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It was a perfectly splendid trip to the island. We got one of the best sunsets I've ever seen on Friday night and of course we had no camera. But the picture above is one that my daughter took a few years ago and it will do.

As usual, there were a few problems: one of the toilets in the house wasn't working, several of the cold water lines were clogged, the oven is broken, and the steps up to the house are...well, let's just put it this way- if you're a big person, don't carry anything heavy up them.

But besides all of that (and that is typical, believe me), everything was just lovely. The heater did work, as did the electricity and the other toilet and the refrigerator was fine. Once when we got there, the refrigerator had broken down and it was the nastiest mess you can imagine. But there were no refrigerator-related tragedies this weekend.

The man caught some nice grouper on Saturday and we took a two hour walk that afternoon. It's so hard to judge distance on the beach. "Let's walk up to those houses," you say, and then an hour later you realize that those houses had to be three miles away, but it was perfect walking weather and we saw lots of beautiful birds and the sand was firm and all was well.

Cards were played, delicious dinners were eaten and cooked. We stopped in Panacea on the way over and bought shrimp, oysters, and a few stone crab claws. Need I say more about that? We'll be eating oysters for a week, so if you're reading this and within driving distance, perhaps you should come and help us get rid of some of them. I'm about to go out in the garden and pick spinach to make some sort of Rockefeller dish.

And thus, it was a very good weekend and we laughed a lot and I didn't bitch too much, although this is my blog so you'll have to take my word on that subject. I didn't talk to one other person besides my husband the entire weekend, and that was just fine by me. My little external modem thingee would not work with the phone line and so that was a bit of a problem. I jonesed. I'll admit it. But I kept thinking about things I'd like to talk about here and I realized something- this blog has become one of the delights of my life. And that writing is more of a joy to me than I can even begin to say.

So now we're home where the azaleas are blooming and there are cardinals at the feeder. I saw a dogwood flowering on my way home and I just feel like the luckiest woman in the world at this moment with my beautiful old house and my wireless internet.

I guess I better go unpack and start some laundry. And pick spinach and see if we have any artichoke hearts in the cabinet. I'm glad to be home, although it was mighty hard to leave the island this afternoon. It was an insanely beautiful day on the island and I'm already a bit nostalgic, thinking about what the sun is doing there now, dropping down towards the water over the west end of the island and wondering whether the osprey is out looking for his dinner.

Hopefully, we'll be going back soon. And in the meanwhile, this different part of North Florida paradise is fine with me.

I hope all is well with you. I truly do.