Picture of the Day

. Today was Mother's Day. My sister and I had lunch with my Mom at her nursing home. It was nice, we had our lunch and dessert and then we had presents.

I took this shot at lunch during a particularly silly moment.  I love this photo because my Mom is cracking up and so is my sister. Quite the candid moment.

Hope you all had a wonderful day with your families too!

Playing Hooky In Exeter

There's nothing more enjoyable than taking a Ferris Bueller Day off from work and spending it in a cool New England town. Actually, I did not have to feign sickness. I had a scheduled vacation day.

My sister was on vacation from school and my friend Karen also took a vacation day. We met at Karen's new condominium which is absolutely gorgeous and we headed to Downtown Exeter.

I, of course, needed coffee right away. I didn't have any coffee or breakfast before I left the house so we stopped at Ollie's for refreshment. They sell coffees and teas and breakfast and lunch items. They had toast on the menu. 2 slices of nice thick buttery hot cinnamon toast! I was in heaven, I split an order with my sister. It was as good as I had hoped it would be.

With full bellies, we walked around the downtown area. We stopped at Reminisce, one of my favorite shops on Water Street.  A bit of silliness ensued as we tried on hats. The shop owner demonstrated how this hat should be worn.

My sister preferred the red velvet with the black tuelle which resembled a veil.

Isn't this a cool way to display your jewelry? Just use suction cups to hang necklaces.

The storefront at Reminsce featured vintage dresses. The shop owner had lots of stories about her vintage clothes.

Don't you love wreaths made from sheet music? I'll take this mirror too.

Reminisce is a must see on your tour of downtown Exeter. We enjoyed our visit.

No trip to Exeter is complete without a stop at Art'NTiques and a visit with Charlie. Charlie is the owner of the shop's adorable rescue dog. I think he remembered me from my last visit. I called out, "Charlie".

And he came right to me. He must be saying to himself this is the crazy cat lady who also likes dogs.

If you enjoy rummaging this is the place for you. Luckily, I do enjoy picking.

We walked around to a few more shops and then it was 2:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We chose Sugar & Ice because they had sweet and savory crepes.

The shop was adorable and there was a wonderful selection of coffees and ice creams.

We were deciding on dessert when Karen saw frozen hot chocolate on the menu. She quickly proclaimed that she needed it.

I opted for the German Iced Coffee. The shop owner explained what it was to me. 2 scoops of ice cream and coffee. I had a scoop of belgian chocolate and one scoop of coffee ice cream. This was absolutely delicious and I am so trying this at home!.

My sister didn't want anything fancy and she decided on strawberry fields ice cream.

Exeter is participating in the Communitree Project for charity. So many of the trees were artfully wrapped with knitted items. This one was my favorite.

We were so fortunate to have a sunny day with moderate temperatures for our "fun day". We vowed that this will not be our last fun day of the year.  Both Karen and my sister have birthdays ending in a zero this year so I think there should be many more fun days scheduled in the near future.

An afternoon in Marblehead

I had an entire day off on Saturday. Well almost, I did a brief photo shoot for the Melrose Chamber of Commerce. Then I was free as a bird. I had lunch with my sister in Reading and then off I went to spend a little time in the lovely seaside town of Marblehead.

I drove straight to the beach. A few people had the same idea and I saw kids playing volleyball and people walking their dogs. The sunshine felt good and the smell of the ocean, well I love it!

The day was beautiful, a warm Spring day. It was rather chilly by the ocean so I didn't stay long.

These cuties were enjoying the day outside a florist shop. I just noticed the dog on the right could pass for a rabbit.

 Oh yes finally, it really feels like Spring! And everything is starting to bloom too. The seaside gardens were gorgeous.
                             

I snapped a few shots outside the florist shop Flores Mantilla. The owner came out to greet me. Probably because I had been talking to the dogs. She gave me a beautiful magazine about weddings. She had an ad in the magazine and she wanted to show it to me.

I love old typewriters so this one on display outside the florist shop caught my eye.

