Bee balm in bloom.

We had a good weekend. Mostly the weather cooperated except for Sunday when we woke to rain and thunder, and it rained/drizzled for most of the day.

On Saturday we took Mia and drove down to Lake Mohawk near Sparta. The weather was picture perfect as is the boardwalk at the lake. Perfect temperature, blue blue sky, a slice of pizza for lunch.

Baby figs!

We ate well over the weekend:

BBQ baby back ribs, coleslaw, and homemade baked beans.

Goat shoulder tacos and sweet corn. For a more detailed description of the goat tacos, see Rick’s blog entry, Get your Goat, Part 2.

Frangipane fig tart (seen here before baking).

Yesterday’s lunch poolside: grilled eggplant sandwiches stuffed with goat cheese. The baby eggplants were sent via priority mail straight from my sister’s garden!

At last but not least, Papaya Margaritas! These were seriously good!

Yesterday was a good pool day and we spent most of the day either bobbing around the pool or sitting in the cabana reading. Even with the rainy Sunday (we needed some rain) I can’t complain one whit about our weekend. Hope yours was good as well!

In case you were wondering (and some people have been!) I am still here. It’s interesting how some people worry about me when they see I haven’t blogged for a while. It’s very sweet—thank you for caring. All is well. I’ve been busy but also haven’t really felt like blogging.

Rick is home from his travels and finally staying home for a while.

My sister has come and gone. (Good visit!)

The bathroom remodels were completed with several days to spare before my sister arrived. She gave the guest bathroom her stamp of approval!

The pool is finally coming up to a good temperature after going up and down with all the rain and cool nights we were having. We had so much rain—over 3.5 inches worth—over a period of a few days that we had to let water out of the pool.

The day lilies by the pool are in full bloom now (see header pic above); my fig tree is laden with little green figs.

Now we are looking forward to a lazy, low-key holiday weekend with plenty of grilling, eating and libations and poolside laying about. On the menu plan: BBQ baby back ribs with baked beans and coleslaw, Papaya Margaritas, Goat shoulder tacos, a frangipane fig tart (not my figs ... yet). (But not all those things at once.)

And maybe, just maybe, I am out of my blogging slump. Is anyone still interested in vacation posts or should I move on?

New Green. Nothing really comes close color-wise in my opinion Crayola should have it as one of their colors.

I call these tree caterpillars. I don’t know what kind of trees they are, possibly elms, but they are messy when they drop and they look exactly like caterpillars.

When the forsythia party is over there is nothing left but yellow confetti.

The other day the blue jays decided to come en masse to the feeding area. I think at one time I counted around 14. See how many you can find in this photo and don’t forget to look in the bushes and the tree. They are beautiful birds!

We had a few “firsts” this weekend. The first time the yard was mowed and the first hummingbird to arrive! I think this little guy is early since it’s been so cold so far this year. Yet, there he sat on the clothesline announcing his arrival and waiting patiently for his feeder to be hung out. Do you think the same birds return year after year? How else would he know where the feeder should be?

Before the yard mowing I managed to snap the wild violets growing in one area of the front yard. I love violets and I love that they grow in my yard!

And with the yard mowing came a delightful find! Morels!!!! And growing in a spot we never thought to look for them, right alongside the edging to the back yard. Remember my “Morel of the Story” post a few years back? If not, I think you should take the time to follow the link and read it! We haven’t seen morels since that year so we were really excited.

While Rick was mowing the front yard I heard the mowing stop and went to see what the problem was. Rick was off the tractor and walking toward me with more morels! These were growing right in the grass in the front yard!

We froze some them and a few went into our risotto. Delicious!

I know they look ugly but they are as yummy as they are ugly!

For the next few days my mind will be whirling with all I have to do to get ready to leave on Thursday for our trip to Nicaragua and Panama! I am not ready!!!

Saturday was finally warm and sunny enough to get Mia out to stretch her legs. Top down, windows down, wind in our hair.

