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Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

Friends with Benefits…

Posted in Everyday Food, Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged Ocean Grove, summer fruit tart, Trish on June 15, 2010| 2 Comments »

Fabulous Fruit Tar

NO NO not that kind of benefits!!!! Really this is a G-rated blog! When you are friends with Trish, you not only get sun block and lunch – you also may get a taste of something she has baked. WOWIE you have NO idea just how good her apple pies are, I mean REALLY and this is coming from me, someone who is a fair cook in her own right. Trish made this fabulous fruit tart for a cook-out we had a few weeks ago. Our mutual friend, Susan, reminded me that Trish’s baking prowess is certainly worth noting. So here it is…. try not to drool on your keyboard.

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Lunch is Served!

Posted in Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged Ocean Grove Vintage Car Show, Trish on June 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

The title of this blog could also be called a Tribute to Trish.

Our friend, Trish, to the rescue! Last week when we were working the Ocean Grove Flea Market in 91 degree heat, Trish stopped by our booth and took one look at how red I was getting and said “I’m coming back with some sun block for you”. AND she did! She insisted we keep the bottle and USE IT.

This week we were showing our 1958 Metropolitan at the Ocean Grove Vintage Car Show and Trish came by in the morning and said, “I’m bringing you guys tuna salad for lunch” and also offered us the use of her loo. Of course we protested about the lunch but gratefully accepted use of the facilities. Trish wasn’t taking no for an answer!

Sure enough, Lunch was Served! Trish showed up with a tray of food beautifully presented. REAL dishes! Peter had opted for a sandwich and my tuna, bean and fennel salad was delicious on a bed of greens.

multigrain chips, tuna salad, tunafish sandwich

Lunch is Served!

All around us other car owners looked at the two of us sitting in chairs and eating lunch on dishes and probably wondering why we had been singled out for such a luxurious lunch! WELL, it certainly helps when you have such a good and caring friend.

Thanks Trish!!

THANKS TRISH!

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And Tuesday It POURED

Posted in Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged convertible, Susan and Jim, Wegman's on June 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

red convertible, raining, caught in the rain, top down, lawn furniture

Top Down and Caught in the Rain

Jim and Susan were lucky that they were near Wegman’s when the downpour started. They took refuge under the building canopy at the drive-up window for prescriptions. Talk about chagrined! Lawn furniture on its way back to the store because the style wasn’t right for their home after all and would only fit in the car if the top was down. Who knew it was going to rain??? Not to mention the automated voice asking them over and over again what was the number of the prescription they wanted to renew!!!

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Savory or Sweet – Cornbread is a Treat

Posted in Everyday Food, Friends, tagged cornbread muffins, Gail, Southern skillet cornbread on May 18, 2010| 2 Comments »

Inspiration or food for thought in this case and no pun intended, for the blogs comes from many different sources. My friend, Gail who has been popping up in the blogs lately, is one of those resources. I had strongly suggested she write a blog herself, however, she thought not – so I invited her to be a guest contributor whenever she wished. Well so far although she hasn’t written any of the blogs, she is an endless resource for ideas. Sometimes directly and sometimes by chance and this is one of the latter.

Gail has taken up baking this year and as a good neighbor and friend, I try to be always available be if for taste testing or taking extra goodies off her hands. She showed up last week with a batch of cornbread muffins. Tiny tasty morsels they were too. Just the size where if no one was watching you could pop the whole thing in your mouth. And in mixed company, they provide two or three good bites.

The cornbread muffins were delicately flaky and crumbly and with just the right amount of sugar. This is the kind of cornbread you want to eat for breakfast or with a cup of coffee for a mid-afternoon snack. Like the Mother’s Day cookies, eventually I had to put some in the freezer and you know why!! They kept calling out my name….

Sweet cornbread seems to be more popular in the Northeast than its savory relative, especially in Barbeque Rib restaurants. From what I understand, no self-respecting Southern cook would serve sweet cornbread with barbeque and the logic is correct – you wouldn’t eat a blueberry muffin with a stew so what’s with the sweet bread served alongside a rack of saucy ribs? It’s like the different cornbreads have created yet another Mason-Dixon line!!!

I say decide for yourselves whether you want to join the sweet cornbread lovers or the savory devotees. Following are recipes for both types.

