My Valentine's Day gift was a trip to the boat - Duane took off Friday and we flew down early in the morning. Had a nice quiet but cool sail/bottle of wine in the afternoon.



Here is the marina as we're coming back....the wind had died out completely....very calm... notice the large power boats to the right....these belong to a local fisher-family. The lady of the house was at the back of one of the boats as we motored past. I called to her to ask if they had shrimp today - and she said "yeah, come on over"....so I did just that!

These are the lovely shrimpy's that I got. YUM - I fixed a little scampy sauce for myself and just barely cooked them. They were almost like lobster they were so fresh and sweet! Unfortunately, they didn't have any fresh fish, so I had to make Duane a burger steak instead.
Some wine, a salad and some veggies made a good meal.
Dishes washed, I was ready for a little laziness!

Back at home, Duane scraped the driveway - it had gotten a little rutted lately from our drag-strip driving boy.....
Oh, and the Daffy's are blooming now!! Eat your heart out, N.D!

Another spring is close!! Just ask the daffodils! It's been hit-or-miss on the spring weather here. Many very warm days, then a few chilly ones to remind you that it's still winter!!




When I got down close to the ground to take the daffodil photo, Princess came over and wanted to act like a kitty-cat - snuggled up close and begged for a belly run (which she got, of course!)

Indiana Farm-Fresh-Corn Spoon Bread Recipe

I know Teresa can't really use this one, but others can....Lindy brought it to our super-bowl party and it was light and delicious - like a cross between Nanny's Mexican cornbread and Carolyn's corn casserole.



Indiana Farm-Fresh-Corn Spoon Bread

1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
1 cup boiling water
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. chopped green and red peppers
2 garlic cloves minced
1 jalapeno seeded and minced (optional)
2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cobs
1 small tomato, peeled and chopped
3 eggs, separated
1/2 c buttermilk
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg. Grease shallow 2 qt baking dish. Place cornmeal in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the cornmeal and allow it to cool slightly.

2. Sautee the onions and peppers in 1 Tbsp. butter until tender. Remove from heat and stir in corn and tomatoes.

3. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. butter to cornmeal mixture. Whisk in the egg yolks, buttermilk, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar.

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites at high speed until peaks form. With a rubber spatula, fold in the beaten egg whites into the cornmeal mixture, half at a time. Fold in 1/4 c. of the Parmesan cheese. Spoon the mixture into the greased dish and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.

5. Bake 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Makes ten servings. 132 calories each.

I didn't have anything planned for my "day off" on Friday, so I decided that I really needed to do some spring house-cleaning. I've gotten rather lazy lately, letting things pile up....

Here's our "office" - Robert's old room....piled high with paperwork/mail/junk. I filed and sorted for an hour or so...



Now we can actually use the desk!


Next up was the horrible "utility room" in the basement....this has been "growing" over the past couple of years, really. It had gotten to the point that you couldn't even walk in there comfortably.

Rather embarrassing, I suppose!


But here it is 4 hours later - and a pick-up truck full of garbage and goodwill items!


I was pretty pooped!

Again, not much happening! I don't know if it's the weather or just pure laziness, but I've not lifted a finger lately to do anything interesting! Oh yeah, except taxes......

I snapped this photo this morning as the sun was rising thru the basement window - our lovely amaryllis is still in bloom! It is on it's last leg, but still quite pretty. It's an amazing flower....(note the Christmas cactus is still confused!)




I'll do a post when I get around to roasting our coffee beans. Here is the sum-total of our recent harvest:



You may remember, we have a nice sized coffee tree/bush at the Asheboro airport. It started as a little 2" plant that was included in a vendor shipment several years ago. My right-hand girl, Bobbi, takes care of it. It's now about 4 FEET tall and very pretty. About a year ago, we noticed it had a few red berries. A couple of weeks ago, we harvested this little handful. I put them out on the windowsill to dry. Now I'll have to read up on how to roast them.

Pat invited the usual crowd over to his newly finished "Pat Cave" in his basement. He has a neat projector and just installed DirectTV with HD...so the picture was really big and good (much better in person than this photo indicates.)

We all ate too much - but had a really nice time. Robert and his buddy Ray came over from State to join us. I won $25 from the 100 square "pool". I had the winning score at halftime...and would have won the entire $100 if no-one scored anymore!! Oh well, better luck next time. (By the way, I bought 30 squares, so I'm still 5 to the negative - that's gambling for you!)

Still not much happening of note! Robert came by this evening to change the oil in his car....that's about it!

Not much going on - cold and rainy. (Not by ND standards, but cold enough!)

I snapped these photos last night of my "veggie-goulosh" - thought it looked nice and healthy!



Just some fresh broccoli, onions, green pepper and cilantro:




Stirred it all up, added bean sprouts, carrots, soy sauce and some powdered ginger (didn't have fresh ginger, but that would have been yummy!) I let the onions get quite well-done...it turned out very nicely. (Oh yeah, I added a little sweet-n-low powder - that worked nicely with the ginger...)

Believe it or not, I ate that entire dish by the end of the evening!

On the inside of our "Lifestyles" page in the News and Observer, I saw a familiar image:



You may recognize this as "WT Roundy's" store in New Hill. The caption reads "this now-closed farm supply store and gas station in New Hill...."

The last time I was thru there was a couple of years ago. We had been gone from New Hill for 10 years. I walked in and Jim (WT's son, I believe) was behind the counter. When he saw me, he came out from behind the counter and gave me a big hug! I was delighted! I would have never thought he would remember me after all those years. I was just going to say "hi - do you remember me" and buy a drink (Dr. Pepper, like Teresa and I used to do on the way to do grocery shopping at the now-long-gone Food Lion in "old" Apex) Oh well, I'm waxing nostalgic now!

