Seal of Approval

It seemed as if both the food and the new appliances won the crowds seal of approval on Thanksgiving! Regrettably, my cooking duties kept me from taking many photographs except for a few, some of which turned out, while others did not.  Before we look at those, look who came back yesterday afternoon!

All Thanksgiving day, what with the beautiful weather and all, I had the front door open and kept hearing Mr. Cardinal all morning, which, as you can imagine, made me quite happy as I went about my work. It seems as if all the flowers are blooming out of season and with that in mind, perhaps these two are once again building a nest?

Bruce just called and is already out in Winter Garden to set up our booth for the weekend. It's chilly my friends. Oh how I hope there will be folks, although if it were me, I'd be home watching the Florida State-Florida game which is on at 3:30 today. After watching my favorite team all season, the reality that I will have to miss the big rivalry game today is sinking in now that the big day has arrived! :(

In fact, now that I've heard Bruce is there I best be getting myself ready rather than blogging....we'll visit on Monday. Sound good?

The Last Laugh

Remember how last week I was getting all high and mighty, in particular warning you against believing everything you read online? I told you this was our 38th wedding anniversary, and by golly, it was our 39th!!! Furthermore, Miss, trying to act like a kid again, now has water in her left ear from her handstands! I laughed at myself, but I'm ceding the last laugh to you dear readers. :-)

Things have been busy, busy, around here, some of which happened last week, but I never got around to telling you about it. On facebook I saw someone post that a curator needed some work for the monthly Third Thursday because their artist canceled at the last minute. Well now. I sent him a message telling him I had some pieces that were just hanging around after coming home from the Church Street gallery--we agreed to meet to see if they would work for his space. They did. I drug myself downtown to show support on Thursday night ,and fortunately I ran into some friends who accompanied me to the space. (they will hang there for a month--a blessing because I won't have to store them myself!)
Lots of color right? I did a little gallery hopping, however, it's really not my thing, so I didn't stay too long. Heading back to my car, I came across these guys setting up for the evening along Orange Avenue in front of a way-too-long, vacant lot.

I suppose every city has their own version of both the drummers, and vacant lots but I wish that weren't so. I'm all for the drummers, in fact, they were making great sounds, however I wish the city would just go ahead and turn this space into an impromptu park until the economy improves, and a tenant is found. We can dream can't we?

Walking up to my parking space, I saw this terrific cloud formation as the sun was setting:

 I told you I've been obsessed with the sky of late!

What I really wanted to be doing was reading my novel which I finally finished this afternoon. Stones from the River by Ursala Hegi, a book I got from Bev, was yet another in a long line that I've read about the Holocaust, however this one was very unique. Told from the perspective of a young woman, beginning in early childhood, who just so happens to be a Zwerg, the German word for dwarf. Set in a small town in Germany, she relates the lives of her fellow townsfolk, and how Hitler's rise to power affected everything and everyone. Because I've spent some time reading this, last week at bridge I asked Willie, our Dutch friend, when she came to America. As it turns out, the beautiful woman I've now known for a year, was deeply affected by the war because she is way older than we all thought. Living in Amsterdam as a young girl, she can still recall the German troops coming onto her street with machine guns, taking her Mother's best friend away. Incredible to imagine isn't it? Sadly, my innocent question brought her to tears, and needless to say, that was the end of our bridge game for the day.

Because something work related came up late Friday evening we never made plans for our anniversary. Between Bruce having to sleep off his red-eye flight, and the work problems, the timing wasn't great for a celebration. Instead we took it easy, meaning Bruce did NO work on Saturday which is really a celebration in and of itself. We moseyed. The weather was dreary. Our plans to purchase a new garden bench to replace the rotting one I have in the yard didn't work out either. Although we tried both garden centers in College Park, neither one had anything suitable.

So we went to Dubsdread. What's that Gail?

