In the Garden, On the Porch

I've switched over to summer clothes, the air conditioner is on upstairs, but I'm spending mornings in the garden, then on the porch.

Sage blooming.

Geraniums.

Veggie garden. Need to spread the mulch. Loving my soaker hose.

Stawberries are going crazy. I'm on ripeness patrol about five times a day. Don't want the birds to get to them first!

Green Socks

I've been playing around with Tilt Shift Maker which is supposed to take a photo and make it look like a miniature. Here's my front porch.


With Tilt Shift.


Original photo.

Pretty cool. I don't really take a lot of photos with the kind of fullness of field you need to make a good one, most of mine are closeups, so maybe I'll try to take more of these, or at least think about it. (I saw this on another blog, but I don't remember who.)

I started these socks on my spring break trip, for something to do in the car.

As you can see, I ran out of yarn and had to substitute something else for the toes. Luckily I have a large stash of green yarn. I blame my inattention on being in the car and making the cuffs too long, without checking on the yardage. The yarn is Knit Picks Parade, which is discontinued, but each ball only had 137 yards. Seems small to me. I rarely have this problem.

Looks like we are going to Barcelona and Rome for a week in late May as soon as school is out. Dh has a business trip, so dd and I are tagging along and leaving the younger one at his Grandparents'. I am a bit of a reluctant traveler, but I'm feeling like if I could handle (and enjoy) China, then Europe is no big deal. I've only been to the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, so this will be a couple of new countries for me.

Dd has had two years of Spanish and her assignment is to learn the food words to help me decipher restaurant menus. I'll be working on the Italian food words (I think I know a few already. . .)

Dh bought me a Kindle for Mother's Day, so I've been spending way too much time on Amazon shopping for tourist guides. Now that I've ordered it, I'm DYING for it to get here. Of course, I selected the 5 day free shipping, being the cheapskate that I am and now I regret it. Same old story.

Blackberries and Strawberries

I have to rave about my new Blackberry Storm. Since I don't have a laptop computer, this is the next best thing. I've also been looking for some kind of PDA type device to store letterboxing and geocaching clues. The paper I used to print on would be a stack as tall as I am.

Here are things I've been using on it:
1. Web browser -- great for crossword puzzle stumpers
2. Camera -- you've seen the pix here, nuff said
3. Email -- wonderful to have access while out of town
4. Texting -- how I communicate with the kids
5. 3rd party apps -- Facebook, Twitterberry, Cacheberry, Flickr, Google Maps, I'm sure there are more, but these are what I'm using now.
6. Calendar -- trying to go from paper to Blackberry - only wish they would show the evening hours, instead of only day time.
7. Phone

Not using -- VZ Navigator (not paying extra for GPS when I have two devices already), Visual Voice Mail (wha?), IM programs, or Games.

I've only had one of the buggy problems this phone is known for, and that is it suddenly losing its connection. You just have to go to the Manage Connections menu and reconnect.

I now know how to get rid of the Verizon tags that were appended to my blog posts I sent in. I read somewhere to add #end to the end of your entry and that will strip away the spammy stuff. Need to test it out.

Shout out to Teri, you were right about the Blackberry!

On to strawberries.

Blooming and looking good. Not seeing much bee activity. Hmph.


I love this photo because you can see the stages of the berries forming. Hope it won't be long.


Took my little buddy geocaching this morning. Had to bathe her because the poison ivy is sprouting in the woods. She is napping like a champ after the hike and the bath.

Miscellany, Easter, Restaurants, My Sorry Skin

I'm hardening off the seedlings this week, which basically means leaving them outside to acclimate to the weather before you plant them. Dh added compost and tilled the plot last weekend, so I hope to get them in the ground soon. Still seems a little cool to me though. Also, I noticed rabbit droppings in the backyard, so here's hoping the neighborhood hawks step it up and catch the buggers before I plant my garden.

The annual easter bunny cake. Seems like I got his from the Parade Magazine back when I was a teenager and my mom let me make it. I have been making it ever since.

The required eggs. Ds helped me dye them. I made them into devilled eggs and a green pea salad on Monday.

The boys on the fishing boat. I am a wimp who suffers from motion sickness, so I skipped this outing.

We ate so well last week on that trip. We ate at Paula Deen's in Savannah, which was wonderful. The kids had the buffet and declared the mashed potatoes the best in the world. I had crab cakes, which were great, although the fried green tomato appetizer had too much breading and not enough tomato to it.

