Vacation At Wrightsville Beach, NC

Hello and happy Monday. It was back to work today for me and hubs. We took off last week and went to the beach in Wrightsville NC. This is near Wilmington. It is about a nine hour drive for us. We have flown there a few times but we wanted to take some beach chairs with us so we drove. We left out about 5:30 AM last Sunday morning. When my husband says he wants to leave at a particular time we will be leaving our house at that exact time. He is good about staying on time. Of course he didn’t have the million things I had to do before leaving. I always arrange who will stay with the kitties or come in and feed them. I always make sure the house is clean before we leave. That’s just a little pet peeve I have when I leave. I like for the house to be clean.

We had a few traffic delays and we stopped a few times for fuel and food. We got to the beach around 4:00 PM. The weather all week was great. We stay at the same place. Surf Suites. Each suite is ocean front. Their balconies are really large with plenty of room to stretch out and relax and enjoy the ocean and listen to the waves.

Wrightsville Beach is a fairly small coastal town. If you are looking for amusement parks and lots of shopping centers this is not the place. There are a few places to see in the small town of Wrightsville and of course Wilmington is only about a fifteen minute drive and there’s lots of things to see and do there. But the beauty of this place is that it is so laid back and peaceful. We are usually tired from the drive when we get there. We go to a local grocery store and stock up on groceries for the week and then grab something to eat.

***The first morning was a little overcast but other than that we had lots of sun.***

We started every morning walking into town. It is about a three mile walk round trip. One morning we walked a little more and made it just over four miles. It was a great way to start the day. We usually walked early around 7:00 AM. I loved looking at the beach houses and boat docks along the way. Then we usually walked on the beach. We took beach chairs this time so that we could spend more time at the beach.

And we had some really good meals.

Crab stuffed salmon. This meal was at The Oceanic. One of our favorite restaurants of all time.

Carolina crab cakes. This was at Poe’s Tavern. The music here was great and a lot of Edgar Allen Poe references. Poe’s is a chain restaurant. They are located in a lot of coastal towns.

More Carolina Crab Cakes. this was also at The Oceanic.

I went out a couple of mornings at 6:00 AM to get sunrise pictures. And one morning there was a wedding on the beach at sunrise.

***I read two books and started a third one. I will have them listed on Friday Favorites.***

I also took along a blanket I am crocheting. Luckily I just started it so it hasn’t grown too much yet. The blankets get a little warm in the summer especially after they have gotten to a certain length.

So we had a great week. We started back early Saturday morning. I missed the babies so bad. When we got home they were overjoyed to see us. They ran to us and jumped in our laps and let us love on them. HA!!!! They’re cats you know that didn’t happen. But Gus did sleep with me Saturday night and even if he didn’t want to show it I know he was glad we were back home. I know I was.

***And of course seeing this was the best sight because it meant we were almost home.***

A great and fun week but I am always glad to get back home. How was your week? How have you been? I have missed being with you on the blog. I have a lot of catching up to do and getting around to reading all your posts.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Lavender Festival In Oak Ridge Tennessee

Hello and happy Monday. What a fun weekend I had. My friend Lorie and I decided a couple of weeks ago to check out the annual Lavender Festival in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Oak Ridge is about an hour from us.

The Lavender Festival has been held annually since 1999, always the third weekend in June because that is when the lavender is in bloom in Tennessee, and was voted “Best Festival” last year by The Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council. The Festival is free and so is parking. More than 150 vendors are set up for the festival. There were several bands playing and lots of food and drink vendors. There were some Lavender garden tours that could be purchased but you had to sign up for those and I think there was an additional fee for those.

Lorie and I took off early Saturday morning and got to the festival around 9:30. Lorie spotted a prime parking spot very close to the entrance. What luck. The weather was perfect. It did get a bit warm as the day wore on.

I bought one of these lavender plants and then discovered they are toxic to cats. Lorie is taking it to her house.

This booth had infused glass. I love the designs. This artist has amazing talent.

There were a couple of vendors selling these concrete planters. They are made by mixing concrete and pearlite together and putting them in boxes or buckets to frame them. I bought the one on the right with this gorgeous succulent.

We didn’t get to try the lavender lemonade the line was just too long.

Several Bands were playing. This one was really good.

More of the infused glass. I especially loved the little cat ornaments.

Lots and lots of flowers, succulents and even fresh fruits and vegetables. Lots of everything.

By mid afternoon the crowd had really grown.

Me and Lorie. We have so much fun when we get together. I love hanging out with her she is up for whatever adventure we get into. Nothing is too crazy for us when we get together. This might be good or bad, HA!!! We decided to make the Lavender Festival an annual event for us.

