26 Thursday Jun 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, food, Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar, gyro, housemate, lunch, moments, treat, widow, wrap
had lunch at Gather and it was delicious…
I had the gyro…
and it was very tasty;-)…
my housemate had the wrap and enjoyed it immensely…
both meals were filling and reasonably priced…
as always, it felt like a treat to be there…
15 Sunday Jun 2025
Posted in business, food, garden, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bibs, big girl pants, blessed, Charleswood Rotary Club, delicious, dinner, fixings, food, friends, fun, garden, housemate, lobster, moments, party, pond, relax, rest, Rotary, sunset, Technology, time, weather, widow
Friday was a delightful day… the sun shone and the temperature rose to 25°C…
throughout the day, I prepped for a dinner party… between organizing and setting the table on the deck, there were plenty of opportunities to sit, read, and relax…
preparing a space or food for special people is always enjoyable for me as I think about those who I am doing this work for and how important they are to me…
for this gathering, it was mainly about making the space comfortable and considering what dishes we would need as the food was being picked up from a Charleswood Rotary fundraiser…
they provided a whole lobster, baked potato, fresh bun, coleslaw, brownie, small bottle of wine, with a bib and a lobster fork;-)… each person received a shopping bag with all of the goodies in it… I added a few fixings for the potatoes, warm facecloths with lemon for our fingers, and garlic butter in warmers…
once the food was warmed up, we had a lesson in how to eat the whole crustacean… I was a bit slow, lol, so had to keep having information repeated…
the weather was perfect, well, except that the wind kept blowing out some of the butter warmers… lots of conversation and story telling kept us busy throughout the meal…
my housemate took the requisite group photo which he was happy to do (and not be in) before we spent time around the pond…
happily, the fish came out for a short visit before returning to their favourite spot under the bridge…
and before you knew it, everyone headed off into the sunset;-)…
31 Saturday May 2025
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
acclimate, big girl pants, blessed, fern, garden, hibiscus, housemate, indoor, Japanese Maple, mandevilla, moments, move, nature, plants, shade, weather, widow
I (and possibly my housemate) have been bringing out the indoor plants slowly, but surely…
first to come out was the Japanese maple… right now it’s sitting on the ledge that’s mostly shaded, for a few days…
next out came the hibiscus, and it went to the back under the trees, again where it’ll get shaded for the next few days before moving to its final spot…
orchids came out and filled up the little plant stand at the back, looks very cute with the begonias…
brought out a fern and another plant which I can’t remember the name of, that did really well in the top of the rain barrel, so we’ll see how that goes…
when the mandevilla comes out, it is going to sit along the path to the side garden to acclimate…
the lemon tree is still in the house… haven’t quite figured out where it’s gonna go and maybe a few other plants from in there are gonna come outside… we will see…
27 Tuesday May 2025
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, housemate, Indi, moments, summer, tires, Victoria, weather, wheels, widow
on Victoria Day, my housemate changed the tires on Indi…
it was well past the time to get the summer ones on…
unfortunately, it took a long time as the tires didn’t want to leave the car…
getting the jack in just the right place to be able to work on the back tires took a minute…
eventually, three of the four were replaced, but the fourth one did not want to cooperate… luckily a neighbour came over and between he and my housemate it finally came off…
now she loves lovely with her summer wheels;-)…
12 Monday May 2025
Posted in business, family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, big job, blessed, garden, housemate, moments, nature, picked, pond, pumps, rocks, water, weather, wetvac, widow
started working on the pond on May 3rd… it is a big job…
brought out the pond pump and removed as much water as possible… aimed the hose towards the cedars to give them a good soaking…
the waterfall area has to be done separately, after I removed the two floating planters…
then I left it so that the leaves and twigs could dry out a bit before removing them…
the next day, the wetvac came out and it removed quite a few leaves, and a few rocks, lol…
next I got into the pond and picked out the majority of the last leaves in the dry areas… that evening, my housemate finished draining the waterfall area and cleaned up debris from the bottom of the pond…
on the 9th, we obtained the foam to fill the spaces between the rocks so the fish won’t be able to hide when we are trying to catch them in the fall, lol…
rearranging and foaming the rocks took two days of concentrated work and it was hot out…
Sunday, May 11, the pumps were in, the necessary rocks have been foamed, a few flower pots have been added for fish to hide in and now we wait for the foam to cure so the water can go in…
this afternoon the pond was filled, woohoo… excited to watch the first of the water enter, using a dedicated hose which goes right into it… took an hour and a half to fill the bottom portion and just under thirty minutes to fill the waterfall area… that had to be done with the regular hose, as it isn’t connected to the lower area unless the waterfall is running…
it will be a few weeks of it running before the fish make their way from the winter condo;-)…
unfortunately, the plugs on the post near the pond are not working, so for now I am using an extension cord to provide electricity to the two pond pumps… always something, lol…
so happy to hear it running;-)…
12 Wednesday Mar 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
accident, angel, beloved, big girl pants, broken, cleaners, glue, housemate, moments, precise, widow
when the cleaners were here last week, I heard a crash and one of them brought me this angel… in three pieces…
it was put on the kitchen counter and my housemate first glued on one piece, left it for a few days and added the other piece…
he is much more precise when putting things together, lol… reminds me of my beloved;-)…
she is now put together nicely, although missing a hand, but we haven’t found that piece…
still, she has joined her sisters on the bedroom shelf…
10 Monday Mar 2025
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
backs, big girl pants, blessed, family, fireplace, grandson, housemate, memories, moments, Technology, widow
the fireplace made its way to the garage on October first…
it stayed there for quite awhile… during that time my housemate put it on a few for sale sites…
there were very few inquiries, but we weren’t in any rush to get rid of it…
recently, a woman came, measured it, and arranged to pick it up when she found some strong backs to help with lifting/carrying, lol…
she arrived a few days later, with a helper, and with my housemate’s assistance, got it into her vehicle…
its new home will be at her dad’s cottage where it will be installed outdoors;-)…
01 Saturday Mar 2025
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, deliveries, doorknob, family, house, housemate, moments, repair, tool, weather, widow
the other day, as my housemate was leaving the house, the handle for the front door came off in his hand…
he wasn’t able to fix it then and when he got home we discovered that we didn’t have the correct tool to make the repair…
happily, no deliveries arrived and I didn’t have to go out the next day, lol…
once he had the right implement, it only took a few minutes to fix the problem;-)…
now I’m not afraid to open the door;-)…
29 Wednesday Jan 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
basement, big girl pants, blessed, family, friends, grandson, housemate, memories, moments, Technology, tidy, tour, widow
on Monday, we had a “tour” of the redone basement when everyone arrived for our weekly gathering…
my housemate had tidied it up the evening before to be sure it was ready for the event, lol…
there is a lot of technology used in the space and it has been fun to watch as each piece has been installed…
it was interesting listening to the comments particularly as no one had been down there in years…
13 Monday Jan 2025
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cabinets, cleaning, excess, family, grandson, hoarder, housemate, kitchen, moments, organized, widow
my housemate and I spent quite some time in the kitchen Sunday afternoon… someone suggested I might be a kitchen hoarder;-(…
we went through all the bottom cabinets, cleaned, added to the pass-along box, and threw out or recycled excess plastic…
took most of the afternoon but it looks lovely and all the shelves are newly organized…
I’m hoping that I can remember where everything is now, lol…
herbiggirlpants 