A GIFT

When I was all caught up in the activities surrounding Mother's illness and death my husband said, "When this is all over I will take you off to the beach." Well, true to his word, on Thursday he told me to pack my bag for a few days' trip. He was taking me to the beach. He had made all the arrangements and we were off! We had reservations at the Lighthouse Inn--a favorite place where they have lots of big white rocking chairs, beautiful flowers, rooms with balconies practically over the water, and several wonderful seafood restaurants within walking distance. We had three lovely days in this special place and the weather was beautiful each day.

We sat in the large white rockers on our third-floor balcony and watched boats come and go, listened to the water lapping on the boat dock nearby, saw the huge pelicans swoop in for a landing on the water below our room, and gazed up at the filmy white clouds in the unbelievably blue sky (wondering just how one might paint such a cloud).

I took pictures of the hibiscus, the waning full moon rising over the water, the glorious sunrise, and a few pictures in a lovely art gallery in town--just for inspiration.

We had a great evening with Son #1 and wife--although grandchildren #1 and #2 had other "pressing activities" that evening. The next day, on the way home we stopped by to see Son #4 and family briefly at a soccer celebration for their last game of the season. I remember those days with our own boys!! Miss Ella Bella and brother were enjoying the activities at the pizza place and we had a great time watching them play.

Many, many thanks to my sweet husband for the brief respite in such a beautiful place!

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

I am a bit lacking in technological skills and it takes me a long time to figure things out by myself. Yesterday I talked about pictures I wanted to consider painting when I return home from New Mexico but could not put the pictures on my blog once I had downloaded them to my picture file on this laptop I am using. I fiddled and fiddled with it last night and finally fell asleep in frustration. Today I decided to try a different procedure and, as you can see, it worked! It may be unconventional and my techie son may groan when I explain what I did, but the bottom line is that IT WORKED!!

The first picture is the view from my bedroom window yesterday at midday. The second is a sunset picture the first day I was here and the third is a sunrise picture the next morning.

The fourth picture is of an arrangement in the kitchen that made me think of painting a still life. The shapes and colors intrigued me.