Lunch Date, New Palms, Cooking and Crafts

It's been busy these past couple of weeks, what with catching up my dazzler's inventory after a record number of sales (35 items!) at my favorite craft fair, the Mandarin Garden Club. The ladies that organize the fair, and really everyone that participates, makes this a fantastic & friendly show. I have several more fall shows coming up so I have to stay on top of things.

Another beautiful day in a lovely setting. My set-up has changed
a bit as I've added my free-standing grid hanger, (on the far right
with blue coverings on the frame).

My sweetie took me out to lunch one day to a great local waterfront restaurant called Whitey's Fish Camp, on Black Creek. A beautiful setting, great fish & chips and, I'm sure a great vibe in the evenings with music on tap on the weekends. They're proud of Southern Rock, and that Lynyrd Skynyrd was a hometown band. Here's a link to check them out - some nice shots of the area - whiteysfishcamp.com

Deck seating and plenty of dockage for people coming via the water.
It was a king tide and right after a hurricane scooted by so the water was high!

On to the front yard makeover story. For years our elderly camellia bush and azalea were struggling and getting sickly looking. We did keep our crepe myrtle tree as it has a nice shape and is healthy. 

I wanted a fresh start out there so after we had the various "locate" crews come out, we had both bushes taken out and prepared for our new addition, a 3-trunk cluster of pygmy date palms. It will look so pretty, so tropical and provide a pocket of shade for plantings underneath it. They are slow growers, and bonus, not terribly messy. We had experience with them from the atrium at our old house.

All ready for the planting, but boy,
the rocks got a lot of dirt on them.
I smell another yard project coming up.

We have to keep the moat for 8 weeks and water everyday 
to get them established, but it sure is a big uptick in
our curb appeal, lol. Those foundational plants were outdated.

As far as cooking goes, I made a yummy chicken pot pie the other day - thank goodness for rotisserie chickens at BJ's! We split 1/4 of it, so 3 more dinners, yay.

Another project this past week was to tidy-up our driveway and road "meet-up". Our upper road, which is private, was repaved this summer while we were out west. The crew left a gap at the joining between the 2 which was less than ideal. When the crew came back to spray a topcoat on a section of road near us, the Boss got a small bucket of tar from the crew and we got busy making it a seamless join between the 2.

The gap between the 2 surfaces, not good if you're OCD,
plus the asphalt was crumbly at the edge.

I "blue taped" while he came behind and applied the tar. There were
several coats of tar needed, thanks for your efforts Boss!
Looks so much tidier now and the edges of the asphalt are sealed
so it should hold up much better now.

 

Aaahh, much better now.

Well, I think I have lulled you to sleep by now so I'll quit and leave the rest until another time. Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it! 😊

Trip home, kitchen catch-up and 1st Craft show

(excuse the blurry header shot - taken while underway). 

We left Rustic the last Friday of September after a fairly leisurely and routine week of packing, cleaning, organizing & storing the lawn furniture & winterizing Rocky. Our usual strategy is to finish up mid afternoon and head for an overnight in Cheyenne, about 85 miles away. We get points at the Choice chain, so the Comfort Inn & Suites was the place for us. We do love their 24hr coffee station and other niceties. The staff was particularly helpful.  I had to include a shot of one of the 'Cheyenne Big Boots' by the front entrance. It's something like 8 ft tall and I guess there are a few in downtown Cheyenne.

After a good night's rest and hot breakfast we got on the road. Luckily we ran into zero problems, no big hold-ups, and no issues all day and made it into Chillicothe, MO late afternoon. Not a bad day at all. The Chillicothe Comfort Inn & Suites was a recipient of a big renovation the prior year and was really tricked-out. Very clean and beautiful. Again, the staff went above and beyond with their helpful and welcoming demeaner after a long day on the road.

Fancy Lodge-like entranceway.

Atrium affect from the 2nd floor

The view from our room - can you say quiet?

