Almost 3 weeks have gone by since I've been back, if you can believe it .. I had to check the calendar for that myself ..

Things have pretty much gone back to normal, I've gotten rid of my jet-leg hang-over, and I don't wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning anymore, wondering where the heck I am ... 

Yes, I did that, and believe me, it's very unsettling!

The weather has been wonderful, temps in the low 70's, with the occasional 81 in there, and cooling off at night. I have to look through last years posts, but I think this Spring has been unusually cool so far. Hey, I'm not complaining!

On one of these beautiful morning's we went for a round of golf at Oak Knoll in Hammond. This course is the closest to us, (since the Hammond golf Center closed it's doors last summer!) and James has been playing it off and on already while I was gone.

I played there once last year and liked it very much. It's a beautiful course with huge mature trees. The Live Oaks are particularly pretty, with long strands of Spanish Moss hanging from their gnarly limbs.
Now it's started to warm up you have to be a little careful when you're looking for your ball in theses areas, especially if it lands close to the water's edge, as mine did ...

      

That was a Black Water Snake on the left, warming itself in the early morning sun. They're totally harmless but snakes always scare the be-jesus out of me ...
Give me the cute Fox Squirrel (that are in abundance at the course) on the right, anytime!

After the round James brought me to his favorite 'top-of-the-line' restaurant named Connie's:

As you can see, even the term 'shack' might be an overstatement ...

The inside isn't much better, and upon entering I really started to worry if I'd make it out alive or would survive the food at all ..
James eats here once a week with his work crew, and has raved about the wholesome down-to-earth country-food (and hasn't dropped dead yet), so I was dying (HA!) to try it myself!

Well, I didn't need to worry because I can tell you the food IS excellent. Although a lot of it is fried (not getting around THAT here), the batter is light and not greasy at all, everything is very fresh and tasty and a there's a LOT of it!
So, now I too can say: "I survived Connie's", like the rest of them ..

Somewhere last week Ronnie (James' boss) called us over to the orchard (right in front us), to help harvest some of the Mayhaw berries.
I took a picture of the blossoms before I left:

Since than those grew into these:

                                         

Mayhaws, actually hawthorns, are common in wetlands throughout the south and have berries that ripen and drop in early summer, around the month of April or May, depending on the weather.
Straight from the tree even the red ones are super-tart, too tart to eat, which is why most of them are made into jelly.

But first there's some work to be done, like a whole lot of shaking, and gathering .. and trumping through the mud since these trees like to grow in swampy conditions ...

Like I said, the joy of the Mayhaw is the making of its Mayhaw jelly and one of the South’s greatest culinary pleasures, at breakfast or otherwise. 
Slathered on a slice of toast or added to a dessert dish, you’ll find yourself enjoying a truly Southern flavor, a sweet jelly with a unique aroma and indescribably delicious, wild-fruity taste with just a hint of puckering tartness (depending on how much sugar you added).

So, after the harvest, Ronnie gave me a bucket full of them, added some instructions in how to prepare them and wished me good luck!

  

Most of your time is in picking and sorting the damaged or rotting ones and give them a thorough cleaning. After that you just have to cook them with some water for about 20 minutes, strain them, add some pectin and a LOT of sugar, and fill up your jars.

I used the no-cook freezer pectin. It didn't jell up as well as I hoped, and I think we'll have more of a syrup than a jelly, but it tasted wonderful so I'm pretty proud of myself!

  

Ronnie told me about the existence of a pond behind the house so one morning I set out to discover it for myself.
A narrow path led me through the swampy area behind the RV and, lo and behold, there it was:

A nice little pond, inhabited by lots of turtles, and surrounded by lots of different wildflowers.
A huge flock of Egrets took off when I approached the water's edge ...

I'm sure I'll be taking this route more often in the coming weeks, just to see what I will find! Water always attracts wildlife.

Talking about wildflowers, here's a little collage of some of the ones I've come across so far:



Irisses, Toadflax, Wood Sorrel, Buttercups, a white Azelea ...
I even found a few Marsh Clematis (Clematis Crispa). 
They're tiny, so you have to look real careful for them, but they are so dainty and beautiful: 

Also called Blue Jasmine, Curly Clematis, or Swamp Leatherflower (I mean, make up your mind already) they're native to the South-East and like their feet wet ... no problem here!

And that's about it for this week me thinks, quite a long post for 'nothing happening'. See you next time!