O'Rama's had  blingy jewelry that caught the sunlight.

I had a great time speaking with the owners of MacKimmie's. They sold scarfs, throws, blankets, and gifts in their shop.

I loved the entrance to their store. The front door was framed by apple blossoms. It was really lovely.

I love cozy blankets and throws. I have throws throughout my home. I usually buy inexpensive ones because of the cats. The kitties of course, take over the throws.

I have never seen such perfectly folded blankets! They certainly don't look like that in my linen closet! I bought a few gifty items but no blankets or throws. Kitty claws would ruin blankets such as these.

The owner of  MacKimmie's told me Haley's Market was a good place to eat but I was really just looking for coffee. Ideally I wanted to take a break ,and sit in a coffee shop by the ocean. Haley's was closed but I liked the sign in their window. I gave up on the coffee, most places closed at 5:00.

This house was pretty. The houses are close together in the historic section of town. Some are quite colorful and some have been updated considerably.

Many of the historic homes have signs like these displayed outside their doors. The original homeowner's name, date of construction, and occupation were listed.

I had a great time in just a few hours in Marblehead. I will return when I have more time to spend exploring.

My next post will be about another little daytrip I took, this time to Exeter, New Hampshire. Have a great week.

The Things I'll Never Forget

A little more than a week has passed since the bombings at the Boston Marathon. And there are so many things I will never forget.

I overdosed on television coverage. From the minute I heard about the bombings to the night of suspect #2's capture, I had been glued to my TV. Flipping channels on my remote from the local stations to CNN and Fox News. I had to know every detail.

The real time coverage of the shootout with police in Watertown was the height of my addiction. I stayed up until 3:30 AM Friday morning watching it. It was the closest thing to a real life episode of 24 I'd ever seen. Bombs and bullets in a sleepy suburb.

In the first few days after the attack, I noticed how quiet it was everywhere. People were watching the TV silently in coffee shops. People on the street not making a sound. Really what was there to say?

Until today, I did not even know who won the race. I wasn't even sure there was a women's winner. The race was stopped shortly after 2:50PM. The winners' victories had been stolen.

The heroic stories. Such goodness in this city. People running towards the explosions in order to help the gravely injured. The runners running straight to the hospitals to give blood. The volunteers who saved lives with their quick actions. And the hospital workers who took over where they left off.

The tributes at the Red Sox game and the National Anthem being sung by the crowd at the Bruins game. They sure brought me to tears.

The lockdown in the City of Boston- no subway, no trains, no taxis. A virtual ghost town for a day.
My own credit union had to close some of it's branches.

The beautiful town of Watertown which will be forever linked to terrorists. It was just unbelievable what went down there on Thursday night. As one news reporter said, "This is not Baghdad, we're in Watertown!"

A fallen officer's funeral which took place at my hometown church, the sight of my first communion and confirmation.

Five victims of the attack were from my hometown and they were all seriously injured. One grew up on the street where I live and I worked with his mother. Another is a realtor I know.

All of the dead were young people. Less than 30 years old including an 8 year old. I will never forget their faces. 2 beautiful women, an adorable child, a brave young policeman.

The tireless work of the local police, state police, SWAT teams, FBI etc. They worked around the clock to hunt down the suspects and keep everyone safe.

Mayor Menino who was recuperating from surgery on Marathon Monday, checked himself out of the hospital so he could be there for the city.

The governor who was always calm when reporting updates.  And the same for the Boston Police Commissioner. I love that man. He was so cool and professional.

The support from the entire country including personal emails to me from blog readers. It was very much appreciated.

I will never forget how anxious, sad, and terrified I felt. I know the sadness will last for a very long time. It will be hard to walk Boylston Street, knowing what terrible events took place there. It seems like ir was not that long ago that I had afternoon tea with friends at the Boston  Public Library.. Happier more innocent times. 

Today the funerals are over, the injured continue to recover and cope with their devastating injuries, Boylston Street is open again, the remaining suspects has been caught, and the rest of us try to move on. And we will, with time.