So onward the days went. From Chillicothe we took some state highways and avoided chaos that way. You can't beat the better views and lighter traffic although it might be a tad slower than the interstate.

Linda's obsession with hay and winter preps.

Once you've been riding through the heartland 
for a while, you definitely pick up bugs!

 Across the Mississippi and down through the land of the Smokies and other assorted hills & valleys to an overnight in Dickson, TN followed the next day by an overnight in Valdosta, GA, just a hop, skip and jump from home.

Excuse the blurry-factor.

Finally home late morning and super glad we didn't have any trouble. Everything looks great at home and I'm always so glad I took the time to get things clean and tidy before we left. The Boss gets the cars ready, they both get oil changes and one gets prepped for the road while the other gets tanked-up with non-ethanol gas & garaged with a trickle-charger left on it. So-o, now it's time to catch-up the laundry and go for a grocery shop.

Next up, cook some favorites to restock the fridge and freezer. I like to do a bunch of "lazyman" tasks to make scratch cooking easy and fun. That means doing a bunch of chopping and freezing; onions, both sweet and red, bell peppers of all colors. I also clean/cook mushrooms, cook-up sausage crumbles to have handy for scrambled eggs or breakfast burritos. Making grits and bagging them up in 2-person portions as well as cooking and freezing rice to have super quick/handy. A portioned rotisserie chicken is a great start since I can take the carcass and make stock, a staple in our kitchen. Also, a huge batch of spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage crumbles & meatballs plus my add-in veggies - mushrooms, onions, peppers, cubed, sauteed eggplant, and black and green olives.

I also like to cook & mash potatoes and freeze
for use in potato soup or to doll-up with sour cream and
cheese, etc. to make twice baked potatoes

I made it to my 1st craft show of the fall, a small affair with probably around 25+/- vendors. I like the smaller shows as they are much less stressful and chaotic. Sure the sales aren't as good but I'll take a pleasant day outside and middling sales any day. Beautiful weather!

We've got a front yard make-over project in the offing. It'll be work but worth it for sure. We haven't done anything much with our foundational plantings since we moved here in '12. More on that project next time.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you feel like it. See you next time. 😊

A busy summer, and I jumped the track.

 Here we go finally, a post to catch everyone up on the summer activities. Only fitting, as fall has almost fallen around here, with a morning temp of 34° Saturday morning. Brrr, a bit beyond crisp, lol. Soon we'll be packing up our belongings and squaring away the RV for the winter months. It's been a fun summer!

I have steadily acquired more wire, beads & supplies and made many more items for this fall's craft show activities back home in FL. I will say I've had some very good luck around here with the seasonal folks and the transients as well. Occasionally, when the park is busy, I would set up my display stand and make some sales. Father's day weekend was a busy one, plus a few more. Also, we've had a couple of yard sales, sponsored by the Resort to help them get rid of various furniture and decorations plus kitchenware that the previous owners had in storage onsite. I participated in both and sold probably around 35+ items, yay! No wonder I haven't had time to blog, I'm trying to catch-up my inventory.

Check out these surroundings, not a bad spot to spend the day!

A nice lady and her daughter set up 2 tables full of her late husband's tools.

Lots of chairs and other minutia

Here's the Boss checking out the tools. He found a great dremel
like tool that included an assortment of glass and stone etching bits as well
as drill bits/sanders. Of course we snapped it up.

One of my seasonal neighbors used to bake breakfast pastries for a restaurant. She had a very popular stand. I asked her how her day went, after seeing ppl at her table all day, and after realizing I had just spent $20 there myself, lol! She did well! She had parfaits, and small breakfast breads, cinnamon rolls, and regular bread as well.

A few of the larger pieces on display.

