Tag Archives: Seasons

Embracing Change: Seasonal Reflections in Florida

14 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Time. Where does it go?

In January I wrote about the hard freeze in Florida. The usual vibrant landscape was shriveled and brown.

To our new Florida residents, the landscape could be depressing, but to veteran Floridians, we know spring would bring new beautiful growth to most plants.

January

March

January Dead Shrubbery

March New Growth

Subdivision Landscape

These plants aren’t coming back

DEAD AMARYLLIS AND TREE

The amaryllis looked dreadful and the browning continued for weeks. Then one day in late March the bulbs put out new green leaves. The plants are family heirlooms, brought to Florida when my parents moved to Florida in the 1950s. I had been feeling sad that they might be gone forever.( I forgot to take a picture of the new growth.)

Moving forward- Valentines Day

We aren’t big on the trappings of Valentines celebrations. Crowded restaurants, kind of ruin the romance vibe. Two years ago Culver’s restaurant opened in our town. They specialize in ice cream with the Flavor of the Day rotating through out the month. If the restaurant doesn’t sell out of the flavor of the day, they pack it into pint containers and place them in a glass front freezer for sale.

Thus was born our Valentine’s day tradition. We include our daughter in the fun. Each of us chooses a flavor of a pint of ice cream. Then we share them among us. It may seem weird, but for us it is fun.

March-Spring Craft Fair

Our town has a spring and fall craft fair. This is the third year our daughter has participated. My husband has taken up carving walking sticks.and this year he joined our daughter to sell them.

The event is held at a large park on the Indian river. The day was absolutely gorgeous, a cool morning breeze and blue skies. As I walked the grounds, checking out the wares, I marveled at the beauty we were blessed with.

April Fool’s Day

Launch day for Artemis 2. To be honest, we thought choosing to launch on April Fool’s Day was not a wise choice. We were wrong.

As the count down marched toward 5 minutes and counting, several neighbors walked outside to watch as I did, from our front yards. It was a flawless day and a flawless launch. My husband, recuperating from surgery said the launch rocked the windows. There’s nothing like the rumble that penetrates the body.

And now comes May

The next two weeks of April with be busy with visits from Physical and Occupational therapies, working to get my husband strong enough to return the our beloved North Carolina mountains. Our cameras show the greening up of the dormant plants, my peonies are coming up and I can’t wait to see them.

I would like to say that I will be blogging more regularly once we are back in the mountains, but the days fly by so darn fast! We installed a bird camera over Christmas, maybe I will share pictures of our feathered visitors.

These are from January.

Nothing Exciting Going on Here

30 Oct

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

I don’t have anything exciting or interesting to say today. Life seems to be hurrying along, pushing me with it. We took two drives while Rebekah was visiting, to enjoy the Fall color. The trees in our front yard are putting on quite a show this week and I am amazed the Knock Out Roses are still in bloom. This morning, fog was hovering low while the sky was a crisp, clear blue. Colder weather has moved in and the”S” word has even be mentioned for the weekend.

Foggy Fall

We are enjoying a visit from my aunt and cousin who live in Raleigh. Since today is chilly, I am going to cook Pasta Fagioli with bread sticks for supper. The recipe is suppose to be as good as Olive Gardens. We don’t have an Olive Garden in our town so this is the next best thing. Rebekah will post the recipe over on Rebekah Ly Books.

Pasta Fagioli

I don’t have all the ingredients so that gives me a good reason to take a trip into town. I have some mulled apple cider that will be just the thing to warm me up after the outing.

Hubby has been busy in his wood working shop. Last week he finished up a tortilla press for our son. Today he is working on a bread rack for our daughter. It should be a practical fix for her lack of kitchen counter space.

tortilla press copy

 

I would like to add here, that our son, Matt, is doing wonderfully well after his hip surgery. We give thanks to God for His perfect plan and timing, although watching Matt suffer was very difficult.

 

Well, this pretty much sums up my last few weeks. What have you been up to?