Kayaking Wednesday

Mr. Neon Green SNAKE!



Beautiful Mountain Laurel




notice the house hiding in the trees



funny tree in the rocks



A pleasant surprise!

It had been awhile since we had taken the kayaks out for the day, so we set out with them last Wednesday.  We headed to Brushy Creek ( which really looked like a lake with fingers here and there to it......but not to confuse it with Brushy Lake)  The one side of the creek seemed to be thick with " mountain laurel".  It was so pretty!!  Some were white and some where pink.  Of course, I had to stop and pick some for my kayak.  I didn't have my " vase" with me but someone just happened to leave a green glass bottle, floating in the creek, so I stopped and picked that up also.  "ta da"....a pretty vase of flowers to enjoy as I paddled.   We stopped among the rocks and had our picnic as we rested up for the hard paddle back .....against the wind.  It's fun to see all the beautiful "lake houses" dotted here and there and to paddle past all the boat docks, holding anything from kayaks to huge ski boats.  As I was struggling ( the wind stirred up a lot) to paddle back , I saw this little bright green "thing" sticking up out of the water, in front of me...and it was MOVING!  I watched it for a minute and it was just what I thought it was....A SNAKE!  A bright neon green, skinny snake!!!  I had never seen a snake like that before.  It was actually kinda pretty....for a SNAKE!  It crawled up onto the side of the rocks and of course I had to paddle over to get a picture.   As we paddled around the corner to the last stretch there was this funny tree growing in the rocks with all it's roots sticking out.  Ya wonder how anything can grow like that.  I decided that it would be fun to set my "vase" of flowers on one of the rocks for someone else to enjoy as they went by.  ( you know, like that piano that someone put out on that island a couple months back)....lol.  It was another fun day in the kayaks....and I'm looking forward to our next adventure with them....minus the SNAKE!

Cinco de Mayo

Andrea and Charlotte



 Cheers from Andrea




Presents!

 Margaritas were served on Brambly Pines deck at 6:00pm May 5, 2011.  Charlotte came dressed in her " Mexican Embroidered Dress" to celebrate the occasion with a handful of Peonies that she picked from her flowerbed. Andrea came baring gifts also.  A can of Peonie Room Spray....no they didn't know that the subject for gifts was " peonies".  Also there was a big can of wonderful " white tea".  They are both such sweet friends to have.  It was a bit nippy, sitting on the deck, drinking frozen Margaritas but it was still fun. The weather has been so crazy since we moved up here.  Charlotte said she can't remember ever wearing jeans and a coat to mow the yard in May, before.  Charlotte and I talked about how we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Margaritas last year, only we were sitting on the porch to the TT.  Wow! What a different a year can make in your life!  I don't know what another year in Alabama will bring to us, but we are planning on our 3rd Annual, drinking Margaritas, Cinco de Mayo on the deck next year!

Prissy's Day



Running around the Mansion and yard.

Well, it finally happened.  One of " the girls" got out.  Chuck went down to let them out in their yard for the day and Miss Prissy was sitting in the first nesting box by the door.  When he opened the door....out she went!  He watched to see where she went but she just hung around in the woods right there by the mansion.  I just knew we could never catch her so we let her go. We checked on her where abouts during the day.  At one time, she had gone over to the cow pasture next to us and I didn't think we would ever see her again.  When it came time to put the rest of the girls to bed that evening, I put them all in the house and then opened the door wide, to the yard.  Here came Prissy.....she heard the girls in the house and went into the yard.  I ran and closed the door behind her.  Then, I opened their little door to the house and I think she was happy to go through it.   Her "day of freedom" was over.  I know that is how she would like to spend all her days but it was too nerve wrecking knowing that she wasn't safe in the woods.   At least we know, that if any more of them get outside....they will come back home to roost for the night. 

