Elizabeth's Summer Visit, July 7-12, 2011 Elizabeth visited us from Wilmington, NC, where she moved a year ago from Richmond Hill, GA. She flew into Tallahassee and Bill and I met her at the airport. It was so good to see her smiling face near the baggage area. Being lunch time, we decided to go to the Atlanta Bread Company nearer to our home. After lunch, Elizabeth and I shopped at the neighboring shopping center while Bill investigated winemaking equipment. Arriving home, she scooted down in her seat while we called the dogs (our usual routine). Priss was the first to catch on (smelling the passenger side door). Both dogs were so excited to see her.
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Elizabeth, Priss, and Buttley have a little reunion time (above, left) and the happy homecoming went on for days (above, right). |
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On the first afternoon, we continued with various activities--reading computer work, cooking--and then enjoyed an evening meal of Easy Artichoke Barigoule (set table, left). After dinner, we watched the movie The Company Men and later learned that Will and Liz had watched it that evening, too. Friday, we had a girls' day of clothes shopping and lunching and picking up a few groceries for dinner before heading home. Elizabeth tried our new goldenrod mead and found it to have a superior taste to previous meads Bill has made. D-21 yeast and goldenrod honey yielded a darker product and richer taste with more mouthfeel. |
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| Saturday, Elizabeth and I drove to Havana, FL, a favorite family destination. We lunched at Oscar's, browsed antiques, visited Cindy's Chapeaux, and admired furnishings and accessories (ideal for lake and beach houses) at Weezie's Cottage Living. Cindy's Chapeaux is filled with sewing and textile crafting inspiration. On the left (above), note the small dress stand, useful as art or a pin cushion. On the right (above) I browse a notebook of handkerchiefs to find one for my small dress form. | |
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| Sunday, Elizabeth met high-school friend Betsy Miller and her husband, Don Miller, for brunch at Canopy Road Cafe. Betsy and Don are expecting their first child, a daughter, very shortly. | A staged plumbing photo op was used to preserve a memory of Elizabeth helping her dad install plumbing in our home on Meridian Road. Since her last visit, Bill had removed a section of the wall covering in the detached workshop, cut into a line and completed the installation of a potable water supply to the syrup house. Started in 2004, this construction project may be nearing an end. |
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Monday morning, Bill and Elizabeth racked blueberry wine. The process includes fermenting the wine in an open container (covered with a cloth) for 2-3 days allowing time for the yeast to multiply, then attaching a top to exclude oxygen. Afer a waiting period--until 2/3 of the sugar is gone--it is transferred to a secondary fermenter, which is the racking shown above. After racking the wine, we headed to Mozaik restaurant for our special meal out. We had not eaten there before, except I had dessert once, but we had heard rave reviews. The food is elegantly plated and is quite good. The decor is all about mosaics and is pleasant and attractive. |
The substantial rainfall preceding and during Elizabeth's visit brought out the chanterelles and Bill collected some (above) from our woods. Aside from chanterelles, we enjoyed a number of fruits and vegetables grown by Bill. Elizabeth's only food request was blueberry pancakes. These we had as well as blueberry kuchen and blueberries incorporated into a green salad. Summer squash and Italian flat beans were served as side dishes . . . . |
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| Previously frozen Meyer lemon juice and mulberries were made into an easy dessert (above)--lemon curd cake with mulberry sauce. | Tuesday, Elizabeth had a 1-p.m. flight and we took another photo opportunity before leaving for the airport (above). Unfortunately, the return flight was not as planned. She was delayed hours and ended up having to fly to another destination, Jacksonville, NC. John drove to pick her up there, well over an hour away from Wilmington. We were happy she didn't have to stay overnight in Atlanta and arrived home safely. |
Return to Documentation for this page. Last edit: July 16, 2011. |
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