Let's have a rockin' new year! (what the $##*@)*# does that mean?)
Dave and Cathy after their wonderful Christmas dinner.
Feef, Uncle Buck and Cathy after Christmas dinner.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Christmas Past
My first Christmas at 604 was a success. Family, friends and good food and drink.
Let's have a rockin' new year! (what the $##*@)*# does that mean?)
Bubba all ready for the holidays - wishing all Season's Greetings and Peace.
Finfully showing off the veggie pizza we made - it was delish
Dave and Cathy after their wonderful Christmas dinner.
Feef, Uncle Buck and Cathy after Christmas dinner.
Sandy and Ed on the deck of their new summer beach house on the Bay in Delaware.
Suvi on Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - tide on its way in
Ed and Sandy at 604. Thanks for everything!
Yours truly and Suvi
Suvi and Opa after lunch.
Let's have a rockin' new year! (what the $##*@)*# does that mean?)
Dave and Cathy after their wonderful Christmas dinner.
Feef, Uncle Buck and Cathy after Christmas dinner.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Good - Morning - Millllllllllllllll - ford!
Nine inches as of 10AM. My first snow in my new house. Finfully came down last night after visiting her house at the Bay Place after going over electrical plans with the electrical guys.
Last night for dinner I made a veggie pizza which Fin said was 'exquisite'.(green and yellow and red peppers, shitake and reg mushrooms, red onions, Greek olives, Roma tomato slices and 4 cheeses. In fact, I just asked Fin to describe in one word, her feelings about said pizza, which made us hungry, so we're going to make another right now.
By the way, the last photo, when enlarged, shows a few of the birds out front searching for seeds on the dried weeds. I threw some black oil sunflower seeds out the front and back. Hope they find them. I saw juncos, white-throated sparrows and cardinals in the front.
More as it happens.
Last night for dinner I made a veggie pizza which Fin said was 'exquisite'.(green and yellow and red peppers, shitake and reg mushrooms, red onions, Greek olives, Roma tomato slices and 4 cheeses. In fact, I just asked Fin to describe in one word, her feelings about said pizza, which made us hungry, so we're going to make another right now.
By the way, the last photo, when enlarged, shows a few of the birds out front searching for seeds on the dried weeds. I threw some black oil sunflower seeds out the front and back. Hope they find them. I saw juncos, white-throated sparrows and cardinals in the front.
More as it happens.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Calling All GIrls
I was fluffing up the cushions on my sofa this morning and found a folded up $20 bill. I rarely sit there, so I know it isn't mine. Please let me know if you thought you were a little short after attending the Oct. soiree. I'll send it to you, pronto.
I'm preparing for my first Thanksgiving celebration in my new house. Hope you all have a great holiday and, watch out for Black Friday. Fifi
I'm preparing for my first Thanksgiving celebration in my new house. Hope you all have a great holiday and, watch out for Black Friday. Fifi
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Nor-Ida
.
After constant rain and gloomy skies since Tuesday night, I decided to go to Rehoboth Beach and check out the damage from Ida. It seems that the entire state of Delaware had the same idea. It looked like the middle of August. People on the beach, the boardwalk the streets. It was almost festive, but for the eroded beach, storm whacked boardwalk and rough seas.
It could have been a lot worse; the damage could have been like that in NC and VA. The powers that be will again put the sand back, as tourism is critical for the resort towns from Lewes to Fenwick Island. I expect that the southernmost towns were hit hardest. Attached are 2 videos and a few photos of the boardwalk and beach erosion. Sun is predicted for tomorrow. Until then, I'll be hunkered down in Milford for another evening.
Remember to double click to enlarge photos,
This is not from the storm. They are laying new boardwalk
The beach drops off at shoulder height as seen by the passer by on the beach
You can see where the sea covered the boardwalk in places.
The boardwalk and beach in front of Victoria's Restaurant.
After constant rain and gloomy skies since Tuesday night, I decided to go to Rehoboth Beach and check out the damage from Ida. It seems that the entire state of Delaware had the same idea. It looked like the middle of August. People on the beach, the boardwalk the streets. It was almost festive, but for the eroded beach, storm whacked boardwalk and rough seas.
