Granddaughter's Junior Prom in May 2010

Make a digital scrapbooking design

Let There Be Light

I bought a lamp a couple of years ago. Now I'm ready to use it. I want it next to the TV. Easy, right? No. TV occupies the entire double outlet! Who knew modern TVs took so many outlets. I looked for a second choice location. :( DH (dear husband) shows up and rigs up a setup reminding me of Rube Goldberg. :(
I'm ready to put the lamp back in the closet. Next, I hear a racket and discover he's cut up the wall and installed a second outlet linked to the first- a 4 pack now. Hmm....not so good for our ancient paneling, but...now we have a working lamp ... LIGHT! ... and it does look pretty. ;) Soooo, no pain, no gain. I push the sideboard back to cover the paneling defects. And call our a/c repair man again, 3rd time since last Friday. And then go out to place rocks in the Zen garden we're building. Retirement it not at all what I expected it would be. "Running through quicksand" is how I see it! ;)

Treading Water

Soooo busy, but not checking a single thing off my 'to do' list!! Doing RedBubble, Facebook, WebShots, and of course Blog. Not doing summer family plans and indoor house projects. Doing garden design- spent several hours moving rocks in my Zen garden. I am very encouraged with this project since Bill has taken over the digging aspect! Life is good, knock on wood. ;)
P.S. Look who came to see the Zen garden! Isn't she pretty with those long eyelashes? I took this with a zoom from up near the garage. When I spoke, she ran away.

Sad and Subdued

"In the midst of life, we are in death."
A dear friend from my high school days has just died. She came to our reunion a few weeks back wanting to see us all one last time. And now she's gone. I need to get used to the idea.
Sooo, I have been doing a lot of work with my gardens. I keep coming up with new themes. I have various small vignettes set around this half acre yard, like the heart garden, the zen garden, the wildflower hillside, the shady rock garden, the front planter, the northside brick planter and my new south wall garden. As I look out at our new birdhouse on a pole with birdbath beside it, I'm thinking a few lilies around these would look nice... What shall I call this one, the bird garden?? lol Perhaps 'garden' is too grandiose a word for all these floral patches.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was a good one. Charlie and Lisa had Mothers/Fathers Day for us at their house. Guy and Vim came too. We saw our grandson, Austin, play basketball.

Our granddaughter, Chelsea, drove us to her job at the local ice cream shop. This way we could see her drive and also see where she works, a nice and fun place!

It was a lovely day.

Since then, we've been planting and transplanting flowers, doing a lot of yard and garden work. The weather is gloomy, good for this activity. ;)

Our Granddaughters Visit

Our 4 and a half year old Granddaughters came to visit today. We haven't seen them since last year. They are taller and talk a lot now. Our Daughter-in-law made some great chocolate chip cookies and I ate too many. ;) Our Son has a new MiniCooper. The Twins are busy and active and it wore me out just watching them! lol

They start pre-school this fall. It should be interesting to see what effect this will have on them. I tried to take photos, but doubt if I got anything good because they never stop moving. I'm too tired to look tonight!

My High School Reunion

My HS Reunion was great fun this year! It started on Friday, June 5th, and we returned home Tuesday evening, the 9th. I have a classmate with a fantastic home in the Berkshires of MA. She has our reunion there every year for maybe the last 10 years. This reunion included a wedding shower for the daughter of a classmate. The theme was Christmas, so decorations plus our favorite Christmas recipe & a pan to make it in was the gift from each.
We also had a wedding cake for a 50th anniversary. We had a 50th last year and expect to have another for the next 2 years. At that time we'll have 4 couples married over 50 years. Our high school was a girls prep school and our class
had 17 graduates. Our hostess has a passion for quilting and for anything quilted. ;)

We Are Home

We are back in CT, but not for long. We arrived late afternoon on Thurs. May 28th. Have spent 3 days on yard and gardens and now today I've done some unpacking.
At Hawk's Nest we rode the tram, the jet boat and visited Blue Smoke Salsa in Amsted- fantastic stuff made in the little factory store there. We are totally fans, it's great!

We enjoyed the view from the Lodge and also the wildlife- a groundhog and a raccoon appearing in the early evening.

From here we moved north to Chambersburg PA on the 27th, before coming home. We covered 3200 miles in 24 days.

