Strolling Through Our Woods

After church on Mother's Day we took a nice walk around our property.  It was a rather cool afternoon, with a threat of rain and temperatures in just the upper 50s.  We had a very enjoyable little hike, even though we had to wear jackets!

 

These pretty flowers are spiderwort from Mackey Bend, Lisa's homeplace growing up.  Lisa has two big bunches here in the wild garden.  She has several other plants and flowers from her home that reminds her of her mother, but these were the one's blooming when we took the walk.

These gladolia's are from the Mary Castle homestead across the river.  Before she passed away, the new bridge came through and took away all her garden space where they were planted.  She was happy that we were able to re-locate them , along with some of her other plants and flowers, before the bull dozers came through.

  

 

Lisa calls these dewberries.  They are a type of black berry that runs right along the ground.  The berries are among the first to ripen, and are super sweet.  They are better than blackberries or even raspberries!

We have three different varieties of wood sorrel.  I think those above are called violet wood sorrel, due to the purple markings.  The flower also has a violet tint to it.  It is a tasty sour treat on a hike through the woods and helps to quench thirst.

This is yellow wood sorrel.  It does not have the purple markings but tastes the same as the violet sorrel.  There is common wood sorrel that we didn't find on this hike.  We also have several good patches of sheep sorrel around, but we didn't go to them on this walk either.  All the sorrel are high in Vitamin C, good to nibble on, and are good as a tea or to use in salads.  They also contain oxalic acid which is ok, but can be bad for folks suffering from gout, rheumatism, or kidney stones if they consume too much of it at one time. Historically, wood sorrel was used to treat scurvy, fevers, urinary infections, mouth sores, nausea and sore throats.

The above plant is one that Lisa wants to look up.  She thinks it might be Angelica or New Jersey Tea.  We haven't identified it yet.  Looking for and finding plants that she does not know is one of Lisa's favorite things to do!

 I just thought this was a pretty picture looking out across the ravine.

We are very thankful that we have a nice wooded area that we can roam around and explore whenever we feel like it!  Nature is a wonderful place to spend some time!

Maple Sweet'nins 2013

We've been getting a gradual supply of sap from 5 of the 6 trees Simon tapped last month.  I've done things differently this year in that I've worked little by little at boiling the sap instead of working marathon all-nighters. 

I've been keeping what sap we get cold until we have at least 3 gallons, which is enough to make an 8 ounce jar of pure maple syrup.    I'll take a batch of 3 gallons and maybe boil it down enough to fit in a gallon pitcher.  Then I'll come back to it later when I have time again and finish it off while also starting on another 3 gallon batch.  Of course with only 5 taps working instead of 10 or 15, we've not had the over flowing abundance of sap that kept me hopping other years either. 

I think I like this slower pace of sugarin'.  I've done 3 jars of actual syrup, and then we've also turned 4 jars worth into maple sugar/candy.  There's also 2 jars worth in the refrigerator that have boiled down to about half a gallon so far and there is another couple gallons of sap waiting to be boiled.  If you're counting, that's 29 gallons of sap we've collected so far this season.  Not all that much, but better than nothing!  And there may still be time for them to flow some more before we hit spring full time.

My Maple Sugar Valentine heart's did not turn out looking as good as I would have liked this year, but they sure were good and sweet!  Yum! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Anniversary Vacation : Bahama Style!

Lisa and I are coming up on our 25th wedding anniversary and just passed the 25th anniversary of our engagement and 26th anniversary of meeting, so we decided to celebrate with a family cruise to the Bahamas!  We were going to wait until spring in order to go closer to our exact wedding date, but things worked out better for the last week of November.  Prices are much lower for cruises this time of year and both Matthew and Erica will be attending colleges during the spring semester with different Spring Break weeks, anyway, so we settled on November 26th - 30th. (November 21st is the magic day of our meeting as well as engagement, so we weren't too far off. ) We also really liked the idea of leaving the deadness of a dreary eastern Kentucky late November for the sun, warmth and greenness of Florida and the Caribbean!

We had a wonderful time, and took many pictures.  I'm going to record some of them here on the blog, but it looks like I'm going to have to split them up into multiple posts. (I'm afraid I won't take the time to finish up the drafts and will just let them linger like so many of my un-published posts).

These are some of the first views of our ship from the shuttle bus.   We parked our cars at the Radisson Resort and rode their shuttle to the cruise terminal.  The bus ride itself was exciting, but seeing Monarch of the Seas in port waiting on us was even more exciting! (The date-stamps on the pictures are incorrect; these were taken 12 days later than they show.)

Here we are checking in at the terminal.  (This is an area where you are not allowed to take pictures, but Christina got away with it without getting arrested.)

This is our boarding photo taken the first minute onboard the ship.  I thought it turned out pretty good.

Our first view inside the ship while we were still wonder-struck:

Here we are on the deck during the departure:

We had an awesome sunset that departure evening!

The rest of the evening found us unpacking, having a nice supper in the Windjammer Cafe, watching the "Welcome Aboard" show in the Sound of Musc Theater, and settling into our rooms for the night.

The next day we went to a small island called Cococay, had a wonderful anniversary dinner in the Dining Room, and went to the very enjoyable song and dance show called "You Can't Stop the Beat". 

I'll share more Cococay pictures in another post, but here is a good one of the whole family as we arrived on the island.

On our nature walk we passed by a tree named "Love Vine", so I wanted to get a picture in front of it with my sweetheart!

Here we all are in the dining room.  I thought everyone cleaned up nicely after a full day of sand and beach!

                                       

The waiters suprised us with a "Happy Anniversary" song along with a special piece of strawberry cheesecake adorned with a candle.

After we blew the candle out we decided to feed each other a bite of the dessert like we did the wedding cake 25 years ago.

The show was great for us because it covered songs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s which was our childhood years, dating years, and newlywed years.

This fellow is singing a Neil Diamond song, of whom I was a big fan.  (Still am a little, I guess.)

After a day on the beach, a nice dinner, and a broadway style show, we arrived back at our room to discover that our stateroom attendant had delivered some fresh towels.  But these were not ordinary dry your hands on them towels; no these were love bird, heart shaped towels complete with rose petals and a card!  What a romantic ending to our anniversary evening!

My Lisa is as beautiful and wonderful as the day I first fell in love with her! 

I have been a very blessed man for 26 years!

I've got plenty more pictures to share of our vacation aboard Monarch of the Seas, at Cococay,  and Nassau, but they will have to wait for another post!