It could have been a lot worse; the damage could have been like that in NC and VA. The powers that be will again put the sand back, as tourism is critical for the resort towns from Lewes to Fenwick Island. I expect that the southernmost towns were hit hardest. Attached are 2 videos and a few photos of the boardwalk and beach erosion. Sun is predicted for tomorrow. Until then, I'll be hunkered down in Milford for another evening.
Remember to double click to enlarge photos,
This is not from the storm. They are laying new boardwalk
The beach drops off at shoulder height as seen by the passer by on the beach
You can see where the sea covered the boardwalk in places.
The boardwalk and beach in front of Victoria's Restaurant.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
It's Official
Kathy and Juanita have confirmed my hopes - I fixed the problem with my video of the herb walk. Thank you for letting me know.
I'm about to leave for a tour of some native plants at the University of Delaware Botanic Garden in Newark.
Be forewarned - there could be some photos of plants in the next blog.
I'm about to leave for a tour of some native plants at the University of Delaware Botanic Garden in Newark.
Be forewarned - there could be some photos of plants in the next blog.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Going Native
As my faithful blog readers know, my front yard is a work in progress. I went to a nursery in Smyrna, DE some weeks ago to have a plan for landscaping with native plants done. I was quite excited about it, but when the plan was handed to me, it was nothing like I had envisioned. I had supplied the employee with the best information I could get, including photos of the front from every angle but satellite; the flood elevation drawings which showed placement of house, driveway, septic system, well, etc.; more measurements made by moi regarding placement of objects such as well, septic, trees. What I got back was not a native plants/natural front yard, but an interesting faux pond with a bridge over it. It was supposed to be the starting point of a spectacular landscape at 604. I was overwhelmed for a while, but finally came back to my senses and decided that my project was best left up to me; I would tackle the job a little bit at a time.
The first thing I did was go to the annual plant sale of the Delaware Native Plant Society at the St. Jones Reserve in Dover on Saturday, Nov. 7th. It was from 10AM to 3PM. I got there are 10:10 and missed some plants. I circled around the plot, looking at trees, bushes and herbaceous plants. There were many persons there from the club to help. I finally heard someone talking about what to buy and noticed that he was a botanist. So I waited and spoke with him, telling him of my dilemma of planting over a septic leach field. It was no dilemma to him - he said I needed herbaceous plants, including tall grasses and a dozen or so more species I had not heard of. He turned into my personal native plant plant-a-meadow shopper. Spending money was never so easy. I found myself wanting to buy everything in sight, but there were other people there. So I settled for enough to get me started on my new, exhaustive, never ending project of filling the 100 X 85ft front yard of my house. Except for some larger trees that were spared the axe when clearing the lot for building my house, my front yard is a landscape designers dream or nightmare, depending on attitude.
I told the botanist that I thought I would start with a kind of 'swish' along the septic leach field, extending that swish as plants matured and as I decided to add more plants to the developing meadow. To my surprise, he thought the swish was an excellent decision. So now I had a plan and a car full of plants that had to be planted immediately, if not sooner. Sunday was to be a fantastic day for being outdoors. It was settled - Sunday was going to be a weed-pulling, swish designing, herbaceous plants planting day. Then a fairy plant mother stepped in to lessen my load...
Since I was about 4 miles from Fin's lot, I decided to drop by and see what progress had been made on the construction of the Bay House. I took some photos to send to her, as she hadn't planned a trip down this weekend. Fin had already been down last weekend. I called to tell her I had bought some native plants, that I had some photos of her house that I would be emailing to her, etc. etc. Then she said she would come on down and help me plant my plants on Sunday. Wow - I was happy, as she is a whirl of energy and ideas. She arrived with 2 or 3 doz. fresh oysters. We cooked yet another gourmet meal of both fried oysters and broiled oysters in the half-shell and a Caesar salad.
After dinner came the netflix movie night, after Fin hooked up my dvr which I had for 3 years and was still in it's box. I did a little prep on the plan for the swish and we called it a night.
