Another birthday?

Well how can that be? It's my birthday again! Wow did the last year fly by!

Time to do some celebrating. First of all,  I took a vacation day from work so I would have the entire day to play and do whatever I wanted.  My Sister had the day off too because her last day of school was last Friday.

I told her I wanted to go for dinner in Rockport.  I wanted to see a beautiful Rockport sunset. But then the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup finals and wouldn't you know it game seven was scheduled for the night of my birthday. So we decided to go for breakfast in Gloucester instead so I could watch the game at night.

I picked the place for breakfast, Sugar Magnolias.  This was my second trip there. I had the goatie, an omelette filled with goat cheese, tomatoes, and mushrooms and maybe spinach.  Can't remember but I know it was delicious.  My sister opted for the eggs benedict with spinach.

The decor is nice and easy.  Nothing fancy but welcoming. We got there at a good time for a late breakfast.

As I was sitting there watching the waitresses fill the ketchup bottles and write the lunch offerings on the menu, I was reminded of the movie Mystic Pizza. Maybe it was because the girls all seemed to be friends or maybe it was the setting in a seaside town in New England. I did not see Julia Roberts.

Here's another view of Sugar Magnolias or Sugar Mags for short.

There's Becky our waitress. Turns out she's originally from Winchester the next town to mine! She had some funny stories for us.

Love this sign.

Here's the front of the restaurant with a beautiful stained glass window.

After breakfast we drove along the coast to Rockport. The peonies were in bloom and so fragrant. We've had so much rain it's been good for the flowers. 

For the last few days the weather has been more like April than June.  It's been cold and windy. But today it was absolute perfection! Sunny and in the 70's, can't get much better than that. I guess the birthday gods must have been looking down on me. Wouldn't you love to have an oceanside seat in one of those little chairs at the bottom right of the photo?

We walked to the end of the wharf and found this beauty of a boat or I should say ship.

And don't I always run into a kitty no matter where I go?  This one was really friendly and definitely not a stray.

Of course we had to sit on the rocks since we were in Rockport.  Just look at that water.  This is the
place to relax.

This woman told us this rock is the best seat in the house! She called it a Rockport Lazyboy.

This spot at Bearskin Neck is popular fror picture taking. Is this going to be a Christmas card?

This is surely a Christmas card. Mom just needs to get someone to take one with her in it too.

Walking all the way out to the end of the jetty is a favorite pasttime. Some can do it with grace. Others can not.

Don't forget, there's a game seven to be played tonight. Bruins fever was alive and well in Rockport.

After soaking up some gorgeous sunlight, we headed to the deck at Helmut's Strudel Shop

for a bit of refreshment.  Ice coffee for me and tea for my sister and of course a warm from the oven slice of apple strudel.  It was beyond delicious!

So here is my happy place, the deck at Helmut's. I could sit here all day sipping my ice coffee and watching the seagulls fly by. I love the feeling of a soft breeze on my face and listening to the boats rock to and fro right in front of me. Nirvana! 

Oh I do not want to leave this idyllic spot but I do want to get back and see my mom at the nursing home. I have to see her on my Birthday. And then there's the game tonight.

This man came to Helmut's on a break from work. What a nice respite from the work day! He is lucky to work in Rockport.

And the woman with him is Christine.  She works at Helmut's and she is hysterical.  She was going to make a Stanley Cup out of tin foil for the Bruins game. And last night, she stayed up until 2 AM making a Bruins sign to be hung on Rockport's most famous building, the Motif No 1.

And there it is, Christine's handiwork. It looks very professional. 

And a closeup.  You know my best birthday present would be a Bruins victory tonight.  They're up 3-0 as I write this. 20 minutes to a World Championship! Cool.

Feeding Miss Marble

This is Miss Marble. Miss Marble is the stray kitty my sister and I have been feeding.  She is the mother of the 5 kittens pictured in this post and she is just a kitten herself.  Sorry for the poor photo but Miss Marble is quite skittish and if I moved any closer to her she would have bolted.

My sister and I have been feeding Miss Marble since the day after Memorial Day. I feed her in the morning and my sister feeds her at night or vice versa.  She gets the same premium cat food my kitties get.  My neighbor caught 3 of  Miss Marble's 5 kittens and brought them to a local vet. They all had upper respiratory problems and are on medication. Once they are well they will be sent to foster homes to be cared for until they can be adopted.

