22 Saturday Nov 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, concierge, entrance, lights, moments, plants, volunteer, weather, widow, zoo
spent Friday morning at the entrance to the zoo as a zoo concierge…
this was my little nook by the doors…
learned lots of tips and tricks from the staff and got a few pictures of some of the Zoo Lights which started that evening…
four layers of clothing was perfect and toward the end of my shift, the top layer came off;-)…
20 Saturday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park Zoo, big girl pants, blessed, doors, food, moments, plants, swag, The Leaf, training, weather, widow, zoo
I’ve been enjoying taking any training that I can to learn more about the Leaf and Zoo…
spent an hour Thursday morning to see how volunteering at the front of the zoo works…
afterwards I went to Volunteer Services and collected all the swag I have earned over the last four months…
what a haul;-)…
I was also able to purchase a volunteer hoodie which is going to be well used as the weather gets colder…
I’m thinking the entrance area will be chilly with the doors opening and closing all day…
lunch out, and then a shift at The Leaf…
it was a rather full day…
20 Friday Jun 2025
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Ambassador, APC, Assiniboine Park Conservancy, big girl pants, blessed, Conservatory, feet, heavy horses, learning, mentors, moments, nature, The Leaf, volunteer part 2, volunteers, weather, widow, zoo
once orientation was completed, I signed up for my first of three (3 hour) different sessions…
the first session consisted of a tour of the zoo with a more senior volunteer and two other newbies… everyone we met was so helpful and provided us with lots of information…
I hadn’t been to the zoo for a while so it was a lovely refresher… the zoo is a very busy place…
and I left with my volunteer t-shirt;-)…
the next session was with a mentor, usually one-on-one, but it ended up with two newbies with our mentor… they know so much about all the goings on at the zoo, and were happy to share with us…
part of our training included time at the McFeeter’s Heavy Horse Centre… we got to watch the new Shire horses, Willow and Willy, move from the barn to the paddock…
I must say, by the end of our three hour shift, my feet were a tad sore, lol…
my last and final session was at The Leaf… the first half was touring the space and learning a few new things… one exciting thing was getting to walk out on the second floor balcony that overlooks the Tropical Biome…
it is reserved for those who rent the various spaces on that floor… and, that the floor on that level is sprinkled with the glass from the old Conservatory;-)…
then we practised in three different areas…
I learned that there are a few places between the zoo and The Leaf that have to have someone in attendance at all times…
so, if no volunteers are available, a staff member has to take over… it is clear that volunteers save time so staff members can focus on their important work…
I have now finished my first two shifts as a bonafide Volunteer Ambassador…
say hi if you spot me… most likely at The Leaf for now…
18 Wednesday Jun 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
APC, Assiniboine Park Conservancy, big girl pants, blessed, learning, moments, nature, orientation, process, Technology, The Leaf, volunteer part 1, widow, zoo
for quite some time my family have been encouraging me to volunteer at The Leaf…
I considered it and eventually decided to apply… the application process begins in March and starts with an online form… I still find it difficult to talk about my qualities…
after a few weeks I was invited to register for an in-person meeting, which I did… I got a message two days before the actual meeting time saying they were expecting me that morning, about 40 minutes from when the email arrived… yikes… thankfully I called and was told the email was an error and my appointment was when I expected… took a few moments for my heart to settle down, lol…
I arrived for the meeting right on time and had a lovely half hour with a volunteer who shared information and also asked a few questions… it was interesting to learn about some of the opportunities that are available…
next was an email with four modules to review and then register for an in-person orientation…
the four online modules were informative and straightforward and once they were completed, I signed up for a three-hour orientation to take place somewhere at APC…
the first one was cancelled due to illness, so I ended up at one a few weeks later… we met in one of the zoo camp classrooms…
there were twenty of us in the class and we learned together in small and large groups… it was a great opportunity to meet with others who wanted to help out as volunteers…
after nine more hours of training, I will be an APC volunteer…
part 2 to come;-)…
02 Friday Aug 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, butterflies, horses, rays, rides, stingrays, sunshine, wagon, widow, zoo
we spent a short amount of time in the butterfly garden… one of us liked it more than the other…
from there we went to visit the stingrays… what fun that was… not too many visitors so we were able to view them from all around the pool… they feel a bit bumpy on top… stayed there for a long time, lol…
and finally we went for a wagon ride… we were the only passengers;-)… Bob and Tom took us for a nice tour of the area…
ended our visit with ice cream… delicious on such a hot and sunny day…
01 Thursday Aug 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
