I Heart Macro - Pony Swim

Last week marked the 87th annual Pony Swim and auction here on Chincoteague Island.

For all those who live here it is a tradition we are happy to see come and then go as it brings with it a large congregation of tourists which makes for one of the busiest, most demanding weeks of the year if you are in business, as we are.

Last year I posted about the Pony Auction here.

So on Monday, our day off, I ventured out to the pool for a little R&R and this is the first thing I saw when I got into the water.

A Pony shaped leaf.

I took a picture of it as it lay underwater, (see below) but it was really hard to get into focus as the water kept rippling, so I gently raised it up onto the edge of the pool for this shot.

The veins in the leaf coincide perfectly with the outline of the horse head don't you think?

It's amazing what you can see when you take the time to notice and really look. That's why i love I Heart Macro.

Head on over to Studio Waterstone and see what everyone else focused on this week!



Happy Spring!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter/ Spring break!

Everything around here is so far ahead of schedule (except me of course), the wisteria is in full bloom, a month early, the irises are budding, the daffodils are just about gone, as are the cherry blossoms and flowering magnolias. I feel like I have almost missed spring entirely with all my travelling about!

Since last we spoke, I went away to the Art and Soul retreat in Virginia Beach from 2/29-3/5 and had 7 fantastic classes.

Came home , unpacked, repacked and left bright and early on 3/6 and headed back to Florida for the last hurrah and to close up the house for the season and returned home on 3/21.

While down there, we took a trip to St. Pete and met up with Barbara Lewis and her husband Jim for a delicious Thai lunch and a driving tour of the area and got to see her new studio/shop in progress.

Caught up with work at the restaurant ( Ok , sort of) and then headed out to Leesburg Virginia for a chalk painting workshop with Annie Sloan on 3/31.

Picked up my grandkids on 4/4 and headed to the beach for the afternoon as they started their Easter break and kept my grandaughter for 3 nights and days during her break, she returned home on 4/7.

Now I am getting ready to head out to Beadfest Spring with my daughter where she will be taking her first jewelry making classes, the trip is my gift to her for her birthday. I am so looking forward to this time together, I even bought her a set of tools of her own!

I hope to see some of you there!

When I return I will post pictures of all of my adventures, most of which are STILL in the camera! Ha!

It's been a fun ride but I am looking forward to getting back to my regular routine ( whatever that is these days!) and putting into action all of these creative ideas I have filling up my head!

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon!



2 Weeks Full- Part One

It is so hard to stay inside when all this beautiful fall weather and sunshine is beckoning outdoors.

It's been a full 2 weeks. everytime I say that phrase- 2 weeks, I am reminded of the movie with Tom Hanks, "The Money Pit" in which everytime he asks how long a renovation or step in the renovation will take they flippantly respond "2 weeks"

I have been going over to the Assateague island refuge to practice my nature photography and have been pretty pleased with some of the images.

This Crane has a fish in it's mouth having just plucked him from the water

This Great Blue heron tried to swallow his fish so fast he actually gagged, that's his tongue hanging out. In subsequent shots, he coughed up the fish and then swallowed him back down. Yum.

More to my liking is the pumpkin butter I made with help from the grandkids while they were here after only a half day of school on halloween.

Remember the neck pumpkin I told you about that we bought while on the field trip a few weeks ago? Well, that is what we used and I promised if it turned out well, we would share the recipe

It turned out well enough that when shared with people at our restaurant, their tongues look much like that of the heron and everyone was asking for the recipe. If you like apple butter or pumpkin pie you're sure to like this.

The littlest halloween witch helping me stir the pumpkin butter, is that a spell she's casting?

Pumpkin Butter

1 cooking pumpkin, we used the neck pumpkin

Peel the skin using a vegetable peeler, empty seeds ( we spread ours out on paper towels over a few pages of newspapers to dry and try to plant next year)

Cube the pumpkin flesh and put into a pot of water big enough to cook until tender ( about 20-25 minutes)

Drain in a colander

Place the cooked pumpkin in a blender  ( or food processor) and puree.

