watercolor

September 3, 2010The Last All Request Summer Cocktail Friday of Summer...Snowy Mango Rum CocktailFrom Diane RafaelsServes one - but you know you should be generous, so do the math.Orange juice – 2 ouncesRum - 1 ounceMango nectar - 2 ouncesPineapple juice - 2 ouncesPour ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake until mixed.You can make a snow coat over the rim of a long glass with powdered sugar. To do this, you must wet the top of the glass with some fruit or tip it in juice. Then dip the rim of the glass in powdered sugar. Snow! Turn the glass right side up again, add ice. Pour ...

Read Post

Rabbit, rabbit!This is cranky week - if you are looking for sweetness and light, push on.Ostensibly, now that the Tall One has flown the coop, we should be able to sleep a little later in the mornings, at least on the weekends. I don't know why I persist in entertaining that fantasy, because about half an hour before sunrise, the boys in blue are at it in our back yard. "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" They screech, squawk, scold, yap and howl! They sit on the shepherd's crook and on the bird feeder heralding the upcoming morn. Shakespeare had larks, we have blue ...

Read Post

August 31, 2010I warned you that this was going to be my cranky week, so if you are expecting a light-hearted dog tale - push on to your next blog...This is an open letter to the woman out walking two dogs in Sewall's Point on Saturday morning - and you know who you are. You let go of the leash on your German Shepherd and thought it was perfectly acceptable to let it chase our aged cat, who was napping in the sun on his own front porch. You thought it was the neighborly thing to do when your one hundred-pound dog ran onto our porch, chased old Hoover through the front garden, ...

Read Post

August 26, 2010 Today we are back on track with the week's theme of oddities. We think the cats have noticed that the human head count has gone down - and maybe they are feeling a little insecure. For the past few nights both of them have corralled us in bed - and these are animals who loathe and avoid each other who are suddenly working in tandem. Given the suddenly cramped nature of the bed now, I prefer the love tokens that they have started to bring home. Mr. Mole was deposited in the driveway the other day; dead, fluffy and intact. (One of our gift givers usually vivisects ...

Read Post

August 25, 2010No oddities today because the stars would not align properly - today we are having an All Request Summer Cocktail submission because August 25 is National Whiskey Sour Day!Thanks to a Gentle Reader from Sewall's Point, for whom Whiskey Sours will forever be known as John Cheevers. John Cheever Whiskey Sour2 parts blended Irish Whiskey1 part fresh lemon juice1 part simple syrup2 dashes bittersShake all the ingredients vigorously over ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain andpour into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a maraschino cherryand an orange slice."It ...

Read Post

August 24, 2010More mysteries! These are Dragon Fruit, which retail at Publix for $3.99 each. I am sure my friends at Food 52 and Crimes Against Food would have all sorts of recipe ideas at their fingertips (or at least in their extensive data bases), but to an ordinary cook like me they look much too exotic and off-putting. The skin of the dragon fruit is a thin rind and the center of the fruit is made up of a red or white, sweet-tasting pulp. Thought to come to South America, it traveled to Viet Nam with the French and now is cultivated in tropical regions all around the world. ...

Read Post

August 23, 2010In our part of the world this is the first day of school! Hoooray! I have just heard the high school bus chug past, probably loaded with one or two freshmen who haven't figured out the system yet...I though this would be an excellent week to explore the odd and peculiar - things that have just stuck out and looked weird. This being Florida means I have a lot of material with which to work!I was hunting and gathering at Publix the other day when I saw these weird bananas. I don't think the illo gives an accurate sense of their size - but in the background on the ...

Read Post

August 18, 2010One of the windows at Fernandina's Fantastic Fudge. The shops in downtown are mostly housed in historic and architecturally pleasing buildings. There are a couple of independent bookstores, ice cream parlors, the usual T-shirt shops and lots of restaurants. It was a pleasant place which we ambled about while doing our best for the economy: several lunches, four ferry tickets, books, post cards, ice cream, a sun dress, scented soap...

