Early Summer Musings

I have always thought my favorite time of year was Autumn, with its beautiful show of leaf colors and crispy, cool days, football games and smells of woodsmoke in the air. Then, again, the first coming of spring, with its daffodils appearing from the cold winter ground and the first few warm breezes and blue, cloudless skies is always wonderful.

But this year, especially, I have realized that the last weeks of May and first weeks of June are another one of my favorite times. That is when my gardenia bushes burst into bloom. Some of the bushes were started from Pamela's bush in Columbia, while others I bought, rooted, and spread around the yard, so there are several different varieties. Some have small flowers and start to bloom towards the end of May, while others have much bigger flowers and bloom well into June.

There is something so satisfying about coming downstairs on an early summer morning to the sweet smell of gardenias on my windowsill, fresh coffee brewing and a bowl of homemade granola covered with sweet ripe peaches from the McLeod Farms in McBee, SC. It is blissful!

This week SS did the most wonderful thing for me in having a gate installed in our back fence and a path made between our house and Mommy M's. This way there is a beautiful, woodsy path we can quickly take back and forth. Baby B enjoys walking it and finding treasures, from the little trees along the way to sticks, leaves and gum balls he likes to collect.

Although they cannot stay in this house they are renting forever, I know we will cherish the times we will be able to spend together this summer, evenings after supper on long summer days, watching our adorable Baby B as he grows and learns.

Hope all of my Pamela's Girls will feel as blessed as I do this week.

With love, CiCi

Baby B at the Pool

It is amazing how much Baby B has grown since last summer... It is also amazing how differently he plays in the pool this year. Last year, he just let me take him around in the baby float as he splashed around until he got tired of it. Then I changed his diaper, put him in his carrier and let him take a nice little nap in a shade by the pool while I layed out. This year he has definite ideas of what he wants to do.

Today was the opening of the Country Club pool, so we were the first ones at the baby pool. After dangling his feet in the water, Baby B got up the courage to get in. He was a little shocked at the cool temperature at first, but then he discovered that he could walk around and splash. After he took a tumble and went under, he wasn't so sure about the water anymore. He decided it was much more exciting to collect all of the magnolia leaves around the pool and gather them into a pile... Far more fun than splashing around in the water. That's Baby B for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JuWRP3i3M

Happy Weekend Pamela's Girls!

Love,

~Mommy

A Saturday That Was Merry & Bright

This past Saturday the air was fresh and cool, the sky sunny and robin egg blue and the day absolutely perfect for sitting out on the wonderful screened-in porch at Chez R with Merry & Bright and a good book. Merry was in her “yellow ball zone” and enjoyed running after it when I gave it a toss for her here and there. The rest of the time she occupied herself with pushing it under a wicker ottoman with her nose and then staring fixedly at me until I got up and retrieved it for her. I’m not sure if it was more entertaining to run for the ball or to watch me on my hands and knees searching under furniture.

Miss Bright was content to sit beside me having her soft, silky white head stroked as I read. She doesn’t ask for much - being the quieter and more sedate of the two sisters - but when it comes to “togetherness”, Brighty is all about it!

Earlier in the week Uncle R & I had decided to try The Village Chapel Saturday night 5pm service. We got ready extra early on Saturday afternoon so that we could pick up a friend who was set to go with us, and then two things happened at once.

First, our friend texted the information that she was sick and unable to go with us.

Second, Uncle R found that he had received an e-mail from a worship leader at our church earlier in the day asking if he could fill in as percussionist at the Saturday night service.

Uncle R has been very happy to plug in as needed with the musicians in providing the music for singing and worship and so we flew into over-drive to get in touch with the worship coordinator and let him know that Uncle R would be able to help. We dropped everything and headed immediately out the door to make it to the worship team practice before the service. It was interesting to us how all of the events of the afternoon led us to being ready to leave the house at the exact time that was needed to make it to that practice. We were very grateful to the Lord for working it all out for Uncle R to help but sorry that our friend wasn’t able to go with us.

We are so happy when we are able to fill a need at our church and endeavor to be available whenever asked. Sometimes the requests have been simple ones that are easy to accomplish and fulfill, such as my assistance with helping to count the offering once a month. Other requests have been a bit more challenging like standing in front of the church and giving the “call to worship” which consists of a prayer and leading the church in a congregational reading. When we have been asked to do this, I mainly let Uncle R do the talking while I stand peeking out from behind him. Heh-heh. He has threatened to stand there, say “hello and good evening” to the church and then announce; “…and this is my wife, J., take it away J !!!” Yeeps.

