Florida Road Trip

At the end of last week, we took a ride up the Keys to Ft. Lauderdale to see Susan. Neal and Matt have been doing a lot of legal research and Neal had some papers that Susan needed to sign. So, we took a road trip 'up north'. Here is my southernmost husband - Neal F. Mugherini, Attorney-at-Law - heading off to see his 'client'.

Since we drove up mid-week and in the middle of the day, it only took us about 4 hours to get to Susan's. We stayed in Jonathan's room while we were up there. Susan bribed him into cleaning up his room so we could sleep there. Here's Johnny playing his new computer game which he got for cleaning his room. Who ever said bribery doesn't work! By the way, check out all those fishing poles on his wall!

Brother and Sister!

While we were visting, Joseph had his piano lesson. Here he is with his piano teacher.

After piano lessons, Neal helped Joe with his homework.

It was really hot while we were in Ft. Lauderdale. When Susan went out back to feed the horses in the afternoon, she cooled them off, too. I don't remember the names of all the horses but this is the one Jonathan shows.

This is Joseph's horse. His name is Blue. Joe shows Blue at the horse shows.

This is Susan's horse. David doesn't ride but he came out with us while Susan was feeding the horses.

David has radio-controlled cars. One of them wasn't working right and he asked Uncle Neal if he would help him fix it.

We had a cook-out for supper that night. Scot manned the grill and cooked us up some great burgers!

Johnny and Joe helped with the cooking, too!

Sue floated candles in the pool while we had dinner.

They looked really nice floating around in the water!

Dinner was ready - and Johnny was hungry!

We all enjoyed a great supper together!!

The next morning, the boys went off to school and Scot headed off to work. After our coffee, Neal and I

got back in the car and headed south back to KW.

We had to watch our for crocodiles as we drove back.....!

Thanks to Scot, Sue and the boys. We had a great time!

Harvesting the Crops

In KW, land is at a  premium. There isn't much space for the wide, sweeping colorful gardens that people have up north. This is even more true in Truman Annex where every inch of space is treasured. We have very little room for a garden. And the limited space we have out back does not get much sun. All the sun is in the front of our place. With the new kitchen, we really wanted to try to grow fresh herbs. If you've ever planted an herb garden, you probably know it requires 6 - 8 hours of sun a day. So, if we were going to have one, we had to be creative. I looked online and found a window-box style planter on a stand that I thought might fit on one of the porches in the front (without getting us in trouble with the condo-police). So, I decided to give it a shot and ordered one. When it arrived, I got all my gardening equipment together on the back deck.

Then I went to the nursery and bought sage, basil, rosemary and thyme plants. I put the planter in the corner of the lower front porch. After a couple of weeks of care and feeding, the herbs actually grew!

Last Friday, Neal decided to use the new kitchen and the fresh herbs to make a "Friday Night Dinner". He went out to the "herb garden" and cut a few sprigs of rosemary...

....some sage

...and some basil leaves.

If you've had an herb garden, you already know what a difference fresh herbs make. As I said earlier, this was my first time growing herbs and I was amazed at the powerful scents. What a differance! I could smell them as Neal clipped leaves and sprigs from each of the plants.

Once he had all the herbs he needed, he headed back into the kitchen.

Using the fresh herbs, he cooked up a storm. And it was delicious!!

A Day at the Beach

The weather in KW has been great since we got back. Some might think it is too hot but I really like it. It has been in the high 80's since we returned. Last Sunday it was in the 90's. So, we've been spending a lot of time on our bicycles and at the beach. In the morning (or maybe it was the afternoon?) we rode down to the beach at the end of Duval Street by the Southermost Point. I think it is called South Beach, though it's not at all like "the" South Beach in Miami. For one thing, it's about 1/100th the size! It was a beautiful day in KW and there were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine and catching some rays.

The jet skiers were ready to enjoy the great day, too!

After we left the beach, we gave our Trek Calypso bicycles a real workout and went for a long bike ride all around the island. During our ride, we passed the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. Livviebell would love it here. Beautiful colored butterflies of all kinds fly around freely inside and you can walk right up to them.

When we got back home, it was a beautiful evening so we decided to have our supper at the park. We've done this a few times since we got back and really enjoy it. So, we made a couple of sandwiches and headed off to Ft. Zachary Taylor on our bikes to have supper and watch the sunset.

Although we have an annual pass to Ft. Zachary and the beach, depending on who is on duty sometimes we have to stop and show the pass to the guard. The regular guard knows us now and usually just waves a through. Here is Neal on his bike waiting at the entrance for me to catch-up.......

We sat at a picnic table along the entrance to KW harbor and enjoyed our sandwiches and watched all the boats and the sunset.

It was a beautiful evening to watch the sunset.

There was a very light wind which made it a perfect night for a sunset sail. There were a lot of boats out on the water.

It was a great 'Day at the Beach" here in KW!

Mothers' Day

I hope all the mothers enjoyed their special day! Mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, mothers-in-law, new mothers, adoptive mothers, step-mothers, fathers who are mothers, mothers who are fathers - all Mothers! Although we were in KW, I had a nice Mothers Day. On Saturday, a beautiful bouquest of fresh flowers arrived at our home. Many thanks to Andrea, Drew and Liv!! They were absolutely beautiful. When they first arrived, I gave them fresh water and plant food and they started to open.

Some of the blossoms were white

And some were pink.

Together they made a beautiful bouquet with a wonderful scent that filled the room!

As the week progressed, more and more of them them opened and the flowers themselves got fuller and fuller. At their peak, they made a huge, striking bouquet that could be seen from either the front or back door. While this picture doesn't do a good job of showing the proportion, at this point each flower was about 7" in diameter which is the size of my hand fully extended from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my baby-finger. They really filled the first floor of the condo. Thank you again - I loved them!

On Mothers Day morning we went to 9:00 o'clock mass. Our church in Key West is St. Mary Star of the Sea. It's on Truman Avenue and is about a 15 minute walk. It is a very active, vibrant parish with a catholic elementary school and large community presence.

After mass, we walked over to Croissant de France for coffee. I also had a wonderful fresh chocolat croissant. Sorry but I didn't have my camera so I couldn't take a picture. But believe me when I tell you it was delicious and worth every Weight Watchers point! After breakfast, we walked back home and my wonderful husband did a little vacumming!

I think there is a little bit of 'mothering' in each of us and I hope you all enjoyed the day as much as I did!

After Glow