Hello Monday

Hello and happy Monday. I have been struggling the past three weeks with a bad knee. I think I pulled something a few weeks ago when we were moving things out of my mother in law’s apartment at the Assisted Living Village.

Knee injuries are nothing new to me. I have had them on my right knee a couple of different times throughout the years. I hobbled around for a week or so. I decided to give myself two weeks and if it wasn’t better I would see an Orthapedic Doctor. It is better. I have been wearing a knee brace and it is much much better. Thank goodness.

The weather here has been really nice and we have had a lot of things blooming. We are currently experiencing a cold snap which I think may be whip-poor-will winter. Or maybe Locust Winter. I have been hearing the whip-poor-will calling in the woods at night and early morning.

I spent some time last weekend out on my deck. The weather was so nice. I read a lot of my book. I’ve trying to stay off of my devices when I am at home and just enjoy the things around me. Plus I couldn’t really do much around the house with my bum knee.

***My view from the deck. A lot of bugs flying around this time of year. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad.***

I couldn’t remember if I had introduced you to my latest orchid, Camilla, I bought her a couple of weeks ago. She is doing great!!! My niece rescued three orchids from a building that had housed a nursery. A lot of plants that were struggling were just left behind. She brought me three. I will let you know more about those later. I need to replant them and get them settled in.

I celebrated my Birthday and Wedding Anniversary this past week. My sister had a pizza party for me yesterday. We had such a great time. My coworkers had Birthday cake for me too. My husband had to work so we will be celebrating the Anniversary and Birthday later this week.

***I have to leave you with a picture of my sweet Izzy. She is almost the exact color of the rocks.***

Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Sunday Morning Coffee Share

Hello friends and happy Sunday. Come in and share a nice cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate with me and we will catch up on things.

I think we would talk first about the weather: Our weather yesterday and so far this morning looks perfect. Temps in the mid to high 70s F and sunny and clear. The sky is a beautiful shade of blue. We did have some rain earlier in the week and a lot of clouds. This caused the partial eclipse in our area to be a bit of a flop. But we had the total eclipse here in 2017 so it will be hard to beat that.

What am I reading? I am still reading The Shell Seekers. Because it is a big book, and one that I can’t really take to bed with me, it’s going to take me a while to finish. I like to read before I go to sleep at night. I am also reading Still Life at Eighty by Abigail Thomas. I love her books. I have to say this one is a bit of a downer but I just started it so we will see.

How is work you ask: Well it is absolutely crazy right now. I work in Tourism and we are really gearing up for the season. So much to do before summer. My work load has been a lot with not a lot of down time.

What I am loving: I am loving the flowers that are blooming. The Azaleas are blooming. My Irises are blooming this year. They really didn’t do well last year. I did some research and discovered that they probably needed to be thinned. I did that and gave some to my nephew and his wife. I love spreading them around. These are very special because my mama had them at our house where I grew up. When she passed and we got ready to sell the house I made sure to get some of them.

What projects have I been working on? Well I finally finished the heart cross stitch that I have been working on for years. I started it a few years ago for Valentine’s Day. When I didn’t finish it in time for Valentines, I put it away until the next year. Finally after doing this for a couple years I decided to work on it until I finished it. So that is what I did. I love hearts so much, why just put it out for decoration on Valentine’s Day. I decided that I will keep it out all year.

Finishing the heart cross stitch has made me want to tackle a lot of other unfinished projects.

***I had just started the hearts: probably 3 years ago***

***A little more progress. My Scruffy was still with me then. He always loved to snuggle when I was sewing or knitting.***

***This is where I finally decided this thing was going to be finished.***

***I did finish it and washed and pressed it.***

***And framed it. I love the way it looks.***

So what has been happening with you? I think I will wander outside and enjoy this nice sunny weather.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

I will be linking up with Natalie the Explorer on #Weekend Coffee Share

A Visit To The Parthenon In Nashville Tennessee

A couple of weeks ago I had a long weekend trip to Nashville with a friend. If you missed that post you can check it out here We made the most of our time in Nashville and decided to visit some historical places. The first place we visited was the Parthenon.

The Parthenon in Athens Greece is a former temple that was dedicated to the Goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical greek art. But what is this Parthenon in Nashville you might ask.

The Parthenon in Centennial Park Nashville, is a full scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens Greece. It was originally built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition. When Tennessee celebrated its 100th year of statehood, Nashville took advantage of the nickname “Athens of the South’ and built this famous replica.

