watercolor

I have overcome a lot of insecurities in the last 10 years. I don't know what the future holds, but I feel confident that I will be just fine. I love my life!

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November 1, 2010Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, tibbar, tibbar, tibbar. Have I got it right now, Meems?And now the countdown to Thanksgiving has begun. Although I suspect that some of my Gentle Readers are more interested in the H&M opening in Palm Beach on Friday... It is time to assess the china and silver, and see how many emergency trips we will need to make to Williams-Sonoma (which happens to be in the same mall as the new H&M). The gravy boat is fine, but one of the big, ancestral blue and white platters has sprung a big crack. Might have to wander south to acquire another. ...

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October 19, 2010The leaves hadn't all turned when I was in Connecticut last week, but there were glowing patches of golden radiance as we zipped around with Henry Clay, who had many appointments to keep. And then I kept getting turned around, ending up in New Canaan twice. Getting lost is an excellent way to see the sights! Visit Fine Art Daily and The Chestertown Spy to read more!

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October 18, 2010This is my new friend, Henry Clay. I was visiting Connecticut last week, and spent some time hanging in the dog park with Henry and his many energetic friends. We rambled around the fenced area, chasing tennis balls, sizing up our companions and their humans. The original 101 Dalmatians got that right. Everyone did have a slight family resemblance - except for the crazily marked Australian shepherd, with his bright blue eyes and wild ocelot spotting. His human was calm and quietly funny. Henry was always very swift, shot from canons, in the beautiful sunny and golden ...

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September 22, 2010The last day of summer!It is hard to go wrong with masses of beautiful, shiny fruits or vegetables. That's why well-arranged produce departments are always so appealing - with symmetry, color and balance.(Beauty and the inherent danger that plucking one piece from the middle will bring the whole display down in a loud, embarrassing, crowd-satisfying incident.) I bet these artichokes sold well on Saturday. And if you bought a Portobello mushroom at the West Palm Whole Paycheck on Saturday I hope you washed it well. I listened to a lululemon-clad blond stick mommy ...

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September 20, 2010Seemingly no computer woes! Hurrah!We escaped the bonds of suburbia on Saturday and ventured south to Palm Beach and the mercantile delights therein. We did a little window shopping, and here at Betsey Johnson saw a dress that the Pouting Princess would countenance. My, Betsey's designs have changed! When I was in high school and prowling Greenwich Village looking for second hand jeans and dance wear, I remember a shop featuring Betsey's wild (rubber) designs. It was just around the corner from Danskin, Earth Shoes and an Orange Julius. It's good to see that her ...

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September 15, 2010 - Hide quoted text - This is a familiar yard ornament for locals - although I bet you have never seen it in its naked, natural state. On Indian River Drive, just south of Walton Road, there is an intrepid artist, bent on entertaining us passersby, according to the season. We have seen this buoy painted up to look like a red and white fishing bobber, a Pokémon character, the Earth (with cloud cover) and even a jolly Santa. A Gentle Reader recently sent me a link to an article in the New York Times about the Wurman's house in ...

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September 14, 2010The War Lord thought that perhaps I was a little outspoken yesterday when I illustrated the folly of our neighbors. So today I am taking a higher road, and showing you the beauteousness of another neighbor's lawn ornaments. This house has a few objets d'art including a fabulous kinetic sculpture, but I would have been trespassing if I had gotten any closer. All are very nice, contemplative, tasteful and items to covet. (Of course, given the opportunity, our yard guys would mow over everything with their usual skill and abandon!)Happy birthday to Sidney! Visit my ...

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Best Beloved’s Black Bean and Corn Salsa 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 3 ears cooked corn, corn sliced off the cobs 2 large, fragrant tomatoes, chopped 2 bunches green onions, chopped Cilantro leaves, for garnish In a large bowl, mix together black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, tomatoes and green onion stalks. Garnish with desired amount of cilantro leaves. Chill in the refrigerator at least 8 hours, or overnight, before serving. Serve with chips, or as a relish for any grilled meat. Yumsters. Charles was enjoying the salsa more than he was talking with Camilla the ...

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September 9, 2010My friends at Food52 are having a competition this week for the best recipe for radishes, so I bought a flaming red bunch for experimentation. As as we imagine the summer heat waning and hope that Fall is upon us, these tasty little root vegetables could only invoke summer days for me. Sitting on my parents' back porch, quite possibly after having shucked some corn, I can remember eating cold radishes, plucked from a little Pyrex dish of ice water. Nothing fancy, no rosettes, just radishes with their tops and bottoms lopped off. With a dash of salt to tame the hot, ...

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September 8, 2010Fall is in the air. Well, at least we are enjoying the idea of Fall. The gardening season is winding down, and tomatoes are abundant and colorful. We flitted through the Green Market in Downtown Stuart on Sunday afternoon to get our week's supply of local produce. We managed to avoid the siren song of the fragrant, freshly-popped kettle corn - it is just no fun being a grown up, I must say. (We hustled down the street to the Pelican Café for an equally aromatic burger, so there are some compensations.)The relocated Crary House has been safely nestled next door to the ...

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September 7, 2010Today I am going to ease you back into the work week with something amusing. This is a vintage Citroën with the Manhattan skyline in the background. Very cute, don't you think?We had a nice little cook-out yesterday, and no, it wasn't a cook-in, Ellie. We sent poor Best Beloved out into the dripping rain to char burgers and brats, and then we sat in the surprising bug-free coolth at the outside table on the back porch and chowed down with an alacrity that one would not have suspected possible, considering how many Cheetos, chips and dips and home made corn salsa, ...

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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 the ...

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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 jays.Perhaps this is why ...

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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, while ...

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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 goodie ...

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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 was a ...

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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. ...

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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 left is ...

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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...

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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.

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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 Anna's firstgrandchild. ...

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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.

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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 if ...

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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 bread to the ...

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