My friend Craig took this picture from his garden up in Ithaca. I love this time of year when the plants start emerging from the ground. It's like a rebirth of life.

SCORE!!!!
I have a compulsion to buy picnic baskets at garage sales. I have a few including one that I bought PJ when we were dating in 1977! I just find them to be so fun yet romantic. I keep my sewing supplies in one.
WELL, I really scored a great deal yesterday. I got a picnic basket by Picnic Time for $12 at a garage sale. It came complete with all of the accessories! This one really puts the other's to shame. I think I may be getting rid of a couple. We have designated this one as our get-away basket.

I FINALLY mailed out the quilt that I made for "Quilts For Kids". It was my first quilt and I'm pretty proud of it! There were some minor problems along the way but a child will never know! Just knowing that it will be given to a sick child makes it so worth while!

This is a little crazy but there's a live web cam that is attracting people from all over the world to watch a Barn Owl Family being born (8 eggs), hatching, feeding etc. A few minutes ago there were 14,000 people viewing it at that moment! You have to check it every once in a while and you'll see something different each time. You can hear the chirping sometimes also.
http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

It actually gets addicting!

We went to the rally being held at Belmont yesterday. It was to show support for the VLT's to go into Aquaduct and to let Albany know that 9 years after the bill was passed allowing them to get the VLT's is too long of a wait. I learned some things going to this rally. The state is running out of money which we hear every day. If they had the VLT's, as does NJ tracks and Yonker's racetrack, they could be making 1 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY for the state. That's the average of what the other tracks make per day with the VLT's. Also, having the VLT's would provide a TON of jobs for people in the area! I don't get what they don't get!

Ed Mangano and other politicians lined up for pictures to show their support.













Yesterday was Alyssa's 24th birthday. We went to Smokin' Als for dinner. We've always wanted to go there so I was glad that Alyssa chose it. Dave already chose it to be where he wants to go on HIS birthday in September!
Alyssa ordered the BBQ SPUD. I couldn't believe how HUGE that potato was and how LOADED it was!!!
What you see in this picture was actually the END of the meal! We started with appetizers of Fried Pickles... DELICIOUS and a Nacho Platter with Brisket on top. That platter was the best Nacho Platter I've ever had! All of us got almost our entire meals wrapped up to take home! We were stuffed after the appetizers!

This week has been a fun week. Not having power on Monday, Kris asked me if I wanted to waste some time at hicks Bursery at a cooking Demo. SURE! I was excited because I love to cook but I can do something in the light! We enjoyed the demo so much! It was southern cooking (Fried Green Tomatoes and Smoked Pork Shoulder) with chef Leisa Dent of LL Dent in Carle Place. I had such a fun thime that I went to Tuesday (Ivy Cottage- Onion and leek Tart)), Thursday (Fresh Herbs- A La Carte Cooking School in Lynbrook) and today's Demos! Today was Paul from the New York Ravioli Company. He has a very interesting 'story' of how him and his business partner have been friends since 9th grade etc. It was one of those feel good stories!
He made a delicious Pasta Salad for us. I can't wait until next year when they have these demos again!

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day. It's really only about 60 degrees give or take a few degrees but my back years is really feeling the heat! It's secluded on all 4 sides and has always been much warmer than everywhere else. This thermometer is on the side of my shed, under a fir tree in the SHADE! I sat outside while I chatted with Chris on the phone. It felt so good to be in the sun!!!






Last night I made Boxty. There's an old Irish verse something like
Boxty on the griddle, Boxty in the pan, a girl that can't make Boxty, can't get a man! I just had to try it. Everyone liked it but honestly, it was like glorified potato pancakes!

Saturday, March 13th, a day we'll always remember. We had a terrible Nor'easter come through with 67 MPH winds and gusts that registered 75 MPH at the beach! We got about 3" of rain. 3 trees fell at the other end of the block and 5 power lined snapped, 2 completely coming to the ground. Two cars were totaled in the process. We lost our power along with 1/2 of the town. All I can say is it's a good thing that we like camping because it helped us cope! Sunday morning PJ and i went around checking out the damage. Holy cow!! Parts of the town looked like a war zone. On channel 7 Eyewitness News, they referred to Wantagh as Ground Zero! I couldn't believe how many trees were down. In some areas it looked like a tornado came through because it was tree after tree... boom, boom, boom all down!

