And she is very smart....she knows how to get to an island...according to the 5 and 7 yearold imaginations in the Erhardt house... "she has a pink water car that she docks on the island to deliver Easter beach buckets with fun goodies... not much candy because the sand will stick to it and THAT is no good!... sand on your jellybeans... !"
she even brought the egg dying stuff since there is no grocery store on the island... SHE was prepared ! AND.. she came on the Sunday before the actual EASTER Sunday... that way the girls had a whole week to play with the buckets and toys... see?.. smart bunny!
We had such a RELAXING spring break. The school scheduled it to start the Friday ... 10 days before Easter Sunday... 10 days! it was magical!
I will share just some various photos of the best place and girls in the world....
Here is our "pet"... gopherous polyphemus ( gopher tortoise)... these guys and gals are all over the island... hidden in their burrows and come out to feed on grasses and love red hybiscus flowers... the girls love to feed them. (followed by estrigent hand washing !) This one lives in our back yard. We look for it every morning and evening. There is a black snake that shares the yard and burrow... it is fun to watch from the deck with coffee !
Some of my VERY BEST memories as a little girl .. about age 6... was when we'd find these gopher tortoises around our neighborhood my dad would paint the finders initials and the date on a very small portion of the shell and we always tried to find it again. I don't remember the type of paint used but it was like fingernail polish but white.
AND... we'd tie a little wagon to a rope and then loop it around the tortoise's shell and it would pull us in the wagon... not at break neck speed mind you... but it was FUN ! Then of course,... the little friend was released back into the woods. They are really quite amazing and date back to the time of dinosaurs.
And in no way connecting dinosaurs to the next photo... this is what READING looks like on the island....
elizabeth... studying her subject and setting up to paint the sunset... CHILLY sunset that night... i need to photograph the actual painting... and edit this post with it.
believe it or not... this contraption actually runs ! we came across it on a golf cart ride and it was delivering lumber to a site.... now you see why it takes over 2 years to build a house here! look closely... see the steering wheel peeking out on the far side.... you should have seen the "seat"... there was none!
multi purpose Easter bucket / bonnet!
The beach was so LONG this week. We loved it. I am sure it had something to do with the full moon... which was georgeous...I cannot describe the starry nights....no light polution to get in the way of the seeing the thousands of stars... or is it "billons and billions" (who said that?) Carl ?????
This is in my neighbors' yard... so charming! Whenever they have a guest come and stay with them they find something on which to piant their "details".... I am going to add one the next time we are down there.... erhardts...4 doors--->
It really was a great break...so needed ! And lesson learned this trip....ALWAYS keep at LEAST 4 gallon jugs of water stored at all times... you never know when one of the pistons at the de-sal plant will break and leave you with nothing to wash the dishes or flush the toilets ... this was 10am Easter ! ... just as everyone's coffee was kicking in...The water supply to the island has since been restored...even if temporarily by running ???countless feet of pipe from the state park that is just north of our section of the island.... ugh! I am grateful that I DID get the dishes "washed" (they will be REwashed as soon as i get back there) and the dish water was used to flush to toilets....
I am VERY grateful that I was not hosting a large party for Easter dinner that night...
OK.... one last photo.. i am getting sleepy and it is taking way too long to upload these ...
I had so much fun taking sunset photos.... especially the ones with so much color and the reflections....
good night !
Maybe tomorrow I will share my most recent "challenge" (why so many this year???)... My dishwasher flooded my kitchen and family room... thanks GOD... I came home just when I did and the leak did NOT happen while we were away for 10 days!
xoxo.... Cath