Read Post

August 17, 2010This is part of the fishing fleet in Fernandina Beach. This was the view from our porch last week. It was an extraordinary place to sit and watch the world go by. The unionized dolphin showed up just before the sunset show every night, while murmurations of roseate spoonbills flocked to perches on nearby Rattlesnake Island. Sometimes we would turn around to look at the water only to see a city-block-sized cargo freighter gliding by! Just amazing.

Read Post

August 6, 2010It's All Request Cocktail Recipe Friday with thanks to Nancy Taylor Robson."Mine is a Pear Bellini I had in Edinburgh last year with one of mylongest-term (not oldest) dearest friends, Anna. Anna, who is Welsh, andI were roommates in a big old house of flats in London before either of uswas married. I was Anna's only bridesmaid and she would have been mine thefollowing year, except she was too pregnant to fly. I went over lastOctober to spend a week and we made a foray into Scotland's capital to buybooks and visit her daughter, who was about to deliver ...

Read Post

August 5, 2010Our Lady Abundance. In all her glory. She does not smile coyly, but rather goes about her business of pouring water in the middle of Historic Downtown Stuart in her skimpy little outfit with singlemineded determination. Brava! Don't forget about Hot Summer Nights tonight at Harbour Bay Plaza in Sewall's Point. It's your chance to mingle with some of the area's coolest artists, photographers and sculptors. Who knows who will be sitting at the Prawnbroker's outside bar? For more info visit www.martinarts.org.

Read Post

August 4, 2010The Good Cooks at Food52 are exploring plums this week. A perfect summertime snack. I can remember times in my childhood, sitting with a book in the wicker chairs on the front porch contemplating plums. It was probably easier to use a knife to cut one in half to remove the stone, but where would the fun be in that? There was lots of time on hand, and efficiency needn't always rule the day. And would one be ladylike about the disposal of the pit? Hardly. There is and unwritten front porch challenge about pit projectiles - points if you cleared the porch, extra points ...

Read Post

August 3, 2010An iconic eatery on the Indian River. Forget Rick's - everyone comes to Conchy Joe's. Even the Red Hots have had a memorable dinner here. This is where you bring out-of-town guests so they can get a snapshot of old Florida - with the demise of Kodachrome you had best stock up some colorful memories. Conchy Joe's drips with atmosphere and signs, fish nets, floats - and then there was the poster in the men's room that opened the Tall One's eyes! This is also a nice place for the locals - there is nothing like a tall cold beer while the little ones toss ...

Read Post

August 2, 2010We are back home - temporarily - here is a Stuart sight. I love this super secret pocket park at the east end of Osceola Street. I never see a soul here except for some fat, chattering squirrels and moody, introspective waterbirds. This is Kreuger Creek. You can sit on the bench and watch the tree rats scamper about, or you can walk down to the water's edge and peer through the mangroves at this little flotilla of sail boats. Bring your lunch.

Read Post

It's All Request Cocktail time!Neighbor Bob was the first Gentle Reader to send me a recipe for All Request Cocktails, and for this he will be receiving the original watercolor used in today's Fine Art Daily. If you want an original Fine Art Daily, send me a deelish cocktail recipe, perhaps with a little story so all the Gentle Readers will want to try it. This is the Annual Summer All Request Month. Get cracking!Champagne Cocktail á la BobIn a Champagne glass add a teaspoon of sugar and enough Angostura bitters to melt the sugar. Add a tablespoon of Grand Marnier or ...

Read Post

July 29, 2010Here was a missed opportunity, the Queen Street Grocery. Apparently it is the be all and end all - good local and organic foods, excellent crepes and wine! Who could ask for anything more? This should be a fixture in any downtown, a nice corner market where you can stock up on a few groceries from the CSA, buy a newspaper, have a coffee, catch up on the gossip and oh, maybe buy that nice bottle of wine for dinner. Their slogan is "Local Fresh + Organic Deliciousness." I just liked it for the beauteous "Q" on their window. People who get the typography ...

