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I thought I’d better get my blog entry for our middle of the August trip to Avalon, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City, Strathmere and Ocean City, NJ done to catch up! Just yesterday, Oprah Winfrey, her companion Stedman and her pal Gayle were in Stone Harbor! It’s really a nice, quiet resort area. Sean read […]
Last week when Brian was cutting the grass, he said a Monarch butterfly came out of nowhere and he wasn’t sure if he swatted at it or it was just hurt. It was laying in the grass and not really moving a lot. It let me pick it up and it’s one wing looked a little ‘out of joint’. I put it up on a zinnia in a pot and would check it the next day.
The next day it was on the ground, so I scooped him up and put him on the white butterfly bush. Almost immediately, it started to drink through its tube-like tongue, the proboscis, as it went dipping it into each little flower middle.
It still wasn’t moving it’s wings as much as it could, but it looked happier.
The same thing would happen day in and day out for a few days. I moved it around back to the purple butterfly bush too.
You can see the damage on the wing.
Then it started getting braver and wouldn’t let me pick it up. I watched it fly over the roof one day and then land on the branch of the chestnut tree near very prickly burrs. It could surely impale itself on one of them. It then took off again, flying a little zig-zaggingly around the yard.
I haven’t seen it for a few days, but it was neat to be the guardian to such a fragile creature.
All life is fragile.
After looking at photos, I’m pretty sure this is a ‘she’ as she has lots of spots around the border on her wings.
My Moon flower vine and Passion flowers are gracing me with their blooms. I plant the moon flowers by seed and bought the Passion flower plant back in May. What unique treats. The moon flowers smell like talcum powder.
On a personal note, I had been working once a week at a church preschool and they asked me to come in twice a week now and 3 times a week once a month! I’m really flattered by this.
A few days ago, I had injection therapy on my back in three spots. I took one Valium and did fine. The worst one was the shot near my tailbone as the doctor really jammed it in there (fanny area). I can see a difference already! I know I can handle something that some people get put under anesthesia to get. It was only 10-15 minutes. I sure did not like laying on my tummy the most. Sure hope it lasts a while.
I hope you are catching this series (Who Do You Think You Are?) as it is now on the TLC cable channel. Last night featured singer/actress Zooey Deschanel who has local roots near where I live now! First she went to the Philadelphia public library, then Swarthmore, PA and finally Christiana, PA where she found out her great grandmom (times 4) was an abolitionist for the underground railroad around the time of the Civil War! Christiana is about 16 or so miles from here.
And get this, we have been to the Sadsbury Friends Meetinghouse cemetery where Zooey’s relative (or relatives) are buried.
We went there as a geocache was there (back in February)! I have one placed myself around the corner near a supermarket. I thought that was pretty neat. Zooey was far right to where this photo was taken. I think they had her walk from the back there to the front. That one part of the building wasn’t too attractive.
So I decided to look up some family stuff, but my paternal side, the Knowles family. My gr-grandfather was one of the first forest rangers in Oregon. His wife, Margie wrote a book called ‘Honeymoon on Horseback’ about their early marriage and his work as a forest ranger and how they lived in a primitive way out of a tent, etc. I have a copy of the book. Sean, my son has read it too.
So I found on my search where the campground named after Archie was closed down. Then I ran across a youtube video and the man took us on a tour of the area.
This man is into geocaching too! My mouth fell open when I started to watch this video as he nabbed a geocache there.
But this is a bittersweet video for me also. I never met most of the Knowles family as I grew up in Pennsylvania and my 3 brothers and me didn’t go out to Oregon. I correspond with my cousin Ann and I’ve met her sister Shirley and her husband Dwayne when I was a little girl. Ann and Shirley’s mom, Dessa was very nice to me and wrote to me when she was alive. She is the daughter of Archie and Margie. My parents were separated and then divorced and my father lived his days out in his home state. His ashes were scattered in the Knowles creek in 2008.
If you watched the video, you can see where this campground was probably closed down for good this year. I appreciate Kenny (I have a brother and nephew Ken/Kenny also!) for showing me this place. I hope to see it someday, but we’ll see if I am able to get to the west coast.