Here's the scoop: 14 years ago, Bruce's parents threw a 25th wedding anniversary party for us at Dubsdread without consulting us. I pouted. I ranted. I was ridiculously ungrateful! "Why didn't they ask us where we wanted a party?" "What were they thinking???"  They were thinking that special occasions are meant to be celebrated, that's what they were thinking. The older I get, the clearer I see that they were right. Year after year they wanted to take us out to dinner, and there were many times that I just didn't want to. Shame on me! The party turned out to be fun, and for years and years, I couldn't bring myself to give away the shoes I bought for the occasion. Ladies amongst you will surely understand.

Anyway, Dubsdread is our city golf course, and back then, it needed some revitalizing. It now has it. We had lunch and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

I knew that this photo with Bruce sitting by the window would be difficult, but I still like it. He's sporting his anniversary gift around his neck. We then came home and napped for two hours which is pretty much unheard of around these parts. Nice. As we played canasta through the evening and night, we ate pretzels with ranch dip and popcorn. That was dinner. We were acting like we were kids again. Actually, when you've been dating since you were 13, in some respects, we will always be kids in each others eyes, no matter how old we become!

We skipped the market on Sunday! I cleaned! Bruce worked! I had a nice chat with Matt except for the internet connection was spotty because while moving furniture around I knocked the extender off. Duh!

Sunday night I got a little more creative with dinner, making the above. What the heck is it Gail? Well, the skillet holds corn, scraped from the cob, poblano peppers, charred in the oven, three kinds of diced tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and cilantro. The tray behind holds some spiced pumpkin seeds and honey, do I mean spiced! The recipe is from the Flying Biscuit Cafe cookbook from Atlanta. Somehow I got some of the cayenne pepper on my hands causing some serious burning all through the evening. Oftentimes I've read to wear gloves while chopping peppers, which I never do, but that advice came to mind as my hands felt like they were on fire! Pasta in the last pot. Very tasty concoction.

So, I spotted a new bird in the jatropha tree, and despite poring over the Audubon guide, I can't figure out what kind it is.

Right profile and here's the left. Don't get upset with me for posting two, they will probably never appear again in "Camera Crazy."

We've discussed how birds are molting so perhaps there's some of that going on? Mrs. Cardinal is looking pretty spiffy these days as she sits on the fence:

Much improved appearance, don't you agree? This morning as I was hanging the sheets on the line, a hawk flew overhead, landing on the same post as the Osprey from a few weeks ago. Those mocking birds are fearless, antagonizing the larger birds.

How about that for a size difference?

While I was on Facetime with Matt, I told him that while cleaning I decided to do something different with the coffee table. I turned the camera around so he could see what I'd done. He wasn't impressed. Eventually we settled on this arrangement:

Okay, I admit, I'm including the above to show off Baxie. Let's get a closer look shall we?

With Bruce's help I took this glass top off, cleaned both sides and rotated the rug. What you are seeing is the cleanest the living room has been since Nancy visited last summer. Obviously, cleaning is not my thing. You and I both know I'd much rather be writing and taking photographs. Nancy will surely call me tomorrow to get more details as she loves cleaning.

As we sat in Dubsdread and I told Bruce I'd written the story about his pool cleaning days,  I realized the error of my dates. I laughed and laughed and I hope you will too.

A Chilly Monday

We are in a state of shock around here today--- the temperature is hovering in the mid 70's! Quite a drop from the mid to upper 80's we've been having for weeks.

Weather was definitely on my mind over the weekend what with the weather folks claiming a 70% chance of rain for both Saturday and Sunday. You guessed it--they were exaggerating big time. It did rain on Friday afternoon during our drive to the Bruner's place on Lake Hart, near the Lake Nona area of town. Matter of fact, it rained quite hard, but happily it did not last long.

Not too long after arriving at their mini-mansion, the rain began again in earnest lasting only a hosr while which allowed everyone to enjoy their fantastic backyard. Unlike the Peck family, the Bruner family likes a great big house! I was so darn excited once we entered the screened in, two story back porch and I saw a little sandhill crane family prancing around by the lake.

According to Mark, the babies are only a few weeks old. Adorable! Another super cool sighting was Michelle's pineapple plants, all five of them had fruit; she related that they'd all come from one pineapple some years ago.

