It was a beautiful, quiet day at the lake when I was setting up for guests last week. Not a soul around, only the sound of the swallows over the water.
I got the boathouse ready and did something I never do . . .
(our last guests were rock collectors and left them on the dock and also left us a bottle of bubbly!)
. . . I sat down for about 15 minutes and just took it all in!! Then I hear something coming in the distance!!
Then I decided to just take a drive around the lake to take in all the beautiful azaleas. Even though we had a two-day cold snap which burned a lot of the azaleas, there were still many that did not get touched and looked especially amazing this year!
And then there are the azaleas in my yard . . .
. . . with a few snowball viburnum thrown in! I have spent the week transplanting and now have a nursery of trees, bushes and plants. This week I work on the front beds that will be my cutting garden. I haven't even gotten to the vegetable bed in the pasture, but my tomatoes are growing inside and getting big!
My "new" old light fixtures have been put in, and I love them! They replaced the ugly, boring '50s fixtures that came with the kitchen when we bought it.
Mom, I think these are exactly the same lights you had in the kitchen on 7th Street. Do you remember when we were little and jumping up and down in the kitchen and these globes came crashing down and shattered on the floor? George doesn't remember it either, but I do!!
I have this smaller version right over the sink and have not found a replacement for it and one to match the new lights, but I will continue to look. The BIG yard sale is May 1st, so maybe I'll find something there!
The new fixtures have a Moroccan feel to me. They are brass with glass plates for each side and the bottom.
With the rug in the kitchen, it really feels like Morocco. The rug does not fit the room, though, and I have no other place for it, so sadly it has been listed for sale, but I will find another that fits more with the room.
The glass was gold on one side and white on the other, so after washing them I turned them around so the white side would face out and would be brighter.
What better time to post a travel blog to Morocco!
Back then we didn't have the best camera and weren't the best picture takers, and since this was from the '80s, the photos are beginning to yellow, so I picked a few out of hundreds that were my favorites. Bob being harassed by vendors.
Definitely the '80s, you can tell by the hair. Perms UGH what was I thinking?!!! Bob's sister April is to the left. This was a hotel we were staying at and they served pigeon pie. Yes, real pigeons.
The marketplaces were beautiful, but a bit scary. We did something in one of the narrow walkways to tick off some men on donkeys, we don't know what, and they were trying to hit us with sticks and spit on us. Maybe they thought we were French? (we heard they were not fond of the French in their country)
I brought home lots of spices and bowls.
Dyeing wool.
Girls weaving rugs.
In Marrakesh square, they would come up to you and put snakes around your neck, and you had to pay to get them off. Joke was on them, I'm not afraid of snakes! Saw strange things like teeth being pulled in public. Crazy place! I can say it was an experience!
Back at home I have Roman set up under the bush with his new cool pad and a fan to keep him cool and help his arthritis.
I'd say he gets the royal treatment! I hacked away at the bush so it would be easier to get under to help him up. One day this bush will be cut down, but it stays as long as Roman wants it!
Princess saw his setup and decided it wasn't so bad, so now she's under the bush!
The first of the iris has bloomed, many more to come.
The pansies are at their peak, and the coleus and petunias are waiting their turn to be planted.