Read Post

When you go to Charleston you must tear yourself away from the glories of the gardens and window boxes and your new friends, the gardeners. You simply have to visit Blue Bicycle Books at 420 King Street. The facade is narrow, but the shop itself telecopes and extends magically back from the street for miles! The Tall One and I had to make two visits because we were overcome with Stendahl's Syndrome after the first go round: the sheer number and array of books was too much for us.We had a restorative lunch at The Pita Pit (351 King Street) another little, narrow, crooked-fence ...

Read Post

July 27, 2010Double secret probation bird's eye view of a garden on Meeting Street.I imagine this is the what the Tall One might have seen (had he stirred himself from bed, early one morning during our Charleston trip) strolling up Meeting Street. Once again it was just me and the gardeners and a few people scurrying off to their jobs. It was too early for the horse drawn carriages and rubber-neckers, so I found lots of almost-legal places to park as I wandered. Two Meeting Street has architecture that challenges my liberal arts college art history training. The Calhoun House has ...

Read Post

July 26, 2010 This is the Charles Drake house at 50 South Battery. The garden echos the strange melange of architecture: Sweet potato vines! Colonial Revival! Shocking pink crape myrtle! Queen Anne! Asparagus fern! Arts and Crafts style!Heavens to Betsy, this house has it all. Circa 1890, it is a veritable newcomer to the neighborhood. The Drakes eclectic tastes called for a stone foundation with a paneled, shingled and clapboarded second-story. There is a porte-cochere, an arched arcade and curved windows, interior and exterior shutters, gingerbread, columns, capitals, balustrades ...

Read Post

July 23, 2010It's Food Friday!I am always eager to conduct serious field research in pursuit of the best bar burgers to be had and Charleston offered up one of the best at 39 Rue de Jean. The menu at this French bistro offered many more tantalizing and sophisticated food stuffs (read: seafood) with excellent service and ambiance. And no, not one of those fussy places with brass and potted plants. The wait staff was swift and efficient - and I loved the carafes of water on the table, and the big gleaming silvery mirrors which increased the size of the room and let us obsserve (and ...

Read Post

July 22, 201040 Tradd Street, circa 1718In case my Gentle Readers were under the impression that all of Charleston is ablaze with vulgar or un-neighborly pigments, I wanted to show you the tasteful restraint of the current residents of 40 Tradd Street. The deep purple of the petunias is echoed in the shadows behind the periwinkle blue shutters. Cool, calm colors on this side of Tradd."John Bullock or his widow Mary built this two and one-half story house c. 1718. Col. Robert Brewton sold this property with the house on it in 1752 to Daniel Badger."Charleston County Public ...

Read Post

July 21, 201032 Tradd Street, circa 1790 (eight years younger than Washington College)An interested reader wrote to tell me yesterday that after Hurricane Hugo ripped through Charleston in 1989 workers from Ireland were brought in because only they had the expertise to repair the roofs. “Historically, many roofs on Charleston houses were wood shingle. Because of the many fires that plagued the city, this roofing material was outlawed by city ordinance. After Hurricane Hugo in 1989, many metal roofs peeled back to reveal the early wood shingles ...

Read Post

July 20, 201017 Tradd St. c.1750. On the corner of Bedon's Alley.One of the houses on Tradd Street as recommended by Mr. H. Number 17 is austere, dignified and restrained. The flowers in the window boxes and the planter are white, mirroring the white crape myrtle trees in the street. One imagines the residents of Number 17 wear crisp, pressed garments and never speak in anything but full sentences, with few contractions or meaningless pauses. Fountain pens, never ball points. IMs? How vulgar!"Tradition says Tradd Street was named for Robert Tradd who supposedly was the first ...

