Gazebo is Up!

This morning I had to drive My Honey down to pick up his truck which was fixed yesterday so no walk to work.

It was a beautiful day.

It was a busy morning at work and I worked part way through lunch before even realizing it was lunch time.

I called Ms SV because she goes out to the golf course at lunch to help out and asked if she could bring me back some lunch then just stayed at the office and continued working.

Taco Salad for lunch!

It is so good - probably not necessarily good for me but there's lettuce in there so that's something, right?!

Silly selfies in the office.

I realized that my hair is looking quite long (also seeing some grey roots again, darn, seems to happen faster and faster each time).

I decided I did need to get out and get some fresh air after lunch so I walked to the end of the road.

It was gorgeous out.

Beautiful scene I get to see all the time, blue sky, green trees & dirt road.

I love these puffy "shape" clouds.

The kind you can lay in the grass and look at to se what kind of shapes you can find.

there is just beauty every where you look if you try to find it.

Some people think daisy's are plain & simple - cheap flowers.

I happen to love them just for that - there is beauty in simplicity.

I remember as a child picking these then pulling out the petals to suck the "honey" at the end of them.

I also remember as a child using these buttercups to determine whether a person liked butter or not.

You just held it up to your chin and if yellow reflected on your chin - you liked butter.

So silly - where do children come up with these notions.

Silly but I yearn for that innocence of childhood sometimes.

The plants I got for the office took a bit of a beating from the heavy rainstorm Sunday night but we they seem to be coming back.

I spent a bit of time deadheading them today.

It's my secret addiction, I could do it for hours.

I just find it soothing and extremely satisfying for some reason.

I picked this bracelet up in NYC at an outdoor market and kind of forgot about it.

It fell on the floor when I opened the closet door this morning so I took that as a sign that it wanted to be worn.

I decided today that I was going to get this gazebo set up for mom no matter what.

I called reinforcements (my son & my brother).

They would have come anyway but I promised them some supper if they helped so I made good on my promise.

My brother had already eaten but couldn't resist some steak!

I made some crunchy pea salad, fingerling potatoes and My Honey cooked up some shrimp, trout and steak.

It was a feast.

He also whipped up some snickerdoodles which he cooked on the bbq.

He got home from work and went straight to work again cooking - and we dined al fresco!

Smile mom!

Selfie with my boy!

and......................it's up!

In other news - the Facebook memories are still coming fast and furious.

This first one is a real oldie, but a goodie.

This is me & my boy (isn't he cute) when he was just itty bitty so about 24 years ago.

Look at that smoke in my hand, horrible.

Wearing my Kmart shirt.

I worked there back then and I just loved it.

I always say that if it hadn't closed I would probably still work there today.

Not true really but I have nothing but good memories from working there and I made a lot of good friends that I am still in contact with today.

NYC 2014

These were taken at Brasserie Les Halles.

We were just wandering around that day and came up out of the subway in a spot we wanted to explore.

This place was down the street a little and My Honey recognized it as the place that Anthony Bourdain says has the best French fries in the world (don't know how he remembers all that random stuff) so we just had to go in and try it.

I had the Steak Frites and it was really good.

Not sure if I would say the best in the world but very good.

This was also our 2014 trip.

Our last full day there we went to Sarge's Delicatessen.

We had been there on a previous trip because the hotel we stayed at was nearby and we really liked it.

My Honey had the matzo ball soup and the pastrami sandwich - see how huge it is?

I had my go to - pancakes and a side of bacon.

Fresh strawberries too to top it off and it was super.

Now on to NYC trip 2015

A coworker tagged me in article about the Highline because she knew that we went to NYC often and it looked cool so we took the time to go over and check it out.

I thought this fountain was so fun.

She was right - it was cool.

I love how they took something that was no longer being used and repurposed it for something new.

Another wonderful green space in the city - such a great idea.

There were all kinds of hidden surprises along the way like this little "fountain".

It was a super hot day and this little one was just loving cooling off.

There are little loungers and seating areas all through out.

We had recently watched a documentary about Bill Cunnigham, a fashion photographer who roams NYC photographs all the fashion he sees so it kind of inspired me to be more attentive to the people around me - really see them and take copious amounts of pictures.

I thought this girl had her own sense of style and I loved it.

Later when I was looking at the picture more closely I suspected that it might actually be a guy but who knows?

Either way - I still love that they were bold enough to wear what they wanted.

Side Note - the documentary about Bill Cunnigham was great, his great attitude to life made a lasting impression on me and I highly recommend it even if you aren't into fashion.

It's called Bill Cunnigham New York.

I was saddened to hear that he passed recently because I always secretly hoped we would run into him on one of our trips, happily snapping away with his camera.

Hard to believe the city streets are just below this - it's so awesome.

There are lots of beautiful flowers along the walk.

I thought this little fellow was cute.

Late that night we went and saw Phantom of the Opera.

We hadn't seen it before, believe it or not.

I enjoyed it.

Now onto our NYC 2016 where on July 6 we just happened to take a train trip to..........

Baltimore, Maryland.

We got there super early so things weren't quite open yet and it was nice and quiet.

It wasn't quite what I was expecting but I loved it right away.

There is a little harbour right downtown and it was so pretty.

We took a trolley tour first thing then when it dropped us back at the waterfront, we did some exploring on foot.

We found this place that will deliver fresh cookies to your door - what an awesome idea!

We had to try some as they were fresh out of the oven, they were soft, warm, chewy and just so ooey gooey good!

After a bit more exploring we tracked down this place that we'd seen on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

I knew I wanted to have the Captain Crunch French Toast - look at the description - how could it be bad?

Looks not too far off from the picture.

My Honey went with the Sweet Baby Jesus.

See how big my smile is because I can just sense how delicious it is going to be.

He is excited about his choice as well.

The food was really good and the place had a great vibe to it.

I'm glad we went.

They had these water taxis that zipped back & forth and all around the harbour.

We bought day passes and spend a good chunk of our day on them.

Later in the day - we went back to this museum we had passed on the bus tour that looked interesting.

The American Visionary Art Museum.

It was so interesting and full of cool art - my kind of museum for sure!

Check out this giant unicorn poodle - some people are just so imaginative.

I really liked this elephant too.

I also learned about screen painting while we were there.

It was an art form that immigrants came up with to make a living and they had lots of examples of it there.

Most of them are nature scenes and I thought they were fantastic.

I am going to be on the look out for one now - I'd like one for home.

And that's it for today.

Until next time, be happy!