Here and There, Part Two

The smart thing to do, early this morning, would have been to have gone straightaway to Publix, however, had I done that instead of my bike ride, I would have missed this lovely winter sunrise.

Actually, as most anyone knows, this is taken pre-sunrise. In fact, I took off around 7 this morning, immediately noticing the show going on above me, so I rode as fast as my little feet could pedal down Ferncreek to the boat ramp on Lake Conway. If you can imagine, I even took my shoes off and waded in a bit to get a shot past the boat house! Beautiful and peaceful, although there was one truck parked there already, so apparently someone was out on the water.

Woo hoo--I also saw, for the first time in ages and ages, the eagle!!!

The light was still quite dim, and of course the pine on which he is perched is about 80 feet tall, so with my equipment I'll never get too good of a shot, so this one will have to suffice. Good photo, or bad, I was just elated when I came across him.

So, after riding toward the eagle house, I turned around, heading back to the boat ramp. The streaky sky and golden light were spectacular.

Fantastic, right? It pays to get a move on early!! The truth is that I have barely any time to write today as we are taking Michelle out for her birthday dinner in about an hour or so, followed by picking up Jon and Alissa at the airport tonight.

With that in mind I'm going to show just a few of my favorites from the last few days. We pulled up at a garden center and were greeted by this wonderful scene:

And, who amongst you has ever had the pleasure of a Christmas cactus that you never thought would bloom turn into a MASS of blooms one year? This was on the front porch where I rarely saw it so for now it is out on the table by the pool.

Corrine, who turned 89 just two weeks ago brought over magazines for me a few minutes ago. She walked across the street with her cane which disturbed me. I cut her some of the fudge I'd just made and gave her two pieces of the SHORTBREAD I made the other day. The shortbread is going to be a post in itself when I have time. All of this reminded me of the hibiscus bloom I filched from her plant the other day because the color was outstanding!

Here's a little fellow all ready for the upcoming Rose Bowl between FSU and Oregon! No, for those of you who don't know my dog, it is not mine. For some reason he was roaming a neighborhood I was riding through.

For the record, Publix was a mad house, as you knew it would be only a few days until Christmas......

We'll talk soon,
Gail

The Christmas Decorating Dillema

Undoubtedly there are some amongst you under the mistaken impression that I am good with Christmas decorations. This post will go far in dispelling any such notions.

Saturday afternoon Matt suggested we get the Christmas tree, and he would decorate it. Who was I to argue with such an offer? Because I was glued to the television, watching another nail biter football game played by the Seminoles, Bruce and Matt went to the Russell Home lot to pick out a tree. I will say that there was a time in my life where this would have been unthinkable, but that time is not now.

Before long they returned with the tree, and went about putting it up, with little, or no, input from me.

I say little because I did ask if that were all the lights going up. But that was it, everything else I left to him. You may remember that last year  I had super-duper Sue doing the tree! If you don't remember, there is always the link, and if that is too much trouble, I'll just say that she put 700 lights on a tree not much bigger than this one! Anyway, Matt did a wonderful job, making the tree look a little old-fashioned, with the garland strung just so.

This is not the first time Matt has done a tree for me all by his lonesome. The year we moved into our home on Whistler Dr., he was 9 years old, the twins were 6, and Jon boy was 2. If you can imagine we moved into our new home about nine days before Christmas. As you can also imagine, Bruce and I were very, very busy. Matt offered to do the tree, and we let him. Crazy, right?

I will tell you Tom was uninterested in both this project, and football--I believe he thinks I'm a little bit nutty over college football. The truth is--he is on to something!

Sunday, because they were leaving in the afternoon, we stayed home, once again, from the market. While Matt and Tom met up with his friend Liza, and her adorable daughters, at the nearby park, Bruce and I made a quick trip to see the newly opened Artegon, advertised relentlessly in our local paper. The subtitle to this blog is "out and about with Gail", thus I'm sharing what it is, like hoping to save you the gas money.

To say that it is a waste of both your time, and gas money, is an understatement. Oh my! Taking over the inside footprint of the forlorn Festival Bay mall, it has been a year in the making. My email inbox has been filled with pleas looking for people to set up "shop" there. Above are the pictured "shops." And do you see how ugly the corner booth is? They are mostly all that way. Plus, it is just so cheesy. I'm trying my best to remember the name of the "shop" that has these,

for what I'm presuming is, hire. Critter Crawlers? Who knows? There are the adult versions on your left, as well as the little ones, for little ones. I've no idea what propels them, but it is not your feet. The bottom line is this--don't bother.

Following the London lads departure, I'm pretty sure we made it an early bedtime, followed by an early rising on Monday morning. Riding my bike over to Cheryle's house, I was dying to see this gorgeous new hibiscus in bloom.

Stunning is an appropriate description, don't you think? Her garden was abuzz with bees in the early morning sunshine.

That bee has quite the load!!

After laundry and what have you, it was time for me to finish the decorating. Bah humbug! I need help! I began by looking everywhere for the table runner which I first used in 2010.  Perhaps I ruined it, and just don't remember, but it was nowhere, and I mean nowhere, to be found. Well now what? I put it off until Tuesday. Eventually I went up to Ross looking for something else. Struggling with where to put stuff, it took me way longer than you would think, and it still doesn't look like much. Eventually I quit trying to pretend I am good at Christmas decorations.

The boxes are all stacked ready to go up in the garage for a few weeks before the dismantling begins. One thing I know for certain, getting the lights off of the tree this year will be a far easier task than last!! Although I loved last year's themed tree, it is good to have my old favorite ornaments once again.

Whereas Christmas decorating escapes me, I am good at reading. Is that a skill? Let's decide to call it one, shall we? This time of year The New York Times publishes their notable list of books, of which I wrote down this batch:

Just today I finally finished one on the list that you don't see, Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. Perhaps it was because I read it in short spurts, but for me, it was not as compelling as Home, or Gilead. I would not take my word for it though. The book on this list that I'm dying to read is Nora Webster. Our wonderful library should be delivering it any day now.

Wednesday I set aside time to get my business in order; another task I like less, and less, as time goes on. Do I sound like I'm turning into a curmudgeon? It does to me, so I believe I'll quit before I get too cranky!