Showing posts with label fellow bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fellow bloggers. Show all posts

Friday, February 05, 2010

A Shy Wolf Moon

The moon a week ago tonight was simply perfection and beauty for those of us who were fortunate to live where cloud cover happened to be nonexistent.
While I was able to take a photo or two that were...uh...kinda good...there were others who got simply magnificent shots. Much to my chagrin...

Three of my very favorites:

Hilary - incredible photos one and all

&

Ms. Hannibal - the only way this photo could possibly be better would be if those geese were replaced by a witch or two.
It's just a magical wonderful photograph!

&

My Ms. Daryl - whose commentary is just the best read around...only to be outdone by that last of her Wolf Moon photos

~~~

xoabb
expect a loverly Wolf Moon once a year!

~

Friday, August 14, 2009

SWF: Sky & Beach w/a Side of Veggies

Mathews County VA
With all my new and old Blisters*
(*Short for Blog-Fest Sisters)


My CG* Kate Bag harvest 8/14/9
Haven't a clue what kind of peppers those are.
Some hot, some sweet...
But which is which??
Ahh...the tastebuds will tell me!
(Pepper & bean seeds from my dad.)
(Oh! Maybe he'll know - wait, he gets his peps mixed up too!)


And...
My first endeavor "putting up" any kind of food.
Can you imagine how fresh and wonderful
it's going to taste during the cold cold winter?

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!


Saturday, August 01, 2009

My CG Kate Bag Weekly Harvest


While my friend {Ellen} has thus far only harvested 20 lbs. of beans from her garden, I have already harvested my second 20! Well...beans. Oh awright, I've just harvested my second 20 beans. Not 20 pounds...20 beans. This day week I will not be feeding my family on the CG bean (or any other veggie) harvest. However, above, please behold my miniscule glorious CG bean glory! I know, I know...CG harvest wonders never cease! (By the way? The answer is yes! Yes, I am very very jealous of Ellen's 20 lb. thus far harvest. Very! I think she should share. With me.)

Oh, and for those who don't know, in this instance, CG Kate bag doesn't refer to my {Country Girl Kate} bag, (though she is the one who gave me my loverly Kate Bag), it refers to my Community Garden Kate bag. I've been use my CG Kate bag for harvesting and let's just say there's lots and lots of room in there. Lots of room. Unfortunately. However, hope springs eternal! I'll fill that bag yet! Yup, just wait till tomorrow - I'm showing you my ripe tomatoes-to-be...that will go in my CG Kate bag if they ever, and I have little hope they ever will when they ripen. O the anticipation!

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!

P. S. A shout-out to Chesapeake Bay Woman, she who taught me the beauty of the strike-through thingamagiggy. It is ever so loverly!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

NYC! To a T!


Toppled
West Side of 80th Street, 5/23/09

Tribute
Riverside Park, 5/23/09

Trail
Riverside Park, 5/23/09

Tell...
...me! What is this flower?
I've never seen it before...
Riverside Park, 5/23/09

Twisted & True
Twisted rail & a True friend
Riverside Park, 5/23/09

Squirrel
Ok, so that doesn't begin with a T, but it is just one letter off,
(plus I wanted to see if anyone was paying attention)!
NYC Boat Basin, 5/23/09

Touching
Apparently this is how one parks in NYC...
Makes leaving just a bit of a trial.
80th St. on the West Side, 5/23/09

Toes, such purty toes...
Anyone know who they belong to??
(Not giving it away by linking - ya gotta guess! You'll get it! Or not!)
Somewhere in NYC, 5/23/09

~~~
xoabb

expect anything!

ABC Wednesday - It's T!
Do join us!


6/3/9 NIGHTIME UPDATE - YUP, DARYL'S FANCY-SCHMANCY TOES ALL-THE-WAY! ;-)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Stairs (& my P.I.F. - at last!)

N'awlins...
Nahhhh!
NYC!
5/23/9

Yes, I know any native New Orleans person would be appalled
at the above N'awlins spelling and pronunciation!

~

An embarrassing amount of months ago, I was chosen as one of AsthmaGirl's (aka the lovely Diane) recipients of her pay-it-forward post. She sent me a lovely sour-dough starter, the beginnings of which is many years old. More recently I got (by subterfuge, I must admit, but how that subterfuge was done, I'll never tell) a wonderful pay-it-forward from Ms. Daryl! She sent me a lovely and much loved vintage Vera Bradley bag she had received from a very dear friend who has since passed on, and a totum key chain, which, if I understand this correctly, any time I have it on me and eat, no calories actually are consumed by me - and that I like a LOT, (if I'm wrong about this explanation, please do not tell me!).

And now it is my turn to Pay-It-Forward.