I've branched out to larger, more elaborate pieces, some incorporating large glass prisms and longer dangles, as well as natural components like polished gemstone chip beads such as pink or cherry quartz, amethyst, tiger's eye, and blue apatite. I've also been collecting and preparing small pieces of tree bark which I use in certain pieces for a more rustic look and feel. I'd like to have a wide range of items both in style & size and also in price range.

 Also, I was reminded by a friend out here that some small Christmas-oriented dazzlers would surely be welcome this fall. They can be used as stocking stuffers, ornaments on the tree, hanging from the rearview mirror of the car or even used to decorate a hostess gift to kick it up a notch.

A few be-ribboned ornament-sized dazzlers.

Just some normal small to mid-sized stuff.

Some larger more elaborate pieces.

The Resort manager asked me to make 6 each of the aluminum "fun" bracelets to add to her store offerings. I use silver, copper and gold-colored aluminum wire with various colored beads. The store carries a lot of souvenirs and jewelry as well as fishing/camping tools and gear. All this in addition to the normal food items you might expect.

I try for some neutrals like clear & black, plus red, green,
blue, purple and pink for variety.

To close, 2 lovely photos. The first, a gorgeous morning shot at the river taken by one of our managers. The second, a wonderful wildflower bouquet from my honey. Enjoy and we'll see you the next time. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment. 😊

The Cache la Poudre River, taken by Bruce Davis

Wonderful wildflowers

Trip to town and side jaunt to the Gardens on Spring Creek

On a recent trip to town 10 days or so ago, we came early to beat the heat and make a wonderful stop at the Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins. It's a 12-acre botanical garden with marvelous flowering trees and shrubs, plus all the flowers you could want. Rose beds, peony's galore, it all smelled so-o-o fresh and lovely! A multitude of paths, both paved and stone, entwine the grounds making it perfect for a walk (the Boss) or stroll (me). Also, plenty of benches and other places to perch in the shade along the pathways.

The park is managed by the City, and there were plenty of volunteers
with both gloves and clipboards working to keep it all beautiful.

Such gorgeous Dahlia's - the colors!

Every path lined with free-form flower beds.

The Peonies! So many, so beautiful.

The complex also has a stage area and holds concerts and events there. Of course, it's "trimmed-out" with beds upon beds of flowers as well.

The Boss grabbed my phone and took some ground-level closer-up shots for me, it was a ways away, (I was already strolled out), plus I had already been over there and seen it from the stage level.

The terraced flower beds surrounding the stage area.

They also have a butterfly atrium full of orchids, a fern and moss wall, shrimp plants, and a large Angel's trumpet tree among others. Also, all the humidity you could hope to enjoy, lol. They trickle people through a few at a time which keeps the chaos level down low, lol, (kids). The park is a great place for a field trip, the kids get to burn off some energy and get "edumacated" at the same time!

It wasn't Butchart Gardens (which is stunning BTW) by any means, but much more approachable and far less exhausting. After we wrapped up our visit it was back to the car and onward for the chores at hand. It's always such a treat when you can break up the chores with some fun.

Getting situated and shopped-up

 It's been a wet spring here and accordingly the canyon looks green and wonderful. It makes the trip into Fort Collins very pleasant. The river is still in spate and races down past our park. The freezing cold waters make a nice foot refresher on the hot days - of which we've had a few.

It flows that fast by us at our park, but we have a few spots with tiny beaches where we have water access. This is on Hwy 14 taken on a trip to town.

We also pass by some agricultural land, sweet corn mostly, on the way and it's sure pretty as well.

We generally have a pickup order from Walmart (dry goods/household), a stop at our mailbox svc., and finally a fruit & veg stop at King Soopers (Kroger). Afterwards, we pick-up a sub from Firehouse Subs to share and stop on the way back up the canyon for a picnic. Here's our spot from the other day, very pretty, and peaceful.

So nice to stop along the way. There are quite a few picnic areas and campgrounds in the canyon. Speaking of campgrounds, Glen Echo has a new owner who has been making some changes and additions. Several dead trees were felled during the off season, a cool-looking, covered wagon w/bath was added and a glamping yurt was added as well. These are in addition to some needed renovations on some of the cabins.

