End of July Interlude

Summer is marching on all too quickly and so today was a great day for a quick escape downstate. Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park is one of the beautiful beach escapes along the Mid-Atlantic region. After taking son Phillip to the airport at 4 AM to join his sisters out west, we drove downstate with Fawn in tow to explore the new walk/bike trails built at the park since last year. I indulged in taking pictures of the beach at Herring Point (more about this is a later post). After exploring Herring Point, we enjoyed fish and chips for lunch outdoors at Jerry's Seafood.The staff were kind enough to refill Fawn's water bottle and she enjoyed all the attention of passersby stopping to ask about her and pet her. Here's our selfie for posterity: 

Engineering A Sewing Project

Feeling my domestic goddess mood that cannot be quenched unless I try my hand at sewing this camera cozy... Have seen them online but decided I wanted to make my own. I unearthed the Bernina from underneath piles if stuff in the corner of the bedroom, but found out it needed servicing as the lever was frozen in the up position. Off to Hayes Sewing Machine it went. The bad news is that it will take a week to fix, so in this age of instant gratification, what's a domestic goddess to do? Then I found this little Sunbeam for beginners- it's so cute!

It weighs 2.5 pounds. It's small, but larger than a child sized machine. It does all the basic stitches and comes pre-threaded! Oh joy of joys! Of course, it is nowhere in the league of my wonderful Bernina, but is helping me get my sewing "fix" under control! I've had my Bernina since 1983 and it has been a wonderful tool. It just is undergoing a major cleaning and adjustment since I haven't sewn much in the last ten years.

Actually, this little Sunbeam is perfect for apartment dwellers with little space to store things...

Postscript: Cute as it was, this little machine did skip a lot of stitches, so I returned it. Such a shame. 

Abandoned Places- Old Barn

I remember driving by and seeing livestock on this property when we moved here in 1988, and marveling at how close we lived to actual, working farms! At any time of the day we could always hear seep bleating and cows mooing—and I had a real sense of having moved into a development that was in the country! Across the street from this farm were several other farms, but over time, the properties have made way to housing developments.

Sadly, this barn is now about to be demolished to make way for a controversial charter school (controversial because it is thought that the property is neither big enough nor are the roads able to handle the extra traffic this school will create). It sits on the old Coffee Run Mission site in Hockessin, which is the site of a historic Roman Catholic mission church started by Father Kenney in the late 1700’s. Out of this place both St. Mary’s Church (now St. Mary of the Assumption) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington started. This barn was part of a homestead that included a fieldstone house built in 1812 (now torn down) and a cemetery that is the resting place of 62 graves.

Construction crews have moved in to clear the property, so who knows how much longer this barn will continue to stand? It doesn’t take long for things to be forgotten, does it? 

Abandoned Places- A House

Whenever I see one of these old houses I always wonder about its story... Who lived there? When was it built? What caused it to be abandoned? Does anyone own it now? Most of these houses in this area of the country are several hundred years old. Interesting in that so many old houses like this in Europe are still actively occupied, but in America, many old houses are abandoned, and eventually torn down. Wonder what the future holds for this house?

Quiet Mornings After A Storm

Enjoying my morning coffee outside... It's a cool, quiet morning after a summer thunderstorm last night. It must have rained for quite a while because everything is still wet. Cloudy skies and greyness are welcome after a few days of sultry heat and thick air. Not complaining though, after this past grueling winter anything summer is welcome!

Love how this sunflower, though imperfect, faces the day!

Dutch Mourning for Victims of Malaysia Flight 17

Today is the official day of mourning in the Netherlands, as the remains of the victims of flight 17 are brought home. Short down by a missile over the Ukraine last week, passengers aboard this flight were on their way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Many were going for vacation, others to an AIDS conference, and yet others were going home to Malaysia or travelling further to distant destinations. No doubt, each of these passengers boarded in anticipation of the future...a stark reminder how precious our lives are!
While the country mourns and trains stop for one minute during the day, clocks toll their bells, and the general business of the day is interrupted into silence so as to respect all those whose lives were cut short, one unique element to this day of mourning is the position of all of the 1200 remaining Dutch windmills in mourning mode.