(Note: I think this photo is kind of funny. Since I was wearing my sunglasses at the time of taking the photo, the camera focused on the writing on the side mirror instead of on me like I had intended so I am blurred out. See my new hat?)

We decided to do a big loop: up to the lovely town of Warwick through Greenwood Lake and then come back down through our favorite little back road to Upper Greenwood Lake with a side trip to the Warwick Valley Winery.

At least some people who live on the road that goes past the winery have a sense of humor. I love this sign!

The road is so tiny and narrow that going much faster than that would be suicide anyway.

The winery is smack in the middle of what is called the black dirt region near Pine Island, New York which is famous for growing onions. Follow the link to learn more about it. The dirt really is black!

We were surprised to see the parking lot full of cars and nearly every picnic table was taken up with people enjoying the sunshine. We are always trying to find a nice place to have lunch when we take Mia out and for some reason we always forget about the winery. Too bad we had lunch at our little local diner down the hill before starting our drive because the food coming out of the cafe at the winery looked delicious—especially the pizzas! Next time!

We ordered a glass of Black Dirt Blush and sat down at a picnic table outside to people watch and soak up the sun. We think a dog had claimed our table sometime in the not too distant past. Do you agree?

We sat and sipped our wine, the sun warm against our backs, and watched as people ate, drank their recently purchased bottles of wine and spread blankets on the newly greening grass while little children from various families banded together to play.

The wine was such a pretty color in the sun! I know I keep going on about the sun, but we haven’t seen it much. (Fun side note: Rick has his yearly physical a week ago and all was fine except his blood work showed a slight Vitamin D deficiency! Dr. said he thinks more sun is needed.)

I thought the recycle “bin” for the empty wine bottles was interesting.

Such an enjoyable couple of hours! It was so nice to finally get out and take advantage of a beautiful spring day.

Wait ... ! Wasn’t the title of this post “Welcome Spring?” I am sorry to report that this is the view out my window this morning. A rather disheartening sight if I must say so. Just yesterday we had Mia out (with the top down!) for a short ride. And now look! Sheesh. It’s supposed to turn to rain later on in the day but it’s so disappointing to know that it can still do this to us.

We had great weather for viewing the Super Moon on Friday night. It really didn’t look all that much bigger and brighter to me. After all the hype I was expecting more. Here are a few pics anyway. First, a creepy one; then two pics alike except for the focal point in one was on the trees and in the other it was the moon. Rick took both of those pics.

The turkeys returned again on Sunday morning. Rick took a video that I will be posting as soon as he gets it ready, but in case you didn’t get enough turkey pics the other day here are a few more.

Watching over his harem.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

This guy was gobbling as I took the photo.

I think they like our yard. We counted over twenty turkeys in the yard at one time! No mating took place yesterday. Maybe they are done with that.

Even though we did take Mia out for a spin to celebrate her one year anniversary, it wasn’t all that warm this weekend. I think it may have gotten to 50 late in the day yesterday, but Saturday was quite cold with a chilly wind. We walked the dogs, played video games and other than a trip to the Rockaway mall for a disappointing clothes shopping trip (but a great lunch at the new Red Robin) we stuck pretty close to home.

For dinner last night we had a surprisingly good meal of roast venison. One of Rick’s colleagues is a hunter and he gave us a roast knowing that we like to cook and eat on the adventurous side. I was very skeptical about the whole thing, but I have to admit it was very good. The dogs and cats were all very interested the minute Rick pulled it out of the fridge to start preparing the rub for it. They thought it smelled pretty darned interesting! We made garlic smashed yukon gold potatoes and fresh asparagus with it. If I had been blindfolded I would not have been able to tell you I was eating venison. The taste was not beef, but it was hard to pinpoint. It kind of tasted like the wild boar we ate in France once.

And, that about wraps up our weekend news! Hope you’re experiencing spring-like weather wherever you are today!