Movie Night!

Well, what are four college girls going to do on the first night of the first weekend of the semester? Maybe go out and party? Drink themselves silly? No, not us! We bunkered down in our room for a movie night!

So far, it's been a triple feature, and a very interesting triple feature at that!

First up, "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang"
an old family favorite.






Next, "Sweeney Tod"
I have to say, I believe that this is my favorite thus far. I hadn't seen it before. It's a gruesome tale, but how I love the sound of Jonny Depp's voice!









And the feature playing now, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
Dancing, fighting, songs, and awesome flips!




What do all these movies have in common? Music! Hooray for musicals from all ages!

From One Fire to Another

Well, the '09-'10 year is off to a start!
To celebrate, a few of my friends and I got together Wednesday night for a....you guessed it - bonfire! Yep, bonfires all summer and into the school year.

I'm still trying to get into the swing of things. I'm not completely ready for all of my course work, but then, who ever really is?

I'll have more to talk about later. For now, enjoy these fun fire photos!



[Green fire?]

The End and a New Beginning

Yesterday was my last day at work. It started out as a rainy, gloomy day. I felt really rainy and gloomy inside as well. I realized that I was going to miss going up to the Lodge and seeing everyone there. I was going to miss meeting friendly little faces, all excited for summer, bonfires, and even tie-dye in a small sort of way. I was going to miss the kitchen staff, the friendly maintenance guys, the two security guards (oh, they were characters!), and most of all, my boss Abby.

Those same friendly faces helped put a smile on my face though. I received many goodbyes and well wishes. Best of all, Abby showed up for my last bonfire! She wasn't working that night, but she told me she might stop up if she had the time. I was so happy to have her there. One of our other maintenance buds who was off work that night stopped up too to say goodbye. Those visits really made my day (or night, as it was bonfire time).

Ahhh, I will miss you Atwood. This Saturday it's back to college and back to the grinding stone. I'll miss the sound of the boat motars humming on the water...
... my Grandma and Aunt Bernie telling stories of years past...
... different relative and friend visitors stopping by...
... the sound of the water lapping against the dock
... the smell of the pine trees on a hot summer day
... the sound of the rain tapping gently against the cabin roof...
... the bird song in the morning...
... sailing the Snarky and Day Glo on a breezy day...

... and of course, the little red strawberries that warm my heart and make me smile.

I have a few little summer stories yet to tell, if I have the time to tell them.

I'd like to continue my blog, though the summer is almost over and gone. That's why I think I'll rename it "Atwood Strawberry: Little Views into the Life of a College Girl." I'll wait until summer is completely over until I make the transition.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I never really told anyone where, exactly, Atwood Lake is. Here is a link to a map of it, out in Eastern Ohio:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk-gm&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20map

and it's own website:

http://www.mwcdlakes.com/atwood.htm

A wonderful summer comes to a close, but the doors to a new semester open before me. Who knows, maybe some amazing adventures await me yet.

Waiting for Bernie

I'm waiting for my Aunt Bernie to get here for her visit. She's driving from Philadelphia and is about 15 minutes away as I type.

I'm excited for her visit. I wonder if it may put a damper on my blogging though. She'll be staying in the room with the internet access. If that's the case, I'll try to get on when I can. Summer is quickly coming to a close!

Here's a few pictures while I wait:






[Lake Feet]















[Orange Sunset]

Baking Up a Storm

I love to bake! I wish I had more time to, and more mouths to eat the things I bake. If I could go back to before college again, I might have gone to a Culinary school. Maybe I'll work in or own my own bakery some day. You never know. But for now, I'm just happy to bake when I can.

[Whisking the egg yolk for "chocolate half-way cookies"]

I discovered my grandma's old cook books on the shelf earlier this summer. This one was published in 1957.
There are some household tips in the back of the book along with the recipes. I bet Beaver's mom would have loved this book.









[Chocolate half-way cookies]
These were some interesting and very sweet cookie bars. Hooray 50's recipes!











[Mixmaster]
Hooray old mixer from the 70's!
For those of you who've seen the "That 70's Show" episode, remember when Red "just sold a Mixmaster!"? Well, we own it!






[Cinni-bisc.]
A quick biscuit cinnamon roll.













[Mixing the dough]










[Chocolate chip cookie dough... my Aunt Bernie's recipe.]





[Chocolate-chip Cookies!]
I like mine puffy, sometimes even puffier than these. Just add more flour to your recipe if you want to try it out.



May-hap I will be able to bake again soon. We'll have to wait and see.

Picture Perfect

Here's a montage of recent pictures taken at the lake...






[Lucky Lake Shamrocks]















[Waiting for Abby. Can't wait until she gets there.]








[Lodge Beetle]







[Chipmunk!] This little guy steals from the bird feeder, but he's so cute!








[Sailing Boats plus the Tube]
Day Glo and the Snarky side by side.







[Butterfly on the Beach]











[A Bee Glides In]
















[Pink Fireworks]















[Through the Corn Hole]










[Humming Bird]
This is a male Ruby Throated humming bird.















[Ivy]











[Sunset Over the Lake]
Look closely. Do you see the silhouette of the blue heron?

Best Friends at the Lake

This past Tuesday my best friend Colleen came for a lake visit. The day was overcast, but we were able to fit in some speed boating, swimming, movie watching, and of course, plenty of conversation. Colleen was even brave enough to drive the speed boat herself...twice!







