21 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beautiful, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cold, home, memories, moments, sidewalk, snow, stay, weather, widow
what a beautiful view to wake up to on this first day of winter… everything was covered in a blanket of snow…
even more beautiful considering I don’t need to go out in it and can stay inside;-)…
well, I did shovel the sidewalk…
11 Friday Dec 2020
Posted in food, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, company, dishes, fingertips, home, moments, plates, tidy, widow
finally put away some dishes the other day…
I figured I didn’t need thirty plates available at my fingertips for feeding all my company so I moved a number of plates and bowls and added a few Christmas ones where I can reach them;-)…
interesting how long it took me to let go of that stack… also moved some of my favourite dishes off a counter to fit in with the rest..
looking tidier in the kitchen…
15 Saturday Aug 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, garden, grandson, home, moments, monarchs, plants, thirst, water, weather, widow
happy to check out the garden after being gone for a short time… enjoyed walking through and seeing what was about to bloom, what had just about finished and checking for caterpillars… unfortunately I haven’t found any more monarch or swallowtail babies…
I had asked my grandson to come by and water it while I was away and was very happy that he did…
the front flowers were a bit sad, as he hadn’t remembered to water them. but a quick dose of water and they all revived…
the ability of most plants to recover from thirst is quite amazing, lol…
05 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, Uncategorized
Tags
barefoot, big girl pants, blessed, feet, garden, home, memories, moments, remembering, slippers, widow
recently social media declared it was barefoot day…
once I heard that, I stepped out of my flip flops and haven’t put anything back on my feet since;-)…
for many years I didn’t wear anything on my feet as often as possible… inside or outside…
and then, even in the house I was wearing slippers… interesting how things change over time…
blessed to be home and have the option…
15 Friday May 2020
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, declutter, home, memories, move, neighbours, remembering, sugar cookies, treat, welcome, widow
I’ve spent a good part of the day watching the activity as the new neighbours move into the house next door…
looks like they are a young couple and they have been coming and going since around 7:30 this morning…
last Friday I watched the moving van arrive and take away all the belongings of the couple who had lived there for over 10 years… well he lived there for that time, and recently got married… since then they have come and gone a number of times to do the last bit of clean up and removal… his adult kids had all been by to fetch their bits and pieces and a couple of days ago a truck came and picked up the hot tub…
it made me think of a couple of things…
first was the day we moved into this house… it was in August of 1973… we had purchased the house from an older couple and on the day we were to move in, we arrived at nine in the morning to discover them sitting at their kitchen table having tea… it appears that they had forgotten they had to be out that day… we were freaking out at our end, because we had to be out of the apartment we had been living in by the end of that day… amazingly, their son arrived and they were out of the house by 3 pm…
second is the thought of what my kids will have to do when I leave the house… we have lived here for 47 years so there is a lot of stuff… I keep thinking about how I need to be decluttering more than I have, although right now isn’t really the time to do that, as organizations are not taking donations at this time, lol…
but it does remind me to get onto that project as soon as possible… we won’t even discuss the state of the garage, which has not been dealt with since my beloved’s death over eight years ago…
I baked sugar cookies to deliver next door and share with a few others…
07 Thursday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birds, finches, garbage, garden, Google Home, home, moments, nature, remembering, waste, widow, yard waste
today, Google Home reminded me to put out the garbage and recycling… I also remembered that tomorrow will be the first day that yard waste will be collected…
I was very happy about that because there were quite a few bags and a garbage can full of leaves, branches and old plants waiting to be disposed of…
this photo was from last week after Hilda the Gardener was here and it shows all the detritus that was needing a place to go…
this photo is from today after I moved all of the bags out to the lane… some of them were heavy…
amazing how moving a few bags makes the whole area look better…
when I went to take today’s photo I also spotted more finches at the feeder…
good day all around…
29 Saturday Feb 2020
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, happy, home, memories, mentor, moments, practice, purple, water, watercolour, widow
over the last week or so I’ve been collecting things so that I can do some watercolour painting…
yesterday I gathered up all the equipment and sat down to paint…
when I did some of this at Christmas in Ottawa it was more difficult than I’d imagined it would be…
here at home I think it was even more difficult without my daughter’s mentorship, lol…
it was a fun hour, although I need to practice more;-)…
24 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, home, jungle, light, moments, orchid, plants, purple, sunshine, widow
Monday I wandered around the living and dining rooms taking photos of the plants in the sunlight…
it was shining so beautifully on the jungle of plants that are filling the space… the furniture and even the purple snowflakes in the window were just beautiful;-)…
I’ve being paying close attention when it is shining to be sure to enjoy the light…
what a glorious time… sunshine is so energizing…
17 Tuesday Dec 2019
Posted in life, moments, Uncategorized
over the last week or so I’ve put a towel at the bottom of the front door to help keep the warm in, and the cold out… apparently they are called door snakes or draft dodgers…
it has made me giggle every time I walk past as it reminds me of a dear friend’s mom… she lived in a huge, but very old, house and all winter she would throw fur coats at the bottom of various doors in the house to stop the cold from entering…
so funny, lol…
which is why I giggle when I see my towel blocking the cold from entering the house…
maybe I should be looking for a purple one;-)…
15 Tuesday Oct 2019
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, dinner, fish, fun, garden, goldfish, grandsons, hiding, home, nature, pond, snow, stirring, supper, thanksgiving, why, widow
what a busy day yesterday… I’d prepped everything for our dinner ahead of time… good thing…
my three grandsons and a friend arrived at 1:30 and we were busy until around 7…
the younger two shovelled the driveway and the older two started working on getting the condo ready for the fish… they cleaned the tank, washed the gravel and rocks, spent time placing the rocks and then put in pond water and tap water…
all of them worked on catching the fish in the pond… that didn’t go so well as they only caught seven and one of the teeny babies… there must be another fifteen still out there, lol… hoping that the daddy will be able to collect the rest…
my beloved was always very patient in the catching process, although sometimes in the spring we might find one that hadn’t made it inside…
at about this point we discovered that the pump in the tank wasn’t working so the two older boys ran out to the Pet Store and were able to get a replacement…
then we finished getting supper ready and on the table… it was fun because I gave each of them a task to complete…
the middle grandson wanted to know why I did this every year because it was a lot of work, lol… he was stirring the gravy;-)…
supper was delicious and we had great conversation… they headed out shortly after we finished and I had a rest before starting on the disaster in the kitchen;-)… seems like the more helpers you have, the bigger the mess…
finished cleaning up this morning and had a very tasty plate of leftovers for my lunch…
herbiggirlpants 