Why hello there.

It’s been awhile, no?

Damn near three weeks since the last post.

I’ve been busy. Living life.

Work.

Working.

Traveling. 

And now I am working on getting back in the groove.

Finding to find that dang groove is more like it.

It’s all good.

Overwhelming.

In a over-300-photographs-kind-of-overwhelming.

Trying to take it all in. 

–>Exhale<–

There’s just so much to take in. 

So much to share. 

And I figure after two years it’s a good time to share a little bit more about this Southern Lady’s slice of home.

I will just go ahead and launch right into it:

I am originally from Florida.

The Nature Coast to be exact. 

Home of the manatees, smoked mullet dip and most recently an epic scallop season. 

I made the trip back to FLA for my Father’s 70th birthday.

And I will admit it was a shock to see his hair all snowy gray. 

It was also a shock that he could see the 10 lb bag of green peanuts on the tailgate of my truck in the pitch black of 11 pm on this especially humid Thursday night. 

I forgot he had cataract surgery earlier in the year. 

He could see everything perfectly.

Without glasses. 

Still can’t hear worth a damn though. 

The night I arrived we stayed up till damn near 3 am.

No lie. 

What were we doing you ask?

Arguing over how to use the pressure cooker. 

“No, this is how the lid has to go on.”

“There’s no damn cook time in this piece of shit instruction manual for boiling peanuts…gimme the phone I am calling my sister." 

(One my aunt boils her weight in green peanuts each year and would obviously know how to cook these peanuts.)

This went on for a little over two hours.

It’s alright though.

No, really.

It is just how we communicate: argue it out. 

With a healthy dose of sarcasm + low blows while you’re at it.

"Just say what it is you need to say.”

“Well, WHY didn’t you say that before?" 

You’ll figure it out. Eventually. 

Conversation, in this household is not for the faint of heart. 

(that there be a party boat. On the River.) 

That 10 lb bag of green peanuts.

Man, that 10 lb bag of peanuts was damn near cooked/finished by the time we all rolled to bed.

It was also damn near consumed by the time I rolled out of the driveway on the following Monday morning: only 2 quart ziplock bags left in the freezer.

So was the bottle of rye whiskey I bought for one of the 70th birthday presents. 

That’s how we roll: 

Peanuts + whiskey

‘Round the kitchen table till 3 am.