Read Post

uly 19, 20108-10 Tradd StreetThe Lamboll Double TenementI was strolling up the East Battery one morning, before all the tourists mobbed the place, smug because I had snagged a legal parking place. I was enjoying the relative quiet - the only other people around were gardeners who were tending their tidy gardens, some with hoses and clippers and one perfectionist with a weed whacker and a patch of grass that refused to conform itself to his pictured ideal.I wandered off the main road and was tiptoeing along Tradd Street when I had an encounter that usually only happens in gauzy movies ...

Read Post

July 16, 2010It’s Food Friday!No recipes this week – as we were not concerned with cooking last week – just consuming all the best foods we could find in Charleston. We had a splendid time at Hank’s. Yumsters. I had the fried chicken and it was quite simply the best I have ever eaten. The chicken was boneless, crisp and crunchy and sweet with the tang of buttermilk and fresh pepper. Had my grandmother come from Charleston I imagine she would have fried up batches of this chicken. It came with garlic mashed potatoes (also divine) and collards (which I moved ...

Read Post

July 15, 2010The Preservation Society of Charleston has made life so easy and convenient for people like me who mill around the streets without maps or guidebooks. (Yes, I did have the Google Machine in my pocket, but generally used it for terse texts to keep track of Tall Boy and his World Cup issues.) Here is another stunning window box display, set off by the boldly orange paint of Major Peter Bocquet’s Georgian architecture. The symmetry of the planting is nicely bracketed by the dual gas lights. Charming and clearly labeled. This is what the Historic Marker says:Major ...

Read Post

July 14, 2010This was just the beginning of my pilgrimage through Charleston’s wonderful world of window boxes. I managed to tear away from Best Beloved and Tall Boy on the first afternoon in Charleston. They set me down on King Street, where the first store I stumbled into was this divine antique shop, Jack Patla Antiques. I love garden ornaments. I have three wrought iron garden chairs I liberated from the side of the road a few years ago, and a concrete cherub astride a dolphin which once poured water in a Sewall’s Point fountain and now stands on a plinth on our back ...

Read Post

July 13, 2010Best Beloved and Tall Boy and I spent last week in Charleston, SC. Ostensibly I was doing my usual serious and productive field research with the Tall One as my companion and cohort in crime, and Best Beloved was attending a fishing tournament. The reality was that we wandered around in the Charleston heat, looking at the many beautiful buildings and flowers and historic sights –while constantly thinking about our next meal. We had many, many meals which were so deelish – Tall Boy kept pronouncing each one the best he had ever eaten! How is that possible? Anything is ...

Read Post

Strawberry Daiquiri5 large, fresh or frozen whole strawberries 1 tablespoon lime juice 1 teaspoon sugar 2 ounces of rum ½ ounce triple sec1 cup crushed ice Blend 10-20 seconds and serve in a chilled cocktail glass. Charles and Camilla are not sure about the Fourth of July. Sometimes Charles gets a little sniffy about those upstart Colonials. Silly Charles. Usually he is mollified after a daiquiri or two, and he does hull the strawberries nicely, and without being told. Camilla is rooting around the laundry room looking for the chairs we are going to take to Downtown Stuart ...

Read Post

July 1, 2010Rabbit, Rabbit!It's official - Patty has moved Gumbo Limbo into its new digs on Osceola Street. Tall Boy and I stopped by yesterday to inspect the bright and airy space, which should be packed with eager shoppers during tonight's Stuart Stroll. Another option for tonight is a new venue the Arts Council is sponsoring - an extension of First Thursday, called "Hot Summer Arts" held at Harbour Bay Plaza from 5:30 until 8:00. We don't have to wait for season to enjoy art, music, photography, food and wine. Visit www.martinarts.org for more info!

Read Post

June 30, 2010Hoover was not the least bit happy with yesterday's Fine Art Daily. My interpretation of his vision of the sacred watering hole was limited and pedestrian. I did not apprehend the full scope of his appreciation of the dynamic that exists between him and his surroundings. Here, with a little prodding, and some swipes at my pen, is what Hoover's pool of water really looks like. A temple-like setting much more befitting a cat of noble birth, with cool, dark areas where he can assess the neighborhood. (I think he has pool-envy - the cat next door's pool has been ...