Empty the blender into a glass measuring cup or bowl and continue pureeing the cooked pumpkin until it is all pureed.

We got 12 cups of puree out of the one pumpkin, each will vary depending on the size.

Once measured, place all the puree into a crock pot large enough to hold it and add the sugar and spices.

The puree to sugar ratio is 2 to1,  2 cups of puree to 1 cup of sugar.

You can use all light brown sugar or half white half brown.

For ours we used 3 cups of white, 3 cups of dark brown to the 12 cups of puree.

You can add individual spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice to taste but we used the McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice and used 2 tsp. for the batch. You can taste it and add more if you like but I liked this amount.

Stir all ingredients together well in the crock pot, turn on low  and prop the lid sideways to allow for the steam to evaporate as it cooks down.

I placed mine on 10 hours low which went through the night and automatically went to warm about the time we got up.

Once it really starts to cook, it will bubble and thicken and i used a wooden spoon to stir it all around about once an hour until going to bed.

Once it is as thick as you would like, the consistency of a butter spread, I ladled it into hot ball jars and secured the lids but DID NOT process in a water bath but placed it in the refrigerator for keeping.

There are conflicting ideas about canning pumpkin butter. There are instructions where you can process in a water bath for 40 minutes and also directions for a pressure canner, but the USDA recently suggested keeping it in a refrigerator instead of canning. Your call. I have purchased canned pumpkin butter at fairs and have lived to tell the tale. I may try that in the future.

Both grandchildren took a jar into their class to share along with some crackers.

It is great on toast or homemade biscuits and is the perfect fall treat!

Enjoy!

The Morning After

Sun is shining, skies are blue, we are blessed!

This tree, our big old Catalpa tree you may remember from this post, was our big concern in our hurricane preparations. I took this photo on thursday evening right before the tree service we called arrived to trim some of the limbs and lighten the weight of the bigger ones.

This tree sits southeast of our house and could easily have sent a big limb through our roof or the roof of either of the rental houses next to us.

As you can see we got a little drastic about it to be safe, taking out anything that was split or questionable.

This is how it looks this morning. If you look close at the fronts of both of the rental houses, you can see branches piled up in front of them and they were strewn all about our lawn and the road too.  Had we not lightened the weight of those big limbs we would surely have a different story to tell today!

The front of my studio faces north so we boarded those big windows up to protect them from flying debris in all the noreast winds .

Right before we boarded the windows I took a shot of the hibiscus that were just starting to bloom fully since I planted them about a month ago. I figured they would be destroyed when the wind shifted to the west as this is the west side of the building. They fared better than I expected, they are a little broken, flowers gone of course but I think they will make it.

The west side of the building. The east side which i don't have a shot of, lost a bunch of shingles off the roof, Still, all things considered, we did great!

The red tipped photinias on the East side of the building got uprooted and we hope to stake them up and hopefully they will live. You can see a few broken shingles here and there.

The rain ( we got over a foot) flooded the ditchbanks and streets and you can see the tideline as to how far the water came up on the property. Fortunately we are on fairly high ground here so we didn't flood.

We had rain and wind for about 30 hours and so glad we didn't get it any worse than we did.  We lost power for about 5 hours. My hope is that everyone who was in Irene's path recovers quickly with little damages and loss.

We have heard that the beach is closed but may reopen in time for the holiday weekend and that the first assessment is the relentless pounding actually may have added sand to the beach instead of taking it away.

Prayers were definitely heard around here!

Thank you to everyone who sent them!

Pony Tails Pony Tales

On Thursday July 28th we took this little pony tail

To see these pony tails.

Let me explain-

I had made a promise to my granddaughter that this year I would take her to the Pony Swim Auction so that she could see and take pictures, after getting her new camera for her birthday. 

 That of course was before the fire.

