September Anniversaries and Birthday

HWNSNBP and I celebrated out 47th anniversary earlier this week.  This is the card I made for him.  Yes, I know it's a floral and some might consider it a little too feminine, but here's my thought process - there were flowers at our wedding and he almost always gets me flowers for our anniversary so why not make him a floral card.  I also get to display it and enjoy it here.  

 

While they are not the colors of the flowers that we had at our wedding, they are the colors that I mostly go to.  It took me one evening plus a little time the next day to do the stitching.  I wasn't sure what I was going to put in the center but was glad to find that I had the "Love" die that fit perfectly in the space and for the occasion.  

The next three cards were kind of cobbled together with parts and pieces that I came across while doing some rearranging (still in progress) in the stamp cave.  The first one I used as a birthday card for my mother.  I took the picture before I added the sentiment in that blank space near the leaves.

I actually added the handwritten sentiment to this card. 

And this was used for another anniversary.  

We're going to try to get to Cape May for our annual September anniversary visit in the near future, but we did manage to get a visit in to Hens & Honey down in South Jersey a couple of weeks ago.  As we were driving there, we noticed some work being done on the water tower near the restaurant. We'd never seen the "cleaning" process on a water tower before.  I only got to snap the pictures because there was a traffic light we had to stop at right next to it.

My guess here is that he is making sure it's working or adjusting the force of the spray.  The shadow in both pictures is because I was taking the pictures through the windshield.

We had the Cream Cheese Board for our lunch.  It came with 4 different flavored cream cheeses and we wound up with five after the hostess realized that she had put two of the same flavor on our board by mistake.  She brought the additional one on a pumpkin plate and I didn't get a picture of it.  The flavors were pumpkin, cinnamon roll, roasted tomato, and not pictured was strawberry.  We did bring about half of it home with us, because it is a lot even for two people.  HWNSNBP had the Vanilla Bean drink and I had the Harvest Moon Smores coffee.  

The last time I posted about this restaurant I had forgotten to get a picture of the area they have dedicated to Taylor Swift but I made a point to get it this time. 

There's a mirror on the right that says "You're like really pretty........now go get coffee".

One last thing for now, I tried a new cake recipe this weekend.  It's called "Do Nothing Cake".  I think it's only called that because it's quick and easy to put together.  

You mix the batter all in one bowl and bake it.  While it's in the oven you make the icing which can even go on the cake when it comes out of the oven so it will seep into the warm cake.  I let this cool a little longer than I should have and the icing didn't get a chance to seep into the cake too much but did run off a little more when it was cut.  I won't write out the recipe here but here's the link.  If  you've got a can of crushed pineapple, a can of sweetened condensed milk, flour, sugar, baking soda and some eggs, you're on your way.  The coconut and chopped pecans on top are to your choice.  I had to send HWNSNBP to the store for the pineapple and condensed milk so I asked him to get coconut and pecans also.  The cake is sweet and our problem is that it is too much for the two of us.  He said I should try to halve it the next time.  We'll see.  If you try it, let me know what you think.  

Travels and Treats

It was his idea to go.  "Let's go to the Great Swamp to see if they have any amaryllis bulbs yet."  We picked out the bulbs and then he detoured away from me while I checked out the Christmas ornament section.  I thought he was in the next aisle, but when I rounded the corner, he wasn't there.  It took me a while to find him because I actually didn't want to go into the "greenhouse" and be tempted to buy any new plants.  I'd just finished repotting all the orchids at home the last week and with bringing in the few plants we overwinter indoors, space is at a premium.  There he was, conducting business as he made himself at home near the cyclamen.  And, since he kept talking as I approached, I did decide to do some plant shopping and came home with a small cyclamen and an even smaller Christmas cactus about to bloom.  

I wanted to look closer at this mushroom garland but it was out of my reach and by the time I found the chatterbox I had forgotten about it till I uploaded my pictures.

I think I have some wooden mushrooms around here..... and some screw eyes.  Then again, it might be a wild goose chase.  Instead of going home on the highway, I convinced HWNSNBP to take the back roads home so we could enjoy the scenery.  There is a Japanese word for when the sunbeams filter through the trees - komorebi.  Thankfully it was a sunny fall day and we did get to enjoy the komorebi.

Which reminds me that I didn't post anything about our Lighthouse Challenge yet.  I won't repeat all the lighthouses that we visited, just some highlights of the days.  When we started out on that Saturday morning we got down to the end of our street and I realized that I had forgotten to put earrings on.  Not a big deal, but I feel better when I have them in so HWNSNBP turned to go back to the house and I remembered that I had a spare pair in the overnight bag, so we turned around in a driveway that was decorated as such..........

