120 / 365 The Kickoff

Although they’ve been here for hours, a traditional breakfast at J. Christopher’s marks the official start of any family visit.

119 / 365 Awaiting Visitors from Afar

H and I spent the day preparing the accommodations for D, J, F, and W, whose flight from Amsterdam lands in about an hour. It may not be the Ritz, but it has a certain charm… and, in any case, our guests keep coming back.

118 / 365 In Memoriam

Each year, for Easter Sunday, the church orders lilies for the sanctuary.  They are paid for by parishioners who purchase them in memory or in honor of a loved one.  After the services, folks are encouraged to take them home, but there are always some left over.  Three years ago my colleagues and I decided to plant the remaining ones in the front of the church, and sure enough, the lilies have returned each season.  Today we planted eleven more.  In essence, this small space has become a memorial garden.

117 / 365 Birthday Surprises!

I’ve had a fabulous birthday today with lots of singing, cards, calls, emails, gifts, and flowers.  It’s not every birthday girl who gets an eight-speed blender from her husband for her special day.  According to H, this gift was a win-win!



116 / 365 Under the Canopy

Our seniors group at church took a field trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden today.  This event made me think of the visit H and I made a couple of weeks ago.  You can now walk along wooded trails that meander through the Storza Woods (a beautiful mature hardwood forest) and under the Kendeda Canopy Walk.  From underneath, the sculptural aspect of this suspension bridge in the treetops is pretty amazing.

115 / 365 Holding My Breath

Last year my sister gave me some yellow irises from her garden.  Mom had planted these years ago.  I brought them home, carefully selected a spot in the front where my mother-in-law and I could both enjoy them, and then anxiously waited through the winter.  To my delight, the irises have grown like crazy this spring and produced ten buds. 

Unfortunately, over the past few days, I have found blooms just on the verge of maturity snapped and broken on the ground – I’ve lost three so far.  At first I fussed about the yard crew being careless, and then I blamed it on wild raccoons and leaping squirrels.  Finally, I’ve decided that it’s actually fat birds swinging on the stems as they wait their turn at the feeding station.  

114 / 365 Easter Joys

What a lovely Easter day – a joyful church service featuring an excellent piano solo, dinner with H and his mom on the back porch, and (of course) a visit from the Easter Bunny.

113 / 365 Hippity-Hop

I stopped by my sister’s house today to take the kids a little pre-Easter chocolate surprise.  What I discovered was a fourteen-, twenty-, and twenty-two-year-old coloring Easter eggs… and they were having a blast. 

It was such a silly sight, and one that immediately took me back to when my sisters and I were little and sitting at the kitchen table dyeing our own Easter eggs… the sound of the eggs knocking together in the pot as Mom boiled them on the stove; the smell of the vinegar as the colored tablets fizzed and dissolved; concentrating so hard on carefully removing an egg dyed to the perfect shade; and Mom constantly on mess patrol.  Fun, fun memories.

112 / 365 They’re Coming

I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet myself, but I’ve had several friends tell me they have, so I prepared and hung my feeders today.  It’s painful to look out the window and see a hummer suspended in mid-air, looking in vain for the feeder that was there last year.  I hate getting the stink-eye from them.

111 / 365 An Easter Explosion

Nothing tells the story of  Easter better than a yard full of blow-up bunnies and eggs.

110 / 365 Fluffing Up the Home

No, it’s not yard art – it’s a nesting kit that my youngest sister gave me at Christmas, and I’ve been saving it for Spring.  I point the binoculars in its direction daily, hoping to see the cage covered with birds, each one choosing just the right color to accent its home.  But guess what?  I haven’t seen a single feathered friend plucking at the filler, swinging on the chain, or even sitting in the branches staring at it.

And yet, each time I venture out to check the progress in person, I notice additional strings pulled and dangling from the cage.  I think this is a good sign.  I fully expect to step outside one day and find a huge rainbow nest, just waiting for its occupants to start a family.  With so much color, I know those baby tweets will grow up with an artistic flair.

109 / 365 We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Tonight, after dinner, H and I took a very pleasant walk around the neighborhood lake where I was delighted to happen upon a family of wild ducks (Mr. and Mrs. plus seven fluffy babies).  H, on the other hand, was captivated by the miniature motorized boat skimming across the water.  Without skipping a beat, H struck up a conversation with the young man standing on the bridge manning the remote control, and, to the delight of the boat’s creator, was able to correctly identify the vessel as the one in the movie Jaws.  There were even teeth marks in starboard side.  