 But on weds. the day of the pony swim, my husband said they would be busy tearing out the walls and ceiling thursday and putting it back so there wouldn't be much i could do to help them and he encouraged me to take the day and make good on my promise.

The 86th Annual Chincoteague Pony Swim and Auction takes place the last weds and thursday in July and is sponsored by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company.

Made famous by Marguerite Henry's 1947 book "Misty of Chincoteague", the pony swim and auction draws thousands of people every year to the island to experience the event.

After the ponies swim ashore, they are paraded through the streets of Chincoteague on their way to the carnival grounds where they are corraled until the swim back on the friday following the swim.

The day after the swim is always the pony auction and as you can see there were plenty of people already on site when we arrived. I was told that people had started setting up lawn chairs and taping blankets to the bleachers the week before.

We found a cool spot under the trees,( it was another 100+ day ) right behind a set of bleachers but a few steps away we had a pretty clear view of the action.

As shown in the first picture, a kind man who had a taped blanket, offered for us to lift our granddaughter up there to sit and see and take pictures. Given the fact that she is 40 pounds I was very grateful for the gesture!

My parents accompanied us as they had never been to the auction either.

The auctioneer did a great job of keeping everyone engaged and bidding.

Some of the foals were able to leave right away while some others , as young as a month old, were to be kept with the herd until they could be picked up in October.

When the youngest ones came out they were met with a lot of "AAawww,s"

I guess if you set up your chair a week in advace and are willing to brave the sun and extreme heat , you get the chance to take closeup pictures and maybe pet one or two.

 I believe this is the one they said had blue eyes.

After a few hours I saw it was time for something a little different.

We took a walk around the carnival grounds to the corral where the ponies were and some of the buy back foals had been returned to.

The Mom of this little one was walking around and around it in protective mode.

Then we found a tent and vendor selling everything for horses and their riders.

The day wouldn't be complete without a cowgirl hat, and she spotted the pink one 50 feet away!

I remember getting her Mommy a similar hat when she was about the same age. Feels like yesterday!

We left before the very end of the auction to avoid all the traffic getting out and headed to the Island Creamery for an ice cream lunch.

Smiles from beginning to end!

Further information about the annual pony swim and the history and fundraising can be found at all the links provided.



A Blur

First of all, my apologies for being AWOL for the past 3 weeks.

It has all been a big blur.

I didn't expect to be gone from here that long but I will try to explain.

Let me preface this by saying all is well now and we have all lived to tell the tale.

After we last spoke on June 12th, i set about the task of trying to ready the house for my parents to arrive from Florida on friday the 17th for an extended visit.

There was a lot to be tackled, I needed to excavate the bed in the spare room/office which is where my computer lives, clean out all the debris of past art projects which had taken over all the usable spaces and surfaces and try to finish yardwork we had been putting off for a cooler day.

That cooler day came on tuesday the 14th, my Mom's 70th birthday. I decided that was the day i would get out and trim all the hedges and bushes and everything overgrown as shown in the photo below.

The restaurant is closed on mondays and tuesdays so it was a perfect plan. Cleaned all day monday, yardwork all day tuesday.

I don't have an after shot yet, this is the before shot, but i'll post one as soon as i can.

I always do the trimming and my husband does the raking and carting away and cleanup in my wake. A good system, as long as each person knows where the other is.

I have electric hedge trimmers, good sized ones. I was happily trimming along out front while the husband was busy out back first. I inevitably found myself in the all too often position with electric hedge trimmers, the cord was very close to where i was trying to cut.

I saw it and was in control.

That is until my husand came up behind me and yelled "don't cut the cord !"

at which point I jumped, turning startled at his voice right behind me, and promptly sent blue sparks flying as i cut the cord.

After finding another 100 ft cord, I continued trimming high and low until all was neat and tidy.

We decided we had earned a jump in the pool to relax and cool off around 5 when i suddenly remembered it was our oldest grandson's last little league game of the season and we promised to be there.

When we got home, I was really cold with chills, enough so that I ran a hot tub and just soaked for awhile.