Cornbread Muffins

Gail’s Corn Muffins

3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup medium cornmeal, 2 tablespoons baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled, 2 extra large eggs. Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Line 12 muffin cups. In bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, cornmeal, salt. In separate bowl combine milk, butter and eggs. With mixer on lowest speed, add wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir till well blended. Spoon the batter into the cups filling each one to the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until tops are crisp and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from pan. * recipe from Food Network.com

Southern Style Cornbread

Southern Style Skillet Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal, 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3 eggs beaten, vegetable oil for the skillet, 2 cups milk, 1/4 cup melted butter and some to brush the tops.

Preheat oven to 426 degrees

Put oil or shortening in 10″ iron skillet and place in oven to preheat while making batter. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and soda in bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and eggs. Add to dry ingredients and mix until the consistency is like pancake batter. With heavy oven mitts, remove pan and twirl to coat all sides of skillet. Pour in batter, return to oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean.* Recipe from About.com

Enjoy!

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Baciarmi? NO- Bocce!!

Posted in Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged bocce ball, Bocce courts, Havanese Bijon, Pacqui on May 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

With winds hovering between 20 mph and 35 mph blowing sand in our eyes and the court in really bad shape, four of us decided to play Bocce Saturday afternoon. We’re not quite sure who is in charge of the town’s Bocce courts but whoever is, isn’t!! The sand base seemed more like red clay, bumpy, pitted and has cracks and rocks and even weeds growing in it. There are actually two courts and apparently whoever is in charge has entirely forsaken that one because it is really overgrown with weeds.

So the plan was to bring some beverages cleverly disguised as something they were not and I brought a platter of hors d’ouevres and we brought along our brand new Bocce set. None of us were really sure of the rules and although I had played years ago, there were a few points I wasn’t sure of, so we decided to sort of wing it.

Ron threw down a gender challenge and so Trish and I teamed up to see if we could beat Peter and Ron at this ancient game which shares a common ancestry with Boules and Petanque. We jumped ahead in early lead only to be overtaken by Peter’s continuous improvement with each throw and Ron’s dead on aim at knocking one of our balls out of range of the pallino or boccino or jack – the small ball we hoped to kiss! But then again take a look at this and tell me if you even see a red ball anywhere in sight!

pallino, Bocce, Ocean Grove, Bocce courts, Boccie, bocci, bocino, jack

Two Points for Us

Our opponents;

Oceean Grove, Bocce, Bocci, Boccie, palino, bocce court, Peter Press Ron Emenheiser

Gimme the Ball, Peter!

The rules of the game are quite simple and IF I hadn’t been so Martha-organized-obsessed they might have been in the Bocce set case but they were not! I thought they might be in a folder at the cottage – I’m sure it seemed like a really good idea at the time. But anyway, now that I’m home, I have looked them up and see that we bent the rules quite a bit but now I know how to play and these are the basic rules; the game can be played as singles or as a team of two or four. A player tosses the pallino to the mid-section of the court and it has to land in a prescribed zone which is about 5 meters in length and about 2 meters from the backboard. If the player misses twice the other team gets to toss the jack ball into the zone. The player or team who threw the pallino gets to bowl first and then the opposing player or team bowls. However, from that point on, only the team who is not close to the pallino gets to bowl again and again until one of their balls is now closer or they use up their turn. At the point the first tosser gets to try to knock away any of the opponents balls that are close to the ball. Only one player or team can win points per frame. And the team with the closest number of balls to the pallino wins a point for each of their balls that are closer to the pallino than the opposing team. The game is usually 9-13 points

We had a cheer leader, Pacqui

: Pacqui Cheers the Good Girls On!

And even with our pretty pooch rooting for us , we lost in the end. Well not exactly lost, we had caught up and made the game a tie when Ron said, “he had to go pick up his pants from the dry cleaner” Oh sure……

My partner, Trish.

Trish Martin, bocce courts, bocce, bocci, boccie, pallino Ocean Grove

The Wind Up and the Pitch!

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OK So It Wasn’t ALL WORK and NO PLAY

Posted in BY THE WAY, Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged barbeque, cook-out, Costco, garden gnome, Heide, Home Depot, lilligaard Hotel, Ocean Grove, pizelles, red peppers, Susan and Jim on May 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Most weekends in Ocean Grove follow a sort of pattern; there’s the opening of the house and putting away whatever we brought down. There’s the grocery shopping for two households, the Home Depot and Costco runs, the lawn care and blah blah blah you’ve heard it all before!

