Easy Sunday

After suffering hideous leg cramps yesterday evening (see my job as a letter carrier), I didn't feel like doing much of anything today. We journeyed to Carole's mom's place to eat dinner and mess about with the Casita. Getting within three weeks of our vacation to the Outer Banks, so we're pushing to get everything in order.

Other than that...all I've done today is rest and read. I haven't even written today.

Casita with azaleas.

The pink blossoms were fading, but the white blossoms were at full.

We planted these just a few years ago.

An azalea bed near the clothes line. We hung out all of the bedding from the trailer on the line today.

We missed the peak of the dogwoods by a few days. But this tall one in the back was spectacular.

I like to take a photo every year of the Casita sitting beneath the dogwoods in full bloom. But we missed the peak for the dogwoods by a few days.

Easter Business.

We visited Carole's mom on Easter as we do every year. After dinner we started preliminary Spring cleaning on our Casita travel trailer. I also took a little time to enjoy the early blossoms on some of the trees and shrubs in the yard.

Camelias in bloom.

Just added a few provisions to the trailer, opened the awning to check on condensation (there was none) and aired out the trailer and recharged the battery.

Easter Sunday

Carole and I went to her mom's place for Easter dinner today. We always have a restful visit when we go there and today was nice and relaxing. Carole had stayed up the previous night cooking most of the stuff for the meal, so all she and her mom had to do was heat things up.

After dinner I spent a little of time out in the yard working a bit with the Casita trailer and trying to take some macro photos with my SLR camera. I have never had any luck taking good macro shots with the new camera and lenses. I recently ordered a macro lens which hasn't arrived yet. As usual, I was very disappointed in the shots I got in my attempts to take closeups of blossoms and such. My older cameras were actually better at macro than this new, expensive one. I hope the new lens enables me to take some good closeup shots.

Faye and Carole as we got ready for Easter dinner. We brought over a bottle of wine to add to the celebration.

Most of the azalea blossoms had already faded. But these lavender azaleas were in full bloom. We need to plant more of this type to give the yard some variety.

The hemlock trees in the back yard were putting out tiny cones. In all the years I have never seen these trees spawn any saplings. But every year they produce these tiny cones.

This is something most southerners don't get to see any longer: a view under the canopy of a healthy Eastern hemlock tree. I keep a close watch on the pair in Faye's back yard. At the first sign of hemlock wooly adelgid, I will begin a vigorous treatment with imadacloprid insecticide.

Andy and Shayna

Well, we visited Carole's mom for Easter Sunday. Carole was too tired to go to church, having been awake for 24 hours by the time we got to her mom's place. When she finally gets to bed she'll have been awake for about 36 hours. Preparing for a camping trip is a major endeavor for us. We do go prepared, I have to say.

We had a good dinner. Somehow I limited myself to modest proportions of food and didn't overdo it. Baked ham, hash-brown potato casserole, green beans, stewed carrots, deviled eggs, yeast rolls, and key lime pie. One glass of wine, several of tea. Yeah. It was pretty darned good.

Andy joined us and brought his girlfriend to meet us. Carole had met Shayna before, but I never had. She's very sweet and it was good to finally meet her.

I spent the lion's share of the day working on the Casita and getting her ship-shape for the looming trip. One of my co-workers who also owns one had discovered a new method of shining up the fiberglass gel-coat. So he gave me directions of what to buy and how to apply it and I had at the task. I was very much impressed with the results. The trailer is shining almost like new!

Andy and Shayna.

The Casita glowing with three fresh coats of shiny stuff!