26 Thursday Sep 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
arranged, big girl pants, blessed, Fall, garden, houseplants, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, vacation, weather, widow
had a bit of fun moving plants around…
I’ve started to bring some of the houseplants in from their summer vacation in the garden…
the mandevilla came in and then plants from around the house were rearranged…
more will be coming in so I will have to decide where they will all go…
23 Saturday Mar 2024
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Ali’i Kula Lavender, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, happy, lavender, Maui, memories, moments, nature, pictures, plants, purple, remembering, vacation, widow
recently I saw something on Instagram which reminded me of our wonderful visit to Ali’i Kula Lavender on Maui…
it was a beautiful place, with nice lavender fields, but also amazing gardens filled with stunning flowers…
I found a few photos from that day…
this hand towel usually hangs in the bathroom as a lovely reminder of that wonderful day and trip…
so nice when something comes along and reminds you of special moments…
30 Friday Jun 2023
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birds, blessed, eating, family, flight, manoeuvre, moments, nature, pelicans, time, vacation, weather, widow
during our last day at the cottage, we spent time on the cliff deck watching the waves and the pelicans…
we have enjoyed the pelicans since we arrived and early on we would get very excited every time we spotted one flying over the cottage, in the water close to the beach, taking off and landing in the water, and all the times they spent with the fisher…
over the last day or so, while we were there, it seemed a bit ho hum, lol…
what we never managed to see was them catching fish… it was clear that they got something from the fisher after they brought up the final piece of the net…
we did discover that a group of them could be called a number of things, but we liked pod and squadron best;-)…
such fun to watch them over the week…
21 Wednesday Jun 2023
Posted in family, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cottage, daughter, family, fisher, happy, health, memories, moments, nature, sky, solstice, summer solstice, sunrise, sunset, time, vacation, walk, weather, widow
on this Summer Solstice, the day began just after 5:30 am… watched a fisher, and many, many pelicans, bringing in their nets as the sky lightened…
then celebrated the Solstice with water, rocks, fire, and a few thoughts on this auspicious day…
went for a walk in the heat of the day and found a few beach options…
ended the day watching a gorgeous sunset;-)…
I am blessed to be able to spend this day with this delightful young woman…
30 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
amethyst, amethyst heart, banyan, beaches, big girl pants, blessed, cacao trees, flowers, Hawaii, jacaranda, Maui, memories, moments, nature, once-in-a-lifetime, orchids, pictures, remembering, trees, turtles, vacation, water, widow
four years ago in April, we arrived on Maui to celebrate my birthday…
I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never made it happen until then…
I have been enjoying the memories that have come up in my social media…
on our way into our first hotel, we spotted orchids in the lobby…
we went to the beach to watch the sun set, got our toes in the ocean, found a great spot to watch, settled in to wait, and then had this group of people walk right in front of us to get their pictures, lol…
I have the amethyst heart that I purchased on my bedside table and enjoy seeing it all the time…
one of my favourite memories is of our time at the orchid farm… a huge space bursting with the most beautiful plants, most of which were in full bloom…
it was delightful…
there were fish and sea turtles…
saw cacao trees with cacao pods on them, jacaranda trees in bloom (purple), and the most amazing banyan tree which took up an entire block…
it was an amazing time and we enjoyed every minute… it lived up to all of my expectations and then some… so lucky this happened before covid…
13 Monday Sep 2021
Posted in food, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, fun, lake, memories, moments, nature, time, vacation, walk, water, widow
recently home, following a two day vacation, which easily felt like four days…
drove up to the cottage with a friend one morning and returned home the next evening…
we had a wonderful time… we sat on the beach for a while, spent time walking and beachcombing, spotted numerous mushrooms, watched a wonderful display of pelicans and cormorants, ate great food, relaxed, and talked by the fire…
what a delightful break…
14 Wednesday Jul 2021
Posted in food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beach, big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, health, memories, moments, nature, remembering, restored, sand, sunrise, time, treats, vacation, water, widow
I spent five glorious days with friends’ at their beach cottage…
the first thing I always do is jump out of the car and run down to be sure the beach and lake are still there, lol…
what a wonderful time it was… delicious food (that I didn’t have to prepare); wonderful conversations, stories, and laughter; listening to birds and the waves; lots of time on the beach and in the water; relaxing, reading and sleeping…
what more could you ask for;-)… I am restored…
such a gift…
13 Tuesday Apr 2021
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cacao tree, chocolate, flowers, jacaranda, lavender, Maui, memories, moments, nature, purple, vacation, widow
I’ve been looking back at photos from our trip to Maui two years ago… enjoying it a lot…
lovely to have reminders of that special time…
on this day, we visited a lavender farm where we walked through a garden filled wth beautiful flowers, many of which we couldn’t name…
we spent time at Maui Chocolate Coffee tours where we chatted with the farm owners, got to see cacao growing on trees, and tasted a chocolate drink…
and we saw jacaranda trees in bloom… they are purple;-)…
30 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, Photography, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, charcuterie, chocolate, Christmas, duck, family, food, memories, moments, Ottawa, pictures, plate, treats, vacation, widow
this photo was taken last year on this day when I was in Ottawa… we made a few plates with veggies, crackers, fruit, cheese, duck, and chocolate…
I think we were ahead of the current charcuterie craze, lol…
today, after I saw this picture, I made my own fancy plate…
it was fun to enjoy the items and remember our delicious lunch a year ago…
so blessed to have had that holiday… looking forward to the day we can do it again…
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beach time, dangerous, feet, floating, friends, fun, great conversations, her big girl pants, mussels, sharp, vacation, water, widow, zebra, zebra mussels
we had wonderful times at the beach and in the water… the area is quiet so that means the beach is too the majority of the time…
I did watch kids from a few cottages over as they kneeboarded and that was fun…
we went in the water often and it was refreshing… we floated on pool noodles and had deep conversations and lots of laughter…
we also found tons of zebra mussels… only a couple the first few days, but after a really windy evening that blew into shore there were many clusters under our feet… one day we spent at least an hour or so feeling them with our toes and then having someone lift them up with their feet so we could collect them and bring them to shore to be disposed of… it was great exercise…
they are very sharp and all three of my companions ended up with cuts on their feet that had to be taken care of to be sure that no infections occurred… I nearly always wore my water shoes so happily was able to feel the clumps or sticks or rocks with them on and not get injured…
it was rather concerning to see so many…
herbiggirlpants 