07 Monday Nov 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
took a few photos this morning in the living room…
much brighter outside with the time change…
the orchids look lovely although some of the blossoms are dying off…
tonight the moon looks like it has been sliced in half… beautiful…
08 Saturday Oct 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, company, garden, ghosts, grandson, halloween, happy, ladybugs, orchids, prep, visit, widow, yard work
the orchids are happy, and of course, that makes me happy…
had a great time with my grandson who came over to do some yard work for me…
he mowed the grass, cleaned eavestroughs, put away outdoor furniture, treated weeds in the front flower bed, emptied and put away flower pots… such a relief to have his help…
while he was doing all that I got the potatoes, cauliflower, turnip and stuffing ready for tomorrow… we had lunch and a good visit…
after he left I worked on the Halloween goodies…
rocket lolly pops that look like ghosts;-)… have done about 120… haven’t quite decided whether to add black dots for eyes…
lately the ladybugs have been everywhere… the other day my youngest grandson counted 20 at the front door…
tonight one came to visit me… nice to have company throughout the day and evening, lol…
21 Wednesday Sep 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
this morning before I left home I took some pictures of the October orchid… the one I got from IKEA last October… which has been blooming since I brought it home… except for a few weeks… it has been amazing…
it almost looked artificial as the blooms stayed perfect for months at a time… when it finally dropped the last blossom, a new branch emerged and these blossoms have been open for months as well…
my beloved brought me orchids on a fairly regular basis… some for home and some for my work space as well…
he also picked them up for some of my colleagues…
one of my colleagues is away this week and I am orchid-sitting… can’t remember if this is one that he picked up for her… anyway it has seven blossoms on it…
have made sure the light is on in the office and the blinds open… even put the heater on for a while…
it has been so long since it bloomed that we can’t remember what colour it is going to be…
very exciting, although I do hope it waits until her return before opening…
07 Thursday Apr 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized
no time to walk on the treadmill this morning but I did get a nice picture of the Japanese Maple… the leaves are coming out in full force…
this is a real sign of spring…
the snow that keeps coming down isn’t the most difficult thing we’ve had to deal with lately… it is the grayness… the sun hasn’t been out very much over the last few weeks and that affects many of us…
have noticed that it occasionally comes out late in the afternoon…
and so it did today… got this lovely shot of the orchids in the sunshine…
and this one…
just amazes me how happy a few minutes of sunlight can make me…
04 Friday Dec 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blooming, dinner, FaceTime, Grandpa, orchids, sun, Technology
very happy the day is nearly over… been a long one…
this morning the sky was quite lovely… got a few pictures as we were driving to the office… also enjoyed the sun streaming through the windows throughout the day…
had supper with all the kids… technology is an amazing thing… we FaceTimed over burgers… we had A&W and they had Burger King… besides a teenburger, I had a few onion rings and two of their apple pies…
have had this picture on my phone for quite a while but hadn’t found the right time to use it… today seems like the right time… George loved to bring me orchids all the time and so when I see them I always think of him…
this has been blooming for weeks…
haven’t been able to talk about him all day… not even over dinner… our usual pattern is to share some grandpa stories during our meal, but I just couldn’t do it…
04 Wednesday Feb 2015
Tags
I’ve talked about how much I need flowers in January and February… they make me feel good…
here are some shots I have taken over the last couple of days…
pink rose…
this rose replaced one that drooped over last week… had to take a few pics because it had tiny droplets of water on it…
orange rose…
this rose is a stunning orange and was for a colleague’s birthday… another beauty…
mum and hydrangea…
this mum and hydrangea are part of a bouquet…
sadly, my hydrangeas are finally on their last legs… I have enjoyed them every day…
orchid…
this is my orchid tonight… it is beautiful and seems to be doing very well…
what a lovely few weeks with so many flowers blooming around me…
03 Friday Jan 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
African Violets, big girl pants, cope with winter, George, great pianist, maternal grandmother, memories, orchids, Violet May, violets
when I got back to work yesterday, after two weeks away, one of my African Violets was blooming its little heart out… was a bit surprised because it had lots of blooms on it when I left, so I thought it would be just about done…
violets…
it was lovely…
violets close up…
one of the ways I cope with winter is by having lots of flowering plants or cut flowers around to help keep me grounded… usually George would bring home orchids for me on a regular basis… I can’t get them re-bloom, but they last a long time and are so beautiful… the weather has been quite cold and miserable so I haven’t gone over to Rona to get any but think I will see if a friend will come with me so that the car will be warm and I can bring a couple home…
