Catching up..

Thought I'd get this updated since it's been *ahem* a little while. First, a collage of some of my fave recent pics. Clockwise and from upper left: Sunset on the trout river, entrance to the Jax Zoo, A mural on the side of a building in Folkston, GA near the Folkston Funnel,  A Great Blue Heron on the St Johns River, one of about 5 very noisy peacocks at the Fountain of Youth in St Augustine, FL.

Also:
**I got reading glasses...finally can read for more than 10 minutes without the double vision. Still getting used to them, but already much better.
**My cat almost needed to have a bladder stone removed, but between the initial x-ray and finally getting to the actual appointment, the stone had dissolved to almost 1/4 the original size, so vet will examine again in a month to make sure it's not getting larger, or won't clog up the works, as it were. ;) This is the x-ray. I circled the stone, which looks a little like a jelly bean:

**There are so many wildfires going on in the southeast. The level of smoke largely depends on the wind shifts. Some days it's fairly clear and other days look like this:

2011 Project 365, Week 10!

On to week 10..I'm a little behind in posting but otherwise keeping up with the picture taking. I'm looking forward to my spring vacation with a day trip to Boston with the Bestie and a spring TSO concert, also with Bestie...gonna be a fun, fun time!!

Going clockwise from the upper left:
Mar 10: They finally pruned the tree by the pool, looks much better!
Mar 6: The kitty picking a fight with my camera strap.
Mar 7: The flowers by the entrance to the industrial park where I work.
Mar 8: The sunset thru the window at CiCi's.
Mar 5: Small balloon decorations outside a local toy shop
Mar 9: my collection of Boston books from the library
Mar 11: Part of the panda statue at the zoo in the "hidden" asian garden

As always, click on the photo to see in more detail!

2011 Project 365, Week 9

Here we are at week 9! As always click on the photo for a closer view. Going clockwise starting from the upper left:

Feb 27: Watching the ABA Jacksonville Giants play

Mar 1: Dino-Alive at the zoo, members preview

Feb 26: Monster Trucks being shown off before MonsterJam starts

Mar 4: citrus tree

Mar 3: I made some yummy mac & cheese

Mar 2: Cracker Barrel made some yummy Pot Roast

Feb 28: sunset at the zoo pier

2011 Project 365, week 7

What a great week!! The weather here finally started to warm up a bit...I know it won't be long before I'm complaining about the heat. :)
The 7th week of the year was quite a busy one. Clockwise starting at upper left:

Feb 16: the door to my church
Feb 12: Sauce Boss, great show and good gumbo!
Feb 18: pretty flowering tree at the zoo
Feb 15: cat loves my shoes
Feb 14: cooking up spaghetti for the Daddy/Daughter dinner at American Heritage Girls
Feb 13: penguins at the zoo (first time I saw them out of the water)
Feb 17: the beautiful full moon

2011 project 365, week 6

A month and a half down now...we finally stopped getting so much rain. It's been getting into the low 60's during the day, too. I was able to get in a nice ride to Palm Coast, (just past St Augustine) this past weekend to see a couple bands and enjoy some good food at the first annual "Hot Foods & Spicy Blues" festival.

Clockwise from upper left I have:

Feb 10: High water level in the little retention pond near work

Feb 6: my Superbowl Sunday snack

Feb 8: Kitty thru a coffee cup handle

Feb 5: my view from the couch resting with my allergy issues

Feb 7: driving in more rainy weather

Feb 9: Fountain and more high water near Panera's

Feb 11: Tropical Sangria at Olive Garden...YUM!

As always click on the photo for a closer look.

2011 Project 365, Week 5

Week 5 was here and left just as quickly. We have had a ton of rain in our neck of the woods, and my allergies have been in high gear for the last few days. Here is my collage for the week, dates and descriptions as always clockwise starting in the upper left.

Jan 30: I started clipping the bits I liked from my scrap magazines, and then recycling them.
Jan 29: BLN (Beethoven's Last Night) and the spring TSO tour I will be seeing with my Bestie.
Feb 4: 3 days on the couch with previously mentioned allergies
Jan 31: Haircut time!
Feb 3: Rainy stop at Krystal's for supper..
Feb 2: I love driving by this hotel and the lights.
Feb 1: Subway, was sooo craving a meatball sub.