Today was even better than I had expected for being outside digging, sweating and pulling back muscles. But with my helpful marine biologist/handy gal/native plant enthusiast, Fin, digging and pulling weeds, the time seemed to go fast. (But it really didn't in retrospect).
The swish below after forming and pulling weeds.
Placement of the plants within the swish.
Plants planted and ready to be watered.
Fin left and I cleaned up the empty pots, watered the plants and came inside to drink a lot of water and get off my knees.
The following is a list of flowers I've planted over the septic leach field. Clicking on the common name will take you to a url with information and photos about each species. The urls are for my future reference also.
Forked Blue Curls
Swamp Sunflower
Common Milkweed
Downy Lobelia
Flaxleaf Aster
Blazing Star
Slender Mountain Mint
Blackeyed Susan
Blue Vervain/Swamp Verbena
Little Bluestem
Narrow Leaf Bush Clover
Yellow Indian Grass
Tomorrow I'll be watering the plants and planting three other non-herbaceous plants:
witch hazel, northern bayberry and sweet pepperbush, but they won't be planted over the leach field.
A good time was had by all.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Like It Was Yesterday
Where do I begin?. . . Back in June, when I first moved into my new house, I decided that next time Joyce came to visit, I would have a girls' weekend. Joyce, aka Juanita, finally arrived in the Mid-Atlantic area to attend her son's wedding. So I planned this weekend, along with the couldn't-have-done-it-without-you help and suggestions from Fin.
The players are Fin, her sister (and my friend since grade school), Juanita; cousin Cathy; Izzy and Kathy B. Kathy is Izzy's sister and one of Cathy's best friends from high school. Izzy is one of Joyce's and my friends from high school on.
Friends, from left to right: Fin, Fifi, Kathy B, Juanita, Izzy, Cathy. Pets are little Minnie and Shelly, both fantastic guests.
After agreeing on the specific weekend, I sent a message outlining what I would be making for both dinners. What came back was a plethora of offers for making breakfast, snacks, salads, lunches, etc. Boy, I like having weekend people over; all I do is invite and they do everything. I had to beg to do any dish cleanup. It was wonderful. These Philly girls just took charge. Go Bucs! (our school team name)
When the first wave of guests arrived, I was struggling to make my 8 lb chicken fit into my new rotisserie oven. The kitchen counters immediately filled up with food of all kinds. We had many celebratory drinks; Kathy B made hummus on endive, then steamed shrimp - yum. The first few hours after all the guests were on board were spent catching up. Our --th class reunion had been 3 weeks prior, and someone sent us photos of our classmates as they are now. I could identify about 2% of the people. So while I was preparing the dinner, the rest were working out who was who in the photos. Sometimes even cheating by using yearbooks wasn't enough to figure out people. I still don't know who they are. I do think we should crash the --th reunion in 2014.
Dinner was wonderful: my rotisserie chicken, Fin's Caesar salad, Cathy's grilled asparagus.
After dinner we had Fin's homemade apple cobbler - yum. We then had a surprise Harvest Festival gag gift giving. Fin and I were the only ones who knew what was coming. It was a hoot. It was clear to see who the competitive ones were in high school They haven't changed in all these years. Go McHenry sisters!
After the gift giving, we played Pictionary ( a gift from Kathy). I just can't get over what wonderful artists we are. One after another, we cranked out museum quality art.
We all found our sleeping places and hit the sack(s) around 1AM.
Saturday we were up early (for me anyway) and started back where we left off. Izzy made a scrumptious breakfast, followed closely with her homemade yummy chili. Everything was so good. There was a side trip down to Rehoboth Beach for a walk on the boardwalk. We had just missed a Halloween parade. Seems that everyone was dressed for the occasion, including pets.
After the trip to the beach, we all started celebrating anything we wanted. Four persons played Scrabble while I put all the ingredients together for the dinner. As an appetizer, Kathy B again did shrimp, but now they were shrimp on the barbie and were they good!
