You may have to enlarge the photo by clicking on it and then looking at the largest image by clicking through the one that comes up-from the right corner-got that? Update-he is on the flower below the tallest flower in the middle.
Went for a walk at Longwood Gardens today and I was surprised by all the flowers still in bloom-and the bees and butterflies. I went for a peaceful walk around the lake there, the opposite direction I went with my friends last time.
Brian and I went to a quaint tavern for lunch called ‘The Whip’.(Their photo slideshow is nice on the website). We had seen it mentioned on a local ‘foodie’ show last night and decided to go. Unfortunately, it was crowded at even 1:45 pm. We were sitting next to a very loud group of ladies. I noticed when their order came before ours, most got the same as me the ham and brie quiche and salad.
Brian got fish and chips.
Yummy, like home cooking from England. As we sat waiting a bit, we started to chat with an older lady and she said to get ‘the pudding’. After lunch, I asked the waitress and she said it was cake-think it was described as ‘sticky cake’-buttery with a caramel sauce and side of vanilla ice cream-really delectable-I have half of it here as Bri only tasted some. Update-from a review its’ called Sticky Toffee Pudding-very cake-like to me.
I had my camera and Bri drove the Cruiser and if I saw something I wanted to photograph, he slowed almost to a halt when he could-thus the cow shot through the windshield. Nice day, but very blustery.
The Whip Tavern is an English pub situated in beautiful Chester County horse country. The drive to get there is an experience in itself no matter what season. Rolling hills, pasture land and then all of a sudden you happen upon The Whip on the corner of N Chatham Rd (Rt 841) and Sprindell Rd which seems in the middle of nowhere.
“Jolly good, this ‘cool interpretation of an old English pub’ will
‘put a smile on your face’ and sate any ‘cravings for bangers and mash’,
‘amazing fish ‘n’ chips’ or ‘fantastic’ lagers and bitters…’pubby and clubby’ ‘treasure’ ” ~Zagat
My pal Jennifer brought her son down to Longwood for his 2nd birthday today and was nice enough to invite me. The last time I saw both of them was in Ocean City, MD back in June, 2010. N. was about 8 months and he’s just as sweet and laid back as he was as an itty bitty. He was a bit shy with me at first and warmed up to me later. Longwood has a beautiful train display featuring Thomas the blue-faced engine in his own garden. I don’t think N. could believe the big layout for the trains. He really enjoyed that part, put when he got to the water fountains, he was in heaven! He got to check out several fountains and had to be changed. A true water lover. We had lunch also. I have been wanting their mushroom soup since the weren’t up at the Mushroom Festival last month. It was good. N. wasn’t too hungry, he wanted to ‘drive’ his stroller around which I remember Sean doing way back when.
The pumpkin here weighed about 840 lbs and N. said it was ‘heavy’. He was correct.
Here’s a neat parasol display:
and my little buddy playing:
Such a pretty display:
Good day!!
Decided to take some photos on this very humid day and share them with you. Accompanied by Jackie Evancho (this song was paid for and downloaded from Amazon).
Well how could I not talk more about Chincoteague Island, VA? It’s a quaint little town that I’ve (well all of us) have never seen before.
I’ve always been curious about the wild ponies and I shared one of the photos of a herd we saw on the way to the beach. But we got to get up close and personal to a group of horses near the hotel that ranged in age from foal to 30! The sign said they were for sale. The tourists could buy them treats of alfalfa pellets and corn and put it in a few feeding boxes. The horses loved that! The little ones even started to fall asleep with their heads in the boxes.
One of the old mares had lost an eye this past winter. We felt so sorry for him, but he still begged for food. I think he’s in the back.
Their backs are really sunk in!
We thought this group of Mallards were comical. They apparently hang out near the horses and get the tiny pieces of treats. They were laying here resting with their headed tucked under their wings-well of course I stirred them up when I came to take their photo!
This seagull was hanging around the sliding doors of our room. Since he was so persistent, I tossed him out a Pepperidge Farm goldfish.
When he didn’t get anymore, he walked away in defeat:
We checked out and headed to the Museum of Chincoteague which just opened in April of this year. That was an interesting place! I would have loved to have some of the photos for collage. We participated in a scavenger hut to be entered in a drawing. This was a fabulous idea because we really looked at all the exhibits many times. We also got help from other guests.
