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It's so hot here, give me a break! Isn't this supposed to be Autumn????

Happy Friday, everyone! I just got my first paycheck in 10 months, that felt pretty good. While I write this we are suffering an unbearably hot October day that "felt like" 102 degrees. That means our actual temperature was about 94 but with the humidity, it was 102. All this while Minnesota is a "balmy" 42 or so. Wow, hard to fathom.

We're ready for weather that's a bit cooler.

Here are a few more pictures I wanted you to see.

This first one is of myself, neice Heather and daughter Catherine at Carrabaa's Italian Grille, celebrating one last time before she left us to go back home to Minnesota.




Heather with our new dog, "Gabe" or Gabriel Bentley, his formal name. She helped us pick him out at the animal shelter and he's been proven a great dog in the short time we have had him. Thanks to Heather for picking out a real treasure. He is smart, obedient and loves us unconditionally. I can't wait for Heather and him to reunite one day soon.

This is one of Heather at the gun range where Richard and I go target practicing. I didn't think she'd enjoy it but she did. I like going out there too, but the weather has been so hot it's hard to stay out there too long. I do long for cooler weather so Richard and I can go out and practice sharp-shooting again. Watch out bad boys!

Summer's gone but I'm back!

"Driftwood Beach" as we call it; technically it's Little Talbot Island. Heather, my neice and I spend a day there and at Kingsley Plantation, nearby. Here are a few of those photos.

This next photo was taken during the beautiful, winding road to Kingsley Plantation. This is where we stopped and saw half a dozen wild peacocks.

Out on a boat ride on the Ortega River; that's Heather and Catherine--cousins but "sisters of the heart".

Some wildflowers growing in my girlfriend's sister's garden, taken while in Minnesota.

My sister and her new husband, Jeremy during their "Medival" wedding.

Another beautiful pic of fav. neice, Heather. She spent 2 weeks here in Jacksonville after Catherine and I returned from her home in Minnesota. Wish she were still here! xoxoxo

And old barn found on an old back road in Minnesota.....I loved driving and finding treasures like this....

Catherine playing peek-a-boo in a princess outfit....so much fun!

Catherine and Mya at the boat ramp; Mya holding a baby bass.

"Fields of Gold" in Minnesota.

A funny sunset!

The whole summer is gone, I've taken a reprieve from blogging. Catherine and I spent a whole month in Minnesota since I wasn't working for the first time in 25 years. I attended my 30 year high school reunion and not only attended but photographed my little sis's wedding in rural Minnesota; it was a Medieval ceremony on a beautiful day. Catherine is back in school, Girl Scouts has started back up and I started a new job Oct. 1st. All is good!

A Wonderful Day!

It has been so hot here---"humitures" at around 102 degrees every day. Friday Richard took Catherine kayaking then when they got home we took the boat out (see pictures below). We didn't catch any fish, I think crabs got all our live shrimp bait. Nevertheless, it was nice to be out on the water and refreshing while we coasted around on the St. Johns River.

The last picture depicts how we spent Richard's last commission check (NOT)!

Rain rain go away come back another day!

My best friend and I went to the beach last Friday. It was a bad day for my beach combing but turned out great for her as she found the most sea glass and some of the largest pieces I've ever seen. The light was buttery and watching the vast ocean with the gulls screeching overhead somehow quiets the noise inside my head. Oh how I love to traips around on the beach, preferably barefoot with my hair windblown and tangled, my skin drawn tight by the salty air. I watch patiently for the fin of a dolphin and follow the path of a distant sailboat. I walked again later and admired the sand dunes, sculpted by wind and waves, their faces raw and steep. On their inward side, sea oats, lavender-flowered morning glories, pennyword and other hardy deep-rooted plants anchor the dunes, keeping them stabilized. Farther back stand older, precipitous dunes, their sand as soft as talcum powder. Nestled beweeen the dunes are meadows of waving grasses and sedges, green, golden and brown like a woven tapestry beckoning seed-eating birds, rabbbits and other small animals. Little seaside sparrows and marsh wrens build their nests in the waving expalne of cordgrass. I could sit in my beach chair for hours and watch quietly, without moving and still as the dead, the the shore birds scavenging for lunch--gulls, terns, willets, oyter catcher, sandpipers, plovers and occasionally an endangered piping plover. The sandpipers run back and forth with the retreating waves like they're afraid to get a toe wet. They scurry like little ghosts across the sand, probably for tiny mole crabs and multicolored coquina clams. I long daily to feel the touch of a clean ocean breeze and the wet kiss of the rain, to hear the ocean's roar.


The following photographs were taken after a rain shower, they are plants that thrive near my front door, greeting all those that come here.

Hello ya'll!

I have deleted some of my old posts, I have moved on and found that keeping negative posts on my blog were serving no purpose. I have a lot of new stuff to add and will be doing so in small doses over the next week or so.

Today we are enjoying our first day of sun in a week. We are planning to go to the beach tomorrow for Memorial Day and hopefully collecting lots of teasures washed up by the Northeasterner this past week. Today has been a yard-clean-up day. My roses, gardenias and mimosa tree have been blooming; we cut clippings to bring indoors and the whole house smells like I would imagaine Heaven smells like.

I will post some of Catherine's Girl Scout camp photos and other photos I've taken recently but hope in the meantime that ya'll have a happy and healthy Memorial weekend.

