Monday, November 4, 2024

Fall Garden














 The roses are fading, our deciduous trees are losing their leaves and the pollinator garden is just about done. However, the yard is still glorious. The colors of the day are yellow and orange with splashes of white and pink. All that beauty AND it was cool enough for a long sleeved dress. Reasons enough for a celebratory brunch. What a wonderful Sunday.



Saturday, October 26, 2024

Folsom


 Beautiful drive. 

Great ribs. 

Took home two plants. 

Cypress Trees



 Looking at the difference in 5 years. 

2019-2024

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Oct 9

Hammond Garden Club field trip to Gonzales to visit with Peggy Martin. She is famous for her Katrina rose. 











Saturday, October 5, 2024

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Sep 18

 A busy day 

Book club was wonderful, as usual. Great discussion. The book was Midnight Library. It made quite an impression on all of us. The choices we make. The roads we take. Those we leave unexplored. We all agreed it would be a good read for high school kids. 

Wine tasting at Jacmel and dinner after with Chip and Deborah. 

Monday, September 16, 2024

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Friday, August 16, 2024

AUGUST 16 - THANKFUL FRIDAY

 August 16,2024

Here we are back at home in Louisiana. Reasonable survival of our gardens although the pollinator garden needs TLC. Most of the trees and bushes including  cypress, loropedleum, sunshine lengustrum, sweet viburnum, red bud, little gems are thriving. They have had a great growing season.

Thanks to Chelsea and Adrian we were able to leave it and return to a happy house and happy garden. 

Unpacking and stowing away is almost complete. 

We had a great visit with Chelsea last night. 

Garden Club on Wednesday was a real success. My suggestion of Dr. Callais was a big hit. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed her talk. She is a jewel. 

We have an appointment to get the car inspected on Tuesday. Hopefully the broken piece can be repaired or replaced easily. 

Stanley’s drivers license replacement was a breeze. 

Grateful for rain and the cool air that makes this dinner on the porch so pleasant. 

As always we are grateful for our relationship, our home and the joy we find in each other. Sex! Always wonderful. 

Monday, August 12, 2024

AUGUST 12 THANKFUL THURSDAY


 THANKFUL THURSDAY

We are home! Everything is still alive. It just needs a bit of Stanley’s special TLC and it will be wonderful. 

Safe travel for thousands of miles. About 8,000. A looong way! The little car was very comfortable and fun to drive. Our spare tire is still pristine. Thankfully unused. Our little fridge never even had a hiccup.

Thankful for Chelsea and Adrian and for all their efforts to keep our home safe. 

Thankful for all the beauty we saw between Washington and Louisiana and the sweet time we had with the Drapers, Jean, the Vandenburgs and Martha. 

Grateful for friends here at home who are happy to welcome us back. 

Grateful for family who are concerned for us. 

Saturday, August 10, 2024

AIGUST 10

 Rolling through Illinois, one thing is guaranteed: you are going to see lots of corn, soybeans, and their respective storage units. 





You’re also going to see a fair number of chuches - some very pretty ones


You may not know when you cross the border into Missouri until you get to St Louis, but you’ll know for sure when you see the arch


We are safely tucked into our accommodation at the Riverview Hotel in Cape Girardeau waiting for dinner reservations at 7:00. I’m staying busy watching for barges going down the river like this one. 


LATER:
Dinner at the Beacon 53 was outstanding. Lamb chops on a bed of ratatouille with peach crisp for dessert. We had to make a hasty exit when the bugs attacked Stanley’s ankles, but up until then it couldn’t have been more perfect. 





What a beautiful place to celebrate the end of  a two month road trip. We still have a couple more short days of driving but this is - at least for me - the ceremonial end of our trip. Cheers!

!Buenas noches!





AUGUST 9

 We were up early to enjoy the breakfast Cher insisted on making for us. Eggs and sausages with a blintz for each of us! Delicious!

You wouldn’t believe how much flavor was rolled up in that thin little pancake  Thank you, Cher!

Then we were off to see Martha in Roscoe IL. We try to see her anytime we are in the area. For starters, she is one of the sweetest people I know. And then, there is her garden. 








We stayed on her back patio for about an hour drinking in the lovely simplicity of her garden and catching up with each others’ lives. Martha is a legendary retired teacher and very active in the Golden Apple Program so I’m always hanging on her every word. She is a jewel.

Suddenly reality kicked in. I had promised this lady lunch and it was welllll after 1:00. We piled into her car and went into Beloit to a favorite restaurant of hers, Zen’s. I’m not surprised. Martha is as zen as they come. We all got brave and ordered something we had never had before  I think I won the prize with my Monkey Brain. It was actually an avocado stuffed with spicy tuna and a bit of rice, dipped in tempura batter and fried. Absolutely excellent!

Martha was the last on our list of folks to see on this trip. From now on, it’s just us. 

We drove to Peru IL and decided to hang it up for the night. Between Cher’s breakfast and all the lunch time sushi neither one of us wanted dinner. We didn’t even want to do Thankful Thursday and sparkling wine.

I talked to Sarah for a while and sent Stephanie a note of congratulations on her posting in the Bahamas and now I’m writing this. That’s that for me.

¡Buenas noches!