Christmas is over

The tree came down yesterday and everything is back in the box.
It rained Up untill Christmas day and then we got a break but the rain is coming back tonight. That tree is across the street, I took the picture a few weeks ago. The tree is bare now.
Everyone in the house has been coughing and sniffling.
It has been chilly at night but nice during the day. Not a breeze is blowing today.

Rain rain and more rain

It rained heavy for two days and nights with some thunder and lightening thrown in. Everything is soaked. Today we had about 2 seconds of sunlight, otherwise it has been cloudy and drizzly.
Tomorrow we are due storms and Tuesday more rain.
I guess it's time to start building that big boat...

Misty Morning

The weather has turned cooler. It down right chilly in the mornings. The mornings have been foggy.I love it when its like that in the mornings.
It warms up in the afternoon. The sun is pretty warm but you get chilly if you go into the shade. The nights a pretty cool.
Its a good time of the year down here, weather wise.

Fall

Upstate New York is beautiful in Fall weather. The color changes are magnificant. My niece lives there and she had sent this picture a few weeks back. It was taken from her patio. Her house is in a beautiful setting, you can walk down to the beach which has a dock for putting your boat in the lake.
They had an early start of winter and most of the leaves have dropped and they had a couple of days of snow.
That's one thing I DON'T miss. Snow and ICE. I was always happy for a snow day, but that meant a day to shovel.

Gold Hand Pointing to Heaven-Port Gibson, Mississippi

A gold "Hand Pointing to Heaven" is on the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church. The town is located along the Mississippi River on scenic hwy 61 and the famous Natchez Trace, is between Vicksburg and Natchez.

The "Hand Pointing to Heaven" is the unique feature of this Romanesque Revival style edifice. The first hand was carved from wood by Daniel Foley (in 1860?).
Due to the ravages of time, it needed to be replaced. Around 1901, the present hand was commissioned and installed. It was taken down in 1989 to be repaired and replated (in gold).
It was raised again in 1990 and placed atop a newly reinforced steeple.



The town is worth a visit, as it was spared destruction by fire by General U.S. Grant in 1863 during the Civil War due to its beauty (as was Natchez). Several Civil War battle sites are in the area.

Mammy's Cupboard-Natchez, Mississippi

If your in the Neighborhood stop in this unique restaurant.

This place remains a startling icon along today's politically corrected highways -- one of those "Did I really see what I think I saw" mirages. Mammy's Cupboard is a restaurant built inside a 28-foot tall black woman's skirt.

The restaurant opened in 1940 and has gone through a series of decay and repair.






Mammy's Cupboard
Address: 555 Highway 61 South, Natchez, MS
Directions: Hwy 61 S, south of Dunbar Rd, a couple of miles south of the city.
Hours: Only lunch, Tu-Sa, 11 am - 2 pm. (Call to verify)
Phone: 601-445-8957

Humming Birds

My daughter put up her hummingbird feeders a few weeks ago and we have been having a good time watching them. One feeder is close to the table so we get a good close look at them.
I read to figure out how many hummingbirds you have coming to your feeder you should 6x the amount you see at one time at the feeder. That would mean we have about 12 birds visiting.
One is a bully and drives off the others and we frequently have to duck as they zoom past us.

Bless them all

Last night I was watching TV when lyrics popped into my head. I don't know why it did, it had nothing to do with what I was watching.
"Bless them all, Bless them all, the long and the short and the tall.."
That's all I remember of this song and I didn't know where I knew it from. I thought it might be from an old war movie.
I had to research it when I got up.

BLESS 'EM ALL

Words and Music by Irving Berlin

Bless 'em all, bless 'em all
The long and the short and the tall
Bless all the sergeants and W.O. Ones
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinking sons
For we're saying good-bye to them all
As back to the barracks we crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads Bless 'em all.

I guess there are worse songs to get stuck in your head.

Schooner

We went on the Biloxi Schooner yesterday. My first time on a sail boat. It was an interesting time. I'm glad I went but I don't think I want to go on a schooner again. You get baked in the sun. We saw some dolphins, the kids really enjoyed that. It was over two hours and that was more then enough time.

Afterwards we went to eddys and had some delicious hamburgers :)

Shooting star

Last night I went outside and saw a shooting star. I think its the 6th time I saw one. I was in my 40's when I saw my first one.
I have a sore neck from looking up to see if I could catch another one.
The best was when I was in Panama City and I was on the balcony looking at the sky and I saw two of them go by.
I've seen a satellite, the space shuttle and shooting stars. Now I just need to see a UFO.
Well...it would scare the crap out of me if I did see one... I did see two things shoot out of the moon, but that was a long time ago on the Nasa Channel.

