Friday, June 29, 2012

On Joy. And being Grateful.

In a recent yoga class we were asked to think about something we did each day to remember how much joy we have in our lives and be grateful.  My immediate thought was that I look at the sky. Every day.












The sky outside my front door last night at about 8:15pm.

Joy.

Thank you Mother Nature.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Thelma & Louise





We've had our cat, Louise, for about 6 years now.  She started following us when we would take the dogs out for their morning and evening walks.  She would show up from underneath a parked car and walk along behind us, but wouldn't let us too close.  After a while, she started showing up at the door unannounced and I figured out that she had been left behind by someone who had moved away.  Although I had no intentions of getting a cat, I started feeding her.  What else could I do? She was hungry and had no home any more. Before long she came into the house and started to occupy our hearts as well as our home. 

I don't write about her much, because she is one of those very independent types.  Many of my friends have never even seen her.  The other day my neighbor of four years asked me if I knew who she belonged to.  When I said "us" he was astounded.  He never knew we had a cat!  She's not unfriendly, she just doesn't have much use for us.  She doesn't spend a lot of time in the house, especially in the summer. She's an excellent hunter and often brings us gifts, or as the bf calls them, "threats".  Because we have a dog that needs a lot of attention (and up until recently we had two that needed a lot of attention), Louise is the perfect cat for us.  She is great at taking care of herself, comes in a few times a day to eat and she sleeps on the bed when we're not in it.  We rub her belly for a little while, and she's good. Ready to go back out and reign over her queendom.


Well, as the title of this post implies, this story is not all about Louise.  Two weeks ago, I was walking to my car from my office, across a very busy street downtown, to get my yoga mat out of the car and go to class down the street. It was a rainy Tuesday evening.  Up ahead I noticed a small group of people standing around talking and as I passed them I heard them saying "Is that a bird?"  "Is that a car alarm?" "Maybe it's a cat?" (I didn't say they were very smart people, did I?) As I walked by I definitely heard a cat.  A little tiny "meow".  I looked in the car that was parked there.  No cat. I listened at the trunk. Nope. I looked under the car.  Still couldn't find a cat.  Until I started to get up off the street. There, inside one of the openings in the car's wheel rim, was a tiny, tiny, soaking wet kitten.  All the people on the sidewalk clapped and then walked away quickly so they wouldn't have to deal with a found cat.

  Once again I found myself having no intention whatsoever of getting another cat, but what could I do? I sure as hell couldn't leave her there.  


So...meet Thelma:










Unfortunately, while Thelma is anxious to become friends, Louise wants nothing to do with her.  I hope they will eventually tolerate each other, or maybe even become friends.  Jack, as you can see, loves her, and even better than that, he loves her Kitten Chow.  Man! That stuff is yummy. 

Monday, June 25, 2012

flowers in the house!

No time to write, but I wanted to share a picture of flowers in my house for Jane at her Small But Charming (very charming) blog:


Beautiful Hot Pink Peonies from the florist and Orange Asiatic Lilies from the garden.  I think they made a good pair, especially in my red dining room!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Meet Mr. B.



We consider ourselves so lucky to count among all of our wonderful friends one that is also a wildly talented sculptor.  Last fall we went to one of his gallery showings and saw some of his newest works, all done in wire. It's incredible how much personality he can convey using wire. He'd used some other people we know as models, and we could tell immediately who they were.












We decided we just had to have one of Micheal's pieces, but wanted something a little more personal.  A little more "us".  So we commissioned a piece.  Michael said he'd never tried anything like it, so he was excited. It took a while, but a few weeks ago he brought it over and now it's been installed in our living room:















Our wire sculpture Buddha, also known as Mr. B. I hear that Michael has received some requests for more Buddhas, but I know none of them will be the same as mine. 
The pictures shown above are from Michael's FB page (Michael Van Hout/Wilmington NC - apparently he doesn't have a website yet)  and you can see them there without having to "friend" him, if you're interested.


Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

good eats...

Last Friday night the bf and I went out to one of our favorite fresh fish places here in town.  They had a special listed on the blackboard; grouper with a lobster sauce.  Mouthwatering, right? Unfortunately they ran out of it just as we were ordering.  We made other choices, but apparently bf couldn't get the grouper off his mind. 

On Saturday he found some freshly caught grouper at our local market, along with some lobster.  He brought it home with the question "do you know how to make lobster sauce?" 

We went online to get some ideas and this is what we came up with after a few "improvements" to the recipes we found online:








a salad of mixed greens, fresh NC strawberries, avocado and almonds with a vidalia onion vinagarette to start

blackened grouper with lobster sauce
we made a lot of lobster sauce and didn't want to waste a drop of it

the after


It would be an understatement to say it was a hit. Later that night, as I got into bed and was almost asleep I heard the bf whisper in the dark "don't you think that lobster sauce would be good with quiche?"

Monday, June 11, 2012

Color combos...

Some random color combos in the garden, over the weekend:



red and orange

green and black

lavender and lime green - really wish this picture had turned out better, this is such a pretty combo




peach and green






grey, black and green?


came home from a bike ride yesterday and as we were putting the bike in the back yard we came across this, just outside our gate - the neighbor's cat (we call her "the terrorist" because she terrorizes our little cat, Louise) taking a nap in a planter hung on our fence - she looks comfortable, doesn't she?

I had several other pictures, but I have decided I either need a new camera or I need lessons on taking better pictures, and actually it is probably both of those!

Happy Monday (man, that was a quick weekend!) and I wish you a great week!


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I love summer...

Last night after work, the bf and I decided to go to the beach and watch the full moon come up. So we picked up a "Veggie Special" pizza at one of our favorite places, packed up the blanket and a bottle of wine and headed out.

Ahhhhhh...





This guy was so funny.  He chased away all of the other seagulls.  He seemed to think it was his job and I know he hoped to be rewarded for a job well done.  I fell for it.


One of the truly beautiful things about living at a beach that is also a barrier island like ours is that you can look in one direction and see the sun set over the waterway, then look in the opposite direction and watch the moon come up over the ocean. Pretty spectacular.





The sun starting to set over the waterway.



Days are so long now that we ended up staying at the beach for hours, waiting on the moon. And we decided we really must do this more often.