Tuesday 4~ On Holiday

 

On Holiday

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...
Summertime means travel time for many people.
Let's talk about travel and holidays.

1. Will you be traveling this summer at all?

Not that I am currently aware of.  We prefer to do our traveling in the fall, but I am not too sure that we will even be doing that this year.  Everything has gotten too expensive and we really don't feel like traveling that much anyway. However, I never say never.  If the opportunity arises, and it's something we really want to do, then I suppose we might just do something spontaneous. (But I'm not holding my breath on that idea)

2. Will there be day trips in store for you? visits to the beach, evenings out:?

We do plan to go meet up with my hubby's brother and wife (and kids? not sure) for lunch one day this month. Our "kids", Benton and Rose, will go with us, and we will travel about an hour or so south to meet them at a restaurant that we always enjoy.   Other than that, I don't know of anything else at this moment.

We don't do "evenings out" now that we are old retired people. If we go anywhere,it is normally in the day time, and preferably for lunch.  We already did a visit to the beach for my mother's day treat, and I don't foresee us going again anytime soon. Too hot and crowded. (and too much traffic between here and there). Let's face it, we are homebodies these days.  We may take short rides here and there just to get out of the house, but that's about it.
3. Do you eat out more in summer... do you go for ice cream or treats more?

I wouldn't say that we eat out any more in the summer than we do in the rest of the year. We may average going out to eat once or twice a month year round.  Re: ice cream...if we want ice cream we buy it at the store and bring it home to eat. We can't justify spending so much for an ice cream cone as a whole carton of ice cream! Sorry to be a kill-joy, but we are retired and on a fixed income! LOL!

4. What is your favorite place to visit and what is the most exotic place you've been to?

Well, our favorite place to visit would probably be the mountains..north Georgia in particular, and that would be in the fall if at all.  Most exotic place I've ever been?  I'm not sure I could classify any place we've been as exotic. We live in Florida...isn't that exotic enough? LOL.  Never been to an island or on a cruise, and don't have any plans to do so. When we were younger we would sometimes go spend a night or two at the beach in a nice hotel, just the two of us. That was pretty exotic to us. Sometimes we talk about doing that again. I'd love to go just to wake up and see the sunrise on the beach and take a walk on the beach early in the morning before the crowds arrive. That's my idea of paradise. LOL. 

Sorry I wasn't more exciting on this week's meme.  We just aren't travelers anymore, and we are on a tight budget, so we are careful about what we do. And to be honest, "there's no place like home."  You can make your home as exotic as you like. It can be your own little hideaway if you need it to be...and since we are retired and no one else lives here with us, that's pretty easy to do. 

Now on another note, Let'swalk around my "exotic" yard and see what we can see...Oh, this is the first yellow squash to get big enough to eat...

And because our "boys" were going to be here for Sunday dinner yesterday, I picked the squash and cut it up to put in our tossed salad...

It was perfect!  We did add tomatoes from our garden also, but I keep them separate and let everyone add their own tomatoes since not everyone wants them.  

We also had hamburgers cooked on the grill by son Scott. However I didn't take any pictures of that or of us eating. DIL Rose is still in Minnesota, so son Benton came over and brought the 'pups' with him. I've told him he can plan to eat supper with us all week while she is gone if he wants to.  I always cook too much food anyway, so he might as well come and help us eat it. And so he did come again tonight, and I expect he will come tomorrow, etc. as well. It's good for us and good for him too, as I know he really doesn't enjoy cooking and eating alone all that much.

Finally we also have a zucchini squash growing. I will probably pick it before it gets too big and we will most likely put it in a salad too.  There aren't enough squash yet to cook up at batch, so I'd just as soon eat them in a salad.

Some of my wildflowers are starting to bloom that I planted:

And my blueberry bush is really loaded with berries, and they are finally starting to ripen!

Who is that hiding under the bush in my shadow?

Ah Ha! Caught you Blackie!!  He was right there under my feet, and sniffing at the blueberries. I hope he doesn't decide that it's something he wants to eat!! I have other plans for those blueberries!!

Now, talk about "exotic"...or maybe just strange and unusual...

We kept noticing some buzzards landing on our still very dry "Still Waters Pond", and it appeared they were guarding something and also kind of fighting over something laying there on the surface of the dry pond. These pictures are kind of bright because it was a bright sunny day, and also because my photo editor program is not cooperating with me on pictures from my "real camera", and so I am not able to edit pictures very well right now. I've got to figure out what's wrong, but it's a frustrating process, so what you see is what you get for now...

I tried to zoom in on what they are looking at, and because it was at a great distance, and also because of the bright sun, I wasn't too sure, but it sure looked like a fish!  Now, where on earth would a fish come from on top of our very dry pond????

A little later my curiosity got the better of me, and the buzzards had flown away, so I decided to try and venture forth across the dry pond, and I actually made it! Thankfully this was only as far as the island, and not all the way across, but still, it was a journey frought with a bit of trepidation because I was afraid the crust of the pond would break through and I would be in the muck beneath. But apparently the ground is SO dry, that wasn't a problem.  Anyway...YES, it was a FISH!!!! Amazing!  The only thing we can figure out is that most likely a big bird like an Osprey or maybe even an Eagle could have been flying over with the fish in its mouth, flying from the bigger lake nearby, and the fish fell out of its mouth and landed here on the pond. That's the only explanation we can figure out.

Oh, and to answer a question from the comments on my last post, someone asked me how deep our pond was before, and the best answer I can give is that when I was able to paddle the kayak around the pond, I had a long walking stick that I took with me, and I stuck it down into the water as far as I could at one point, and I would say that it was about 3-4 feet deep. There may be some other deeper pockets here and there, but that would be the average depth out in the middle of the pond when it is full. It's hard to believe it now when we see how extremely dry it is. And I do wonder where all the fish, frogs,  and turtles went when the pon dried up...and will they come back whenever the pond is full again? Time will tell. Keep praying for rain. We are supposed to get some starting this Thursday through next week.  

Here'a another unusual sight: the clouds this morning at sunrise:

Now on a very sad note...I learned this morning that our dear sweet friend Maura had passed away. She was 87 years old. This picture was taken in April, and I wrote about it HERE.

When we last were together in April, Maura had just recently lost her husband of 70 years, "Woody". He was 91.  After 70 years of marriage, you can well imagine she was feeling very much alone, even though her granddaughter and great-grandson had moved in with her to help out. But sadly she became very ill recently, and one thing led to another and she was placed in Hospice care over the weekend, and passed away peacefully this morning. 

I am still in shock. Maura was always such a lively and happy person, so full of the joy of the Lord. I know she is rejoicing in the Lord's Presence tonight, and also I know she is so happy to see her precious Woody and their son Mark again. Mark had passed away a couple of years ago after a very long illness.  So she is with the ones she loves and her pain and sorrow is over.  

One of my favorite pictures of Maura, taken at our previous home, where we were "neighbors" and spent a lot of happy times together.

Maura and her husband Woody. This was taken at our son Benton and Rose's wedding in 2017.  Such a dear sweet couple.  May they both rest in peace and in the joy of the Lord.  

"Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning."

Psalm 30:5b

John 11:25-26

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 

26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die..."

John 14:1-3

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,  believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

And with that I will close for the night.  Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers .