Golden Cottage Update & Our New Friend, Kathy

 

 Greetings Gail-Friends and welcome back.  Sorry that it's been almost two months since I last posted.

I've been working very long and hard on my newest book and I'm so excited about it.  It is an illustrated children's book, which means I've been learning a whole new set of skills.  I've worked with both Chat GPT and Canva to bring to life a long-time dream of mine.  I had this idea back in the 1990's and drew the illustrations with pen and ink.  Now, with AI, I'm able to bring those drawings to life with full color enhancements.  I'm still working on this project and hope to finish it up within the next week or two.  

In the meantime, I want to give you an update about happenings at Golden Cottage.  Last update was on July 4.  Jem was in a local Independence Day parade representing the Valiant Air Command of the Tico Warbird Air Museum.  I wasn't able to attend that day, but was able to watch the parade live on YouTube.

Here are a few screenshots of Jem.  He is so amazing.  He walked the entire parade two-mile  route all the way to the end in the ninety degree heat.   He could have ridden on the truck, but didn't.  That's the kind of guy he is.  

 

He had a birthday in August and we celebrated all month.  He got some new fishing gear and we went fishing nearby.  No catching, but he did have a few bites.  He's been inspired by the YouTube videos he's been watching.  His favorite is Dat Louisiana Life.  They catch fish, then cook them.  It's also inspired him to cook, which I am all for.  I have been cooking for over sixty years and I love it when he cooks, y'all.

He didn't want a birthday cake, but really enjoyed his key lime pie at a new local restaurant.  Just add seventy-nine candles, and you'll know how old he is now.  I love this man so much!!!!

 

 

 

Speaking of YouTube, we rarely watch television any more.  We watch YT videos instead.  My favorites are very eclectic.  Some British ones, like Kirsten and Yorg - Two Germans in Britain and Escape to the Country, and Nanny and the Moose - Crushing Their 80's.  I know it's weird, but I love to watch videos about tiny house living.  But, my favorite of all are the music videos.  I want to share a couple of channels that are a great blessing to me:  

The first channel is Christian Instrumental  - which has hours-long playlists of music and hymns combined with birds and Bible Scripture.  I keep the channel playing most of the day because it is so relaxing and inspiring when I work around the house and/or walk through the living room and see a Bible verse that inspires or comforts me.  

The second one, newly discovered, is The Voice of Zion.  Oh, how I love this one.  Beautiful music background with the speaking and singing of scripture.  Some videos combine Hebrew with the English. Y'all, it is just beautiful.  My favorite is Psalm 91.  So, so lovely.

 A few weeks ago, Jem and I went to our favorite breakfast restaurant, which is Denny's.  By the way, did you know that they have a senior menu? You can get two scrambled eggs with cheese, four turkey sausages, and two pancakes for about $8.50?  That is the exact same meal as a Grand Slam, which is almost twice the price.  Ah, one of the many perks of being over fifty!  Anyway, I digress -- the hostess who greeted us was....I pause to find the right words.  I was fascinated by her hair style and also by her demeanor.  She had quiet peaceful air about her.  I asked if I could take her photo and she agreed.  We came back and couple of weeks later and I asked if I could have her permission to put her photo on my blog.  Thankfully, she agreed.

 

We talked a little bit both times and I learned that Kathy was, indeed, a hippie.  I had to tell her that I have a friend who was/is a hippie, too, and she still says, "Groovy"!  We laughed about that.  She and I have a lot in common -- we lived through the same era,  we have similar conservative and moral beliefs -- so we chatted about that.  We also talked about her confidence in wearing such a creative adornment.  She said, "I'm at the age where I dress and do my hair the way I like.  I do the things that make me happy."  Well, I'm with her on that for sure.  Kathy and I are not slaves to fashion.  We are creative and living life to the fullest.  I enjoyed talking with her so much.  She inspired me and brought me joy.  

Kathy also reminded me of a song from the sixties called I Love the Flower Girl by the Cowsills.  Click on the link to listen and read the lyrics.  I know you'll love it.  And, Kathy, if you're reading this, I wonder if the song was written about you.  It's perfect. 

Tonnie Woo and Lucy Loo are doing good.  Toonie is getting old and has slowed down a lot lately.  But, he still spends most of his day out on the screened-in back patio.  How he stands the ninety degree heat I'll never know, but he loves being out there.  Occasionally, he will come in and lie in the sun on the floor.  I love this pic that shows him "cooling it"  and I love the shadow of the Magen David (Jewish star) on the floor.

 

 Lucy is such a hoot and makes us laugh every day.  I caught this shot of her sleeping on her flamingo pillow.  And, don't the jaguar spots of her blanket look like heart-shaped eyes?