I was covered in scratches from all the bushes and hedges but nothing that would warrant chills I thought.

Until the next day when i was on my way to work and noticed that what i thought was 2 scratches on my forearm looked suspiciously like bites. My first thought, was "Oh no, not another spider bite" ( bad experience in 2005, another story)  but as soon as my daughter took a look at it she said "That looks like a snake bite to me, our cat was just bitten by a black snake on his tail the other day" Her cat spends a lot of time under one of the large camellias i trimmed by our garden shed.

When my parents arrived on the 17th, my Dad confirmed he thought it was a snake too about which time i found 2 identical marks on my lower leg, same exact size and distance apart. Hence the chills. I have since been told there are an unusual amount of black snakes around this year and both pets and people are getting bit. Fortunately they are not poisonous, do not attack humans as a rule, only when threatened ( large electric hedge trimmers will work just fine) and usually just dry bite, no venom as a warning shot. The bites on my arm did swell and were filled with unpleasantries but as i said, i lived to tell the tale.

Then on the 17th as my parents were travelling up, my daughter called me from work and said she was on her way to the ER to meet her husband who was injured at work. The boss called her and asked her to meet them there, details were sketchy at first. He does constuction with a company that goes in and will remove hazardous materials from a job site, such as asbestos etc. They were working on removing a ceiling and the tile system in an elementary school. They had arrived to start, had been told the electric was cut off to that part of the building so that they could work. my son in law was on a very tall ladder, pulling the ceiling apparatus down when an electric cable dropped out of the ceiling, striking him in the chest, electrocuting him. The force was powerful enough that it knocked the ladder out from under him, he was holding a piece of the metal framework in one hand , which made a complete circuit and would not release him, so he was dangling from the ceiling by this metal, being electrocuted the whole time. The other workers knocked him free but then he fell to the floor unconscious, hitting his heels and head on the concrete/tile floor of the cafeteria kitchen area. The electricity escaped his body through his arm blowing a hole in it in the process. His co workers thought he was dead at first. The Drs. told my daughter had he not been holding the metal frame she would have been planning a funeral that weekend.

He basically suffered a heart attack as a result with his cardiac enzymes still not normal, hopefully will be soon, they had to piece his arm muscles together and try to close the hole with 38 stitches, and they put his arm in a brace to immobilize it, his heel was smashed and they put that in a boot. He had a concussion with some brain swelling, lost his short term memory and hearing. They wanted to admit him but my son in law just wanted to go home. Not good but we couldn't convince him otherwise. he spent the next 4 days returning to the hospital for tests and each day things got worse. We were told it is hard to know exactly how electrocuted a person is, they just watch for signs and symptoms to tell them. well, by monday we were looking at worst case scenario, his kidneys were shutting down and his heart enzymes were still very high. By thursday they would determine if he neded to go to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore where "they would discuss his options"

By thursday the 30th they saw the slightest decline in both the kidney function numbers and the heart enzymes so we are hopeful. he continues to go back for checks, has had his stitches out and has begun physical therapy. His memory is getting better and so is the hearing in one ear.

In the meantime, their youngest and our youngest grandson, celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 21st and i did dinner and cake and presents at our house not knowing what was going to happen and to give my daughter a break.

Also during this time, the restaurant had it's busiest day,the 19th,  father's day, and we had invited my parents over to celebrate with dinner while we worked and surprised my Mom for her 70th.

In all the confusion, i now realize i have no pictures of any of that.

We kept the grandkids when we could and i picked up a nasty sinus infection/chest thing from that little 3 year old there, requiring a 10 day course of antib's that i am happy to report i am finishing today. But it has not been fun.

Last week on the 29th, my parents graciously drove my sick self over to Assateague Island to witness the launch of a Minotaur rocket  from Wallops Space center. We were getting play by play updates from my son as he was working the launch doing Comm's for the first time and we were all very excited.