Dog age calculator

I don't know how they figure this out, but in most of the sites I looked at they say, a dog is 15 years old the first year and 24 the second year.
They say the size of the dog, also makes a difference in calculating their age.

dog years calculator

SkyWatch

I thought this cloud looked like a heart in a circle. I showed it to my granddaughter but she didn't see the heart.




The weather has been a little better because part of the day is usually cloudy. You don't have the hot sun beating down all the time.

Sun/clouds

At least we have some breaks from the sun during the day. We get some clouds and hopefully a little rain.
Yesterday we had a nice little storm come through. It poured and got pretty windy along with the lightening and thunder.
Grace had to miss her piano lesson.
We had some thunder and rain this morning right before I got out of bed.
This picture I took from Shaggys, there are beautiful beaches here.

Pretty sunset

The rain stopped long enough last night to have a pretty sunset. The temps cooled off to the 80's. We are having rain today and then the temps will go up again.

The electric clicked off this morning. This is the second time that happened. It's odd because there were no storms around when it happened.

casino

The fourth of July was nice. We had a quick nasty storm that dampened most of the fireworks which was fine with me. It didn't cool anything off but it was a beautiful sunset.

Today we have a little break, finally. It rained pretty good and the temperature dropped down to the high 80's. I don't have to water the garden today. Something is eating the tomatoes in the front garden now.
Yesterday I want to Shaggys with a neighbor and had a nice time. This was the view I had from my seat outside under an umbrella.

The fried crab claws and shrimp po'boy I had was very good.
Afterwards we went to the Hollywood Casino. We lost but we had a nice time.

Rain

We finally got rain. It rained a little yesterday but today we got an nice little downpour. When it was done, SIL did some work in the garden and called me outside to look at something. He was pulling up plants that were finished producing. The roots were still dry. He said you can never water enough. He sure is right. I would have thought they all got soaked.

the rain dropped the temperature about 10 degrees so that was nice. We got alittle more rain about 2 hours later but today is just going to be hot and humid with no rain.

Almost rain

Yesterday I held off watering the garden because it looked like it was going to rain. I could hear thunder and the dark clouds started to roll in. It started to look very promising...

But we didn't get any rain. Lets see if we get lucky today.
Bugs are getting at the tomato plants in the back. I don't think we will get many from there, but the ones in the front garden look ok so far.

Hot yet again

It is a month since we had any rain. It has been over 100 for days now. There is a slight chance of a storm today or tonight. It would be good if we get it.

In New York they have chilly rainy weather and they are wondering where their summer is. Its DOWN HERE! Come and get it!

The best thing to do is, stay indoors and drink plenty of liquids.

Happy Fathers day

Its a HOT and HUMID day.
I think what I miss most about my father is his sense of humor.
I never saw my father down or depressed.
I rarely saw him angry.
He was not perfect, but he was a good father.

The last picture is how I remember him the most.
On the sofa with his tee shirt and pj bottoms.

June 16th

The kids found out they are going to Missouri for two weeks and that they will be going to camp. Their first time for that. They are excited. They will stay at their Aunt's farm house. Grace loves to ride the horses. They will get to see their Grandma Joe too.

The weather has been HOT and HUMID, the usual for this time of year.

Another picture of connect four, this is the one I meant to use last week and couldn't find it. I am on a mission of cleaning out my pictures today.

Cuddehay

This interesting and unusual name, with variant spellings Cuddihy, Cuddehy, Quiddihy, Coady, etc. is the Anglicization of the Gaelic "O Cuidighthigh", meaning "the male descendant of "O" the helpful person ("cuidightheach" - helper). This is a Kilkenny name though an earlier form of the name is found in Cork (see below).

The name also appears as O'Codihie, O'Kuddyhy etc. in the sixteenth Century and in the modern idiom is found as Cuddihy, Cudahy and Quiddihy with no prefix.

Cuddihy is an example of a name once numerous but which has become scarse in the past Century. Twenty-two Cuddihy house-holders appear in the County Tipperary, Mary Cuddihy was baptised on July 14th 1864. Thomas, son of James and Bridget Cuddihy was baptised at Carrick-on-suir in Tipperary on December 27th 1864.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Mac Cuidithe, which was dated 1214, County Cork Records, during the reign of Cathal "Craobhdhearg (Redhead) High King of Ireland", 1198 - 1224. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation.

In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Happy Birthday!

