Laundry Room

My laundry room is so boring.  Laundry is bad enough without having to do it in such an uninspiring place.  I gave it a good cleaning the other day, took out all the dead plants, swept up the dead leaves, cleaned out the cupboards so I could actually put some laundry related material in there, sucked all the dust bunnies I could find out, and yet the room is just blah!
I need to paint it, but I'm not sure what color, and because painting a laundry room involves moving the washer and dryer I want to get the color right the first time.  Actually what I want is for Sarah Richardson from HGTV to come in and do the room.  I love her work, even when what she's doing is not my style I can appreciate what she's doing.
I've watched all of her shows:
Design Inc.
Sarah's House 1,2 and 3
Sarah's Cottage
Design 101
If I had the money I'd have her and Tommy in here tomorrow to do something with that room.

One of Sarah's Laundry Rooms

I'm considering bead board along the one long wall done in a pastelly blue with a line of glass tile above it and then soft yellow above.  That's today's thought, last week I was considering painting the wall with the window red and putting in French style black and white checked cafe curtains.  No telling what I'll end up with.

What a Surprise!

Lilacs don't grow in coastal Georgia, no, let me rephrase that.  Lilacs don't bloom in coastal Georgia.  I've had a lilac, a plant I adore, here in my garden for about 7 years, but it doesn't bloom, it just grows.  I smile at it, talk to it, tell it how pretty it would be if it bloomed, but it just stays a leafy green.  That is until this week.  For some reason, known only to the lilac, it decided that though it shouldn't, and all the books say it won't, in the middle of October my lilac has sent forth a tiny bloom.  Not very big, rather an odd color, but very lilac in smell, I'm pleased.

Near it my Ginger Lilies are blooming, perhaps the lilac decided the lily was a show-off and needed to be put in its place.  But for whatever reason I'm thrilled, I walk by a couple of times a day and sniff it.  Well done lilac, keep up the good work.

The Trip That Almost Wasn't

For Mac's birthday I'd booked us a trip to Cumberland Island with a stay in St. Marys at the lovely Emma's B & B, but as the day of the  trip got closer the weather forecast for the day we were going got worse.  So I called the ferry people and asked if I could move our reservation to the day after our reservation.  They said no, you had to use the reservation on the day you'd selected, so I asked if I canceled would I get a refund and was again told no, no changes, no refunds, that was their policy, I  told them I didn't think much of their policy.  After talking it over with Mac we decided to cancel our room reservation and just "eat" the cost of the ferry, so I called Emmas and was told that I had to call 48 hours in advance to cancel if I wanted a refund, I'd thought it was 24 hours.  They would keep the whole cost of the room, though if we rebooked within 6 months the money would be applied to the new reservation.  We decided to brave the weather and go.  Our ferry reservation was for 9 am, but there was another ferry at 11:45 and we thought we'd take that one instead, hoping the weather would improve by then.  At the ferry ticket office I worried that they might not honor our reservation as it had been for the earlier ferry, but they said as long as it was for the same day that it was fine.
The boat ride was beautiful with partly cloudy skies and it looked like we'd be ok, and we were, it didn't rain, but boy was it windy!  Cumberland is the largest of Georgia's Barrier Islands, is mostly owned by the state and the number of visitors is strictly controlled.  I hope it never changes with its lush marshes, maritime forests, huge live oaks and wild horses and turkeys.
We only had the afternoon there, but Mac got to hunt for fossilized shark's teeth and I did an oil painting which I need to finish now, so it was a good day.
Dinner that night was at Captain Seagel's  located on the waterfront and the food was excellent, particularly Mac's, he had Flounder Florentine done with Feta cheese and spinach.  The restaurant is part of a hotel and has been run by the same family since the 1920's.  It was cozy and was a perfect spot to watch the sunset.
The next morning we wondered around St. Marys, one of my absolute favorite places.  St. Marys is the second oldest continually inhabited city in America being just slightly younger that St. Augustine in Florida.  We've visited numerous seaside communities, Tybee Island, St. Simons, Jekyll, Hilton Head etc, but St. Marys is different, there is something very special about it.    I enjoy the other places we visit, but each time we go to St. Marys I always turn to Mac and say, "I could live here." , and he agrees.  So I go home and search real estate listings.
That morning St. Marys was decorated, as they do every year at this time,  with its Scarecrows and looked very "harvesty".  I love the old southern style homes, and though I wouldn't want one as big,  they are gorgeous.  Many have been turned into B & Bs.