This picture is a still from a short video that H made of the action.  You can view it here.

108 / 365 Sparkly Clean

I’ve really got my fingers crossed in hopes that we’re past the pollen, because H and I took the plunge over the weekend and cleaned the porch.  It’s not just dusting the furniture; we vacuum, wash everything from top to bottom, and then finally mop.  Although the area is not huge, it usually takes us several hours to complete the task.  It’s such a chore to me, but I’m always so glad when it’s done.  Whew!!

107 / 365 It’s a Family Thing

It can be challenging to find a time when everyone’s schedule meshes, but once we’re together, it’s great.  Tonight we had an early birthday celebration for me at one of my favorite restaurants, Bella Italia. Other than missing my brother-in-law B (who had to be out of town on business) and my nephew A (who was studying at college), it was a perfect evening filled with silliness and laughter.  It’s the best way to spend a birthday!

106 / 365 Cupcake Artistry

H and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon wandering through the booths at the Alpharetta Arts Streetfest… bright sunshine, a cool breeze, and lots of happy folks.  I don’t have any photos of the great art that we saw – I’m never very comfortable taking pictures of original works, lest the artists think that I’m trying to steal ideas.  However, festivals and food always go hand-in-hand, and the mini-cupcakes at the Jilly’s Cupcakery booth were another story.

105 / 365 No, that’s not Gatorade

D and his assistant M arrived today to begin the process of opening our pool for the season.  Removal of the cover that has been on all winter revealed nasty green water… a beautiful color, but not something you’d want to swim in.  D is a master at bringing the pool back to life, and we’re fully confident that it will be clean and sparkly when our Dutch family arrives in two weeks with bathing suits in hand.

104 / 365 Too Much of a Good Thing?

A new frozen yogurt shop is slated for East Cobb, this one located at The Avenue.  H and I checked out their website with high hopes, only to discover yet another clone of the Yogli-Mogli one-cup, fill-it-up model.  I’m not sure that we need another yogurt store, but maybe Menchie’s will surprise us.

103 / 365 The Dark Side of Groupon

Groupon is one of the hottest trends on the Internet… but tonight, as innocent bystanders, we learned that this discount phenomenon has a dark side as well.

Thinking that one of our favorite local restaurants wouldn’t be too crowded in the middle of the week, H and I ventured out to the Fickle Pickle in Roswell for dinner.  To our surprise, we encountered a line out the door and a manager assigning tables, no options.  We quickly learned that this was the last night of a multi-month Groupon deal.  Our designated table was on the front porch (the last spot we would ever have chosen) – making us the de facto greeters to the hordes of arriving guests.  It wasn’t exactly the quiet one-on-one dinner we had planned, but we made lots of new friends. 

102 / 365 What's Not to Love?

We had a surprise visitor in the office today:  This tiny, four-legged ball of energy… eight weeks old, and not a care in the world.  He was all wiggles and smooches, and I just couldn't stop smiling!

101 / 365 East Meets West

Tonight’s meal was a new dish of mandarin orange chicken with stir-fried rice and steamed snow peas.  The kitchen dance was a little more challenging than I had anticipated – stir-frying in two skillets, steaming in another pot, and heating the sauce in the microwave – but it was coming together nicely… until I smelled the aroma of a wood-burning fire.  Imagine my surprise when I noticed that my favorite wooden spoon had started to sparkle – and not in a good way.

H, quietly sitting in the kitchen and reading the paper while I cooked, looked up and asked if I smelled smoke.  I explained the situation as I waved the spoon back and forth under the faucet.  He merely noted that the smoke alarm hadn’t responded (no doubt because I had the exhaust fan on) and went back to reading.  He’s a good man.

100 / 365 The Mail Basket

At our house, the landing spot for incoming snail mail is the kitchen counter.  We both thumb through it and read what is of interest, but we’re not great with the follow-through of tossing, filing, or making decisions; we simply leave everything on the counter.  After a week, the pile begins to build.  After two weeks it’s moderately high.  By three weeks I have to move it to the other end of the counter so it can be propped against the wall, while we start a new pile at the corner again.

Last year we changed tactics when I bought a basket for the mail.  It’s large and deep and will hold over a month’s worth of mail.  The new rule is that when the mail piles over the top of the container's edge, it must be cleaned out – a chore that H usually undertakes. 