Boston, the day after

This is the cover of Sports Illustrated, the photo taken at yesterday's marathon. It's powerful and ugly and it makes me sad. I read a comment on a blog that said Bostonians are members of the terror attack club. NYC, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Boston. I hate it.

All was quiet today as the events of yesterday sank in. It's surreal. Everywhere I went I noticed the quiet. Really what is there to say? We don't know who or why.

I think we are all finding comfort in hearing the stories of all the good that was done yesterday. And there was a lot of good done yesterday. We should focus on that. There were some real heroes on Boylston Street yesterday. Yes, we shall focus on that.

Percy the poser

The sun was streaming in the living room windows Sunday morning and Percy was all cozy in his favorite chair. He looked so handsome I just had to do an impromptu photo shoot.

But then he got all shy on me. That's so rare, he's usually quite the poser. I guess he was just enjoying the warmth of that sheepskin rug.

Looks like the photo shoot has ended. What a brief session! Til next time, sweet dreams!

Dinner at Jolie's

My sister and I were invited for dinner at Jolie's house Thursday night. You may remember Jolie as the woman who throws fabulous Christmas parties. She graduated from high school with my sister and because of her connection with my sister,  Jolie has invited me to a few of her parties. Now we have become friends too.

I have to admit I was a little nervous about attending this dinner as Jolie very recently lost her sister Lori to cancer. I thought it might be uncomfortable. Let's just say I am the world's worst at comforting people who are grieving.

I remember Lori as a joyful, positive person who brought music to Jolie's parties. She was a gifted pianist and I always enjoyed listening to Lori's inhouse concerts at the holidays. Lori had many talented friends who entertained at Jolie's parties.

The above photo of Lori and my sister was taken in December 2011 at Jolie's Christmas party.

Well, the evening was actually amazing. Jolie, who said she wasn't on her game, certainly was very much on her game. She prepared an absolutely fantastic meal. It was beyond delicious and something I could not achieve on my very best cooking day.

We started with a mixed green salad with feta cheese and there was also fruit salad. Of course, I had both. In fact, I ate everything offered to me!

Then we had pecan encrusted chicken breasts. I am not sure what the sauce was but it was not a heavy cream sauce, It was deliciously light. We also had harvest grains, green beans and garlic bread.

Here's a closer look at the chicken. The dishes were so pretty too. Jolie thinks serving family style is not that pretty but I do.

My sister and I brought some Easter Petit Fours from la Patisserie bakery for dessert. Aren't they cute?

Jolie made cream puffs and she made the whipped cream immediately before serving them. They were so fresh and yummy. I had one but I clearly could have eaten more. I want these at my next party. Jolie sent us home with some of these beauties.

I should have mentioned that when we entered the house we were greeted by this little guy. Meet Buddy. He is a funny little guy. At first, we could not even look at him. If we did, he would run away. He was so frightened. It didn't take long before we gained his trust and he was sleeping at our feet.

Buddy was fostered by Jolie and her daughter Casey and then he went on to what was thought to be his forever home. The forever family had to give him up and now he is back with Jolie. He sleeps on Casey's bed at night, chews and steals her socks, rips up the bathroom rug and pesters his older brother, English Mastiff Morgan who is at least 8 times his size.

Despite his quirks, Buddy is a sweet, young dog and he is happy now. He has only been back a few weeks but he has settled in nicely.

Casey loves her puppy. She may act like he annoys her but you can tell when you seem them together that they love each other.

While Buddy was sitting in Casey's lap, my sister commented that she wondered if Buddy could fit in Casey's bag.

Casey brought out a bigger bag and sure enough Buddy fit in it and seemed to like it.  Don't worry no dogs were harmed  during this exercise.

We ended the evening with some chocolat. Casey made us a hot chocolate not unlike the drinking chocolate you find in patisseries in France. It was that good.

We had a wonderful evening. We had interesting conversations, we reminisced and we hatched some plans for the future. 

Thank you to Jolie, Casey, Morgan and Buddy. My sister and I had a delightful evening!