I'm sorry to say that these pictures don't do it justice. It was magnificent. It was 11:09PM, balmy around 80*, the night was black, no moon, and there had to be a gazillion stars in the sky. it was like sitting in a planetarium. And as the rocket launched and ripped through the sky, it travelled over us out over the ocean.

Once out over the ocean, the rocket boosters dropped giving us some pre 4th of july fireworks

I have been unable to post here or read or catch up with anyone as my computer is in their room, they can't sleep with the light from the monitor so it stayed off most of the time, besides everything else going on.

Other than that, we had some freaky storms and really hot weather. Spent time in the pool with the kids. The garden is taking off with all the rain as is the mosquito population!

4th of July fireworks were interrupted for storms so i don't even have those to share! But we did all get together for a cookout at my daughter's on the 4th to celebrate our son in law's birthday so it's all good!

The swallowtails are starting to show up and I planted some new butterfly bushes after having ripped out an overgrown one that yard day.

 I have really missed my I heart macro sundays!

  

The visit with my parents was wonderful though, we worked on a few projects, went to a photography lecture on Chincoteague about the art of seeing by an reknowned National geographic photographer, made some jewelry, made soap ( i'll post about that later) ate way too much and in general enjoyed each others company. I'm sure i'm forgetting a lot right now, as I said, it's a blur.

They left this afternoon, heading up to New Jersey to visit with my brother and other family for a few weeks before returning.  I have a lot of catching up to do, lots of reading and writing.

In the middle of it all i missed my one year blog-iversary last week so i promise to make up for that too with a giveaway soon!

Thanks for sticking with me!



Outta Here!

Living here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia has it's perks once in awhile.

Aside from the Chincoteague and Assateague National Wildlife Refuge and seashore, we live right around the corner from NASA Wallops Flight facility now known also as MARS- Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

Growing up, my son liked to participate in the model rocket launches, he also went to a camp for robotics there, and then in high school received a year long internship at NASA and then in college had a paid internship over the summer and is now employed there.

The NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the Marine Science Consortium now offer a lot of programs and camps for kids and I would recommend anyone with children look into what they offer.

This morning there was a sounding rocket launch and although the actual flight facility is several miles away, the launches can all be seen right from our front yard.

There are a few major ones scheduled for later this year that everyone is excited about as we are slated to be the supplier to the space station if the launches go well.

For the major launches we usually go over to the island to watch up close.

The rocket got about this high in the sky before the sound reached us

This smoke trail as all that was left to see a mere few seconds after the launch

Life on the shore is good!

A Gift

4 Years ago yesterday we were given a most precious gift, our first grandchild, Savannah.

She loves to spend time with us doing anything we are doing and she loves to use my camera to take pictures, so it was a no brainer that this year she would receive her own for her birthday.

Now I know enough to know kids don't want a pink non breakable frustrating picture taking camera. They want one just like yours. I also wanted her to have a camera with a viewfinder, not just an LCD screen to learn with. Not easy to find in a 4 year old price range. So i decided on this one that she could grow with.

She stayed at work with us for awhile and after having lunch and ringing the big bell and having everyone sing her Happy Birthday, we went off on our first photo shoot.

We chose the Assateague Island wildlife refuge as it was a beautiful day and we hoped for some wild pony pictures.

We were not disappointed.

Her Great Grandfather, my Dad, was along for the ride and was a help for those difficult shots.

A very patient Great Blue Heron waited as she composed just the perfect picture ( this is my photo, we didn't have time yesterday to upload hers) 

Then we took a stroll up to the lighthouse for some closeups, she was hoping to see some deer but none were out yesterday, they must know it's hunting season!

I was taking some closeups of the wonderful textures for later use and turned to see that she was following my lead, can you just feel my pride and joy?

It was a great day enjoyed by all. Can you tell her 2 favorite colors are purple and lime green? A real artist in training! And she told her Mom that she wanted butterflies and dragonflies on her cake!

I don't know about her, but our wishes have definitely come true!