Big Birthday Celebration: A Tale Of Two Teas

On August 3, 2024August 3, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Adventures in Retirement, Good Times, Retirement, Roadtripping, See the Beauty44 Comments

Last weekend I hit a major milestone birthday – well, according to our government that is! I turned 65, which is the traditional “age of retirement” still, here in Canada.

Woohoo! I can look forward to my Old Age Security cheque every month now, starting in August. It’s not near enough for a person to actually live on, but it will be something for those of us who no longer garner a paycheque. When I retired from my career officially at age 60, I opted to take my Canada Pension Plan (a benefit available to all Canadians who have paid into the plan during their working lives) early because of a few good reasons – the main one being that my early CPP plus my existing survivor benefit (for being a widow of a working Canadian) meant I was pretty close to my maximum payout already, so why not?! And I have not regretted for one minute my decision to retire early!

My daughter had made plans to treat me to High Tea at the Empress, in Victoria, on my actual birthdate so I had a girly splurge at the local mall the day before – purchasing a new silk top, a new lipstick at the MAC counter, and some new jewellery. Happy birthday to ME, LOL!

Interestingly (to me, anyways), this statement necklace is made from recycled aluminum. Which makes it quite lightweight and thus easier to wear.

Getting ready to enjoy our tea tray and *extra special* tea blend (more on that later!)

Complimentary glass of prosecco rosé delivered by our waiter, Raymond.

Because the hotel knew it was my birthday, I was given some very special gifts including a sachet of their Empress blend tea (to take home), a delicious glass of bubbly, AND a pot of very premium tea – all on the house! The tea (regularly $18 a pot, on top of the cost of the High Tea itself) was absolutely wonderful – beautifully fragrant and a delight on the tongue – so of course I headed to the Fairmont Store right afterwards to source some to take home. Imagine my shock when I found out it was $99 for 2 ounces of Madame Butterfly!

Luckily (?) I can get over a shock quite quickly and easily 😉 so in the true spirit of YOLO: YES – I bought the ~~damn~~ tea! I reasoned it was the equivalent of buying a very fine bottle of wine or spirits, so out came the credit card. I also purchased the other blend we selected for our high tea – Lady Londonderry (at $18.95, a veritable steal…).

This is looking more and more like the equivalent of a very fine wine, indeed! (The flowers described on the label are jasmine, which gives the tea its heavenly fragrance as well as contributing to the taste.)

To be opened and enjoyed the next time I host Book Club.

Lady Londonderry ingredients. I have lemon balm and calendula growing in my garden…hmm, getting ideas 🤔.

As if I wasn’t spoiled enough already, my good friend and fellow blogger Donna wanted to treat me to a day at Butchart Gardens including THEIR high tea! Who am I to say no to two high teas only 3 days apart?!

We got the best outside table in the place, overlooking the owners’ private garden.

This tea started with individual trifles! Photo by Donna.

Including a special chocolate birthday medallion!

After that delicious meal, Donna and I valiantly tried to walk some of it off around the gardens.

One of many spectacular dahlias that took my breath away.

In comparing the two teas, they were equivalent in terms of quality of ingredients in my opinion. The Butchart Gardens tea tray seemed to give you more in terms of quantity as well as cost – the Empress high tea cost was almost double per person – but in the wise words of our waiter, Shane: Yes, but you had to pay to get into the Gardens in order to eat here…

The Empress provides a different sort of ambience – including a piano player tinkling away throughout our tea, and a gorgeous view of the Victoria Harbour and Parliament buildings…as well as the history of that grand hotel itself. Meanwhile the Gardens provided spectacular vistas and blooms everywhere you looked while enjoying their tea and later walking their paths. I couldn’t choose just one over the other, and luckily I didn’t have to!

If you are ever on the island (and celebrating a special occasion…or not!), I can highly recommend either of these venues. After all, YOLO!!!

And if you can’t find anyone to treat you, there’s always this wisdom from the Parks and Rec crew:

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Our Chicken “Friends”

On July 28, 2024July 19, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer26 Comments

Bowser’s daddy brought home something very interesting the other day.

What’s Daddy getting out of the funny house he built?