Coal Mine History in WV

We are now in West Virginia after spending 3 days at Natural Bridge KY State Park Lodge and doing a lot of hiking.

Here in Oak Hill, we have seen New River Bridge and driven the Old Fayette Station Road offering rock climbing and whitewater rafting on the New River. We watched and took pictures only! lol

Today we went to Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and Museum. We rode into the coal mine and listened to a retired miner tell about the experience of working in a 28 inch high space and filling cart after cart with coal. Yes, he has lung problems now.

The Museum includes many buildings such as the school, the church and the suprintendent's house of which this is the dining room.

Tomorrow we move slightly north to Hawk's Nest State Park Lodge. There is a lot to see in this area. We will cover as much as we can. ;)

Moving East, Still in KY

We leave Georgetown KY in the morning. We stayed in a cabin at Cumberland Falls State Park. From there we visited Cumberland Falls and Cumberland Gap. We took the Big South Fork steam train to an old coal mining camp. Then we moved to a Comfort Suites in Georgetown and went to 5 Bourbon distilleries on the "Bourbon Trail" (on different days), 2 horse farms and a Japanese garden. We did not complete the Bourbon Trail. Locating these places took longer than going on the tours! It's amazing how different each one is, but at this point I really have to stop and ask myself...where was it we saw -? lol It's not the bourbon, it's the number of places.

P.S. To account for the missing days: Leaving FL we spent one stormy night in NC on our way to Gatlinburg TN. In the Smoky Mts we revisited Cades Cove where a thunder storm gave way to small showers upon our arrival. It's a fantastic location for taking photos!

May 5th @ 10:53 AM

On the road again,

Goin' places that I've never been,

Seein' things that I may never see again,

I can't wait to get on the road again...

~Willie Nelson song

Well, the car is all packed, but my glasses have gotten lost. "He who drives" decided that the wine bottle should be full, not half full. Meanwhile, he shuts off the water, misplaces his wallet, and finds it. I fill the wine bottle and take pictures. We actually do get on the road before noon. Then we stop at a mall, then get to a motel by 3:30, celebrate Cinco de Maio at a Mexican restaurant, and then walk through the village of Fernandina Beach and see the waterfront. I take pictures, lots more pictures. I've saved 192 of today's 219 shots. ;) I found my glasses when we unpacked the car refrigerator- yea! We are still in FL.

P.S. Yes, that's a geranium.

Time's Up

"Blessed is the one who is too busy to worry in the daytime
and too sleepy to worry at night." ~anonymous

Tomorrow we leave this place of beautiful sunsets. Yeah, not everything about FL is bad. This sky was captured on my evening walk around the perimeter of this park we stay in during winter. I don't like the sun, pool, beach or socials. I do like flowers, sunsets, balmy breezes, and the beach in the evening. I also like my neighbors, oranges from the tree and pineapples growing in the yard. I do not vote in FL!

Paraphrasing the above quote: Hopeless is the one whose mind is so busy during the day that she must spend the night doing her daytime stuff and never get any sleep at all! Days are too short, much too short for me!!

Perfection

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.
Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business."
~Michael J. Fox

Our gardenia bush is in full bloom. The fragrance is
heavenly, and it will be hard to leave it behind when
we head north on Tuesday.

Change

Everyone
thinks of
changing
the world,
but no one
thinks of
changing
himself.

Packing,
packing,
packing!

P.S. This cat painting was hanging outside (outdoors) of a gift shop in City Market in Savannah GA. I took the photo on our way south last December. I think it embodies "change"!

The Law of Karma

The great master Buddah teaches us that
"You are what you think, having become what you thought."
~ The law of karma is the law of cause & effect. ~

We have been here in FL all winter. Now that it's time to leave, we drive the 8 miles over to the ocean. We have dinner at our favorite outdoor 'clam shack' and then walk the beach. It's so lovely! Makes me wonder why we don't do this more often. Time just goes by too fast! Seems like we just arrived, but we've been here 5 months.

Observation

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.

You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
~ Mahfouz Naguib

Today is the birthday of our only daughter. This photo is of a bouquet that she gave me for my birthday a few years ago. I'm supposed to be packing, but I'm goofing off in order to begin this blog. There are some interesting people on this site, and a blog will make it easier for me to keep track of them. ;)