08 Saturday Aug 2020
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
bedroom, big girl pants, blessed, dragonflies, moments, nature, photo, treat, widow
twice in July I have had dragonflies land on the screen in my bedroom…
although they sit there for hours, it is very hard to get a photo that shows their wings;-)…
I love dragonflies so it is a treat when they come to visit;-)…
02 Sunday Aug 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, dinner, entertain, family, flowers, garden, goldfish, grandson, memories, moments, pond, squirrels, treat, widow
a lovely Sunday…
spent most of the day in the garden, watching squirrels, chickadees, butterflies and goldfish…
watched a little red squirrel make hundreds of trips across the upper deck to collect sunflowers for its stash… saw the frog and a purple house finch, read and napped in the garden…
brought out some of the flowers I received yesterday to enjoy…
so happy to have this space to entertain and was pleased to have visitors from out of town… enjoyed steak and lobster for dinner and some quiet late night star gazing…
we were quite late in eating and I giggled a bit when I realized that I didn’t remember to take a picture of my supper…
24 Friday Jul 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, burger, carpet, family, garden, helpful, lunch, moments, muggy, treat, walk, weather, widow
yesterday my son-in-law came by and we had a lovely visit and cup of tea on the deck… it was quite cool at that time…
he fixed the chairs I’ve been trying to redo, without any problem, lol… I did learn how to cut through plastic using the clamp on the counter in the garage…
it got really hot and muggy as he cleaned up some bits of carpet that had been dissolving alongside of the garage… after he finished, we walked over to pick up burgers from The Burger Place…
we had lunch in the garden and he headed out to his next activity…
what a treat;-)…
03 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, moments, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, fluffing, garden, gardener, happy, moments, nature, plants, purple, shopping, treat, weed, widow
what a full and hot day…
Hilda the Gardener came by to do some weeding… she has been busy and hasn’t been here since May so there were lots of weeds for her to deal with, lol… her comment was that possibly the fluffing of the earth when she loosened it last time, made a great space for the weeds to come back;-)… so clearly I shouldn’t weed, lol…
she filled four large bags, and I filled one very small pail;-)…
but it looks lovely everywhere including behind the back deck… she also brought some purple gladioli and added them to the flower bed… below are before and after photos… they do not do justice to her work;-)…
and then my books arrived from Chapters/Indigo… nine in total… lots to read for the next while…
this batch are hard cover, not my favourite, but they were all a great price;-)…
01 Wednesday Jul 2020
Tags
baking, big girl pants, blessed, delicious, fluffy, food, garden, homemade, moments, oil, rhubarb, scones, treat, widow
yesterday I finally got around to making rhubarb scones…
I’ve had the recipe for a few weeks but it has been too hot to make them…
I was especially interested as the recipe used canola oil instead of butter… I wondered if they would end up being dense and heavy, but they turned out light and fluffy and very tasty…
they may have been the best scones I’ve made;-)…
and were delicious warm with pro-activ on them… I think they would also be great with warm cheese on them;-)…
29 Monday Jun 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement
Tags
babies, big girl pants, birds, blessed, flowers, friends, garden, house finches, irises, learning, moments, nature, pond, purple, sparrows, sunshine, time, treat, widow
a few days ago a great friend came by for a garden visit…
she brought me some gorgeous dark purple Japanese irises and a branch of lovely mock orange blossoms…
we had a nice time as we checked out everything growing in the garden and then watched the birds for ages… she knows lots about birds so I even learned a little, lol…
the house finch couple came by to visit and the house sparrows had a feeding frenzy as the parents and babies flew around and parents fed some babies and encouraged others to find their own seeds…
it was such fun to watch the way the youngsters fluttered their wings… and tried to land in various places… a few times I thought they were going to land right on us…
the sound was amazing as everyone was chatting and calling their family members, clearly wanting to be recognized, lol…
great fun to spend time with someone else who can happily listen to the water and bird watch for hours at a time;-)…
11 Thursday Jun 2020
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, BS, campfire, car, drive, food, friends, memories, moments, nature, Outing, physical distancing, pictures, treat, weather, widow
just home from a wonderful gathering with my best buddies… we haven’t been together since my birthday in April, when they came and wished me a happy birthday at a distance with signs and a card…