My dad came as well for a bit, and brought with him a new sail boat. It's a Cape Cod Frosty, only 6 feet in length. It was designed for "frostbiting" in the winter waters of Cape Cod. I named it Day Glo after its bright paint job. My dad and I sailed the boat for a couple turns (I even flipped it over when I caught a wind too strong and too fast and didn't shift myself over quickly enough). Colleen and I paddled around in just the hull for a bit as well, to test how well two people could fit into the boat. We decided that the Sea Snark is probably much better for some two person sailing than the Frosty.


Here's a blue heron Colleen and I spotted while out in the blue boat (our little speed boat).












Gone swimming.











It was a fun visit. I'm just sorry the sun didn't come out more.

Another Peek into the Lodge

So what do I do at work you may ask? Well I do tons of things! I play games, I make food, I build fires, I laugh on weekends with my boss, Abby, and other work friends, I am a smiling, friendly face.

What games do I play? Cornhole (pictured here), ladder golf, sand volleyball, baseball, kickball, water balloons, relay races, bingo, scavenger hunt, and even blowing bubbles!

What food do I make? S'mores, sno cones, and pop corn.

Anything else? Tie-dye t-shirts. Oh the dreaded but ever popular tie-dye t-shirts. Dreaded because organizing and carrying out the activity with a crowd of guests can give you a headache.

Fire? the bonfires of course! My favorite activity. I always smell so good afterward, a delicious smokey, woody smell.

Laughing and smiling? Well sure! For one, it's a part of my job. When you're in the business of hospitality, a smile is a part of your uniform. For another thing, my job is fun and so are some of the people I work with, especially Abby. I'm so glad she's my boss. Working is so much fun with her on the weekends. I'll have to blog more about our crazy antics later.

For now, I have a few pictures of some other kinds of Lodge visitors...

Raccoons. These crazy guys are always trying to get into the dumpsters.
They've also been known to "terrorize" the guests. Not often, but there were a few episodes. "Terrorizing" usually entails the raccoon just walking around in the vicinity of guests. Abby chased one away with a shuffle board stick once and the maintenance guys have gone after them with baseball bats and lead pipes. Poor little guys.

Deer. You have to watch out for these guys. They like to walk out in front of cars and golf carts. I saw this mother and baby out in the field by the driving range and out bonfire hill.

Bees. Our Activities uniform includes a bright pink shirt and a darker blue one. One day all the bees seemed to be visiting me. It was as if they thought my shirt was a flower. I cringed as they flew over toward me once in a while throughout the day. I like honey bees, but other bees make me a little nervous. I don't like being stung.
I took the picture of this one as she was flying from one hosta flower to another. Here she is inside the flower.

Bunny. This little guy was my bonfire buddy for a while. He was always waiting up at the bonfire for me, eating grass by the wood pile.

Some beach, somewhere...

Alright, more beach stories and pictures...

The tide is coming in...
I love the feel of the water rushing back and forth across my feet.
I love the feel of the sand flowing away with the water, disappearing quickly from under my feet.


The boys (my little Georgia cousins) and I would sometimes play a game where we run from the oncoming waves, not letting the water touch our feet, but staying tantalizingly close to the cool surf.









One morning a storm rolled in over the ocean. I sat out there with my grandma, my mom, and my aunt, watching the lightning flash across the gray sky in the distance. The rest of the week we were surrounded by thunderstorms, but the only time the storms ever came over to our beach was Friday afternoon.

Seagulls glide and hover, almost still in the air, riding the storm winds.













Blob castle. This is one of my mom's "blob sand" creations. She used the wet sand from the low tide beach and slowly dropped it in a building pile. Winding through the turrets of blob castle is a tiny stream, dug out by my mom, redirecting the water from the tiny streams that form from the sand further up on the beach draining down into the ocean.

One of the boys' army men tramps through the water of the rising tide.














Here lizard lizard lizard! This tiny guy showed up Wednesday morning for breakfast. There are little lizards all over the island if you keep your eyes open. I think that they are the cutest little things, but I'm sure my grandma would not agree with me.


Summer sun tea. I love southern style sweet sun tea, especially when it's made by the South Carolina Coast sunshine!











The big game to play at the beach seemed to be Scrabble. I love to play with my grandma and my Aunt Marny, so I brought along my travel Scrabble. Once I brought the game out though, all of the boys wanted to play too. I found myself playing this game every day at the beach, sometimes two or three times in one day. This scrabble game was played by three crazy scrabble players - my dad, himself, and him.

Up by the base of the breakers are deposited piles upon piles of shells. If you sift through these shells, you can find tiny little ones, still completely intact if you're lucky. If you're really lucky, you might even find a piece of sea glass or two.






We kept finding these little guys all over of the beach this year. I found one crawling over my foot! There's several different crabs I've seen on the beach now. These little brown guys, ghost crabs (a yellowy-white colored crab), larger brown and tan spotted crabs, and another tiny little guys who looks like a big pill bug, which I believe is known as a sand beetle.

On the way home, we got caught in a hail and rain storm in the middle of the West Virginia mountains. I took a few pictures out of the back window.

The rain begins.
















Driving through the toll booth.











The rain stars to let up and the sky lights up with color.















I will miss you Edisto Island!