A Grave Omission

Good grief, how is it that I forgot to mention that I just read, and adored, "Pride and Prejudice?" Over a lifetime of reading, I had never before read any of Jane Austen's work, and what an omission on my part! During my recent trip to Costco I came across a stack of classics which are generally difficult to find. Do you suppose the publisher spiffed up the cover in order to gain buyers for a hardback?

If so, I am glad they did, because it is one of the best 10 dollar bills I've spent in recent memory. To think that she wrote it over 200 years ago, and it is still thrilling contemporary readers, is just remarkable to me. Did I mention I loved it? Well, I did, and if you think grave omission is too strong, you haven't read it yourself. What's more I visited Bath, England where she once lived in, I believe the Royal Crescent, paying the, around town homages, no mind. :(

Now I must get my hands on some of her other novels!

Just how long did you think I could go without posting a cardinal photo? I suspect, if you are a regular reader, your answer would be, "no more than a week," and you would receive an "A" for that answer. In fact, I'm posting two, making up for lost time!!

Still pretty beat up with molting, however, it won't be long before he is wearing his full, resplendent, red coat. Then there was this little guy, who I'm confidant is another male making his home in our garden.

I was absolutely dying over that one wing sticking out! Rarely, if ever, have I found a cardinal feather in the yard, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Did I tell you there was a dead rat lying in the grass last week when I was mowing? Yikes!! It is so nice to have a man around the house, I can tell you that much.

Who amongst you can believe my bike odometer? I, for one, hardly can, and I've ridden it, primarily around the nearby neighborhoods?

One of the places I've ridden with regularity is to Cheryle's house just a few streets away. Her garden is becoming legendary, as should her cat!

Those yellow eyes are--well, I was going to write striking, but you can see that for yourself, now can't you?

Sorry, but here's another shot of the living room, and in particular I want you to note the clock on the far wall.

The clock, to the left of that floor lamp, is one I purchased at an art gallery in Ft. Lauderdale, maybe ten years ago; I loved it then, and I love it now. Except, it had not been working for at least two months, and I've been too lazy to take it anywhere. Finally, I got my act together, called the Swiss House in College Park, and took it over there for a check up.

Never get the idea that I'm all with it because this little story demonstrates clearly how dumb I can be!

First off, it was very interesting to be in a store with so many clocks chiming the hour simultaneously.

Then too, there were a bunch of Keith Haring posters in the shop, which came as quite the surprise because the watchmaker didn't seem the type who would enjoy that sort of thing.

So, here's the scoop. He looked at the back, saying, "well, the battery is in upside down....." Of course it was!!! No wonder that this battery did not work because I put it in the exact same way as the last one that did not work! As to the Keith Haring---the man pictured above had a lot to do with making Swatch watches work, and apparently they used some KH designs, and a friend had all these posters, and there you go. So, now my clock keeps time, the pendulum swings, AND I have fresh batteries in five of my watches. Hurray!

So, by now we all know that the lakefront is looking wonderful, especially now that the man put some fresh sand there!

The bench, pictured about a month ago, fell apart, however, he promises a new one soon. Most people who know Bruce presumed that once retired he would be taking his kayak out on Lake Jennie Jewel, seven doors down from us. Prior to Saturday night, he had, not even once, had done so. While I was at the reunion, Mr. Peck finally went fishing, and was he ever happy he did, catching a four pound bass, releasing him moments after taking a photo. Nice.

I took the photo above last night as we were having an incredible sunset. You've heard, and seen that before! Anyway, after a bit, I drove the car around the corner to see what things looked like from another vantage point. By now it was nearly dark, my goodness, the sky was something else. For nearly 50 years a large structure jutted out into Lake Gem Mary (below), and those of us who live here were absolutely delighted when the Navy finally removed it. The building, mostly dark in the photo, housed a Navy sonar lab, using the lake, purportedly super deep, for experiments. Orange County Schools owns it now--what they do there is a mystery to me.

Wonder what the skies will bring tonight? I promise to stay away---if I can! :)

Summer Skies

It's been raining a lot this week, Tuesday a bunch, then on Wednesday the skies had the nerve to open up at 11:30 in the morning! Rain is not unusual this time of year, but that early certainly is. As we discussed in my last post, all this storming makes for great entertainment if you just look up, or out in some cases. Which is what happened to me on Tuesday evening.

Changing into my nightgown pretty early, we were watching a re-run of Antiques Roadshow when I noticed that all of a sudden our living room was bathed in a strange yellow light. Unlocking the door, with camera in tow, I wanted to see what was happening. Never, did I expect what I saw. Looking West, not so much,

however, when I turned around, which by now I'm standing in the middle of Appleton, as you already know, in my nightgown, my eyes, heart, and mind was treated to this sight.