Within the Parthenon, and something I found so amazing, is a 42-foot-tall gold-coated sculpture of Athena. The original Parthenon was built as a temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena in Athens.

So here we were on our first day of the Nashville trip. We went to the Parthenon. It was about 9:30 in the morning. Tickets are about $10.00 per person and no charge for parking. Also there was lots of available parking. The hotel where we stayed actually gave us free tickets for entry.

Let me tell you a little about Centennial Park that circles the Parthenon. It is a beautiful park with lots of things going on. The park is located about two miles west of Downtown Nashville. While we were there, we saw soccer games, picnics, family get togethers, people walking their dogs and just enjoying the sunshine. The park itself is beautiful. And of course the 132 acre park features the Parthenon.

Getting into the Parthenon was a bit tricky because some construction work was going on near the entrance. We finally found our way in and started enjoying the photos lining the halls. Most of the beginning photos were of the history of the Parthenon being built.

We took a set of stairs leading to the second level and this is what we saw:

The Statue of Athena:

The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals.

I think she’s beautiful.

The Parthenon was actually decades old before Athena was added. The statue was created by Alan LaQuire, A Nashville native and Vanderbilt University graduate. It took LaQuire 8 years to complete the figure of Athena.

For 12 years, Athena was a plain, white statue. Then in 2002, Athena was gilded in gold to more closely resemble the original.

A close-up here of the shield.

Throughout the Parthenon artwork is on display in several sections. It has been a place to showcase artists from a lot of different areas.

I enjoyed our time at the Parthenon and Centennial Park. I would highly recommend going if you are in the Nashville area.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

My Southern Pound Cake Was A Flop

Hello friends and happy Tuesday. My husband and I just returned from an overnight trip to Nashville. About every four months Mark has to go to Nashville to see his kidney doctor or an NP to check on how well the transplanted kidney is doing. The doctor visit and bloodwork lasts approximately thirty minutes or so but the drive over and back is about four hours each way. Several months ago we started going over the day before. We leave in the afternoon, take our time, have a great dinner out, spend the night and have the doctors’ visit early the next morning and then start home. This is so much better. We are not exhausted the way we used to be when we tried to do it all in one day.

So yesterday was our day to drive to Nashville. It was eclipse day. Our area was only going to see a partial eclipse this time. Some areas had better luck than others. We were driving so we really didn’t get to see totality. As I said it was a bit of a disappointment anyway because it was just too cloudy. It did get very dark and of course that is exciting in the middle of the afternoon. We had a great dinner in Nashville and went to bed early and got a good night’s sleep.

***You can see how dark it is for the middle of the afternoon.***

On our way home today we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Lebanon for breakfast. If you don’t have Cracker Barrel’s in your area, you just don’t know what you are missing. It is mostly southern cooking and it is really yummy. There is also a wonderful gift shop and as luck would have it I had a gift card, that was given to me at Christmas. This is what I bought. It was also 50% off so it was quite a bargain. I have a thing for cake stands and I have quite a few of them. I try to refrain from buying more because I just don’t have anywhere to keep them. I will probably keep this one on my table.

My sister and I did a little shopping on Saturday. We hadn’t been out together in several weeks. We thought some retail therapy would do us both a bit of good. We went to T. J. Maxx in Cleveland. Cleveland is just south of us about forty miles. It’s not quite as crazy as Knoxville on a Saturday.

***I bought these pillows for my couch. I put them on the piano bench to get a good shot of them. I love the color.***

***I have been wanting a white sweater jacket for some time. I can’t wait to wear this.***

Now for the pound cake. Remember this book I bought when I was in Nashville a couple of weeks ago? My plan was to make each of the cakes in this book, there’s sixty cake recipes. The first cake was a classic southern pound cake. So on Sunday afternoon I got to work.

***The ingredients: I thought it was a little odd to use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.***

***I may have beaten the mixture too much***

***I put the batter into the pans and baked for the recommended time.***

***They looked beautiful and smelled so good.***

They were terrible!!!! I could have used them as a weapon. They were hard and so dense. I googled possible problems and it seems as though I may have beat the batter too much. Over beating can cause gluten to form and this can make the cake really dense.

I was so disappointed that my pound cake turned out so bad. I did learn that maybe I shouldn’t beat the batter too much next time. If you have any advice on how to make better pound cakes, and not turn them into weapons of destruction or door stops please let me know. The next cake is a chocolate pound cake, so we shall see.

That is what has been happening around here how about you?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!