Various and sundry

What a nice week - Jimmy's the best he's been in ages and ages, and we've had a ball, rambling around and exploring. Yesterday we went to Fort Clinch on the north end of the island.

Jimmy checks out the accommodations in the enlisted men's quarters,

and one of the latrines.

We were amused by a macabre flier, advertising the services of an undertaker. I especially liked the option of professional mourners for 30 cents a funeral. Jimmy told me to take a picture of it so he could email it to his old friend Tyson McLane, owner of Valdosta's funeral parlor.

This is the junk store to end all junk stores; I think it's called "The Swamp House." Suenelle Scruggs took me to several antique shops and art galleries the other day, all interesting places, but this one was in a category of its own. There, in the middle of all the rubble, I unearthed a couple of large egret paintings that are perfect for our porch here at the beach: $100 for the pair, which made me love them all the more.

Shell art abounds at the beach: boxes and picture frames, lamps and mirrors, but by far the best around is the mirror Suenelle made herself and has hanging in her foyer - spectacular. When told that it was her creation, Jimmy's response was, " I always knew you were crafty, Suenelle."

T.Ray's

"Stick with me, Kid," growled Jimmy in his best Bogart voice, "and I'll take you to all the best places." Today it was T. Ray's Burger Station, an old Exxon filling station, with pumps still intact, in downtown Fernandina. The restaurant's motto is "Eat Here and Get Gas." Quirky place, great food.

Ciao,baby

Ciao Italian Bistro, located in a small shopping center right past Lowe's before you go over the bridge to Amelia Island, has THE BEST authentic Italian cuisine we've had outside of Italy.

Jimmy raved about his salad, but I was much too engrossed in my own to pay any attention to his; his was endive and romaine, while mine was arugula with hearts of palm, fennel, avocado, and fresh mozzarella: a gastronomic delight.

We'd both already had too much to eat when our entrees arrived: veal piccata for him and eggplant parmigiana for me. Divine, and the tiramisu that Jimmy had the audacity to order was so light it almost floated off the table.

If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Fernandina Beach, go. It's a Five Star experience.

...if happy little bluebirds fly...*

After a thunderstorm passed through late this afternoon, a perfect double rainbow formed over the ocean. One is easy to see in the photograph, but if you look closely, another is visible on its right. Maybe it's a harbinger of good things to come.

(* in case you didn't catch it, it's part of the lyrics of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" )

Beach time

The Seef: an American original

Fat raindrops were beginning to pepper down, but that didn't faze our buddy Joe Singletary this afternoon as he clipped deadheads off the rose bushes at Macadoo's restaurant, one of his many enterprises. This meticulous attention to detail is one of the reasons Joe has been so successful all these years.

Sleep eating

I took an Ambien last night. I slept well, but at some point got up and ate a whole bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup - maybe two. The evidence was on the kitchen counter this morning, and I also have a very hazy recollection of doing it. This is especially appalling because (1) I'm lactose-intolerant, (2) it blew about a bazillion Weight Watcher points, and (3) I ate all that ice cream and didn't even get to have any fun doing it.

Andy and the Car Wash Blues

Andy loves to ride in the car, so since today was cloudy and cool, I invited him to run errands with me this morning. One of the stops was the car wash, the Super Tuesday $5 Special. The Works. Andy did not handle it well.

He was wild-eyed and shaking and panting the whole time, doggie-speak for " GET ME OUT OF HERE! "

When they started spraying the windows with those bright psychedelic suds, poor Andy tried to crawl under the seat.

Natural Born Pisherman

Our Jake, still three months shy of his third birthday, has discovered fishing, and can handle his tiny rod and reel with as much dexterity as many adults. Late Sunday afternoon, we rode with Pat in his golf cart to a nearby pond on the golf course, so that Jake could "pish", as he calls it.

We had hardly been there any time before Jake had landed a nice bream and a large speckled perch, all by himself. After making a perfect cast, he watched his cork intently, then reeled in his catch.

At one point, when I tried to make conversation with him, he admonished, "Don't talk! You'll scare the pish!"