Spectacular is a very good descriptive word, but it is not enough to describe the glory of this double rainbow in a pink sky. It is all well and good to have massive trees, but when you hope to see the whole arc, they are highly uncooperative. That said, about a gazillion folks in our area posted a version of this on facebook, with many having an unobstructed view. Good grief, was it ever glorious!

So, here we go again, another sunset on this very same night, about twenty minutes later. An unadulterated look at God's handiwork, or as I see it, rewards for making it through the hot summer!

It almost hurts your eyes, doesn't it? After all these years, someone has been smart enough to place a bench along the shore line. So that was Tuesday night...and let me remind you I've already given you fair warning that there WILL be lots of sunset pictures this summer, so don't go getting bored with me!

Of course, the same could be said regarding beach photos...

After checking the weather forecast, I asked Bruce how he felt about switching it up; yard on Thursday, and beach on Friday. He was all for it. It did rain a little this morning while we were working, however, nothing like yesterday when about an inch fell before 2 in the afternoon.

The last time we were at the lumbar yard, Bruce bought enough wood to make multiple frames, which goes to show you that my optimistic ways are rubbing off a little! He cut most of them then, so now, with this order, all he had to do was put them together. Sanding, one of my least favorite tasks is second nature to him.

During the rainy Tuesday, while Bruce was working down at Church Street, I made two pies, one sweet, and one savory.

I figured as long as I was making the crust, why not make two? Peaches that I bought at Sunday's market made up the bulk of the sweet, with raspberries included for a bit of tartness. The recipe from my Agnes & Muriel cookbook had a little header...."if you bake it they will rave." I'm not quite sure I agree. The super juicy Georgia peaches caused that topping to turn to mush after a day. :( The savory, on the other hand, with caramelized onions, as well as fresh spinach, was yummy.

Blind baking. Does that mean anything to you? Recently so many pie recipes I've encountered insist on having you pre-bake, or blind bake, the crust. Generally this just seems like more work than is necessary, however, in this instance, with those aforementioned juicy peaches, I figured having a super solid bottom might be a good idea, and I was right. At least about that. The topping? Don't know what I could have done to improve that.

Notice the Black Box in the photo? BOX WINE is not half bad! Frugality is reigning in the Peck household.

Cheryl waved me down on in front of my houseTuesday morning as I was returning from my five mile bike ride. "Please put that bike away and walk with me...I need the exercise." And so I did. We walked and talked. The minute I typed that it brought me back so many years when I was reading to my wee ones...."Big Dog.... Little Dog" was such a favorite, and if you too were fortunate enough to read it, you will recognize that line. If you are a fan, I'm certain that link which gives a little author bio will interest you.

Anyway, being, what I hope is a good friend, I asked her if she wanted to walk Wednesday morning, and she did. We went to Cypress Grove Park, hoping for shade, and it delivered. Cheryl, being fairly new to the area, had never walked around the park, so that was good. Leaving, I showed her a nearby hidden neighborhood, followed by a hidden neighborhood to me. I was going crazy for this tree canopy on an empty Lake Jessamine lot.

So moody in black and white.

I cannot tell you how sick I am that our Nordstrom is closing in about a month. I love bargain shopping, don't get me wrong, but when I really NEED something, Nordstrom is my go-to spot. Or was. Everyone's favorite grocery store, Publix, has the tag line--"Where Shopping is a Pleasure," and that is oh so true. If Publix hadn't already claimed it, Nordstrom could have used it because it was such a pleasure going into the beautiful store with such accommodating help. Boo hoo!

Most every day, one of the artists in our online group posts some helpful article about selling art. As you can imagine there is a lot of emphasis on online stuff, particularly mobile, which led me to wonder how this blog looks on an iPad. Using Bruce's I decided to click on July of some year, out of the seven I've been writing this blog. I landed on July 2010. Reading through some of those posts was such a treat for me because I was able to see how much things have changed, as well as stayed the same. This post details Matt buying his first flat in London. Now he, and his husband, have another new flat!! And this one was particularly funny because later on yesterday, while I was at Nordstrom doing the very same thing, Bill called, and while our conversation followed some of the same lines, the good news is, when I wrote that post, Bill was unemployed, with, what he thought at the time, horrible prospects for the future. This one, with a video by a darling girl named Stephanie, made me so happy. That summer, I might add, was unusually low on rain. :)

So there was not an onslaught of sunset photos that year because of the drier weather. Honestly, I tried not to notice, I really did, but I can see the sunset out of all those big windows on the West side of our home. For this shot Wednesday night, at least I still had on my daytime clothes...

Seriously, what photographer could just ignore SUNRAYS??? Not this one.