Tag Archives: George

traditions…

03 Thursday Dec 2015

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drinking a cup of tea and thinking about our family traditions over the years… I like to celebrate everything I can, lol… holidays, birthdays, special events in our lives… usually with a family dinner…

  
one tradition has been around birthdays… on your birthday you get to choose what to have for dinner, and the family gathers to celebrate… on the day and always with gifts of course… 

used to involve making the favourite food – roast chicken, mashed potatoes and stuffing; homemade macaroni and cheese; all the way to steak and lobster…  but over the years we have also brought in favourites, or even gone out for dinner… 

  
tomorrow marks the fourth birthday celebration for George since he died…

the tradition for his birthday now involves burgers from a local joint topped off with milkshakes and apple pie… all of which were his favourite foods… the kids who aren’t here join us by skype or FaceTime and we share memories over dinner…

you’d think after nearly four years that it would be easier, but I have felt myself moving into a sad place over the last few days… I make sure to focus on the good times as much as I can, but I still miss him so much and have moments of deep sadness… I embrace them as well as the good ones…

tonight both of my girls have checked in to see what our plan is and to let me know, in their own way, that they know it is hard for me… and I know it is hard for them…

  

tidy…

15 Sunday Nov 2015

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what a gorgeous day… had an urge to go shopping, but decided to work in the garden getting it ready for winter…

spent an hour taking out the last of the plants and emptying pots to tidy it up…

  
very hard to pull out the alyssum which was still happily blooming… excited to discover lots of morning glory seeds which I carefully packaged up to plant in the spring… hope I can find them then…

even brought in the parsley plant which was still alive… can’t believe things are growing and blooming in the middle of November… also brought in the orange butterfly plant which had tons of seeds that I hope will grow as well…

my grandson came and helped me finish up the work… he used the mower to pick up the last of the leaves, and put away numerous pots and furniture in the shed… great to have his assistance… he even dealt with the smelly dead water hyacinths…

closing down the garden is certainly one of the times when I miss George tremendously…

this is what we discovered when we opened up the shed…

  
the squirrel(s) stuffed many containers with tasty cedar treats for the long winter… 

made me laugh as I shared the story of the year George cleaned out a squirrel nest in the garage and put all the nest material and peanuts into the garbage can… and how the squirrel chewed right through the heavy plastic at the top of the garbage can to get their stuff back… just hoping the city doesn’t notice and want to charge me for a new container, lol…

all the boys were here for dinner… had roast beef and twice stuffed potatoes… very tasty, and we topped it off with chocolate cake, which even I enjoyed… not usually a cake fan and had a very small piece…

stood at the window and waved them on their way… this is something I do with everyone when they leave… started with my Aunty Vi who always waved to us when we left her house… now it is part of my routine…

  

halloween…

31 Saturday Oct 2015

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had a sleepover at the kids…

this morning I took a picture out the living room window of the front of their house… 

 

ignore the bloody footprints, lol… so much brighter with the cedar tree down…  

and now you can see the beautiful birch tree…

this morning we headed out and about to look at tiles and countertops which was great fun… but now I am rather worn out, lol…

this is the front of the house very early on Friday…

  

put out some pass-along boxes, yay… having a box on the dining room counter to pop items in has become a great habit… whenever I get a call from an organization who wants to collect stuff I know immediately if I have enough to pass along, so I’m not running around like a crazy person trying to find stuff… 

this was the front of the house tonight just before I turned out the lights…

  
plastic pumpkins looked cute… didn’t have the energy to put out the usual Halloween decorations… not sure what that was about, although it was much more fun to hand out the goodies with George, lol…

ended up with a total of 17 kids… fair amount of candy left which will need to get out of the house so I am not tempted to eat it…

here’s my final Halloween picture… my youngest grandson admiring the pumpkin his mom had carved with a drill… he was really enjoying the process this year…

 
busy day with lots of fun memories… 

code…

29 Thursday Oct 2015

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the lack of light is starting to affect me…

it is dark in the morning when I get up and get ready for work… and gets dark soon after I get home… as well, it was dull and overcast all day…

took this picture of my beautiful orchid and my little pumpkin person that my sister-in-law made for me many years ago…

  
it was early this morning and the light really wasn’t bright enough to get a good shot…

last night for supper I had chicken with brussel sprouts and potato… very tasty although the brussel sprouts were a bit Cajun… that was a code word in our house for when George burned something, usually on the barbecue, lol…

  
bit more of that dark, lol… 

might be a bit lighter in the mornings for a while as the clocks turn back an hour on Saturday night…

think I must take my SAD light into the office and start using it again…

stirring…

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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spent some time in the hot tub this morning…

  
had to put on my water boots and my touque… starting to be cold on the feet and the ears…

