.jpg)
Elizabeth's two choices for this Blog Carnival are:
1) By mid-May most people in the northern hemisphere are working on their gardens and starting to have some things sprout. Share any gardening, flowers, vegetables, or even containers on the deck, that you are doing this year, or that have been successful in the past.
2) This is also the time of year many of us have children getting out of school and we're planning a summer vacation. Write about a wonderful family or group vacation from your childhood, or more recent years.
As I do not live in or near the northern hemisphere (anymore) *sniff*, 2) will be the subject for which this blog post will be about, as I write with trepidation about the teacher correcting my work! :-)
Growing up in New England with a step-father who had his own construction company building new homes, remodeling, and such, winter work was slow as digging a basement/cellar was impossible, we would pack up for a month and come to Florida to visit my mother's relatives. Bringing our school work with us Elizabeth!
The good things that I remember the most is the beautiful Clearwater Beach and Pier 60, swimming in February, foods we did not normally eat, thunder like I had never heard, sharing a room with my cousin who is four days older than I, and collecting things to bring back for show-and-tell.
My Aunt Kosha worked at the Safety Harbor Spa and always had spa bags full of little goodies from the spa, and her husband, my favoritest Uncle would pay me $10 to comb his hair. Needless to say, I was his favorite and I miss him terribly.
Aunt Betty, married to an Italian, would cook huge pots of homemade pasta sauce as the men played horseshoes in the empty lot next door to their home, and if we were lucky, us kids (my 1/2 sisters & cousins) were allowed to swim in a neighbors swimming pool while they were out of town. We would swim until we were purple and pruned, the heat up in the hot Florida sun, then beg to go back again.
Visiting Florida from a small town in Cape Cod I learned of air conditioning, huge rain storms, hot white sandy beaches, wearing shorts in the winter, being with my mothers family, flamingo's (tropical birds) was introduced to my cousins friends mother who was bald from cancer and wore a wig, swinging from a tree branch on a tire swing, having my first big girl drink, having a crush on one of my older male cousins, spanish moss/chiggers, red clay dirt in Georgia, and so much more.
Traveling by car or truck all of those miles in each direction, my step-father was a CB freak talking to the truckers fascinated me totally. Especially at night when everyone else but he and I were sleeping and it was just he and I...
Sitting here, the good memories have me smiling and feeling wonderful in remembrance. Thank you Elizabeth for the opportunity.
Reminders from the EtsyBloggers Team, please visit their shops by clicking on the link and enjoy:
(not just the camera, but the "pool" too)
(my first big girl drink)
(our month in FL was always February, believe me when
I say that we counted down the days)
(this one speaks for itself)
