Summer 2022

Heading North for the Summer 

Just want to see the summer 2022 photos ....... click here 

I decided that the 17 hr drive to Salem NY - thru DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, was pushing my limit at 73 so I flew Zac down to help with my drive up. I will definitely repeat this the next time I plan on driving up - It was so nice not to be so tired and tense for 2 straight days. 

 

 Besides Zac doing a few of my "Honey Dos" while he was home, he did find some time to enjoy the beach with his friend, Aaron, from Charleston SC. 

We stopped driving after about 12 hours and stayed at Megan and Chris's House in Lincoln University PA 

We safely arrived in Salem in time for Lucy's Graduation. She will be attending College of Charleston (I am hoping for visits)

Katrina, Lucy, Milo

After graduation  - celebration dinner ! 

Katrina and Zac are still working on expanding and improving their VT house. Zac is turning an old garage into a bedroom.  He has removed the slate roof, fixed the damaged parts of the roof and has gotten the framing done -- Now they are just waiting for an electritian to do his part. I am so impressed with all the construction Zac has the skills to do - I sure as hell didn't teach him. Before I finally bought myself a tool box - I would use a shoe or book as a hammer ..... All single women should have a toolbox to avoid the shame of using a shoe as a hammer or a knife as a screwdriver. 

For one day I helped Katrina scrape and paint two walls of their house. Katrina picked a color I would have never picked but it really looks good.

Activities at SAW (Salem Art Works) 

There is always something interesting going on at SAW - Summer started out with "Music on the Hill". Lots of locals, kids, food and beer trucks.

Then the artists start arriving  - The first group to arrive were the college art majors that are 2 month residents. They live on campus, work for the rm and board and then create their projects during their free time. This group seemed to really like Zac's foundry section- so almost every week there was either an iron, bronze or aluminum pour.   

Aluminum pour

SAW also had a grant that funded a 2 week stay for some VT & NY area artists.   Local Salem teens also had a day program.  They were shown and/or experimented with blacksmithing, stone carving, painting, welding, pottery, and glassblowing. In August "Salem 2 Salem" - the Germany/US artist exchange program arrives.  Since I returned to Georgia at the end of July, I will sadly miss this fun artistic group.  

NBOSS - North Bennnington Outdoor Sculpture Show

It was the 25th year of NBOSS - Zac has participated in a lot of them since he received his Masters from Bennington College. He actually won an award last year and was interviewed by Vermont Public Radio. (Sorry moms have to brag at some point in time) This year I got to watch the de-instillation of the 2021 sculptures and the instillation of this years entries. Gary, Anthony and Zac, our three artists from SAW all had large pieces to enter into the show. Interesting day !

March - iron flag - beginning of his sculpture

June - Finished sculpture 

In with the new and out with the old 

Peter Lumberg - one of the artists that has a lot of his large cement/steel sculptures at the SAW Park 

Gary's, "Birdbath", SAW artist and my housemate

SAW has 3 of Mark di Suvero's sculptures - This year they are repainting them 

Supportive Friends

Last September's death of Margie, has been hard on all of our group. Our group dynamics have changed but the caring and love is still there. I couldn't seem to shake the Margie blues' which was quickly noticed by my friends. They have been going out of their way to engage and get me to sluff off the blues.  The last 4 summers Margie had always come to Salem to visit - This year Paula, Maria and Mimi flew down to spent a week with me this summer. Don't worry I am very aware of how lucky I am to have such supportive friends. This type of caring is normal for this group. Sixteen years ago when I was in China and having a comparitively very minor blue period - Paula and Maria actually flew to Shanghai and Hangzhou to support me. Don't feel too sorry for them - they got to see a little of China and get some real nice deals on pearls!  Wow what friends........

2006 Shanghai and my cheerleaders !

Pushy Paula required me to develop an itinerary for their Salem trip, so I researched and made sure we did a variety of activities. 

22 - pick up airport  -"Hatties" lunch -Tavern dinner  & trivia (we didn't win)

23 -Lunch at SAW - Granville - slate Museum and Pember Library - The Barn for dinner

24 -Bennington VT -Mt. Equinox -Chocolate Barn - hotdog food truck - Northshire Bookstore - hardware store 

25- Boat ride Lake St Catheines - Wine bar 

26 Dorset farmer's market and Gardenworks lunch 

27 Chill day and Revolutionary War graveyard - Mimi actually found Moncrief gravestones- her mother's family name - Dinner with Katrina and Zac at the Dorset VT Barrow's House

28 leave for Albany airport 10:00

In my Salem backyard with Zac (and Gary's Porsche)

This is probably why we lost trivia that night -- too many Star Trek Questions ! All your fault Paul !