This weekend went a bit awry in both directions – the high road and the low road. It was a BUSY weekend for sure and prior blogs Raise a Glass in Remembrance, Oh Dear, There’s a Deer Here reveal some of the adventures we had over the course of the three and a half days we were there.

We went to the first cook-out of the season on Saturday night. The day was glorious and our friend Joe, celebrated his new terrace by purchasing a gas grill which Jim put together during the course of the afternoon. Susan did the shopping, I made a salad, Joe had weekend guests and as the preparations were underway and as other friends were casually encountered, each was invited and WOW it really was GREAT. The Gaybors next door came laden with side dishes and grillers (sausages from the Amish market). Monica who also lives next door arrived with wine and more food. And the dogs…. Madison, the resident Yorkie was an accommodating host to Timmy who was a weekend guest and Monica’s Yorkie, Mickey who lives next door.

: HOT DOGS!

: Joe’s Garden Gnome

: And Grillers!!!

Oh yes, the Gnome came too.

One of the best ways to wind up a long weekend is to sit on a porch overlooking Wesley Lake. Of course it’s best to be friends with Heide in order to do that. Heide (pronounced Hi-deh) invited us to a Sunday night supper on her porch – yeah, we’re down for that! Although it was getting humid and sticky, the porch was cool as a breeze wafted off the lake and we were in the shade.

: Sweet Peppers and Spinach Dip

: Tasty Bites on a Sunday Night

: Susan Enjoys the Evening

Susan and Jim were invited as well. As dusk descended, we all went inside and had a DELICIOUS salad with chicken. AND fresh strawberries and cream and pizelles

: Pizelles with Strawberries and Cream

NOW that was ALL FUN, indeed it was BUT, BUT – on Saturday night before the cookout, after killing all the weeds with a FULL container of Weed Be Gone and as I was putting it up on the shelf in the shed, the container hit a lantern hanging from the shed ceiling which fell and hit me on the bridge of my nose -” Peter, help, I think I broke my nose, omg, omg!” As I am yelling and trying desperately to reach over a wagon, a bike, a bird seed container while bleeding, I CANNOT reach the container of weed killer which is now pumping all over the shed floor! Oh what a mess!!! Needless to say everything had to come out of the shed. How do you mop up a gallon of weed poison that has mixed with dirt and dust from the floor? NOT easily! It was a disgusting job and since the weed killer got on so many things that I rinsed off the hose, it will be interesting to see how much grass I killed in the process 😦

Back track to last Sunday when Peter got a flat tire and by the time he could drive to a place where someone could change it, he had driven through the sidewall. The Strauss Auto Store put the spare on and gave us a quote for 4 new tires and we drove back to NYC. THIS Saturday I noticed that the left rear tire was really soft so I drove to the first place that had an air pump and asked them to help me – the guy put air in the tire and told me I needed new tires. I got a quote from them too. Yesterday, we looked at the tire and again it was soft!!! Of course it’s Sunday! So we went back to the first place and asked them to repair the tire BUT they said it was against company policy to repair a tire with so little tread – Geezzzzzz We begged and wheedled and fibbed and said we had to get back to NYC tonight and we would back next week to possibly put 4 new tires on the car – BUT their quote was $140 more than the second place. Oy Vey

So that wraps up the weekend except for the part where I bought so much stuff at Costco that I had to put half of the frozen items in the Lilligaard’s freezer. Amen.

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“It’s Only A Paper Moon” or is it?

