A few pics from our Florida vacation

This is the first vacation that Kenny and I have gone on together in several years…..

(it’s a dog thing)

I think we spent more time enjoying ourselves and not so much time taking pictures!

Our first night in Florida, we stayed with our friend, Patti, who used to live near us

here in Missouri.  We still miss her, but it’s fun to have friends to be able to visit in other

places…..especially near the ocean in Florida!

Our first day in Florida, we went kayaking through the mangroves near Boca Grande.

Kenny loved the stop, because they had giant staghorn ferns hanging in the trees….

they were pretty impressive, I must say….

I had been kayaking with Patti a few years ago and I was so excited that Kenny

was able to come along this time!

We had our rental Jeep packed down with

beach chairs for a beach excursion, post kayaking.

We stopped for lunch at South Beach Bar and Grille

Have you ever noticed how much better your food tastes when

you are eating outside?!

After our beach excursion, we went back to Patti’s and hung out for a while.

Later that evening we met up with more folks at Zeke’s for more

alfresco eating! Yes, lots of eating on this trip!

While we were eating….storm clouds started rolling in…..watching rain develop

here is really quite incredible to watch!

I’ll try and post more tomorrow…..warning….heavy on garden pictures!

There’s no place like home

On first glance, this just looks like a tree in our back yard.

However, as you get a little closer and if you really peek, you

can see that it’s a home.

A home to a family of robins…..

Brothers and sisters….all cozied into that tiny little nest.

They should be leaving home soon…..or so it appears.

Most likely, this will be their landing pad….

Then, under the watchful eye of their parents….

They will get to explore their new surroundings outside the nest.

I’ve just returned home from a trip to Florida…..I’ll share pictures of that

soon….some pics are on my phone and some are on Kenny’s….just need

to download them and sort them out.

Hope you are having a beautiful day! I’ve been blessed to be on vacation,

and then due to low census with patients at work, I’ve had a little extra

time off as well…..trying to spend it wisely.

A face only a mother could love!

This weekend, I was sitting out back, reading…..

(I’m hooked on her books at the moment! This is the 2nd one I’ve read.

The two I’ve read have been about women in the early 1900’s who decide to have a career,

in addition to their family, come hell or high water)

The first one I read was

about a woman who had given up her medical training to become a wife

and mother, and then inherits a “windfall”.

While reading I was also watching our cardinal family visit the feeder.

If you look carefully at the picture above, you can see father, sitting on

the feeder and mother flying in to join him.

The cardinals have built a nest in a vine that grows against the back of our house,

next to the patio table and chairs…..it’s great, because you can sit there

and watch them coming in and out of their nest and they will often

land very close to you.

Above are the vines where their nest is located.

I was lucky enough to be outside when their chicks were leaving the nest and

learning how to fly.  They would hop out of the nest and then hop underneath the chair

where I was sitting, while mother and father kept a close eye on them.

One of the chicks flew directly into the swimming pool and I was

able to scoop it out of the pool with the pool net and deposit into the garden.

Like I said in the title…..a face only a mother could love!

Furever Home

Good news! This little guy has a furever home!

I featured him a while back….he was the basset hound who was

emaciated and his foster home nursed him back to health.

Good luck to you Chip!

Gif of the day

Love it!

Garden

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…..

Inspirational Home

Just a few shots from the “garden party” at “Inspirational Home”

a few weekends ago…..beautiful!

Madison graduates from junior high

 

 

I’ve had so many pictures to share, so I’ve

tried to split them up.

These are pictures of my niece’s junior high

graduation from St. Agnes on Tuesday night.

Here she is opening a gift from

my mom (her grandma)

The lovely lady in pink is MY grandma

So proud of her!

As she walked up on stage they read nice things her classmates

had written about her…..

“Madison Schulze…..

Loves black, red and purple…

Very fashionable..

Has a million pairs of shoes…

Loves to shop…

and she loves her cousins!”

Fences and Friends

Kenny put a garden bench in our front yard, close

to our neighbor, Ruby’s house.  That way, when they are outside

gardening, they have a place to sit and catch up if they like.

(I’m thinking I’ll whip up some sort of cushion to make it a bit more

comfy for them)

Kenny insisted that I go through Ruby’s gate and get pictures of all

the poppies that had escaped from our yard and populated Ruby’s yard!

There are a lot! She loves them!

They say that fences make good neighbors, but I think escaped

poppies make even better friends!