A young chicken! (This one has turned out to be the biggest and the *boss* chicken and I secretly call her Lady Buffy Buff Orpington of Orpington Hall 🤭).

One of the Lady’s underlings. I think the grandkids have named this one Opal.

Bowser’s daddy brought home 3 seven week-old birds initially, and has since added 2 more to the flock. They are kinda easily spooked right now and thus hard to photograph. They are so young they don’t even cluck yet – they can only cheep cheep (which is adorable!!!).

Bowser’s rapt interest at anything that moves isn’t making the birds any more comfortable at the moment. However, they are protected from his curiosity in their fully enclosed coop and run.

Remember Bowser’s favourite toy – the totally denuded former soccer ball? I think we can all imagine this is what would happen if Bowser got hold of one of his new chicken friends. A livestock guardian dog he is not!

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful Sunday with your friends, chicken or otherwise.

Rock on,

The WB

The Bathroom Renovation

On July 24, 2024July 20, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Move to Dragonfly Cottage, Renovation, See the Beauty22 Comments

A blogger friend of mine (and yours too, probably) – Kate – is undergoing the ~~hell~~ ~~excruciating pain~~ ~~distress~~ pleasure of a bathroom renovation at the moment. This is reminding me that I have promised and so far failed to deliver on my own recent renovation experience, also a bathroom.

This was a whirlwind of a renovation, with most of the work being completed by contractors within the space of ONE WEEK in May.

Don’t hate me. This has never happened to me before and will likely never happen again.

It helped that two contractors (drywall, tiling) live a few houses away from me and could pop over in the evenings or on the weekend for an hour here and there, while still pursuing more lucrative and involved day jobs than my wee bath. And that my favourite plumber had openings on his schedule.

Here is the BEFORE: the old bathroom in all its beige 1990 glory:

The toilet is only a year old. It’s the freshest thing in here 😉. It’s surviving the renovation but will be removed temporarily for installation of the new tile floor. I’m also keeping the medicine cabinet over the bathroom vanity as it remains useful and inoffensive.

This wall (and the unit) are going *buh-bye*.

This corner used to house a stacking washer/dryer unit. I have a second-hand corner cabinet for this space, to hide the plumbing hookups as well as provide storage. It got a refresh (from me) while the bathroom was undergoing renovations.

And here is a video of the glorious AFTER:

I am so happy with my refreshed bathroom space. It puts a big smile on my face when I pass by and catch a glimpse of the shower curtain and the plants and coloured glass hanging in front of the window. And an even bigger smile on my face when I am relaxing in my new, much deeper soaker tub. It’s the hippy-dippy bathroom of my dreams!

This is officially the last large renovation I am doing in my little cottage (she says, hopefully). And also hopefully: LAST RENOVATION EVER.

I don’t want to temp the renovation gods after this incredibly smooth, incredibly fast one!

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Thimbleberries

On July 21, 2024July 17, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer24 Comments

Thimbleberries are ready, and in abundance this year! This is making our daily walkies even more delightful than usual.

So many delicious berries! We are careful to only pick a few each walk, and leave plenty for the wildlife.

We hope you are enjoying the fruits of summer as much as we are.

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – How Is This Even Comfortable?

On July 14, 2024June 30, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer27 Comments

Sometimes Bowser sleeps or sits in ways that make me scratch my head in disbelief.

The baffling yet ever popular head-hanging-off-the-couch position.

Not sure what this move is, but Bowser does it in the car too. My daughter thinks it means he’s uncomfortable – maybe even motion-sick – but why on the couch then?

Bowser has his little toe beans bent back, for some strange reason.

How is this even comfortable? Yet he moved both legs to stretch them (while still sleeping) and then put this foot back into the same exact position. Weirdo.

A short video of Bowser sleeping quite soundly in yet another uncomfortable-looking position.

Do your dogs do this? Please reassure me 🤣.

We hope you are finding some comfortable places to sleep this weekend.

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – What We Found On The Trail This Time

On July 7, 2024June 30, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer43 Comments

Last Sunday, I showed you a cell phone (and a bag of trash) that we picked up on the trail. Well, this time we picked up (or truth-be-told, were picked up by) another dog.

