Epiphany 2010

My friends and neighbors and I had been planning for months our big boat trip to view the Epiphany Celebration this year. We had done this 2 years ago and had planned for it last year, except the weather was so cold it (the boat trip, not Epiphany) was called off. Of course we have had beautiful weather this year up to yesterday, when suddenly the forecast was for rain, cold and wind.

The storm began in the early wee hours and when I got up at 6:30 a.m. to make my brunch casserole it was dark, windy, and totally yucky. The plan that morning was changed to take the food to our hosts' house and we'd see what the weather was going to do (instead of serving brunch on the boat as planned). So I made my (delicious, it turned out) potato casserole and took it over at 10:30. By that time Mother Nature had decided to be a good lady, and she brought out the sun for us. After delicious Bloody Marys, we dined on Quiche, Potato Casserole, Fruit Salad and baked goodies - then we quickly drove our cars over to the marina just before the police closed off Canal Street.

On the boat ride out to Spring Bayou we encountered pelicans and gulls, of course, and other boats trying to beat us to our site. Our pilot and co-pilot maneuvered the unweidly boat into an available spot and we managed to tie up to a couple of other boats that were there before us. Unluckily for me, with my photo fixation, the boats and thoughtless people in front of us who were standing on platforms on their boats, were pretty much blocking my photographic view. Speaking of the thoughtless people in front of us, I would probably have done the same thing if we had gotten that spot. That said, I still managed to get off some decent, if not noteworthy, shots (shown below. I have given up on trying to incorporate photos in with text - if you've seen my previous blogs you'll know why.)

My son, Tom Hill, is on the Tarpon Springs Police Department's dive team, and he was in the water in dive gear, protecting the young divers. He is shown in one of the photos above in his dive mask. We were too far out for him to swim over and visit with us.

After the diver had come up holding the cross, there were 105 white doves released to commerate the 105 years of Epiphany celebrations.

The day ended up being beautiful, but the ride back was cold and very windy. I'm just glad I had the sense to bring a heavy jacket. The photos above tell the story of our day. Epiphany is a beautiful celebration and always draws a huge crowd. The best place to view it is from a boat (if you can snag a good spot). Otherwise, come at dawn and establish your favorite spot in a chair with a blanket and good book. Then afterwards, go eat lunch at Zante's.

New Year Beginnings

The old Pappas Restaurant on Dodecanese is back - under the new name of Riverside Venue, with new owers. My friends and I decided to begin the New Year with a lunch on the rooftop of the redesigned restaurant, and we were very pleased with our experience. The menu is extensive and has some unusual offerings. My selection was a Seafood Linguini, with large shrimp and lumps of grouper, both cooked to perfection.

In addition to the rooftop dining, there is a restaurant and bar downstairs, with weekend entertainment.

When the Riverside Venue opened a couple of years ago, it was to be a venue for conventions, fashion shows, weddings, etc. But there were so many requests for the restaurant to reopen, the owners decided to do that and the results are worth the wait. On the rooftop, you can opt for the open air or dine inside with fantastic views in both options. Today there were lots of boats out and we watched a guy climb the mast of his sailboat - we think he and his sons were taking down Christmas decorations - There were bikers on the street below us and lots of river traffic.

If you are up on the rooftop, look to the east side (I hope I'm right on that - I'm a little directionally challenged) and you will easily see an osprey nest. I was fortunate enough to be able to catch a couple in the nest today. The photo of the guy up on the mast of the sailboat is way overexposed, but I wanted to include it to show our dining entertainment. In another image, you can see Dodecanese Blvd. with the bikers coming up onto the parking area.

All in all, it was a lovely day - the weather cooperated, the company was good, the food fantastic, and I can't think of a better beginning for a New Year.

Sunday Afternoon by the River

Nestled in between Anclote Park and the Anclote Marina, facing the Anclote River in Holiday, FL, is a most delightful little cafe (restaurant, grill??) I don't know what to call it, but it's name is Miss Vicki's on the River. You can sit outside under an umbrella, look at the water, boats and pelicans while you listen to whatever live music the day serves up. Today's entertainment was Scott Fallon (ScottFallonConnects.com). He sings country and contemporary as well as oldies that most of us in our party recognized.
Miss Vicki's serves up some of the best She Crab Soup in the world. Her Blackened Fish Sandwiches can't be beat, either. Of course there's common fare like bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, chili dogs, wings, and the like, served with potato chips.
Our party of 4 got there a little after the lunch hour and spent a most delightful couple of hours enjoying the breeze, the water, food and music. What could be a better way to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon?

My Family

My husband Dale and I met in Dade City when I was a freshman and he was a junior in high school. After his graduation we went our separate ways until we re-met at his 40th (my 38th) high school reunion. After we married I moved to Kingsport, TN, where Dale had a job as Chemical Engineer with Tennessee Eastman. We lived there together for 10 years before moving b ack to Florida to retire. Tarpon Springs was a logical choice, as my son lived here and I had always loved this area.

We have a combined family of 4 grown children, 9 grandchildren and a great grandson. My oldest daughter, Holly, is a librarian at the army base of Ft. Knox, KY. Son Tom is a police sergeant in Tarpon Springs and youngest daughter Amy is a wife, mother and grandmother in Nashville, TN. Amy is married to Mike and their 3 sons are Andrew, who graduated from College of Charleston and works in a restaurant there; Oliver graduated from Belmont College and is beginning work on his Masters in film production; Ethan is a student at College of Charleston and is the new father of Atticus, who will be 1 year old in August. My son Tom is married to Sharon and they have 3 sons: Matthew, who works at Books A Million; Tim, who is finishing his last year at U of Fla in engineering; Jeff is a rising senior at Tarpon High.