Before starting dinner, we all went outside to the RV where everyone helped me get free of some mud? I had backed into while trying to make parking space. I steered, everyone else pushed, and in 10 seconds the RV was out of it's 'stuck' position. So, of course, we celebrated with bubbly provided by Cathy.
I decided to make the 2009 Coast Day crab cake cook-off winning recipe: it was crab cakes with vinaigrette dressing and roasted shallots over baby greens. I think it was a success. We had leftover asparagus with it and some broccoli.
Dessert was more of the same: apple cobbler, and did I forget to say, mini pumpkin and mini praline and nuts cheesecakes?
Now that the main eating of the weekend was over, Juanita presented each of a with a remembrance of her now home town of Gainesville, FL. - a delicious solid chocolate "gator". A gremlin "pinched" the tail before I could get a photo. Now it looks like a river hippo.
Another game of Scrabble was played and it was time to hit the hay once again.
I have to say that it was so much fun having my friends here and reminiscing and telling tales of school days. Most of us are from Great Memories Park. Those of us who are not, lived close enough to know what we mean when we say great memories.
On Sunday morning, Juanita whipped up a delicious breakfast for us and we were ready to roll again. But, everyone had to leave for home.
I am so happy to be back East where I belong. Thanks to my friends for making this such a great, fun weekend.
more. . .
The players are Fin, her sister (and my friend since grade school), Juanita; cousin Cathy; Izzy and Kathy B. Kathy is Izzy's sister and one of Cathy's best friends from high school. Izzy is one of Joyce's and my friends from high school on.
Friends, from left to right: Fin, Fifi, Kathy B, Juanita, Izzy, Cathy. Pets are little Minnie and Shelly, both fantastic guests.
After agreeing on the specific weekend, I sent a message outlining what I would be making for both dinners. What came back was a plethora of offers for making breakfast, snacks, salads, lunches, etc. Boy, I like having weekend people over; all I do is invite and they do everything. I had to beg to do any dish cleanup. It was wonderful. These Philly girls just took charge. Go Bucs! (our school team name)
When the first wave of guests arrived, I was struggling to make my 8 lb chicken fit into my new rotisserie oven. The kitchen counters immediately filled up with food of all kinds. We had many celebratory drinks; Kathy B made hummus on endive, then steamed shrimp - yum. The first few hours after all the guests were on board were spent catching up. Our --th class reunion had been 3 weeks prior, and someone sent us photos of our classmates as they are now. I could identify about 2% of the people. So while I was preparing the dinner, the rest were working out who was who in the photos. Sometimes even cheating by using yearbooks wasn't enough to figure out people. I still don't know who they are. I do think we should crash the --th reunion in 2014.
Dinner was wonderful: my rotisserie chicken, Fin's Caesar salad, Cathy's grilled asparagus.
After dinner we had Fin's homemade apple cobbler - yum. We then had a surprise Harvest Festival gag gift giving. Fin and I were the only ones who knew what was coming. It was a hoot. It was clear to see who the competitive ones were in high school They haven't changed in all these years. Go McHenry sisters!
After the gift giving, we played Pictionary ( a gift from Kathy). I just can't get over what wonderful artists we are. One after another, we cranked out museum quality art.
We all found our sleeping places and hit the sack(s) around 1AM.
Saturday we were up early (for me anyway) and started back where we left off. Izzy made a scrumptious breakfast, followed closely with her homemade yummy chili. Everything was so good. There was a side trip down to Rehoboth Beach for a walk on the boardwalk. We had just missed a Halloween parade. Seems that everyone was dressed for the occasion, including pets.
After the trip to the beach, we all started celebrating anything we wanted. Four persons played Scrabble while I put all the ingredients together for the dinner. As an appetizer, Kathy B again did shrimp, but now they were shrimp on the barbie and were they good!
Before starting dinner, we all went outside to the RV where everyone helped me get free of some mud? I had backed into while trying to make parking space. I steered, everyone else pushed, and in 10 seconds the RV was out of it's 'stuck' position. So, of course, we celebrated with bubbly provided by Cathy.
