Returning home...

“Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.” ~ John Updike

I think I know why we went to Florida this past week.  I have to admit that it was nice to get away.  While we were gone, we had the two plus feet of snow on our roof scraped so that when we returned, the snow around the house was twice as deep as when we left and had turned as hard as concrete and impossible to shovel or snow blow.  That would be no problem if we could get in or out of most of our doors but they are fairly inaccessible.  It is fortunate that we have a porch so we have access to our house through the garage and down the porch.  Otherwise, we would literally be out in the cold.

It seems that this week we are expecting a February thaw.  Sweet!  But all that snow making our house difficult to return to has made our trip a bit sweeter.  Here are a few photos that I’ve managed to work on from Florida:

It's just an empty building....

On the Seven Mile Bridge, Marathon, Florida

Perky Bat Tower, Sugerloaf Key, Florida

No Complaints Here!

I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood.  ~Bill Watterson

I have mentioned before that I am not really a complainer about winter, but plenty of people around here are.  I have seen a lot of bad moods and heard a lot of complaints since the snow has been falling.  In fairness, we have had one heck of a snow season here.

Because we can, Greg and I are taking a few days to go down to Key West, Florida.  See you on our return.

Here are a few shots of what we will be leaving behind:

Singing colors....

“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?  Can one really explain this?  No.”  ~Pablo Picasso

I have a hard time sitting and watching TV at night without having something to do with my hands.  In years past, I have had a quilt to work on as I watch whatever trash we decide to entertain ourselves with.  But earlier this year, I hurt one of my fingers on my cutting hand and that kind of halted my quilting activities for a while because I couldn’t use my rotary cutter or scissors.  (I’m just glad my shutter finger was spared!)  I found that while I couldn’t cut, I could crochet… something I hadn’t done in a very long time.  So for the past few months, I have been on a tear spending my TV watching time putting some crocheted afghans together. 

One of the things I like about quilting and crochet is the fun of putting two (or more) colors next to each other.  I think I can hear them singing.  Can you?

Thanks to Ed for the Stylish Blogger Award! Whew!

“Being a relative novice at blogging, I couldn't figure how to share this news other than just straight up posting it,” says Ed at Shots That Snap.

I am a novice blogger as well so I am pirating Ed’s approach to this award.

Thanks so much for this award, Ed!  It is appreciated!  And thanks to texwisgirl from The Run-a-Round Ranch for telling me how to stick the award pic into this posting. 

I will make every attempt to follow the rules that come with this honor.

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you.

Above.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

Below.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

I am so new at blogging that I am not following 15 blogs yet.  I have to get on the stick.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Will do.

Here are seven things about myself:

1. I am a baseball fan.  I love everything about it.  And I admit that it's fun being a Red Sox fan since I have lived in New England for almost 30 years now even though I grew up in Southern Ohio.  I have to say that I would be torn if the Red Sox met the Cincinnati Reds again in the World Series.  I don't know which way I would go.
2. I love to travel and love to be home...fortunately for me, I am either one way or the other 90% of the time.
3. I wish that blue jeans were the official clothing of the United States.
4. We had a wonderful opportunity to live in Santiago, Chile from July of 2000 to July of 2001.  It was interesting living in that beautiful country and more interesting trying to communicate in Spanish every day.  The appreciation I felt for the many people there that tried to understand my Spanglish was unbounded.  It gave me an appreciation for people who come to this country and learn to speak English and empathy for those who find English a difficult language to learn.
5. I have three sisters and three brothers and I am third from the top.
6. I love books and I am not a snob about what form they come in.  I read traditional paper books, listen to audio books and am the new proud owner of a NOOK that I intend to make full use of.
7. Trees are my higher power.

Here are the blogs I am currently following:

A Little Piece of Me  

A New England Life

Shots that Snap  

The Quote Garden Blog

The Run*A*Round Ranch  

through my lens  

When life gives you lemon cake…

First off, I need to apologize to Ed at the Shots That Snap blogspot for not being able to do the requirements for the Stylish Blog Award.  It’s not that I don’t want to comply; it’s that I can’t figure out quite how to do it.  When I try to post, it just goes all weird on me.  But the thing about me is that I will doggedly keep at it until I figure it out.  For instance, I just figured out how to insert a hyperlink after all these years of using a PC, I think.  Woohoo! 

My having difficulties with that task reminds me of what I did this past weekend.  We were invited to dinner with some good friends and I said that I would bring dessert.  Earlier in the week while browsing the Food Network, I had seen the Barefoot Contessa make a lemon cake that looked easy and delicious and seemed to take her all of 10 minutes to put together.  Well, around four hours after I began, my lemon cake was ready to go.  Thankfully, I decided to start on it early.  I will say that it was well worth the four hours it took out of my life.  Delicious, indeed!

This was not the first time that I have gotten in over my head in the kitchen.  When my son was still in high school, he noticed that I was watching Rachael Ray’s show one afternoon and thought that what she was cooking looked like what we should be having for dinner.  I thought, “What the heck!  The show is called 30-Minutes Meals so I should have no problem if I get to the grocery in the next few minutes.”  30-minute meal, my butt, more like three-hour meal!  We ate around 9:00 that night.  Please remind me about the magic of television before I decide to embark on another one of those projects.

All I’m really saying is that I am more like the tortoise than I am like the hare.  Eventually, though I plod along, I will get to the finish line... But now that I think about the lemon cake episode, maybe I’m really more like the hare.  The reason why it took me so long to make that cake is because I had to get my camera out every few minutes.  Lemons are sooooo photogenic, you know, and I got a bit distracted.

My Lemon Cake