Dale has a daughter, Diane, who is married to David and lives in Kingsport, TN. They have 2 beautiful daughters, Shelby Ray and Hannah. Shelby is a rising senior in high school and Hannah will begin high school as a freshman this year. Dale's two sons, Shelby and Raymond, passed away several years ago, two years apart, when they were 26 and 28 years old. Shelby Ray is named for both of her uncles. Shelby had 1 daughter, Elizabeth, who was just married this past October and is a pharmacist at Walgreens in Indiana.

Dale and I are both very proud of our family. We don't get to see them often enough, but we do get to visit together pretty often. I am posting here a collage that I made from photographs that have been taken in the past 3 years, so they are pretty current. Maybe you can figure out who everyone is from the descriptions that I've given here.

Be sure to click on the photo for a larger view.

A Book to Treasure

I have just finished reading a most wonderful book that I would like to share. My daughter, Amy, is a marvelous cook. We both have a love for cookbooks (I love to read them and she actually cooks), and she frequently gives me great books for my birthday. This year she gave me a jewel that I will always treasure - it's "The School of Essential Ingredients" by Erica Bauermeister. It is the author's first novel, and is not an actual cookbook but a story about a cooking class, the teacher and the students. It is sheer poetry in novel form, and will make you smile and cry throughout the pages as you learn about the lives of the participants. Another author gave her own description of the book: "A delicate, meltingly lovely hymn to food and friendship. Lillian's kitchen is a place where the world works the way it should. You'll want to tuck yourself into one warm corner of it and stay all day." That pretty much says it all. You will never think about food in the same way again - life is too precious and short not to appreciate the little things - the smells, the feelings, the memories. When I finished the book, I had tears and joy and felt truly uplifted.

I hope you will read it and let me know how it affects you.

The Fun of Editing Photographs

For several years I edited my photos with a free program that I downloaded from the internet, called Picasa (http://www.picasa.com/). This program was a joy to use, and so much fun to learn. I consider it the best photo editing program out there, other than the more advanced programs like Photoshop and Lightroom.

I e-mailed one of my pictures to a friend one day and she wrote me back and asked why I didn't remove one of the elements of my picture, as she considered it distracting. I told her that I didn't have that capability, but it did start me thinking about buying a more advanced program, and I was ready for that. Looking into Photoshop, I found that it was far too expensive for me at that time, so I settled for the latest version of Photoshop Elements, which was #8. I ordered it from Cosco for around $83.

I want you to know that I have been having so much fun with this program. There is much to learn, but there's a wonderful new discovery every time I go into the book that I bought to help learn the program (Teach Yourself Visually Photoshop Elements 8).

The pictures that I have posted above are some examples of the kinds of things that you can do with Photoshop. The most fun for me is taking some of the elements from 2 or 3 photographs and creating a whole new picture. The bottom picture I call "Heron at Sunrise". This was taken in St. Petersburg on the water at sunrise. The Heron was taken from one photo and added to the sunrise picture. The 3 parrots are actually 1 green parrot that I've duplicated and changed the colors. The bird on the limb (top) is made from 3 photographs: the sky was in Arizona and I took that one from my car window. The tree around the edges, forming a frame, was from my back yard in Tarpon Springs, and the red bird I found in Wall Springs park on a photowalk there one morning recently. If you are interested, you can check out more of my photos at http://www.trishgreg.com/

A New Cookbook

I have found a new cookbook that I really like and wanted to share it with you. When I was in Louisiana at the Avery Island Tabasco Factory, I found a book in the gift shop called "Rice Cooker Meals" by Neal Bertrand. The caption at the top of the book read "Fast Home Cooking for Busy People", and that appealed to me right away, as I am a busy person.

I had bought a rice cooker several years ago while I was in Louisiana, but had not used it very much. It was sitting in a cabinet, pretty much forgotten. This book intrigued me with its easy, spicy, wonderful sounding recipes, and the new (to me) idea of cooking something besides rice in it. I bought it right away and proceeded to read it through a couple of times. I couldn't wait to get home to try it.

The day after arriving home I made the Red Beans and Rice dish. It involved getting a package of sausages out of my freezer and taking a can of red beans and a can of chili beans out of the pantry. I did have to go to the market and buy a bell pepper, onion and some green onions, but this dish was so easy to put together and mix in the rice cooker, I couldn't believe it. My husband and I both loved the dish, needless to say, and the next day I made another one for a weekly neighborhood gathering. I put the dish together and took the whole thing to our clubhouse, plugged it in, and went about my business until it finished cooking. Everyone loved it and it made a great addition to our combined meal.

As a photographer who spends a lot of time on the computer, I have to admit that in spite of an overabundance of cookbooks in my house, for the past six months or so my husband has been subjected to a series of frozen dinners and frozen pizzas. Now these are great for emergencies, but do not qualify as good home cooked meals. Since I found my wonderful "Rice Cooker Meals" cookbook, there has been a good meal on the table every night. I just chop the ingredients when I have time, store them in the refrigerator, then when it's time for dinner I put everything in the rice cooker, plug it in and fix a salad. What could be easier?

The book can be found on Amazon.com for under $10 -- buy a couple more books and it ships free. You can also check out Neal's website at http://www.ricecookermeals.com/