Happy 19th anniversary, Jody and Steve! <3

Catherine's First Holy Communion

It was one of the most beautiful days on record today. It was simply gorgeous weather--sunny and just enough breeze to keep the humidity away. You could hear birds singing outside while we were in church. The ceremony was tearful and sentimental as it should be....the children all dressed up and reverent, glowing with excitement....wonderful music including 2 beautiful soloists, just enough humor and a wonderful reception afterwards in our new church hall. Kimberly and Mya attended along with Catherine's Godmother, her Aunt Madeline (Richard's sister). It was a day none of us will ever forget. When we got home, I showed Catherine my 40-year old First Communion dress and pictures from my special day so long ago now. She said, "Wow, you wore that?"

With Father Luke (my how small she looks next to him!)

Catherine with Sarah and Julia (center) who is her best friend.

Catherine's 2nd Grade Teacher, Cheryl Herrington. She is also a Eucharist Minister and along with the Youth Group leaders, Onie and Mike, lovingly brought the 2nd Grade class through 9 months of teaching and training to lead them this most important day.

Another glorious day at the beach!

I've had 4 months off from work and yesterday was the first time I took a day and went to the beach during the week, without Richard; Kimberly had called around 9am and asked if I wanted to go. Lately I've had a tendency to stay isolated and mornings are most difficult because of my Fibromylasia....so I wasn't hot on the idea but then I read my morning paper (a daily ritual I never miss) and started thinking about the sand and the surf....so I relented. I am so thankful I did as we had such a great day. On the weather scale it was a "10". Catherine met a friend and they played all afternoon. Kimberly walked the shoreline for her precious shark teeth and sea glass, coming back with a handful. I found some too but mostly sat with my newest novel in my lap, watched the gulls and drank in the sound of the ocean's pounding waves. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday along with a few I took a couple weeks ago when we took Mya and Catherine shrimping at the nearby boat ramp.

By the ocean, once again

This has got to be the one of the most extraordinary beaches in the world. We came out here on an early February morning when much of our country is still shrouded in blankets with frost on windows, fog coming from their breath and we are dancing under a brilliant blue sky with a beautiful sailboat in the distance, seagulls dipping low for the crackers I throw to them. We walk the sandy beach, only 3 of a dozen people as far as I can see and we search for our beloved seaglass, sharkteeth and shells or driftwood. I sat after a while of searching, bent over like a crab due to my poor eyesight and.....just breathed in the salty air, sat on the sand with my legs crossed, serene as a buddah. I have used up so much precious time preparing for these kind of experiences rather than just living them and surrending to the moment. I have been lured by the sea's distant roar, and the scent of the ocean ever since I came here and saw it and felt it and smelled it deeply for the first time in 1982, a young bride from Minnesota. Still, after all these years, today I lay here and sun myself and embrace it's warmth. I believe we spend the first half of our lives learning to be an adult and the second half learning to be a child again. Boy, have I ever allowed too many days to go dull and permitted too many parts of me to go unused! This is what's it's all about, at least for me! Serenity and calm. True, deep peace within myself. No rush, no "bad noise", just this. I should abandon any God-less thoughts from here on out. Parts of me like playfulness, vulnerabilty, being at home in my own true skin and using more of my instincts--like so many pieces of a jigzaw puzzle, that's what I need to do to find a way to create the whole of me once again which has been lost for so long.

The wind from the northeast and as far as I can see it is stirring up ruffles of whitecaps that decorate the surface of the water. I know I have been in a spiritual and physical drought for far too long and I want to dive into those ruffled whitecaps. The depths and the silence of the sea are sure to be good friends.

Perhaps I have finally used up all my despair. I want to stand whole in my skin and either dive like a pelican or fly like an eagle. I know there is no arriving, ever, yet I know it is all a continual becoming!

Another holiday to be thankful for

Today we went to the beach again, it was not quite as warm as the other day,though it was on the 26th when we last went. Nevertheless, we always count ourselves as very lucky, especially when I hear the weather report or hear the national weather report. We are so blessed today as we still walked barerfoot in the sand, walked knee deep in the ocean water and searched for my beloved seaglass and shark teeth. It was a grand day.

Thank you God, for a beautiful day whereas I could rest....and enjoy a day with Richard and Catherine.

T'was the day AFTER Christmas....

After 10 days of Scarlet Fever and Strep that Catherine and I suffered through before Christmas, Kimberly spent 4 days in St. Vincents for her Cylical Vomiting Syndrom. Afterwards they ordered a colonoscopy which, afterwards, she had a reaction to the anthesthia and spent 12 hours in the ER. Now she's scheduled for an endoscopy and hope all goes well. During the colonoscopy they did a biopsy with a clip of tissue and we are waiting to hear if all is well there. I knew Christmas this year wasn't going to be the best but I had no idea it would be like this, with us so sick and Kimberlly in the hospital. Cataherine and I are much improved. We were fortunate to be well enough to attend the annual family gathering at Richard's sister's estate in Ponte Vedra Beach Christmas Day.

The weather, still extraordinarily warm, reached 80 degrees for the straight 7th day. Putting that to good use, we decided to get outdoors and we went to the beach the day following Christmas. We were blessed with having Mya with us that day so she added to our joy. After being cooped up in the house for so long, I relished the fresh, salty air and her joyful presence. Here are a few pictures I took to capture our day.