Before and after not quite 4 years. Things certainly grow a lot here in Low Country…like year round!
Loropetalum, Ferns, Vines ~
Category / Weather
Autumn Nor’easter 2011
Unwelcomed but without any say in the matter, mother nature flew through the North East leaving in her wake 10+ inches of the heaviest snow possible in many areas, broken tree’s, downed power lines and much of the state without electricity. I could hardly believe my eyes when looking out the window the morning after the storm. It was just yesterday that I saw beautiful green grass, colorful mums, vibrant orange pumpkins strewn about our landscape with tree’s full of colorful autumn leaves.
Saturday 10/29/11 7AM (the morning after) – This is what I woke up to. Off to the diner me and hubby went. We love hoping into the Jeep when the weather or roads are foul! Seriously though – we do. Hardly anyone on the roads, the landscape is beautiful and then we’re rewarded with a hardy, warm meal at the diner. My pics in this post were taken with my iPhone 4. It did a pretty good job.
Couldn’t resist this picture of our water fountain. How often do you see a running water fountain covered in snow? You can’t really tell in the picture but it’s running! We’d normally winterize her around Thanksgiving which usually works out until mother nature’s deranged sense of humor spills her guts before Halloween!
The day after we wanted chicken wings for the football game so off I go to grab some. Here’s what I run into after coming around a 90 degree corner – bamb a fallen tree on power lines next to a ledge. UGH!!! The road wasn’t even closed off. Now how the heck am I going to turn my car around – you can’t see behind the picture but there was a log in the road so selecting my turn around spot was tricky and I wasn’t about to drive up under those power lines. I ended up having to get out of the car and rolling the log off the road all the while praying that the power lines the tree is sitting on didn’t give way and come down on me & secondly that another driver didn’t come around that 90 degree corner and hit me. I was a ball of nerves!
Finally accomplish my 20-point turn and thought “are the chicken wings really worth me driving the other way around” which is longer and I’m wondering what hurdles I might run into the other way. So now my brain is fixated on my husband wanting chicken wings and honestly me too so now while I’m hurdling 1/2 cut up tree trunks in the road leaving one passing lane, I’m thinking “chicken wings and football are a perfect match – why didn’t I buy them the other day when I did pre-storm grocery shopping???”. I ended up making the trek for the chicken wings which took me a total of 1 hour 15 minutes when it should’ve only taken 25 minutes. It was so worth it though!
2nd Snow Storm 2010 – 2011 Winter
Just when the snow from the first 15″ blizzard was melting away, we’re slammed with another 13″. Oh the joys of winter in New England.
Our home –
Don’t you just love a storm with no wind? All the snow sits so nicely on every single branch of the trees – gorgeous!
What does one do when stuck on an icy hillside in the snow? Well just pull out the trusty winch and get r done. There was all kinds of man testosterone in the air out there this morning. My female advice and the “raised on a farm advice” was to put some chains on the tractors tires. Chains will always save the day in any icy New England storm. My dad’s farm didn’t function without em.
Ordinary Miracle
I felt the need to post about ordinary miracles today. We had our 2nd large snow fall of the season yesterday amongst other ordinary things. I snapped a picture about an hour or so into the storm. Last night we took Scottie out for potty and was greeted by our neighbors dog who had gotten loose while clearing the snow from their driveway. It was pitch dark and we live in the woods where bad things can happen to house pets running in the night so I leash him up and return the not even 1 year-old bouncing Tigger dog to its home. He was all in his glory of having his rooming freedom and attention from new people…bouncy bouncy Tigger dog…for sure he thought this was all about play which gave me a good chuckle as our dog is a mature 13 years young and doesn’t bounce nearly as high as this pup! So we trudge our way through the 13″+ of snow and arrive at my neighbors drive where they’re feverishly working at clearing the snow. I could sense the frustration they had that their dog had gotten loose and inconvenienced me but quite the contrary, I was thankful to have found him and gave him a safe return home. Just another ordinary miracle right? This was no inconvenience to me, I feel a dogs life was saved, who knows what may have happened otherwise. I’d like to think someone would return the favor.