2011 Project 365, Week 4

Well, here we are, almost the end of January. Here is my week 4 collage for Project 365. So far, so good! :)

As usual clockwise from upper left. Feel free to click on the photo to see in larger detail! Enjoy!

Jan 24: Panda Express for supper, Yum!!

Jan 28: Just one of many quotes around the zoo, this one is probably my favorite.
Jan 26: Panera for supper before church
Jan 25: Scrabble on facebook! I got whooped.
Jan 23: Train and a beautiful blue sky
Jan 22: Pretty as a peacock wandering down the path at the zoo

Jan 27: Tax filing time!!

2011 Project 365, Week 3

Well here we are, three weeks into the new year already...seems like it's flying by! Work has been keeping me busy, and with the recent announcement of the 2011 Trans-Siberian Orchestra spring tour, I now get to plan my spring vacation! :)

Here is my week 3 collage of Project 365 photos, starting clockwise from upper left:

1/16: Purging my scrapbooking magazines, and removing inspirational bits to save.

1/21: There's an app for that! Changing channels on my tv with the iPad. :)

1/15: A prickly cactus at the zoo

1/19: Made a quick stop at CVS for some candy for work.

1/18: Blue sky after I got out of work

1/17: Watching the Martin Luther King Jr "I Have a Dream" speech at our American Heritage Girls        meeting tonight

1/20: Supper tonight, was delish!

2011 Project 365, Week 2

Here are my photos from the 2nd week of 2011...as usual, clockwise from upper left:
Jan 8 - looking out over the Trout River from the pier at the Zoo
Jan 10 - my car's check engine light on, needed 2 parts, total cost $700. yay.
Jan 14 - the merch table from one of the bands at Winterjam (Kutless)
Jan 12 - tree against an evening sky
Jan 11 - hot apple cider to enjoy while playing on the computer
Jan 13 - Scout hanging in one of his favorite spots
Jan 9 - Jacksonville Giants vs Orlando Kings, Jax won 174-117.

2011 Project 365, Week 1

Here we are once again at the beginning of a new year. I will be continuing my daily project 365, and my scrap your day on the 25th of every month. There hasn't been much scrapping going on lately, but I did make a few cards and tags the last couple months, so working on adding more creativity to my days. I'm slowly getting back to more reading as well.

I plan on sharing a collage every week with my Project 365 shots. I will be better able to keep up with that than single shots, I think.

Clockwise from upper left:

Jan. 1: Polar Bear Plunge at jax beach. Water temp 50 deg, air temp 65 deg.

Jan. 2: Mr Scout on duty!

Jan. 6: Ducks on the pond

Jan. 7: Today's reading material. Lazy day.

Jan. 5: Betsy's favorite calzone from Luigi's. Kim's favorite too!

Jan. 3: My 2010 project 365 photos all sorted by month. Need an album. :)

Jan. 4: New shipment of coffee for my Keurig. The hot apple cider is amazing!!

..and then there was Saturday

After that 3 hr adventure from Friday, including a nice bruise on my side from the cow train ride, Saturday was even more packed. I started the day at about 8:30am at Jax Beach for the Out of the Darkness walk for suicide awareness and prevention. I was there to support a former co-worker who lost a brother to suicide a few months ago. It was a beautiful day at the beach, and at about 9:30 (after coffee & a donut) we set off for a 3 mile walk on the beach. Thank goodness it was low tide! :)

After the walk, I had enough time to shoot over to the Arts Market for just a bit. This weekend there was some chalk art going on, and the Salvation Army was kicking off the "Bell Ringing" season. Bonus: A couple local restaurants got together and started a food truck! Mossfire Grill & O'Brothers are the restaurants, and they call the truck "busin' your chops". I didn't get a pic of the menu board, but I did grab a corned beef and cabbage "taco" and enjoyed it at a nearby park.

Last, but certainly not least, I headed home to change, feed the cat and head up to church. From there a bunch of us car-pooled to a favorite restaurant in Fernandina, FL called Barbara Jean's. Very down home, southern cooking. I had my shrimp n grits for dinner and for dessert a few of us split a big bowl of "Chocolate stuff" Kinda like a cross between warm pudding and raw brownie batter....sooooo good!!