Posted in BY THE WAY, Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged boardwalk, Flower moon, full moon, Ocean Grove, orange moon, Peony Moon, Planter's moon on April 29, 2010| 1 Comment »

rising moon, red moon, orange moon, planters moon, flower moon, peony moon,

The Moon Masquerades as a Sunset

Ding! I heard my cell phone alert that a text had arrived – I looked at the clock and said to myself, “who is texting me at this hour?” It was Susan, inviting me to meet up at the Fishing Pier in Ocean Grove with a few other “moonies” to see the day old full moon rising. In all my years of moon watching and moon loving, I don’t ever remember watching the moon rise from the horizon of the Atlantic ocean. It was a sight to behold. I arrived just in time to see a small slice of orange peeking above the distant black horizon. Slowly, oh so very slowly, the orange slice grew larger until you could see the top quarter of the orange globe. Well first of all, I never expected it to be orange! The only other orange/red moon I ever saw was in South Africa was glorious and high up in the night sky. So here we are; an assortment of Ocean Grove residents gathered on the boardwalk oohing and ahhing over this ball of fire, this moon which was the color of a sunset was emerging before our eyes. The well prepared people had cameras, tripods and lens – I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA!!! I must remember to have camera and Flip with me at all times. I know I’ve said that before, I’m a slow learner. I tried to take some feeble shots with my cell phone see below:

and by this point the moon had clearly rose and as it inched up in the sky, its brilliant hue began to fade and eventually was all white. So I borrowed the shot of the rising orange moon because I wanted you to get an idea of the magnificence of this natural phenomena.

This moon known to the early American colonists as the Planter’s Moon is aptly named since most New Englanders and Middle Atlantic residents know it’s not a good idea to plant anything much before the end of this month because Mother Nature every now and then throws us a couple of freezing days and we are once again wondering if Spring will ever really be here.

In Chinese astrology, this moon is known as the Peony Moon and from that I gather they are living in a more temperate zone because my peonies just have buds now and probably won’t bloom until mid May or later.

I’m partial to the lore of Native Americans and in their culture this moon was known as the Flower Moon. Could this be because they lived where the Dogwood trees bloomed, the Sweet Cherry trees bloomed and if you look in my lawn you can see that April is the month the dandelions begin to bloom too. I know that Daffodils, Tulips, Iris and a few other perennials bloom so sweetly, reminding us that summer is just around the corner BUT do I think the Indians were planting bulbs from Holland the previous Fall? NO I don’t!ll

We were a fairly well-behaved group, moon admirers and thank goodnes, no Lunatics were in evidence. You really have to look over your shoulder to make sure there aren’t any lunatics near by.

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What’s With All the Sock Monkeys?

Posted in Friends, Peter Coddles, tagged cheesehead, Joan, John Nelson, Nelson Knitting Company, Red heel socks, Rockfords, sock monkey, Wisconsin, work socks on April 14, 2010| 3 Comments »

Inevitably anyone who visits me in our New York City apartment poses this question within moments of coming through the door. Our bedroom is just off the foyer and with door open it is only natural to glance in that direction and this is what they see…

Sock monkey, Redford socks, work socks, red heel socks, Depression toy

What's Up with the Monkeys

Sock Monkeys!! I just love them – they are Soooo cute! I mean look at those faces. Each one is smiling a silly smile with big red lips and they all have attitude. Every morning when I put them back on the bed, I never know where they’ll land, which two might be entwined, who is going to be lounging and who will be sitting up straight and alert to what goes on around them. These monkeys are special because if you look closely they are all wearing hats. That gives them the right to be on the bed otherwise they must sit in the chair…

We Only Get to Sit in the Chair

Actually there is ONE VERY SPECIAL tiny monkey sitting on the chair. NOT because she doesn’t have a hat BUT because she is soooooo tiny, she would get crushed or lost on the bed. Meet Molly, she comes from Wisconsin. I know that seems strange since mostly they have cows and cheese there, not monkeys!

: Meet Molly

: Cheesehead – They Start Them Young

Molly was a gift from my friend, Joan. Joan discovered Molly among her mother’s belongings after she had passed away. It was such a loving gesture to fly Molly to New York from Wisconsin just so she (Molly) could have a home amongst her own here in NYC. And I’m happy to report that Molly is very happy to be here. I have no real idea as to why I started collecting Sock Monkeys (or anything else for that matter!). I didn’t have one as a child. I would see them from time to time at Flea Markets and in Antique shops. I bought one and was sort of hooked on them right off the bat. I don’t need to tell you how the others arrived do I? Hey it’s a collection! AND I am not alone – they’re everywhere. How did it all come about? Glad you asked…

John Nelson, an immigrant from Sweden arrived in the United States about 1860 and he patented a sock kitting machine in 1869 and began producing work socks in 1890. In 1932 the Nelson Knitting Company introduced the red heeled work sock which became their logo and gave birth to the iconic Sock Monkey. Through innovation, the company had been able to produce a sock that did not have a seam in the heel and became instantly popular. The popularity of the seamless sock was such that the market became flooded with imitators and all were known generically as Rockfords.

