21 Wednesday Oct 2026
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
08 Thursday Oct 2026
Posted in business, family, life, retirement, Uncategorized
a few weeks ago we replaced the hall blind…
the old one had broken at the top when the plastic gave up… not even sure how long it has been since it was put up… not that long after we moved into the house… so, could be close to 50 years…
this new blind can be opaque or blacked out, lol…
then I decided to put one in the bedroom…
my housemate took down the old one and put up the new one…
it looks great 😊…
05 Monday Oct 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, housemate, inside, moments, orchids, outdoor, plants, pots, switched, trimmed, widow
spent time a few days ago moving plants and rearranging furniture to make space for those coming in from the garden…
first up was getting the maples into the front window, and then I put a number of small plants into the second basket planter…
ferns came in and the divider was rearranged to make space for the grow lights…
my housemate built a shelf to go under the dining room window… it is just the right height and currently holds three of the bigger plants that have come in…
then I spent time with the orchids… they have been struggling and I have kind of ignored that 😳…
I realized that a few had been planted in moss and clearly they didn’t like it… roots and dead leaves were trimmed, and pots were switched…
all of them have gone onto the shelf in the den and they look much better…
we will see how each plant feels about its new spot in the house🙂…
03 Friday Jul 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, housemate, invisible, moments, nature, trimmed, virginia creeper, weather, widow
apparently, the virginia creeper is the happiest plant in the garden…
it is growing by leaps and bounds…
along the garage it has been trying to make its way back into the eavestrough and it also thinks it should get to the hot tub, lol…
the baskets were nearly invisible on the other side of the garden…
my housemate was able to get it all back under control in just a few minutes… looks so much better now…
it will probably look like that again in a few weeks😊…
12 Friday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, big job, blessed, cover, emptied, family, garden, grandson, hot tub, housemate, moments, repaired, saw, screws, widow
the hot tub was emptied a few weeks ago and we’ve been waiting for a friend to look at the broken side of the lid to see if there is a way to fix it… they weren’t available so my housemate decided to see what he could do…
we finally got around to moving it away from the wall and looking to see what might work to repair it…
many screws have been removed, and we now know what the issue was regarding the right side lid…
all new screws and bolts were purchased and a new backing inside the body of the tub was installed on both sides to make the opening and closing mechanism stronger…
it took quite some time to get it sorted and then replace all the rusted screws that hold the eight panels around the tub…
while it was out and empty, a tiny portion of the deck that it sits up against was sawn off, which made a huge difference when the tub was back in place… now the side that rubbed against the gate opens easily…
next, the tub was filled and the pump turned back on… it will be another day or so before the temperature is back to normal…
the lid works properly… I am so happy;-)…
started with a new set of chemicals and looking forward to my first hot tub…
12 Tuesday May 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, grandson, housemate, moments, noisy, repaired, Technology, threshold, video call, widow
for many, many, months the threshold on the front door has been loose…
this week my housemate removed the metal and the old wood…
there was a bit of laughter regarding the tiny size and rustiness of the screws that were taken out…
a new piece of wood was positioned, which sits on the top step of the stairs and should provide more strength in the future… stronger screws and the metal strip reinstalled…
looks great and there is no longer any movement when it is stepped on…
woohoo;-)…
of course, this all took place while I was on a video call with my kids in Ottawa… there was hardly any noise, except for drilling and hammering 🤪…
19 Thursday Mar 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cupcakes, food, grandson, housemate, Jenna, Jenna Rae Cakes, moments, shopping, treat, widow
visited Jenna Rae Cakes on Academy for the first time today;-)…
was just planning to look…
but ended up with 3 cupcakes to share with my housemate;-)…
this one ended up being my favourite;-)…
15 Thursday Jan 2026
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
apples, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, crisp, family, food, housemate, moments, snow, vacuum sealer, widow
my housemate decided to make apple crisp with all the apples he purchased and then forgot to eat, lol…
I found a recipe and we peeled, cored, and sliced what felt like a ton of apples before they went bad…
next he mixed in the sauce and then used the vacuum sealer to package two bags of the apples…
when he decided to make the apple crisp, he gathered the ingredients for the crisp portion, put everything together and baked it in the oven…
it came out delicious… reminded me of my beloved whose favourite thing to bake was apple pie;-)…
29 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, door, door handle, family, fixed, grandson, housemate, loosening, moments, oven, widow
went to finish the chicken soup, and noticed the oven was on, so I tried to open the door and the handle came right off…
it had been loosening before and I would just tighten it…
my housemate and I couldn’t put the handle back on because the oven was hot… we left it to cool and then tried again…
when we went to open it, the inside sort of separated… I was hoping this allowed us to get to the window that we could clean…
unfortunately, it was not the one, although we did clean this portion…
next he went out and bought some loctite to make sure the handle stayed on… we weren’t able to get to the really messed up window, but the important thing was to get the handle back on the door, which was being held closed by the stepstool…
now it is fixed… we will see if it comes loose again…
26 Sunday Oct 2025
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
basement, big girl pants, blessed, busy, constructing, family, garage, grandsons, housemate, lumber, moments, shelves, weather, widow
well, what a day, phew… it was chilly, overcast, and windy…
spent the morning in the garage moving bits and pieces out into the driveway to make room for an empty table to work on…
then my housemate met up with his grandfather to go and pick up lumber for the new shelves planned for the basement and the garage…
once he returned home, we moved more things and then updated a shelf beside the door for my gardening gloves and tools…
it is stronger, looks amazing, and now each tool is much more accessible underneath;-)…
we worked on the basement shelves, his brother arrived, and they finished them…
they ended up looking excellent and adding more useful space for organizing our stuff, lol…
they continued to work in the garage to redo a section of shelves and add counter space…
I didn’t quite get a picture of the finished product, before we moved all the bits and pieces back into the garage for the night…
it is going to be so organized that I might not be able to find anything 🤪…
