Southern Living Yankee

I'm auntie to 8 great girls on my side of the family, but I've always lived so far away that I'm not able to get to know them as well as I'd like. I don't see them at their games, pick them up from school, take pictures of their proms and dances, lecture them about boys, or spoil them! So I created a bribe that would give me the chance to do some of that---taking pictures, lecture them about boys, and spoil them rolled into what I call a "Beautiful Girlhood" weekend. The bribe is that they read a book with the same title. It's a pretty old-fashioned and therefore probably quite boring for them. But it's all about building character and a moral compass, so it's important stuff. And if they make it through the book they spend the weekend getting spoiled rotten by Auntie Ferree! This past week my neice Kendall finally had time to get-away here to South Carolina. I would have gone up to her place, but she decided long ago that when she finished...

It was a hot and hazy morning and the heat index would top 100 later in the day. We left shore at 8:45, went through Murrell's Inlet at low tide, and then out over a mile into the open sea. There was a light breeze that helped keep us comfortable and no one got seasick. Including the captain and crew there were twelve souls on board, and ten of us went parasailing. All my fears were stupid and unfounded. Once I saw how it all worked I didn't have any qualms. And once I got up in the air I didn't want to come back down! Like the little girl on that tv commercial I kept saying, "More! We want more! We have to have more!"

Here's my kind of party! Me and my buddies made 'snake dogs' (and ate 'em) and then we made multi-colored rainbow cupcakes that turned out more like multi-colored blobs in cupcakes. Nevertheless, they were delicious! As you can see ...   Too bad you missed the phenomenal puppet shows too!     But it's a good thing you missed this rattlesnake. Good thing I missed it too! My life didn't pass before my eyes, but it was my near-death experience of the week. I was on a nature trail with my neice on Tuesday when we and the snake met on the path! But if you wondered why the kids and I made 'snake dogs' to eat today, consider it revenge for getting the bee-jeebers scared out of me!  

Out my kitchen window this afternoon I spotted this beauty enjoyed the crape myrtle petals fallen on my sidewalk. I was able to take pictures of him through the screen of my back porch, while trying not to scare him away. Then I compared my pictures to ones on this website in order to identify him: Gardens With Wings It's a great website for finding the butterflies in your area! Just type in your zipcode and colored photos pop up. And now I understand why this butterfly is called the Red- Spotted Purple, although the purple is so dark it looks black. Can you believe the difference between the wings open  and the wings closed? It looks like two different butterflies, doesn't it?