Shades of a Summer Picnic on a Winter's Day

one of the nearby creeks this morning

  

      Wow. It had been nine days since anyone from our household ventured into town.  There is still snow here - especially on the secondary roads where we live.  But the Jeep made the trip just fine.  Actually, I probably wouldn't have made the trip today, but I had to have routine blood work done... So, I waited until 10 AM, hoping for some thawing,  and went to the hospital  lab, then on to the grocery store. It was kind of exciting going into town, seeing other people - including a dear neighbor of ours - finding town quiet but intact.
  

a friend's house, about a mile from ours...

      It was great going to the store and buying the few things we needed and a couple things we merely wanted... I bought cabbage and carrots - plan on making cole slaw this afternoon to go with the chicken I plan on broasting in the dutch oven.  Yummy - shades of a summer picnic on a winter's day.  I also got Moshe some cream so that he can make ice cream.  (I don't usually eat ice cream, but, if he made chocolate  ice cream, I would really, really, really like to taste it!)   Hmmm... maybe I should make some potato salad.  Wouldn't it be FUN to have a picnic?

                   

 ...But NOT on this table!!!

Shalom Y'all - Twyla  

 

An Earth-shaking Trip to the Beach

     Yesterday we went to the beach.  It was a beautiful, cloudless day. A bit cooler than the last time we went, we didn't bother to float on our rafts, but greatly enjoyed sitting in our beach chairs with our feet in the water, feeding the fish and the ducks. The fish and ducks know our voices now, and quickly come to greet us... they're not dumb... they know we feed them every time!

   The ducks were up at the edge of the parking lot when we arrived, and Moshe got some photos of them following me down to the beach.  They are shameless little beggars!  They not only recognize our voices, they know the sound of me opening a sleeve of Ritz crackers - their favorite!
     We've noticed that Mama Duck stays further away from her five babies... I guess she is getting ready to release them;  they are bigger than she is!
Summer is so close to being over.  I will miss all our little friends from nature.  I hope they will remember us next year...

     So, anyhow, we were sitting in the water in our beach chairs, when we noticed a bizarre occurence.  Moshe and I both saw it at the same time... the waves on the beach started going backwards.  This continued for about a minute, maybe two... Neither of us had ever seen such a thing before.  Moshe spoke
what I was thinking - earthquake. 
     Well, so far as I know, nobody here in our little mountain town felt the earth move or heard their china rattling... Nevertheless, I looked on an Internet site which traces earthquake activity, and there was an earthquake  on the New Madrid Fault within minutes prior to our experience.  Wow!

 
      What we experienced is called a seiche - an oscillation of a body of water caused by the movement of the ground or underground from an earthquake.
     The photo to the right is of the part of the beach where we saw the backwards waves. Absolutely
fascinating to see such an unusual sight, but, I think it's enough earthquake activity for me!!!

             Shalom Y'all,   Twyla