I decided to make the 2009 Coast Day crab cake cook-off winning recipe: it was crab cakes with vinaigrette dressing and roasted shallots over baby greens. I think it was a success. We had leftover asparagus with it and some broccoli.
Dessert was more of the same: apple cobbler, and did I forget to say, mini pumpkin and mini praline and nuts cheesecakes?
Now that the main eating of the weekend was over, Juanita presented each of a with a remembrance of her now home town of Gainesville, FL. - a delicious solid chocolate "gator". A gremlin "pinched" the tail before I could get a photo. Now it looks like a river hippo.
Another game of Scrabble was played and it was time to hit the hay once again.
I have to say that it was so much fun having my friends here and reminiscing and telling tales of school days. Most of us are from Great Memories Park. Those of us who are not, lived close enough to know what we mean when we say great memories.
On Sunday morning, Juanita whipped up a delicious breakfast for us and we were ready to roll again. But, everyone had to leave for home.
I am so happy to be back East where I belong. Thanks to my friends for making this such a great, fun weekend.
more. . .
Friday, October 9, 2009
Back in Commission-The Enhanced Post
I was having trouble posting photos to the blog post. I finally fixed the problem and have deleted the original post.
The story in a nutshell of my life from June 12 until tonight.
I have spent the past 4 months fine tuning the new house. There were the usual minor, yet aggravating, problems with things to deal with after moving in. I had, what turned out to be, minor problems with things like floors and well water. Those appear to be corrected, and now I have little, if anything, to gripe about. So I'm now about to get immersed in the ongoing project of landscaping the front of the property.
The front "yard", including driveway, is about 100 ft. by 90 ft. In that area is a well pipe, two 24" septic tank covers and a septic field, all in front of the house It is a challenge, but I think I have a plan - perhaps a 5 year plan, but a plan nonetheless. The photo below shows part of the yard today with 2 ft. tall weeds. I'll be posting as the landscape takes shape in the coming months.
Since moving here, I have had the pleasure of having friends/loyal blog readers visit me: Sandy, the Contractor, Cathy, Izzy and Boomer, Fin, Juanita, several other cousins and the latest, my long-time friend, Becky, from Memphis. Becky arrived on Saturday, Oct. 3 in D.C. I picked her up there and brought her back to see the new house and to catch up on the latest news in our lives. In an effort to give her the flavor of Lower, Slower Delaware, we went to Coast Day in Lewes on Sunday where it was all about water and seafood. Also, we went to a special ceremony where Fin and her team received the President's (Obama) Award for her excellent Delaware Bay oyster restoration project, which has a return on investment of 40 to 1. Boy, she should go to Washington and show them how to do that. Anyway, it was a great day. I got to sample homemade clam chowder and enjoy the beautiful Fall day on the Delaware Bay.
From Lewes we drove a couple more miles to Cape Henlopen State Park, which is the first beach on the Atlantic Coast in Delaware. All others north of that are on the Delaware Bay. Next stop was Rehoboth Beach and a peek at the boardwalk and beach. After a drive around Silver Lake south of Rehoboth, we decided to throw caution to the wind by eating dinner and taking in a movie: Capitalism: A Love Story. It was a perfect end to a great day along the coast.
I forgot to report that, after moving into the house, and while getting the house in shape, it rained a lot in Milford and SCargo leaked! I did what anyone would do in this case and ignored it until I couldn't ignore it anymore. Becky is thinking of getting an RV and hoped to do an overnighter in the V. Well, the V had dried out, but smelled like an RV that had leaked. So I began the process of eliminating the musty odor with several store-bought remedies, plus a pie tin of charcoal. I also made and kept an appointment at the local RV place and had the seams resealed. So we picked up the RV on Monday, quickly packed it up and headed down to Assateague Island. It was another beautiful day. We drove around through the National Park looking at the birds and wild horses. It was another great excursion. The photos below are of Becky on the beach and a few others of the scene on the island.
Wednesday we took a drive north to Kitts Hummock to show her the typical bay beach. From there we went to several beaches, including Pickering Beach and Port Mahon, each quite different from the other. Lastly, we took the auto tour of Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which Becky agreed was a highlight of the tours. We saw a few different birds, including a harrier, falcon, various ducks and the first wave of snow geese coming in for the winter months. The weather, again, was great, even though very windy.
