Jeannie Marie & Company

I saw this bird in my moms feeder here in Florida.  Is is a Finch?

It isn't far, one house down...just turn the corner and there is a path into the woods.  Today, after living here for almost nine months, I ventured in.   My sister Patty and Bro-in-law Wayne were my guides.   Once through the woods....it's all sandy.  Well, it's actually sandy through the woods as well..all the way to the Gulf of Mexico a scant quarter mile away. This brave soul never gets lost.  Patty and I were turned around not long after the first stop!  We saw Tortoise tracks  I forgot what he said these were, but in the middle there was some sort of skirmish. Snake tracks from one side to the other.  Can you guess which way the snake was going?  Wayne knew.  Right to left.    There was more vegetation as we got closer to the canal  An entrance through the vegetation to the freshwater canal.  I was waiting for an alligator to run out at us, if you open the picture big...you can see the eyes.  Just kidding.  We didn't se

My three sisters, my mom and I all spent the afternoon together!  What is better than lunch at Applebee's and shopping?  It was just us girls today.  A very rare occasion when it's only us. The original family. Later when some went home and husbands joined us, we did some long neglected chores around Mom's house, had some home cooking and chocolate. The evening ended with five of us over at my house, all around the dining room table playing Apples to Apples.  Wayne remarked that all of us have known each other since 1970.  Some of us going back to as early as 1951. And here we are laughing together all evening.    Nice.  We are making memories here at Tortoise Cottage.

My sister is visiting from California so what better excuse is there to go out to lunch and do a little thrifting afterwards?  Actually a little before and afterwards! Here are my finds today! These cute Pyrex dishes were $1.06 each and are just perfect for individual servings of fruit or dessert.  Since there are just two of us here....I snapped them up in a hurry!  I love the sunny yellow. I had a little accident and a cupboard shelf tipped forward sending four or five coffee mugs to the tile floor and several Coke glasses.  One was a favorite mug I recently thrifted. ( top right )  I blogged about finding it last fall for a stocking stuffer.  BUT...I loved it so much I began using it and decided to keep it.  It was my mug of choice up until last Saturday. So I've been looking for replacements.  I'm pretty picky about my coffee mugs and I loved this one.  It is sized just right, colored inside, it has some aqua color and is very spring-y.  It's artsy, hand painted

One of my favorite blogs, Wendy over at Salt and Wine won the Liebster Blog Award and  passed it on to me and 4 other of her favorite bloggers.  A couple were blogs I have been reading for some time but several were new to me so I checked them out and are now following them!  What a find!   The meaning behind the award ~ An award given to blogs with less than 200 followers, that recognizes the blog author's creative writing and dedication.  It helps to bring blog owners together to exchange ideas and information  As a recipient of this award, it is up to me to pass it along to five amazing bloggers of my choice. This isn't an easy  decision folks!  I follow and read many blogs that I would nominate in a heartbeat.  I hope to have more opportunities and so these are the blogs I love and never miss reading.  I get a lot of inspiration from them.  Thank you for choosing me, Wendy!  I'm honored :-)   Here are my five choices:   Renewing Your Find Cafe   Tam from Penns

How do you go to the beach twice and not take any pictures?  Especially when you have children and grandchildren in tow?  I was just enjoying the day so much that I didn't make the effort, much to my sorrow today. At Honeymoon Beach it is just a very short walk from the parking lot to the beach.  You walk on a short path through the sea oats and cactus and emerge at the beach entrance where there was even a bench swing.   Honeymoon Beach pictures on the web We put up our canopy that shaded all nine of us and assembled beach chairs and blankets and towels in the sun and shady areas and spent four hours there on Monday.  We had a lovely picnic lunch with cold asparagus, ham sandwiches, egg salad, crisp veggies and several bags of various chips.  The cooler was filled with water bottles and ice.  We learned this after our first beach trip to Sand Key which was sans food and drinkless. Sand Key is the beach next to Clearwater Beach and much less crowded.  We went to Sand Key on

I knew it was going to be a job.  I am crafty, my husband Bill is an organizer.  We are not handy.  When a home repair is needed I know it's going to be an ordeal.  It doesn't have to be a difficult repair.  My prayer is always a big whine. "Lord....why does this have to be soooooo hard??"  It is usually uttered when we are over an hour into a repair and on our second or third go around.   Removing the old chandelier that was here when we moved in last summer wasn't too difficult.  I was astounded at how lightweight it was though.  I was also surprised at how much dripped paint there was on it. and how dusty it was.  Things sure look different close up. A bonus was, years ago I found a white ceiling medallion at a yard sale for only $3.00, still new in the package.  That went with us in to Florida because I knew I was taking my nice chandelier from the old house and this medallion was larger than the one I had in the old dining room.      I was all set and

Today we discovered very tiny Rambo Jr in our driveway.  Tortoise Cottage is now a nursery!   We will have to be watching now every time we use the driveway because where there is one baby tortoise there may be more.    We are busting our buttons over him! We set out the small  matchbox so you can gauge the size Look how fast Rambo Jr can crawl! It looks like he may not be a fan of the camera, or of us...he is hurrying away pretty fast!   Actually you can see here that Rambo Jr is about the size of six keys on your computer.  Rambo Senior, our resident tortoise, is larger than the entire keyboard!   For a look at our full grown tortoise, Rambo, click HERE We have unofficially adopted him, but he only makes an appearance occasionally.  The tortoises live on the vacant lot next door and used to spend a lot of time over here, but only occasionally now.  Rambo has made it clear he is not fond of our dog, Gracie.  

It's been longer than we planned, but Bessie finally has a new look.  It was a cold icy day in January 2011 when she was pried out of the ice and away from her home at Shanty Hollow deep in the woods of Kentucky.  She had lived on the hill near the country road for many years and had seen quite a few makeovers.  Nobody argued that she was in need of some TLC.   She was placed indignantly in the back of the open trailer and trundled up to Dayton, OH, facing backwards toward the south all the way.   I'm sure startling other drivers and passengers.  Ohio was to be her new home and the story of the trials and tribulations getting her there is told in this    short poem. A few months, (yes only 5 months) later our world turned topsy turvy again and we sold everything practically, packed up and Bessie came with us to Florida.  Again it was quite the effort to get this solid cement bovine who is standing upon a solid cement patch of grass, up and down ramps, across lawns, through S