Oysters and Memories

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

Hemingway

~ from "A Moveable Feast"

Hemingway says it best! I would have loved to have had fresh oysters from the half shell yesterday.  One has to be quite picky, I think, to find the freshest and best oysters such as Hemingway has described above from "A Moveable Feast". Second best was us finding some fresh oysters yesterday at a supermarket, some for frying. We had hash browns, salad and an order of hush puppies from the nearby Cracker Barrel.

The guy in the seafood department was telling us that "the guys from the boats tell us they use "House Autry" for breading their seafood.  If the breading is the favorite of "the guys on the boats" then it is good enough for us!  I loved that expression about the guys on the boats but it made me think sometimes I watch too many reality TV shows about the "guys on the boats"

The fried oysters were absolutely delicious!  We loved the House Autry and Clint looked them up on their website this morning.  They have a great website and the coating was light with the perfect amount of seasoning..

We really loved this seafood breader!

Yesterday morning as we headed out very early
to walk on the beach.

Clint walking on the beach. yesterday.

 



Looking back at the condo yesterday
before dawn on our walk.



A sturdy sand castle lit by
the golden light of the rising sun.

No caption needed.

Love these impressive Northern Plantation condos next door.
Beautiful building.

 

Heading to the beach yesterday in the early dawn.

Talking about brisk walkers, their little
toothpick legs are a blur!

Odd footprints in the sand yesteray morning.  There was
such a long stride, Clint could barely match
it when he tried. 

Our final day at the beach.  Another year of beach memories

will soon draw to a close.  Here on our "digital scrapbook", called

my blog, we can look back and relive some

of the memories with these photos and remembrances.

Thanks again to my readers.

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Smoke and Mirrors ... Plus

Gee, with a little help from smoke and mirrors,
you all can look as good as we do here!  LMAO*

*This is the first time I have ever used the
LMAO abbreviation but this stupidity
calls for it.

Yes, I am repeating myself with this scene from
the balcony but last night it seemed more beautiful
than previously.



With the leftover jumbo shrimp from the previous night,
I made jambalaya and a salad last night
with some left over Texas toast.

I have to boast a little, it was very good.
As I have said before, there is something special
about eating outdoors, especially with an ocean view.

I had brought a touch of home with us, my aunt's candle
that I recently became in possession of, a crystal Lenox.

This was the first time using it last night and once again
those shadows that seem to follow us.  This was
the pattern on the table.

This morning we got to the beach around 6:35 AM, I captured
this man fishing.  We don't think the fish were biting
from what we could see.

Me playing food stylist again, attempting to make a tuna salad
sandwich more appealing at lunch today.  It truly
was delicious, I always have to make my own since
I don't know of any store-bought that compares with homemade.

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Shrimp and More



Yesterday we drove down to Murrells Inlet.  We also
passsed through Surfside Beach.  I had to stop at this
stunning mural and make a photgraph.  It was finished by
the artist on July 4th, 2009. 



We stopped to admire and photograph an old Methodist
Church that was facing this marsh.  Clint yelled to me,
"look at the guy in the shark boat".  Shark? Boat?

I had a little delay in snapping the photo
and missed the shark's front teeth!

Belin United Methodist Church.
  I want to do some research on this old church,
such a beautiful setting surrounded by
the ancient trees and facing the marsh.  Think of all
the storms weathered by this quaint old church.

Near the old church were a couple of benches with memorial plaques
on them.  I love the surface and am not sure of the technique
but they were beautiful.  Here is some detail from one of them.

Yesterday I walked down to the beach and figured
Clint was watching me from the balcony.  I saw a tiny figure and
waved.  The tiny figure on a corner balcony waved his arms
and it was Clint.  I was amazed at how close I got
by zooming in with my camera.  It was quite a distace as can
be seen in the previous photo.

I put this on Facebook last early evening and called it's "5 O' clock somewhere" ...
here!  As I have written about before, I love the little mini toasts with brie
cheese topped with a little pear preserves.