 

 And I have to caption this pic with  "I'm not a hoarder...I'm a toy maximalist"  

 

 

Lucy is getting fat - but she can still run like the wind.  And, she's the best watch dog we've ever had.  We love them and spoil them like children.

Blessings to you, Gail-Friends.  Have a good week and I hope to finish this book and see you again soon.

 

 

What's Happening at Golden Cottage?

 

Y’all ! Time is flying by! Right? But, I’m back. I just realized I haven’t done a Golden Cottage update since January.

We had really cold weather in January through mid-March – and our yard was hit hard. This is a rare photo here in central Florida – that's  FROST, Gail-Friends !

 

 Mr. Green Jeans (aka Rabbi Jem) worked so hard to protect our plants. He brought all of the potted plants and flowers onto the back porch to protect them. Put rugs down on the floor. Covered them with sheets. He did this three times, y’all ! All of them survived. And the plants in the yards were covered with sheets or wrapped in blankets. Most survived, but sadly, some didn’t. Some – time will tell. Like our plumeria tree. But, we have hope!

Our dog Lucy was happy to wear her sweaters!  And Toonie was happy to stay in the warm house.  (He usually prefers to stay on the back porch all day long.)
 

 

 

We had to have beautiful camphor tree taken out of our front yard.  We noticed that Lucy, was eating the camphor berries.  I Googled it and found that the berries are very toxic - damaging to the liver.  Our beloved dog, Zoe, died of liver failure, so she had probably been eating the berries, too.  (We miss her so much.) So, we had the tree removed.  Everything looks so bare now, and I grieved the loss of it.  I miss the tree's shade in the mornings and watching the birds visit there.  So, my sweet Jem bought me some new plants and flowers to cheer me and brighten up the yard.

 

I love gardenias because they remind me of Mama's bush beside the house where I grew up.  They smell wonderful.

 

We celebrated Valentine's Day with more flowers (roses are my favorite cut flowers)  and a visit to a Mexican restaurant on Merritt Island.  Their food is great and the presentation is beautiful.  Our meals came with edible flowers.  Jem ate his - but I decided to wear mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Oh, and I must tell you about the vest I'm wearing in the picture above.  It's a heated vest that I bought for Jem.  It was so cold that day, he let me wear it.  We've both gotten a lot of wear out of it during this cold winter.  It is wonderful.  We bought one for our son-in-love, William because he works outside sometimes.  He said he didn't think he get much wear out of it, but he REALLY has worn it a lot.   

Our daughter, Amanda, sang with a local band, Gold Tone, at an Irish pub in Cocoa Beach. This was soooo good. The music was a combination of Celtic tunes and popular songs. I particularly enjoyed the combination of instruments, including the hammered dulcimer. It was lovely, y’all. I love dulcimer music. I remember one time when Amanda and I went to Barberville for a dulcimer workshop. She’d never played the hammered style, but she sat down and played it like she’d been playing all of her life. Yep. She’s talented like that.  

 

We visited the annual Merritt Island Birding and Wildlife Festival.  This year, it was in Cocoa Beach.  We met this author of several bird books.  He was very interesting to talk with.  

 

 

 

This is a little owl that was captured by a local wildlife rescue team.  He's missing one eye.   

Also in March, Amanda, our grandson Jonathan, Jem and I went to an event called The Heavens Declare, presented by Science Partners.  I'm so sad that I didn't get photos.  It is an astronomy workshop from a creationist perspective. The presentation included an inflatable planetarium that shows "the Gospel in the Stars".  It was educational and very interesting.  The only bad part is that you have to crawl into the planetarium on your knees and sit on the floor once inside.  Trust me -  this is a bad idea for a seventy-five year old lady like me.  Jem didn't go in.  He said, "I don't think it's a good idea."  So TRUE, y'all!  Now, we BOTH know our limitations.  I'll never do that again.  But, if you ever hear of this workshop, go to it and you won't be disappointed.

Last week, we visited Jacksonville University.  Jem and some of his Shangri-La shipmates presented a plaque and scholarship to a Naval Reserve student. The young man couldn't attend, which was sad.  He's greatly admired by his unit because he's an outstanding student, both scholastically and physically. He was an enlisted man who decided to go back to school and become a Navy officer. He is married, with two young children.  So, this $5000 scholarship will be a blessing.   The USS Shangri-La Reunion Association awards this scholarship every year.

 

 

 

The event also was to place a memorial plaque dedicated to the crews of the USS Shangri-La from 1944 to 1971.   The bell is the original ship's bell from the Shangri-La aircraft carrier.

 

We really enjoyed our visit to Jacksonville.  It was good to visit with these friends and others we met up with.  We also enjoyed our visit to the Chamblin Book Mine where I found four wonderful books.  I'll share them with y'all next time.