I hope the Pamela’s Girls have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Love,
Auntie J

Barkley's New Hair Cut

Barkley went to a new Darlington groomers this morning for his summer cut. I was kind of nervous about him being at a ladies house who just grooms dogs, because I kind of liked having him groomed at a hospital in Columbia( just incase he had a little "break-down" and needed medical assistance.) She said he did good though and I think the cut looks really cute. He was the only dog there, so it just took an hour. It was nice not having to leave him there all day like I usually do. Most importantly, Barkley seems happy and untraumatized, which is the best news of all!
Happy Monday Pamela's Girls!
Love,
~Mommy M

SS's Birthday Weekend

We had a great weekend celebrating SS birthday! While Daddy L went out of town for the weekend, Baby B, Barkley and I had a good time playing over at Cici and SS's every night. Baby B enjoyed eating Cici's homemade pizza, playing with all the fun "man" stuff in SS's weightroom and riding in our old red wagon that SS fixed up. It was so nice have Cici and SS close by while Daddy L was off fishing.

Happy Birthday SS!

Love,

~Mommy M

A VISIT FROM LILLY-BAH

Last week I had a real treat when my “little sister” Lilly-bah came through Nashville with her husband and daughter for a visit. Lilly-bah got this particular nickname from me after she told me about a young cousin who couldn’t say her more formal name and it somehow just stuck.

I haven’t had the chance to see Lilly-bah for quite some time. Her husband is a professor/scientist working at a university near Pittsburgh. I first met Lilly-bah and then later her Husband K during my Grassmere Wildlife Park days. That is where Lilly-bah met him too. She was in charge of the various museum collections and Husband K came to the Park with an amazing birds of prey show that gave exhibitions of flight and facts and set up temporary camp there for a season.

Husband K is a brilliant scientist and has a way of passing on that love and interest to everyone around him. When Uncle R & I had Lilly-bah & Husband K over to our house for an engagement supper before they were married, we sat out on the back deck and Husband K could pick out and identify all of the little sounds around us in the trees and grass. It was fascinating. Now they have a little daughter who is as lovely as Lilly-bah. She has a face that Renaissance painters would have gloried in and china blue eyes the size of saucers.

When she was a little single woman living on her own, Uncle R and I liked to “kidnap” Lilly-bah. We actually did this quite often. We were so bad! Sometimes it was for supper or sometimes she’d come over to spend the night. There were a few times that we called Lilly-bah and “asked" if she wanted to come over - and as I talked with her, I would understood that she had on her pj’s and was heating some soup on the stove. Uncle R would hear me saying; “Oh, well… that’s ok…. maybe some other time…” he would reach over… I would hand him my cell phone… and he would say with a grin; “We’ll be there to get you in 10 minutes. We’re not taking no for an answer!” and hang up. She took this kind of abuse from us cheerfully and I hope that she didn’t mind too much! She always enjoyed hot, spicy foods like Uncle R and he could usually lure her over with a promise of his stuffed anaheim chilis.

My last Friday treat was that I got to take Lilly-bah to the Tearoom for the first time. She has seen photos on Facebook but we have never had the chance to go while she was in town. I worked through my lunch hour the day before so that she and I could have a good, solid chat & tea time and it was great! We had little freshly baked mini almond poppy seed muffins and sweet scones, fresh fruit, a salad with slivered almonds, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and goat cheese and a little cranberry frozen dessert with teapots of crème earl grey and a fruity hot tea choice for Lilly-bah. I could have lingered and chatted happily with this dear friend for the rest of the afternoon, catching up with each other’s news and enjoying each other’s company. She is still as sweet and pretty as that summer years ago when we first got together for lunch while we were both working at Grassmere.

(I’m sad that this photo ended up blurry, but am including it anyway…)

Uncle R and I would love to have Lilly-bah and her sweet family back in Nashville and we hope that will happen one of these days. Until then we’ll look for good moments together like this past Friday.

Love to the Pamela’s Girls!
Auntie J.

My Little Surfer Dude

While Daddy L was outside working on his boat, I took these pictures of Baby B wearing his new "surfer" outfit from Cici. It looks so cute on him that I had to share... It is hard to capture still photos of him, especially outside since he has so many little "jobs" for himself out there. In one picture you can see him loading up pinecones and sticks in his dump truck. He's become quite the little helper in straightening up the yard:)
Happy weekend Pamela's Girls!

Love,

~Mommy M