I found this song entitled “Ordinary Miracle” by Sarah Mclachlan featured in Charlotte’s Web. It’s a nice reflection on ordinary miracles. Take a listen to it . . . all I can say is “beautifully put”!
What happens on the Day before Memorial Day?
Well in our lives we spend the entire weekend celebrating Memorial Day OUT on the boat or just hanging ON the boat IN the marina with all of our friends. Here’s a glimpse of our day.
Mike got the dink in the water and everyone knows this is Scottie’s boat. He was all paws when he saw it go in and pitched a doggie anxiety fit for a ride.
Then there was Cosmo (our friends sheep dog)
Who perched himself way up high for a birds eye view of our odd bunch here –
Scottie was also curious of the odd bunch and why all the racket that awoke him from his breezy afternoon nap.
Then there was fishing and of course your apt to find multiple people throwing a line into the water to see what today’s catch will be. Our very good friend Mike Malone –
Also our friend Mark and his iddy bitty catch that Scottie just had to get a lick of. He’s so gross but crazy mad for fishing!
And look who paid us a visit, Crystal (my sister-in-law) who does not visit often, decided to pop in along with her boyfriend (Mike) for first time introductions.
And of course myself and Mike were amongst the crowd of activities. I had to hand the camera over to my other sister-in-law (Carla) for this pic . . . thank you Carla!
Then Jeff Fox’s weather report held true. Look what started rolling in on us. I didn’t get a pic of what transpired but let me just say we got a mad amount of hard poring rain and hail. YIKES!
Now we turn to Scottie sniffing his way
over to this . . . steamed clams. He LOVES clams and not only does he eat the clam itself, he will lick the juice from the shell and chews off the leg that’s commonly left on the shell. He’s a true boating dog! By the way the collar Scottie has on is a new collar made by me entitled “The Picnic Series”. It’s blue, yellow and white plaid. Perfect for this weekend and dang cute I might add!
All in all it was a fabulous day relaxing with friends and family. Memorial Day itself we are having Bridget, Jeremy and Isabella down on the boat for the day. So I’ll have pics from this also, stay tuned.
March is in like a lion!
Seriously guys there wasn’t a lick of snow to be found on the ground yesterday and mother nature wasn’t happy about that so she plastered the Northeast with 14 inches of snow. The winds have been whipping and the temps are plunging to single digits tonight. Ahh yeah I did just use a lot of adjectives . . . must sound like the weather man. All I have to say is that the saying better hold true which means March will go out like a lamb. We’ve certainly had our fair share of snow, cold temps and bitter wind chills this winter. Brrrrr
I enjoyed a cup of black tea and a snack this afternoon. The cookie is a maple cream cookie direct from Vermont. So bad but so good!
What the??? You with the blond fur . . . get the . . . move your slimy nose away from . . . Hey you furry thing get away from my maple cookie boy! A bit of subject blur there as I didn’t expect to be taking a picture of a “moving” subject. I swear this little devil can smell food from anywhere in this house.
Well I’m off to prepare our dinner for this evening . . . the weather has called for something warm and yummy so it’s wine braised chicken with wild rice and green beans. Oh can’t wait to eat! Good night
6 to 9 Footers on the Sound Today
This is a screen capture from the website (iPhone) that has live wave heights on Long Island Sound.
Not a good boating day.
Click the imagine for the link to see what the wave action is now.
Grouchy, Working Out, Organization & Well Just Bitchy!
The title is the multiple personalities I’ve had going on for a week or so now . . . muahaha! I do think the warmer temps we had this past weekend lifted a couple of those personalities from my repertoire . . . Thank God for that! I couldn’t stand being around myself much less how poor Mike must’ve been feeling. I’m reminded that it’s that time of year when all these personalities surface AKA “The Winter Blues”. I don no if that’s really the case but there seems to be validity to the time line. Annyy Way . . . it was a nice feeling to experience 50 degree weather again . . . we’ve been stuck in arctic temps for what seems like months now.
