Hello all! Are you having a good summer so far? Ours has been a mix of good, not so good, and chaotic. The good part is that our flowers, trees, and shrubs are blooming prolifically. I'm guessing all the rain we got in the spring must have really helped out. The not so good is that the weeds are also flourishing (as usual) and I just can't seem to get on top of them. Also, we had to have repair work done on our practically-new refrigerator, and I've decided that things really aren't being made to last these days. We're hoping the fridge truly is fixed because I love everything about it -- looks, layout, design, convenience. In addition, we've just replaced a coffee maker which was just a little over a year old; it started leaking out onto our countertop. Roseanne Roseannadanna is right, folks, "It just goes to show you, it's always something -- if it's not one thing, it's another." 😏
Former U.S. Coast Guard Station on St. Simon's Island
Were you a fan of the "Andy Griffith Show?" The "Andy Griffith Show" is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from 1960 to 1968. I guess what our family watched when I was in junior high school must have been the syndicated episodes, since I was only eight years old when the original show ended.
The month of October is off to a beautiful start, wouldn't you agree? In my previous post, I wrote about our little getaway to Hendersonville, in the North Carolina mountains. On the day we headed home, we got an early start after breakfast and made our way to Grandad's Apples. This was the first time we had ever visited an apple orchard; we've always just stopped at produce stands along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall to get our fresh apples.
Thank you to the folks who replied to my previous post asking for help in commenting. My husband told me this morning he'd just found out that the browser I normally use, Microsoft Edge, has added some updates and these updates have some new security tags. Apparently, the updates are making things hard for everyone (Hal wasn't able to do his online banking) and our bank is working to fix this. The updates must have affected Blogger, too. What a nuisance. Thank you also for your kind comments on the loss of my uncle. Honestly, I still can't believe he's gone. In that post, I mentioned that we were at the beach house when we got the bad news. On Sunday, May 22nd, we returned to the beach for another week spent with Hal's parents and our son, Will. It was so nice to be there with family, and we had a great time.
Happy Friday everyone! Are you looking forward to the weekend? Today is officially Hal's last day in the working world; he was initially scheduled to retire at the end of September, but his boss asked if he would work until the end of October to help get his replacement up to speed. So here we are -- one of those big milestones in life, that when you're young, feels like it's light years away. Oh how the years have flown! I'm hoping that since he's worked from home for the last year and a half, that will make this transition somewhat easier for him. Also, he may be called in next year to do some consulting work there, if he's interested, and I think he probably will be. 😉 So, Sunday is Halloween, and I'm posting some more pics from our Charleston trip last week. There were some creative Halloween scenes around town, and we took pictures of our favorites. I realize some people don't like Halloween, but we've never taken it too seriously; it was all in fun when we were growing up, and the same when Will was young. I hope you find some fun with the pictures, and no offense intended.
Hi all! I'm finally getting a chance to write another post for October. We returned on Friday the 22nd, from a four-day trip to Charleston. I know it seems like we go there a lot, but we always seem to find something new to do when we visit. We didn't go anywhere last year other than a long weekend at Oak Island, so we had this trip to Charleston scheduled for May of this year. Sadly, we found out Duncan had cancer at the end of April, so we cancelled the trip for May. My mom was able to get a room for us in October, and we were glad to get away.
First things first. I've been having a little trouble with the new Blogger lately. I'm assuming it's Google Blogger, but it could be my browser. At any rate, I've had trouble pulling up several of your blogs that I normally read, and last week, I wasn't able to make some basic changes to my sidebar. Very, very frustrating; but let's move on to more pleasant things.
Hello again everyone! Thanks to those of you who commented on my last post, and especially those who are/were having the same problem as me. We'll see how it goes in the future. Gosh, I have not done well keeping up with my blog this summer. I think I can be forgiven with everything that's been going on around here. My Bell's Palsy did clear up (thankfully) but it has caused some pain and difficulty of movement in my right jaw. I'm hoping that will repair itself, too. Our air conditioning system, which we've only had for seven years this summer, was leaking coolant and had to be repaired. It had actually started to leak last summer, but we didn't get around to having it fixed then. As Murphy's Law would have it, the weather got really hot and humid here (after what had been a very mild season) before we could get it fixed. A new part had to be ordered, which was quite pricey, and once that arrived, we finally got everything repaired. 😰 Do you ever ask yourself how in the world people did without air conditioning years ago? I'm constantly wondering that in the summertime.