These were probably the first taxidermy ponies I’ve seen (but have seen other animals in other museums). It was a bit weird to see Misty, the pony from the M. Henry book called ‘Misty of Chincoteague’. I didn’t know Ms. Henry bought Misty and she lived in Illinois for 10 years and went around to schools, etc. The other pony (darker) is Misty’s baby Stormy(both have been deceased for over 30-40 yrs).
A quilt with citizens names dated 1918!
Taxidermy duck:
Leaving Chincoteague, you see all these huge white satellite dishes. NASA has a place there! We zoomed past the museum and turned to go back.
Some fun shots of Sean:
We stopped off in Ocean City for lunch and then headed to Seashell City/Shipwreck museum in Fenwick Island, DE. This is one of those beachy gift shops I would have gone ga-ga for as a 10 yr old. They have tons of everything. I’ll show you want I bought in a later post. We always go upstairs to the ‘free’ Shipwreck Museum. The displays are so nicely done and it’s amazing what the divers find. I think some must have gotten very weathy from their finds.
Little childrens’ cups and saucers.
Dishes encrusted with coral.
Remember riding these outside of the supermarket. The dolphin is so cute!
We stopped several more times-the Rehoboth Beach outlets-went in The Gap store and got a few things; also walked around the Atlantic Book warehouse which is slowly shrinking in size. I only bought 3 books which are very nice. We ate a deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno and headed home. Whew! That was a long day on Thursday!
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Today I had to go to the eye doctor to get my eyes, mostly my right eye checked out. Both have been red, but the right one was terrible this morning. It’s inflamed and I have to use steroid drops in it for 2 weeks! I think some hair product was getting in my eye when I was asleep as I have that little bang on the right.
Sean and I will try to get down to right outside of Philadelphia to see the live taping of a local show called The 10! Show on Wednesday. You have to get there by 9:30 a.m., no small task for us. It’s about a 90 minute trip one way. Sean thought it would be a fun thing to do and a bonus for him, ace Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee is one of the guests! They are having a contest on the show’s facebook page and will pick someone tomorrow to introduce Cliff on the show. I mentioned that Sean hasn’t been able to afford to go to a game (which is true) and it would be a treat for him. Crossing fingers.
I’ve had a few days to unwind now, so I thought I’d continue my vacation post.
On Wednesday we checked out of our Ocean City, MD hotel and headed to the O.C.Inlet area. I love this area as it’s mostly ocean everywhere you look. We got comfy and a young lady lifeguard told us it was a ‘surfer’s beach’ to a certain point. If more than a couple surfers showed up, we were to move behind a certain area. They never did. There is a jetty in this area where people were fishing and a foghorn that goes off every so often.
We are pretty much the whitest people on the beach-lol! We all got some sunburn-Brian and Sean’s was more blotchy on their chests and tummy.
This it the parking for the inlet and boardwalk. Incidently, Sean is on the way home from O.C. from an overnight trip with pals. He stayed in a place that had an indoor skating rink!
So…we stayed here about 1.5 hours and then went for lunch and a little shopping before we headed to Chincoteague, Virginia. Sean’s phone GPS took us down some very rural back roads. We passed several decrepid houses, about 4 ancient cemeteries and acres and acres of corn or marsh. Another home had several ‘bottle trees’ like they have down in the south. I think they weren’t real trees, but like faux Christmas trees that were probably hand done. This is something I only saw for a few seconds.
This is what we saw when we were headed to the island:
We got to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised by this homey place:
The pool was half enclosed and there was a hot tub nearby. I’m the only one who splashed around in the pool!
We headed to the beach as we were early for check in. It’s about 5 minutes or so away. What a beautiful place! Even more ocean than O.C.!
We did see a herd of wild ponies on our way to the beach. That was a treat!
and with a zoom:
I wanted to see the Assateague lighthouse so we stopped there as it was minutes away from the beach. We were told while shopping to get ‘Off!’ by a helpful store clerk and didn’t think to spray ourselves before we started the trek to the lighthouse! I’ve never seen so many hungry mosquitoes. We did get some bites, I think I got about 7 that took a few days to show up. Here is the 140+ year old lighthouse. (We didn’t get to climb it though).
I’ll stop here and finish up tomorrow where I will show you the Chincoteague Museum with taxidermy of the real Misty the pony! I read ‘Misty of Chincoteague’ over 40 yrs ago!