In North Bennington VT - seeing the NBOSS - outdoor sculptures

Scenic drive to the top of Mount Equinox 

Boat ride on Lake St Catherines 

Revolutionary War Graveyard 

Every morning we ate our breakfast on the front porch. We watched the birds and the 3 chipmunks (Chip, Dale and Mary) that hung around eating all the birdseed the bluejays would toss out of the feeder.  SO BESIDES the toolbox that all single women should have - make sure you also have wonderful supportive friends. Thank you girls! 

This one was Dale - recognizable because of his shorter tail. 

4th of July - Salem Parade 

 Please note that Salem is in the middle of farming/dairy land, which will explain the huge tractors and other items in the parade - might be another reason Zac moved here - he loved Tonka trucks when he was a kid.  

With all those artists - there are also lots of art openings. 

These were all done by Paul - the guy that made us lose our Trivia game with all the Star Trek Questions ... I may not like his questions but I enjoy his art.

Zac, Katrina and the dogs came to the opening too !

Quinn's 

This one was welded together by some of the teen day artists

Finally it was blueberry picking season - They were so plentiful I could pick 5-7 lbs in just an hour. Ava went with me one day. 

With all the young artists living in the area - there always seems to reason to throw a party...... Mid July - Zac had a little B-Sides party for the artists - on the "back 40" at sunset. 

Gary (besides all the work he does for SAW) managed to find some time to keep our toilet working, work on restoring a Morgan, catch a groundhog and captain us around on the lake. Thank you Gary for all you do. 

Quick visit with Mimi and crew.

Mimi and some of her family had driven up for a wedding. They were sort of meandering back home by way of upperstate NY, and Niagra falls. They stopped at SAW for a tour and an ice cream cone at the Creamery.   

Tom and Mimi

Joany and Paul 

  Glamping 

Paula's family - the Galland clan - is large and the family tree is way too confusing to explain. Being friends with Paula and Bob means I have traveled with most of the rest of the Galland clan at one time or another.  Steve and Lucy Galland have one of those fancy ass RVs and were camping at Lake George which is only about 40 minutes from Salem. They invited me to spend the night with them - so now I can say I have been "Glamping" and it was NICE ! 

First day we drove north to the Lake Champlain area - we stopped at a yummy apple store for a great apple caramel pecan pie and apple cider donuts. We stopped at Westport and had a nice picnic before driving to Crown Point State Park where we wandered around the old forts. Back to the RV then yummy steaks cooked on the grill which finished out our day. 

Next day was a boat ride on Lake George in one of the tourist boats. Makes ya want to win the lottery and purchase one of those fancy houses on the lake - but the tent camping did look like fun in the "narrows" area. 

Back at SAW - Katrina, Zac, Sarah and I celebrated my birthday with Bison steaks, kale and cupcakes. Then I flew home and picked up my real birthday present ........

I ordered my new Subaru Forester in February but by the middle of July it hadn't been delievered yet -- I was worried that I would be without a car for a while but 4 days before my flight I got the call from Todd, my sales guy, that my car had come in ! 

Winter 2021 Spring 2022

It's been a while since I have posted in my "Online Journal" - mostly because I knew the next thing I needed to document was Margie and Don's funeral - which I was avoiding. I think to live honestly I need to acknowledge both the ups and downs that life throws at you. So here is my acknowledgement - but I still miss Margie a bunch!

Don and Margie's Funeral doesn't seem like a easy post to write or read about. It wasn't and isn't - but I was able to recognize a few silver linings. Biggest was seeing how loved and appreciated they were by their family, friends, and coworkers. The funeral home and church were both packed.  Just sort of pisses me off that they weren't there to see that enormous showing of respect. I was thankfully kept busy by getting to host Margie's cousin, Eric and his friend Kate. For the last 3 summers Eric has hosted Margie and I at his lakeside house in Skaneateles NY so it felt good to be able to do something for Eric and Kate. 

Eric coveting Jason's decoys 

Kate and Eric -Side trip to Driftwood Beach - Jekyll Island 

Eric, Millie and Jason 

There was a family/friends gathering at Rainbow Island the night of the funeral. Music, drinks and good food really helped make the sad weekend end on a festive feeling that Margie and Don would have wanted. 

Margie and Don had so many antique collections in their SSI home. Quilts, egg cups, antique metal banks, irons, jugs, bottles, and on and on. So selling and emptying their house took a few months. Yoda, their cat, got a new home and our "girl" group made sure to purchase a few things that reminded us of Margie. I am now in possession of couple of egg cups (Margie had over 300), a metal bank, and Shirley Temple glassware. 

In October I drove down to St Augustine to visit Penny and Ted in their new house. Ted had gotten his friend, John (see photo below) who is used to driving large vehicles with lots of packages,  to help with the move and it was amazing to see how much they had accomplished in just a few days. My job was unpacking and hanging clothes ( I got the easy job ) Mary, Ted's mom, was their decorator. As you surmise from John's appearance he is very handy building and fixing things...... So Ted and Penny kept him around for a couple of weeks till John had to head north to deal with his other job.... During our breaks we explored the beach and local taco stand (best quesidillas ever). 