Fossil Hunting

Ruins of the Carnegie Mansion

Wild Turkeys

Emma's B&B

Garden at Emma's

Looking From Fishing Pier Back to City Park

After our walk around town we went down to the harbor and Mac fished, not getting so much as a nibble, and I read a book.  What a beautiful morning and a wonderful trip.

Autumn Sunshine

What an absolutely gorgeous day we're having, in fact the whole weekend was this way, but they're warning us that all good things must end.
 Finally got my veggie/herb bed cleaned out, romaine lettuce propped back up after last week's rain and some red leaf lettuce planted.  So there's romaine, butter and red leaf in there now.  We usually don't have any frost before Thanksgiving so they should do well. In the middle of this bed is my rosemary, I'm trying to convince it to grow into a tree, but thus far it hasn't been very cooperative.  Trimmed back my marjoram, oregano and sage, they'll winter over and I'll have fresh herbs to use.  Two cabbages decided to come back and I'm  just leaving them, I hate to discourage any plant that's willing to grow on its own.
Planted my Pansies into my planter on the backdeck, and put the others, as well as the Chrysanthemums, out front.

Pansies

Mac has been busy in his garden too, he already has green beans up and today he planted Fava beans.

I probably pulled a million weeds from my planters and have at least that many more to go, but that's ok, weed pulling is very satisfying.

Mrs. Beeton

My Mrs. Beeton's

I've been trying to write this blog all week but life kept interfering.  Doctor's appointment for Mac, his 60,000 mile, six month check-up, and all was well there, plus my eyes have not been behaving so I had to take them back to my retina specialist for a check-up; think we've gotten them sorted out, so I think I'll try and get this written.
A couple of years ago we got the DVD The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  Of course I'd heard of her and assumed she was some fussy, well-to-do,  old Victorian lady giving household advice to the less enlightened.  So I was really surprised to learn how unfussy she was, how young she was, only in her 20's, and how ignorant of household management she was in the beginning.  I thought it'd be interesting to get hold of one of her books.


Now flash forward to our trip to England in September.  When we're in England we always spend as much time as possible  in bookstores, particularly used bookstores.  Well while prowling through shelves of books in a store near Chipping Camden one day Mac found a copy of Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book and brought it over to me to see if I would be interested.  Ha, interested!  I was absolutely thrilled!
  Her original book, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management ran to 1,112 pages with more than 900 of the pages being devoted to recipes.  This little gem is 372 pages and most of them are recipes, with some pages given to the role of the housewife which includes management of servants (don't I wish), advice for the kitchen, kitchen machines, laundry work, marketing, the larder, and  methods of cookery.  The rest of the book is all recipes with loads of black and white illustrations and a few color prints.
Haven't tried any of the recipes but I plan on trying some of them, in particular there is a dessert made with apples call a Friar's Omelet I want to try.
There is no publishing date on my book, but I went online and found that it was an updated copy, hence electrical appliances are mentioned, and was published in 1925, what a find!

Fish Recipes

Sweets Recipes

Waiting to Plant

Too Pretty to Go Outside

Went this weekend to buy chrysanthemums and pansies to add some color to my garden now that I've pulled most, but not all the weeds, out.    Also picked up some more lettuce, red leaf this time to go with the romaine and butter lettuce I'd already planted.  Well Mother Nature intervened, we're having more rain, and wind, than we've had in months.  So far more than 2 inches has fallen and more is expected and my garden is now a bog.  Oh well, I could watch tv but the wind plays havoc with our satellite dish and the picture just goes in and out driving me crazy; they're coming some time this week to move it, so that's out.  We finally hung the curtains I bought back at the beginning of summer,  so that's done.  Guess I'll go upstairs and start looking at Christmas presents I need to start work on.  Or, like a little kid, I could just press my nose against the window and sing, "Rain, rain, go away, I really want to plant today."

Pretty in Yellow and Gold

Waiting For the Georgian Sun

My Boggy Garden

My Poor Romain

Live Oaks

A Street in Savannah

 I had pictures of Live Oaks on my Blog a few days ago and A Heron's View commented that it was good to see so many live oaks (quercus virginiana), the shipbuilder tree.  I'd never heard it called that before and was rather surprised because when you look at it it's not one you picture as part of a ship.  They tend to be a bit twisty and branch very soon.  So I looked them up in wikipedia and sure enough that's what they're called, they were used primarily for hull parts such as knee braces,  Like all oaks they're very strong and their wood lasts forever.