For us it was like spring, we did several hours of work in the garage with the door WIDE open taking in the fresh air, we rinsed off the vehicles (oh God looked like we’d been driving through gigantic mud puddles), we were going to take Scottie for a walk but decided against it as he would’ve been a wet muddy mess. I really wish someone would open an indoor pet park so us snow ridden people could walk our pets in comfort and little mess. Here’s a pic of Mike & Scottie from last weekend when we took Scottie for a walk and YEP he was a mess by the end ugghh!
We’ve been on a steady progression of re-organization around here and it feels good. It’s invigerating to throw away things that have no life left in them, donate the other junk and find things you’ve been missing and couldn’t find. Spring cleaning has started early for the Talmadge House as we know that once Spring does FINALLY arrive our boat will be monopolizing all of our time. Two margarita’s Up to sunnier warmer days ahead!
New Year’s Day Activities
HAPPY NEW YEAR! In case you were wondering what we did on New Year’s Day . . . here’s a run down accompanied by some pictures too. Y’all know I LOVE pictures right????? (insert big smile)
1. Mike cooked breakfast . . . bacon and egg on english muffin with green tomato relish and cholula hot sauce (both of these toppings rock!).
2. Stayed in jammies until 1PM. Yup those are my slippered feet hehehe.
3. Had lunch at Panera Bread.
4. To Starbuck’s for our favorite latte’s. Mike hearts the Cafe Latte. Brandi hearts the Peppermint Mocha Latte.
5. To the marina to check in on our summer home location and to see how frozen the Housatonic River was.
Still @ Marina: Ned in the “Grumpy Old Man Boat” breaking up the ice so it doesn’t destroy the docks. Look, I caught the train going by in the background (wonder if the riders are on their way to NY City? We need to take a day trip soon, LOVE it there!)
Still @ Marina: Mike and Leon talking “man stuff” . . . probably fishing or boats.
Still @ Marina: Me taking pictures of interesting things around the marina while waiting for “man talk” to cease. I really like this pic!
6. Back @ home fending off our overly excited dog. He is far to cute!
7. Photo session to obtain a nice new profile shot of maw and my favorite technological toy. Not too bad especially considering I was holding the good camera in my hands. Thanks Mike! We had A LOT of bad shots to obtain a few good ones.
8. A bit of crafty time for me and techy time for Mike.
9. Thinking of my girlfriend, Latonya who flew to Georgia yesterday afternoon to spend a few days with her sister. Hoping she made it in time (considering our winter storm) to have rung in the new year last night.
10. We are now deciding what we should do for dinner. I’ve had little interest in cooking this week. Better get myself back in gear for next week when life returns to normal. UGGHHH! update to dinner: mike had beans and dogs, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and we both had a little bowl of Kraft Spiral Mac & Cheese. Not a dinner to write home about nor should I have written it here but wanted to remind myself that I can’t always be Martha Stewart but a girl sure can try . . . right? Can you believe something like this came out of MY kitchen!?!
Hope you had a nice relaxing day!
New Year’s Eve Snow Fall
It couldn’t get much better than this (for me anyways) . . . a snowie New Year’s Eve Day! Thought I’d take a picture of where Mike and I spent quite a bit of time this fall and planned on doing the same this winter. HEHEHE . . . Well we haven’t been out there yet this winter and can you blame us? Lets see . . . a nice warm wood stove inside or the wood chimenea outside on the cold snow covered earth. Emmm . . . yeah, well we’ve been content by the inside fire thank you very much.
I sure did go to work today but left at 1:30 not so much cuz of the road conditions but more so cuz the entire office left at 1PM and well it is New Year’s Eve so out the door I ran! I’ve got the chicken wings getting ready to be baked and a bunch of other finger foods lined up. And of course we’ll have champagne but before midnight. We like to eat and be merry all night long which starts right about hmmm . . . now.
2008 was a prosperous and healthy year and am praying 2009 promises the same. Hope your New Year’s promises much prosperity, love and health. Happy New Year’s Eve!
Talmadge House 