Tooth trouble

Last Friday, Jimmy developed an abscessed tooth, and normal procedures to fix it are complicated by fact that the Zometa infusions he's been getting can have the serious side effect of causing osteonecrosis of the jaw. After a week of antibiotics and conferring with local professionals and Dr. Lonial at Emory, we went to Atlanta yesterday to see about it.

When he'd finished examining Jimmy's tooth this morning, the endodontist decided that we need to wait a few more weeks to give the Zometa time to get out of Jimmy's system, meanwhile on antibiotics to keep the infection at bay, and then extract the tooth. Nothing's simple these days.

This particular dentist's practice is in Snellville, about twenty miles east of Atlanta. As usual, Jimmy did Priceline for hotels in the area, and got us accommodations in Stone Mountain Park, of all places. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had dinner last night at a wonderful little restaurant on the lake, looking up at the mountain, watching the sunset, with flocks of Canada geese honking in to roost.

It sure beat a root canal.

More office photos

Here are some more of the photos Jimmy has hanging in his office - I like them so much I brought them home to scan and share.

Jimmy, the game warden, John McNeill, and Ed Jared, circa 1980

Why are these guys laughing? They just got arrested for shooting ducks over a baited pond.

The legendary John McNeill, the late great Joe Lawson, Easy Ed Jared, Jimmy Himself, and the fabulous Frank Haralson, at the Callaway Gardens steeplechase, about twenty years ago.

A rogue's gallery: John McNeill, Ed Jared, and Jimmy, aboard Jimmy's Hattaras, the Caper.

Fun at Jimmy's office

"Will you stop?" groused Jimmy. "You're driving me crazy! Every time I turn around, you have that camera stuck in my face." We were in his office, and I was bored, so I started taking pictures of his stuff, since he wouln't let me take any more of him.

Jimmy speared this 10 pound lobster, now mounted and enshrined, on the first day of lobster season (August 1) in the mid-eighties, on a reef near Walker's Cay in the Bahamas.

In 2003, Jimmy and Kenny Scruggs (with a wee bit of help from Barry, a local Bahamian guide) got 86 lobsters on opening day. We kept what we could eat and gave Barry the rest to use or sell.

A few years ago, I painted Jimmy this watercolor of Susie, one of our favorite pointers, now long gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds. ******************************************************************************

More photos will be added tomorrow.

Low country boil

Saturday when I went to the farmers' market on South Patterson Street, the green peanuts were in, so I bought a big bag for boiling, and a dozen ears of wonderful sweet Silver Queen corn, some Vidalia onions, a pound or so of tiny new potatoes, and some outstanding locally grown tomatoes.

Leaving there, I swung by Robert Goff's Oyster Bar on Oak Street and got a few pounds of large shrimp, and we were all set.

We threw the potatoes and onions and corn and butter in a big pot of boiling water, along with several links of sausage, cut into chunks, then at the end, the shrimp. Et voila: Low Country Boil! We sliced the tomatoes and cucumbers, set out boiled peanuts, and the to-die-for gravlax with dill that William had made. Max made his crab dip; we all thought it was good, but Max didn't think it up to his usual high standards.

The piece de resistance was Mary's strawberry pie: she and Jackie had picked the strawberries Friday, and with whipped cream, it was so fresh and good.

Afternoon with Ed

Best friends since I moved across the street from him when we were six years old, Ed Hanahan and I, fifty-four years later, still have a great time together. After lunching at Antoine's today, we happily frittered away the rest of the afternoon, wandering around and reminiscing, as only lifelong friends can do.

Ed chats with Sarah Bartholomew on the lawn of the Lowndes County Courthouse where the annual Brown Bag Concert Series has been going on all week.

May flowers

One (and there are few) of the positive things about Jimmy's being so puny this spring is that because we've been at home, we've enjoyed our yard and the flowers more than usual. I'd planted some things in 2006 and this is the first time we've seen them bloom - or if they did, we weren't paying attention.

There's a hydrangea that was scrawny and peaked-looking from drought, and was fighting for survival, much less trying to bloom, and it blossomed for the first time this week. I was expecting blue, maybe pink, but it's a big snowy white puff.

Even the daylilies that I've always taken for granted make me happy this year.

Something ( I'm blaming it on the squirrels) ate the caladium bulbs, but the more mature plants we replaced them with are doing well,

and the jasmine has exploded.