As it turns out, today was Basket Day.  It’s definitely not H’s favorite day, but he always tackles it with a smile.  And, of course, an empty basket is a happy basket!

99 / 365 The Sketchbook Project

Last summer, the Art House Co-op in Brooklyn, New York once again sponsored the Sketchbook Project.  Anyone could participate.  All you had to do was purchase a 5.25” x 8.25” Moleskin sketchbook from the Art House and choose a topic from a given list; you then filled the sketchbook with images and words based on your chosen theme, and returned the project by the deadline.

This year the project sent out sketchbooks to 28,839 artists from 94 countries.  Just under 10,000 were completed and returned.  These sketchbooks were bar-coded, catalogued, and sent on tour throughout the United States. Atlanta happened to be on the tour, so H and I went to check it out (literally).  Because of the bar-coding, visitors could briefly check out the sketchbooks at the exhibition to look through… and the sketchbook artists can keep track of who is viewing their work.  It was really very cool!

In July the sketchbooks will be permanently housed in the Brooklyn Art Library and available for public view.  It could make for a fun trip to Brooklyn.

98 / 365 The Sentry

He sits and watches and waits for us to come back upstairs.  P is one patient cat.

97 / 365 Plantin’ Time

It’s one of my favorite days of the year… the Native Plant Sale at the nearby Chattahoochee Nature Center.  Twice a year the greenhouses are open for the public to peruse the plants that volunteers have been nurturing, coddling, and cultivating for the past year; the plants are native to the area, with many from the CNC gardens.  The best part is the wildflowers (oh my goodness!) – they’re gorgeous and so healthy, just screaming to be planted in my Secret Garden.  I always come home with a wagonload of beauties, and today’s find was no exception:  Toothwort, Bloodroot, Shooting Star, Dixie Wood Ferns, Dutchman’s Breeches, Spiderwort, and Woodland Asters! I can almost see H’s eyes rolling.

96 / 365 Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

H and I had BBQ chicken on the grill tonight, and it was absolutely delicious!  I prepared it, and he manned the grill.

Now, any time chicken is on our menu, I think of my sister and just crack up because she can’t stand touching raw meat, especially chicken.  She eats chicken and will cook it, but S spends most of her time scrubbing down the chicken, herself, the countertop, the dishes, and so on.  If raw chicken has come anywhere close to it, she’s cleaning it.

I have to admit that, having lived with her for several years, I might have picked up some of her squeamish habits.  I don’t mind preparing raw meat, but I have been known to burn a dinner or two simply because I was so focused on scouring counters and sinks that I overlooked the smoke coming from the skillet.  Thank goodness H was on duty this evening.

95 / 365 And the Family Grows

This little goofball is my great-niece.  Today she became a big sister, making H and me a great-uncle and -aunt all over again. It’s been a blessed evening! 

94 / 365 The Inflator

This morning I mentioned to H that my front tires looked very low, and he immediately headed out to the garage to inflate them with his handy-dandy foot pump.  Unfortunately, the pump (which is older than many of the people reading these words) died in the process.  Not to be defeated, H ventured out to Sears at lunchtime and returned with a very manly Craftsman air pump called The Inflator.  Now, all he had to do was to wait for me to come home from work. 

After dinner, as H removed the pump from the box, he noted (with a huge smile) that I believe this is officially overkill, but it was worth it just to get this box (fancy honeycomb packaging).  Better yet, my brother will say this is a gross misuse of technology – which is the best reason EVER to buy this pump!

Needless to say, my tires are now in great shape and ready to hit the road.

93 / 365 Brunch-n-Go

It’s the last day at Callaway Gardens.  A quick toss of everything into the cars and off we all go for brunch at a quaint little restaurant on the square in Pine Mountain.  H and I are home by early afternoon.  It was a delightful weekend.

92 / 365 Lunch Time at the Butterfly Center

The Butterfly Center is one of my favorite places at Callaway Gardens.  The life expectancy of butterflies and moths is approximately two weeks.  They’ve got a lot of living to get into such a short amount of time.  Feeding stations, such as this one, are situated in numerous locations throughout the center.  They’re the perfect place to get a close-up view of their intricate details and designs.

91 / 365 Weekend Retreat

We’re off to Callaway Gardens for a little weekend fun with friends… featuring a home-cooked meal, a walk around the lake, and a rousing game of Scrabble to finish off the day.