yesterday I rearranged the bouquet that I got last Friday… the roses were done…
now there are flowers in the den, the kitchen, the bathroom, and my bedroom;-)…

always fun when I redo flowers…
12 Friday Mar 2021
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Uncategorized
28 Sunday Feb 2021
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, family, grandson, moments, nature, shovelling, snow, Technology, time, tools, visit, widow
my grandson came over to shovel today… and pick up a few woodworking tools for his online woods class…
just before he arrived I watched a couple of bunnies eating on the deck…

it was much easier to clean up the snow as it was fairly fresh… the last time it was a few weeks before he was able to get here, mainly due to the crazy cold we went through…
today, he was dropped off and wasn’t picked up for a few hours, so after he finished shovelling, he came inside and we had a visit… we sat as far as possible from one another in the living room and both wore masks…
I learned about his classes and what he has been up to, as well as how he is planning to make money in the future…
we talked about how he will go about taking drivers Ed in these strange times, and it is hard to believe that he will be driving this summer;-)…
it was lovely to spend time with him, even just sitting playing on our phones, lol…
he was picked up, the tools were gathered into the vehicle, and off they went…
looking forward to seeing what he makes…
18 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bunny, creative, fire pot, flowers, moments, nature, roses, teapot, time, widow
I’ve been trying to do something creative most days…
today I cut back all the roses and made a few different arrangements with them…
I liked the look of this Japanese teapot…

this is a fire pot so it was fun to use it in a different way…

here is what they looked like before the rearrangement…

lots of fun…
on my way out of the kitchen after doing the flowers I spent time walking on the spot and watching a bunny on the deck snacking at the saucer where I had just put some seed…

it was nice to see that the sparrows came right up to the feeder, even when the bunny was there… the squirrels always chase everyone else away… they are greedy, lol…
08 Monday Feb 2021
Posted in life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
100 Day Project, big girl pants, blessed, crafts, crochet, moments, purple, time, widow
on January 31st I picked up a project that had been sitting in my closet for at least two years…
it was a partially crocheted blanket that I had started and then walked away from… it was going to be for the bed, but I think it is a little small for that…

I decided to work on it for the 100 Day Project, so I’ve been doing a row or two each evening…

last night I finished it;-)… it is going to be great to cuddle up under in the den…
particularly in this cold weather…
05 Saturday Dec 2020
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, deck, garden, happy, hot tub, light, memories, miss, moments, nature, Technology, time, widow
sitting in the hot tub last night, remembering my beloved on what would have been his 72nd birthday, I was reminded of all the fun things we have done together during our forty plus years…
I’d been wanting a hot tub since our anniversary many years ago when he rented one for a weekend, but we couldn’t afford one until 2009…
once I chose the one I wanted, he built a deck to put it on, and then a deck to go in front of it… easy to get to, it is now perfect for dips… he never loved the hot tub the way I did, but wanted me to be happy…

when we had friends over (you remember that, right?) for a hot tub, if we needed a drink or towel or anything, we’d bang on the wall of the house and he would come out to see what was required, lol… he’d also take photos when I wanted them…
with the new security light/camera on the garage, I have to go to the side door of the garage and turn off the power so that the light doesn’t keep coming on while I’m in the tub… thankfully the deck goes right there so it is easy to get to and from…
some of our best talks happened late at night in this hot tub… I sure do miss him…
02 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blog, blogging, eighth, family, memories, moments, Technology, time, widow
yesterday marked eight years as a blogger and WordPress reminded me in the evening…

kind of amazing to think I have been writing nearly every day for all that time… it started with information about all the challenges and things I learned after my beloved died… from needing numerous death certificates, to knowing the right answers for insurance forms, to how to get the car transferred to my name, to setting up an estate account at the bank… there were so many things that I didn’t know I didn’t know and had to figure out…
I wanted to help others who might be going through similar circumstances…
it has moved from that to sharing a view of my journey as I move through life without my other half…
those big girl pants continue to be difficult to get into some days…
06 Sunday Sep 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, mandevilla, moments, nature, patience, pictures, plants, time, widow
I searched through my photos and it looks like August 11 was the first time I took a photo of the buds on the mandevilla… this was the first time this summer that this houseplant has even started to get buds…

this morning, 26 days later, the first bloom is open…

they take an incredible amount of time to open;-)…
patience;-)…
23 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly bush, chickadees, fish, flowers, garden, moments, nature, nuthatch, overwinter, pictures, plants, pond, purple, sanctuary, squirrels, time, widow
spent the morning in the garden watching chickadees, monarchs, nuthatches, squirrels and fish…

the nuthatch was not interested in a photo op and even the chickadees were not particularly cooperative…

the monarch was happily guzzling nectar from the butterfly bush, so I was able to get a number of photos… I am very happy to finally have this plant in the garden and hope that I can get some seeds from it for next year or maybe even try to bring it into the house to see if it will overwinter…

it looks like there will be two more water lily flowers with a possible third one… very exciting…
I hadn’t been out in the garden for a few days and really enjoyed time with the members of my garden sanctuary;-)…
17 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, Uncategorized
was just in the bathroom and was thinking about how blessed I am…
the fixture has an odd bulb which I can usually remove when one burns out, but for the life of me, I cannot install the replacement…

this is just one of many things that my son-in-law and grandson help me with on what feels like a fairly regular basis…
I am learning and doing more on my own, but it seems there are always things I need them for…
such a gift;-)…
27 Monday Jul 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, camping, deck, family, garden, grandson, hot tub, memories, moments, monarchs, nature, space station, stuffing, time, widow, youngest
my youngest grandson and I spent a few days together… it was lovely as we don’t get to spend the amount of one-on-one time that I have with the other boys…
we did a few chores around the garden and spent a great amount of time with the monarch butterflies…
we planned meals, watched the fish, birds and squirrels, and talked about life… he was even happy to take a selfie with me;-)…

we made stuffing muffins (chicken stuffing put into muffin pans), one of his favourites, lol… we had chicken and mashed potatoes for our supper to go along with the muffins… we made twice stuffed potatoes for our second supper and he reminded me to put in green onions as he likes the flavour they add to food now…
we watched the space station fly over from the hot tub…
we slept out on the decks… he thought it was a very funny thing to do, but got right into it, bringing out his comforter, a blanket and pillows;-)… I slept in the gravity chair, which wasn’t as comfortable as the lounger I normally use…

he played games with his friends on his phone and watched tv shows when it was too hot (and maybe boring) for him outside…
how wonderful it was for me to have these special moments with this young man;-)…