The Skywheel Ferris Wheel, last year it was proclaimed
the largest in the world.  I am assuming it still claims
that honor.

Pretty Boy.  My grandfather always named any bird
they ever had, Pretty Boy.  I was thinking of him
when I was looking at this photo this mornng.

A perfect place to read the Bible this morning or so I thought. Eleven stories overlooking
the Atlantic Ocean.  I changed my
tune a little bit and decided any place was perfect for reading the Bible.  I am
now reading Exodus and  basically in these chapters God does not call the
equiped but he equips the called.

 

A glorious September morning in North Myrtle Beach.

The corner of the hotel, around 20 stories high,  has
always intrigued me.  It makes me think of an ivory tower
and my  imagination goes wild.

Oh yes, the shrimp!  It was so delicious!  We were disappointed
to learn our favorite place to buy shrimp, Mike's Produce, had
closed down.  I got on my phone and found another place that
may be our new favorite seafood market and restaurant.


Clint wanted jumbo shrimp and he got jumbo shrimp.  He reminded me
later that "jumbo shrimp" is an oxymoron. :)

Shrmp cocktail is one of our favorite foods.  The cocktail sauce is
simple: ketchup, horsradish, Louisiana hot sauce and lemon.

Thank you for reading thus far, what I am now calling my digital
family scrapbook..  We are now off to Barefoot Landing to
walk through some shops.





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Wild Blue Wonders

Yesterday we left Knoxville for North Myrtle Beach.  Driving through the mountains, near Asheville, North Carolina, we encountered fog and smoke illuminated by the rising sun.

It makes for treacherous driving. The smell of smoke was strong, we didn't know the source of the smoke.

This eerie lake scene was shot from the car.  Such

odd colors to have come straight off my camera,

"as is."

More eeriness ...

and more.

The beautiful scene yesterday from our 11th floor condo.

 

The same scene with the hues of the setting sun.  We love

nothing more than sitting out on our balcony.  Wrap

around balcony I might add. :-)

Early to bed, early to rise ...

We were up at 4:20 AM, making our special

blend of coffee.  This "blending" is a blog

in itself.

Wild Blue Wonders ... mountains, sky and sea.  I was

thinking of us driving into the wild blue yonder but actually we

were driving into the wild blue wonders. 

  

Today we will be in search of fresh succulent jumbo (Clint's words here :-)) shrimp, inquiring about deep sea fishing, hitting Wally World for a few items, walking, thinking

about the "fresh succulent jumbo" shrimp, making the homemade

cocktail sauce for the fresh succulent jumbo shrimp, thinking some more about the fresh succulent jumbo shrimp ...

EATING THE FRESH SUCCULENT JUMBO SHRIMP!

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Tangled Web, Belly Dancing, Thoughts

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

                             ~ Sir Walter Scott


I know, this screams Shakespeare but the line is from an epic poem of Sir Walter Scott:  Marmion

Earlier in the summer I noticed this web on one of our hedges in front of our house.  The dew covered web was glistening in the sun and was also adorned with its own mini rainbow!

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been so long since I posted anything, I am now faced with learning how to use this new fangled version of Blogger.  What fun! ;~/

We have been very busy.  I had a setback doing my dining room mural, the background color, the night sky, was too dark.  The black silhouette of the city seemed to disappear into the night sky, there was not enough contrast and that simply would not work.

Back to Lowe's I headed to inquire about having the quart of paint lightened with tint.  Tint is different than paint.  The guy told me to add white paint would require so much that it would never dry.  He also said to add "tint" would be expensive, he told me for the required 28 ounces it would cost over $40! Duh?  I chose another color and got a new quart for $10.  Love the name of this new color, it is called Cosmic Dust.  It is lighter and I tried a little and I think it is gonna work.