 

Blessings to You All, dear Gail-Friends!

 

 

 

Golden Cottage Update

 

Today is January 11, and December is a blur, Gail-Friends.  I hope your holidays were happy, peace-full, and blessed.  Ours were "different" . . .  busy, but blessed.  Jem was sick for about two weeks, and our daughter's family was sick for over three weeks - coughs, sneezing, fevers, chills - all the things that go along with flu season.  They are all well now, Praise the Lord!  And I praise the Lord that I never came down with any of it.

But, let's back up, y'all.  Here are a few pics from the months of November and December that show what's been happening at Golden Cottage:

In November, our daughter Amanda was part of an musical variety show called a Brown Bag Concert.  She joined the ten-piece Bucket List Band in an amazing concert.  The venue was very nice - at a local Elks Lodge.  It was called "brown bag" because everybody brought their own dinner meal.  Many brought homemade food while others brought pizza, subs, and other restaurant meals.   

Amanda is the singer on the left.  She, and all of them, put on a fantastic show.  The songs were an entertaining mixture of oldies through current popular songs.  The venue has a nice dance floor, so Jem and I enjoyed both the music and dancing together.  Places / venues like this are rare in this area, so we thoroughly enjoyed the evening out and hope there will be more events like this.  

During November and December, we have what we call "Florida snow" in our area.  It's so beautiful, y'all, and we dearly love it. 

Oh, before I forget, Gail-Friends, I have to tell you about a wonderful restaurant we visited - it's Palm Shores Bistro in Melbourne, Florida.  We like to lunch there when we visit the Base Commissary and Mama Jo's Herbals in Indian Harbor Beach (I'll have to do a separate post about that wonderful place later).  The bistro is on the river, with a beautiful river view, and the food is ALL good.  But I had to show you the desserts.  We didn't indulge, but they are so beautiful, I had to take pictures for you:

 The cinnamon buns are HUGE and smell so good!  And the six-layer carrot cakes and red velvet cakes are gorgeous works of art.  

So tempting, but thankfully, I was able to resist all of that. (except the stollen and jingle-jangle - but more about that later, LOL). I'm still focused on more healthy sweet treats. 

This is a homemade sugar-free keto tiramisu that is really good.

 

and some pretty and satisfying pumpkin muffins I made.

We did get to go to our oldest grandson's music concert before all of the sickness hit.  He attends a musical arts school and we enjoyed his chorus presentation, but didn't make it for the band concert.  He is a part of the percussion section and was invited to be a part of a local college concert during the holidays.  My photos of the concerts didn't turn out, so that's sad.  He's a very talented musician and singer, and a member of a local STEM program.  We're thankful that his parents home school him and his brother.  He gets his scientific/engineering smarts from his father, and his musical abilities from his mother.  What a delightful blend, right? (oh that box he's holding has a funny story with it - but later, Gail-Friends.

 

We had a good "after the holidays" visit with them last week.  Thankfully, they were all well and able to be around us old folks.  Our youngest grandson is a busy little boy and we didn't get our usual family picture.  He was way too busy and excited about his new toys - and Gigi's apples.  He loves to play with them and I have to do a search after they leave to find where he's hidden them.  (JOY!)  I'm really falling down in taking pictures lately.  I just get absorbed in the moment - enjoying being with my loves, right?

Our Hanukkah celebration was lonely but good due to the sickness.   I did some decorating in the house and we did the nightly prayers and candle-lighting.  There's a song I love to sing each year at this time, even though it's not really a Hanukkah song.  It speaks of how Adonai has brought us to this season again.  Here's the link:  It begins with Hebrew, so hang in there - and pay close attention to the provided lyrics.   Shehekiyanu by Ted Pierce.

It is always good to pause during Hanukkah and think back to the past year - about how He has blessed us, guided us, protected us, and provided for us.  I can tell you, Gail-Friends, 2025 was a blessed year for us, and we praise Him whole-heartedly for all He's done and we rededicate our lives to our mission:  to take the Torah and Yeshua to those around us.

 

Here are a few shots of Golden Cottage during the holidays:

I decorated the back porch table with a lighted JOY sign. (more about that later) .  Jem and I made latkes and fried donuts. The pretty pillow was a gift from my friend, Betty, my son-in-love's mother.  

 

For Christmas, we enjoyed meet-ups with dear friends and a party at the air museum where Jem volunteers.  We watched some beautiful worship-full Christmas music concerts on tv AND our favorite holiday movies: A Christmas Story and White Christmas.  I played Christmas music videos on Pandora and YouTube for weeks and sang all of the Christmas songs that I never tire of singing - the hymns/songs about Jesus, y'all.  How wonderful that His name is lifted up and that our country pauses to REMEMBER. May it always be so in America.

