A Pleasant Surprise

Sometimes it works in my favor having a bad memory. Late this morning I discovered, via my darling husband, that we are taking up our short term residence in Murphy a day earlier than I thought. It came to my attention because our new landlord texted me, inquiring as to whether I was bringing our own sheets as well as the new quilt. Yep, we have found a new occasional reader for this humble blog. Speaking of the quilt, it is coming along nicely. I have worked on it for hours on end and have about half of it quilted. The sandwiching, using 102" flannel went together better than one might expect considering how big this thing is. 90" X 98". That is a lot to sort out. Fortunately, by moving the thrones to other parts of the living room, we were able to put it together. And yes, it takes the two of us! I will show it next time when I hope to have it all done! One reason, aside from wanting something from home, is that it gave me something to occupy my time while waiting for our big adventure. That is working out just as I hoped it would because once you begin sewing straight line after straight line, the hours rush past. 

Returning to our visit to Murphy, a very big feature of the town is that the Hiwassee River runs through town. 

Somewhat quickly I might add. Guess what is adjacent to the river? Oh yes my friends, there is pickleball. 

Not only is there pickleball in this location, but where you see the big welcome sign, that's the gym that Bruce joined already. Not only did he join, but he worked out there as well leaving time for little missy here to see what she could see. And boy did I see a lot of goodness, including beautiful blooming pink Dogwood blossoms. 

wild roses,

a new kind of Magnolia tree to me, maybe somewhat like the ones I saw in Vancouver,

and wildflowers galore.

Oh yes, lest I forget, the early bird gets the worm. We did arrive before other players because, well, that's what we do, get to the courts early!

This my friends, was the real star of the show. 

The yellow was so intense, somewhat like our local yellow Tabebuia trees. I took so many photographs that it is so hard to choose, but having the bright yellow reflection in the water is pretty great. Plus, I imagine by the time we return it will all be gone. But then again, maybe it won't?

The temperature was cool to most folks who looked at me in my skort like I was a crazy person, however,  I was reveling in being cool. Today, after my first game which probably finished around 7:20 because it went 13-11, I was drenched in sweat. While I am on the subject of weather, it seems as if our 5 month long draught is over because we've had multiple days in a row with thunderstorms rolling in around four in the afternoon. I guess it took flirting with 90 degrees to bring them on. 

Yeah, most of the folks wore more clothes than me.

It will take some getting used to not having fences between the courts yet I have no doubt that we are up for the task. Lots of folks who have moved from Florida are in the mix so we will have that in common with some of the players. 

Because all this happened about two weeks ago I am at the mercy of that poor memory I referenced earlier, so let's talk about stuff I do remember and that is the wonderful kitchen in the light and bright living area. 

I brought my computer so that I could figure out how and where I could continue blogging. Turns out the desk in the bedroom will work just fine. In the online photograph I thought the bedroom television might be sitting on the desk, but that was thankfully not the case. Unlike most folks we have never had a television in our bedroom making that a first for us.

My darling husband turned 70 (!!) last week. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that he is healthy and strong. My father died aged 68. There's just no telling when you get older, but from the looks of him, he will be around for a good long while. He received wonderful gifts and more, a birthday dinner, balloons, and cake all of which I will show in my next post, well, what the heck, let me go get that camera and see what I can find. Turns out that it was far too dark in the restaurant, The pictures were rubbish meaning we will have to forget that, but I did find this nice photograph of Patti and Bruce during her birthday delivery. She is such a generous friend.

Also it was fun that both she and Bruce were wearing a similar colored shirt. Look at those white feet on Bruce! I also found this:

Lots of red!

Returning to the past, on the next day, before we began playing, I was mega thrilled to hear and see this Goldfinch in the trees adjacent to the courts.

Seeing a Goldfinch in Orlando is pretty uncommon although not unheard of, but it would be more likely on a feeder. Seeing this in the wild was a fantastic discovery. Moreover. I do see Cedar Waxwings for a few days here in Orlando, but how nice was this to see them in North Carolina?

Lookee here:

The sweet birdie was taken in the yard at Charlotte's Cottage along with this shot of Bruce on the long driveway. You might note he is using a walking stick as it is far steeper than we are accustomed to.Goodness me, there is so much more to share, but not the time to do so tonight.  For now, I will leave you with yet another pleasant surprise...

a field of yellow with a background of mountains. It does not get much better than that!

your friend,

Gail

Let Me Get Some Glasses

If I said that once, I said it a thousand times...let me get some glasses. Wait....they are on my face!! One of the best decisions I've made in quite some time.

Speaking of decisions, remember when I wrote here about being filmed for that "reality" show? I heard from a friend on facebook that it ran the other night. Saving you the trouble of watching the whole thing, I'm providing this link which I hope works for you. Yup, all thirty seconds of us!! Make that twenty. :)

I am a serious potato lover; like them cooked any way you can think of, so when I saw them on sale at Publix, I purchased two bags. One to keep, and one to use now. Except, following Maureen's fall, my cooking nearly stopped for more than a month. And so it was that I brought bag #2 into the house and discovered that the potatoes not only had eyes but they had roots as well!!! Never having had this happen before, naturally I took a photo of it. Not quite like this million dollar plus photo of a potato but somewhat interesting to me.

