Moonday Musings: Family and the Zoo

Saturday evening, for the first time since we left New Jersey for the South, my mom's car rolled in to my driveway with my step father, my sister and my niece in tow. And I was so happy to see every one!

We gave them the penny tour of our home, went out to get groceries for dinner, called my brother who lives just down the road and had a great time chatting and laughing. My family was smitten by Acorn, Khloe - who is now 3- kept referring to him as her best friend and telling us all how much she loves her best friend. Luna chased everyone around the yard as they stretched their legs after the long trip, my brother was dragged off in to the other room by Khloe to play legos and watch Barbie cartoons and I grossed out my mom and sister by telling them that I ate my placenta after we'd had a conversation about how incredible the human body is. To be fair, my sister brought it up by saying "Did you know you can eat that?" and I said, "Yup, because I did! Not with onions like a liver or anything, but powdered in capsules." Priceless reactions afterwards, lol! Everyone stayed up way later than they probably should have, given how early they'd gotten up, but my brother and his fiance haven't seen the rest of the family in 2 years and everyone wanted to hold my son and it was just good to catch up.

Also, we had "family portrait time" with my entirely uncooperative family. My brother's fiance did her very best to get a good picture, but mom my, brother and sister all HATE having their pictures taken and so, don't ever take them seriously. In the end, that's ok, because this is the one I'm going to print out, hang on my wall and give them all for Yuletide. ;)

Yesterday morning we were all up bright and early and Chris and Katelyn (my brother and fiance) drove over so we could all go to the zoo downtown together. It's a small, but really nice zoo and Katherine (my sister) was ridiculously excited to see the baby giraffe that lives there. It was Acorn's first trip to the zoo and it was amazing to see how inquisitive and attentive he was, even while he was riding in the Ergo on dad's chest. (I'm usually the baby wearer, but I've been dealing with a terrible bought of sciatica, so sadly, no snuggles were had by me). This time, folks were *slightly* more cooperative for photos. ;)

The Rogue's Gallery. My sister, Katherine, Brother Chris, Niece Khloe (who took to uncle Chris like you would NOT believe, but due to her obsession with Frozen, calls him "Hans"), Acorn, Joe, Me and Chris' fiance, Katelyn. Also, my mom's first time using a DSLR. Not bad mom, not bad at all.

Today, we'll take them downtown to walk Main Street, get some lunch, maybe do some shopping and visit the gorgeous park. They'll be leaving either tomorrow morning or Wednesday, they haven't decided yet. But either way, I wish they were staying longer. It's been nice having everyone here, having several extra hands to help with Acorn since my back is fucked up, I don't know when our next trip to NJ will be and there's so much more I'd like to show them.

I'll just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that they feel up to making the long trip again sometime. :)

The Fawn and The Goat - Part Two

You may recall that a few years ago,
A cheeky Goat met and wooed a certain Doe.


Maybe you've wondered what happened to the pair?
Perhaps curious if that love of theirs is still in the air?


Three years have passed since that Midsummer eve,
when the Goat kissed the Fawn 'neath the red bud tree.


The pair sit sipping a romantic tea,
a few shorts weeks before the two become three!


Yes, friends, it's true, a babe is on the way!
"But what will it be?" several of you say!


Will it have horns tall and thin,
or will it have curved ones to match its grin?


Will it be silly?
Will it be cheeky?
Will it be daring?
Will it be hairy?


We won't know 'til the babe is here,
who knows what you get when you mix
a goat and a deer!





Happy Mad, Mad Tea party! Thank you all so much for visiting. To visit other parties, please click the image in my sidebar to be whisked away to Miss. Vanessa's A Fanciful Twist blog, where the list resides. :)

Escaping to the Mountains

Recently, we packed up ourselves and Luna and trekked in to Tennessee for a long weekend in the mountains. I got a great deal on a cabin that we could never have afforded at its regular price which boasted seclusion, woodland views and relaxation.

They weren't kidding! After we drove the 3 hours to the bed and breakfast to check in, we drove another 45 minutes up a steep, narrow mountain road which my tiny car was not a huge fan of and found the gravel road that led to the cabins. The outside looked like it could use a little work, but once we went inside it was beautiful! All wood and rustic and clean.

And as an added bonus, there was this sexy soaking tub.

