A Treasure Found.

 I have spent the last 10 days sitting beside this.

I am back in the real world now, but had the most relaxing vacation I have had in years.   Even the screw-ups at work while I was gone have not taken the zen out of my mood.  Our campsite had the most spectacular view.

We sat by the fire and made smores.  We went to Fall Festivals and pumpkin patches, and learned how sorgham syrup and stone ground grits were made. 

   

 

 We listened to bluegrass guitars, banjos, dubros and fiddles.

We ate lots of fair food and the hugest T-bone I have ever had.
 

 The leaves were beautiful and the weather great.

 I lucked upon a local annual quilt show with some beautiful quilts.

I also found this little treasure.   I got it for a what I think is a very good price.    I can't wait to fill it and sit it beside my favorite chair.

 And of course as steady as ever, my serenading country boy.  What more could a girl ask for?

The Mullet Were Jumping!

I am sure you all get tired of seeing my camping by the water pictures, but I never get tired of camping by the water, and Florida has so much water.   This weekend we went camping with our really good friends.   They are the ones that told us about St. Andrews State Park in Panama City FL.  

This park is at the eastern tip of the beach peninsula.    It is right off of Thomas Drive, near the condos and beach resorts ( on the calm end of the strip), and the famous "Alvin's Island" beach shop is almost right outside the park entrance gates, but except for the occasional siren, you would never know it.

We had to make a quick trip to get James a new swim suit, his last one bit the dust.   He never buys clothes for himself, but he did manage to get a baby blue plaid suit that matches his eyes.  No pictures of him in it this time, but as it will be his only suit for the next 20 years I am sure you will get to see him in it one of these days.

 We stayed in Site #86 and had a wonderful level site with partial shade and a beautiful view of the bay.   We had a rock wall that we could fish from, but did most of the fishing at the pier and at our friends campsite about six sites down.  

We spent lots of time with our friends and their two adorable children.   We made banana boats, for desert one evening.    If you have never had one you can get the recipe here.   

 One afternoon was spent at the part of the park called "The Jetty"   It is a beach area perfect for swimming with families.    The water was crystal clear and cool.   So refreshing with that little bit of breeze.   Not too hot!   Perfect weather for enjoying the water.

 We saw a huge jelly fish on the beach, but there didn't seem to be many in the water, as we did not hear about anyone getting stung that day.

 It was great soaking up the sun, while watching the little ones build a sand castle.  

 It was so relaxing at the end of a day in the sun,  to go back to this view.   All in all it was a great weekend trip, just a few hours from home.    We will definitely go back to this wonderful spot again.

Thanks for bearing with me while I once again go on about my wonderful relaxing visits to the water.   Don't be too jealous.   As we in Florida have been known to say "Come on down, the water's fine"



Janice

My Mother's Day

It has been several weeks since I posted, and a little quilting, a little camping and lots of sunshiny days are happening around here. 

My mother passed away in 1994, ever since then I have had a hard time celebrating Mother's Day.    When my kids were younger I made the effort for them but now my children are grown and celebrating with their own families.  This year we went on a camping trip and had a great time.

We camped at Ochlocknee River State Park, located a few miles south of  Sopchoppy Florida. It is only about a 25 minute drive from there to our house, but it still feels like you are getting away from it all.

As I am not necessarily all about roughing it when I camp, we set up camp Friday afternoon and then drove into Sopchoppy to eat.    There is a quaint little cafe called "Backwood's Bistro".   It has been written up in lots of magazines and the owner is a culinary trained, award winning chef.   Great food and lots of small town atmosphere.  

We had a great time.

The next day, we went biking through the pine flats and saw a deer.  Lots of hiking by the river, and spotted a couple of red headed woodpeckers, and white squirrels. There is a legend that goes along with the white squirrels and it goes something like this.

The Legend of the White Squirrels"
Years ago I saw a book about the history of Sopchoppy. This books described the legend of a Chinese Princess being on a ship that traveled up the Ochlockonee River to the old railroad trestle to unload. She was carrying her pair of pet white squirrels. As the legend goes (if I remember correctly), the squirrels got out of their cage and survived. According to legend, this is how the Franklin County side of the river from Highway 319 to St. Theresa has white squirrels-today. They are not albinos. They breed with gray squirrels but the white is dominant. They can now be found up and down the rivers in this area, and we have even seen them in our neighborhood.  

My husband playing "King of the Jungle" on our hike by the river

We went canoeing on the river and spent a lot of time relaxing at the campsite, and as always I was sweetly serenaded by my bluegrass man.

Falling Waters was only a trickle!

We spent this past weekend at Falling Waters State Park, near Chipley, FL. It is a lovely park and the campground was wonderful with clean facilities and camp hosts who took great care of the grounds. We had a campsite right beside our good friends, Bill & Barbara, and beside a huge dogwood tree with berries in bloom. A pair of red headed (piliated?) woodpeckers spent every day flying back and forth to this tree, with lots of noise and it was hard to get a good shot of them. They wouldnt pose for any close ups.



The falls are the tallest, maybe the only waterfalls in Florida and the park is the highest elevation in Florida.

We had a great time with good friends and hated to come home, but we had to go back to work on Monday. At least it is a short work week.