The back cover of ‘Honeymoon on Horseback’, great grandfather Archie and
Margie, his wife and author.
Again, the internet truly amazes me!
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Visiting these gardens have been something I wanted to do for a few years, but never got around to it until a few weeks ago. They have a Facebook page and their photos were tempting me so much! So Brian and I went over to Wayne, PA and spent a few hours enjoying the property […]
This gallery contains 16 photos.
Back on July 24th (I know, I am behind all the time lately), Brian and I took drive up to Lititz, PA. It’s closer than the other chocolate town of Hershey, PA., but to me it smells very delicious right outside of the Wilbur Chocolate Factory. It smells like mom’s kitchen, or my kitchen or […]
This gallery contains 14 photos.
Back on July 20th we were looking for a day trip to go on and I saw that Elk Creek State Park had a lot of water around it and was less than 40 miles away. We had never been there before and only knew the lay-out from the internet. There is the Turkey Point […]
Sun setting over Chadds Ford, PA, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
On the way back from my mom’s house, I asked Brian to turn down Creek road to where the Chadds Ford Historical society is located so I could get my Instagram shots for the day. I was really pleased with these shots of the beautiful landscape and building.
The side of the Chadds Ford Historical Society
There’s something about the sun raising and setting that adds a special ambiance to a photo.
We did a little caching on the 23rd near the state line in DE. First we went to Mill Creek Meeting house. What a quaint place. The GPS pointed to a group of trees, but the hint was ‘metal on metal’ and we found the bison tube near an old chain link fence.
This is the side facing the road.
The Quakers are a very peace loving group. Brian is a peace loving person too!
We then went down a side road where this place use to be.
There were quaint old homes back here that had been renovated. I’ll have to go down this road some other time to take more photos.
We found a cache in a guard rail- but near the end of it-a pink pencil box and another cache in a guard rail in a magnetic key box. Brian took this photo and I used an Instagram filter.
We get to see such pretty sites on these little excursions!
We’ve had heavy rain late in the afternoon for days. A few days ago we saw this:
Awesome!
Sean went for an interview up in the city of Lancaster yesterday the 27th. We tagged along hoping the big farmer’s market would be open, but it wasn’t. So we looked for a geocache around the corner. It was opposite a convenience store. We started to look for it and the shop guy poked his head out of the door and said ‘you’re cold’…as we were near a phone pole. He said he could see it from up where he was standing and I backed up a bit-there it was under a smelly trash can (the kind with wheels) ugh.
Sean was in with the guy at the LanCo Conservancy for over an hour. It’s only part time work through September. It’s also 45 miles one way from our house. Some things to consider. But maybe the guy knows somebody. It seems it is who you know these days.
I went to see an Orthopedist doctor today. I guess the young lady I was seeing before was an assistant. Seems she got the issue with my back wrong. I have lower left ligament issues. The doctor thinks that my fall last year even shifted my pelvis a bit. And the physical therapy that caused me pain was all wrong for my issue! Now don’t you think they would have figured that out the first time I went there? I am to get an MRI, but in the process of seeing if the insurance will pay for it.
We lost an old apple tree yesterday. Down it went in the direction of the yard, not the bank. We don’t get the previous owner’s reason for planting trees on a bank. You can’t pick the apples without a long tool. They weren’t so great and the deer and wildlife were enjoying them today.
The tree was behind her.
I thought I’d get a break from doctors and have two things to do the week of the 8th, 45 minutes in opposite directions, Monday and Friday. When it rains it pours-literally.
Sean doesn’t have too many Sundays off working retail. All last week he was saying he wanted to go to the beach and Brian just couldn’t get off (he’s retail also). So Saturday we are looking on the internet and couldn’t find a cheap enough place until Sean called a hotel he’s been to before. They had a room, so the two of us got our act together and were on the road by 1:45, just a little over an hour later. We stopped to cash in a bag of coins and got $67 for them (paid for gas and our dinner). If we had known a grocery store was across the street from the hotel and that we had a microwave, we could have utilized them.
