Cute Movie That I Wasn’t Sure About…….

Like I suspect many of you do, I will often watch a movie based on the cast rather than the description. (Okay, I sometimes refuse to watch a movie for the same reason.) In this case it was, “The Big Year”, released in 2011, about three bird watchers in pursuit of “a big year”, a term used when trying to maximize the number of different birds seen in a 12-month period. (My apologies if I mangled that explanation). The cast included Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black in a less frentic role than he often plays, Brian Dennehy in a perfect role for him, Dianne Weist, and others.

The essence of the movie is that Owen Wilson is the world record holder for “a big year” and Martin and Black, coming from very different backgrounds, decide to challenge the record. This is one of those delightful, humorous movies that explores personal relationships of the casual and deeper type with the bonus of some really nice photography because of the bird watching premise. Since Hollywood rarely allows facts to interfere with a story line, I don’t know how accurately the world of bird watching was portrayed. I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that if you are in the mood for a pleasant movie that doesn’t require you to watch it three times to make sure you didn’t miss anything, I suggest “The Big Year”. And despite the fact that there were no explosions or car chases, my husband enjoyed it too.

An Afternoon of Contrasts……

Open House Tea at the Women’s Club

Weekends here are often packed with events as well activities and it isn’t unusual to have multiple committments. Yesterday, however, was one of those days with distinct contrasts. The Women’s Club does a number of events throughout the year and yesterday was an Open House Tea that was also tied to the town’s Centennial celebration. The ladies had decorated the main room beautifully as they always do and the array of food was tempting. Christmas music played in the background and it was a couple of hours of pleasant conversation in a lovely setting.

Some of the other women had the same follow-on event that I did though as we left there. I dashed home to change clothes to head to the Rocking Rib Fest, a gathering put on to help raise funds for a local charity. There was music, but it was not Christmas and the food was of a completely different type. There was tea, although of the iced variety and the attendants’ attire, like mine, included jeans, shorts, and T-shirts rather than the two-piece hand-crocheted outfit I’d worn earlier. The beer was cold, ribs were excellant, but we didn’t linger too long since we did have to get back for the second half of the SEC Football Championship game.

Had we attended the evening Art Exhibit at Biscayne National Park, that would have been yet another change of clothes, but that was up against the ACC Championship Game, so that was a no-go. It was indeed a busy day.

One of the competitors at the Rocking Rib Fest