Hills Bay

This stretch of road on Gwynns Island is my favorite.

Wednesday, since I hadn't exercised since before Thanksgiving in a while and the weather was unseasonably warm,  I decided to go for a jog.

That's Deltaville off in the distance.

But rather than jogging down Beaverlett way where I normally go,  I decided to change things up and drove to Gwynns Island.

I'm a little bit bored with the Beaverlett route even though I have lots of options to take different roads.  I've never jogged on Gwynns Island before and there are lots of back roads that are infrequently traveled, perfect for a leisurely run.

Mouth of the Piankatank River

I parked the car at Tin Can Alley and jogged down to the campground, then down Gum Thicket Road, then down a few dirt roads and back to my car.

Only two cars passed me the whole trip, which was somewhere between three and four miles in length.

Both drivers waved.

Reason #99 I love living in Mathews.

Have a great weekend.

Edwards Creek

These were taken about two weeks ago from the public landing at Edwards Creek over on the island.

That would be Gwynn's Island for those who aren't familiar with Mathews County's very lovely island loaded with characters character and charm. My parents and I actually lived on Gwynn's Island when I was young, but that's a story for another day.

The day I drove over here, the bridge leading onto the island was open, providing a glorious opportunity to snap some photos of the bridge itself.  Next week I'll put up a few of those photos along with an explanation as to why the Gwynn's Island bridge recently made headlines in the Daily Press and the Gazette Journal.

Until then, enjoy these photos, one of which required some squatting deep knee bends; and another which required very close contact with the weather-beaten boards of the dock.

Weekend

This was taken from Gwynn's Island last spring.

Last night as I wearily plopped down to drum up a blog post, I decided to scan my Drafts folder, and this picture was sitting there waiting, without any words attached.

The pinks and purples in this photo instantly soothed me. Of course any glimpse of the water soothes me.

Hopefully it'll have the same effect on you.

Things are extremely insane busy here in the Chesapeake Bay Household. There's a whole lot going on, and reality TV show producers need to give me a call even though it's a tad crazy, life is good.  We have our health although we waved bye bye to our sanity, we have our sense of humor, and we're still on the right side of the ground.

In other words, it's all good.  (Or grand, as my grandmother would say.)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Gwynns Island Bridge

This is my favorite bridge in the world, and I've been over many.

Well, technically I've not been over many outside this country, other than a few in Spain, but you know what I mean.


The Gwynn's Island bridge has many faces and many moods, most of which are calm and tranquil. Definitely not in any hurry to do anything. Sort of like life around here, plodding along at its own pace, oblivious to what's going on in the real world.

The other night when the CB Children and I went for a little excursion, we spent a lot of time around this bridge. She really likes having her picture taken and, although slow, she is not beyond performing stunts to get your attention.

Below, she was pretending to open for a Coast Guard boat, but I know better.

She really just wanted her picture taken.


I've been trying and trying to get that bridge to frame Callis' Wharf just so, in the evenings to take advantage of the setting sun. Try as I might I just can't get it how I want it.


Guess that means more evening trips to the bridge.

Excellent.

Three Things

Welcome to Three Thing Thursday, which is where we share three things, however random or ridiculous they may be. Actually the more random and ridiculous the better, come to think of it.

Random and Ridiculous - that would make a great t-shirt or bumper sticker. I need to start writing these down...

Let's get it started.

1. Today's photos are brought to you courtesy of the Gwynns Island bridge at sunset. I cannot tell you how many dreams I've had about this bridge (as well as the Coleman, where I've almost died a thousand deaths). Somewhere I read that bridges represent relationships, so I suppose when you dream that the ground beneath you has given way and you're plummeting a million feet, only to be hurled into a cauldron of swirling current, you're dealing with a particularly troubled psyche relationship and probably can confidently cross that person off your Christmas card list.

How about that dream where you're at the bus stop and you get on the bus wearing your pajamas, or worse you're naked? Please don't tell me what that one means, I don't want to know but I have it at least once a week.

2. My darling babies (daughter, 11, and son, 14) are getting braces and now I'm officially broke and need a fourth job and the thought of anyone doing anything to their teeth is killing me. Even though it's for their own good, it kills me. I'm even overly protective when they tell me for the fifteenth time in a year they need to have x-rays.

3a. As of today, I am officially on vacation until Monday the 12th of July! This is perhaps the most fabulous sentence I've ever written on this blog. I'm not going anywhere on this staycation because I have to pay for braces and other things like food and electricity but will spend time making lists of things to do to prepare for Blog Fest.

3b. Since technically it's time off from the paying job, the kids are out of school, and I don't really have to do anything except breathe and feed a few or six cats, a vacation, instead of completing the tasks on the list, I will play on the internet until the wee hours of the night, sleep until 10 the next morning, drink wine in the orange juice glass and cereal bowl before five if I want, and make fun of Gustav the Killer Goose next door. To me that is a vacation. Truly.

Now it's your turn to share three things.

Remember the name of this blog the game: random and ridiculous.

Hunting

Yesterday morning I drove down to Aaron's Beach to see how The Green was coming along. In the winter, the marsh grasses and reeds turn brown and grey just like my hair everything else. When the green finally returns all is right with my world.

As it turns out, The Green has taken over most of The Gray, but these reeds have some more growing to do. Normally they're over my head, just like my laundry pile.

But today is not about laundry piles because if it were I'd be asking how it is humanly possible for there to be 4,685--and a half--white socks and nary a one matches. Or perhaps it's just more difficult to match 4,685 1/2 white socks when you are blinking back tears because you've never seen so many unmatched socks in your life.

No, rather than ascend Mt. Laundrest, today I am going on a Blog Hunt with Mathews Mark and possibly Bay Man, if he can make it off the island at all in time.

(Bay Man has his own pace--I'll call it on par with a periwinkle--as well as his own time zone over there. Although Mathews Mark and I are meeting at 8:30 a.m., that translates into 10:00 Eastern (not so) Standard Gwynns Island time. Hi, Bay Man!)

Anyway, Mathews Mark, possibly Bay Man and I are going on a Blog Hunt, which is not where we stalk blogs but where we search for places, things or people to blog about.

Based on what Mathews Mark has told me, there are some very exciting prospects lined up for this hunt, although with Mathews Mark I'd have enough to blog about in the first five minutes of conversation, which may or may not involve blow toads (see yesterday's comments).

Stay tuned early next week for the results of this Blog Hunt. I'll be off-line most of the weekend and it will take me atl least that long to download, then upload, the photos from today's escapades.

Hope your weekend is fantastic, devoid of unmatched socks and blow toads.

And now a few questions for you, even though this post was declared a laundry-free zone a few paragraphs earlier:

1. For those of you who are organized types, what is the secret to taming these beasts known as mismatched white socks?

2. How often do you do laundry?

3. From the clean clothes basket to the kids' closets and drawers - how does this happen? When I make them do it, they stuff the basket in a corner of their room, then pile dirty clothes on top of that, and then I end up inadvertently doing loads of already-clean laundry, which is truly the last indignity.