Its Liams birthday today! Woohoo!
He is 8 years old.
They grow up too fast.
Here is the birthday boy making one of his funny faces

Mellow Yellow Monday

Connect 4 has some yellow in it as you can see.

Sky Watch Friday

It was a day that threatened storms, the sky would get dark clouds but the rain didn't come.

Window Views#7

The granddaughters window. I love the red curtains.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Squash from my daughters garden. She has a good crop of it.

She canned some squash relish, her zuccini relish was fantastic so I can't wait to try this.

Camera Critters

Another shot of the turtles.

Watery Wednesday

Last week we had a sunshower.

To Honor

Grandpa- Patrick J. - Marine-WW1-Alsace Lorriane


Dad- John M - Army-WW11-Battle of the Bulge

Dad is on the left

Cottage

Bay St.Louis has many small quaint cottages. Many are painted colors you wouldn't normally see in a neighborhood.We parked infront of this Cottage and it was one of our favorites.

Military

The previous post showed a Navy band at the Bay St.Louis Fair.
Here is where the Marines set up their booth.





The kids liked it :)

The Fair

Yesterday we went to the Bay St.Louis fair. Its a short drive away. They have a yearly fair but its the first time I've been there. Bay St.Louis is a nice little town with cute stores and artsy people. It was a good day spent outside. BaySt.Louis was heavily damaged during Katrina and there are still scars from it.

Cottages/Houses

I have some knick-knacks that I left here and haven't seen in almost 3 years. It's like meeting old friends again.
I like cottages or house pottery. This TeaPot is Made in England by Price Brothers. I had 3 of them at one time. I just love them.

I'll be taking pictures of my other pottery and plaques that I have collected.
I used to have a lot of paintings too but I had to get rid of them. I forgot what I saved and what I got rid of so it was a surprise when I went through the tote and saw somethings I thought were gone. But I also saw somethings and thought, "Why the heck did I save that thing".

I guess because of the bad economy I've seen these teapots going for less then $10 on eBay. Thats what I paid for it, but they were going for $15-$25. So that's a big drop.
It looks like we might get some rain, we can use it.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Some yellow in an aloe plant.

More shopping

We went to K-Mart yesterday. I desperately need tops. I am not buying cheap tops any more, you wash them and they shrink enough that its uncomforable to wear. That happened to two of my tops. Not that I am going to buy expensive tops, I can't afford that, but I'll buy tops I that will last.
I bought 6 tops and a pair of capri's for $56. They had some good sales, some of the tops were reduced by half. So I should have enough, now if I don't stain them it will be a miracle. I usually change into and old top when I am home so I don't ruin a good one.
The family is at Stennis today, I was going but had a stomach upset and thought it might be wise to stay home.
It is hot and humid and partly cloudy. I don't think we are due any rain.

shopping

Saturday we went to a few church rummage sales. One of them is a favorite. I have been looking for a small TV for my room. I looked on eBay. For a small older 9"-13", used TV usually goes for $85-$135 total, and they normally don't come with a remote.

At the church sale they had a 13" Memorex. It looked in great condition, no scratches or dents it wasn't dusty and it had the manual and remote. The tag said it worked. The price was $12!!

I grabbed that right up! It works great! I got a snowman and housecoat and a westclox alarm clock. I spent a grand total of $13.25
It was a good shopping day :)

Sky Watch Friday #42

This was taken yesterday, we have been having a chance of rain every day, we never get it though. We do need rain. We should have had over 4 inches of rain this month but we have only had a trace.

Well I should say last month, I forgot this was May 1^st. Happy May day!
I wonder if children dance around the maypole like we did many years ago, that tradition goes all the way back to Pagan times.

Maypole dance

Who lost a tooth

No, not me.
Gracie lost a tooth last night after much tugging and pulling and twisting.
A few of us have been sick the last couple of days. I was up most of the night and had a fever at one point. I hate it when I can't breathe.
Its been sunny warm and humid, no rain in awhile.
I saw Wall-E last night, it was a cute movie.

Sky Watch Friday #41

I took this picture last week. This week, the sky has been pretty boring. Plain Blue, the only clouds are a few in the morning.




We are, I believe, in a drought or headed that way. We should have had over 4" of rain so far this month but we've only had less then an inch. The next chance of rain is Tuesday.
Today is supposed to be humid, so the summer weather is a comin'.

Window Views#1

Looking out the Kitchen window.

Watery Wednesday#32

My World Post

I just love seeing catfish signs here in the South, you never see that in NY.

Camera-Critters #54