Yearly Archives: 2025

………………….This morning I met my friend Lou for breakfast at 7:00am. I had a goat cheese omelet with bacon and Rye toast. Lou had scrambled eggs and bacon, also with Rye toast….I had errands to do, so I headed right out. First stop the post office. I have been told to NEVER put my mail in a post office box on the street, or even in front of a post office! Thieves can fish them out, and with a certain liquid pen change the names on checks and cash them! So now I go into the post office and leave my mail…..Next stop the grocery store…..We are suppose to have consecutive days of high temperatures in the 80s and 90s….I really don’t want to cook, even with the air conditioner on, so I’m making a huge cold summer salad that will last a few days…..Lettuce, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, white and red beans, Italian tuna, artichoke hearts, red beets, some tortellini salad that I bought, new potatoes, chunks of feta cheese, and whatever else I have in my new refrigerator. You can come up with your own favorite choices……..Now to the point of the post!…..After putting everything away, and boiling my eggs, I headed up to my 2nd floor office. I put on the air conditioner, and was about to close the windows….when……….I saw these two birds perched on my car! I had never seen these birds before? I think that perhaps they were babies, and their feathers haven’t changed yet?…..Baby egrets???….To ALL of you bird watchers….if you know what they are let me know…..They were very funny just standing there, and one turned to face me as if it new I was taking its’ picture…..photo upper middle.

………………….This morning I got up at my usual “crack of dawn”…..but the seagulls were nowhere to be seen…..strange?….I went down to the kitchen, made myself a cup of ORANGE SPICE tea, and went out to sit on my rocking chair to look at the water….To my surprise I heard voices….lots of voices….When I got outside there was a flotilla of KAYAKS and PADDLE BOARDS going by…..and I mean lots of them!…..I thought this must be a club or some sort of event due to the fact that there were so many….at least 100…….It’s a beautiful morning, and they looked and sounded like they were having a wonderful time…….I was happy to sit in my rocker and just watch them! I’ve tried a kayak before, and honestly….it hurt my back! I could just never get comfortable……I watched them row and paddle by until they were out of sight…..I wondered where they came from and where they were going?…….a mystery never to be solved…….but it was a nice way to spend the early morning….sipping my tea and watching all of the people go by.

…………….This is a follow up post on my “FISH and PALM LEAF” jewelry……..These were very early crude sketches I made on the beach in Barbuda, in a small sketch pad, for my Anne Klein Collection of resort jewelry….I wanted to quickly jot down my ideas on paper. By the end of the trip the sketch pad was full of sketches……When I got home I started to refine each piece, and developed a variety of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and belts….It took a few months to completion….but it was well worth it, as all of the final pieces were very successful.

…………………Sometimes it’s the “simple things” that bring you happiness!……On Weds., literally at the crack of dawn, the light from the rising sun was already streaming through my bedroom windows, and the seagulls were making a riotous amount of noise…I knew there was no way I was going back to sleep….so I got up….I went downstairs to the kitchen and thought I’d make myself a PROTIEN DRINK….The sunlight had already filtered through the kitchen so I didn’t turn the lights on…I made my way over to the refrigerator to get some ice…As I stood in front of the refrigerator my bare feet became soaking WET!!!…I thought what the —- is THIS! I turned the light on, and the entire floor from the frig to beyond the sink was a pool of water! I put an enormous amount of paper towels down to dry it…Then I opened the refrigerator door to get some ice…I had been having on and off trouble with this appliance, but kept biting the bullet and holding off on getting a new one….The ice container inside the door was EMPTY…It had been full the night before. Now it had all melted and melted ice was all over the floor. I had to wait to call John, my repairman because it was very early….so I thought I would turn the air conditioner on so it would be cool upon his arrival….but….it wouldn’t go on!!!…What the HECK was wrong now!…Then I realized the entire refrigerator was warm, so I thought I would go down stairs into the basement and check the circuit breakers….but the lights to the basement wouldn’t go on!!! Then it finally dawned on me I had lost power overnight and everything was off….My phone rang and it was the power company with a voice recording notifying me trees were down and lines were broken. Crews were out repairing them and the power would be on shortly….and it was……That explained a lot….BUT….WHY DIDN’T MY HUGE GENERATOR KICK IN???? Finally John came over and told me the refrigerator was done after 12 to 15 years. I wasn’t sure how old it was. He said they make them these days to last only that long! I told him I had a refrigerator/freezer in my basement that was my MOTHERS, and it was still working fine!!!…I couldn’t even guess how old it was…I only knew it was VERY OLD!…”Well, they don’t make them like they used to”, was his reply….so off I went to my appliance store where I have bought all of my appliances….John recommended a Kitchen Aid or a Frigidaire…..The KitchenAid was highly recommended by the salesman, and it was the exact size as my previous frig, so I knew it would fit perfectly…Even though the outside measurements were the same as my LG refrigerator…somehow the inside of the new refrigerator is much roomier???….I had to wait until Thursday for a delivery…I could live with one day…In the mean time I called my generator service people and told them my generator didn’t go on….They too came on Thursday, but since the power to the house was working I wasn’t in a rush…..On Thursday Teresa came to clean the house, and the two of us emptied the refrigerator….keeping what we could and throwing out the rest….I still had a large piece of my Lemon Cheesecake, but sadly that got tossed!….I even through out the newly bought eggs, even though in Europe they never refrigerate eggs….I thought better safe than sorry!….First, the generator guy came and checked it all out…and it WORKED!….I said , “well it didn’t work when my power went out, and I’m sure of that because I was here!”…..He said it was an “ANOMALY”….I had to tell Teresa what that meant…..basically a MYSTERY that couldn’t be explained….There was nothing for him to do because now it worked?……..Finally, these two HUGE Russian guys came to take away my old frig, and install the new one. Teresa couldn’t believe how big they were, and frankly neither could I….They were very nice, and very careful, and in no time at all I had a KNEW REFRIGERATOR…..and it was working beautifully…He also installed a new copper water line, because he said my line was VERY OLD, and that I knew to be true….Since they were already here, I said to go ahead and install the new line….If I had to call a plumber…it would have cost me even more money than he was about to charge me, and who knew when a plumber would come over!?……I gave them both a very nice tip……….Sometimes……it’s the simple things that can make us HAPPY!….and my NEW REFRIGERATOR MADE ME VERY HAPPY………at least it will take another 12 to 15 years to need to replace this one!!!

…………………For many years Jac and I rented a beach front house on Fire Island…..For those of you who are unfamiliar with Fire Island it is an island that runs parallel to Long Island. It is considered a “barrier beach”, and protects the coast of Long Island from more damage than it already gets during storms and hurricanes….Fire Island is extremely long….32 miles, and at some points quite narrow. There are many different communities along the island that are separated by dunes and even natural forests, where people have homes. The beaches are some of the BEST IN THE WORLD….beautiful fine sand and the Atlantic Ocean…….Jac and I were sun worshipers!…..Our favorite vacations were lying on a beach in the Caribbean….Jac usually under an umbrella!…jac was always protective of her skin and wore tons of sun block, but I was the teenage who mixed iodine with baby oil and slathered it on…..I guess her delicate Belgium skin was a lot different than my Italian hide!……..Those were the days!…………The marvelous DAYS OF SUMMER!!!