Home Again, Home Again

C and I have been off on a pretty fabulous little birding trip to western North Carolina for the past several days. The trip was led by our good friend Simon Thompson of Ventures Birding Tours, Asheville, NC and we had the pleasure of once again staying at Snowbird Mountain Lodge in Robbinsville, NC. Here is the view out of the livingroom windows on Sunday evening when we arrived:

you may click on all of the photos for enlarged views! Yay Blogger!!!!

The weather was chillier than usual, and we had a bit of drizzle on Monday, but that didn't stop us, or the birds!


Simon is an incredible birder and also a very knowledgeable, giving and caring guide. We were mainly interested in seeing the migrating warblers, but of course there are all of the lovely wildflowers blooming this time of year in the Smokies, like this trillium:



Here you can see the forest floor just covered with Trillium Grandiflora:




Here's a closeup of the lovely grandiflora with a buttercup thrown in for good measure:



We had some good friends accompanying us on this trip, and we met a lot of great folks while we were there! As always our accomodations at Snowbird were fabulous and the food was incredible! I was never able to get online with my laptop, so no blogging and only sporadic email checking on their computer. It's amazing how attached I've become to the internet!

more pics tomorrow.............I hope!

PEACE

A Tribute to Mike

We moved to town in 1980 with a one-year old. Of course, the first thing you do is find a Pediatrician. We had used a large group when we lived in Miami, and I wanted a more personal feel in Gainesville, so a friend and neighbor recommended that we make an appointment with Mike. The moment we walked into his office, I knew we had made the right decision: warm and friendly, but with bright colors and huge murals on the walls.........something pretty new for 1980! (For years, a framed large and colorful piece of K's artwork from preschool hung on his walls!)

My favorite Mike story was when C was off on a trip and K had developed those dreaded ear infections (both ears, of course). I came down with the crud too, and so was all alone, sick, and trying to care for a sick toddler. It was a Saturday morning and Mike called to check on K and when he heard how sick I was, he immediately called our neighbor and asked her to come and look in on both of us. Not many Docs would do that!

Mike had such a wonderful way with kids! He'd say to little K, who went by the nickname KC back then, "Let me take a look in your ears KC girl. Ahhhhhh, there's a couple of Smurfs in this one! Let me see who's in the other one."

Her baby book is full of little pages with her height and weight progress sheets stuck in there. One even has a hand drawn map on it of where the closest pharmacy was, since we were new in town and I had no idea where anything was!

It turned out that Mike had a little girl who was just a month older than K, and over the years they developed a deep and strong friendship, often inseparable in high school. K loved Mike so much that she wouldn't think of switching to our family Dr when she was old enough. She would even drive to Mike's office for her appointments after she turned 16. He was a special guy!

We got the news yesterday that Mike had lost his battle with cancer. My heart grieves for his family, and I feel like we've lost a wonderful, wonderful friend.

Peace to you, dear friend!

The Promise of Spring

One of my favorite things to do in the Spring is to take my morning cup of coffee and wander through my flower garden, checking out what new things have sprouted overnight, the progress of buds spotted the previous day, and new buds on perennials that had only popped up a few days earlier. This morning was no exception, with temps in the mid 50s and a gloriously clear blue sky! Barker and Elsie joined me on my little adventure:

I just love foxgloves, and it never ceases to amaze me that even mine return year after year!

My peonies are looking good. I'm so fortunate that Ineke and Martin had established this beautiful bed when they first built our home.


Out with the old and in with the new:


What a difference a day makes:
Yesterday:

Today:


I've been playing around with more Complexitees, and I'll share a few with you:




This is just a piece of complex cloth that I have some plans for:


And last, but not least, if I haven't already put you to sleep, C and I finished watching a fabulous movie last night (between Braves games and a performance by our local theater group, we cannot get through a movie in one night anymore!). Check out Lars and the Real Woman when you have a chance. It's very interesting: funny, even hilarious at times, but also very poignant.

Take care, and don't forget to stop and smell the roses!

PEACE

City Livin'

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so today's blog post will mainly be a photographic journey through our past three days in Atlanta.

New summer Steve Madden shoes for me:


new summer Keds for easy livin':



Spring flowers along our favorite Midtown neighborhood walk:

Cross Vine along the Tuscany fence:


Johnny Jump-Ups at the front door of the Metropolis:


a stately iris on Penn:

Spiderwort (Tradescantia - what a cool name!) on Penn:


Wisteria on Myrtle:


Beautiful azaleas are everywhere:



and Vinca Major runs rampant along the sidewalks:


A few of my favorite homes:



We watched with interest last summer as this home was scraped and repainted lovingly by its owners. New flowers were planted in pots on the front porch. We've enjoyed its progress. Then this week as we walked by, we noticed that something was quite wrong:

We're not sure exactly what happened, but it seems that it has come off of its foundation or something:
I am very sad for the house, but doubly sad for its owners, who had taken so much pride in fixing it up.
This morning as we walked by, the demo crew was there. I suspect this house won't be there next time we walk our favorite walk.

A wonderful hood ornament on this chartreuse car:


Last night we went to the Braves/Dodgers game:

Our Braves won 6-1. It was nice to see our old favorite Andruw Jones, although in a Dodgers uniform. Chipper Jones hit two homeruns, which added to the excitement. It was also Fireworks Friday, so we enjoyed the post game entertainment as well.

One sock finished:

PEACE

Chartreuse: My Favorite Season!

Well, Blogger seems to be up to its old tricks again, so I won't try to post any more pics tonight.

It struck me yesterday that Chartreuse is the 'spring green' shade of the foliage that I love so much this time of year! I walked around our house and snapped a bunch of pics............all variations of chartreuse. We've had two days of absolutely gorgeous weather. Life is good!

these are even better if you click on them and enlarge them!

PEACE

Happy Birthday Baby!

Our Kristin turned 29 today! I say 'our', but I'm not really sure who her parents are, as neither C nor I feel old enough to have a 29 year old!


We brought K & D a sushi lunch from Ru Sans:


Tucker was dressed to kill in his brilliant blue bandana:




and Barker was his usual jovial self



They had invited friends in to celebrate with a cookout. It was a great party and we enjoyed being with these young and successful people. I have faith in that generation and know that they will go far.

PEACE