 

We've had a chance to get our yard in order, and get all the flowers we need in pots or in the ground. This year we added a second sun shade sail to help with afternoon sun on the rear of the RV. we'll see how it does, but already there are more shady spots in which to park a chair.

I wanted to show some gorgeous poppies and iris's we saw while taking a side jaunt on the way home.

Well, that's it for now. I'll have another post soon, I've got photos burning a hole in my pocket. 😄

From Rustic with Love

Well, it's coming up on a week of our being out here at "Rocky" and here's how it went. After the hubbub of Memorial Day weekend was finished we did our last minute packing, staging and cleaning in preparation for our departure to our 5th wheel out in Rustic, Colorado. Those who have followed for a while know we have to escape the hot summers at home, thus we head out to the mountains. 7200' helps a whole lot, although the sun's rays are quite intense at this elevation, (we come home tan, lol). Most mornings after a chilly start, a little sunshine gets things warmed-up in short order.

So we got started last Friday, with our first stop being a return to Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Alabama. What a beautiful place, with nice rooms overlooking the lake and a restaurant on site. First however, let's talk about the gorgeous scenery heading up through the deep south in Georgia and Alabama, with it's picturesque little towns and long stretches of pecan trees.

Several towns had a nice showing of thanks and support to those who served and lost their lives. This picture isn't the best but it was quite moving to see each cross, with a name, and a flag lining the main street.

Something the Boss could tell you about, is the rubber-necking I was doing trying like the dickens to get a good shot of all the mimosa trees, which were in full bloom along the sides of the roadway. I just couldn't do it - I must have deleted 25 pics that missed the mark, but here's one that at least tries to show how pretty they were. Various shades of pink from light to dark! Excuse the reflection.

Pretty soon we start to see the hills of north GA/AL and the views make the miles tick away pleasantly. Not much traffic either, thank goodness.

We passed by the turnoff to Cheaha State Park, another lovely park which we visited 3 years ago, and which you can read about here. With the time zone changes in our favor while heading west, a longer haul isn't so bothersome. We prefer to arrive and get squared away before dark. Soon enough we made it into the park and checked in to the lodge.

Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge

The Lobby, lots of rustic charm and gorgeous
wood and stone touches.

Impressive front I know, but the back is where the money shots are.

The view of Lake Guntersville from our room

Observing with a smile on his face...
if only the winters weren't so cold, (*heavy sigh*)

The pool complex. Down by the lake is a small beach and marina.

After dinner we took in the air with a small stroll and the view of the lake with the moonrise was stunning. We're off to a great start.

From there we headed off across the Mississippi at Dyersburg and into Jackson, MO to spend the night. We had a gift card for the Outback Steakhouse, so we found one 3 miles away and had a nice bite. We were worried it would be busy/noisy on a Sat night but it wasn't bad at all.

Lots of farms, silo's and hay fields, lots of flat while we headed to Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE. Another favorite stop for us, a gorgeous lodge and great restaurant. I never take selfie's, but thought I looked rather nice after getting ready to go to dinner.

Here's a shot of the hazelnut orchard outside our room. The property is expansive and offers lots of planned activities throughout the summer.

Now it's a single shot straight into Rustic with one more time zone change to help us out.  Lots of farmland and then we spy a view of the mountains.

I'm sure there are many among you who have seen large
and more complex silo set-ups but they are cool & dotted all along.

Well, here we are on the last little stretch, "our" dirt road, the one that leads up from Hwy 14, (right at Glen Echo), to the Redfeather Lakes area. All's well at Rocky, everything is functioning which is a big relief! Now, to get this yard raked, mowed, weeded and flowered-up. We'll be looking pretty soon enough.

Thanks for taking time to read the blog, I hope you enjoyed it. 😊