 

a dozen geese flew just over the house in total silence… wonderful view of them…  what a special moment…

as I was sitting there I was thinking of my new spoon…

  
reminded me of going to a family member’s cottage for weekends a number of years ago… George and I were both early risers and he would make coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar and a good dollop of milk… took a while to stir that sugar in, and the sound of the stirring would drive our host, who was trying to sleep in, crazy… got to be a bit of a private joke for us…

hadn’t thought of that for years, lol…

got my pictures printed and put them into two of the squares in the coffee table…

  
asked one of my grandsons to help me and he had a hard time because he thought they should line up exactly… eventually he gave up on the job and asked his mom to finish… we did have some fun looking at them and remembering the events…

hoping that visitors will also enjoy looking through them…

together…

22 Thursday Oct 2015

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was recently reminded of how your life can change in an instant… one minute someone is here with you, and the next they are gone, sigh…

  
was a beautiful sunny day as we arrived at the office… the light was shining on this tree at the corner of the building… lovely colour and the highlights where the sun was shining on it were wonderful…

  
walking by these piles of leaves on my way home reminded me of some fun times with George and the little boys… they spent lots of time raking leaves and jumping and hiding in them…

I particularly think of a day we were at the park and the boys were very little… they decided to gather leaves and spent ages collecting them with grandpa’s help and then getting covered up and popping out of them, to our surprise, lol…

they were so small when he died… the littlest one barely remembers him… 

I heard his voice in a short video on Facebook the other day, and was brought to tears… how quickly we forget… it was really a treat to hear him, even if it was painful…

such excellent memories… I have been blessed… we had an amazingly wonderful life together…

ladybugs…

11 Sunday Oct 2015

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absolutely gorgeous day…

took a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things for tomorrow’s dinner…

came across this beautiful tree… admired it when I passed it the first time and had to stop to take a picture when I came back…

  
also got a shot of some Virginia creeper berries…

  
there aren’t any leaves left on them… that frost last week did a lot of plants in…

the ladybugs have been out in full force for the last few days… yesterday there were five at once on the bedroom window…

today they were on the door when I left the house, landed on me as I was walking and were inside and outside the house…

   

not sure why they are everywhere… from a bit of reading it looks like the warm weather might have woken them up from hibernation…

I also spent some time preparing vegetables, more stuffing and cranberry sauce…

  
friends are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary which made me spend a bit of time remembering ours… it was when I was in hospital with pancreatitis and waiting for gall bladder surgery… we had missed a trip to the coast to see the kids because I got sick…

on our anniversary George brought in a basket with 40 roses in it… it was amazing… at night they had to put it into the hall because the perfume was so strong, lol… he was such a romantic…

good times… 

 

packed…

21 Friday Aug 2015

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in the car, on the way to the lake…

kind of late but life intervened in our desire to leave earlier,,,

day started out great with the large morning glory having an open blossom on it… not purple this time, but a lovely shade of blue…

  
got a few pictures first thing as I was running around getting the car packed…

as I was leaving for work I had to stop and take a few more pictures of the lovely shadows and sunlight on the plants…

  
took the few extra minutes to enjoy the moment…

over lunch hour helped prepare some appetizers for a shower a colleague was attending this evening…

such fun… every now and then I miss the catering business, lol… much more fun when you are only getting a few things prepped…

drove to my daughter’s new house and had a tour before we ran around and got groceries and did that last minute packing of the car…

not sure we have an extra inch available… of course, George would have had excess available… he was such a great organizer of space…

brought warmer clothes this time… flannel pajamas, heavier jackets and an extra blanket… can you tell I was a bit chilly during the night last time, lol…

looking forward to a campfire…

skies…

06 Thursday Aug 2015

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been overcast and rainy for the whole day…

took a few minutes between showers to go out and get a few pictures… sadly my camera keeps making the morning glories blue rather than their actual purple so I didn’t include them…

  
fist thing I spotted was the bunny… getting bigger and so cute…

  
this canna has been flowering since July 17, twenty-one days… great addition to the pond…

  
first picture of the echinacea this year… happily they didn’t get pulled out in the spring as they look so much like a weed…

throughout the day, I packed my bag for camping with the kids…

  

still room for a few last minute things… which is good, because there always seem to be items to tuck in… George had a penchant for adding additional bags of stuff at the last second…

spent a half hour on the treadmill and was careful about what I ate during the day…

hoping for clear skies tomorrow and over the weekend:-)…

morning…

30 Thursday Jul 2015

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rather busy day… up early this morning to get the boxes out for pick-up…

  
ran over to the Mall to have my iPhone checked out… battery is barely making it through the day which isn’t so good for a brand new phone… went to MTS who sent me to the Apple Store… served quickly in both stores, and they offered up a few suggestions which might make a difference… have to back everything up and go back so they can reset it which may also make it better… technology is wonderful when it works…

got home and my son-in-law was here replacing the metal stringers on the deck stairs… he noticed a while ago that they were rusting out…

  
look great and feel much more sturdy…

after lunch we sat in the garden for a few minutes and I noticed this morning glory bloom…

  
been thinking about July of 2010 when I was in hospital… it was supposed to be our vacation so George came to spend time every day while he was off work… he knew how much I love morning glories and every morning before he came, he would go out into the garden and count how many of the flowers were blooming… occasionally he would take a picture for me as well… 

I found this blossom which should open tomorrow…

  
was testing my lounger out when the sky got a bit dark…

  
just got in and it poured for a couple of minutes… after supper I went out to write my blog, but it was kind of chilly… came in and all of a sudden it was pouring…

 
the mandevilla is covered with flowers and buds… looking forward to the morning glory beside it starting to flower as well…