Author: jmcouzens

Oh MY Goodness summer 2018 went by so fast!! Both our sons and their families and my honey and I did renovations which cut in our summer holidays. Probably it was a good summer to do renovations because we had many days without too much sun due to the smoke from all the forest fires. Also it wasn’t really a great summer for beaching and boating as there were plenty cool days.

However we did get a lot of things done yeah! and still found some time to have get -togethers and mini holidays. One fun and delightfully little honeymoon holiday was just with my honey and I. We found a wonderful charming rustic old log home in a beautiful quiet mountain meadow where we spent a day and night. It was sooooo romantic and relaxing. The only sound we heard were the leaves fluttering in the warm summer breeze. I loved it so much I wanted to stay awake and just listen to the wind and the fluttering of the leaves. I am a nature girl and soooo love quiet and nature.

Is there anything that makes for a happier day than coming unexpectedly across these divinely beautiful ‘hot pink’ roses, just growing into beauties naturally and unnoticed!!! Of course I Love Love Love the color Hot Pink, but when I accidentally  found these beauties after a rain storm, I first of all wanted to pick them, but instead I photographed them. I needed to hold myself back from picking them as they were my neighbours prize roses.  OH OH!! So today (thankfully) on this cold grey fall day, I get to enjoy this gorgeous “hot pink’ moment again again and again. How sweet.

I photograph and write for posterity. There is residual pleasure as I come across these divine hot pink moments from the past. They are treasures I can relive and enjoy again and again…

Have a wonderful Hot Pink day…

Jeanne

Yesterday afternoon my honey and I went for a stroll at the lake. Although it was late in the fall and all the leaves were crunching underfoot the sun was so brilliantly bright and warm that if one looked at the lake and the mountains in the distance, it felt just like a hot summer day at the beach. We had packed a little lunch and sitting on a log at the edge of the water out of the wind was like enjoying a warm sunny summery day. It was so peaceful and quiet, just the sounds of water swishing on the shore and birds cawing overhead. We had gone out for our daily walk but ended up just sitting on a log chatting and enjoying the warmth of the sun.
Sunshine is such a great energizer. Even in the dead of winter when it is freezing cold outside, brilliant sunshine warms our hearts.

Enjoy the Sunshine. xoxo

This past weekend I enjoyed going back to Moose Jaw for my High School reunion and I have to say that my heart was in my throat much of the time.
Oh MY Goodness! It was a very moving experience on so many levels.
One lovely sunny morning my honey took me for a walk through his neighbourhood where he lived a happy family life. He showed me the schools he went to, where his friends lived and the sports fields where he played baseball and where his grampa and he would sit to watch games. What a sweet and stable good family life he enjoyed with his wonderful family. Truly a dream for me.
When we came to his childhood home, I was amazed at how much work his father had put into making their little house a family home, which my mother in law made comfortable.
His father was VERY industrious and had built a garage all from salvaged wood, dug out a basement by hand, made a lovely garden and flower beds and most of all he built a retaining wall from front to back from field stones he hand picked.
Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful stones were picked from farmer’s field and brought back and cemented to make the retaining walls. Amazing, just Amazing. I was so impressed by his tenacious hard work.
Now, as I stood there 40 years later I felt his spirit of hard work just looking at all the labor he put into building a comfortable home for his family. .
Today I see my father in law’s hard working ethic in both my sons and in my husband. It brought tears to my eyes that they didn’t get to know each other. But I am grateful that he left a fine legacy that hard work does move mountains.
God Bless my tenacious and hard working men. xoxo

I am a nest builder, a quiet, cozy corner type of girl.
I LOVE beautiful homey spaces both inside my home and outside in wonderful nature. When I was a little girl, my fun loving mom use to take us for walks in the country and she would bring a blanket, an umbrella for shade and a simple healthy lunch. Here we would build forts with branches and spend the whole afternoon adding creature comforts to our humble outdoor abodes.
Mom would spread the blanket, put our lunch under the umbrella and enjoy a much needed rest in the shade. It was So Much Fun and yet so simple.
No malls, no traffic, no complicated meals and tasks. Just beautiful nature. xoxo
I very much enjoyed those “hot pink” days of summer.

Just recently, I finally got the message to LIVE IN THE MOMENT!! I used to go back and forth re-living and re-thinking about my past or thinking ahead to the future. Then just this week, boom I got it … “you have to live in each moment and make it good.”

Enjoy this hot pink day. xoxo

Jeanne Moreau Couzens

This spring my honey and I have greatly enjoyed two weddings. Both were soooooooo beautiful and both were our sons’ weddings.  This was all new for us because our sons were single professional men (until later in life 🙂 and then boom, both found the loves of their lives and in short time, they married their beautiful sweet ladies.

Then all within the same time period of time, we found out in the sweetest way –that we are going to be Grandparents. This was another pleasant surprise and music to my ears as my honey and I are in our mid 60’s and have always looked forward to having Grandchildren. Yeah!!!

Now is the countdown to having a little one in our lives. Everyone is excited and we can hardly wait to hold that baby.

As we age we realize that there are realistically only so many years we can still do things we took for granted in our youth. Life rolls on and we are
rolling along with it.

We are so grateful to soon be grandparents. What a gift!!!

Photo is of our oldest son ( who will soon be a daddy) kissing his little bro. xoxo

Is there anything that brings us sweet Solace like a walk in beautiful nature?

No matter what is going on in my life, going for a peaceful walk in divine nature always restores my energies. I had the good fortune of spending my first six growing years on a little farm in rural Saskatchewan. My granny lived with us and she adored nature and I am grateful to say she passed on that love to me. She was a sweet little Belgium granny who was artfully creative and besides being a good gardener, loved to bake.

Granny had long hair rolled up in a bun and was so sweet , sensible and industrious. She would take me out to her flower garden and show me the little furry sprouts that were poking out of the rich soil. She painted colourful folk art, baked all kinds of delicious treats, grew and gardened everything from flowers to trees and was sweetly spiritual.

Now I am about to be a Grandmother for the first time, and remembering how sweet and humble my little granny was makes me hope that I too can have a sweet and humble impact on my little ones’ life.

We will start with little walks in beautiful nature. One small step at a time.

Art and Baking will come later.