Read Post

June 29, 2010This is the swimming pool - but from Hoover's point of view. No dragonflies this morning. Roxanne is still in the house. I think I'll lie on the chaise for a while. It's quiet. It's good.

Read Post

July 28, 2010It is going to be another scorcher, but that's OK because there is relief in the back yard. We bobbed around the pool several times this weekend, far away from the computers, the TVs and the iPhones. The mosquitoes did find us after a while, but we splashed them away languidly, and pushed off the wall for another lazy lap through the broth-warm water. Have you visited the Spy Osprey Cam lately? Those young birds have gotten big and adventurous. Mama O looks beside herself some days, keeping the two from falling out of the nest. She needs a nice swim in the river, and ...

Read Post

June 24, 2010It's Food Friday!Roasted Corn1 stick butter, melted1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice1/2 teaspoon lime zest1/2 teaspoon sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro12 ears fresh corn, shuckedCombine the butter, lime juice, lime zest, sugar, salt, and cilantro in a medium bowl and mix well. Grill the corn on a medium-hot grill for 10 minutes, turning occasionally (use tongs so you don't suffer like Charles does!). Transfer the lime-cilantro butter to a serving bowl and serve with the corn. Before grilling the corn, soak the unshucked corn in water. ...

Read Post

June 24, 2010It has been HOT! If you take your dog out for a walk, be sure to stop by the Arts Council. Across East Ocean Boulevard from the Court House Cultural Center there is a thoughtful shopkeeper who has put out this double water bowl for strolling pups. So Palm Beach!Tomorrow night at the Court House is the opening of the Thomas Winter/Robert Holland photography show. The reception starts at 5:30. Visit www.martinarts.org for more details.

Read Post

June 23, 2010Here is a little coolth for everyone. Although the water was as warm as the bath, it was a relief to paddle around in here the other night. (I had planned on a little swim last night, too, but it decided to rain.) And I did not indulge in the Prosecco - I think we will leave that until Friday. Chardonnay did the trick as we swam a few laps, watching the birds, wondering where the high-flung planes were flying, checking on the progress of the moon, and laughing at Hoover, who could not quite overcome his amazement that we were sullying his sacred watering hole. Visit ...

Read Post

June 22, 2010Summertime delights abound! We threw together a delightful concoction of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, topped with whipped cream and crispy little Pirouline sugar wafer cookies for dessert the other night. The berries were room temperature, so not quite as delicious as the sun-warmed berries I remember picking as a child when we lived on Strawberry Hill. But that is a memory too powerful to overwhelm; ask Monsieur Proust about his madelines. Although I must say that I did not encounter any thorns this time... Visit my Fine Art Daily blog , and come see my ...

Read Post

June 21, 2010Happy First Day of Summer! How unfortunate that the longest day of the year falls on a Monday! Make the best of it. Come home early, eat leftovers, loll in the pool, watch the birds fly home from work and then enjoy an old movie. That's what Best Beloved and I are doing tonight. We have queued up King of Hearts from Netflix and have Chris's special chicken salad marinating in the fridge. There's a bottle of Prosecco already chilling... Visit www.jeandsanders.blogspot.com to read more Fine Art Daily. Visit www.chestertownspy.com to read the latest news from ...

Read Post

June 17, 2010Just in time for Ascot! Here's Viv, showing her inimitable style, but protecting her anonymity, at Kemble's Interiors. Beside having chic bobs and bits for the home, they have a fabulous array of colorful straw hats. We just need a legitimate reason to jet over to England this week! Surely the Queen would like to spend an afternoon with us. She would enjoy French "75"s. Gin and champagne - two of her favorite beverages, rolled up into one!http://kembleinteriors.com/Happy Birthday to Kyle!

Read Post