My stipulation was that we could stop if needed and we did a few times for a bathroom break and to geocache! We stopped at a few beach towns in Delaware as we decided to skip Rt. 1 for Rt. 113. First we went to a park in Millsboro. DE near a canal.
The geocache was in crevices of that big tree. There’s Sean in the red shirt.
That’s the Indian River Canal. We really like seeing new areas like this.
The next little town was Selbyville, DE. The cache was at the museum that use to be the train station. Sean posed with the 70s(?) Plymouth police cruiser out front.
Despite stopping a few times, we got to Ocean City, MD in just over 3 hours.
The Carousel is a nice, beachfront hotel with an ice skating rink inside. The whole town was hopping with mostly high school seniors and a girl’s lacrosse tournament! We saw them everywhere!
We ate at a place across the street from the hotel called ‘The Green Turtle’. We had to wait a while. Once seated, a group of young ladies came in for dinner. Sean recognized a few from his Penn State days, but it was a bridal party dinner and he didn’t want to say hi. It really is a small world!
I saw that a geocache was called ‘OC Sunset’ and we decided to get there before the actual event happen. It was a park we have never been and there again, many lacrosse matches were going on.
I got some pretty awesome shots. We worked our way down the pier at North Park-it was 0.16 of a mile to where the cache was stuck under the only bench there. Sean found it!
The pier we walked down to the cache.
And there it goes!
We went for ice cream and a smoothie and a little shopping afterwards. I called it a night and Sean was just getting started. He likes a club there called Seacrets and he was headed in that direction. I was about to fall asleep when my ‘neighbors’ came back and decided to jump on the beds like monkeys (male teens) at 1:30 am. One time the picture moved over head and I jumped a foot. Sean was back by then and at 2:15 I called the front desk and security came up and knocked on their door. Shame on them for acting that way in a family hotel! There are motels just for groups like theirs.
I’m stopping here and will talk about Day 2 soon. We saw a few more nice places and grabbed a total of 10 geocaches! Sean is liking caching much more now. He sees it’s the adventure and the cache/log is just the prize at the end.
Skipped some stones to get this cache in Banning Park, DE, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Brian and I did a little mapped out caching on the 6th (yesterday). I hadn’t been feeling well earlier in the week and had to miss work again. I think I have a food allergy to sweet potatoes. I’m keeping a food dinner diary and I asked Brian if he remembered when my tummy was bothering me another time and I looked it up and we had eaten sweet potato chili. I really liked that chili too! I’ll make it another time to see for sure. Tuesday I even ate Greek food from Wilmington’s festival and that didn’t bother me and it’s very rich.
Speaking of Wilmington, Sean and I drove down to the church to retrieve the take-out. Each sampler is only $15 and I got two meals out of mine. We stopped at a park to find a cache first. We didn’t know where to park, so Sean went to a school lot for about 10 minutes. It didn’t take long to zone into the area and I saw this:
The cache was in the pole behind the sign and difficult to retrieve!
I really liked Cool Springs. We figured out you were only allowed to park on side streets on the other side of the park. When I found the cache, I told Sean to go sit in the car in case someone came along. No one did.
With the first mentioned caching, Brian and I went to Banning Park near Newport, De. There were a number of caches there and I always like finding a new park.
The bridge was the second cache we looked for. The first was in a curved hedge. Now I don’t know about other cachers, but if there is anything I dislike more about caching is sticking my head is bushes. They hold dirt and stuff like a barrier. We looked quite a bit and were right where the cache was suppose to be, but we didn’t see it. Strike one!
So we went over to the bridge. Again we were in the right spot, but a FB caching pal said in her log that she didn’t get too wet or dirty, so I knew what I had to do. Brian didn’t volunteer to walk in the stream. And lo and behold, there was the cache under the bridge! Yes!
We went on to find another bridge one that was kind of out in the open and not hidden well. We then looked a bit for one near a pond. It was along a fence, but also near train tracks so the GPS went wonky a few times. I finally walked away and then approached more slowly and it stopped at correct spot and I saw a cammoed sack which was the cache!