Wednesday Clint and I toured Knoxville on foot and by bus. We completed a wonderful program called "Gotta Know Knoxville".  We can't praise this program enough.  We loved it and had a fantastic time.

We have been attending church and have been pleased with the services.  We are visiting different Sunday school classes and so far have not been very enthused about any that we have visited. What is God trying to tell us?  Show us?  Teach us?  We are being patient about it and not making any hasty decisions since these are important ones.

My daughter and I had a "Daughter and Mom Night Out" last week.  She is taking belly dancing lessons and is really enjoying it.  We attended a show at the Relix Theatre in Knoxville.  The "star" was Karim Nagi, he is an Egyptian composer, folk dancer and belly dancing instructor. He was in Knoxville to teach at some workshops.  Most of the evening consisted of performances by belly dancers and did they ever dance!  The theatre was rather unique, it was quite informal in some ways and was a bar, too.  She and I had so much fun.  I know want to learn more about belly dancing and might even attempt attending a beginners' class.  I know I don't paint a pretty picture of an old woman belly dancing but what the heck, it would be such great exercise and fun.

It was difficult to make photos
without part of the audience in them.

I would title this one ...
"A Man Can Dream".  ;-)

(No, that is NOT Clint!)

Or me for that matter!
A woman can dream, too!

(It's bad when one is sitting
here laughing at one's own attempt at humor)

A grainy dark photo of us.

 Well, back to reality.  I am going to be so busy until the new year, we are having a big party this fall with out of town guests.  We are excited about this and of course, I will be sharing more on this blog.

Some very good news, in the morning we leave for a vacation!  We made reservations many months ago, took a leap of faith that we would make it.  We are taking our computers and cameras so we will be sharing some things from our trip.

Back to packing, we are so spoiled and feel we have to take too many things. 

A big thanks to anyone who took the time to read what I have written.  ♥


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Pot Stickers and Spirited Spirits

Last night I made Pork Pot Stickers, we love these!  I found the recipe several years ago

in a Cooking Light magazine.  You really need a simple dipping sauce with them,

there are tons of recipes online for the sauces.  I usually try to have a "balanced" meal.

Last night was not too balanced, the pot stickers were all we had for dinner.  This is

okay sometimes.  A link to the recipe follows at the end of this post.

Last evening at dusk, it was quite dark in our living room, Clint had closed the drapes.  He had just sat down and said, "Would you look at this sunlight?!".  Once again, a beam of the bright setting sun came through

a crack in the drape (actually window treatment) and hit his dirty martini just as he sat down.  This thing was glowing!  I had just made a photo of the pot stickers and my camera was beside me.  You know me and you know the rest :-).

No, I didn't  have one of the ghostly glowing dirty martinis. 

May anyone reading this be in good spirits this weekend. ♥

The recipe for the Pork Pot Stickers:

 http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pork-pot-stickers-10000001545753/


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First Rule in Mural Painting

The first order of business in my mural painting project was to prime the wall.  Of course the most logical color was a creamy light tan that I carefully chose and had mixed.  This creamy color is most perfect for skies, landscapes, columns and other typical mural subjects.

Clearing I was thinking in the box, totally locked inside the box when I painted this wall in preparation for the mural.  Was I even thinking at all?  There was one major problem.  I ended up chosing a beautiful nocturnal city skyline for the mural design.  It is rather beautiful in a dramatic way, at least I hope so. Clint and I both are excited about it.

The problem is it will be harder to paint the dark colors over such a light color, I would have been better off if I had just left the original wall color.  As can be seen in the photo above, it is a little darker.

Rule One in Mural Painting:  Chose your design before priming wall.

Does anyone else out there feel they have to always learn something The Hard Way?  {;~D)

See ya later, thanks for stopping by ... gotta go, I have more lessons to learn ...

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Walking After Midnight

What is this you might ask?  A photo made through glass
and a wet screen of a lamp light. (A feeble attempt
to be artsy. he he)

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