Europe has few of them left now having been used up by early in the 19th century, but they thrive here in the coastal south from Virginia to Texas,t hough not so much inland.  You see them along all the coastal rivers, the swamps and wetlands.  Frequently they're festooned in Spanish Moss.    They are Georgia's state tree and a particular favorite of mine.

Forsyth Park Savannah

Autumn Decorating

Pillows covered for Autumn

I grabbed the 2 pillows off the couch today and headed upstairs with them  to make new covers for them so they would look more autumnal.  As I was heading upstairs Mac asked where I was going with the pillows and I explained what I was up to.  He replied, " As long as they're back on the couch for lunch."  Now I know that sounds strange, what do pillows have to do with lunch, but the truth is, though we have a nice dining room table and a kitchen table, the only place we eat is on the couch in the family room, with our noses in a book that's propped up on a pillow.  I'll admit that both the tables we have  are always covered in "stuff", but we wouldn't eat there if they were empty, just too comfy on that couch. LOL

Pillow for summer

Dining Room Table

Kitchen Table

Tyranny of Technology

If you read my Blog you know I got a new car at the end of July because my much loved, older (17 years) car had died at the airport, and we knew that we could no longer rely on it.  So reluctantly we sold it to a friend who'll be able to fix it up and get a few more years out of  it.
When we went car shopping I told the dealership that I needed a basic car that wouldn't get driven very often and would probably have about 7,000 miles a year on it.  They leased me a Mazda 3, assured me it was just what I was looking for, and more.
Flash forward to Septemeber 6, 2 days before we're to leave for England, we got in the car to do some last minute shopping and click, the battery was dead, deader than the proverbial doornail.  Mac tried to charge it with out battery charger, it wasn't strong enough, so he backed his Miata out and charged it with that.  It charged, but it wouldn't hold the charge, so we took the battery out and took it to a local tire/battery place and had them charge it.  Can back a couple of hours later and they said the battery wouldn't charge.
I was fuming!  Called the dealership where we bought the car talked to the service department and started ranting and raving, told them I'd got the car so I wouldn't have problems like this, that my old car was still running the road and here I sat with no car.  They wanted me to have the car towed in, they needed to check and see if the problem was the battery or something else.  Mac pried the phone out of my hand before I could crawl through it and choke someone and said he'd charge the car again in the morning and drive it in, and he did.
They charged the battery and talked to Mac about what might have caused the problem, they asked if the car had sat for awhile, and yes it had been about 10 days, I don't drive much.  They told him that there are so many little lights and gizmos on the car that it can't set that long, it would drain the battery, it had to be driven more often.  Mac told them we were getting ready to leave it at the airport for a couple of weeks, what should we do.  They said to take the negative power cable off the battery and then reattach it when we got back.  So that's what we did, and I'm making an effort to drive it more often.  I use to leave my old car for weeks at a time, in fact we had to charge Mac's new car with it once.  I could have used a few less bells and whistles on my car, I like things simple, but carmakers don't do simple any more.

The Golden Isles

Mac took me on a birthday trip yesterday to Jekyll Island one of Georgia's Golden Isles.  The Isles are made up of 4 barrier islands: St. Simons, Sea Island, Jekyll, Little St. Simons.  We've been to St. Simons twice, and though I really like it I wanted to go somewhere different.
We had a picture perfect day for walking, painting and fishing.   We both walked, I painted, Mac fished.  He caught 5 fish, I painted a really bad painting that I'm going to have to fix some how.
Jekyll is a small island  about 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide and is owned by the state of Georgia, people living there lease the land for their houses  from the state.  The state plans on keeping at least 65% of the island as a nature preserve and I think that's wonderful.   There are biking paths every where, you can rent horses to ride on the beach or you can walk, what could be better?

Salt marshes cover much of the island

Driftwood beach

Fishing pier

Live oaks every whree

We went to the north end of the island to Driftwood beach which is noted for its huge stands of pine and live oak roots scattered about the beach.  Unfortunately the tide was in when we first got there and it took a while for it to go out enough to be able to really appreciate the beauty of it all.
For film buffs parts of X-Men First Class, Glory, and the Legend of Beggar Vance were filmed on the island.