anniversary, barbecue, big girl pants, butterflies, commemorate, family, forty-nine, grandsons, lobster, Memory Stone, stingrays, widow, zoo
I spent the day with my youngest grandson and we had lots of fun… we also talked a fair bit about Grandpa…
he was just three when my beloved died so it is quite amazing what he remembers, although I do try to talk about him often…
hard to figure out how to commemorate what would have been our forty-ninth wedding anniversary…
one of the things we did was find the memory stones that my eldest daughter had put into one of the walkways at Assiniboine Park…
he was even happy to do some selfies which doesn’t always happen…
we saw the butterflies, stingrays, snow leopards, and had a wagon ride… it was hot out… we remembered visits to the zoo with Grandpa and the fun we had…
my eldest grandson arrived after work and we barbecued steak and lobster for our supper…
great way to spend this special day…
10 Friday May 2019
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, brave, claustrophobic, family, helmet, Maui, moments, paddle boarding, Park, scared, stingrays, widow, zoo
was recently talking with someone about being brave…
made me think back to our trip to Mexico when we went down to the ocean floor wearing these 60 pound helmets… we were there to see the stingrays…
we told the team that I was claustrophobic, just in case I couldn’t stay down in the water… I hung onto the rail for dear life, lol… I thought that the divers came by a few times, but apparently they came by every minute or so to be sure I was okay…
but I did it… and have the photo to prove it…
while we were on Maui I tried stand up paddle boarding… and I did it, well, for about five minutes, lol… of course my daughter did hold the board while I got on…
this afternoon I went to the Zoo with friends… we spent some time checking out the new stingray exhibit… this was what had instigated the conversation around bravery… what fun…
the volunteers shared all kinds of information about the display… there are two varieties and twenty-five in total… looking forward to visiting them again;-)… no fear at all for this visit;-)…
took me back to those moments of being so scared, but doing it anyway…
05 Thursday Jul 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bunny, camp, chocolate, Day 7, dessert, drive, family, grandsons, memories, moments, Park, pizza, relaxing, widow, WWTB, zoo
another busy day…
have really been enjoying the drive through the Park each morning as we go to and from the zoo for camp… wonderful relaxing way to start the day…
our supper plan was a frozen pizza, followed by a delicious dessert pizza… our various descriptions included: smells like s’mores; looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie; tastes like hot chocolate… yum… we did discuss that the whole pizza was 880 calories which was why I had a single slice… might just be getting a few of these to have on hand in the freezer;-)…
the older one ran out to the gas bar to pick up some milk for tomorrow’s breakfast and came across this bunny when he returned… clever boy circled around and came in to get me to go out and see it;-)…
03 Tuesday Jul 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, camp, chores, day 5, fun, grandsons, organized, sleeping, soccer, supper, widow, WWTB, zoo
great news… the youngest did go to camp and had a great time… I was a bit worried about whether he would actually get there…
he hadn’t been to camp before and had a poor night’s sleep… maybe worrying about it…
got up and got his bag packed with lunch, two snacks and a water bottle in addition to rain gear and a change of clothes… had a bit of trouble getting the bag closed, lol…
spent a few minutes relaxing before taking him over to the Park…
dropped him off at the very beginning of the check-in time and he went in, a bit tentative but he went through the gate…
kept my phone close all day long, but he clearly enjoyed himself and there were no calls…
when I picked him up he wanted to stay longer to play soccer…
as we drove away he advised that I needed to drop him off at the exact same time tomorrow so he would have extra play time…
meanwhile the older one slept for most of the day… he did eventually get up and do the few chores on the list I’d left him… did I mention he is 13, lol…
together we decided on bits and pieces to have for supper from various meals we’ve eaten over the last few days… we also reviewed our planned meals and made a few adjustments to be sure we had all the meals covered…
tv and video games till bedtime, lol…
I think some of us are more tired than others…
30 Saturday Jun 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, bugs, butterflies, comics, Day 2, fireworks, garden, grandsons, sleep, videos, walk, widow, wolves, WWTB, zoo
another fun day…
after breakfast the older mowed the grass, whipper snipped, and we moved the rocking chair… we will see how it feels in the new spot…
then we headed over to the Zoo to check out the wolves and big bugs…
it was overcast but not too hot… we also stayed quite a while in the butterfly garden, sitting still and hoping that a butterfly would land on us…
stopped at Indigo to pick up some reading material… was all excited that they wanted books, but they meant graphic novels, ie comics, lol… although the boys did tell me they read all the words…
lunch at Subway and home to play video games and watch tv…
organized twice stuffed potatoes to go with our country style spareribs as this was the request…
they are currently playing football in the park…
planning to watch fireworks at eleven just a few streets over…
and sleep in tomorrow…
herbiggirlpants 