This young female bounded out of a side trail and glommed onto the both of us immediately. She wouldn’t leave us, even when we met other doggos (and their minders) that were more her size and amenable to her…ahem…rough, playful energy.

No tags or ID to be found on her pretty collar.

We went to a nearby holiday trailer park resort but no one there recognized “Missy” (as another person on social media named her. More on that later…). I kept hoping that she would bound away again at some point but Missy followed us all the way home. I gave her food (a couple of cups of Bowser’s ~~horrifically expensive~~ schnauzer chow) and water and secured her in my daughter’s yard. I took Bowser to my place and posted about Missy on our community’s Facebook page and also on ROAM (as one person on the trail suggested). I also called Animal Control to come pick her up as she wouldn’t let me touch her – despite her apparent friendliness – and there was no way I could coax her into a vehicle to take her anywhere.

Missy was howling at being left in my daughter’s yard all alone, and when I went to check on Missy then Bowser was barking at being left behind at my house. So we all ended up together, waiting for Animal Control…

Bowser keeping a watchful eye on this stranger in his yard.

Despite the size difference, Bowser was acknowledged as the “top dog”. *Rightfully so*, Bowser wants me to add 😉.

Animal Control did show up about an hour later and they were no more successful at getting close to her than I was. Things escalated, and Missy escaped through the back fence and into the neighbourhood. I saw a lot of Facebook postings about her after that, and the next day another person was able to get her secured, and again Animal Control was contacted. By this time, all of us who encountered Missy were thinking along the same lines: that she had been “dumped” – abandoned by her owners – and left to fend for herself.

What was especially heart-breaking about this situation was reading on Facebook about how exhausted and scared, and also that Missy had returned to the trail and was found lying beside a pile of women’s clothing. Which makes me wonder if the clothing contained the scent of her former owners, or reminded her of them somehow. I really do believe she was abandoned, and perhaps that person had left the clothing there to get her to stay near that spot.

This time Animal Control were successful, and (not without a huge struggle) Missy was contained and taken away – hopefully to be adopted into a more loving home than her last one.

As someone who grew up on an isolated property on the outskirts of town, I am no stranger to animals being dumped. At least once a year a car would pull up at our house (usually in the middle of the night) and a dog or cat would be cast out, and then the car would accelerate away. I suppose they thought because we had a large property with pets and a barn, we would welcome more pets. Once in a wee while we did, but mostly we had to take them to the local SPCA as we already had enough animals of our own to care for.

Please love your animals and, if you can’t look after them anymore, take them to an agency that will try to rehome them. Don’t leave it to chance.*

Rock on,

The WB

*I know I am preaching to the choir here. None of my regular readers would ever be so cruel as to abandon an animal. I felt I had to close this post with this message, though. I apologize that it is not my usual cute little doggy post.

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Give Peas A Chance Edition

On July 3, 2024June 29, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Dragonfly Cottage Garden 2024, What's On Your Plate24 Comments

Despite a cold, wet spring here on the Island, things are happening in my little garden! And I am “shopping” daily in my backyard to put things on my plate.

I planted peas for the first time – snow, sugar snap and shelling peas – all of which are becoming my go-to snacks as well as being featured at meal time.

I’ve been making a lot of these simple and quick rice bowl meals.

No recipe – just a variety of peas from the garden, cooked rice, a protein (smoked sausage, here) and a dollop of Sambal Badjak (Indonesian pepper paste) run through it all.

And for dessert?

Another simple meal of berries and yogurt.

Please join me and my co-host Donna (she’s back!!!) and let us know what’s on your plate this month! Feel free to leave a link in the Comments or join the Link Party:

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Dog Math

On June 30, 2024June 24, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer33 Comments

I’ve been working for a while now at the Come Command with Bowser. (With Schnauzers, it DO take a while. They are stubborn creatures. IYKYK!). He is pretty good at responding (and quickly) now that he knows there are treats involved. Usually.

*Bowser, come!* Running hell bent for leather, anticipating a reward.