Our first evening there, poor Joe was sick. Fever, sweats, chills, horrible cough. I kept feeding him tea and water while he and Luna snoozed away in the bed. We opted for a cabin without cable, so I found a station on the radio that I liked and took the opportunity to play some Solitaire, listen to my hypnobirthing tracks for the day and do some sketches.

The following day, he still wasn't feeling too hot, so we spent the majority of the day chilling out on the deck in a pair of rocking chairs. On the side of the cabin there was a dead cedar tree, and since my husband is the perpetual boy scout (really, he is.) he took his hand saw out and cut off some of the lower limbs and branches to whittle away at and bring home for bigger projects. Sometime in the late afternoon, I gave the sexy tub and its jets a thorough cleaning and after dinner we had ourselves a nice long (ridiculously long) soak. During which, peering Luna eyes were consistently seen over the edge.

This is why we can't have nice pictures. One of us is always a goof.

The next two days followed a similar pattern. We attempted to find the hiking path to the river and swimming hole that we were told about at check-in, but the only path we found was loaded with poison ivy which we're both highly allergic to. Also, as we were being swarmed by angry mosquitoes and it was a bit hot for this baby bump and I, we eventually gave up and went back to the cabin. We had better luck the next day when we hiked up to a little woodland cemetery. It's extremely well maintained for being as far up a mountain and tucked away as it is and there were a few neat grave stones, including this one that belongs to a confederate soldier.

This was what I suppose people would call our "babymoon" or last romantic getaway before baby comes. It was a well needed break from life, technology and everything else and it was wonderful to be able to truly relax. We didn't leave the mountain, didn't travel in to town. Just wiled away the hours sitting side by side working on small projects, soaking in the tub and just being together.

This was the view as we were taking a "parkway" through the mountains back home. Our little cabin is on one of those mountains, somewhere.

Springing Up

Just a few days shy of the official first day of Spring, my yard decided it couldn't possibly wait any longer to bud, blossom and bloom! Every free moment I've gotten has been spent outside reveling in the sights, scents and sounds of Springtime.

The Bradford pears have blossomed, filling warm breezes with their unique odor.

Maybe this year will be the year our peach trees are mature enough to produce edible fruits? *finger crossed*

Peaches and Pears; so pretty together!

Soon those bare spaces between the pines will be just a memory and we won't be able to see the sun setting again until the end of Autumn.

Snowpocalypse 2014

It's no secret that snow here in South Carolina is pretty rate, I've been lucky to see an inch or two of the white stuff each Winter since we moved here four years ago. It's also no big secret that they are totally unprepared for when the stuff falls - an inch is enough to shut down town for at least a day.

So this week, when we got around 7 inches of snow, everything was closed for 3 days (I was lucky and got 4 off). So we spent a lot of time home, enjoying the white stuff from the comfort of our fire warmed home instead of white knuckled behind the wheel of a car. If there's one giant perk to having moved here from New Jersey it's that I no longer have bosses who say "I don't give a shit that there's two feet of snow and it's still falling.. get your ass to work or you're fired."

So now, for the first time in forever, I actually appreciated this little bit of Winter. It was too fluffy for snowmen, so we chased Luna around in it, caught flakes on our tongues and I took photos instead. :) These were taken towards evening, so are a little grey. Ah well.

Luna loves our neighbor, Hank the horse. She runs over to his fence and if he's outside he'll come over and touch noses with her through the fence - or over it, if one of us lifts her up.

And today, in the manner of the crazy Southern weather, it's in the 60's and the snow is all gone. Go figure. ;)

A Cacophony of Crows

I wrote last Sunday about how I was lucky enough to catch a large group of crows as they swooped and crowed over my yard before taking up a very brief residency in my treeline. I managed to run inside for my real camera (as opposed to the handy-dandy iphone) and grabbed a few snaps while they perched and when they took off to chase some sparrows.

Nothing quite like that amount of crow-medicine to move this witch's heart. *sigh* I thought I'd share the beauty of the experience. There were about 30 in total in flight; simply breathtaking.

P.S. Thank you those who commented, for the kind and uplifting words on Friday's post. <3 I'll resume sharing the Painting the Feminine series tomorrow. I've been having some issues with my scanner and photos don't capture the details very well.