28 Friday Aug 2026
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, camera, lunar eclipse, moments, nature, settings, Technology, tripod, weather, widow
last night there was a partial lunar eclipse and, since it was lovely out, I sat on the deck with my camera and tripod and got a few pictures…
had some fun with different settings on the camera…
I spent about an hour and a half enjoying the show and only went in once it had reached the peak and my camera battery died, lol…
27 Thursday Aug 2026
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, eagle eyes, fun, lizards, moments, nature, plants, The Leaf, tiny, tropical biome, widow
one of the fun things about volunteering at The Leaf has been seeing how many little lizards we can spot on a shift…
one of our colleagues has eagle eyes and knows all the spaces where they might be… that has encouraged many others to search for them as we move through the biomes…
I had a great day recently and spotted six, all in the Tropical Biome 😊…
the last one is teeny tiny and I’ve spotted it a number of times…
and a colleague spotted a cute frog the other day🙂…
26 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bookcase, books, family, grandson, happy, imagined, moments, perfect fit, widow
so I’ve been thinking about where to put the 100 books, lol…
my housemate had a bookshelf stored elsewhere and we arranged to have it delivered…
it fit in the spot I’d imagined perfectly 😊…
took a while to empty the boxes and bag, but I was so happy when it was done…
and, in the end, the 100 books fit exactly…
25 Tuesday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, grandson, jigsaw, moments, project, rail, Technology, tools, toy, widow
in the final process of replacing the stairs to the side garden, we discovered we needed a jigsaw…
so, of course, we had to go shopping for a new toy, lol…
in the end we found a reciprocating saw which would work for the current project and a variety of future projects…
and I thought it was much cuter than a boring old jigsaw…
we have learned to always buy the same brand as our other battery operated tools😀…
and now, the deck, stairs and rail project is completed… yay…
24 Monday Aug 2026
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, books, declutter, friends, grandson, moments, moved, shop, stair library, widow
my friend is decluttering, and donating many of her books to a local book sale…
when she mentioned this, I offered to help and shop at the same time…
we had great fun, going through shelves upstairs and down, as she decided what could go, and the few that needed to remain…
she’d give me reviews as the books came off the shelves…
I had brought a single grocery store box to hold the ones I would bring home, lol…
we made two trips to drop off the books…
when I got home, there was that box, a grocery bag and two cardboard boxes… all full👀…
refilled the stair library with a few of them…
still thinking about where the rest will go🤪…
23 Sunday Aug 2026
Posted in food, garden, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bad taste, big girl pants, cherry tomatoes, food, garden, moments, ripe, spit, tiny, widow
I took this photo on Wednesday…
I can’t remember what these tiny tomatoes are called but they are very cute…
today I took one off the plant and bit into it…
it clearly isn’t ripe because I spit it out almost immediately after biting into it…
hope they taste better when they are fully ripe…
although I’m not sure how to tell that😂…
22 Saturday Aug 2026
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beach, big girl pants, blessed, cottage, early, moments, nature, quiet, shore, shore birds, water, weather, widow
every morning, while at my friends’ cottage, when I woke up, I would walk down and sit on the steps leading to the beach…
usually I’d spend an hour or so watching and listening to the waves…
it was always fun to watch the shore birds as well as the gulls and pelicans in the early morning quiet…
the first and last thing I did was to run down to the beach to say hello and goodbye😊…
21 Friday Aug 2026
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
20 Thursday Aug 2026
Posted in food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cottage, dishes, eating, friends, fun, moments, nature, reading, snake, vacation, widow
I spent a delightful five days with friends at their family beach cottage…
delicious food, great company, naps, lots of conversation, and I was in the lake, at least once, up to my neck…
spent lots of time on the beach, early in the morning, on my own, and all together on a few days…
we walked a good portion of the beach a few times with our newly prepared walking sticks…
and walked the road to the pump, which had a snake handle…
there was also a real snake😳… which had me stomping and speaking loudly as I walked along where it had been seen…
weather was nice, lots of sunshine, a bit of wind and some rainy/overcast times… so, a bit of everything…
my particular expertise is washing the dishes…
other than that it was all about reading…
we did play ladder golf, a new game to me, (although I may have seen my grandsons play a version of it a number of years ago), which was fun…
what a treat 😊…
19 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, deck, family, garden, grandson, moments, pond, snoopervise, widow
while I was away for a few days, the back deck got replaced…
it was interesting how nervous I felt, not being there to snoopervise, lol…
luckily, I received photos and was able to check some of the work with the garden camera🤪…
once that deck was finished, they moved on to the stairs and small deck which leads into the side garden…
when I got home, I checked both spots out and am very happy with the final product…
one single board needs to be screwed in on the stairs by the side deck…
I am feeling a bit melancholy as these are the last of the decks that my beloved built… all the rest have been redone…
even when I had the pond rebuilt, I had them leave that deck just as it was…
time moves on…
herbiggirlpants 