my grandma…
my maternal grandmother’s name was Violet… Violet May… she was an amazing woman… she had a rare calcium deficiency and had to take numerous pills to stay mobile, but she worked until she was well into her sixties… she was a very snappy dresser and had the most interesting hair… it was very short and she brushed it up from the sides… among other things she was a great pianist and I can remember sitting around in her living room singing songs with my family…
amazing what memories come up when looking at a flower, lol…
25 Monday Feb 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
flowers, forgotten, morning glories, orchids, poignant, poppies, scattered pictures, special event, The Way We Were, wonderful life
on Saturday I took some time at the computer to gather pictures of flowers as I have been asked for some by a friend who wants to decorate her new space with a number of framed photos…
water lily and wasp at the park in 2011…
it was a lovely hour or so that I spent going through all the pictures taken in 2012 and 2013 and copying the flower shots into a folder… apparently, I really like morning glories, poppies and orchids… on Sunday we went through the 600 pictures that I had moved and she chose a hundred that will need to be sifted through…
after she left on Sunday I spent another hour or so doing the same thing with 2011 pictures… found another 500 or so… she has those now to sort through as well…
one of the things that I have found about writing posts for my blog is that I have taken the time to find pictures that have come to my mind as I write… some of them have been easy to find, and others have taken a bit of digging, and along the way I have discovered many pictures that I had completely forgotten about…
I have come across a number of my BS group… often when we go out for a special event we will have a picture taken of all of us… it is fun to remember where we were and what we were doing when the photos were taken… it has made me think I need to do some cross-filing by group as well as date…
birthday celebration November 2011…
tonight we had a good visit although it felt a bit poignant to me as we only have one more gathering before one of us leaves to work in another city… she will be returning home every other weekend but we won’t all be together on Monday nights for quite some time… we have done this before when one of us moved to the States for a few years but being on the phone isn’t the same as being in the same room…
so, now another half hour has gone by as I searched for just the right pictures to add into this post, lol…
the words to The Way We Were by Marvin Hamlisch have been running around in my head since last night’s Oscar performance by Barbra Streisand…
what a wonderful life I lead…
16 Saturday Feb 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
dark months, dim sum, drawing, frogs in the pond, Grandpa's favourite colour, Indigo, missing Grandpa, new books, orchids, teased me
sitting here looking at the electronic picture frame and the orchid behind it…
got me thinking about how, for a number of years now, we always had orchids over the winter months… one of George’s workmates, who worked in the garden centre, would always let George know when a new batch of orchids came in so that I could come down and pick two or three to brighten up the house… George always teased me about buying too many, but he was the one who would tell me they were in, or even bring one or two home… what a guy…
I do much better during the dark months when I have flowers around me…
last weekend we went to pick up a few orchids… sadly they weren’t at their best but I found three that I liked and brought them home, along with a lovely frilly African violet… one orchid and the African violet went to work, and the other two orchids are here in the living and dining rooms…
orchids and frame…
today I went for dim sum with the kids, including my nephew and his girl friend… Tavin and I sat beside one another and he did a bit of drawing… he made a couple of great pictures of the fish tank with some goldfish and said he coloured one of the fish blue, cause that was Grandpa’s favourite colour…
fish in the tank…
we talked a bit about how much we have both been missing Grandpa… Mommy chimed in that she has been having flashbacks to the day he died…
we ran a few errands together and went to Indigo so the boys could pick up a book each as they had some gift cards from Auntie Cyndi and Uncle Ron…
it is always interesting to watch their thought process as they try to decide which is the best book to get… I love this because they have received books from us for every birthday, Christmas and other occasions – just as we did for their mother and aunt since they were little girls… we did pick up a couple of great books for my house too… one is about frogs jumping in the pond, right up my alley, and the other was about farm animals and tabs slide on each page…
I just looked up to see a picture of George and the little boys making salad… George made the best salad ever, and even when we use exactly the same ingredients, we can’t make it as good as he did, lol…
white with purple…
herbiggirlpants 