Seafood Feast / Stained Glass Butterfly / Turtle

It was a busy day, as we had plans to meet my mother-in-law in Altoona for a lovely, though much delayed, birthday lunch for my husband. He'd requested Red Lobster, as he was hungry for seafood, so off we went. Above you may see my delicious, huge lunch, the seaside shrimp trio. 

The seaside shrimp trio is: a generous sampling of Walt's Favorite Shrimp, hand-crafted garlic shrimp scampi, and creamy shrimp linguini Alfredo. Served with lemon, cocktail sauce, and choice of two sides. (I picked a baked potato with butter and sour cream, and french fries.)

"That was one of the most amazing meals I've ever seen anyone order in a restaurant," my husband said later, as we were looking at the pictures. He had the steak and shrimp, and got far less food than I did. I had tons of leftovers for later. (Yes, I'll share a few of those schwimps, but ONLY with my lover!)

We shopped a little in Altoona - they have the best Dollar Tree store I know of, anywhere - and then headed over to Bald Eagle Creek to dip our tootsies in. We found the water to be much lower than usual, and there was a fisherman just above us, so we moved downstream a bit to give him room.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the creek in our chairs, and wading, and T. Tiger and I chased the crayfish and the tiny minnows and everything else that would let us. I began my life as a child, wading in "the crick" in summertime, and I'm happy to admit that I continue to find refuge in these waters as an adult!

On our way out of the wetland, my husband spotted a wonderful turtle, which you may see in the extras. He thought it was a snapper, but I wasn't so sure about that. I took pictures to ID it online later, and a friend told me it is a wood turtle. What a wonderful turtle! I should have asked T. Tiger if he wanted to ride it a short ways, but in general we believe in leaving the wildlife be.

We were approached, as we went to leave the area, by the fisherman, a bearded fellow in his 20s or 30s. He asked if we had a cell phone so he could call his dad, as he had gotten a fishing hook stuck in his finger. I could tell in speaking with him that he was, as we might have said in the old days, a bit simple.

No, we did not have a cell phone, and we didn't have any sort of implement to help him remove the fishing hook. He was not bleeding profusely and did not seem over-excited about the whole thing. So we stood and talked with him for a few minutes, apologized that we could not help, and then the man headed back over to the road. I hope he found someone with a cell phone to help him call his dad. (I admit that I have worried about him ever since.)

Oh, and there's one last bit I need to show you about this day. My morning featured a walk down to my new favorite patch of wildflowers at Autumn Meadow Park. On this morning on my walk, I spotted several monarch butterflies playing there, with the joy of children. You may see a photo of my stained glass butterfly - a monarch - in the extras.

Now, THIS was quite a DAY, as I say. It's a trifecta, three pictures, so let's have three songs.

My stained glass butterfly gets this song: Heart of Glass, performed by Miley Cyrus.

My turtle gets this song, from Sting's album Dream of the Blue Turtles. I always loved the song Russians and it appears relevant once again, sadly. Here's the original, plus a newer recording that references recent events.

And for my seafood feast, well, I'm going rogue here and for a meal that was over the top, I am picking a new song I love, by some amazing ladies of country music (who are also over the top!) called Chapel Hart. Maybe you saw them blow the whole world away last week in America's Got Talent, with their performance of You Can Have Him, Jolene; the song is a response to Dolly Parton's 1973 hit Jolene. Here is the recording of the show. Here is their video that goes with it. Since then, Dolly Parton reshared their link, Loretta Lynn invited them to play with one of HER songs, too, and the Opry invited them to come and perform in September. Rock on, Chapel Hart!