It was almost 8:30pm by the time I got home..it was a wonderful day, full of good friends, and good food!

Fun from Friday!

Since I didn't have to work this past Friday, a friend and I brought her almost-2 year old daughter to play at Conner's A-maize-ing Acres.

It's a family run farm that years ago was close to filing bankruptcy. So they started the acres and now it's huge and quite popular. There were several school field trips going on as well while we were there. They have hay rides, a barrel train, plenty of playground areas, pedal go-carts for bigger kids, a petting zoo, and of course the corn maze.

She was a little hesitant at first near some of the stuff, like the big plastic pool filled with clean, dried corn kernals. But for the most part she was game to try or go on almost any toy, or near any animal. Except the chickens. For some reason she didn't like them much.
She loved posing for pics, and was an absolute ham the whole time. I caught some pretty cute moments!

Among the animals we saw: a horse (complete with new foal), cows, peacocks, chickens, rabbits, ducks, pigs, a donkey, and one very old dog.

By the time we left, we were all covered in dust, and plenty tired.
I have more photos to share another time, but here's one last one of the corn field! You can't see the design, but this years theme was the Special Olympics.

Not Catching Up

I'm not even going to try and catch up to all my Project 365 shots that haven't been posted here. So instead of posting a hundred pics or so, here are a few of my recent (and not so recent) picks, plus today's shot.  8/23/10: I recently started following a local foodie blogger, and she mentioned this spanish bakery in one of her past posts. I'm glad she did because they have some of the best latin pastries I've ever had! One of these days, I'll get some pics inside too!

9/25/10: On my way to the Riverside Arts Market I saw these boarded up houses, and wonder why they are still there. There are actually 3 of them, but I could only get 2 in the picture.

10/09/10: Caught Scout one morning laying in the sun with the shadow of the blinds on him. I think he may see some birds out there..he looks like he's smiling!

10/10/10: I went to the beach to watch the sunrise before church, and I'm so glad I did! Managed to find a few small pieces of sea glass as well.

11/02/10: Today after work I voted and got the first peppermint mocha of the season. Today was damp and drizzly, so it was perfect for a nice hot beverage!


The next couple weekends are busy ones, with a benefit tea for the local Women's Resource Center this Saturday, and the "Out of the Darkness" Suicide prevention/awareness walk on the 13th. Chalk Art at the arts market, plus the Ladies group from church is meeting at a local restaurant for dinner on the 13th. **phew**

October Scrap Your Day

Monday, October 25th was Scrap Your Day, and the "theme" this month was Careful Composition. Since I cannot take photos at work, I made the best of what I have here at home.

From upper left and clockwise: Some colorful plastic chinese take-out containers, quick n easy supper (fettuccini & chicken), my favorite travel mug, groceries to put away, me and part of my cd collection.
I *really* need a haircut!

Those are my favorite shots from the day.

Weekend Update

Saturday was our breakfast day for the Ladies group from Church. We meet at a local restaurant once a month, arriving at 9 and usually we don't leave til almost 11. Lots of chatting, and making plans for future outings and discussing various other endeavors. Coming up soon we have A banquet at a local women's resource center, and lunch at a restaurant we went to last year that we'd all been looking forward to doing again. They have the BEST Shrimp and Grits!! :)

Instead of hitting RAM for saturday morning, I decided to go to Barnes & Noble to get in a little quality magazine time, and a big cup of coffee since it is Pumpkin Spice time of the year.

During the fall the RAM has free movies on saturday evenings, and last night it was The Wizard Of Oz, what a great movie! It was a tradition for us to watch it when it came on TV every year, and I honestly can't remember the last time I watched it from start to finish.

Today I went to Church, then to lunch at the Olive Garden. I needed a long walk through one of my favorite nature preserves to work off that dinner. I did manage to see 3 Pileated Woodpeckers! They are huge! I tried to get all 3 in one picture but the best I could do was 2, as they kept flying from tree to tree. They weren't too happy that I was bugging them.

It was actually kind of buggy out there, so I didn't linger around after the birds flew off for the last time.

