Happy Mother's Day 2009

This is my wish to all mothers and especially those whose children cannot be with them on this day...Happy Mother's Day and may your memories bring you joy and comfort!



This is the handbag I knitted for my mother in Germany and when I called her this morning to wish her a Happy Mothers day, she said she received the bag and she really likes it.



No matter how old my daughter gets, she'll always be my little girl to me. This is one of my favorite photos of us. It was taken back in 1997 at Mimi's Restaurant in California.












I find great comfort in my little fur balls, to whom I'm a mom too. My dog, Gizzy and my cat, Middi. It's nice to be needed, even if only by a fur-baby ;-)



My Middi is a very good and smart cat. She has to put up with a lot of nonsense from Gizzy and so far, she's been very tolerant of him. (Guess it's still better than starving outside)







I took Gizzy to Bank's Lake in the afternoon to spent a few hours with my friend who runs the Outpost. We shared some ice cold watermelon and watched a fisherman catch and release a nice sized (pregnant) bass.


I also bought Gizzy a new plush hand puppet at the Outpost, where they sell only animals that one would find at this National Wildlife Refuge. As you can see, he loves his new alligator!




Earlier today, I received a surprise invitation to join my long-time friends in Valdosta for dinner. We all went to a nice little seafood restaurant (no, not the Red Lobster) that served us an assortment of tasty seafood and I enjoyed some fried green tomatoes. But best of all was the company. It was so nice seeing them again!



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A Gator and a Skink

Hello again from Bank's Lake. Today was a beautiful day (and still is) with a nice breeze. If you can stay away from the trees where the moist, shaded spots are, you should be ok with the mosquitoes not being too bothersome.

I visited my friend (who runs Bank's Lake Outpost) with Gizzy today and we sat outside on the bench chatting about this and that (my favorite topic.)

That's us: My friend, I and Gizzy! (oh, and the guy who's taking the photo)


















As we were sitting there talking, she pointed out an alligator to me. I left Gizzy tied up to the bench for a minute, while I walked on the dock to take a closer look. My camera doesn't have a very strong zoom lens, so I had to crop the photo to see it better:

Just double-click on the photos to make them bigger and that should help.














Wile I was out there by myself (without the dog) I took a few photos of some water lilies. They are all over the lake now and from a distance look like big, puffy snowballs. You can even smell them way before you get close to them (especially today with a nice breeze going.) Their scent reminds me of a mix between a passion flower and a tuberose. They smell sweet with a hint of citrus. I just love it!

















We watched the fishermen pull up with their boats and walking to the Outpost to purchase their crickets and such. The worms were all gone because there was a big fishing tournament yesterday. I read the paper and suddenly noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye...here came along this little skink, it's a form of a lizard, and he ran right past us and back towards the Outpost because he knows where he can find some crickets ;-)












It was another beautiful day and I couldn't resist taking a few more photos:


















There were quite a few people canoeing and kayaking today. Here we saw what looked like to me a father and son team, coming back in:
















As I drove away, I saw a couple having a picnic under a tree with their three-wheel motorcycle right next to them. You see a lot of motorcycles here because it's just such a beautiful place to ride.

Walking Buddies (with video clip)

This clip is from last year, in July, but since I didn't blog then, here it is now. A few of us always ended up being at the lake (Lake Irma) in the morning at the same time. Some walked regularly, others fished and I just did whatever Gizzy wanted to do because, after all, it's HIS walk.

(Lake Irma, March,'09)
We decided to have a little celebration whenever it's someone's birthday. This time it was Joe's 70th and I brought my camera along.







This little clip was an accidental movie (July, '08) because I had never filmed before and somehow I recorded, when I thought I was just making a group photo. I think it's kind of cute, so here it is ;-)