Anyone who'd like to participate, just leave a comment here. Eventually I'll throw the few or many names into a hat and let MPM choose 2 or 3 to Pay-it-Forward to! I have in mind what I'm sending the winners (appropriate even if you're a guy), and all you have to do is promise to, well, Pay-it-Forward! If you want to take part in this, but have already participated in P-I-F or don't have a blog, just make a donation to your local food kitchen instead if you win. That'll make nice. Hmmmm....matter of fact, in honor of this, I think I'll make a donation to our food kitchen! Any excuse to do that is lovely, and P-I-F seems a better excuse than most. (And if you want to play along but don't want a physical present, I'll make a donation to our food kitchen in your name.)

So, my friends, there you have it!

~~~

xoabb
a lovely evening to all!!

The Secret Pathway of the Steps...

(Sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery!)


Miss Lauren and I went on a field trip to the Big Apple to meet two other blogger-met friends, Miss Kate (for the first time), and our hostess Miss Daryl (we've met twice before - lovely!). Daryl wanted to show us the Boat Basin and Riverside Park before we had lunch, and we all gladly agreed (visit their blogs here and here for more pics of our adventures - you won't be sorry!). As we were walking out of the park, we came across this charming Secret Pathway of the Steps. Of course, we had to follow it. 


Surprise! At the top of The Secret Pathway of the Steps...two seats! Imagine that! In the middle of this most lovely park were two seats, that obviously didn't belong there, but still, were just waiting to be filled...

 
And so, Kate and Daryl sat, and enjoyed a laugh at the 
randomness of the many different and sometime silly 
Seats of NYC.
(Ok, I'm conjuring up what they were thinking.)

~~~

xoabb
expect NYC salutations!


P. S.  Tomorrow I'm payin' it forward from Daryl (and Asthmagirl (Diane), too, from a time I forgot about, sorry Diane, feeling small now). Also have a little continuation of the ABC ~S~ theme - just one photo, I promise, but it's good! So do join me for a little PIF giveaway fun!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Good to Go! So Where Are You,

My little hummer friends?

No, I didn't add food coloring to the nectar. Just got lazy and bought ready-made nectar for now. The feeder's been hung for three hours now. And no hummers have come to sip yet. Don't those naughty hummers know I thrive on instant gratification??

That niger seed feeder on the left is from my bird-blogging friend Helen's on-line store, Backyard Boutique. It is the only feeder that has proven to be really and truly squirrel-proof. Every other feeder I've had this past season, even the one advertised as squirrel proof (read about it here) has been a food paradise for them. And those scallywag squirrels not only ate the suet out of two suet feeders, they actually stole them! Can't find them anywhere! I replaced the first one. After the second disappeared I officially declared the squirrels the victors of the season long War Over the Feeders and gave up. Sorry birds. I tried my best!

Please click on Helen's name to visit to her blog. 
Click on Backyard Boutique to visit to her wonderful store.

~~~
xoabb
expecting hummingbirds any minute now!

P. S. Had three hugely successful cooking flings yesterday...recipes to come!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

A Wet World & Other Treats

If I were a duck
This is the pond I'd call home,
Rain showers and all.

~Perfect Pond Circles~
Photo taken yesterday afternoon from our back deck.

~

Back from NYC.
We had a blast! The bloggers
Meet-up was a hit!

Miss La-La (Mental Pause Mama) and I, along with her kids Augie and the Bird, drove in to meet up with our Daryl and meet (for the very first time) Miss Angie, of Big Hair Envy. Along for the ride was Angie's hubby and beautiful daughter. We all met for dinner at The Red Cat Restaurant and proceeded to spend the next two and a half hours getting to know each other, oh alright we really spent the majority of our time together just laughing ourselves silly! The company, the laughs, the place, the food were all simply wonderful! Thank you, my friends, my time was very well spent!
The above photo courtesy of Daryl. Thanks, my friend!

~~~

xoabb
expect unexpected friendships!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