Tomorrow is Scrap Your Day, so hopefully I remember to take pics throughout the day, and not just starting when I leave work, *that* never happens!

Central Florida jaunt

To start off my 4 day Holiday weekend, on Friday I took a drive to the Orlando area of Florida to see the Citrus Tower in Clermont. I've decided I need to venture further away than I have been. So, for me this was a new drive in very new territory. It's definitely the farthest I've driven in one go since I moved here. 

There is a miniature White House next to the Citrus Tower as well as a mini Mount Rushmore, and a mini Statue of Liberty, too! Inside the White House there were all kinds of wax statues, souvenirs and Presidential memorabilia, such as the China they used or jewelry worn by the First Ladies.


Here are some photos of a few of my favorite displays, and the outside of the building. The day was gray and a bit wet, but thankfully it wasn't raining too hard.

I believe I was supposed to pay to walk thru the Hall but there was only one person working, and she was leading a school group, so I walked thru quick and poked around the store area before heading to the Citrus Tower. I loved the Lincoln Statue.

Out front there was a bench with a Barack Obama sculpture sitting there, presumably for people to sit next to him. It was too wet, and it honestly didn't look much like him, not to mention his face was more green than anything. Next time, I'll get my picture in front of Mt Rushmore though. :)

After the Hall of Presidents I headed over to the reason for my visit: The Citrus Tower! It stands about 22 stories up, and because of it's location the top of the tower is at about 500 feet above sea level. Pretty tall for down here.

There were actually 2 different signs for each direction, but I only did the one side this visit. Hoping for much better weather the next time I go. Perhaps better planning on my part to actually look at the forecast before I go?

The oranges will show in the winter, and that sounds good for my next visit.  I picked up some key Lime coconut bars in the gift shop, and headed across the street to my next stop.

While searching the internet for other things to do there, I noticed that they had Friendly's Ice Cream. I honestly thought those were only in the Northeast! I sat down and ordered up a glass of water (tap, ugh) and a banana split. Jeanne had sent me a copy of The Improper Bostonian (Anthony Bourdain on the cover, Bonus!) and enjoyed reading that while I noshed.  I stopped at the Florida Mall in Orlando for a little while, and then drove back home. Lots of holiday traffic, but hey, i wasn't in a rush. I drove right past Universal Orlando, too. Oh,  how I wanted to stop and see the Harry Potter section of the park! :)

breakfast, books and tacos..

Saturday morning I went to breakfast at a local restaurant with the ladies from our church. This trip there were 18 of us. After noshing on a western omelet and plenty of coffee I headed down to a Barnes and Noble store a little bit further away than the one at the Town Center for a little change of pace. There are *only* 3 BN stores within 50 miles of where I live, but several Books-a-Million, and one or 2 Borders stores as well. I grabbed a few magazines, a coffee from the cafe and headed to the section where a local high school jazz band was playing. I was very pleased to see many comfy chairs too!

The band finished playing, and the magazines pored over, I headed out in search of a local park I saw online. Set along the St Johns River, the Walter Jones Historical Park was a nice cool area to walk along looking at some old barns built in the mid to late 1800's and a nice view of the River as well. There was a birthday party going on in one of the pavilions and a few other people walking the trail. Other than that all I heard was the sound of birds and the rustle of the breeze thru the trees. After a leisurely walk thru there I got back into my car and headed southeast towards St Augustine.

Since it had been some time since breakfast, it was time to find dinner. Now, I've been thru the historic district at least a dozen times in the last couple years, and I don't remember seeing this taco/burrito shop. I went in, ordered, sat down at a small booth and amused myself by taking some pics, and reading the (allowed) graffiti on the walls. It was delicious fresh food, and I'll definitely be going back next time I'm in the area! And next time, I'm bringing a sharpie to add to the artwork!

back at it....

Starting off where I finished that last post on Jeanne's & my last trip to Boston, day 2 is winding down. We spent the afternoon in East Boston, taking the Blue line out to the Maverick Station. We walked along the water (on a road, no beach here), and stopped in Piers Park for our lunch of strawberries and some photos of course.

Clockwise from upper left: Entrance to Piers Park, 2 shots of some reliefs on the pillars of one of the small pavillions in the park, covered benches along the water, giant metal fish sculture on top of a nearby marina.

