Musings

I quite enjoyed spotting this lovely teeny fern snugged up against a lichen-decorated rock wall in a yard not far from here, and imagining a spider or lizard living in the cavelet it protects.

Posted at 7:07 PM | Comments Off on Mini-world

We did our idiosyncratic version of shopping today, looking for loose, leaf green tea and tuna steaks for searing. Hecho*.

Heading south afterward on Buford Highway, there’s a spot where you get a good view of downtown. We got caught by a light and I took this photo of the buildings shrouded by some low-hanging clouds, residue, I think, of last night’s rain….

* Spanish for made/done. Commonly seen in the phrase “Hecho en México.”

Posted at 6:13 PM | Comments Off on The long view…

Two basically impossible-to-discern facts about the moment this picture was taken (last week): 1) it was windy; and, 2) it was starting to rain.

I was very glad to be standing high and dry on a handy interpretive nature boardwalk, next to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Estuarine life

From the ferries to and from Okracoke last week, we saw flocks of birds on the Sound, but I’m not entirely sure what species. There were minorities of brown pelicans and some kind of gulls (big ones, it seemed), but most were anhingas or cormorants. Actually, after studying the closest bird book (Sibley’s Eastern North America Field Guide), I wonder if they both weren’t there. Most seem definitely like feeding anhingas, but a few seem to have cormorant shapes and colorations (most likely the double-crested species).

Elsewhere, we saw tundra swans glistening even in the grey, fogged muted daylight. I think there were snow geese, too….

Most of the beach shells on the Outer Banks have been hammered between the surf and sand, yet they still make patterns in the multi-colored sand after the tide goes out….

Posted at 7:50 PM | Comments Off on Birds and shells

We’re back from our speedy trip to the Outer Banks (yawn), with many lovely memories. Out of several sobering moments, I retain many visuals of heavy equipment intervening against the dramatic actions of Ma Nature.

Ma is trying to reclaim the land under this old motel, or more accurately, to modify the coastline and make this area beach and sea. Meanwhile, Men and Machines seek to counteract this trend.

Luck, guys.

BTW, I think if people build on the OB and similar places, any financial losses due to weather (e.g., hurricanes, high tides) shouldn’t bounce back in the taxpayers’ lap. Your choice; your risk—and perhaps your bank’s, if it’s willing to lend to you to build in such a place.

Sorry. I’ll stop now.

Posted at 6:22 PM | 1 Comment »

I type this as we are ferrying from Okracoke Island to Cedar Island, which is really the mainland for all intents and purposes. We are one of three paying vehicles, and we’re riding with four others, all pickup trucks. Here’s the deal. One of the paying vehicles is a 75 ton crane, just a wee bit bigger than the one that lifted the tree off our house in May. The other paying vehicle is a little four-door, not unlike ours. Add one heavy vehicle and two not-heavy vehicles, and you get a tilted ferry. So, crew guys drove on their pickup trucks, and now our list to starboard is only eight degrees.*

By the way, we’re riding in the M/V Silver Lake, which first motored about in 1965. It’s been remodeled and re-engineered three times since, including once when they added almost 60 feet to its length.

Our ride is one of the unsung deals of the century (unlike, I suspect the bailouts we’re paying for): this two-plus hour ferry ride is $15, and that’s for the car. We ride free with it, subsidized by North Carolinians’ tax dollars…. (Full disclosure: our first ferry ride of the day was free!)

* I am unclear if this is actually a metaphor for life, that not all things are on the level, or something….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Listing 8°

…gleefully calls shots like this “sunset at the Outer Banks.”

Yeah, it took me a few beats, too, and then I didn’t find it too terribly funny either…. Still They say it’s good for us to keep our brains alert with little games….

Posted at 9:24 AM | 2 Comments »

…that I need a tripod or at least something sturdy to lean against to get steady shots of the moon!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Remind me…

When we stayed at a B&B in Britain on our honeymoon, I found out that in British English a yard and a garden are two different things when I complemented our host on all the lovely plantings in his back yard, as we looked out the picture window. He looked at me funny and said, well, here a yard is somewhere you have garbage cans and park your scooter, and this is a garden.

So, of course I replied, I love your GARDEN! while thinking, aha, that’s what Scotland YARD means!

Regarding the lovely reflecting GARDEN ornaments above, I need to route myself back down that street on a sunny day with the good camera and get some better shots.

Posted at 7:12 PM | 1 Comment »

Rain almost all day has brought down many of the remaining attached leaves. This was yesterday….

Posted at 4:52 PM | 2 Comments »