News Flash! New Art Journal!

I finally posted some journal pages on my art journal. Just click "My Art Blog" under the links list on the right to go there. Otherwise the address is: http://jill-holmes-art-journal.blogspot.com. I hope you enjoy your visit there, too!

Biking on Jekyll Island

Saturday Wayne and I went bike riding on Jekyll Island with two of our friends Buddy and Terry. We started at the Jekyll Island Club and rode north on the island toward the pier. There were lots of people out fishing and enjoying the day with their families. On the way we stopped and took some pictures of the new Sidney Lanier Bridge. We stopped at an old cemetery that had only 5 graves in it. It was surrounded by an old cement wall that had an old iron gate on the front of it. I loved the gate. The area surrounding the cemetery was beautiful the way that the marsh flowed in and around it. We rode on around the island until we came to a place called Driftwood Beach. A lot of the locals go there during low tide and get professional photos taken of their families. They make wonderful photos. I took several photos of the beach and also some of Buddy and Terry like the first photo at the top of this entry. We even managed to get a picture of us on one of the dead trees. As we were getting ready to leave, Terry yelled that she had spotted a snake. We went to the area to investigate. Sure enough, there was a small rattlesnake in the grass. He was only about 2.5-3 feet long and only had 2-3 rattle buttons on his tail. He seemed quite content to just lay there (we think he had just eaten recently) so I of course went to work with my camera. Not as cute as the previous baby racoon pictures but still pretty cool. He looked like he had just shed recently as his scales were very vividly colored and very shiny. We finally returned to the Jekyll Island Club and had sandwiches at their cafe. We were starving by then and hot. It was a long 3-hr ride around half of the island. We saw at least 5 wedding parties on the grounds. It must have been a big weekend for that, too. All of the brides and girls looked pretty and happy and all the grooms and men looked stressed. It was pretty funny. The magnolia trees are in full-bloom right now and everything within 100 yards of one of them smells wonderful! One more photo across the marsh looking at the bridge (on the extreme left) almost at sunset from the Jekyll Island Club. The breeze was wonderful, the temperature was perfect and it was a great evening. We didn't really want to leave.

Visitor

On Wednesday I sat with my parents on the back porch for most of the day. It was a great day for back porch sitting. Sasha spent the day out there with us, too. About mid-morning she started barking at something down in the backyard. After a while I finally went to investigate and sent her back to the porch. This is what I found: He was about as big as a 10-wk old kitten and frightened out of his wits. I took some photos and Sasha and I went inside for about a half an hour. When we came back out he was gone. Hopefully he's OK.

Meet the Parents

Mom and Dad came down to visit this past weekend. We did all kinds of things while they were here. We went to church Sunday morning then we went to Mudcat Charlie's on Hwy 17 for lunch with friends. It was a nice afternoon.

That evening we took them to St. Simons Island to see the lighthouse, pier and Atlantic Ocean. It was perfect weather for that. The wind was nice enough to keep the bugs away and to keep things from getting too hot. There was a lot of great scenery.

Monday we went to Taylor Farms and picked blueberries.

The bushes were huge! They hadn't quite ripened enough for bulk picking yet so we got the first picking on the bushes. It was hot but passing clouds and the shade from the bushes kept us pretty cool.

It was a wonderful day.

Joey showed Dad the pecan trees while we were there.

The nuts are already growing just as little tiny buds on the trees.

Looks like there will be a good pecan harvest this fall!

I was also able to get some cool photos of some flowers during our travels. I like getting close-ups of them.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day at Jekyll Island. It is an island with beautiful, nearly pristine beaches. Here are some photos of the beach. In the third photo, the land you can see in the background is one side of Cumberland Island, the next island down the coast.

Another Wayne Update

Wayne went to the physical therapist today. He said that he was healing well and that he had a tremendous amount of flexibility for his injury. He had him moving his arm in several directions with a small amount of weights and resistance. He started getting sore this evening. The therapist said that he would. He's supposed to go see a chiropractor this week, too to see if we can get his back into proper alignment again. I think that will help a lot also. All in all he is doing quite well and healing quickly and without any issues. It is truly a miracle. However, the fenders and ferrings, etc. came in for his broken motorcycle today...good grief!

Omega Group Dinner

Tonight was the monthly dinner for the Omega Group at church. We all went to the "Buie Plantation" and had a great breakfast for dinner. Dr. Merschon (sp?) spoke to us this evening about being Ostrich Christians--we do great at church but when it comes to living life out in the real world we stick our heads in the sand.

Jessie Deems sang a song and we had some harmonica playing, too. Carolyn played the piano. All of the music was really good. I took these photos with one of my old cameras and I think the settings were a little off. I'm posting some of the pictures any way so you can see some of the people that attended. Please don't hold them responsible for the bad photography. Where is Janice when I need her? :-)