Hi there and welcome to my blog. I'm glad to see you! I'm running out of time to get acclimated, so I'm just taking the plunge and trying a post on the new Blogger forum. Like most folks, I don't think we'll be doing any traveling this summer, although I hope we'll get to spend a few days at my in-laws' beach house. I imagine they'll be putting it up for sale before too long, and we need to spend some time there, if possible. We have so many good memories from our times there. For this post, I thought I would share some links to places we've visited in previous years; if you happen to be a new visitor to House at Forest Manor, you won't have read these posts. I imagine we'll be mostly doing armchair travel this year. :)
Welcome back to the Governor's Palace! If you missed Part One of the post, you can read that here.
Would you like to take a walk through the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg with me? Begun in 1705, it served as the official residence of the Royal Governors of the Colony of Virginia from 1710 - 1776. The palace was home to seven royal governors and the first two elected governors of the colony of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
Hello Dear Ones! Has spring sprung at your place yet? We're having a beautiful spring here bloomwise, but it's still been pretty cold. Cold nights and windy days, for the most part. I'm very thankful for the profusion of spring color, though.🌷🌼
"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."~Henry David Thoreau
On the last morning of our visit to Southport back in April, I got a chance to take some pictures of cottages that I haven't seen before, as well as a few pics of the marina. This was the trip I took with my mom, sister, and niece; would you care to stroll with us?
Happy Monday to you! Yesterday's post was compiled of random bits about what I've been doing this summer. I started off by writing that we had just returned from a few days in western North Carolina at Nantahala Lake, in the Great Smoky Mountains. I forgot to mention that I learned while we were there (thanks to my sister-in-law) that Nantahala is a Cherokee word meaning "Land of the Noon Day Sun." This name fits the region, as some parts are so wooded that the sun's rays only reach them when the sun is high in the sky at mid-day.
Hi everyone! How was your weekend? We just returned home yesterday from two and a half days in the mountains of North Carolina at Nantahala Lake. It was so nice to have a little getaway. I didn't take a single picture while we were there, just too much going on.
Dry Falls near Highlands, NC
Happy Friday everyone! How nice that the first official day of summer and the summer solstice are on a Friday this year. I thought I'd kick off the weekend with some flower pics from our Williamsburg trip in April.
Hello dear friends! I'm sorry I have lost touch; I really didn't mean to take such a long break from blogging. I've been working on some things here around the house, and sometimes I just have to focus on one thing at a time.
I hope you're all doing well and having a good summer. Today I want to share with you some more about our trip to Williamsburg back in April. We really enjoyed strolling around the historic area every day, and we also had some good meals while we were there. I will warn you, though, if you're thinking of visiting Williamsburg and you haven't been before, be prepared for the prices. We didn't have to pay for our lodging, but souvenirs and food were quite pricey. I thought our lunch the first day was very expensive for what it was -- two, pre-made, deli sandwiches from the refrigerated compartment in the Raleigh Bakery. I found out why the price seemed so high a few days later. We were in the DeWitt Wallace Museum, and we went down to the cafe in the museum to get something to drink. The lady in front of us was questioning her total at the register, and the cashier told her that there was a 14 percent sales tax on the food. Yikes!! I almost choked on my colonial, King's Arms ginger ale. 😲 The cashier said the sales tax differed from city to city in Virginia. Hal and I decided that Williamsburg is imposing a soak-the-tourists tax. 😏 I mean no offense to those of you who live in Virginia; we love to visit Virginia, but had no idea the sales tax was so high in certain areas. It won't stop us from visiting again, though.
Would you care to see some of the shops in colonial Williamsburg?
I finally got to go back. We last visited Williamsburg when our son was in Cub Scouts, and he'll be 29 this August, sooo -- it's been awhile. I'm really thankful we were able to use my mom's timeshare points to stay at a nice resort, within walking distance of the historic area of Williamsburg. Thanks again Mom!!
We haven't been to market to buy a fat pig 😉 but we have just returned home from four days here --
Governor's Palace
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