Settlers Ghost

The weather forecast was not promising... rain and 30 F.  Were we up to the challenge?  I think so.  We packed up the cars and pointed them north.  Settlers Ghost is just an hour and 15 minutes drive.  How bad could it be?  We have rain suits, rain gloves and hat's.  We'll be ok.

Much to our surprise, the weather was amazing.  While it wasn't sunny, it wasn't rainy either.  We enjoyed a great day golfing albeit, a little cool.  We finished the day with a nice dinner at the Keg and coctails at John and Grace's.  We all enjoyed ourselves.  Congratulations to both Grace and Terest who shot their all time low's - Teresa 102 and Grace 115.  Way to go!

The first signs of Spring

I always enjoy walking around the property looking at signs that spring is here.  Today many of my daffodils finally opened.  How pretty.  It is so beautiful that they opened on Easter Monday.

Season Opener

 It's hard to believe, but spring is officially here and it's time to get out and start swinging the golf clubs. We booked our first round at Copper Creek for this past Saturday. The forecast wasn't good, but we were up to it! We got to the course at 10:15 only for me to discover that I had forgotten my coupons. Fortunately they know us there and "honored" our missing coupon. The day started off with a light drizzle but by the third hole the sun was shining. It got quite warm which was very surprising. When we were at the 18th hole, we heard a horn honk.  Just as we were finishing our round, John pulled up. He had figured that we would be close to finishing our round and "here we were" at the last hole!!  We enjoyed a relaxing drink all together at the club house.  What a nice day..

Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Garlic, Ginger and Scallions

Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Garlic, Ginger, and Scallions

A simple, four-ingredient sauce makes a perfect finish for the intriguingly sweet and bitter flavor of this stir-fried Asian green. You can use mature or baby bok choy for this recipe.
Serves three to four.


1-1/4 lb. bok choy (about 1 large, 2 medium, or 5 to 6 baby)
2 Tbs. oyster sauce (preferably Lee Kum Kee brand)
2 Tbs. lower-salt chicken broth
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. Asian sesame oil
2 Tbs. peanut oil
Kosher salt
4 oz. scallions (8 to 10 medium), white and light-green parts only, cut into 3-inch lengths and halved lengthwise if thick
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
One 1/2-inch square of ginger, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

To prep mature bok choy, separate the leaves from the stems by slicing the bok choy head crosswise at about the point where the leaves begin to spread out. Cut the leaves into lengthwise strips 1 to 1-1/2 inches wide. Quarter the stem end lengthwise and remove any inner leaves, putting them with the leafy tops. Slice the stem quarters crosswise into pieces about 3/4 inch thick. Rinse and dry the stems and leaves separately. (If using baby bok choy, simply cut the heads lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide pieces or wedges.)

In a small bowl, combine the oyster sauce, chicken broth, cornstarch, and sesame oil. Whisk well to dissolve the cornstarch.

In a 12-inch nonstick stir-fry pan, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the bok choy stems and season with 1/8 tsp. kosher salt. (If using baby bok choy, add all the pieces now and skip the step of adding the leaves later.) Cook, tossing frequently with tongs, until the stems are pliable and lightly browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic, and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, until the aromatics are tender, fragrant, and starting to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the bok choy leaves and 1/8 tsp. salt. Using tongs, toss until the leaves are completely wilted and integrated with the stems, 1 to 2 more minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, and using a heatproof spatula, stir the sauce and quickly mix it with the vegetables in the pan. As soon as the sauce thickens and has coated most of the vegetables (a few seconds), transfer to a platter and serve immediately.

Snow!

Can you believe it?? It's April 17 and it was snowing out this morning. The weather has really been up and down this week with warm and cold days. Today is windy and cool. I'm looking forward to warmer days.

Look Oma - no training wheels!!

Look Oma and Papa - no training wheels. Jordan was so excited to show us that she can now ride her bike without help. Not only can she ride, but she's jumping off a ramp (her dad help set it up) and she can make "skid marks". She is so excited about being able to do this.


Hailey is right behind her showing us how she too can make skid marks and she does a wonderful job keeping up with Jordan. Laura and Jay are going to have a fun summer taking bike rides with the girls.

Having fun!

While we were at Laura and Jay's the girls spent some time painting. Karen, Ralph and I were able to bring a beautiful painting home that was created by both of the girls. It was fun to watch them in their creative mode. At first Hailey wasn't too happy getting her hands dirty but with Laura's patient guidance she soon settled in and enjoyed herself. Jordan was right into it and kept clowning around.

Happy Birthday Hailey

We went to visit with Hailey on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. How fast she is growing up! Happy birthday to our very special girl. You are now 4 years old and are looking forward to going to school in September. We love you very much Hailey.

Spring is almost here

The first sign of spring is appearing in the garden... I hope that weather gets progressively warmer and all the plants to start to grow.

Home Sweet Home

How nice to be home after 16 hours of driving. We had such a wonderful time all together and I feel blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. I loved how we did devotions all together and how we drew closer to each other during the week. It was a fun time of laughter and fellowship.

On the road again

We were up early this morning. I wanted to enjoy one last tea sitting on the back porch with the birds singing. We were blessed with beautiful hot weather. It was muggy and we were all sweating by the time that the car was packed.

We were done by 10:00 and headed to the Tanger 2 outlet where we went to a couple of stores to do some last minute shopping. We were on the road by 12:00 after stopping and picking up some lunch and coffee and tea.

The weather turned quite bad as we were driving - with us having rain (hard pouring) for about 3-4 hours. There was a lot of flooding in West Virginia. The drive through the mountains was pretty cloudy.

We are currently in Summersville, West Virginia. We had dinner at Applebee's and now are enjoying a glass of wine in our hotel room.

Tomorrow we expect to have an 8 hour drive ahead of us.

We're had a nice vacation.

On the road

We woke up to very warm weather. The temperature reached 33C on the car thermometer. It was very muggy. We were all packed and ready to leave by 10:00. We stopped briefly at the Tanger Mall and then picked up a coffee/tea at Starbucks and headed north. We drove until 8:30 and stopped in Summersville, West Virginia. We're about halfway home. The weather was very stormy during our drive home and we had a lot of rain. We went through a lot of fog as well. We all took turns driving which was nice.

We're looking forward to seeing our husbands tomorrow.

A wonderful day of golf

Wow - was it hot today. Hot and muggy. We had a lot of fun golfing and are said that today is the last day. Claudia was the winner of closest to the pin with the most successful drives. It was fun having this little competition. Teresa and Grace came a close 2nd and I brought up the rear... Guess I'll have to work on that this year.

Golfing was interesting today - we had close encounters with the alligators a couple of times. One time, Teresa couldn't understand why I wasn't going for my ball. It's retrievable she kept saying...not seeing the alligator about 8 feet away. I was happy to take an extra stroke, as I didn't want to get too close.

We've just finished putting the clubs in the overhead ski locker. It's smaller than ours so tomorrow we'll be pretty tight with baggage. Oh well, we'll survive.

We had at

We had dinner at CQ's which is in Harbour Town. The food was delicious. My Filet Minon was awesome.

Pileated Woodpecker

At the end of our golf round we were treated to a surprise visit by two Pileated woodpeckers. They were beautiful.

At the beach

We went for a walk this morning along the beach. It's going to be a hot day today! There were jellyfish along the shoreline washed up on the beach. The water was cold but not uncomfortable. It's a beautiful beach.