solar lights, Technology, time, together, treat, weekly meeting, widow
together at last;-)…
last night I made coffee, set out cushions on the deck, and watched some Olympics while I waited for my BS friends…
everyone is now two weeks since being double vaxed and we met outdoors… one was away, but everyone else turned up in person…
it was the first time we’ve been physically together for our Monday evening gatherings in more than eighteen months…
I was pleased that the coffee turned out as it had been a very long time since I’d made any, but apparently the muscle memory was there, lol… and they told me it was good;-)…
we’ve been meeting via Skype each Monday, but it just hasn’t been the same…we’ve also found that we could only meet in that manner for about an hour as it is so much more tiring…
what a treat to be together… we had snacks, laughs and lots of chat…
after everyone left, I took a wander around the garden as the solar lights came on…
a delightful evening…
26 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, breakfast, early, food, fun, garden, happy, memories, moments, Olympics, overkill, remembering, retirement, sports, streaming, Technology, weather, widow
I love the Olympics and have watched them for years… I remember a trip we took once and how we had to have access to TVs at the end of each day so that I could keep up with what was happening, lol…
I like to watch in real time so that means reorganizing my sleep schedule to get the best results…
for these ones I couldn’t decide how I felt about them going ahead this year… but now they are happening, I am in… I usually get a Canada Day t-shirt and had purchased one a while ago, but on July 1st I decided not to wear it… as the games began, I put it on;-)…
on Friday I was up at 5:30 am to watch the opening ceremony and ordered McDonald’s for breakfast so I didn’t have to stop watching to make something…
at one point during the first day I was switching between tv channels and streaming on my phone at the same time and I considered turning on the laptop as well… in the end I decided the laptop would be overkill…
I have slowed down slightly… apparently I need a bit more sleep these days…
the great thing about streaming is that I can watch some of the sports that I enjoy most but which don’t always get shown on tv…
the surfing, gymnastics and dressage have been lovely to watch, even if not exactly as they happened…
I’ve even taken the laptop out into the garden so that I can enjoy the weather and not miss anything, lol…
so happy to be able to watch whenever and wherever… retirement is a lovely thing;-)…
25 Sunday Jul 2021
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fun, garden, Google Home, grandson, iPhone, link, moments, plug, pond, Technology, water, waterfall, widow
been wishing that I didn’t have to climb behind the planter every time I need to turn the waterfall on and off…
I decided to look online to see if there was something I could use outside to control the plug…
I was so excited to find a KASA TP-Link outdoor plug… KASA is part of my Google Home system, and the plug was reasonably priced…
my grandson picked it up for me and it was easy to add to my Google Home… well, he added it, lol… I can even add another item to the plug as it has two outlets…
this is going to make dealing with the waterfall so much easier, and I’ve been having fun turning it on and off;-)…
herbiggirlpants 