Disclaimer: These are photos are not mine but borrowed from the internet to illustrate the mourning position of the sails of the Dutch windmill. Note that the bottom sail is positioned slightly to the right so as to signify what has gone and past on.

The normal resting position of a windmill's sails is straight down. As this straight-on photo shows, this windmill is in mourning position because the bottom sail is slightly to the right.

May all those souls rest in peace. 

More On Phillip's Garden

We have an abundance of sunflowers, and consequently a healthy bee population! Guess that's good for the environment, right? 

For aesthetic purposes he has planted flowers all through the yard. I do love it when I come home from work and see a vase with fresh flowers on the kitchen table!
He also has been working on a grafting project...I don't know exactly what he's been grafting, but it involves fruit trees.


See how bees love sunflowers?
Love the blushing shades of pink and rose...

This is another variety of pear tree...we also enjoy a healthy crop of tomatoes!

Phillip's Garden

While Phillip's garden seems more like a mini-farm (because it is so crowded with so many things!), I have to say I'm so proud of the things he's learned to do! Believe me, gardening is not exactly a family trait (other than my sister's green thumb) and Phillip has managed to learn everything himself. Here's what he's growing:

A pear tree...

Fresh carrots from the garden... Oh so sweet and fresh!

Most beautiful flowers such as these roses...

Earlier this year we had gorgeous tulips!

Stay tuned, there's more to come...

2014 Summer Beach Reads

SPOILER ALERT!

Summertime is a time for some lazy reading... you know, those light romances that take place in or near wonderful beach places like Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Outer Banks, the low country (aka Tidewater region of Virginia, NC, Charleston, or along the coast of Maine. Summer 2014 was no different, and I returned to two of my favorite authors looking for some enjoyable beach reading. I've always enjoyed Dorothea Benton Frank's books because they're set around Charleston, one of my very favorite cities! Ditto with Elin Hildebrand who usually sets her stories on Nantucket. Alas, these two summer reads were mediocre at best.

Bulls Island is the story of yet another homecoming-- a local girl who leaves town and makes in big in the world on her own. At the beginning of the story she's found as a very successful executive in New York City with private planes at her disposal. her company decides to embark on a real estate development project on Bulls Island, South Carolina, and she's put in charge because of her knowledge from the area. Her anxiety rises as she knows this will force her to confront people from her past, including an old romantic love. In the meantime, she also messes around with a rough mafia gangster, and this is where I had trouble with the plausibility of the plot and Betts (the main character). As the plot comes to an end, I kept wondering how Benton Franks was going to resolve this issue with Vinnie (the gangster). Just as I thought she had forgotten about him, he surfaces but in an uncharacteristic way. Benton Franks resolves the Vinnie character, but it was somewhat lame, and just seemed out of place with the rest of the story. I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars (with 5 being the highest) because I don't think that Benton Franks developed her main character in accordance with the character's attributes as described earlier in the book, the unfolding plot seems to stall near the end, and the resolution of the Vinnie character is out of place.

A Summer Affair is just plain unsatisfying. This is the story of  red-haired and freckled Claire, a glassblowing artist, mother of four young children, and wife to Jason, a rugged, and somewhat sexist, kind of guy. She's asked to chair a local charity event, and begins an affair with the charity event's executive director. It was just hard for me to like, or feel sympathetic, to a character who is the mother of four small children who commits adultery. I know this sounds judgmental, but really? Where did she think this affair was going to go? The plot is complete with Claire facing her choices, dealing with a boorish husband, rebuilding connections with a high school sweetheart who has now become a rock star, and realizing that she needs to end her affair. I skimmed over many of the pages in this book because it just wasn't worth the time in reading in detail. I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars because it was dull. Hildebrand has done much better in other books.