The country was in a Depression and many a mother, aunt and grandmother took creating homemade stuffed animals as toys for their children and that red heeled sock was just perfect for making a monkey and stuffing it with rags. The early sock monkeys were made with worn out socks Around 1951 the Nelson Knitting Company became aware of the Sock Monkey craze and the use of their socks, so they applied for a design patent for the pattern and won the suit in 1955. At that point, the company began including an instruction sheet on how to make the monkey with every pair of RockfordsSock Monkey started appearing in the company’s promotional marketing. ! The Rockford Knitting Company was sold to Fox River Mills in 1992 and the brown heather red heeled sock is still being produced, sold and made into Sock Monkeys!

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Just One Sunny Sunday in the Grove

Posted in Everyday Food, Friends, tagged beach, Gemini, Grande Americano, Harmon Discount, lilligaard Hotel, martini, Ocean Grove, Oil of Olay, sea glass, Starbucks, Susan, yard sale on April 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

Some people who have a cottage at the shore actually go to the beach. Why, when we didn’t have a cottage and we spent weekends at the Lilligaard Hotel, we used to go the beach, soak up the sunshine, read a book, totally relax and end the day on the big porch with a martini!!

That was then and this is now – There was no buffet for breakfast this morning with a bottomless cup of coffee. Instead, Peter made his own eggs while I toodled around with the computer and watched Sunday Morning. That was just my way of procrastinating, there were so many things on my To Do List and a good many I had put on Peter’s list.

I showered and ate and set out for my first stop which was to Susan’s BECAUSE once again, those damn knitting needles screwed up the sleeve of Finley’s sweater. And on my way over, I spotted balloons down the street, a sure sign of Spring in the Grove – YARD SALE! Not a lot to choose from BUT of course I found a few treasures; 2 DVDs, 2 books for the Grandbabies (I think the books are part of a fantasy of having the grandkids here and reading to them) and a very strange looking tool for Peter which I thought maybe he would clean up and sell at the Flea Market (that may be yet another fantasy). Susan fixed the sleeve in no time and I was off to Starbucks for my morning FIX of a Grande Americano with a lite splash of steamed brevi. Whenever I place that order I feel like I’m a DP from LA. A while ago I bought a travel mug at Starbucks for the car and so if you give it to the staff to fill instead of taking a paper cup and transferring in a moving car which is always a treat, lol, you actually receive a 10 cent discount. So I hand over my mug with my order and the barista hands it to me with the top not on. As I screwed on the top, very hot steamed espresso and half and half streamed out through the top making puddles on the counter and a mess all down the sides of the mug. FIRST I had to bring to her attention that I needed something to clean it up. She said “Oh I’ll clean it up, it happens all the time”. She wiped up the counter BUT I’m holding a mug that literally has foamy milk running down all of the sides and on my hand. NO OFFER to give me something to wipe it or me ,clean. I literally must have used 25 napkins to get all of the foam off the mug. It sounds silly, easy and stupid right? WELL, the mugs are covered in various spots with a rubberized and textured coating – all the better for the hot cream to adhere to! Wipe, wipe, wipe and wipe again. I tried sipping some of the brew so it would be below the screw top and still it came out. THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Wouldn’t you think the people who work for the company that sells the mug would know how high you can fill it? Why I felt funny about taking a photograph of it right then and there I don’t know – I had my camera with me and I should have snapped a shot of the total oozing mess. I wanted a picture for the blog BUT was embarrassed about taking a photo lest they think I was planning on sending it to corporate.

Espresso, steamed Brevi, Starbucks, travel mug

You can still see specks of foam on the mug

Finally I snapped a quick photo surreptitiously at the very end of the clean up. BUT I am going to write to Starbucks because a few weeks ago this very same girl was on the counter and when I asked her for the discount that she didn’t give me, she shrugged her shoulders and took a dime out of the tip container. I guess that was to make me feel foolish and petty when in fact she made the error. This same staff person on that same day looked at me blankly when I ordered a Tall black Pike’s and proceeded to give the robust coffee of the day.

