The Underhill-Wedeles House in Quincy’s historic district Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to live here, in Quincy, Florida, which is, I guess, a rather strange ambition. Most people wouldn’t want to live in Quincy. It’s a decrepit little town, almost …
At Christmastime, the lamp posts around the courthouse square in Quincy are always decorated with giant bells and angels and stars made all of lights. It’s a tradition I look forward to so much, every December. Our little square is pretty shabby and tattered, and …
Last weekend we painted our white front porch rockers Black Forest Green, also known as Quincy Green. It’s the color that folks here in Quincy traditionally use to paint their shutters. You see, pretty much all the houses in town are snow white with black-green …
We went up to Havana the other day and found a few new treasures–four very old painted chairs and a floor lamp with a copper base. We got a mahogany plant stand too, with a marble top, but it’s not pictured because we don’t have …
Jake at the McNair-Black Farmhouse, Photo by Kris Kimel Photography
On Friday, Mom, Kris, Sophie, Jake, and I went to the Tallahassee Museum again. We had so much fun. Hardly anybody else was there, so we played as if the 52-acre museum were all ours. It was such a warm, lovely day, the air so light; the hickory trees were gold and the sweetgums were red. We played hide-and-seek and there were no boundaries. As Kris hid her eyes over by the Trail Break Café, Sophie and I ran toward Bellevue, the Princess Murat house, acres and acres away. We ran in the front door, down the wide, breezy hall, and out the back. We jumped down the porch steps and ran down, down into the dry sink; we hid in that big, familiar crater in the woods. We talked in whispers and waited, listening to the leaves and acorns fall. Then we crept around on the sandy trails behind the old schoolhouse, past the sparkleberries and deer berries. We hid for maybe half an hour, as Kris chased Jake (fruitlessly) along the boardwalks, over the palmettos in the swamp. . . .
Jake, me, and Sophie, Photo by Kris Kimel Photography
Here’s my contribution to our family’s Thanksgiving dinner this year. (Yes, I know. My contribution is tiny.) It’s an easy cranberry relish made from a recipe Mom found years ago in Taste of Home magazine. I like to eat it hot, not cold. . . …
We have a little shelter in our yard that’s covered with flowering vines–coral honeysuckle, pipevine, crossvine, and native wisteria. We call it our “vine house.” Well, this weekend we revamped the little place, giving the chairs a fresh coat of Crocus Petal Purple paint and …
Our Rangpur lime tree is doing great this year. It’s dark and lush, loaded with bright orange, tangy fruit. A Rangpur lime isn’t a real lime; it’s a cross between a Mandarin orange and a lemon. But the fruit is sour enough to use as a substitute for limes. We usually use our Rangpur limes in guacamole and salsa, but today we picked a bunch of them and made a delicious, elegant punch (which we enjoyed with our lunch of frozen french fries). We followed this recipe, but we left out the 7-Up to make it less terrible for you. Here’s what we used and what we did:
Rangpur Lime Punch
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 cup pineapple juice
11/2 cups Rangpur lime juice
6 cups of ice and water (6 cups total)
Directions:
Boil 2 cups of water. Add sugar to the pot and boil, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
In a large pitcher, add pineapple juice, Rangpur lime juice, the 6 cups of ice water, and the sugar syrup. Mix and serve.