Princeton Dr and Jane St














Field 6 of Jones Beach














An almost submerged garbage pail















HESS station where the roof blew off Wantagh Ave near Merrick Rd




























Andrea's block... A six house court... 3 trees down, one totaling a car, one blocking the exit of the court and one smashing the gas line! Andrea was evacuated and as of today, Wednesday, still hasn't returned.














My street, John Street, one of the 3 trees down














One of the cars














The other 2 trees














One of the snapped power lines in front of the Dalton's house. I have many many more pics but I think this is more than enough. We got our power back yesterday (Tuesday). I think it's temporary. I think they hooked us up to the block behind us just to give us power. They haven't replaced any of the wires or poles so i'm thinking they'll get to that after they get everyone back with power. What a weekend!!!

Last night some friends and I celebrated Andrea's 60th birthday by going to the Creative Corner and making CERAMICS! We haven't done that for about 40 years! I was a little leery about it but we actually enjoyed it!
Andrea LOVES the beach so I decided to make her an Explosion Box with pictures that I took from Jones Beach. She LOVED it! Everyone came over to look at it. I think she liked it!

It opens up in all directions to give you layers of pictures.





























I made this card for her. It's one of my favorite prints and I have a caopy that i framed for myself. It reminds me of PJ and I in 20 years!














Andrea was very surprised that this outing was for her birthday.




















Diane and Judy acting up!












































GOOD TIMES!!

This is just NOT my day!!
I went to CVS to pick up a prescription for PJ. I had a question about it so I had to step aside for the pharmacist to come to answer it. In the mean time I went in my pocketbook to get my wallet that had my prescription card in it. I couldn't find my wallet. It was weird because there's like nothing in my pocketbook! It was in the zippered part and was black so it blended in to make me not see it The cashier saw that I was a little embarrassed by that one. We had a little laugh! Then I took out the card and was waiting for the pharmacist. I stacked the shopping baskets nicely that were next to me because they were in my way. The pharmacist answered my questions and then I was going to pay but the cashier had to get something. I went in my wallet to get my card out and it was now gone! I searched my pockets, the floor, the counter etc. The cashier came back and once again I had to step aside because of the missing card. I found it in the shopping baskets that I rearranged! So we had a bigger laugh about how I should have stayed in bed this morning! So I'm finished and go out to my car. I put my glasses on and one side falls off! They split in 1/2 on the nose part! I was going to go back into CVS to give the cashier an even bigger laugh but I didn't. I drove straight home!!!
So that one shopping trip has me completely flustered!!

Last night PJ and I went to the Hicks Nursery Flower and Garden Show. This was a special reception for the 'professionals' before they open it up to the public.
We were greatly impressed at how much Hicks has changed over the years. PJ worked there about 35 years ago and boy, it certainly changed since then!
The gardens were all made by outside Landscape Architects and businesses that do paving, plantings etc to create these beautiful gardens.
It really brought me back to the past. Here I was... being able to actually understand and add to the conversations about pesticides,
Long Horn Asian Beetles, Mealy Bug on Poinsettias etc. I was quite proud of myself!
We bumped into quite a few people that we knew. We even went to TGIF's afterwards to catch up with Billy and Laura C. We had a very enjoyable evening and saw some beautiful gardens!

I know this is a double picture but Blogger isn't letting me delete it!

Eggplant in the middle of a flower garden!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY...

This week, it has been so beautiful outside. A week and a half ago we had almost a foot of snow and today, it hit 59 degrees!! I had to take a nice, peaceful stroll along the water at Jones Beach.



I used to look through these things all the time when I was a kid. You put a quarter in and the binocular power comes on for a few minutes. I took this picture because it reminded me of the smiles that are captured on odd objects commercial. I forgot what the commercial is for though!