Marmie's IKEA rat

One of the fun things we bought at IKEA the other day was a stuffed rat ( mouse) for Marmalade since he loves playing with his play mice.  At first he didn't know what to do with it but I rubbed some " cat nip" on it and he hasn't left it alone since.  He holds it and kicks it...bites it, licks it and sleeps with it.  He loves his " IKEA rat"! ( and the best part...it was only $1.49)

Atlanta/IKEA



notice the "inside out" jr mints....they're yummy!





Down Town Atlanta traffic



Brambly Pines Picture



Porch Bed

Thursday morning, we headed out on a " day trip" to Atlanta to go to IKEA (it's the closest one to us).  First stop was to pick some pretty daisies for the explorer.  It's fun to have something pretty to look at on a long trip.  We went by the way of Gadsen and then Anniston.  Chuck had a special gun shop that he wanted to go to.  Then, we stopped for lunch.  By the time we made it to down town Atlanta, it had taken us about four hours.  Traffic was just " traffic in Atlanta" but we made it through it all and found IKEA.  This was our first time being at IKEA....what can I say.....but ...WOW!  What fun it was!  Shell called when she got off of work, and we walked around the store, talking to Shell about it all.  I felt like we were shopping together.  She goes to the one in Tampa all the time, just to eat.  The reason for us going over there was to get the bed for the back porch.  Well, of course we ended up getting way more than the bed.  We found the perfect picture for over our couch.  I had been looking for something that said " Brambly Pines" and boy did I ever find it.  A huge, huge, huge picture of sunlight shinning through some trees.  We figured if we didn't like it over the couch, we could always put it over Chuck's bed....so we bought it.  ( we ended up loving it over the couch)  We bought several things along with a bag full of Swedish foods.  Chuck's grandparents were from Sweden so a lot of things reminded him of his grandmother.  We ended up eating dinner in the cafeteria before heading for home.  We didn't get home until 10:00 pm.  What a day!  I don't think we will be jumping into the explorer and going to IKEA too often but I'm glad we did last week. 

Peonies and Roses

Roses



Ben's




Mine



One of Ben's

I have a new " favorite flower".  They are " Peonies"!  They are BIG fluffy blooms.  You can fill a vase with just a couple of flowers.  On the way home from Church with Melanie, we drove up her brother's drive way ( he lives one house down and across the street from her) and he was out in his yard tending to his flowers.  He asked if we had time for him to pick me some flowers to take back to Moulton with me.  Of course! ....we had time.  He picked me a big handful of beautiful peonies that he had planted across the front of his house.  Then, we walked around to all of his rose bushes and he picked me another handful'  His yard was just beautiful and I was so glad I got to see it all.  Before I headed home, Lady Melanie went out in her yard and picked me some of her roses and camellias.  Boy! did the explorer ever smell good all the way home.  The next day was our 41st Anniversary and after we went out to eat in Decatur, we stopped at Home Depot and bought two peonie plants.  I planted them out in the front corner of the yard and they are blooming.  Another pretty flower that I couldn't have in Florida.

French Strawberry Jam



Champagne and croissants

Right after Church, we came home, put on our aprons and started in on making the "French Strawberry Jam" with all the strawberries from the Farmer's Market.  It has a special ingredient....LIME!  It truly changes the taste of the strawberries.  ..and it's GOOD!  (Chuck doesn't like strawberries but he really likes Lady Melanie's jam) After de-stemming the berries and cutting them up, mashing and cooking....there were four batches done and another one waiting to be done when we all sat in the parlor and had champagne and croissants with the fresh, wonderful french strawberry jam.  The champagne and croissants is a tradition at Carmichael Hall the day of " Strawberry Jam Day".  I left the last batch to be finished by everyone else and I packed up the explorer to drive home.   Not only did I have a wonderful weekend in Birmingham and Georgia but the explorer was loaded with such wonderful treasures from Lady Melanie and my trip.  I still have to pinch myself that I live where I can jump in the explorer and be in Birmingham in 1 1/2 hours and even  go to Georgia and back in a day. 

