While taking a walk in the woods the other day with Sailor this rock caught my eye. To me it looked like the leaves had decoupaged themselves around it.

doily |ˈdoilē|
noun ( pl. -lies)
an ornamental mat, typically made of lace and placed under decorative objects.
• a small ornamental napkin, typically placed under a cake or other sweet foods.
ORIGIN late 17th cent.: from Doiley or Doyley, the name of a 17th-cent. London draper. The word originally denoted a woolen material used for summer wear, said to have been introduced by this draper. The current sense (originally doily napkin) dates from the early 18th cent.

My Mom, whom I lost in August of last year unexpectedly, was the Queen of Doilies. I can’t remember ever seeing her without a doily in progress. Her fingers fairly flew, the crochet hook flashing in and out of the threads. She would only glance down every now and then to check her work. She learned to crochet as a young child from her mother. She tried to interest me in learning how to crochet, but I couldn’t be bothered with all that fiddly thread. A real shame, that. I can single crochet a rag rug and that’s about the extent of it. 

I have many doilies, table runners and a few tablecloths all worked by my mom and grandmother. What better “D” than that I ask yout?

Stitch upon intricate stitch that ultimately turn out to be spirals, stars, pinwheels, and pineapples (Mom’s fav!).

Before I started knitting I really could not tell the right side of the doily from the wrong side. Every time Mom came to visit she would inspect the doilies I had been displaying, tut-tutting as she flipped them over to the correct side up. oops. It drove my Mom crazy that I liked my doilies “au naturelle.” She always starched and ironed hers so they were crisp. Alas, I am not that way, and my style of housekeeping will testify to that. My doilies tend to the more relaxed side of life. More laisser-faire is my mode. Definitely. To me it doesn’t take away from their beauty or timeless elegance.

Treasures and heirlooms, all. Thank you, Mom and Memom for keeping up with the wonderful tradition of crocheted doilies.

Today is February 29th. Happy Leap Day! Here is what the NY Times had to say in their Sky Watch section:

Leap Day is an artifact that dates back to 46 B.C. when Julius Caesar took the advice of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who knew that the solar year was about 365.25 days in length. So to account for that residual quarter of a day, leap day was added to the calendar every four years.

Unfortunately, the new Julian calendar was 11 minutes and 4 seconds longer than the actual solar year. By 1582 the calendar had fallen out of step with the solar year by 10 days. It was then that Pope Gregory XIII, with the advice of his own astronomer, Clavius, produced the Gregorian calendar. Ten days were omitted after Oct 4, 1582, making the next day Oct. 15. Then, to closely match the length of the solar year, leap years were skipped in century years. The exceptions were those equally divisible by 400. That is why 2000 was a leap year but 1900 was not.

Whew! Do we really know what day it is ... or not?

Some of you may be bored by these photos, but I really want to capture them in my blog. And who knows, you might be inspired to stay there on your vacation after seeing them!

Here is the hotel proper, both inside walkways and outside views.

The dolphin pool side.

The ocean side where our room was.

Walkways and hallways.

The grounds. The salt water “pool” and the fresh water pool with the swim-up bar.

The bar next to the beach had swings for seats.

One of the beaches.

The lighthouse.

The pier.

Views on the ocean side.

Flowers.

The photo below is actually of one of the sand ashtrays throughout the hotel. It was someone’s job to empty them, rake the sand flat and clean, then stamp them with the hotel’s logo—a shell. A bit of local trivia here: a shell symbol was used in Mayan mathematics as the glyph for 0.