Yikes!!! Five pounds of them!

What this means is that things are returning to normal around here. Taking over for Lisa as Maureen's caregiver, her daughter Lib arrived yesterday from Atlanta. So, I am cooking, taking my medicines, and doing a bit of sewing, finally finishing my little runner. Those blocks were so difficult, I stopped at three.

There is just something about sunflowers that are in their waning moments that I love. The late afternoon sunlight makes them even more appealing to me.

And we have been having plenty, and I do mean plenty, of sunshine. Just superb weather. As to
that glass door allowing the lovely light to flood our home, it has had a makeover if you will. I treated myself yesterday....window cleaners!!!!

Working as a team, one inside, and one outside, our windows are crazy sparkly now!

Seriously amazing that they only use water, with one of those handled mop type things, and as the young man pictured above described them, "old school squeegees." Some of the best money I've spent in a while. Should you too, want yours done, the company is called, A Perfect Services, Inc. and they do more, including cleaning gutters! The phone number is 407-327-2350. Tell them Gail sent you for a discount, or so they say. Worth every penny.

What is not worth any pennies, or at least in my view, is this restaurant in Thorton Park that took over the space once occupied by Tijuana Flats.

You might be tempted to think with a name such as this, there would be many dishes served with green sauce. Think again. As you should if you like refried beans, because, although the menu states they are refried beans, ours came as whole pinto beans.

The Goldfinch are back!!

As my late Mother, and before her, the Bible told me, there is nothing new under the sun, including an American presidential candidate the likes of Donald Trump. There are some amongst you that might find this article from The Guardain fascinating, especially the quiz at the bottom.

Do you suppose this house I ride by occasionally will now finally take the sign out of their yard?

Not only did the above article pique my interest, but this one from The New York Times did as well. Imagine, an article about female shoeshiners in Italy!! The stories are legion in our family regarding shoe shining, something that was required of us when we returned home from school each day. Where was a reporter during all those years when we were polishing Bass Weejuns?

With great excitement, I'm here to report that my Tabebuia tree is beginning to show it's' true colors!

Oh how I love this time of the year! Of course, on the flip side of that there is pollen, leaves, and seeds flying everywhere. I have no clue what these seeds, floating all over the surface of our pool are.

That is, however, a small price to pay when everything is blooming, and the weather is so wonderful. Last years orchids are brightening up our pool area.

And there you have it, another edition of Camera Crazy. Potato to orchids....

Seeing ever more clearly now that my windows are clean,

Gail

This is the Ticket

This retirement life is suiting us just fine.

On our way home from some adventures last evening, as we were driving down Summerlin, the sunset was showing off some fine color. "Drop me off!", I exclaimed.

And so he did...

Having longish hair is the path of least resistance for a good many women, most definitely this woman. It was last January (gasp!) that I had, what might be considered, a serious haircut. There have been a few trims along the way, once when Nancy was visiting, and then again this past fall I went to the salon twice, but not much happened with the scissors. Well, now it has.

Ponytail holders will not be in my luggage, that's for sure! Then too, Mr. Bruce's hair was longer than it's been for a while;  Monica took care of that as well. He was even sporting some curls in the back..

That's him, as if I need to tell you, working with drywall mud around the electrical panel. I have some very good news to report...next Saturday Bill will have kitchen appliances!! Although he's had that tiny fridge for the last month, it is no match for a full-sized version. There will be no cabinets, or sink, but it's a start.

It must have been on Wednesday that I finally finished painting the bookcases, although I took this photo before I'd gotten to the last two cabinet doors.

That, my friends, is a photo of Baxter as a puppy---hot dog--he was the cutest!

Well, the painted bunting are no more, but there are goldfinch aplenty. It's been a while since you've seen the Nuttery, now hanging under the eaves just outside the sunroom.

Speaking of the sunroom, there's a new chair in town....

Finally! We purchased the fabric maybe two months ago? It took a while for Richard, the upholsterer extraordinaire, to pick it up, and then weeks to actually do it. Another funky chair joining the ranks.

My gerbera daisies are sending up new flowers weekly, joined now by another one with brown in the middle from some other plants. Bought in the bargain area at Lowes--natch.

The swivel rocker, in it's third incarnation,  is one I purchased at a thrift store, years and years ago. If memory serves me, and this is always suspect, as you well know, this chair sported a nubby orange, filthy dirty, exterior when I bought it for $5.00. It is the scale of the chair that keeps me from buying new--we have an older home, begging for older furniture. Richard decided against putting a skirt on the chair in an effort to make it look a tad more modern. What do you think?

Thursday afternoon, while Bruce was at Bill's house, I set out to make some oatmeal cookies. I couldn't figure out why Baxter was barking up a storm by the side door until I looked out and saw Herb and Corrine washing her car!!!