Over 300 Tornadoes!

some of the damage we saw on the way to Florence



One of the tornadoes came across Hwy 157




Hooking the generator up to the refrig and freezer



April 27, 2011 was one of the most scariest days of my life!  It started at 4:00 am and didn't end until 8:00 pm.  The storms came in waves and each time got worse.  We were glued to the TV all day where they would tell us where each tornado was and if it had touched down.  I had signed up the day before for " Weather Call" where the TV station will call you if a tornado has been sited in the area of our address. We got called at least ten times during that day.   The first time I loaded the kitties up in their carriers and took them to the basement was the first real scare for the day.  It was heading right for Five Points ( our area).  I was in the safe room with the two steel doors closed and locked with Marmalade yowling...there wasn't a peep out of Annabelle.  (Chuck had gone off to the Forest to see how high the Sipsey had risen.....I KNOW!!!!  I'm not even going to write about that because I'm trying to forget that he went and left me all alone)  I stayed in the safe room for about ten minutes before coming back upstairs to see what the TV had said.  ( my cell phone nor the radio works under ground)  It got to be unreal how they where saying that one touched down in Cullman, one went across Hwy 157, one here, one there.  The poor weathermen, couldn't keep up with all of them.  In fact, one hit and wiped out the house of one of the weathermen, in Mt. Hope. He went home after being at the station for so long.  He got hurt but he's going to be OK.  When they said it was going to last into the night, I thought of our dear friend, Andrea who's husband is out of town and they don't have a storm shelter.  I called and asked her and her son to please come and stay with us during the rest of the storms.  We had lost power by then and Chuck made us all a " no power dinner on the camp stove".  We actually passed time on the back porch since it was getting dark in the house.  I dug out the Scrabble Game and that helped keep our minds off of things.  Since all we had was my radio ( that runs on batteries) and our cell phones weren't working all the time but I could still get "texts", I had asked the BNOE to please text me if we needed to go to the basement.  Raimey had hooked up their little TV to a car battery so they were still watching where the tornadoes were headed.  I got a text from Charlotte saying " GO TO THE BASEMENT NOW!!!"  We all ran into the house.  Andrea grabbed Annabelle, me Marmalade and we poked them in their carriers and down we went.  Chuck had put a nice piece of left over carpet from the house on the floor so we all sat on the floor.  We got another text from Charlotte saying that it went north of us and that we could come out.  By this time, we only had one more round of storms to get through.  We all held our breaths and we made it through it all.  We had no idea how bad all the damage was or how many deaths there were, so close around us.  I don't think anyone did for awhile.  Chuck got our little battery TV and charged it in the Explorer so we could use it for a couple of hours at a time.  That's when we realized how awful it all was and how lucky we were.   The only thing we lost was power and everything in our freezer and the refrigerator.  That was " nothing".   Raimey's Dad came every day with his generator and hooked our freezer and refrigerator up for about an hour, trying to save it all.  It didn't work.  Things would thaw out and then refreeze.....not good.  We did save some food by grabbing the coolers from the barn and using the bags of ice we had in the freezer.  Remember, we had 6 weeks of practice with " no power" when we moved up here, so we were OK with it all.  We didn't have very much gas in either the Explorer or the truck and we knew we were going to need ice and more food.  The BNOE had gone to Florence ( 35 miles away) on Thursday because the power was on over there.   We did the same on Friday and stocked up on what we needed.   Charlotte and I even watched the " Royal Wedding" with their TV hooked up to the car battery...lol.  I got up at 3:15 am and walked over to their house in the dark....but boy or boy...were the stars ever bright!!!! We even had " tea, scones and pear bread" to celebrate with the Royals.  Just as Kate and William said " I DO"...the TV flat lined...the battery ran dead....LOL.  At least we got to see most of it.  I think I was just as happy to have the power come back on ( Saturday night at 10:30 pm) as I was to get it hooked up in the TT the first time.  I told Chuck, at least this time, we had running water and a toilet that flushed.  Every day I remind myself how grateful we are to still have our beautiful new house with all the trees still around it and that we are alive.  Many are not.   ....it was the worse tornado outbreak in Alabama History.  No one up here will ever forget it. 

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.