PS-for Zoey!
Roamy arrived from Canada, nodded his cap and disappeared out in my yard for the longest time. I knew exactly where he was-with the gnomes and fairies. This ‘special’ group resides in the town (outskirts) next to Kennett Square, ‘The Mushroom Capital of the World’ where there is a Mushroom festival every September-the 26th year is this year! There are lots of ‘magical’ mushrooms in our garden! Roamy is posing here on one.
Look at this interesting group!
Roamy in particularly liked this guy as he looked so ‘cool’ with his shades and cocktail. Said he loves Jimmy Buffet-no kidding! : )
Roamy knows I love gardening and he said he wants to be a florist-so he stopped and smelled the Sweet Bay Magnolia:
Checked out some petunias:
And wondered if he could take some of these viney things with him so he could pretend to be Jack in the Beanstalk:
He visited a girl and bunnies in the herb patch:
After his tour of our yard, he was swooped up and taken on a weekend trip to Baltimore, Maryland.
He had lots of fun and saw interesting sites:
First we took him to the 27th floor of Baltimore’s World Trade Center. He was a bit scared until Mr. C. showed him the wonderful Baltimore sites!
He look bigger than the cars way below:
And look at the snazzy Oriole jersey and hat!
We here are big Phillies fans (just to let you know).
He saw the sign for the Flag house, but we didn’t go in as it was closed.
We went to the Baltimore Aquarium but Roamy hide in my camera bag as he didn’t want to be fish food!
Our last stop was Ft. McHenry where the battle of 1814 to ward off the British inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner’ when he saw the flag still flying overhead. See the cannons behind him, there were lots of them!
So Roamy would have been happy to stay here in PA with all my special pals:
Even the inside ones!
Always remember to…
Roamy will be moving on to Sherry next….
Surprise!
First of all, Happy Memorial Day to all the veteran’s and those who have served our country so well!
3 Baby NutHatches are inside, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
If you look close enough, you can see the ‘ghostly’ looking image of a baby Nuthatch. Yesterday there were three of them and today they were gone! I would talk to them during their short stay in my little birdhouse. I could tell yesterday they were getting antsy to fly and of course it was getting very crowded. Hope I see them around. : )
As I had done last year, I made sure I went to Longwood Gardens before the 30th to see the amazing, abundant and absolutely gorgeous lily display. I was not disappointed. It was warm, but a nice breeze kicked up a few times. I am planning on trying to go to LG a few times a week to walk. I feel better on the new hbp med-more like my old self and I hope it’s helping. Anyway, here are more shots, enjoy and have a great weekend.
Sean and I were going to Winterthur in Delaware to see the azaleas in full bloom yesterday (actually he was just going to take me, he is kind that way). We get to the gate and the gardens are closed for maintenance on Mondays! We were disappointed and headed down Route 1. I asked him to stop at the Brandywine River museum so I could take some photos as I had toted along the camera. We had a nice time looking at the statues, wildflowers and river! Here are a few shots. This is me with Miss Gratz the cow. There is also Helen the pig and a 9 foot statue out front called ‘Boy with Hawk’.
From Wikipedia:
The Brandywine River Museum is a museum of regional and American art located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Brandywine River. The museum showcases the art of Andrew Wyeth a major American realist painter, and his family: his father, N.C. Wyeth illustrator of many children’s classics, and his son, Jamie Wyeth a contemporary American realist painter.
Housed in a converted nineteenth century gristmill, the museum’s permanent collection features American illustration, still life works, and landscape painting by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Harvey Dunn, Peter Hurd, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle, William Trost Richards, and Jessie Willcox Smith. The glass-wall lobby overlooks Brandywine Creek and rolling countryside that inspired the Brandywine School earlier in the early 20th century.
The museum also owns and operates tours of the nearlby N. C. Wyeth House and Studio, as well as the Kuerner Farm, inspiration for nearly 1,000 works of art by Andrew Wyeth from the 1930s until his death in 2009. Outside the museum are beautifully maintained Wildflower and Native Plant Gardens.
The museum was founded in 1971 as part of the Brandywine Conservancy thru the efforts of “Frolic” Weymouth. He has been on the board since its founding.
(I see a few places here I haven’t been to!)
Collages & Creative Goodness 