Actually, Herb is only pictured, but here comes Corrine...

At 87, Corrine is sharp as a tack, however, she is getting more physically feeble by the day, thus my shock at the two of them out there washing her car! He's 86, and while his body still works pretty well, his mind is going. Could this be us in another 25 years? Taking some freshly baked cookies over, as I know they both have a sweet tooth, I expressed my dismay. It was the yellow pollen that was driving her crazy, or so she said.

Once the cookies were baked, I drove over to Kelly's house to take some photos for her. Mostly for her various social media needs. Anyway, here she is playing around a bit, imitating her dog with one eye.

How she kept that smile at the same time is beyond me! After a very quick supper, we drove downtown to attend the opening night of the Twitter Art Exhibit, organized, and curated by my friend Robin Pedrero, pictured below with Aimee Wheaton, another artist friend.

This show was simply amazing. The link, underlined above, goes into more of the specifics, but from our viewpoint, this was one of the best shows we've been to in Orlando, with works, albeit small, from artists across the globe. In fact, here's one from an artist in Leicester, a place we'll soon be visiting.

It was great fun seeing the fantastic international creativity and talent on display, all in one room.

Our only wish is that we'd arrived sooner!

With only a few days remaining before our trip, it is time to get serious about things. Presumably this will be our final work day over at Bill's place. I suspect, when we are not around, he'll get all sorts of projects completed--or so we hope.

Won't be long before we'll be in coats and pants again....

Today is the First Day...

...of the rest of your life, or so the saying goes.

While I waited in the car, Bruce turned in his work computer on Friday afternoon.

Before leaving our home, I made a suggestion: "How about we finally use our gift card from Matt and Tom and celebrate at Dexter's?" You know a couple has been married a very long time when the response is: "I was thinking the same thing!"

And what a fine time we had. Thanks Matt and Tom!

As I type my darling is still asleep which is a good thing. Early on he was having a little trouble sleeping, however, that is a thing of the past. No more worrying about jobs spread across the country!
At the moment our biggest concern is getting our phones settled in with a new carrier. How's that for a tiny problem?

So, now that that is dealt with, which I'm glad it is finally over, let's see what is happening around the garden, shall we? I told you I would show off the tabebuia tree and now I am:

I think we've had it now about four years, and it is finally showing it's colors. Beforehand, I've had only a smattering of blooms, but this year? Gorgeous! Because there are so many big trees it is hard to isolate, but I've done my best to show it off. Please note the top of the photo--gorgeous spring green leaves on our neighbor's oak tree.

This is also the first year our newly planted oak tree has behaved like an oak tree, dropping it's leaves, while forming new ones.

I guess it goes to show you that it takes time to settle in, which undoubtedly will be the case with Bruce. He is so accustomed to waking up to hundreds of emails, beginning the day with a blank slate will be quite the shock to his system. A nice shock though.

In a little case of art imitating life, the goldfinch are back,

pictured with my little sitting bird stakes in the background. :) The brilliant pink are the glorious azaleas, a plant that doesn't look like much most of the year, but in the spring they show off like nobodies business.

Then too, the caladiums are coming up!

Before long the jungle, or what we call our jungle, will be rimmed with the caladium's bright colors. I suspect by the time we return from England there will be more than I can count!

Saturday, while Bruce was finishing the kitchen soffit at Bill's place, I finally made it over to Roger and Trish's new shop.

Now you get the RT part of the name. Trish is more than happy to finally have her home back after ten years. As you walked in the door of their 1923 home, to your left sat one of the 60" printers. Furthermore the business took up two large bedrooms, as well as a bathroom turned into a spray room. She says the house echos without all the equipment! The new space is roomy, but with their reputation, it probably won't be long before it is too small. Seven years ago, when first we met, their customer base included maybe 20 people. These days that number is in excess of 200! I have never forgotten what Roger said to me that day in 2007--I bet I can help you out, and his bet proved oh, so true.

Yesterday the market was busy with both people and oak leaves--good grief those leaves and fuzzy things were flying everywhere! The temperature was lovely, albeit a tad on the warm side, with a nice breeze, thus the flying part. As the day drew to a close I had the cutest sisters visit my booth...oh my!

The older one was a budding artist ,while the little claimed to be a dancer.

Was she ever delightful! I am still reading The Orchid Thief, which I'd brought along for filling the slow moments. Just as I was getting to the part about the "Vanda wars" between orchid growers, Jim brought one to the market. Not just any old Vanda, but one with two spikes.

If not for our upcoming trip I might just have had to take that one home for myself. According to Jim, those blooms should last about two months while the rest of the year it will be leaves, and roots. Curious plants, orchids are.

So, what is on the agenda for the first day of the rest of Bruce's life? Why, a kitchen cabinet finding mission, that's what! Time to get that man moving...

p.s. Blue Fedora it is! Nearly finished the painting on Saturday--pictures soon!