I don't know how long it's been closed - but from the look of the gas price, it must be quite a while!

The times they are-a-changing!

2 posts in one day!!! I had to post this - we've been waiting since the early fall for this - Richard was accepted to Appalachian State!! Yippeee!




When I picked up the mail, I knew it was an acceptance - I figured that they don't send a big, thick package for a denial! I behaved myself and didn't open it. I taped it to the door so he would see it when he came home from school today. We were concerned that he wouldn't get in because Appalachian had been over-run with applications after their extraordinary football wins this fall. (Who really cares about football wins - apparently a bunch of people!!) Anyway, the admissions office was overwhelmed and just started sending notices out this week.

I got a "thanks mom" and a big hug - nice!

My amaryllis is finally blooming - I thought I'd better get a photo quick because I recall the bloom doesn't last too long. Lovely!

My sis posted that her Christmas cactus was confused - in N.D.

Well, my Christmas cactus - in N.C. - is also confused. these are two different plants - both starting to bloom beautifully....albeit a month late!

It's that time of year - absolutely nothing going on....I did take Sharon's advice and purchased a pair of Merrill shoes the other day. I've been complaining about a little case of "plantar fasciitis" (foot pain in the morning). Some good shoes should help get rid of it. I've had these for a few days and my feet do feel a little better already. I can feel the extra arch support when I walk. Gotta be ready for being barefoot in May for our BVI trip!!

Well, it "technically" snowed yesterday....not enough for sledding, but nice, anyway.

Now it's just cold! Looks like we'll have some winter weather for a while. Looking for spring!!

We're just waiting for the first significant snowfall in a couple of years!! A cold front is supposed to overtake a Gulf Coast moisture system - and produce about 3 inches of snow.....we'll see, since it's still 42 degrees....

Maybe I'll get some pretty photos of the snow......

Nothing much going on here - Robert is at Western Carolina with a few band buddies this weekend to play in a trumpet festival - hope his travel home is safe! (Grandma's trusty Subaru should keep him safe)

Here's the only photo I've snapped lately - my amaryllis is almost in bloom - I'll take another shot when it opens up.

We got back yesterday from our McCraw clan late-Christmas party at Pawley's Island S.C.
Sharon arranged for this house for the long weekend:

It's right on the beach, literally - the tide actually comes up under the house - no dunes.

It was quite comfortable - this is the upstairs "apartment" that we stayed in - really open and airy. It would be very neat to be down at this house for a week some summer.
It was very large - they advertised sleeping for 17, I think. I counted many more places that someone could sleep....lots of couches, porches, tables and chairs.
Here is the view off the back porch...this was about mid-tide...
This is approaching high tide. I'd hate to be there during a storm!!
Here is Robert and Callie trying to avoid having their photo taken....
Kevin, Debbie and Callie when we were opening Xmas presents
Granny opening a beautiful applique quilt that Sharon made for her - this photo definitely does not do it justice!
Cordy opening a gift...
Granny with a silly Boston Terrier handbag - it looks like their dog from years ago - Hillary. (Yes, the staunch Republicans named their dog after the then-first lady as a joke).
Walking on the beach - the weather was quite nice for January!

I was trying to be creative with the bird/reflection....the full size photo is kindof neat...
Tommy looking for seashells and birds...
And in true McCraw fashion, we got out a puzzle that was on a shelf at the house (there were dozens of puzzles - from 500 pieces to 5000) This one was just 500, but the pieces were small and almost identical shapes. We often put it together wrong - then had to "do-over" a section...
Here is the final product - to document our success....
We bravely started a new, 2500 piece puzzle - this one of a lovely snow-covered moutain/sky scene....

Oh well, just ran out of time!! Maybe next year!!

Sad news from Pittsboro - Princess, pictured here, is the lone dog now....Goldie, her litter-mate, had been deteriorating for several months. She didn't come home New Years Evening - and I knew she was gone then. I found her when I went for a walk Sunday morning to get the paper. It had been fairly chilly all that time and she just looked peaceful lying in the edge of the woods.

We picked up our "free puppies" in October of 1995, so that would make them about 12 1/2 years old. I was strangely emotional - I've always considered myself fairly detached from any animal. Duane and Robert came out and we dug a large hole - and quietly laid her to rest.....

Richard shot this hawk in our big pine tree - (remember that this tree is a really, really big diameter pine tree to give you some perspective) - a really cool, big bird. He took this shot from inside the house. He carefully opened the door, but the bird would have none of that!! Off he flew....



Forgot to post these photos earlier - this is a shot of our GPS on our way back from Tunica, Mississippi last Saturday. There was a forcast 56 knot TAILWIND ....turned out to be more like 60 knots... note the reading of groundspeed (GS) in the lower right corner. This was just normal level flight...according to Google, 193 knots = 222.100433 mph! Pretty cool. We actually saw 204 knots groundspeed, but we were in a little bit of a descent, so I don't think that's fair....



And finally, just a photo of my New Year's Day lucky dinner! Fresh collard greens, turnips from the McCraw's late garden, cornbread (I think it's the only non-vegan thing....) Yum - hope it works for the coming year!

My sister put this cute little link on her blog - see what kind of Christmas ornament you would be:

You Are a Snowflake

You live for the winter - blizzards, cold nights, snowball fights! The holidays are just a bonus!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?