Friday, February 25, 2011

Friday Morning February 25, 2011

Another deliciously beautiful day in the Florida Keys.
I remember, last year, talking to our neighbor in Norwood, Debbie, and she asked what the weather was like here in the winter.  I hesitated, because, I really wasn't sure, as we had not, yet, spent a winter in the keys.  I told Deb that I guessed it was somewhat like our spring weather there in Norwood.

Well, this year, the weather has been exactly like that.  Most days have been in the mid 70's - earlier on there were some 60 degree days, and occasionally, we have an 80 degree day. 

All that said, "Nothing can be finer than to be in Carolina"; although, as Jim and I are getting older, this warm tropical weather suits just fine, thank you!

I know I have mentioned there are not that many folks from the Carolina's that camp.  At least nothing like the number of people from Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and most especially Michigan. The people from Michigan just grin and say "well, if your winters were like ours, you would be anxious to get out too."  

There are some people leaving now.  Russ and Marsha from Pennsylvania are leaving today.  Our friend, Larry, from Pennsylvania, leaves, I think on Sunday or Monday.  Ralph and Sharon from Greenville NC leave on Monday.  And, of course, Jim and I leave on March 15.

The camp workers say most all of the campers are gone by the end of March.  The campers that work here are here until the end of April or first of May (again, those folks from Michigan.)  

After blogging on Wednesday, I rode up with Jim to the mangrove area off Hwy 1 to check his bait trap.  He had a lot of pin fish in the trap.  Jim mentioned that several were a little large to use for bait and I pleaded with him to put those back in the water for release. 

Those smaller bait fish he transferred to his orange home depot bucket, filled with ocean water about 1/3 of the way up.  The remaining 2/3rd's of the bucket is drilled with holes.

I don't think I have mentioned - although Jim is using his chum for the bait trap, with great success, he was having a little problem with his home depot bucket.  Seems that after he put this bucket in the lake here for keeping the fish alive until he could go fishing, he would check on the bucket and his fish would be dead.

Oh, the trials of being a fisherman!  Jim subsequently drilled bigger holes in the top of the bucket and seems to be having a little better luck in keeping his fish alive.  He talked with some of his fishing buddies, i.e., Larry, looked at his buckets and could not see any difference except maybe bigger holes.  

And, of course, since he brought his pin fish back here to Lazy Lakes on Wednesday Afternoon, Jim has not had time to go fishing again.  

We did have our steak dinner, with baked potato and salad on Wednesday Night and it was delicious.  Phyllis walked by with her sweet dog, Jane, just as the steak was coming off the grill and had a hard time tugging on Jane's lease to get her back home.

After we finished our meal, we had some cuttings from our steak, and a bone that I took down to Jane and Phyllis seemed delighted and allowed Jane to have a treat of steak.  Perfect!

On Thursday, February 24, I did get to go up to the 'kitchen' to help Carolyn cut up some onions and peppers for the baked beans she was going to serve with the shrimp for the anniversary dinner of JoAnn and Niels.

The camp kitchen is a separate, tiny little building at the back of the pool area.  Here, in this area, also, are a couple of storage buildings with tools, lumber and any assortment of camp supplies that cannot find a home anywhere else.  All of these little buildings are nestled in an area that is not really visible to the clubhouse and/or pool area, which is a good thing.

The kitchen does offer a refrigerator, stove, pots, pans, counter space, sink for washing up dishes and a washer and dryer for laundry of the rental units.

I enjoyed my time in the kitchen with Carolyn.  As Carolyn is always taking care of something, it was nice to have the time and space with her for conversation.  

Then, off to Key West/Stock Island/Key Haven to do a little work before the big art show at 5:30.

Jim and I were fortunate to have Walt bring Lily to us while we were at Home Depot.  We did our little shopping, Lily and I walked over to the Walgreens to get a sympathy card (Walter's brother up at West Palm did pass away on Tuesday Night) for Walter and Lorraine; and, I promised Lily some chocolate!

When we about to check out at Walgreen's there were two checkout lines.  One line worked by a man and one line worked by a woman.  Lily looked up, saw the two lines, and said "amme, let's don't get in the boy line, let's get in the girl line."  Well, the lady at the checkout loved this comment and loved Lily for saying it.  We had a good conversation with her as Lily 'paid for our card and the chocolate.'

