this anniversary of my beloved’s death has been harder than usual…
not sure if it is having someone else in the house, going through so many boxes and letting go of things… maybe it’s been seeing his writing on papers as I’ve sorted through files… maybe it is realizing I’ve been without him for a quarter of the time we were together…
you’d think after eleven years it would be less difficult…
brought back a number of memories as his birth changed the trajectory of my life…
because I refused to miss his birth, I ended up leaving a job I had been at for ten years, as the boss wasn’t pleased that I had taken away time from my position… a lot of trauma occurred over the next while and eventually I was walked out of the office…
one good thing that came out of that was the hot tub, as I was awarded a year’s salary due to my wrongful dismissal and purchased it with some of those funds…
there was huge stress and tension and the hot tub has helped with that for many years now;-)…
after a number of months I found the perfect position where I flourished for nearly ten years before my retirement…
lots of things to sift through…
this photo was taken in 2020, when I was still keeping my distance from everyone, but it does show him and the hot tub together, lol…
spent an hour and a half wandering through The Leaf in the daytime…
we took ample time to search out the plants as we wandered through the tropical biome… and we found the cacao tree;-)…
the waterfall continues to over perform…
I am betting that there are people working very hard to figure out how to end up with less splash, lol…
I spent at lot of time on the bridge, watching the beautiful koi swimming around the pond… a lovely treat;-)…
there were a lot of people there, but it didn’t feel too crowded… we wore masks but the majority of others didn’t… since I was last in the space there have been large fans added, so there did appear to be a lot of noise, but once through the doors into the Mediterranean biome, it was quiet…
the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden was a much busier place with numerous butterflies flitting about… it is always fun to search for the ones that have landed and are blending in with the foliage… as visitors move through this area they are quiet and will sit and patiently watch the action…
there are two elevators to take you up to the canopy and the Butterfly Garden and only one was working… seems to slow the flow down a bit…
there was ample space for jackets in the coat room, many volunteers to answer questions and direct the flow of people, and lots of open space…
had lunch with my buddies on Monday to celebrate a couple of birthdays…
ordered from Spice Circle the day before and we picked it up… we always need to check because many restaurants are closed on Mondays, which we have learned the hard way, lol…
we had a variety of items and found the food hot and tasty… my goat thali was very nice… the one thing I might change was the packaging as it didn’t all fit into one container…
but there were leftovers for another meal for everyone;-)…
for years we celebrated New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… this started with friends before we had kids;-)…
at some point it moved to New Year’s Day as the kids wanted to participate but were off celebrating on the night before…
this year I enjoyed the preparation as I worked on getting escargot stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and sautéed Brussels sprouts ready…
the kids arrived, got the barbecue going and then grilled the steaks and lobster tails…
dinner was delicious and we had a great time…
on Monday, as I emptied the dishwasher and put away all of the pieces we used, I revisited the fun and special moments…
we always like to cheers together and being 1330 miles apart doesn’t stop us although it took a bit of direction from the kids for me to get my mug in the right spot, lol…
there were lots of treats and great minds thinking alike as we all opened Chapters/Indigo cards…
technology has made such a difference in our lives…
had a busy day yesterday… makes me laugh, because usually my days are quietly spent at home reading and watching tv…
started with our aquasize class in the morning… even though it was very cold outside… lots of fun as the session was filled with holiday music that many sang along to…
from there we were off for lunch at the Falafel Place… perfect timing as most people were nearly done as we arrived… had falafel with hummus and salad… it was yummy…
home to spend time listening to Christmas music and reading…
then, a dear friend came by with fish and chips for our dinner… and brought Christmas presents;-)…
I was so excited to spend time with them that I completely forgot to take a photo of my meal, lol…
after we finished our dinner we had cookies and a wonderful visit…
felt a bit like I was getting a cold, so I dug in the freezer for some chicken and made chicken soup…
just the making of the soup is always relaxing… you can’t really do it quickly… slow and steady;-)…
I also decided on Mom’s dumplings to go with it… that reminded me of the time I took chicken soup with dumplings for my colleagues… a few hadn’t had dumplings, so I made very small ones which I thought would work well… NOT… they were gummy and yucky, sigh… clearly not the way to serve them… so funny, lol…
six o’clock came and I enjoyed a bowl filled with delicious broth, veggies and dumplings…
felt way better🤗…
and then there were a couple of meals ready in the fridge…
herbiggirlpants 