 

We did a ride-through of a nearby neighborhood to look at holiday lights. No photos, though, because the traffic was very heavy and we had to pay attention to cars and people walking around.  The neighborhood also does luminaries, which I love so much, and we enjoyed seeing the neighbors sitting around fire pits in their driveways.  There were some awesome digital displays this year, too. 

 

 Jem and I enjoy giving food gifts to our neighbors every year, so we made homemade peanut butter cookies and went door to door delivering them.  FUN! 

  

Well, Gail-Friends, this is getting long, so I'll share more in my next post.  Blessings and love to you all, from me and my Jem.

 

 

 

Golden Cottage Happenings

 

 

 Welcome back to Golden Cottage y'all!  November is almost over, and I'm only just now getting around to doing an update.  October was so busy, y'all.  I made that photo above with AI on Facebook.  Don't ask me how.  But it was fun, and looks pretty good...except my eyes look a bit scary.  

We celebrated Sukkot at home this year, and we had our sukkah on the back patio again.  Here are a few pics.

We waved the lulav and did the water pouring.  We remembered Yeshua's words at the Temple when he said, " "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink."  I can say, "Yes. He quenches my thirst daily when I draw near to Him, read His Word, and listen to His voice." Haleluyah!

 I always enjoy eating meals in the sukkah.  Lucy was always waiting for a handout and Toonie had a great time rearranging the table decorations.

My high school class held a seventy-fifth birthday party in Jacksonville, so we went and I was so blessed to see old classmates.  These ladies are long-time friends.  Elizabeth (top left) was in my first grade class.  Rita (front left) and Brenda (front right) have been friends since high school.  We all reared our children together and now we're enjoying grandchildren.   I love these ladies so much.  They are exceptional Proverbs 31 women. I call Brenda a Wonder Woman because she has health concerns and yet is still  caring for both her husband and her mother in her home.  Both could be in a nursing home, but she is determined to keep them at home.  She's an amazing caregiver.  Please pray for her and them. 

Yes, I turned seventy-five in October.  Jem and I spent the day shopping and eating out.  We went to Ollie's and bought a new carpet shampooer.  When we were checking out, Jem told the clerk it was my birthday.  She frowned and said, "And you bought her  a vacuum cleaner?"  I laughed out loud and said, "Yes. It's what I wanted!"  He gave me these beautiful flowers, too.  I had lunch with friends and got many sweet cards, greetings, and gifts.  My dear friend, Gail, gave me a smart birdhouse.  I'll have to tell y'all about it later. We have to learn how to set it up and use it.  I feel so blessed to be this old.  It's good to be healthy and strong and I count my blessings every day.  These truly are the "Golden Years" in many more ways than one.

We had a wonderful trip to Pensacola Beach, Florida for Rabbi Jem's Navy reunion.  Being wise, I packed clothes for cold weather and boy was I glad I did.  It was so COLD that week AND overcast and rainy on a couple of days.  Here are a few pics from the trip:

We went to Veterans Memorial Park.  Jem is a Purple Heart recipient, so I wanted his picture by the memorial.

My hero

Memorial to the dogs who served.

We had dinner at Maguires Irish Pub - it was fun!

We went on a boat trip to watch the Blue Angels practice.  Here's Jem and a buddy sharing sea stories, and him with a friend on their visit to the battleship Alabama.

It was so cold, y'all.  In the 50's the day I took this pic.  These people must have come down from Alaska, right?  Maybe it was warm to them.  Or maybe ya gotta go swimming in the gulf if you come to Florida.  I never did get down to the beach because it was too cold for this Florida girl.

  The only thing I forgot to bring was my gloves.   I lived most of my life in north Florida and used to always pray that if I ever had to move, I'd move SOUTH!  Well, God answered that prayer with a move to central Florida thirty plus years ago.  Our temps are almost always ten to twenty degrees warmer than up in north Florida.  Brrrrrr!! 

 

Jem had so much fun talking with his buddies.  

He did really well selling his new book at the reunion, too.  This is his second book, called Shenanigans: Adventures on the Shangri-La.  It's a hilarious memoir of his adventures as a sailor and chief petty officer in the Navy.  You can read an excerpt at the  link.  Everybody says it should be a movie or a tv series.  Wouldn't that be great, y'all?  

Well, this is getting long, so I'll do another post about November soon.  We stay so busy that I wonder how we ever had time to work.  God is good and we are blessed.  Every day, I count my blessings, especially for health and strength.  The "Golden Years" are truly wonderful in more ways than one.  

Till next time, God bless and keep you all.