Sunday, July 12

From Hawks to Herons


My neighbors and I went to Herons for lunch on Thursday, to celebrate the birthday of my next-door neighbor, who came here from Sweden when she was a young woman. Herons is in the boutique hotel The Umstead, which is owned by some of the people who started SAS Software. It is a lovely , modern place; full of original art. They have a brochure in the lobby, showing the location of each piece of art and naming the artist.



Even though they spelled my neighbor's name wrong, the cake they baked for her birthday was luscious, both in looks and the way it tasted. Most of the others could only manage to eat a few bites of it, but I, Ms.Piggy that I am, ate the whole slice and wanted to lick the plate. It really was the very best chocolate cake I have ever eaten. Our handsome waiter, Diego, from Costa Rica, presented it to the table and then took it away for plating. When he brought the plates back, the 2" thick slices were sitting in a bed of raspberry sauce, and were topped by raspberries and blackberries. It was most excellent! I wish I had not eaten lunch first....LOL

I ordered a spinach and steak salad, and it came with sliced grape tomatoes, marinated mushrooms and Deep-dried onion rings on top. Yummy. The dressing was home-made buttermilk ranch, and just the right amount. Some restaurants use too much for my taste. The others ordered several different types of sandwiches, and most were pronounced very tasty. The portions were certainly large enough, and sandwiches come with home-made sweet-potato fries or their own potato chips. I forgot to take photos of the foods, as usual.


This is me with my neighbor of 27 years, and you could seldom find a better one. In the top photo, she is the woman on the left in a wheelchair. It was just a precaution, since she had a hip replacement in June, and can't walk far at this point. We were very fortunate that she was able to accompany us for this luncheon, and we hope she'll be around for many more.

14 comments:

Grannymar said...

Yum, yum, yum.

Judy you are so fortunate to have such good neighbours.

colleen said...

Reminds me of Naomi's "Ladies who Lunch" and my trip to Martha's Vineyard where my mother used a walker to get around.

That's a nice group of women friends!

Pat said...

A lovely day out and a chocolate cake to rival Naomi's. I have had a piggy week-end too so I know how you feel. It's easy to get the habit unfortunately.

robin andrea said...

I expected to see a Blue Heron (LOL!). What a wonderful lunch. It all sounds very delicious, and a wonderful way to celebrate a lovely neighbor. You are both very beautiful, and it's great to see your face.

Arkansas Patti said...

Great pictures and no one looks the worse for wear from eating such a great looking cake.
So nice of you all to take her out to celebrate.
I do hope she continues to recover nicely from the replacement.

Ginnie said...

What fun and the food sounds wonderful. That's a great picture of you, Judy.

srp said...

Oh that cake looks wonderful... send us some?!!! Please!!!

JeanMac said...

What a lovely celebration - sad to say, i would have been able to eat the whole piece, too, Judy!

Darlene said...

Judy, you made me hungry and I just finished lunch.

What nice neighbors you have. I can identify with your neighbor in the wheel chair. I still use one if the situation requires a lot of walking or when taking a plane. I have retired my walker, but used it to go to restaurants until recently. Now I use a cane.

Lots of people need hip replacements it seems.

Travelin'Oma said...

The picture of you is darling!

John said...

Nothing beats a nice meal out with the friendly neighbors. You're so blessed to have that many neighbors you would want to go out with! You can tell every one was happy and had a great time. I agree the cake looks great an Mmmmm with berries sounds so good. Pictures equal a thousand words. Thanks for sharing!

My satellite internet had an outage today (so mad), finally it came back on. Normally I would be too embarrassed to have such a late time stamp on a comment! I hope it doesn't show your time zone, if so, just call me night owl.

Bobkat said...

Yummy! I've just come from Naomi's blog where she talks of chocolate cake and now you're taunting me with this delicious one! I'm salivating like a puppy now! LOL! Glad you all had such a lovely lunch :)

Anonymous said...

You don't really look like you'd eaten the whole slice. What would I have done? That is the question. To be polite, I would have...

Great picture of you.

Nancy said...

Hi Judy,

Lucky you to have such nice friends and neighbors.

Most of my neighbors have moved to assisted living or apartments that are easier to keep up. I miss them.

You all look wonderful and happy in the picture and you should be,because you are all fortunate to have each other.

The pictures are very nice and the one of you is excellent! You look great. Keep eating that chocolate cake, it's doing wonders for you.