Becca's Baby Shower

                                                                                                                                                     

After making the Palm Crosses, we left the Church and went to an Out Door Art Show, where a couple of Lady Melanie's friends were selling their wares.  One of the friends had a wonderful surprise for Melanie and Kellet.  It was a pencil 11 x 14 drawing of Miss Lillie.  It was just beautiful.  What a wonderful present!  Next, we dropped Kellet off at home and we headed out for Georgia.  It took us a couple of hours to get over there, with stopping for lunch and with Georgia not putting signs up on several of their roads.  We finally did find Becca's neighbor's house and had a great time seeing everyone at the shower.  Becca received many beautiful things.  Melanie had bought her a handmade day gown ( they dress their babies like babies, not teenagers, up here) and had made her a pretty blue receiving blanket which needed the hand sewn trim to be finished, so Melanie sat and sewed during the shower.  One of the many presents from Mimmie was a beautiful silver baby spoon.  Gene had a box full of pretty and fun things also.  One was a very pretty quilt that she had put together.  I made her a crocheted baby blanket and a matching hat.  I also found a really cute " little boy" scrap book for her to put her pictures of " her boys" in.  Since Shell couldn't be at the shower, we called and talked to her during all the excitement.  Becca's cake was adorable.  ...two little feet and a behind sticking up in the air.  After going over to Becca's house and giving Melanie the tour, seeing George and Jacob, we headed back to Alabama.  George, Gene, Jacob and Mimmie did the same.  By the time we got back to Melanie's, we were exhausted.  We enjoyed a wonder dinner that Kellet had brought over....(a handmade Stromboli) with Paw.  We were suppose to attend a " tap recital" that night but opted to stay home and go to bed before midnight.  What a fun packed Saturday we had!

Palm Crosses

After the trip to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, Lady Melanie, Kellet and I went to their Church to help make the "Palm Crosses" for  Palm Sunday Service.  Kellet had the job of stripping the palm fronds and Melanie and I teamed up with her friend to make 100 crosses out of the 300 that needed to be made.  It was fun learning how to fold the strips into crosses .  They were put into a pan of water to keep them from drying out before the next day service. 

Birmingham Farmers Market

What a busy weekend I had last week.  I was invited to go down to Birmingham on Friday and spend the whole weekend with Lady Melanie.  The purpose was to go over to Georgia to attend Becca's Baby Shower on Saturday but we did a million other things besides.  I drove down after lunch on Friday in the pouring, pouring rain.  A cup of hot tea and a piece of wonderful homemade  lemon pound cake sure tasted good after the 1 1/2 hour drive.  The tornado sirens kept going off and the TV kept doing the " whaaaa whaaaa whaaa" sound.  There were tornadoes all around us but Lady Melanie said we didn't have to go to the basement unless the TV said it was heading to the Hover area.  So, we got dressed and headed out in it all. " I know! " We were going to Lady Melanie's  Great Niece's college piano recital and reception.  Not only did I get to enjoy a great recital but I also got to meet a lot of the Johnson Family.  I had heard so much about them all and was so happy to finally get to meet them.  After a really nice reception, we drove home with the rain letting up.

We left the house at 6:30 AM!!!! Saturday morning with Kellet and Miss Lillie ( Lady Melanie's daughter and grand daughter)to go to the Farmer's Market, down town Birmingham.  Our mission was to get some pretty strawberries to make Lady's Melanie's French recipe for Strawberry Jam.  Not only did we find the strawberries, but beautiful tomatoes, pretty lettuce, purple geraniums and double hollyhocks.  ( Melanie bought me the plants...she is so sweet)  I had to take the picture of the eggs they were selling.  I had no idea that " the girls fresh eggs" were worth so much...lol.  It sure was a pretty Farmer's Market for it being Spring. 

2nd Annual Wild Flower Hike

Charlotte enjoying Kinlock Falls



Auburn Falls





White Trillium



Five Finger Fern



Finding the Geocache

 On April 14th we took Charlotte on our 2nd Annual Wild Flower hike in the forest.  We lost count on all the different kinds of wild flowers we came across but I think the last count was in the high 30's.  We kept saying..." look at this one!" We came across not only the usual purple trilliums but a big patch of white trillium's and pink phlox were every where.  There were wild iris, azaleas and salvia, along with beautiful ferns.  We hiked to Auburn Falls and had our lunch there on this huge rock. There was even a Geocache there.  It was another perfect day in the forest.  Looking forward to our 3rd Annual Wild Flower Hike, next year.

