I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Happy Fourth of July!



Happy 4th of July and Best Wishes to all friends worldwide!

it 's been hot but not this hot!











































Mo practicing his party outfit!








Mo in his light up Mardi Gras beads on Fireworks Night.












Have a fun holiday!




love

lizzy

gone to the beach....












*************************

German Potato Salad 
(a 4th of July Must Have, along with Mom's decadent Pina Coladas~)

net bag of tiny red potatoes, maybe 3 Cups?
Boil or microwave til tender. 
Rinse and slice into bowl with chopped celery
and scant 1/4 C of finely minced sweet Vidalia or red onion, or to taste. 
[but not a really onion-y recipe, just a hint!].
Toss with a simple vinaigrette of cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, tarragon, parsley.

Cover and refrigerate. 
Next day about 3 hours before the picnic, take from fridge and toss.
 Add more vinegar if not zesty enough.
Add a little cold water if the salad seems dry.

Close to serving time add 3 or 4 well chopped hardboiled eggs 
and  1/4 C of bacon bits. [made fresh, not from a jar!]. 
Toss again, serve room temp. 

Good for hot weather as the dressing won't go bad easily.

enjoy!




Friday, June 29, 2018

Schoolgirl Album Blocks: June , Strawberry Moon with rainbows, plus Mo's Encounter with a Crab




Good evening, friends! A mishy mashy post today, ''something for everyone''! Where to begin?


I caught up on my Antebellum Schoolgirl Album quilt blocksat the last  last minute, still was sewing late Tuesday night. The new block for July was posted Wednesday! Phew, made my deadline.


This month we have the sappy lovers as the central toile block



Mel  was supposed to be helping me chose the ''solid'' color [plain squares] for the 9'' Hideous version, but it was late and Zzzz, I ended up with her first choice, an older Blue Hill calico vine.



Other options were Hideous [Wyndham's Jamestown] yellow ...


or Hideous purple. The purple was  my favorite [and at one point, Mel's].



but in person the yellow sprig, looked best.


Using one's cellphone camera is such a wonderful tool for quilters. I see things I never realized, in this case that the Friendship Star is the wrong size. [Can fix by trimming.] And that I better use the purple with the duck egg blue dots, lower left, again, at least twice more, to tie things together.



Then we have the Blues version:


Here are the blocks so far. Are you yawning yet? Me too.


July's upcoming block is a simple Ohio Star with a fancy name.  Good, I needed ''easy''. I am enjoying these blocks and always read the history provided, but while interesting, the narrative doesn't capture my imagination,like Westering Women did. As always though, Barbara Brackman's knowledge is impressive.


And here is TQC's block of the week for 1880. [their blog pic, not mine]. Easy peasy,too.And just the one.


.................................................

This flashed on my phone yesterday afternoon. Full moon high tide flooding. An alert always gives me a twinge, but these flood warnings aren't very threatening.


The afternoon darkened  off and on, brief squalls of sun and storms. With beautiful rainbows.








And finally the June Strawberry moon rose over the dunes. Quite pink, and magical.

earlier in the week, not yet full





.............................



Mo 's evening walk was timed to coincide with moon-rise. We meandered out towards the beach bench. Mo dislikes humidity and he was lagging and sniffing and being a brat.




                                        


Crunch! As we neared home, he stopped yet again to sniff what I thought were some bleached tan leaves---the euonymous has shedded and regrown, dropping tan leaves from last year. But then Mo got quite excited. I looked more closely, Mo was eating something.



Mo knows the words Leave it! and also Icky! And he let me reach down and take the ''leaf'' out of his mouth. OMG! It was a LIVE crab. Dropped by a seagull no doubt.


Nothing quite so gross as having the creature you thought was a leaf, scrabble and squirm alive in your hand. Bleeeah! I yelled and threw it away. Mo happily continued crunching the claw he had held onto.  In other circumstances maybe I'd have put the crab in a sandpail and taken it back to the ocean...but in my creeped out surprise I threw it into the hydrangeas and ran home to wash my hands.



Poor crab.

PS Blogger reply still is not working and so it takes me awhile to reply, pls bear with me. I value your thoughts and comments.

Have a good weekend! Is this whole coming week a holiday for you? It is here at the beach, gonna be a busy ten days for me and Mo the Crab Cruncher.



love

lizzy

gone to the beach....





















Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Fog



Hi! It's the end of June already! I was going to write about beach books and summer reading but I have to take Mo to the vet for his annual check up and vaccinations, so I'll do that post another time. The weekend was cool and foggy. The beach is not always bright sunshine and blue skies, blue water.

I love fog, but maybe not on a picnic day.












 A preening Oystercatcher, one of the pair that nests on the west boundary of my beach. I haven't seen its mate. This guy is preening---looking for a new lady? Or perhaps the other OC is minding the babies, hidden in the dunes til it's safe to feed them t sunset.


















Be sure to look at the Strawberry Full Moon on Thursday!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....