Home and Family

Please Accept My Apology

I apologize for the bad way my blog is behaving. I am fixing things and appreciate my readers.

I am not big on making new plans just because the calendar says it’s a new year. But this January brought big changes to my way of thinking. I’ve neglected this blog, but now I am finding many problems with links not working, and so I apologize. I am on it! Fixing most of my older, seashell blog posts will take time, but I am doing it. I like sharing information about the seashells I find and photograph.

This blog has gone through a lot of upheavals as I try to figure out how best to create an income. I want the blog to help people find my products, if they are interested in such things. I do not want it to be a salesy, “please buy my stuff” blog, with loads of advertisements. I will be adding one page with products that link to my Zazzle store.

Seashells by Millhill began as a fun blog about my shells. As a New Hampshire resident (when I started), I no longer collected Florida seashells, but I had a collection. My job was to create photography products to sell from a print-on-demand site (Zazzle). The products would feature (and still do) my shell photography. So blogging about my shells, while selling my shell photos on postcards, stationery and ornaments, seemed like a great idea.

When I moved back to Florida, my son and I began boating. That was when I found some really wonderful wildlife to photograph and share. The saltwater Indian River is only a few miles from our house, and we boated on all the good days. Blogging about our adventures was fun, but I have always had trouble with the technology part. I made mistakes by always changing things and I think that is how my links were lost. As I said, I am not tech savvy.

The worst of it is that I never realized how many links were broken! If you have been reading my blog and encountering broken links and 404 page not found headings, I am so sorry. This mostly affects the older seashell pages.

While cleaning up my Pinterest boards, I wondered why I had so few views and link outs. Well, this is why – the links went nowhere! I’m embarrassed. The items (free coloring pages) and stories I want to share have become very hard to find. I have a lot of cleaning to do.

My time was focused elsewhere for too long. We began camping locally and did less boating. I really got into my knitting hobby and blogged a lot about that on my old New England blog. One day, a few years ago, I decided that I needed to begin growing my own food. I turned one of my other blogs into a Florida gardening blog. Yes, I have too many blogs.

I hope you will not give up on reading my posts, and one day soon they should all work correctly!

Leaving you with some photo faves from over the years. Thank you so much for reading.

horse conch seashells — Striped hermit crab

hermit inside tulip holding pear — Striped hermit crab

Boring Life Being Sick With Covid

Losing a month of my life from being sick with Covid.

Somehow we managed to avoid getting sick with Covid since it began even though I live with my son who is a firefighter. Many of the guys he worked with tested positive over the past couple of years, but he (and I) stayed healthy. I figured if he got it, I definitely would, but it worked out the other way around.

The 2022 year of sickness began with my cat Skittle. Over Memorial Day weekend we had to take her to the emergency vet. She was not eating or drinking anything for a couple of days. I wondered how long a cat can go without drinking? My regular vet was not available, so we went to the vet hospital. Yes, It was very expensive! They did loads of tests, but basically found nothing major wrong with her.

cat leg shaved for illness — Skittle with a shaved leg from the Vet Hospital

We took her home after an overnight stay, and within a day or so she began to drink and then started eating and eventually got better.

Not long after that, I got sick. I couldn’t eat, felt horrible, had a fever and basically spent all my time on the couch or in bed. I have a work-from-home job, so I did not test myself for Covid. I stayed home and waited to get better.

About a week later my son came home from work sick. He needed to test for Covid for work and he was positive. My test was negative but I’d been sick for a couple of weeks by then. I’m sure I had Covid because it was unlike any illness I’ve ever had. My son thinks we had the new strain.

Some days I would feel pretty good and think it was finally going away. Then the fever would return and I would feel horrible again. It was up and down like that so mostly I sat around and did nothing.

My son recovered within a couple of weeks, but being older (I guess?) my recovery was slower.

New travel trailer — Picking up the camper from La Mesa RV

We had also just taken delivery of a new RV camping trailer. Two days later I was sick. We finally went camping the end of July. We did a quick overnight stay at Salt Springs in the Ocala National Forest and I will be writing a blog post about that soon.

Back in Florida After a Visit to New Hampshire

Because Covid kept me away from New Hampshire for over two years, I took an extended trip recently. Two of my four kids live there and it was very nice to see them again. (And my daughter’s cat, Frankie!)

I got to spend lots of time with the family members I seldom see, including Frankie the Cat.

I love New Hampshire for it’s quaint, small towns like Hancock, where we visited Fiddlehead’s Cafe and shopped at the Hancock Market. One day we were waiting for our pizza from Fiddleheads (really delicious) and took a stroll around the tiny downtown, where I took this photo of some vintage buildings.

Trees and shrubs were just beginning to bloom after the long, northern winter. And there were mountain views, rolling hills, and clear ponds and rivers to enjoy everywhere. Not to mention, small populations.

Hancock New Hampshire quaint town — Hancock, NH

While I was there (in March and April) I saw all kinds of weather, which is pretty typical for New England. One day it reached 80 degrees, and although it was nothing like the humid 80 degrees of Florida, it was warm.

But most days begin in the 40’s and warmed to 50 or 60. One day it snowed! It was like Christmas for me! But the locals were not happy to have a snowstorm in April! I was the only happy soul in the area.

snow snowstorm New Hampshire late season winter — April snow in New Hampshire

This is not where I write about my New England visits, but I wanted to explain my absence from writing about seashells and boat trips.

I began walking a lot during my visit, because I stayed in an area I know, and the weather was great for walking and hiking.

Now, I am continuing my journey to good health by continuing to walk every morning in my neighborhood. There is no need to wonder which coat I should wear, or remembering to dress in layers. Every summer morning in Florida is plenty hot. The rule is to just wear as little as possible!