Birthday, Dead Dogwood, and Fences

Sunday was a good, lazy day. We started it by sleeping very late. I always sleep late after I've had a five-day work week. It was Carole's birthday, so we drove over to the mall near her mom's house to meet up with her and Carole's aunt for lunch at Mimi's Cafe. Mimi's is a chain restaurant, but pretty good. We had a decent meal and it was A-OK.

The waitress took this shot of me and Carole. They gave Carole a slice of chocolate pie since it was her birthday. And I swear that dessert in front of me was not mine. It was a three-dessert platter which I shared with Carole's mom and aunt.

After that, we drove a short distance to her mom's house. I can only take so much of the female chit-chat and I have to hit the outdoors. So I mucked about in the yard for a while. Carole's dad planted many dogwood trees when he was alive, but they're getting old and dying off, now. One of the nicest ones fell over this past Monday after the heavy snow caused it to break off at the base. We need to start planting new dogwoods, as we've lost about four in the past year.

It just fell over from the weight of the wet snow.

The base was as rotten as a Republican's heart.

Still feeling antsy, I jumped in my truck and drove a few miles to Latta Park. It's a large county park with plenty to see and do. If it had been earlier, I'd have loaded the canoe and gone paddling in Mountain Island Lake. As it was, I just took it easy and went to gaze at the park. The set piece is the remains of the namesake Latta Plantation. It's a restored farm complete with barns, tobacco houses, root cellars, etc. They charge admission to that, so I was content to stand outside the fence and take photographs of it from a distance.

Latta Plantation

The house and immediate yard.

They have a guide dressed as the lady of the house, in traditional garb.

She came out and walked around the lawn, looking very ghostly from my viewpoint.

Lots of really nice fence work at Latta.

Fence and barn.