Life at the Plantation

Often, people ask us where we plan to “settle down” when we’re done traveling.  Sort of reminds me of the question asked of me as a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” How the heck was I supposed to know the answer to that!?  This is the same feeling – we’re not done traveling, so how can we know where (or if) we want to settle?  With that said, IF we HAD to make a choice right now, this part of Alabama would be pretty darn high on the list.  I specifically love Rainbow Plantation.  I like the area, the weather, the RV sites, the price is right, the people are friendly, and there’s a wealth of choices when it comes to choosing activities.

We’ve been busy the past few days.  Jim took time to make some habanero jelly (yes, there are 10 of them here):

And those 10 peppers went into these 7 jars of jelly:

Our friend Carol, from Birmingham, (well, she actually lives south of there, but it’s close) and her sister, Susan, came down for the weekend.  They stayed at a hotel in Orange Beach, so we spent a lot of time going back and forth visiting, shopping, walking on the beach, eating, and just generally having a great time. Yesterday morning, we had breakfast with them at the hotel before they started their homeward journey.

I got my closet cleaned out, and gave away all of my craft projects to good homes!  Besides craft supplies and projects, I let go of several items of clothing and shoes as well.  I still have several drawers to go through, so I know the bargain table in the clubhouse will have more things added to it over the next few days.  I’m not sure why I thought that once I’d cleared out all my stuff from the sticks & bricks house I would never accumulate clutter again, but clearly that was a mistaken assumption!  Clutter Happens!

Yesterday afternoon we joined Darrell & Judy at their home, along with John & Sandy, and Norm & Linda for a wonderful gathering to share a batch of Darrell’s famous fish chowdah, Judy’s delish apple crisp, and Sandy’s homemade coleslaw.  Norm & Linda were returning yesterday from a rally, so of course, with it being their travel day, a gathering was necessary!  The food and the company were delightful.

As usual, line dancing was on the schedule for this morning, and the regular instructor was there and ready to go!  He just arrived at the park about a week ago and originally said he wouldn’t be starting to teach until December, but changed his mind.  Great!  It was a good class!

Later this afternoon we decided to get out for awhile, so we dusted off the cameras and went for a drive.  First we drove over by Fort Morgan, which we visited 2 years ago. This time we just snapped a couple of pictures of the area:

 

We ended up with our lawn chairs at Gulf Shores Public Beach to watch the sunset.  While we watched the shore and the sky, we also watched people and birds.  This young gull grabbed a morsel from the incoming surf and took off running down the beach with it, chased by several of his companions:

The sky put on a gorgeous show for us:

And finally, the sun was gone:

We gathered our chairs and cameras and headed back to the plantation, where we found the population had increased in our absence.  We now have neighbors across from us, on each side and behind us.  It’s getting busy here!

Many of my readers also read Janna’s blog, Tin TeePee/Log Cabin and know that she is making a quilt for me.  In her blog last night, she posted a picture of it.  Today she sent me a couple of additional pictures which she took when she got home from her quilting retreat.  Here’s a close-up of one corner:

I think the colors work so well together, this is going to be one beautiful quilt.  A former neighbor of ours in Colorado Springs happened to be the store clerk helping me pick fabric and materials when we were there last summer, and she was the one who took a look at a throw pillow from the bed, along with a towel that contains the burgundy accent color and just grabbed all these different fabrics for me to choose from, making suggestions along the way.  I am one lucky woman to have these angels looking out for me, I would never have been able to accomplish this on my own.

Life is good!