The plan is to capture the other two kittens and then Miss Marble can be rescued.  The woman from the Cat Society in town said she thinks Miss Marble is feral and is not adoptable.  We beg to differ.  She is already letting us get closer to her before she runs from us.  I think she is making progress.

Once she is rescued, she will be tested and then spayed and microchipped. If she can be socialized she will be fostered then adopted. If she is found to be feral, she will be released back outdoors by my sister's studio.  We will continue to feed her and my neighbor who caught the kittens agreed to build her a shelter for the Winter months.

Even if she is feral, her village will take care of her.

It's so Random!

What do you do when you have some random things to blog about but not enough to fill an entire blogpost? You do a random thoughts post!

I discovered a new coffee shop in Melrose last week and I've already been there twice! Coffee. Tea and Me is located on Main Street.  What a great place. there's quite the selection of coffees and baked goods too.  Last week, I tried an Iced Viennese and this week it was an iced mocha. Both of them were so fabulous I just know I'll be back. Check it out if you're in the area!

    

I am enjoying my little kitty pitcher, a recent purchase. Love it's irridescence and the kitty looks like my little Percy. And I am loving the fact that it's footed.

 

I just took photos of another one of my sister's live event paintings.  This is for the wedding of Michele and Brian.  They were married at the Copley Plaza in Boston.

Although Percy does not seem to mind the heat...

Oscar has become a complete slug! He just wants to chill out in front of the window.



And Percy can not understand.  Percy can go full speed all day long even in 90 degree heat.

Hope you all can chill out with an iced coffee, iced tea, or just in front of an open window. Get ready, Summer's coming!

A Night at Fenway Park

Lucky me! I have a very nice lawyer who happens to be a Red Sox season ticket holder. He gave me two tickets to Tuesday night's game versus the Chicago White Sox. These tickets were for prime seats, in the loge behind home plate.  The seats were valued at $94.00 each!

I was so psyched to be going to the game.  I hadn't been to a Red Sox game in years.  I asked the Manager of my bank branch to be my guest.  She is a big fan  and her father has worked at Fenway Park since 1967. He even has a World Series ring from the 2007 championships!

The night could not have been more perfect. I think the temps were in the 60's and
I could have sat outside all night. I was worrying that it might be too hot, too cold or worse
case scenario, rainy. We lucked out because as you may know we had some wild weather on
Wednesday and some tornadoes touched down in the Springfield area.

Actually I waited to post this Night at Fenway story because it seemed inappropriate to post about such a fun night when so many out in the Springfield area were dealing with utter devastation.  My prayers are with them as they rebuild and pick up the pieces of their lives.

This was the vantage point from our seats.  Sweet! That's the Green Monster to the left. It is
a Fenway landmark.

I thought about having a Fenway Frank but I am very particular about my hot dogs.  They simply must be grilled and the bun must also be grilled to a golden brown.  So no hot dogs for me or Jen.  We had chicken tenders and fries.

A blast from the past.  A Carleton Fisk shirt, ooh I used to love him! He was actually in attendance at the game. Another bonus!

I was so happy I bought a telephoto lens a few weeks ago. It came in very handy at the game.

Our seats were behind the screen.  No one wants to get beaned by a foul ball. Quite a few foul balls did land in the sections on either side of us. That would have been perfect if I got to bring home a game used ball!

I liked the results from my new lens.  Actually I bought a used one but it's new to me.  I shot a lot of the photos in sports mode which is really cool. I caught a lot of the runners in mid stride.

So many vendors were at the game. Beer, coke, lemonade, hot dogs, cotton candy, peanuts, pizza. Name your nutritional poison and you could buy it right from your seat.

Here's the famed Green Monster. It's in left field and it has taken away many a home run.

However, our Captain Jason Varitek managed to hit a homer.  Here he is receiving congratulations from his teammate.

The grounds crew did a fine job on the baselines. Don't mind the water bottles, the nerve of those vendors getting in my shots!

Evening starts to set in. The temperature was still comfortable and I was enjoying all the sights on and off the field.

The people who run the jumbotron scan the crowd for interesting faces and things going on at

the park. Some fans paid homage to the Bruins who were playing game one of the Stanley Cup finals the next night. There were lots of Bruins shirts in the crowd.  We are so proud our hockey team is playing for the Championship!  Woo hoo!

