A Day at the Beach

Our friend, Emily, has a house on Chincoteague Island, Va. It's cute and charming, like Chincoteague itself. I am not a 'beachy' person but I do like this tiny island on the Chesapeake Bay. We can ride our bikes to the beach, through the wildlife preserve on Assateague Island, seeing an array of beautiful shore birds and of course, the wild ponies of Chincoteague. I did make it to the beach for a couple hours, laying in the sand for a bit and watching people in the surf. I like looking for beach glass, but there was none to be found.
Emily used to live on a boat (for 6 years!), docked in various slips around D.C. It's a great way to have cheap rent (saving for a beach house). She bought this little island cottage a few years ago and has now sold the house boat and bought another house near Annapolis. But she still has boat urges so for her vacation this year year, she spent the week in Chincoteague building herself a kayak. From scratch. From a book at the library. Emily really is amazing. She does most of the plumbing, carpentry and electricity in her homes. She figures things out and does them. Well, she does work at Goddard Space Center and she might be a rocket scientist, so there you go. Anyway, when we got to her place, she was about to have the maiden launch of her new boat, which she has dubbed, "Lumpy" because she thinks it is a bit. I think it's smooth and sleek, and pretty damn nice for being made out of regular plywood.


She bought a little wheeled 'trailer' for it, loaded it on, strapped it in, and then walked it 1 1/2 miles to the water.


Yeah! It floats! She even made the paddles. Total cost: about $150, including the trailer and comfy seat. Go Emily!

Mr. Whippy's is a favorite spot for gathering and tasting the fine elements of soft serve. Mr. Whippy has been around a long time, although I don't know how long. Forrest is enjoying his twist cone after having spent 7 hours on the beach.



This is the view down the lane from Emily's little house. It's on a quiet street, down a crushed shell road.


We were given a delightfully colorful sunset to end our stay.

Coffee Achiever

I LOVE coffee. I probably drink way too much of it, I know, but if my hands aren't shaking, I'm fine, right? I drink it hot in the morning then I put the rest in this awesome little retro coffee pitcher. I picked the two pitchers up at a vintage store recently. I don't know why, but it just makes me feel so good to pour from this cute thing. I pour it into this 1950's glass and delight in just sipping away. (dork!) I'm beginning to like all things from the 50's. I used to hate that look but it seems to be around a lot lately and I'm warming up to it. (It might have something to do with me being from the '50's) Now it's "mid-century modern", all clean lines and sharp angles, a little bit cosmic and somewhat cartoony . I like things a bit more contemporary now, (yep, went through the "country" phase, uggggg!) and now I really do like the uncluttered, crisper look. Anyway, back to coffee. Having a glass of iced coffee at 4:00 in the afternoon is just the pick-me-up I need. My friend, Tina, was complaining of being tired lately and I suggested she have coffee in the afternoon to keep her going. Well, she did and it kept her going till 3:00 a.m.! Sorry, Tina. Guess it's only for the hard core.


I posted this last year but it really is so appropriate. Now, I gotta go get me that coffee.

Ahhhhh! Summer

I planted about a dozen packets of zinnia seeds in the spring. These are my favorite summer flowers. We call them 'clown flowers' because they make you laugh and are way colorful. My boys still love the zinnias and last year were disappointed that we didn't have any. We had gotten back from England in late July and it was too late to plant. But we do have an abundance this year. I pick fresh bouquets daily as these zinnias are 'cut and come again', the more you cut, the more they grow. How cool!






I also planted heaps of beets, red, yellow and white. This was an early one but now they are HUGE!


I love the colors, so deep and rich. I snack on them all day.


Can't beat the inside of beets!