We went on to a pavilion hide. When we first arrived, some school was having their picnic or field day and there were at least 200 kids in bright red t-shirts wondering around and in the area of the pavilion. They were all gone by 3 pm, but alas, I think they had to find the cache there or it was in the bush we stuck our heads in several times. People have to remember that birds will make nests in shrubs too. I told the cache owners it may be gone. I’ll be curious to see if anyone finds it after us.
We went on to find a few caches along Rt. 4 on our way to dinner and the grocery store. One was a gunner in a memorial park. Brian found that one.
I had my ‘cheat’ dinner last night which was a ‘baby’ cheesesteak on an Italian roll. It was so skimpy, I am sure a real baby could eat it and still be hungry. Maybe it wasn’t much of a cheat. I’ve been trying to stick to whole grain bread.
There was a cache near the restaurant at a restaurant. We walked over knowing it was one of the light fixtures on the side. Pretty sure the shades were down in the restaurant, but didn’t a waiter come out and in poor English want to know what we were doing! I showed him the app, he didn’t get it and wouldn’t leave until we did. At least we tried to find it.
We are having lots of rain today. Brian didn’t have to work, but he had to clean up water in the basement. I decided to tidy up the pantry closet as stuff was just hedged in there and falling out. It took a little while, but I got rid of old food and almost empty cereal boxes.
Sean has off Sunday, so thinking about doing a day trip. I know he isn’t into driving a lot, but Brian doesn’t have off. I hope we can see something different not too far away!
Every year we take a drive to the part of Lancaster County that is closest to us, right off of Rt. 1. This year we decided to stop for a geocache first and went up and down some rural roads to end up at a very small cemetery. It was actually across the road from houses similar to ours, so I guess many moons ago, it was way out in the country and provided a permanent resting spot for the local farmers and their families. Well at least a few of them. There were a few interesting ‘plots’ that had chain around them and metal tassels like you’d see holding fancy curtains back. I didn’t venture around much as the grass was thigh high and I already had one bad tick bite this year (just had a Lyme test today too). So I looked for about 5 minutes or so and couldn’t see anything. The cache owner and her mom have a few caches in these parts, but neither take care of them anymore. I even brought a new container and log as I saw where they needed replacing. I think the original is gone now.
So we were a little perplexed about what Street Road to go on and we turned way to soon! There is one before the reservoir and one after it! We’ve been here at least 3-4 times now, think we’d remember by now. Of course it turned out to be a blustery, cool day…again. And it didn’t take me long to go through the four different greenhouses and fill up a wagon and then some.
I will have to take photos of the different kinds of petunias I got from almost black, to yellow with a black edge, to the peachy yellow, the chartreuse with pink and pale lavender. All the plants came in last night as we had cool temps. Not tonight though. I gave them a drink and they are safe under the big evergreen out front.
This is the scene after we left with a skinny purse:
They have quite a long drive! They even had a tour bus come up with a group of older ladies. The owner said she’s only seen that one other time.
So we were trying to decide what to do. We always tend to get out after 2 pm and it was 4:30. We stopped at a local church to look for another geocache and came up dry. Wind blown, but dry.
We went down more back roads to one that was suppose to be a quick grab. We had to go in woods, no luck except for a tick crawling up the driver’s seat.
We decided to go to a little town where Brian use to work from and eat in a family restaurant. I can’t believe club sandwiches cost almost $9 each! Wow!
We stopped at a park on the way home and could not locate yet another cache. I was getting bummed! Today I emailed a husband and wife cacher as they found it the same day! They said it was in a grate in the middle of a parking lot hanging off a fishing line! What? I happen to see the grate, peeked in and didn’t see anything. They said you almost had to kneel down to see it. More seasoned cachers know about this stuff. We almost have 300, but haven’t seen a grate one before. We’ve seen one hanging off a wall with fishing line though, but people helped us find it.
To get one blasted cache, we stopped at a Wallie World on the way home. I thought for sure we’d find the lamp skirt one, but there was nothing there! We drove to another cache, didn’t want to go in a wooded area and then I saw where the Wallie World guy had another one. Went back there and I finally found one! One out of six is terrible.
Come on 300!
Waiting on some blood work I had done today to check my Vitamin D level and my parathryoids.
Collages & Creative Goodness 