The Prudential Center or as we Bostonians call it, "The Pru", is that tall building in the background. And there is the subliminal message to buy a beer right there for all to see all game long.

More vendors or as I affectionately call them, "The Finger People", were hawking souvenirs .

Getting really dark now and the lights are not kind to my photographs!  The lights are also not kind to that man's bald head in front of me.

Captain Varitek again.

More excitement off field.  Looks like a surprise proposal. Yup, he's on one knee.

You can enlarge this photo by clicking on it. That looks like quite the rock on her hand! I am glad she said yes. Wouldn't that have been embarrassing?

  She has her bearings now.  Yes, you are on display for everyone to see!

It's really dark at this point or as we say in Boston, it's really dahk now!

We took advantage of the seventh inning stretch and walked around Yawkey Way where there are shops and food vendors. I just took some photos, no eating or drinking at this point.

I guess other people had the same idea. There's lots to see around this area.

Back to the game but from a different vantage point. I wanted to see all of Fenway Park.

Time for the wave. From this angle, I could really appreciate how many people were at the game.

I wish the lighting had been better here.  This was supposed to be my money shot! I was going to lead my post with this shot but here it is way down the end of the post because of it's poor quality.

We left the game a bit early to avoid traffic only to find a line to get our car out of the parking lot.

Can you believe the price to park your car?  And then you have to stand in line to get it? Insanity!

All in all a very fun night. I hope to go again in this decade. Thanks to Larry for the tickets and Jen for driving in and accompanying me at the game.  I hope you all enjoyed your vicarious night at Fenway!

A visitation in Melrose?

I don't normally talk about religion on my blog.  But today, on Memorial Day, I am going to make an exception because of something I saw this weekend.  By the way, I should mention I am a Catholic.

On Sunday, my sister said she had someplace to take me.  She had heard about the appearance of the Virgin Mary at a park in Melrose.  Supposedly, there was an image of Mary on a stone monument. My sister wasn't sure when it first appeared but it has been at least a couple of months.  We checked the internet and saw nothing about it. We decided to visit the park and see for ourselves.

The monument honors Mary Foley of Melrose, a school crossing guard who was killed in a tragic accident in 1985.  The day of the accident she was on duty. She shielded the children who were crossing the street with her own body as a car headed towards them.  She was hit by the car and killed.  She was a true hero.

The park is across the street from St Mary's School and it is a peaceful place with benches and trees and irises on it's borders.  I started to take a few photos and then my sister decided to take her camera out of her purse. As she took the camera out we heard a clink. We looked down at the stone bench of the monument. My sister's medal of the Virgin Mary had fallen out of her wallet and onto the monument! We looked at each other and thought that it was another sign.  You can decide for yourself.

On Monday, my sister had gone to her studio. As she approached the back door she saw these tiny kittens coming up through some holes in the floor boards.  She said one by one they climbed through a hole and she thinks she counted nine!  She called me to come take a look. 

When I got there I only saw 5.  I am not sure if they all are that healthy. It's hard to tell and they retreat  under the floor boards if you get too close.  We have not seen Mommy yet.
They will need to be rescued soon.  It's a busy street and we don't want them wandering.

They sure are cute but I am definitely not taking them. Three is plenty!

As you can see, I had a full weekend filled with thoughts of pride for our veterans and troops now serving our country, the appearance in a park that honors a local hero, and bearing witness to new life.

And how was your weekend?

Paris Party

Today, I am linking to Anita's Blog, Castles, Crowns and Cottages.  She is hosting the Simply Irresistible Paris Party.

 I had my dressform Vivienne model the necklace and shawl I have selected for the Paris party. Vivienne always wears everything so well. I must say I am a little jealous!

 The necklace, a Sheila Foley original, was made for me by my sister in 2006. I was hosting a French themed afternoon tea and my sister thought this necklace might be a nice addition to my outfit.

 She used a tugua nut to resemble the ivory used in scrimshaw pieces. The beads are white, clear and blue.

Here's the back of the tugua nut.  This is what the front looked like before it was etched.

Here's the dress I've selected for the party.  It's by Chanel.  This neckline is perfect to showcase my necklace. 

I am ready to step out into the night ...

and trip the light fantastic!  (Photo credit- photomike07 at Flickeriver)