this was the first time that I have left the house, and driven the car, since mid-March…
everyone brought their own dishes, silverware and mugs, and I even brought my chair, which worked out really well as it has a little table attached where I could put my tea and camera…
we sat – physically distancing, of course – around a lovely fire in our host’s backyard, celebrating another birthday and enjoyed a visit while eating lemon cake with fresh raspberries which she had baked for us… (cake photo from the chef)…
we talked about birds, celebrations, family and wind chimes… and we learned that wind chimes can have different sounds attributed to them… the ones we were listening to were the song of a meadowlark…
it was cool, but we all brought warm clothes and were quite comfortable… a bit crazy that gloves were needed…
it was an excellent first outing and I felt good about getting out for the first time since the pandemic began, although I did wash my hands as soon as I got into the house, lol…
my clothes smell like a campfire… what a treat…
31 Sunday May 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Chinese food, dredged, family, fish, frog, garden, grandsons, leaves, lunch, moments, mowing, nature, pond, supper, treat, visit, water, widow
sitting by the pond after my visitors have left and enjoying the last bit of sunlight…
my water shoes are on the deck because I went into the pond once again and dredged up another pailful of leaves… the fish are still not coming out, but I did see the frog hop by earlier in the day…
all three of my grandsons came by just after noon… I made them grilled cheese sandwiches with the wonderful La Belle Baguette whole wheat sourdough that was delivered yesterday…
the oldest left, the middle one mowed the grass, front and back, while the youngest watered plants and pulled weeds…
some days it is hard to realize he is eleven and can reach and do more things…
after the work was done, relaxing happened and visiting took place…
this was the first time I’ve had people in the house and the system was they had access to the basement for cooling down and using the washroom and I had the main floor… worked perfectly…
we ordered Chinese food for supper and it arrived just before the daddy, who had been at work all day… afterwards my downspout got fixed, a stair board tightened and then off they went…
it was a treat to see them and I enjoyed every minute… I missed my nap, but plan on making it an early night;-)…
15 Friday May 2020
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, declutter, home, memories, move, neighbours, remembering, sugar cookies, treat, welcome, widow
I’ve spent a good part of the day watching the activity as the new neighbours move into the house next door…
looks like they are a young couple and they have been coming and going since around 7:30 this morning…
last Friday I watched the moving van arrive and take away all the belongings of the couple who had lived there for over 10 years… well he lived there for that time, and recently got married… since then they have come and gone a number of times to do the last bit of clean up and removal… his adult kids had all been by to fetch their bits and pieces and a couple of days ago a truck came and picked up the hot tub…
it made me think of a couple of things…
first was the day we moved into this house… it was in August of 1973… we had purchased the house from an older couple and on the day we were to move in, we arrived at nine in the morning to discover them sitting at their kitchen table having tea… it appears that they had forgotten they had to be out that day… we were freaking out at our end, because we had to be out of the apartment we had been living in by the end of that day… amazingly, their son arrived and they were out of the house by 3 pm…
second is the thought of what my kids will have to do when I leave the house… we have lived here for 47 years so there is a lot of stuff… I keep thinking about how I need to be decluttering more than I have, although right now isn’t really the time to do that, as organizations are not taking donations at this time, lol…
but it does remind me to get onto that project as soon as possible… we won’t even discuss the state of the garage, which has not been dealt with since my beloved’s death over eight years ago…
I baked sugar cookies to deliver next door and share with a few others…
14 Thursday May 2020
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bird feeders, birds, chickadees, eat, flowers, garden, hand, moments, nature, seeds, treat, widow
recently spent most of the day in the garden watching the comings and goings at the bird feeder…
my goal this summer is to teach the chickadees to eat from my hand…
starting by putting food out close to my chair and sitting fairly close to the feeder so they get used to me being there…
had a few conversations with the squirrels who kept coming to eat, but I encouraged them to leave… later, I noticed two at the feeder… making up for lost time I guess…
saw juncos, song sparrows, nuthatches, and finches, but no chickadees, lol…
herbiggirlpants 