In mid October, four of us took a long weekend trip to Mimi's family home on Lake Hartwell. Beautiful weather, good food, and fun boat rides - only got a little lost. 

Finally after 2 years the Golden Ray wreck is finally gone. They lifted up the last piece, but they still had a few more vehicles and debris that they still needed to pull up from the bottom of the channel.  The pier view across the sound to Jekyll looks so much nicer.  

The VB 10000 that did the heavy lifting of that LAST piece

Last piece being towed away ! 

November - Zac's birthday and Thanksgiving motivated me to fly up to Salem NY for a short visit. One of his high school friends also showed up to the birthday celebration.

 I restarted my summer routine by climbing Cary Hill with Pearl and Jessica but I had the excuse to take a break because the snow arrived.  

So instead of trudging up the hill I decided to take photos of the SAW park's sculptures because they looked so different with snow covering and surrounding them. 

St Augustine - I had to see the 'new home move-in progress' so  I took another weekend visit to Penny and Ted's.  Mary and Mark were there too so we spent a day visiting the Fountain of Youth and the historic district. We also got to see the church that Penny and Ted eventually joined,  Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Christmas was very quiet on Marigold Ct.  I made dinner for the neighborhood but there were not many of the regular neighbors in the area - so LOTS of leftovers. It was fun with good weather but - it helped me make the decision to stay thru Christmas in NY with Zac and family in 2022.  

In February Paula asked me to join her and her son, Brad and his family for a ski trip in Colorado. No I didn't ski - but I did have fun playing in the snow with the dogs and boys.  One advantage of hanging around Paula is that the Galland clan" had lots of brothers and sisters - so lots of places to visit. Gale and Bud Galland have a beautiful home in Cotopaxi Colorado (the eastern Rockies).  And another Galland, Kate, lives about 1 mile away in another beautiful mountain home. Brad, Lizzie and their boys, Will and Brogen, spent 3 days skiing at Monarch Mountain. They had pretty good weather and the trails were not too crowded.  Us non-skiers went on the last day to have lunch with the group and watch a little skiing. 

Back on St Simons -Our girl group gathered at my house for a video interview with representatives from a northern law firm dealing with the Amtrak derailment. We were to share what Margie meant to the community and us. It was very emotional but it sort of provided a little closure for me. 

On a lighter note, Megan and Chris Wolfe came for a short visit. They recently joined the "retired but still active generation" and decided to travel south.  Megan is my sister-in-law and Zac's Aunt. We did the normal activities - beach, pier, WW2 Museum and of course a Willies visit. I think I talked them into taking a summer trip up to Salem - we'll see if they show...

Penny, Ted and Buddy came up to SSI for a day trip. We did a couple of photo shoots and had great oysters at Crab Trap. 

I had to have a "Zac fix" - so mid March I headed up to Salem for a week long visit.  I got to see the progress that has been made on adding a bedroom to their house. The red building is 'the house' where the living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and one bedroom are located. Lucy has the upstairs one bedroom. Currently, Katrina and Zac are bunking out in the large white building where Katrina has all her sewing equipment.  The white building has one powder room and then just a very large, hard to heat, open room. They plan to convert the attached garage (blue tarp) into their bedroom.  Currently it is a DIY job. Zac has removed the slate roof, repaired some of the supports beams and is working on repairing and lining the side walls.  (I keep hoping I win the lotto so we can hire some help).  Katrina has started painting the outside of the house - I hope to be able to help her paint this summer.  I think my skills can manage that chore.

In the winter SAW, like a most farms up north, repairs and builds during these slower times.  But they still try to squeeze in art stuff too. They have offered weekend blacksmithing classes and welding classes. This week I got to see them empty the small wood fired kiln. The artist using the kiln made unique containers for bonsai plants.  Zac is also working on one of his iron pour sculptures - still in progress ...

It was later in the year than usual but by April we were finally able to hold our 11th annual WestMarigold Dog Parade. It is a NKGC (No Kill Glynn County) fundraising event that takes a lot volunteers and a lot of prep work, but we raised more than 4000 dollars for the charity and everyone seemed to have fun. 

Lucy and Lucy

Hotdog and Ketcup

Remembering Ukraine

 Earl 

As I finish up this post - I thought it would be a lot darker in feeling cause I have/had such a hard time dealing with the loss of Margie. When Charlie died, I was working full time and raising a middle school kid.  I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on my loss, but I did seem to feel like a "widow" for a long time. It took about 2-3 years for me to feel 'single' again and not feel sorry for myself. Maybe my current age and lack of fulltime activities has allowed my sorrow to be more intense BUT maybe shorter in duration.  Neither situation is desirable, but it is a part of life. Selfishly, I want everyone to please stay healthy and safe!