They are such a great color, perhaps because they've been grown on the porch? A little later a group of the ladies convened on the dock to chat about "girl stuff." Michelle is leading the group bringing fresh provisions and I bet you don't have to think too hard what they are!

The stormy looking sky remained that way throughout the night and into the morning. Although I knew in my heart that the weather forecast was probably wrong, I decided to stay home from Winter Garden on Saturday, instead of vending, I scrubbed the front porch and cleaned the gutters. Sounds like fun right? I am happy with my spiffy looking clean front porch.

No doubt you can tell I didn't take this after the clean up as there wasn't a sun ray to be found that day. No complaints here because the temperature was perfect for working outdoors with water, not too hot, not too cold. And now, if we ever do get serious rainfall again, the gutters will be relatively clean and do their job. Actually, we did get rain on Saturday, but not until much later in the day and overnight. It's a strange thing to be awoken by stormy weather in Florida. If it's going to rain with thunder and lightening, it's a pretty sure bet it will be mid-day.

Here we go again--should we ignore the weather forecast or what on Sunday? We chose to ignore it although Bruce did put the sides on the tent. Happily, they were an unnecessary precaution! Many of the vendors did not ignore the weather report, instead staying home and you can bet, kicking themselves around noon time.

Typically the bridge pictured is packed full of both tents and people. I had a day full of visitors including Jenn and Rich, with the most adorable one year old around.

I kid you not--Spencer is pretty much the sweetest little boy in the world!

Visitors, visitors, visitors--not once did I pick up my book which I don't have to tell you is a good thing. Sales were so-so, socializing--fantastic! Once we were home and unpacked, Bruce spray painted my tent weights so next week when we are away from our home base, we'll look professional.

Week after week they keep my tent grounded, getting pretty banged up in the process. This photo makes me wonder what people who don't get the daily paper use when they spray paint. Seems like it won't be too long before most everyone shuns a daily paper....

Last evening as we had dinner poolside, we saw one of the female cardinals perched on the fence and both Bruce and I think she looks sort of tubby. How about you? Do pregnant cardinals get tubby? Anyone know about this?

We slept well last night with the cool breezes blowing through the open windows, but not before Bill called at 9:30 with a problem. Apparently, the top of one of the sprinkler heads just outside his door blew off, allowing the water to spray into the air like a geyser. You can imagine what thirty minutes of this did to his new plantings! This morning, at first light, darling Bruce went over with a broom, shovel and rake to help him get things back in order. You, no doubt, are unsurprised at this account if you've read this blog for any length of time. :) Because Bruce joined the same gym Bill and Dave use, he frequently meets one or the other there while I'm at my weekend markets which has been very nice indeed.

The first thing I needed to do this morning was order. You know how much I hate to order--anything to put it off! Why not a little garden inspection first I thought? Surprisingly, when I picked up this blossom laden branch just a bit, it broke off. Once I saw the underside of these flowers I didn't mind a bit. I pictured them a few days ago in my post entitled, A Garden Tour, and they look very different indeed.

I also discovered that a few of my cherry tomatoes are ripening. Bruce, honey, I need a photograph of me for my blog...

Tiny little one isn't it? Fighting my battles with the squirrels and the bird feeders is one thing, but when I saw one of the tomatoes lying half-eaten on the porch, I am now ready for war! I suspect the squirrels will win judging from their squirrel-proof bird feeder performances.

And then there was the call from Regina to attend to. Several days ago I asked her if I could cut one of the blooms from her magnolia trees which cover the tree by the dozens. Come and get it she said, and so I did. As you well know, I take this sort of photography seriously, trying various angles and backgrounds. Once my limited creativity was spent, I carried the bloom into my office. Maybe one more shot for good measure? Black and white perhaps?

Now when I tackle something like this it's pretty much by the seat of my pants. The bloom came home with glossy leaves, and a little bit of a bent stem, proving hard to find a way to keep it upright. Once I'd taken the above, the magnolia flopped out of the glass, dumping all of those cool match stick looking stamen (?) onto my work table.

And that was that. The magnolia is a goner as far as looks are concerned, however, the fragrance is perfuming the air as I type. Heavenly.

The order? Pretty much done, or so I hope.