We didn’t get to try the lavender lemonade but we did try the Bold Rock Blackberry Cider. It was yummy and really hit the spot in the heat of the day

Before coming home we stopped in Sweetwater at Sweetwater Creamery and got some ice cream. This is such a cute place and the ice cream is homemade and delicious. I got Peppermint Pattie.

Peppermint Pattie. They also make the waffle cones daily. This is a single scoop!!! Yummy.

I brought my succulent home and put it on the deck. I think it fits in well with the rest of my cactus family.

Sunday was a rather quiet day. Mostly hanging around the house with hubs and working on clearing some things from the garage. A really nice weekend. How was your weekend?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello and happy Monday. I had such a lazy weekend. I like having those occasionally but they make me feel like a sloth, and that I should be doing more. I did the usual groceries, laundry etc etc. Mark was off on Sunday and we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs outside. We’re trying to do some summery things but we both like being inside. Mark has really bad allergies. Plus it is rare lately that we have days off together.

The first thing I did Saturday morning was give some much needed attention to my orchids. I have ten now. I had one that was needing to be repotted. I don’t like repotting unless I really have to, but with this one I had to do. The roots looked terrible. I trimmed off the rotting roots and replanted her in a clear planter with fresh orchid potting medium. I gave all the others some love and trimmed off a couple of dead stems. They all seemed much happier.

I also did my grocery pick up but I wanted to stop at a little Marketplace in town. It is set up in a large building decorated with individual booths. So the booths can be very different. I didn’t have a lot of time but I will go back this week and get some things I had my eye on. Look at this little Americana Uncle Sam:

And I love the weathered look of these flags.

Of course seeing those flags made me want to come home and get some of my patriotic things out. I made these flags two years ago. If you missed the post on how to make them you can check it out here. Patriotic Bouquet. I actually thought it was last year that I made them. But I started going back through my posts and realized it was two years ago. Man, time flies. That could also be the reason they are looking a little worn HA!!

Last week I finally got around to painting my little wrought iron bench. I did the chair a while back. This bench was in pretty bad shape. It came from my mother in law’s house. It had been in her garage for many years. It had a lot of rust spots on it. I scrubbed it down and painted it black. I used a spray paint with primer. I love the way it turned out.

A few weeks ago I bought a tomato plant from the Mennonite market near my house. It is doing great!! It has about twenty five tomatoes on it. They are all green and I can’t wait till they get ripe.

***Tomatoes. I don’t even eat them but Mark does.***

***Marigolds are blooming. I just love the orange ones.***

How have things been with you? Have a wonderful week!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday, The Week of The Cats

Happy Monday!!! The last week or so is what I have been calling “The Week Of The Cats”.Remember that song by Al Stewart back in the seventies called The Year of The Cat? You may be too young for that song. This has been our Week Of The Cats. Yes it’s that time of year again. This past week was the week we, over the course of several days, take all five kitties to the vet for annual vaccines. Plus Gus actually had to be shaved because his long hair had gotten so matted in places. We can’t take all of them together it’s just too hard. Luckily the vet is only about a ten minute drive from our house. This is how it went down:

Allie (mama) cat went first. She is still a bit feral and I was afraid she would tear my face off. But she actually did great. Well as long as I was right with her that is. The vet got me a long pair of gloves and I just reached into the crate and lifted her out. We weighed her and then she got her shots and she was just an Angel. She made Mark and myself look like liars because we had told the vet how wild she still is.

Next was Izzy I took her early one morning hoping to get both her and Sadie but I had no luck with Sadie. She saw immediately what was happening and ran and hid. She has been rescheduled. Izzy did great. She even let the vet pull her out is the crate. Again, my little feral girls surprised me. Of course there’s still Sadie to be taken.

Next was Kitty Kitty and she is so sweet and tame Mark was able to take her by himself. Everyone at the vet clinic fell in love with her sweet little face.

Gus was scheduled for last Friday morning so I dropped him off at 8:00 AM. He also had to be shaved. He hates being brushed and his hair has gotten so matted we couldn’t get a brush through it. He had to be put to sleep to cut his hair. And I felt just terrible having to do that. When I brought him home he was out of it and not himself for about thirty six hours I will never put him through that again. I told him he would just have to adjust to the brush. We will work with him until he isn’t afraid of it.

Sadie, or I should say Houdini, is scheduled for this week. The problem will be catching her and getting her into the crate. I think it will be fine after that. I hate tricking her to get her into the crate but she has to have her shots especially the rabies vaccine. My three outside kitties, Allie, Izzy and Sadie are out during the day. We bring them into the garage at night because of coyotes. So being out they could come in contact with another animal.

So that has been my last week and a half. The Poison Ivy is finally disappearing. Work has still been a bit hectic but that is expected this time of the year.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!