Now that I’ve got your full attention… *Pardon the dirty fingers. I did a spontaneous trash pick up on this walk. I usually plan these things better, and pack gloves to wear.*

Bowser’s Dog Math: only 1 treat instead of 2 = no treat given; treats fall to ground and not eaten out of hand = no treat given; one treat falls to ground and one eaten out of hand = no treat given. *If you think your dog can’t do math, try showing him 4 treats and only give him 3.*

Camera focused on proper “person” now! Get a load of that steely gaze. What focus! What concentration!

This walk’s trash haul. I can only pick up the small items and I only stopped gathering because the bag is full. *Sad*.

I also found a cell phone on this walk. Thanks to the power of social media, it was quickly reunited with its rightful owner.

The morning’s exciting (*snacks!!!*) walk over; time for a snuggle and a nap. *When are you joining me on the couch, Oma?*

We hope you are having an exciting weekend, with lots of snacks.

Rock on,

The WB

A Glutton For Punishment – Kayak Skills Course Level 1

On June 29, 2024June 29, 2024 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Retirement, Badassery, Goals & Dreams, Sea Kayaking38 Comments

Longtime readers may remember that I took a Basic Kayak Skills course almost a year ago. You can read about that, here. Even though I gained much in knowledge and confidence from that course I knew there was still much more I needed to learn, and further training was definitely going to be on the agenda.

After all, my aim as I am aging and adventuring is to “Be an inspiration, not a cautionary tale!” 😉 🤣

To that end it was a no-brainer to go back to Caroline Ross and her company CrossCurrents Kayak to grow my sea kayaking knowledge and skills.

Caroline Ross, owner of CrossCurrents Kayak – ready to school us in trip planning via a marine chart. Photo taken at Brickyard Beach Community Park in Nanoose.

After Basic, the next rung on the Paddle Canada ladder for skills certification is Sea Kayak Skills – Level 1. In this weekend-long course I practiced all the rescue skills and strokes learned in the first course plus I learned the basics on how to read a marine chart and navigation, where to find weather and tide information and what it means to paddlers, and even more rescue techniques and strokes (including the all-important self-rescue).

All photos from this point forward were taken by Caroline and generously shared to our group.

First day of practice and I am heading to my boat – At Westwood Lake in Nanaimo.

Our group rafting up, including someone you may know on the far left – Jude of the North aka Dr. Sock Writes Here. As you can see, the weather was not ideal (or was it, since we were going to be wet anyways? 🤔). Rain, rain and more rain. *Look at how comfortable Greg and Kirsten look in their matching drysuits…hmmmm*.

First of many planned capsizes of the day, while Jude looks on.

Practicing a self-rescue using a paddle float.

Beginning a heel hook re-entry. Thankfully Caroline stopped snapping at this point, leaving the graceless heaving of my carcass back onto my boat to your imagination 😉.

By close to the end of that day, I was a shivering, teeth-chattering mess. And I was starting to think that a dry-suit might not be that ~~fucking~~ ~~damn~~ ~~prohibitively~~ expensive after all.

Second day – Brickyard Beach, Nanoose Bay

Marine chart on deck for navigation, I am heading to Southey Island with our group, for a lunch stop. If I remind you of the Michelin Man, it is because I am wearing a merino t-shirt under a Farmer Jane wetsuit, topped with long-sleeve merino base layer and followed by a full wetsuit topped with a paddling jacket. I did not want a repeat of the previous day’s shivering!

Practicing a contact tow rescue maneuver with Jude.

Securing mine and Greg’s paddle before he practices using a “stirrup” to get back in his boat.

Securing Greg’s boat with my body while he works with stirrup (the yellow band) set up.

As you might have noticed, the weather was much more favourable on Day 2. Even though we were in the colder ocean, I stayed warmer due to all my layers and the rise in ambient temperature.

Once again, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and confidence in such a short period of time. I also learned that I’m going to stop at Level 1 Certification. Level 2 involves building skills for activities that I don’t anticipate ever doing – such as choosing to kayak in rougher waters than I’d ever be comfortable in. Level 1 was plenty hard enough on my body and I have the bruises to prove it!

Thanks to this course, on my shopping list ~~as if I didn’t already own enough gear~~ is: