I'm Alive!

Hello again!  

After a long hiatus, I'm attempting to resurrect this little space I used to love so much.  So here's a few things I've been doing in the last few months (in pictures).

June 2015: I moved!  I left my darling adopted city of New Orleans and replanted myself in Athens, Georgia. 

July 2015: I got a cat!  This is my sweet Miss Mabel Simmons.  

August, 2015: I started grad school!  I'm studying Landscape Architecture here at the University of Georgia, and now my days are filled with things  like this....

 September 2016:  Thanks to school schedules, I got to spent a few quality days on lake time.  

October 2015:  Made a quick trip home for the weekend, and got to see my platonic lover.  The best part of being in Athens?  We're less than 5 hours from each other!

November 2015:  This one came to visit me in Athens.  At home for Thanksgiving, the brûlot tradition continues.

December, 2015:  I finally got a break!  I didn't realize quite how exhausting the semester was until I was finished.  I got to be home with my family on Christmas for the first time in two years, and I was so incredibly happy.  Charleston had some fantastically wacky weather, but it was so moody and beautiful I couldn't complain too much. 

 

January 2016: A spot of cold weather.  There was snow in Athens!  Lots of kumquats from the tree in Charleston. 

 

February 2016: I celebrated Mardi Gras in style even though I couldn't be back in New Orleans for it.  It seriously took every fiber of my being to go to school the Friday before Mardi Gras, and even once I was on the bus to class, I was considering staying on past my stop until it took me back to my apartment.  

  

March, 2015:  I got to head back to the Crescent City for a whirlwind spring break trip.  Oh how great it is to be back in school...

 

April, 2015:  This sweet man gave a tour of campus to my class on our very first day in August.  We were both a little shy at first, but now I can't imagine my life without him.  Here he is celebrating a new decade with one of his favorite foods: tater tots.

And here is his constant companion, the ever hungry Chester.  

 

 And now I'm preparing to head home to Charleston and spend some quality time with some of my favorite people in the world:

Strawberry Season

I had the good fortune to be born in early May.  Why is this such an auspicious time of year, you may ask?  Strawberries.  The fruit of the gods, in my opinion.  My birthday cakes were always either cakes festively decorated with strawberries, or actual strawberry cakes, with the exception of one rather devastating year 8th birthday.  That was quickly remedied the following year when my 9th birthday party was held at the strawberry patch. 

It was with great relish that I managed to squeeze in a strawberry picking trip this season.  Things never quite worked out for all of April, but I finally managed to do it today - just in time for my birthday!  We drove out to a field just bursting with some of the best strawberries I've ever tasted.  I'm very sorry South Carolina, but Louisiana clearly has you beat on the strawberry front.  There's just something about that Mississippi mud.  Every, single berry we picked was at it's peak, and they weren't even small, scraggly, picked-over berries.  It was like no one had touched the fields in a week!  Delicious! 

 

The day's haul.

After a long drive and some time in the sun, we rewarded ourselves with fried catfish at Middendorf's.  

They have a cute dock at Middendorf's with all sorts of maritime things that made me miss home a bit.  The only thing they didn't have was the salt in the air.  

 

I missed the big action with my camera, but this guy was devouring a bug while we watched.  You can see that he still has his mouth full.  

Coming Up Roses

The city is finally coming to life again.  The smell of jasmine lingers in the air, and roses are bursting into bloom on every corner.  These particular beauties are across the street from where I work.  I've spent spent many a quiet moment in the store daydreaming about the day when I can grow beautiful roses like these in my own yard. 

As the newest buds are about to burst into life, the old blooms crumble at the touch.  I tried to take one home last night, but it was a lesson in fleeting beauty.  You just have to appreciate the moment. 

We mustn't forget that these are the ones that make all this beauty possible. We need to do everything in our power to protect them.  I'll start by planting more flowers and eating more organic food.  What will you do?

The Botanical Gardens at City Park

Last week at the botanical gardens:

 

«Processed using VSCO for the iPhone»

 

«In the Japanese Garden»

  

«Stunning cacti and succulents»

«Fern wall (above and below) processed using VSCO for the iPhone»

«Orchids and bromeliads»

All photos taken with my iPhone. 

Swamplandia

Tuesday came with beautiful sunny skies and nearly perfect temperature - still a tad on the cool side (for those of us with Southern blood), but warm once you were moving around.  It was the perfect day to get out of the city.  Off we headed into the wild swamp lands of Jean Lafitte National Historic Park.  

We clearly weren't the only ones who noticed the sun; the reptiles were out in full force.  We must have seen at least ten snakes on our short hike, and a more than a few gators.  One of them was at least ten feet long, with a head almost the size of my torso!  Had he been sunning on our side of the bank like the others, I don't think I would have been able to walk past him.  Those creatures are so primitive and terrifying!

Spiderwort 

« Tradescantia ohiensis »

Butterweed against palmetto.

« Senecio glabellus against Sabal minor. »

Indian Fall

Today is unseasonably cool here.  Only 83º, with a lovely breeze, and almost no humidity.  In fact, it's so lovely that believe it or not, I am sitting on my balcony right now typing this.  In the shade of course, but the point is that I am voluntarily spending extended amounts of time outside and I am not sweaty.  It feels like fall, and I'm remembering why I love this city so much.  On a day like today, there's nothing better than a little aimless wandering to the sno-ball stand. 

Chocolate cream and frozen mint: an unfailing combination.