A Pretty, A Meme, A Birthday


Peek-A-Boo

~~~
Meme #1: I'm supposed to list those blogs that "had me at hello"...well, there are quite a few I follow regularly and at one point or another they all "got" me. Below is a short list of some (some is the key word here) of the blog posts that have me coming back for more and more. (I'm not even going to include my dear friends, (among them, mental, my bro bbum, and jules come to mind), as that would just be cheating!)

In no particular order:

1. Noble Pig: She had me forever and always at "It's Hard to Watch". The memories it brought back made me tear up - especially today as it's my baseball-playing son's birthday. And the rest of her posts have continued to be superb. You'll LOVE her.

2. Daryl: She had me forever and always at "how i met my man". This struck a chord because, well, simply because this is both hers and my 30th anniversary. Quite a feat, at least for me! Love her NYC angle on things.

3. Kacey: She had me forever and always at "Deja Vu". I am a Columbia, MO girl and all of her boys have gone/are going to school there - so, nuff said! That's not the only thing she blogs about - all her other posts are just a cut above the rest!

4. The Fishing Guy: He had me forever and always at "Weekend of Fishing". When I saw that mess of fresh water fish....I just melted back to my growing-up years and all the fish that was on our dinner table many many evenings - so very delicious!

5. Chronicles of a Country Girl: She had me forever and always at "My First Attempt. Ever". Kate has one of the few blogs I've been able to read from first inception to present. Well worth the read in my humble opinion.

There are so many other blogs out there that I so enjoy - some I've only begun to follow, others I've been following for some months now - and I don't want to slight ANY of you! And do know that even if I don't comment every day, I'm still reading!!!

To those I've mentioned (and anyone else), if you want to continue this meme, please do! It's good to acknowledge those who give us pleasure. If you're not so inclined, that's ok too, don't cha think??

I've only been doing this whole blog thing since January. Don't know what is in it's future, but do hope it's something that's worth sustaining and just a bit wonderful....

~~~

Happy happy birthday to my one and only *Bly-Guy*!
You're the very best son a mommy could ever have!
24?? Bly - you are so old!
How come I'm not????
Love, love LOVE you! xoxoxoxoxmomxoxoxoox

~~~

xoabb

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Thursday's TRUCE!!!

Against my better judgment, and because I know the ultimate victory is, well, MINE, I've decided to be a big girl and call a truce to the FWW of yesterday....however misplaced that judgment may be......

As you can see, it was jules, (pictured above) who brokered this truce between we warring Cocktail Corner gold finch devotees. Don't be fooled by jules' sneaky eyes-behind-the-dark-glasses-look, she's honest and will be fair in her judgement of this FWW. (Of course, this could be because she had no goldfinches at her feeder, and then I paid her off with copious bottles of Chardonnay at the ready.) I'm just sayin' (ummm....who said that first???).


Here we are....
The Cocktail Corner Girls...
At peace once again among ourselves....

And doesn't this just say it all about our friendship??
Thank you, thank you, jules!
~~~

Well would ya lookie here....I've still got the goods!
(Shhhh.....don't tell!!!!)
~~~~


In other neighborhood news.....
There seems to be fluffing and puffing in the pillaged robin's nest!
I do hope that means that mama & papa robin are going to try again.
I've taken two then and now pictures of the sky above the nest.
They now have a much better chance of protecting their eggs from
those maurading birds,
(who will remain nameless...damn crows)!
(I'll share those pics tomorrow.)
~~
Here's hoping for robins-egg blue miracles!
(and many gold finches at MY feeder - REMEMBER - don't tell Mental!)
(tee-hee!)

~~~

xoabb

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Finch War Wednesday!

MentalP has a goldfinch sock in her yard and usually at least 4 a million goldfinches on it. Though I've been feeding the birds at my little corner of cocktail corner for years I'd never had a goldfinch. I covet goldfinches. And I am not ashamed to tell you that I was jealous....seeing red jealous of her dang goldfinches! Sooooo, without telling her how I really felt about her burgeoning goldfinch population, I got her to go with me to The Wild Bird Center because I wanted to be positively certain I had all it takes to get those goldfinches to come to me!


Well....it worked........in spades. Yep, it worked better than excellently!
Got my goldfinch equipment up and running on April 16th.....


Hello April 17th! Ahh there you are my little friend! Glad you're here!
Go on, fly back to Mental's yard and tell all your friends the vittles
are much better over here in TSannie's yard. And he did just that for me!

April 20th and we're picking up steam! More and more are showing up - and they're beginning to not only eat the niger seed, but the sunflower seeds as well! Mental called me and said she'd been trying all week day to get a photo of more than one goldfinch on her sock, but she couldn't. So very sad....
April 22nd - Goldfinches - at least mine - are PIGS!
The little buggers have almost eaten a full sock of seed! In two days!
(Mental must have been starving them! Hmph!)

April 27th - My beautiful goldfinches!
There are 9, count 'em 9 on my sock! Yipee!!!
Seconds before this photo was taken, there were 68 goldfinches
on that sock, but, unfortunately, I scared all but those 9 away
as I was trying to take a photo of them.
(And don't tell anyone, but I think there might be an imposter
among those 9. Did anyone say purple finch?? SHHH!")

"Hey!! Wait a minute! There's nuthin' left for me!"
"BAH - I'm headin' over to jules' house -
heard she just got a sock and it's FULL of niger!"
~~~
Poor poor Mental!
The war has been won this week.....by me!!!