My favorite of all in Savannah was called Cha Bella, which was advertised as Italian in all the food guides, but actually was a local, organic kind of place. I realized that after I made the reservation and was thinking the kids would hate it, but thankfully they had a flatbread pizza that the youngest would eat and the food itself was out of this world, fresh and wonderful. I had flounder on a stew of vegetables, and the pot liquor it was cooked in was divine.

A neighbor had recommended a home-cooking cafe in St. Simons, The 4th of May, and it did not disappoint. The kids loved the 5 cheese grilled cheese and the desserts. I had a vegetable plate with squash casserole, tomato pie, black eyed peas and macaroni and cheese. The kids stole the mac n cheese from me. We ate there three times and I bought the cookbook!

Okay, so I'm writing down the restaurants for my own purposes, so I can remember them next time, but thought if anyone needed recommendations, here they are.

I have a terrible rash from a sunscreen allergy. My face is peeling and my neck, ears and wrists have hives all over. Seems to be a little bit better, but it's going on a week now and getting old. (Note to idiot self: do not buy Neutrogena sunscreen again. ever. You made this same mistake last year!) Also having some strange cramps in my right thumb (too much knitting and cross stitch?) Hoping that will resolve itself. I dreamt I was hand quilting a small quilt last night, wonder what that means?

Spring Break Photos

For Spring break, we went to Savannah and Tybee Island, then stayed in St. Simons and spent a day kayaking in Brunswick and ferried over to Cumberland Island for a day. (All in Georgia.)


I found a great letterbox series which features all of the St. Simons Island tree spirits (faces carved in trees). There are only 3 that you can still see. It was my first time there, and the letterbox tour was a great way to get around the island and see some things.

Cumberland Island was once owned by the Carnegie family and they built a mansion on it called *Dungeness*. These are the ruins. It's owned by the National Park Service now, and you can go over on a ferry. We had a great day there.

There are wild horses on the island, left from the days it was a working plantation. They were rolling in the ocean, galloping in the dunes and grazing around the ruins of the mansion. My horse-loving daughter had so much fun.

Savannah was fun too. I would have liked to have more time there. For some reason my kids don't like going into old cemeteries to hunt letterboxes or geocaches with me. . .

This is the lighthouse at Tybee Island. So cold and windy that day.

We ate lunch at a touristy crab shack on Tybee that had gators. Lots of gators.

Dh and ds chartered a fishing boat on Friday and caught a bunch of whiting, which we fried up and ate last night. Yum! I think I can sneak into the fridge and steal the last piece for a sandwich.

St. Simons Island

Cumberland Island GA

Tybee Lighthouse

Closed on Tuesdays, darn it.

Tybee Island

So cold and windy at the beach today.

Palm Sunday

We bought these cross and roses from a man making them from palm fronds. His work was very neat.

Spring Break

Just arrived in rainy Savannah.

Spring Things

My spring seedlings are coming along nicely. I've been careful to keep the cats from digging them up this year, but when I open the sewing room door, they whoosh right in there. I'm trying a lot more types of peppers this year. Last year all my pepper seedlings were eaten in the night by a mysterious creature. Crossing fingers.

I finished the Branching Out scarf to go with the hat I made in from the same yarn. It came in handy at the horse show.

She was invited to the finals, which was very exciting. She got one blue ribbon and the rest reds (there were two in her class ;)).

Here is my progress on one of the cross stitch kits I got in China. The finished item will be a credit card holder, to give you an idea of the size. I started this 4 weeks ago and have only completed ONE SIDE. I keep thinking I could have knit an entire sweater in this time. I don't know what's wrong with me these days. It seems like whatever craft I'm working on, I always want to be doing something else. I really want to sew too, but can't seem to make it into that room because once again, it's a mess. Not sure how to get my motivation back.

Going to Savannah and Cumberland Island, GA for spring break vacation. Hoping the weather's cooperative.

Went for shopping and lunch with my neighbor friend this week and found the Most. Comfortable. FlipFlops. Ever.



They're called the Koolvana. My daughter had a pair last summer and I slipped them on to take the dog out and couldn't believe how comfy they are. I typically can't wear flip flips, so this is heaven for me and I can't wait to take them to the beach.