After the first two stops at Tinnicum and Finn's Point, we stopped at the Amish Market in Bridgeton and he treated me to a whoopie pie.

Thank the clouds for briefy letting the sun illuminate East Point Lighthouse for this picture.  It was way too windy for the flag apparently.  

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is not on the official list of stops but it is on the way so we stopped to take our obligatory gazing ball picture in the front garden.

We made it through to Barnegat by the evening and woke the next day to get on the road early to make the last 4 stops.  This is a view of the ocean from the lighthouse at Sea Girt.  We did have gorgeous weather.

I loved the side of this building we passed on the way to the end.  Luckily we were stopped at a traffic light so I could reach across to take a picture.  I'm not sure what town it's in though.

We ended the challenge at the Twin Lights.

Our challenge souvenirs this year were log books.  Each sight had a page with a copy of a log entry from one of the lightkeepers over the years.  You got a stamp on each page as you completed that stop.  There were 4 additional stamps and 2 secret stamps that you had to ask about at each stop to get.  We only knew that because we are on the email list for the challenge and it was published there.  There were a couple of people who overheard HWNSNBP ask about it and were a little upset that they didn't know about it in their journey.  He got one of the committee members to take our picture in front of the lens in the museum.   

This past weekend we went to the condo on Thursday night - kind of a last minute decision - so that HWNSNBP could do some surf fishing Friday as we were planning to go to Delaware to babysit on Saturday.  I also wanted to get pictures of the full moon rising - always a toss up on that one.  He did get a picture of the sunrise on Friday morning as he headed out for his coffee.  

And he did hit up the bakery a little later in the morning and brought me back this treat.

The full moon wasn't until Saturday night, but we went up to the bay beach and waited for the almost full moon to rise as I'm pretty sure that, had the clouds not been there, it would have started out behind the lighthouse across the bay.  It wasn't this pretty when we first got there, but it was so peaceful we decided to stay a while and it was HWNSNBP who first caught a glimpse of the moon as it came out from behind the clouds.  I was so happy to get the reflection in the water.

And even happier when the swans started swimming in the pink water towards that direction.  I kept whispering to them to swim faster, swim faster, so that I could............

Get them in the moonlight before the moon disappeared again behind the clouds.  And if you look to the left you can see the lighthouse there too.

Saturday morning we left early to get to DE so that Rachel could spend some one-on-one time with GS2 while we watched GS3.  (Their daddy was at a wrestling event.)  She took him in his costume to the Delaware Children's Museum for some special Halloween activities.  We got to spend some time with this little love.  Those eyes just make my heart melt.

Naptime was short but he didn't fight it at all.  

We had lunch when they came back and then we went in two cars (no room for Grandma and Papa and 2 car seats) to the UD Creamery - a little ice cream stand on the University of Delaware campus near the football stadium run by the agriculture students.  There specialty for the holiday is the "Trick or Treat" ice cream which is French vanilla ice cream with candy.  It was another delicious treat on another beautiful day.  There were a lot of people there and we had to initially share a picnic table with a couple of students.  Luckily there wasn't a football game there that day or we wouldn't have been able to go.

I've finished my Inktober tangles and my birds which I'll be posting soon.   Yesterday I had two dr. appts. - one with a back surgeon and the other was for a vein study in these old legs that are not working like they're supposed to.  HWNSNBP came with me to the surgeon and I think he finally understood why I'm having so much difficulty.  The dr. showed us both what a normal spine looks like and what mine looks like and it was abundantly clear that mine is not normal.  Insurance doesn't let you jump to the surgery part without further tests and non-surgical intervention so, even though the doctor agreed that it looked like that was going to be the final outcome, I have to have another test and do some PT first.  As for the veins - that doctor is in such demand that I won't be able to follow up with the test results until January.  It's going to be interesting.

This has gotten quite lengthy and I really need to get up in the stamp cave to get a couple of Christmas cards done.  The JB challenge this fortnight is to use a creature on our card.  I think I've got a couple of ideas.  Happy Halloween!

Before the Frost

Picked the last of the tomatoes over a week ago and forgot to post these pictures.  These are cherry tomatoes and what was left on two plants.  I have them in the box in a sunny window and they are continuing to turn red.  

And we picked some of what is left of the flowers that are still blooming.  We were supposed to have a frost the other night but it didn't quite get there.  Still, HWNSNBP has been pulling out everything that looks tired and spent and tucking some things in here and there that just might overwinter.

