Category Archives: local interest

Apr6

Almost summer weather

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Peachy pink rose, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Rose garden in Conservatory
Very strange spring weather here today! It got in the middle 80s! Not sure if the temp or my solo trip to my hometown yesterday set me off, but I was so miserable with hacking today, I went to the doctor. I was doing everything right, but have a little noise she didn’t like in my chest, got my first inhaler, plus got an antibiotic-asked for something that wouldn’t upset my tummy too much. I may have been able to get over this myself, I was almost there, I know it! It was the feeling of needing to expel something from my lungs and the terrible tickle that came on so suddenly. Trying to get ready for our little trip to DC next week. I want to go, but not sure if I can handle tummy upset in a strange town. I am eating yogurt to help.
I hope you like the almost perfect rose from Longwood.
I did have a nice visit for a few hours yesterday with my family, though my mom is upset about needing her sewage pipes worked on. I did fine driving there and back. A day sure makes a difference.

Mar28

Dianne and Brian at the Orchid Show

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Dianne and Delphinium, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Brian and I went to check out the orchid competition at Longwood Gardens today. Sean and I had gone earlier in the month to see the orchid display. The competition was only this weekend. Brian hadn’t been there for years and enjoyed it.

The crowd enjoying the different orchid displays:
The crowd checking out the orchids under competition
Brian enjoying the conservatory after not going for many years:
Brian went with me for the first time in years!
Some of the gorgeous orchids-
Burgundy and white orchids
Tiger spots on an orchid!
What a society’s display for competition looks like”
Orchids in competition
I’m still uploading-have about 4 more photos to do as both Bri and I took our turn with the camera.

Jan21

Passed it by-finally ate here!

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This is right on Route one across the highway from the Brandywine River Museum-it’s called ‘Hank’s Place’. Sean and I were on our way to drop off his childhood bed at the Good*will and we decided to stop here for lunch on Wednesday. (Mom was having a plumber at her house, so I’m going on Monday now). I can’t tell you how many times we have passed it and never ate there. The prices are good. The clientele ranged from legendary artist ‘Andy’ Wyeth and movie stars when they were filming ‘The Village’ a few miles away. I believe William Hurt and maybe Joaquin Phoenix were two of the patrons back then.
When we walked in around 1:45 everyone looked up at us! That was strange. What was stranger that after we ate, I pulled out my debit card and the waitress said ‘cash only’! Ahhh. Thank goodness Sean had a $20 on him. We both ordered ‘triple’ clubs-me chicken salad and he ordered a turkey one. One of the best I’ve had for a while and I still have a quarter of it in the fridge. : ) I wish you could see the flowers someone plants there every year. I guess they must do their own composting from the restaurant leftovers as the banks are just loaded with marigolds, etc.
Here is the website where I found the photo.
After we dropped off the bed, we went to the mall as I had a gift card from Sean to use at Bos*covs. I picked out a honey colored leather purse and a quilted wallet (Zoey-quilted bags are so in!). I went to the register and the blasted card was denied. It was different from the ‘in house’ gift cards. Thank goodness another lady came along and she knew how to use my card! Whew!
We went to Trader*Joes too and got a few of their treats-some Orange Mandarin chicken and fried veggie rice for dinner. That’s our indulgent stop. The maple cookies are quite good too.
I’m getting the hang of Cha*Cha. I wish it paid more, as some questions really are hard to find and you may run out of time (3 minutes max.).
Off to the dentist today. It’s been almost a year. Crossing fingers I don’t use all my deductible up in one or two visits. Robbers. ; )

Jan12

A Tuesday Afternoon

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So I was thinking what else I could do beside clean-lol-well at least do something constructive. Things are still not set up the way I want them and I seem to be missing a box of knick knacks which I’ll probably find in July! : )
I have had a crick in my neck or is it the bottom of my head, on the right. It’s probably a pinched nerve, nothing new-an ache a day I call it! It was my right shoulder blade area yesterday.
I tossed in a pot some stew meat, carrots, Yukon potatoes, onions, celery, a turnip and a few cut Brussel sprouts (!) to make this:

My ‘secret ingredient’ is a small can of V8 juice as stew meat isn’t known to be the most tender meat. It really helps. And so does cooking it for at least 3-4 hours.
I also decided that what I would do to tidy a bit is to clip Rachael*Ray magazines. They are great magazines, but between hers and the other few I get, I needed to do some clipping. This is what I did:



I’ve only clipped two magazines so far. I cut out the recipe and wrote the name of the recipe on the front of a file folder. If I try it and like it, I can either write a comment about it right on the folder or start up a notebook with the tried ones. Now I can look at a glance at what looks good and find the recipe easily. I could go further and separate them by appetizer, main dish, pasta, beverage too. One folder probably won’t be enough. I am also writing hints on the bottom corner-use coarse salt in a paste to clean cast iron skillets or the best chicken noodle soup is Camp*bells. There is also a pull out 7 day planner that I just kept intact.
I have my ‘lost recipe’ cookbook open to try some cheddar cheese biscuits, so I think they will go well with the stew. I’ll make them shortly.
Bon Appetit!
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Mrs. Jean Biden’s funeral was a stone’s throw from here today. I heard if you got in, they took away your purse, etc. for security reasons. President and Mrs. Obama attended as did Prez. Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
The noon news had a live feed in the church and it showed V.P. Biden wiping his eyes. He had his mom a long time.
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Sean’s at Wally World interviewing for a PT job. He is also going to take a test on Friday for census work which pays really well. So hopefully something will happen for him soon.