~~~

xoabb

Saturday, May 03, 2008

The Dreaded ~Wet~ Earthworm


The following conversation took place yesterday:

Me, after phoning my friend, Lauren: "Morning, Miss LaLa, I've already commented on your demented family..."

Lauren: (laughing) "Yeah, I read it and I'm getting ready to reply right back about your naughty comment!"

Next I hear a door opening and then closing. Suddenly I hear her making a LOT of dry-heave sounding noises......

Lauren: "I gotta call you back, I'm gonna to throw up NOW!"

5 minutes later, phone rings, it's Lauren.

Lauren: "I'm back."

Me: "Good. What the hell happened??"

Lauren: "Well, I picked up the newspaper and there were wet earthworms underneath it."

Me: "So???"

Lauren: "I get nauseous and then have to throw up whenever I see wet earthworms."

Me: "________________" (speechless because I'm laughing so hard)

Lauren: "That's NOT funny!"

Me: "Ummm....(still laughing)...yes it is!"

Lauren: "And I suppose you're going to tell everyone about this?!?!?"

Me: "Yep!"

Miss LaLa: "$%&#&^$^($(@$*#!!!!!!!"


You just can't make this stuff up!


~~~


xoabb

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Me Me Me Me MEEEEE!

Country Girl Kate tagged me for two meme's...
And after a little blog sleuthing, I found that the first meme
was thought up by dlyn and she wants to do it once a month
or so to see what the different seasons, and possibly neighbors bring.
Isn't that a terrific idea?

Meme 1: The Front Door, Back Door Meme
I'm to take a picture out my front door, a picture out my back door and then post them.
Out my front door

Out my back door

~~~


Meme 2: This one is about your significant other. I'm with Kate - we're getting a wee bit personal so I'll keep it brief. Plus, half the questions happened so long ago I really don't remember.

How long have you been together?
Since 1977. Spring Break in Daytona. I was in college, he was marketing (pushing) Wild Turkey Bourbon. Nuff said!
How long did you date? 1 year, 1 week and 1 day. Got married April Fool's Day 1978. He said he needed a date he couldn't forget....I think I believe him...maybe not, tho.
How old is he? He's 57. Sometimes I think he's 70. Other times, 35. It's all relative.

Who said ‘I love you’ first?
I have no idea - maybe it was a mutual blurting??
Who is taller? He is, dammit, I've always wanted to be 6', too!
Who is smarter? We sort of split it down the middle. Except when it comes to math. Then, we're both doofuses.
Who does the laundry? I do. Except when I'm out of town. Then he does. He has discovered that khaki pants become pink and yellow blotched when bleached...twice.
Who does the dishes? We both do. But he'll tell you that he does. Honestly, I did them for the past 28 years. I think he can do some now, don't you? (This could very well have been written by me, except the 28 years would be 30 years. BUT it was actually written by Country Girl Kate!)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does. I like my side. It's on the left. Always has been always will be. (CGKate and I agree again!)
Who pays the bills? We both have sets of bills that we pay. (Yep, agree again.)
Who mows the lawn? Guilty secret - neither of us. We have it done by a friend who has a lawn service.
Who cooks dinner? All grilling done excellently by him - and that's most nights. All indoor stuff is my domain.
Who is more stubborn? Definitely him.....me.....him.....me.....
Who kissed who first? The stars were shining, our hearts pounding as loudly as the ocean's waves. With one glance we knew, knew in our heart of hearts we were going to lock lips and stay that way for the foreseeable future. Since it takes two to kiss, I'd say it was a concurrent happening. And now you know why I'm not a romance writer!
Who asked who out? It was spring break. I don't think there was a lot of asking out. He did call my home 3 times before I got there to see if I'd arrived safely. (My mother upon my arrival: "Ann, just who is this George W. Turkey that keeps on calling here??)
Who proposed? He did at Thanksgiving with all my family, and his mom there. He'd frozen my ring in an ice cube in my water glass. Everyone panicked when I got up with the glass and went to the kitchen sink. The sink had a disposal and they were afraid I was throwing my ice and water down the drain. I kinda figured out something was going on about that point. And when I looked up and was 6 people standing there staring at me with horror written all over their faces, it kinda confirmed it.
Who is more sensitive? Him about reality stuff. Me about make-believe stuff.
~~~
As far as tagging - hmmm....

~~~
xoabb

Friday, February 29, 2008

Fashion! Um...Really???

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THIS DESIGNER'S INSPIRATION WAS!
(And it's not pretty!)
Good LORD! Shouldn't he have concluded from THIS
that THAT would NEVER work????

~~~
When I saw that first picture, all I could think of
was Carol Burnett's Scarlett character.
Hey - I'm ancient so I remember her show well - and loved it, too!

~~~
xoabb