Thursday I drove Becky back to D.C. where she met up with another friend with whom she will spend the rest of her week touring the D.C./Virginia area. While her friend was working, we did some walking along the Mall and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I then hopped on the Metro back to the car, leaving Becky to continue on to other sights.
I thoroughly enjoyed Becky's visit and look forward to her returning soon. Maybe next time she'll be retired and driving in with her great dogs in her new RV.
The story in a nutshell of my life from June 12 until tonight.
I have spent the past 4 months fine tuning the new house. There were the usual minor, yet aggravating, problems with things to deal with after moving in. I had, what turned out to be, minor problems with things like floors and well water. Those appear to be corrected, and now I have little, if anything, to gripe about. So I'm now about to get immersed in the ongoing project of landscaping the front of the property.
The front "yard", including driveway, is about 100 ft. by 90 ft. In that area is a well pipe, two 24" septic tank covers and a septic field, all in front of the house It is a challenge, but I think I have a plan - perhaps a 5 year plan, but a plan nonetheless. The photo below shows part of the yard today with 2 ft. tall weeds. I'll be posting as the landscape takes shape in the coming months.
Since moving here, I have had the pleasure of having friends/loyal blog readers visit me: Sandy, the Contractor, Cathy, Izzy and Boomer, Fin, Juanita, several other cousins and the latest, my long-time friend, Becky, from Memphis. Becky arrived on Saturday, Oct. 3 in D.C. I picked her up there and brought her back to see the new house and to catch up on the latest news in our lives. In an effort to give her the flavor of Lower, Slower Delaware, we went to Coast Day in Lewes on Sunday where it was all about water and seafood. Also, we went to a special ceremony where Fin and her team received the President's (Obama) Award for her excellent Delaware Bay oyster restoration project, which has a return on investment of 40 to 1. Boy, she should go to Washington and show them how to do that. Anyway, it was a great day. I got to sample homemade clam chowder and enjoy the beautiful Fall day on the Delaware Bay.
From Lewes we drove a couple more miles to Cape Henlopen State Park, which is the first beach on the Atlantic Coast in Delaware. All others north of that are on the Delaware Bay. Next stop was Rehoboth Beach and a peek at the boardwalk and beach. After a drive around Silver Lake south of Rehoboth, we decided to throw caution to the wind by eating dinner and taking in a movie: Capitalism: A Love Story. It was a perfect end to a great day along the coast.
I forgot to report that, after moving into the house, and while getting the house in shape, it rained a lot in Milford and SCargo leaked! I did what anyone would do in this case and ignored it until I couldn't ignore it anymore. Becky is thinking of getting an RV and hoped to do an overnighter in the V. Well, the V had dried out, but smelled like an RV that had leaked. So I began the process of eliminating the musty odor with several store-bought remedies, plus a pie tin of charcoal. I also made and kept an appointment at the local RV place and had the seams resealed. So we picked up the RV on Monday, quickly packed it up and headed down to Assateague Island. It was another beautiful day. We drove around through the National Park looking at the birds and wild horses. It was another great excursion. The photos below are of Becky on the beach and a few others of the scene on the island.
Wednesday we took a drive north to Kitts Hummock to show her the typical bay beach. From there we went to several beaches, including Pickering Beach and Port Mahon, each quite different from the other. Lastly, we took the auto tour of Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which Becky agreed was a highlight of the tours. We saw a few different birds, including a harrier, falcon, various ducks and the first wave of snow geese coming in for the winter months. The weather, again, was great, even though very windy.
Thursday I drove Becky back to D.C. where she met up with another friend with whom she will spend the rest of her week touring the D.C./Virginia area. While her friend was working, we did some walking along the Mall and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I then hopped on the Metro back to the car, leaving Becky to continue on to other sights.
I thoroughly enjoyed Becky's visit and look forward to her returning soon. Maybe next time she'll be retired and driving in with her great dogs in her new RV.