Dec12

Photo Hunt-Undesirable

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Yellow Grasshopper, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

So I usually don’t post undesirable things, so what do I do for this one? I looked around my photos and came up with this. I’m sure the main gardener over at Longwood*Gardens would have fainted if he saw this ‘muncher’. He was a big yellow guy too! He was really hanging on too.
I could have posted about holiday commercialism at this time of year, but I stuck to bugs, thank you very much. And look it’s ‘festive’ too-red and green!

Nov7

Photo Hunt-Veteran/Military

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‘The measure of life after all, is not it’s duration but it’s donation’-(CT Boom) was the verse I chose to grace this Art Trading Card for a swap I am in. We are not really a military family. I do know my father was on a ship during the Korean war, but my brothers were to young to go to Vietnam.
This is for the Civil War. I chose the Gettysburg Cemetery right here in Pennsylvania as I’ve been in that area a few times. I think the battlefield conjures up more images of gore rather than the peaceful cemetery. But remembering the magnitude of causalities pitting North against South is astounding-over 600k! The flower is a poppy for remembrance.

Nov1

Snaps from cellphones

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I don’t think these are too bad for cellphones. I did lighten or enhance the color in PSP7 just to make them more visually appealing:
Longwood3
Enhanced with Abode.
This is right near Longwood Gardens. I wanted to capture the burnt umber of the corn/wheat fields against the dark orange fall leaves:
Longwood4
And our dinner at Chili’s last week for Sean’s birthday:
Seanbd
Those salsa and chips are so good! And they are a bottomless bowl!
BriDi
The first few were my camera. This is Sean’s camera (more $) and I had to tweak it a lot more!
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Halloween didn’t feel much like Halloween until we saw some trick or treaters in my mom’s hometown on the way home. It’s the first year I didn’t see my niece and nephew as they were with their friends.
Working at my mom’s was very draining. It was a rainy day, but in the low 70s, so humid. She says she does things, like go through slacks she stuffed in a big black bag. I had to take every pair out and hold them up and read the size and most of them she discarded! I think we loaded up three of those bags. She loves jackets and says she has about 70! She said she would pick the 20 or so she likes best. It’s so hard to do this. My brother was running across tons of old family photos and sent them home with me to scan. Brian came along and we set up our old dining room table and we all could sit together for a change and share pizza. Brian and Don need to hang a mirror in mom’s room and hang a ceiling fan in the dining room. I have to go and work in mom’s room next.
I’ll be scanning the photos over the next few weeks. Need to make some chili for dinner soon for Sean’s arrival from Penn State.

Oct23

Days fly by

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I don’t want to lose interest in my blog and wanted to stop by and touch base. Not too much new. Went to the doctor for an annual yesterday and was able to schedule the mamm and ultrasound for next Tuesday. I may be getting a procedure to make my life easier. I’ve been going to this particular office for at least 6 years and it was the first time I saw the head doctor, a nice man from Jamaica. I had to tell him my gr, gr grandfather was a French doctor in Jamaica (one of the first). If you saw my old photos last week, I’m talking about gr grandmom’s dad.

Today I am going to a bookstore with a coffee shop area to meet a lady I went to high school with to talk about possibly writing a children’s book together. She is a published author. We found each other on Face*book and since I mentioned one of my dreams would be to write a children’s book, she said we have to get together to brainstorm. I have a few ideas. I rather not discuss them here, but Lorin told me what the publishers are looking for and I live in an area where there is a large ethnic population of a certain group of people. Lorin has also found a few leads for Sean as she helps her students locate jobs. Needless to say, I’m a bit is shock and of course doubting myself about coming up with a good idea. Lorin is also an artist and could illustrate the book.

We have been following our Phillies and will cheer them on in the World Series for the second year in a row. A few nights ago, Sean and I were watching a game on pins and needles when Jimmy Rollins hit a 100 m.ph. ball in a gap to help the team win the game, we were jumping up and down. It’s a talented bunch and we feel they are going to win again for Harry*Kalas, one of the team’s announcers, who passed away this year.

Other than that, I’m working on getting my clothes sorted. I have a large space*bag of slacks to go through in the living room and found a few bins of clothes I haven’t looked at for a few years.

Have a great weekend, and I promise not to be a stranger on my own blog!

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This is a wooden tag that I made using my gr. grandfather’s photo.