As it got later, we headed back to Cambridge to wander around the Hatch, and the Charles River Esplanade. Clockwise from upper left: MIT in the background and the Longfellow Bridge in the fore (AKA the Salt & Pepper Bridge due to the pillars looking like giant S&P shakers), love the sunset setting on my camera..getting darker!, lots of people out enjoying the weather and watching the sailboats on the Charles, odd building on MIT grounds near the Kendall/MIT station, Duck boat making its way past with the Hancock tower behind.

Once it got much darker we saw what we had always wanted to and happily snapped away for about a half hour before making our way back to Dunkin Donuts and a long subway ride back to our car, and the drive back to Northampton...

Boston photos, Day 2

After packing up our things, we checked out of our room, loaded our bags into the car, and drove the 1/4 mile down the hill to the Riverside T station.
So begins day 2 in Boston. Clockwise starting from upper left: Sunrise in our hotel room, view of Riverside T station from the parking garage of the hotel, on the subway heading in to the city, at Starbucks on Tremont St for our morning sustenance, Custom House tower & the Holocaust memorial, Jeanne feeding some crumbs to the birds. Greedy lil things! :)
The weather was beautiful once again!!

After enjoying our coffee and muffin we headed towards the Haymarket. So many sights, smells and sounds, all at once. Vendors calling out for more produce, prices to prospective buyers, and telling people not to touch the "merchandise". The deals were not to be missed. If our car wasn't so far away, we would have bought lots of stuff. :)
Clockwise from upper left: Lettuce: what a deal!, artist at work, seafood vendor: fresh shrimp for $2/cup (it was delish!), A small piece of street art called Asaroton (meaning unswept floor), Seafood vendor shucking oysters. In the center we have 2 statues of Mayor James Michael Curley. We ended up buying a quart of strawberries for 99 cents. That was our lunch.

 After the Haymarket we headed to the North end.  Had to have a cannoli at Mike's Pastry! We took a short walk along the waterfront, then got on the T and headed over to East Boston, a place neither of us had been to.
Clockwise from upper left: the Bunker Hill monument visible from east Boston, The glass wall and tables at Mike's Pastry, tray of cannolis..YUM!, pretty tulip, Aquarium stop on the Blue Line, Custom house tower from East Boston.

Still more to come from East Boston and beyond. Including some pics from the skyline at dusk from Cambridge!

More Boston Photos!

Here are just a few more Boston collages to share. As I said we had beautiful weather, and we also really enjoy being there on weekdays so that we get to see the "normal" hustle & bustle of the city. Trying to get on the subway during rush hour is probably the hardest thing. Crowded, and not the least bit comfortable, unless you happen to score a seat. :)

(from upper right and clockwise): One of the Muses in front of the Boston Public Library, The Prudential tower peeking out from behind The Lenox Hotel, the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on the Boston Common, here I am enjoying a slice of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, The First Church of Christ, Scientist (aka The Mother Church), and in the center: Jeanne & I always get this shot of ourselves reflected in the Hancock Tower. The glass seemed especially clean this year!

These blossoms stand out against the bright blue sky, the view from our hotel room, the restaurant we ate at in Chinatown before the TSO concert, the gate to Chinatown , and last but not least, The State House. This was the first time we really had a chance to wander around Chinatown, and we loved it. So different and interesting! The restaurant we chose was on a whim, and it turned out to be excellent. After dinner we wandered back to Tremont St towards the Wang Theater. And that brings me to my last collage for Day 1 in Boston. TSO!

Upper left: Jeff Scott Soto, awesome voice! Upper right: Chris Caffery, Lower right: Taking a bow, lower left: Intermission/introductions. The first part of the concert was "Beethoven's Last Night" in it's entirety, along with narration in between songs. The 2nd half of the show featured a few songs from their newest album called "Nightcastle". Being in a smaller theater, they couldn't use pyro like they  do in the Christmas concert, but the special effects and lasers were out in full force. After the show we made our way to the merchandise table then to the autograph table.

Definitely a night to remember....We made it back to the hotel very late, and by the time we wound down enough to crash, it was almost 2am! Before we knew it, it was up and back out into the city for day 2!