Wordless Wednesday (Sparkly Pink)

Chocolate Covered Cherries and my Grandmother

My grandmother loves chocolate covered cherries. We are always on the look out for new, fancy cherries for her. For her birthday I decided to make chocolate covered cherry cupcakes. These are very good, if I do say so myself. I carved out the middles and put syrup-y cherries in them and added buttercream frosting and then more cherries and even a maraschino cherry. Yum. I highly recommend making them. You'll find the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

And if you know anyone with a healthy love of chocolate and cherries then they will love these cupcakes. My grandmother did.

Rain, Rain

Though I spent a lot of this week trying to persuade my daughter from the door. She constantly points at it and hands me my shoes so we can go outside. A couple times I thought if she realized it was raining outside she would want to stay inside. But, it turns out she likes to play in the rain just as much as the sunshine.

I love rainy days inside and when I could distract my daughter from the door with a book or crayons and we sat and listened to the sound of the rain on the roof; it was blissful. Soon, I'm sure I will be dreaming about letting her run around the yard again. For now I am so excited about the change of weather and am thinking I will even be able to change my summer clothes out for autumn/winter. The excitement.

In a couple weeks we are visiting Asheville, NC, which is in the mountains. I hope that the leaves will be changing there so I can get some good pictures. We have just a few select trees that are no longer green, but the piles on the ground seem to be getting larger everyday.

Photo From the Past: Pink Roses

Starting late last night we experienced an intense thunderstorm with plenty rain and wind. It was akin to the hurricanes/tropical storms that I lived through in Wilmington. Last night I woke up around 3 or 4 for some reason and looked out the window. The sky was red and the wind was whipping through the trees and pushing the rain sideways. Always a sight.

Today my daughter and I took a walk in the gardens to survey the remnants of the storm. The bog garden was full of big puddles; some much, much bigger than normal puddles. My daughter wore her new rainboats (we bought them yesterday) and she had fun splashing. After splashing in the puddles she would sit in them. Luckily, I had dry pants in the car.

I have gotten a new battery for my camera and lot's of film and should have new pictures soon (hopefully of rain and ducks). Enjoy the weather where ever you may be.

The New UPS?

My grandmother read it like it was a word instead of an acronym. "I sent your package ups, should get there tomorrow." There was a point when I tried the pronunciation out, but people just thought I was dumb, whereas my grandmother was charming. I guess that how it goes. She had a contagious smile and laid back laugh. She never said, "hi," she said, "Well, Hey..." and gave you a hug.

This week good old ups paid us a visit making me wonder: didn't they use to knock? They didn't always stay to chat, but at least gave the common decency of letting you know they were on your front porch and leaving a package. In the past few years their delivery has gotten shakier and shakier, until today when, I'm quite certain, the delivery man threw my package from the truck door or at least the sidewalk. I heard a thump. A loud one. The package contained only clothes so no real harm done. Other than the fading memory of delivery men who were courteous and I was able to communicate with even if it was a just a wave and a thank you as they headed back to their truck. Oh, the bygone era when we people interacted with each other in person, face to face, with words, smiles, and sometimes even a wink (another of my grandmother's fave).

Varied Thoughts

My camera battery is dead and my supply of photographs is dwindling. It's times like this that I am thankful that I go overboard when taking photos of flowers at the various gardens. Hopefully, I will remedy this tomorrow. We have had an exciting past few days. Yesterday, we were rear ended at a stop light. Luckily, we're fine and looks as though our bumper took on all the pressure. I've never been in an accident as a passenger and it is a definite shock to the system because I had no idea what was coming. Of course, a crying baby and the immediate, desperate concern for her well being probably also had to do with the tension in my shoulders. Within a minute of my freeing her from the car seat she was laughing and playing; thrilled to be able to crawl all around the car while we waited for the police. Thank goodness it is all over.

It has been raining nearly non-stop these past few days. We are greatly in need of rain here, so it is a good thing. Plus, I am so tired of these 90+ days, I desperately want to pull out some sweaters and long sleeved shirts. Even all the rain hasn't made it too much cooler due to the thick humidity. On our walk today I saw plenty of joggers in minuscule shorts. Oh well. I know fall is on the horizon because the leaves are slowly changing, but it sure is taking an awful long time. I know that I will wake up one morning and the leaves will all seem to have changed over night. It always seems to happen that way.

Photos from the Past: The Audition

I'm not totally back in my routine because I still don't have a Flip'n Friday for today. Instead I thought I would share some production stills from a film that I made in graduate school. It starred two dancers from Greensboro; one is now dancing in L.A. here and the other teaches in Greensboro and has this lovely etsy shop where she sells clothes for children. This film was adapted from a short story that I wrote in high school.

Also if you want to watch a video of sorts check out this performance from the Avett Brothers. This song always gets in my head, but I love it, especially the line, "it's not the chase that I love, it's me following you." Don't ask me why.