View from the top.  Zinnias, dahlias, and Montauk daisies.

We also brought the lemon tree(s) in.  But first I trimmed the thorns off.  Yes, a lemon tree has thorns.  They might not look too threatening, but believe me, if you brush past it and get caught on one you'll know it.  I found that the heavy-duty nail clippers worked much better and faster than the regular clippers.  I was able to get really close to the base with that.

I believe that you call this Hen of Woods growing on the side of one of our trees.  It's about 25 feet up and not reachable.  I've read that you can forage these and cook them, and that they're supposed to be good.  If it were more accessible I might be tempted to try that.  Maybe it's good it's higher up.

This picture was taken with the zoom from the inside the house so you can see it's pretty large.

And our friendly ghost is keeping watch with his mourning dove sentinels.

The weather here has been like a roller coaster.  We were supposed to have a frost but didn't and now they're forecasting unseasonably high temps for the next couple of days.  That's fall for you.

Wrapping Up May

I'm still in a struggle with my computer to upload pictures.  I got some good suggestions to use my e-mail and I have resorted to that on more than one occasion but the only problem I have with that is when the number of pictures that I've taken is in the double digits... but thinking about that, it would probably take less time e-mailing them in smaller groups than it has taken trying to download them.  I'll stop complaining and get on with this as it's already the 5th of June and I haven't wrapped up May yet.

The wildflowers I believe called Dame's Rocket bloomed profusely down the road near the brook.  I took this picture from the road coming home one day from an appointment.  This appears to be a new area of growth as I don't remember seeing them on this side of the bridge that's there.  Nonetheless, they were so pretty in the dappled sunlight.

HWNSNBP treated me to a couple of chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day.  Don't you just love that pink one!

This was a project that I started back in late October when the swallowtail caterpillars were pupating in our patio table enclosure.  They were very late in the season and it was getting very cold and we were going to put the netting and umbrella away but I didn't want to kill these chrysalids so I read up on it and found that I could gently remove them from the netting and store them loosely covered in the refrigerator for the duration of the winter which I did.  There were 4 of them that I was able to find.  I took them out on the day that our SIL called to tell us that the baby was going to be born that day and put them into a butterfly tent that I had purchased for this reason.  

I made little "cots" out of pieces of paper towel that I pinned to the netting so they would have something to climb up on when they eclosed.

The day we came home from Delaware was when HWNSNBP, who entered the house first, noticed that there was something fluttering around in the tent and quickly came back outside to tell me that I had a surprise inside.  At first I didn't want to believe him as this would be something he might tease about, but he assured me that he wasn't making it up and I came in to find that 2 of them had, in fact, eclosed while we were gone and were frantically trying to find a way out.  

I took the tent outside and was hoping that I would be able to have them step onto my finger first, but they were much too nervous at this point and flew out of the tent almost immediately.  Luckily I got a picture of one of them before that.  I know they must have been hungry.  There are two more in their cots and I also have a Luna Moth cocoon in there in the hopes they will eclose soon.  

I thought I saw something orange in one of the smaller trees in front of the pool the next day but it flew off too quickly to get a picture, but I was very lucky to have this beauty catch my attention when I was eating breakfast the next day.  An Oriole!  I have never seen an oriole in our yard.  Actually, I don't think I've ever seen one IRL anywhere though I know that they're around here.  I quickly grabbed by phone to get this picture through the window as it sat on the little fence by the birdbath outside the window there.  I'm hoping that they'll become regular visitors.

We picked up this plant at the Great Swamp Nursery because it promised that it was deer and rabbit resistant and so far has proved to be.  It wasn't flowering when we got it but we liked it so much we went back to get another one for another area and sadly, they no longer had any more.  We do know what it's called though so we can keep looking if we go to any other nurseries.  (Which I'm sure we will.)  We've really tipped the flower budget this year but HWNSNBP is the one who keeps saying he wants more - so why argue with him!

Here are two handmade cards that I received this month.  The first from Sabrina with one of my favorite quotes on it.  

And this one is from LeAnne who helped me out tremendously with some SU supplies that I needed to finish Rachel and Ryan's wedding invites which I'll share at a later date.

And here is a birthday and thank you/Mother's Day card that I sent out during May.

Well, that pretty much wraps up May.  I'll be back to do a wrap-up of The 100 Day Project and also a post about beginning ICAD 2023.  I've got a couple of birthdays this month and also Father's Day to make cards for and the Jingle Belles have a new challenge theme this month which will have busy.  

A belated welcome to June!