I had decided a good little project for Lily and I when we got to her house would be to paint the concrete wall that is along the canal side.  And, this plan did work out perfectly.

I got the very pale pink paint out and mixed it with some of the white trim paint (trying to match up the faded pink on the wall), got Lily a small roller brush, another brush for us both, and a large roller brush for myself.

As there is nothing to harm with paint drippings except some mulch, Lily and I rolled paint and had a grand time. 

And, Lily was very, very patient as we opened the cans of paint (I showed her how), poured paint in the tray, mixed and got started.  Lily was very deliberate in trying to squeeze the paint from her roller in the tray, asking "amme, now is it ready?"

I will also have to say as we rolled paint, Lily said "amme, you are the best grandma."  Priceless.

Of course, I saved a little area for Gabby to paint when she got home from school.  By now, things started getting a little crazy with two little ones and Gabby really wanted to paint on the canal side as there were dirty spots there and we started getting paint splatters on the concrete walk.  Time to stop and take a rest for this day.

Big event - The Co-Op Art Show and we started getting ready to be there before the 5:30 start time.

This art show is so much fun.  And, lots of good food.  In fact, Gabby told me that she would spend a lot of time eating while we were there!

Lily had a total of 14 pieces of art - ranging from a portfolio of painted art, to pottery, to a paper plate necklace, to an egg entitled 'faberge egg', a framed piece with glass beads, just lots of great things.

Once at the art show, you buy 'stickers' to stick on the pieces of art that you want to purchase.  We were anxious to get our stickers to get them on all of Lily's art before someone else bought some of her work.  

Gabby and I were alarmed when we got to the table holding Lily's art because her pottery piece already had a sticker.  Oh, no, someone had already bought it and I was sorely disappointed.  Once Hillary got to Lily's table, she assured us that she had arranged for that sticker to be put on the pottery earlier. What a relief for Gabby and I.

After the art show, once we got back to camp, Jim did walk up to say hello to our fellow campers at the clubhouse.  Dinner was over and the Lazy Lakes Trash Band was performing!  I, of course, went to bed.

Hillary is to pick me up today at about 12:30 and she and the girls and I are going back up to Marathon to the Turtle Hospital.  This will be a full afternoon and I am looking forward to it. 

Now, time for some pictures -


Hillary and Gabby on the back deck.  This was just after our painting project.  Note the decking, because Jim and I are planning on painting that deck next week after a little more pressure washing (pressure washer to the left)!


Lily playtime before we get ready to go to the Art Show.  The wall behind Lily is the wall that Lily and I had painted earlier in the afternoon.



More playtime - Gabby.


Gabby getting sea grape tree leaves out of the pool.  The wall behind Gabby is the wall that the three of us (Gabby, Lily and I finished up our painting project on)


This is a paper outline of Lily that was attached to the ceiling in Lily's class.



Lily's art collection. 



About the artist - On this information poster, you may note, Lily wants to be a "Barbie Musketeer" and her favorite color is purple.


Hillary getting our stickers onto Lily's artwork, as Gabby looks on.


The artist Lily beside of her artwork.


Lily as she takes a break from her showing - having a little chocolate.


The big room of food, punch and art with just a sampling of the attendees.


Lots and lots of people mingling and as this room is small for the crowds, art patrons were outside as well.



We found a semi quiet corner outside to enjoy our food.  You see Gabby as she is finishing up her plate of goodies.


After a stressful art showing, the artists are getting in a little fun.  That is Lily with her back to us.



That is Hillary and Walt's friend, Brenda in the white with the red purse.  She talked the little girls into posing for this picture so I was able to capture them as well.


The children lined up these foam and plastic chairs and made themselves a train.  Lily was sitting in the blue chair, got up to report "amme, he hit me"  - after I assured her it was an accident, she lost her place and with no problems, pulled up another foam piece to join in at the back of the line.


Lily is easily entertained.  She found this mermaid doll and enjoyed playing with it for a few minutes.


At the end of the evening, Lily and friend decide its time for a little fruit, veges and dip.  Immediately after this picture was taken, Lil had had enough and told her Dad she wanted to go home.  So, she, Walt, Jim and I took the tired little artist home while Hillary and Gabby stayed around for the cleanup.







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