Listen I know anyone can make a mistake, it’s not about that, it’s the attitude! Wouldn’t you think she would be concerned and apologetic that hot coffee was all over a Guest? Wouldn’t you think she would have glanced over and saw me ripping napkins out of the holders to wipe up the continuous puddling on the counter where the sugar and milks are? Wouldn’t you think she might have said something while I was frantically trying to clean up the mug – this while other guests were trying to add milk or sugar to their own drinks and I am standing there looking like the slob who spilled her coffee everywhere?

Once out the door I headed to Harmon Discount because all week long I had been waiting to buy two new eyebrow pencils and two blue eyeliners. THAT’S ALL I was going to get. Part of the spring cleaning of my make-up kit times two because as you know any lady worth her Oil of Olay has cosmetics and stuff at both of her dwellings. At least 3o minutes later I emerged from Harmon with just a few other items. You know when you go to the grocery store and you’re hungry, you come home with all kinds of snacks and goodies, well somehow the same phenomena struck me when I was in Harmon’s. For those of you who are not familiar with this store (it is a chain)-it sells discount cosmetics and toiletries, hair dryers, hair care products as well as brushes, clips etc. In other words it’s a fun place to browse through especially if you’re a girl even a girl of a certain age. So, 2 blue eyeliners – two different brands and two different colors, a water spray bottle to keep my forced curls curly, an eye shadow palette for hazel eyes because I am sure my brown eyes are fading, another eye shadow combo with some greens in it to replace the one I dropped on the bathroom tile floor, you know what that mess was like. Of course I needed two eyebrow pencils too and again two different shades, two different brands – I mention this only because you can imagine how much time was spent while I desperately tried to determine which product and shade was right. I think my Gemini side was in full force yesterday morning. – maybe my moon was rising. Then there was the replacement of a lip stain by Cover Girl that I really like and am almost out of, so I got one of those too. Just as I thought I was done (really) I spotted this eye brightener – now that is a ridiculous come on if I ever heard one because other than putting some magic drops in your eyes, what could this mere pencil do? Well we’ll find out!!! Leaving the store at the checkout counter, I thought to myself, I should never come in this store again when I’m hungry!!

Guiltily and quickly I headed home, picked up Peter and off we went to the storage area where we needed to drop off some New York street furniture find of his, return the Easter hats to their year long home and find a bank that we sold on Ebay which was supposed to be in a bin and was NOT. We are hoping it is somewhere in New York because it has been paid for and the buyer is awaiting shipment.

“What a great day to paint, don’t you think, Peter?” He promised to paint the trim around the windows in the bow window to match the front of the house. Last year we had picked out a beautiful shade of a green that is somewhere between sea glass and aquamarine and at the time we only painted the two front windows and the front door frame…I really wanted the windows on the ocean side of the house painted too.

Bay Window on La Vie en Rose

So after he painted the bow window frames, I drove past the house and sure enough the remaining two side windows stood out like the proverbial sore thumb! Thankfully it didn’t take much convincing to have him paint those also. So now our little cottage, La Vie en Rose has some color on the side. It’s hard to convince anyone it’s a little Victorian when it has white vinyl siding on it. Very bland, but I am adding color wherever I can and making it into a Confection of a Cottage inside and out!

Lest you think I was reading, knitting or writing this blog while he was working I was not! We had bought a huge bag of mulch two weeks ago and so I spread it among our bushes in the back, the daffodils on the side and cleaned up the front landscaping and put some there too. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but I had to fill a pail with the mulch, spread it, fill the pail again and again and again. Still, that was a lot easier than washing the mildew and moss off of the porch spindles and the edge of the porch floor. I scrubbed and scrubbed and it still doesn’t look great and I am trying to convince my painter that mildew will just eat its way through new paint and also some of the spindles and the lower balustrade need to be replaced, AND the porch floor could use some minor repair and a repainting and thank God our other home is an apartment with a Superintendent, handymen who clean the hallway carpeting and wash the floors, a trash room, a laundry room, a doorman and a garage.

All work, no play? NO WAY – as Sunday afternoon faded away, look how much fun we had doing our favorite Shore thing: Drinks and appetizers on the porch with friends! Doncha just love it?