I am a dieting failure. All it took was Courtney, Addison, Kendall and Debby. The first three being small people that invaded my space for four days and the last a large tropical storm sitting off of the coast beating us with bands of rain and wind. Housebound, we had no choice but to watch Disney movies and eat a lot of popcorn.
Here’s some pics I took yesterday morning and afternoon.
Maggie wanted to go for a walk and that turned into a swim! Creeps me out to walk through standing water so all shoes were sent through the washer and Maggie’s belly was sprayed down when we got home. Sent Courtney directly to the shower! Next time I’ll have on my boots!
The floating kayak dock is not normally higher than the boat dock. Will be interesting to see how high it can get! We think that the yard must have been underwater during the night because of the mulch on the pavers.Water over the dock step. Hasn’t been like this since we were hit by a freak early tropical storm in 2006 and the storm surge flooded the yard.
The water continued to rise and I snapped these photos about 6:30 between rain bands.
The view from our seawallMaggie likes the water this high. She can easily pull her own ball out of the water when she tosses it in.Looks like neighbor Jeremy and Roxie are walking on water.The water from the canal has come up the neighbor’s boat ramp and flooded the yard. The last time we had water in the yard, the plants died since the water is brackish. Looks like I’ll be doing some new landscaping.The boat is up as high as possible. Safe for now!
Debby still hasn’t decided quite where she wants to land and now the weather guys are saying she won’t make landfall until Wednesday evening. I’ll put pictures up of the Homosassa area on Thursday.
I not only live in Perfect, but I have mermaids for friends. Really. Mermaids.
My first mermaid encounter was about 25 years ago and now I know many mermaids. How cool am I to have mermaids for friends?
And I have learned over the years, that once a mermaid—always a mermaid. But if you have never been a mermaid, that’s okay. They will let you share in their mermaid fun. But only if you are way cool. Like me.
Perhaps I should explain that these mermaids are all former Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaids. And does everyone know what Weeki Wachee, City of Mermaids is? I would like to explain all of that to you but I’m just a lowly landlubber–never a mermaid.
What I can tell you is that for years I have been joining the mermaids on the Weeki Wachee River for Gum Slough Day which is always celebrated on the longest day of the year. This year it was June 20th and I finally got an explanation why a gathering on the Weeki Wachee River is named after Gum Slough which is a completely different waterway–not even close to our party park.
And the following accout comes from Bonnie Georgiadis who was a mermaid at Weeki Wachee from 1953 – 1966 and then worked in other positions at the park until 1989.
Bonnie
Gum Slough Day.
What does that mean? Gum Slough Day! How did that get started?
Well, I’ll tell you about it. The next time you drive on I75 north take notice just before you drive across a low bridge. There’s going to be a sign that says, ‘Gum Slough’. Probably won’t mean much to you but it does to me and to Genie, Linda Zucco, Terry and Janice Westmoreland. Because we were THERE!!!!
Let’s travel back in time to….the early 80’s? Anyway before they had GPS’s except we probably wouldn’t have had one even if they HAD been invented. I think Genie started it. She’d heard of Gum Slough maybe through her brother Micky or maybe that was Tate’s Hell he was talking about. Anyway I’ll pinpoint it for you. I looked it up in my handy dandy maps of Florida counties. Gum Slough is located in Sumter County at the end of Dead River which runs into the Withlacoochee River. Just to add a little interest, about 20 miles south of Gum Slough is The Wonders, (wonder why) , Burnt Island (that’s an easy one) Bear Lake and Bee Island, (won’t go there) and Baptizing Hole and Battle Slough.
It was November. We were in an adventurous mood so we set out to find Gum Slough. We drove to a fish camp on the Withlacoochee River and just before shoving off decided to actually ask for directions. The fish camp person told us to paddle upstream about a mile then go right, right across from the Indian mound. INDIAN MOUND!!!! Okay!!! Well, we spent about an hour and a half playing on the Indian mound. It was a snail mound. That means it was entirely made up of little snail shells. (I’ve seen another snail mound on the island of Hontoon on the St. Johns River, but that’s another story) Oh, we were also told that when the occasion arises that we have to make a decision about which way to go…always go left. Good advise because we’d heard stories of people getting lost in there. Genie and Terry were in one canoe and Linda and I paddled the other with Janice in the middle. We’d brought chicken and various finger foods along but there wasn’t any place where we could get out for a picnic so we ate as we paddled along. Finally, the narrow ‘creek’ opened up into a pond-like setting. It wasn’t Weeki Wachee clear but it was nice and refreshing to swim. Then it was time to leave. It must have been around five o’clock…in November. You know…days short of daylight! After we started back and it became darker and darker, Janice reached into her bag and pulled out her flashlight. She never let us forget that she was the only one who remembered to bring a flashlight.
I don’t recall what time we reached the fish camp but it seemed a good idea to call home and let our husbands know we were still alive. Actually it was a very good idea. They had time to get over their fury before we got home! They had been calling each other for a long time. “You heard anything from them?” “Nope”
As a group we decided that if we ever wanted to do Gum Slough again it would have to be on the day of the MOST sunlight instead of the least. And that is why June 20th (or close to it) was selected to be our National GUM SLOUGH DAY. TADA!!!!
Janice, mother of mermaids
Not mermaids.
We had one other mermaid in attendance but she didn’t get her picture taken. Some of these mermaids are slippery like that!
I basically used the pattern I posted a few weeks ago https://ktgreendesign.com//shopping-totes/, added the pocket, a border, and the applique. I used off-white denim for the main fabric and two prints from Moda for the lining and borders that I purchased from our local quilt shop, Tomorrow’s Treasures. (I love the Moda fabric prints and am always thinking of ways to use them.) I made the applique from felt, Heat N Bond Lite, and one of the Moda prints. Then I satin stitched around the Moda fabric, embroidered eyes and the detail on the feet and top stitched around the felt pieces.
I’ve only appliqued a few things so will not even try to explain how to do it–my shopping tote instructions are confusing enough and I’ve sewn for decades! Just search for applique out in the blog world and there are many excellent tutorials.
