The Bi-weekly weekly update…

As we watched Hurricane Michael slam into Port St. Joe, I was haunted by these pictures taken just last  March when we were there, staying at Presnell’s Marina…

 

Cape San Blas is the strip of land catching the setting sun…  I read that Hurricane Michael carved some new islands out there.  The beautiful road that we drove from Port St. Joe to Carrabelle is washed out…

We have reservations for this coming March to stay right up the road from Port St. Joe at Indian Pass, a spot called Water’s Edge, and their last facebook post was “Please pray for us”.  I certainly am…

On a brighter note, here’s some photos from a morning at the mall with Olivia and Samantha…

 

 

Though we’ve only been back home a couple of days, it seems like a season ago that we camped up at Brown County,…temps were 80s and humid and it seemed like a last hurrah to summer, though the calendar says it’s October… I didn’t take many pictures, though…

 

Just a few of Brown County State Park (above) and some neat stuff I saw in some shops in Nashville, IN below…

 

I enjoyed getting away…

and came home rejuvenated, ready for Autumn’s changes…

Peace

Picture Post

We had a great camping trip!  We had planned to stay until Sunday morning, but broke it down Saturday afternoon, just before the storms arrived….charmed…

Campsite #126, Harmonie State Park

Saturday morning, before the rain, we wandered the Antiques Show…  We made some new friends who opened a new shop in NH that is filled with memorabilia.  We ran into some old friends who recently retired and travel once a month selling their old stuff.

 

 

It was a great get-away, but now we’re catching up around the yard/house.  As soon as I’m able to stop, I want to tell you about our new plans and catch you up…

Peace

Week-End Wrap-Up

I am in a cycle of griping about the weather and have begged for a week now to go back down where it’s warm and sunny.  I can assure you that next year we will not return until mid-April.  We’ve had to re-winterize the trailer (pull batteries and add anti-freeze) and that just exacerbated my grouchiness.

In an effort to lighten up, I bought two budding hyacinths and their sweet aroma wafting through the house has certainly helped.

 

My African violets are blooming again,

 

and my orchid looks happy…

I bought a new bonsai at Epcot and it’s feeling quite at home.

I Know that there is a happy ending to all of this, and that it’s sooner than later that I’ll be outside in the garden…  I could be cleaning the house, I suppose, but I’m going to follow the guidance of my Guru Margo: do some reading and catch up on my Goodreads goals; watch some Netflix (learning to speak in a scots accent by Shetland); and just Relax…

Peace

4 days in Manhattan…

The Kindergarten Graduation

5 years ago Emma graduated Kindergarten…Same hat.  At least my head hasn’t grown…

Party at American Girl

Swinging in Central Park

Roaming the Met

Sadly, I did not take any photos of the Ceili, only videos, and I would Love to share them with you.  Alas, wordpress is not being co-operative.  If I figure out how to upload them, I will post them.  All of the dancers were wonderful, especially Emma and Eliza.  So much excitement!  Word to my daughter, send me some pictures!

We’re back at Sonnystone, catching up with the garden and putting up the pool.  The New York Family is scheduling a July visit—hey, that’s just a couple of weeks!  Plans for Camp Sonnystone are underway.  Being with each family is wonderful, but getting All of Us Together is Superlative..!  See you soon!

Peace

Adventures with with O & S ….

We went to the zoo to celebrate Olivia’s first day of summer vacation…

Afterward, we came back to Sonnystone and played…It’s nice to have PawPaw around to play clue and help with fairy wings…

Samantha spent a while working on her flying…

Missing the essential Pixie Dust, she didn’t quite lift off, but she persisted…I like that in a person…

 

Peace

 

Just in case you miss me…

I’m off to NYC for a couple of days–3 to be exact.  It’s Eliza’s spring break and I got a great price on a ticket out of Indy.  We’ve been non-stop gardening for weeks and I’m actually ready for a break.  The weather in Manhattan won’t be as warm, but what better way is there to spend rainy spring days than playing with your grandkids?

Hope your Easter was happy…ours was!

Peace

Photoblog

Snow, Birds, and a touch of cuteness…

Winter decided to show us who’s the boss around here–for another week or so, at least–and snowed all over the bloomers…  Whaddaya gonna do about it?  Take pictures…

What I actually Like about snow happens at the birdfeeders.  The birds just flock in.  I love watching them…

I got out my bird book to identify a newcomer:  See the little brown guy in the picture below?  He’s an Eastern Towhee.  They usually feed on the ground, but the snow brought him round to visit.  The cardinals, chickadees, and finches are my usual crew.

The snow is now gone, but the danger to the plants and birds is even greater since the temperatures are hovering between 20 and 35.  I read that March is the most dangerous month for birds, as their natural food sources are already emptied of berries and the ground is frozen.  If you don’t already feed the birds, you ought to try it.

Here’s a little bit of Cute to warm you up…

Peace

Camping Compendium Day 1, Part 2

Just past the Oconoluftee Visitor Center, the Blue Ridge Parkway “ends”…  The Parkway stretches 469 miles mostly along the Blue Ridge chain of mountains that is part of the Appalachian Mountains, connecting Shenandoah National Park (mile marker 1 at the tip-top) to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (mile marker 469, bordering the Cherokee Indian Reservation).   We have traveled this route before, from 469 to about 160, and from 84 to 1, where it connects with Skyline Drive in Shenandoah.  We camped at Shenandoah many moons ago and drove Skyline in the fog.  It’s on our list to drive it all at one time, hopefully with the sunshine that we had last Saturday in North Carolina.

GSMNP was packed with visitors, so the the small 13-mile stretch we drove was a welcome relief from the lines of cars, and the views were just as awesome…

First we stopped at the visitor center…

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Then drove on up the mountain…

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I think the winding road down there is the one from Maggie that we drove in on…

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I love it when the mountains in the background look like waves…

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The colors…

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The weather was simply perfect…

 The only place you can buy alcohol in Cherokee is in the casino, and we are an alcohol-fueled couple.  We drove 30 or so miles down to Bryson City to visit Nantahala Brewing Company, figuring we’d pick up some beer.   It looks like the place is pretty new, large-screen TV’s and a stage for live music.  Right across from the GSM Railroad, it was about half-full of tourists like us.  We tried a flight of 4 5oz beers, one of which tasted precisely like Ass, complete with a whiff of fart.  The others were just okay, so we did not buy a $10 six-pack.  I did cleanse my palate with a nice cider that Nantahala does not make…

Back at camp, we had foil dinners…hamburger, potatoes, carrots, onions cooked over the fire.  We made foil apples, too:  cored the apples (I did this at home) and filled them with brown sugar and cinnamon, then wrapped them in the foil and cooked them over the coals until they were mushy…mmm…  I had brought extra brown sugar/cinnamon shake, too.

We watched the fire burn until our eyes couldn’t stay open…  Awesome Day #1