Chicken and Egg Festival

Biscuit 101 class



Huntsville TV 31 station news anchors




Lady Melanie came down Friday evening to spend then night with us and go to the " Chicken and Egg Festival" Saturday morning.  She catered our dinner, which was wonderful.  We enjoyed the nice weather and ate on the back porch, as we watched the hummingbirds come to the feeder.  When it was time to make breakfast the next morning, Lady Melanie taught me how to make " homemade biscuits"....with " White Lily" self rising flour. (she even brought the flour for them)  I hope I can make them as good as she makes them.  I think I will need some practice though.  The "Chicken and Egg Festival" wasn't as good as it was last year but it was still fun.  A lot of the fun booths were missing...like the Alpacas, the hand painted gourds and the metal works guy.  ( that's OK, we have our own metal work guy, just down the road)  Lady Melanie and I did buy several pretty pairs of hand made ear rings.  We got to meet the news cast for "WAAY 31 News" and have pictures taken with them.  That's the channel that we watch most of the time since we don't have cable out here in the woods.  Chuck spotted Colonel Sanders and Lady Melanie wanted her picture taken with him..lol.  He said he came all the way from Memphis, Tn.  After leaving the festival, we stopped at John's BBQ for lunch.  It was very busy....the waitress said that they just finished serving 100 National Guardsmen.  The little town of Moulton was really " hopping" this weekend.  We dropped Chuck off at home and Lady Melanie and I went out shopping.  We made our rounds of Gillespie's, The Turquoise Turtle, Roden's and then on to Walmart...(where they have all their fabric for 1/2 price since they are closing out their fabric department)  We came home, put our feet up and had a cold drink in the sun room before Lady Melanie had to pack up for home.  The time always goes by too fast when Lady Melanie comes.  It's just so much fun!

Kayaking again!



you can't see the real white water rapids but they were there!




Chuck walking down the Sipsey




Back in the kayak





hundreds! of butterflies!





college boys helping Chuck

 Since the weather turned warm and we have had so much rain, we decided to take the kayaks out for the first time this year.  We put in at the Sipsey Picnic Grounds and started our ten mile trip down the Sipsey River.  The river was up five feet high but it had been up 20 feet just a couple days before.  We could see all the debris in the trees.  It was easy paddling because the current just took ya along.  Every once in awhile, we would come to some rapids but they were nothing. ...just made your kayak go a little faster.  You could hardly tell they were there. There were several pretty waterfalls along the way.  We saw a dark brown weasel running close to the water.  Chuck though it could have been a mink.  He ran along the side of the bank with us, as we paddled.  Next, we saw a big red bat.  It flew down the river, turned and flew back.  That was about it for the excitement on the river UNTIL......we heard a LOT of water! We both laughed and said "uh oh!"  There is was!  "White Water Rapids"!  I held back while Chuck went down them.  I could see the water going over into the kayak and all over him.  THEN! BAM! out he went.  ...into the cold water of the river.  We had on our "frog togs" to keep us from getting wet when we paddled, but they weren't meant to "swim in".  I went next.  The water went over my kayak and me too, but I stayed in.  Once I got through the bad part, I could see Chuck walking in the river and our lunch bag, the dry bag and Chuck's hat all floating down the river...lol.  He managed to collect it all.  There were a lot of down trees in the middle of the river and I ended up stuck in the middle of them all.  The water was moving so fast, I couldn't manage to get my kayak out of it all.  After trying for about ten minutes, I rolled up my pant legs and got out onto the rocks to pull my kayak away from it .  Chuck had walked over to help me, since he was still in the river.  We finally both got back into the kayaks and were on our way again.  I laughed and laughed.  If it had been summer time, I would have wanted to do it again.  It was lunch time, but we had a hard time finding a place to stop on the river because the water was up so high.  We came to "Caney creek" so we turned and paddled up there for about 200 yards before we came to this really nice waterfall and we could pull over to the edge.   As we were getting ready to eat lunch, Chuck noticed hundreds of yellow butterflies, all in piles on the river bank.  I got out to take pictures of them and when I went to get back into the kayak, they all began to fly.  We had hundreds of beautiful butterflies all flying around us the whole time we ate our lunch.  I told Chuck, I felt like we were in a Disney Movie or something.  It was just awesome!  Chuck said that was the time that we needed a little video camera.  ( that's on our list to get )  It was time to head back to the Sipsey and our ten miles were just about up.  I couldn't believe how fast it went.  I think because we had so much fun.  Where we had to take the kayaks out, is really hard.  It's a steep cement hill.  I couldn't help Chuck carry them.  I did good enough just climbing up the hill.  Just as we had landed, two college age boys came and were starting to fish.  I started talking to them and then they offered to help Chuck bring the kayaks up.  No matter where ya go around here, there are always nice people.  Chuck loaded the kayaks and I loaded all the " stuff" into the explorer ( had dropped it off at the take out place) and we drove back to the picnic grounds where we left the truck.  An adventure it was!!!!! Can't wait to see what happens or what we see the next time we take the kayaks to the forest.  It will be soon!