Wednesday

Well what a special day this turned out to be as it was our oldest grand daughter, Ava's 5 th birthday. We started the morning out with cool temps and of course Chester crowing at 5'ish in the morning. After my quiet moments and a bowl of blueberries and a grapefruit I headed out on the bike for the rec. Brrr is was chilly as I rode out and it was so reminded me of a summer morning in the mountains. By the time I headed home a little after 10 it has warmed considerably and stayed in the middle 70's most of the day.

We had a good turnout for pickle ball , although we were missing a couple of our regulars but the play was fast and furious most of the morning and by 10 I had a good sweat going. I stopped off in the weight room to weight myself and wow I'm within a pound and a half of my goal. So I have another 3 weeks to achieve that before I give up my morning workouts on the pickle ball courts. Hopefully I can get in a little playing time this summer with some of my mountain friends, anyhow I'm thrilled of the weight loss, especially the spare tire.

I headed home after a quick stop at the library for new read which turned out to be very fascinating. Its titled COCKTAIL HOUR UNDER THE TREE OF FORGETFULNESS by Alexandra Fuller. Its a wonderful read with lots of history about southern Africa and her folks life there. A must read and she has several other non-fiction type books that speak of her childhood and growing up British with Irish roots. Amy and the kiddos didn't come for lunch so we had a salad early then Nancy drove her mom to several appointments. I sat in the back yard and read as it was just a fab day and was actually a little chilly in the shade.

 I piddled around with my garden pulling some weeds, feeding my seedling and transplanted a few marigolds of which I have close to a hundred. I've grown these from seeds from older plants and I want to cover my garden where I intend to plant tomato's next fall. Marigolds are a natural deterrent for nematodes which attack the roots of plants in Florida because the ground never freezes here. Marigolds help control these nasty little microscopic worms, anyhow I have some lovely plants and of course Ava and Sam love to pull the heads and shred them.

Nancy was making her dewisheous chocolate cake with white icing for Ava's birthday supper tonight at their house, she decorated it with a beautiful flower. I made the mistake of having a piece after supper and paid for it all night as I never slept due to the caffeine, oh well it did taste marvelous and that's the first sweets I've eaten in quite awhile(spare tire loss). Tyler grilled a couple flank steaks which Amy had in a wonderful flavored marinate for hours and along with baked mac and cheese, carrots and a salad we had a yummy supper. Ava was so cute as we celebrated her big day with lots of presents. Sam was there helping her open them as well and he sang constantly the happy birthday song. We stayed until just before 8 then headed home to watch the Rays win again over the Angels. I flipped back and forth and caught some of Survivor as those gals are ganging up on the men and voting them off, yikes!!! LATER