A Halloween Treat

This year for Halloween, we went with the grandkids to Chincoteague Island to trick or treat. The historic downtown merchants association held the event where all the shop owners provided treats for the little ones.

So we parked at the town dock and off went Strawberry Shortcake, Batman and Robin . (Robin's nickname is monkey boy and I bought him a pair of monkey rain boots which he has to wear everywhere I'm told!)

It's hard to see from this angle, but this Witch had a big furry black and purple spider attached to her back which I think kept the kids at bay for a few moments.

The library had pirates galore

The bookstore sported Confederate soldiers

One of the kids gave my husband a real sour candy and the antics that followed kept us all entertained for a few minutes

I wanted the vintage dressform with the gorgeous witch outfit

Even the fire company participated and what little kid doesn't like fire trucks??

The candy was icing on the cake!

It was just enough by the time we walked up and down both sides of the street, the daylight was completely gone and it was time to go home and sort through the loot!

Hope everyone made some fun memories!

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!

Here She Comes!

Well, we have awakened to rain and wind already this morning. We have been making preparations for the past 2 days so hopefully we are prepared for what's coming.

i'm thankful that irene has weakend a bit but it is still going to be a hurricane when it reaches us and they say it will pound us for about 24 hours straight, have never had a hurricane last that long so I'm sure the beach erosion will be tremendous as will the coastal flooding. We are not in the mandatory evacuation zone thankfully .

We are on the Delmarva Peninsula, that area that is below Ocean City Md in the pix here. The line right below the D in MD is the Maryland / Virginia state line. I live directly below that.

My prayers go out to everyone who will be in her path over the next few days, be safe and I'll be back here as soon as power resumes which I am sure we will lose before long.



What the?

Ok this is a first for me, i was just sitting here working on some photos when my chair started to rock and the beads in the cabinet starting shaking and it felt like someone suddenly had their hands on my house shaking it from side to side!

My first ever earthquake, have to say, not a fan.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0005ild.html

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.



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!

It's Summer!!

Jun 9, 2011 11:54 AM Temp

97.0°FSwitch to Celsius 9mphHi: 97°F

Lo: 76°FRain: 0.00"

Gust: WNW 9Heat Index: 105°F

Humidity: 41%Dew Point: 71°F

Avg Wind: 9 NW

Pressure: 29.94"

Rain/Month: N/A"Sunrise: 5:39 AM

Sunset: 8:23 PM

Moonphase:

As reported at: Wallops Flight Facility Arpt

 

Actually not for another couple of weeks, but the numbers don't lie! And it's not even Noon yet!! Heat index 105* Turn on the sprinklers and head to the pool!
**Update-at 3PM the heat index hit 107*

Showers Of Flowers

Sitting on our front porch, it almost seems as if it's snowing outside.

Our lawn and part of the street is covered with the flowers of our majestic Catalpa tree.

This tree gives wonderful shade to our front lawn for most of the hot afternoons of summer and is a home to many happy birds.

You can see by it's irregular shape that it's had many trimmings by the state to uncover the wires.

A lot of bird families have been raised in all the nooks and crannies

The fragrant flowers are profuse and look like miniature orchids 

The seed pods look like long string beans which land and take root fairly easily. We have given away many of the saplings over the years and fearing the eventual demise of our tree, have even planted another one in our backyard which is already over 20 feet tall and flowering. 

A faerie's eye view

Hope you enjoy the outdoors this spectacular weekend



Merry Christmas!

It has been a very busy holiday season here at our house. My parents have been visiting from Florida since Nov. 18th and had planned on returning Tuesday Dec. 28th but the blizzard is probably going to delay those plans. We have been enjoying their company, eating way too much, and doing lots of holiday projects with the grandkids. One day I had Landon and Savannah over to make ornaments much like the ones their Mom made when she was little.

The next day they came over and decorated gingerbread houses for the table centerpieces for Christmas dinner. I took each one of them shopping to buy their own presents for their parents and siblings and then we returned home and each wrapped their own presents. They were both very proud and excited and kept repeating to themselves " I'm not going to tell them what i got for them, it's a secret"  There has been hot chocolate with french vanilla snowman marshmallows, and plenty of How the Grinch stole christmas, a personal favorite of mine. 

I had 15 for Christmas Eve dinner between the dining room and living room. I think i was feeling fairly overwhelmed this year and found myself muttering over and over, "I can't do this anymore, it's too much" but it all worked out in the end, as it usually does.

The kids table  ranged in age from 2 1/2 to 24 but they all had fun together. I always have a surprise at each place setting, usually an ornament for the tree, the little ones each had a real gingerbread ornament and the rest of us had a German marzipan called the lucky penny man, who is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity in the new year.

It was a typical Virginia Christmas Dinner

The menu consisted of a 22 pound Whole Baked Ham

Fried Oysters ( from my husband's oyster grounds)

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Baby Carrots

Steamed Fresh Green Beans

Steamed Asparagus

Baked Apples

Broccoli Salad

Fresh Pineapple

Celery and Cream Cheese, Olives and Stuffed Dates

Homemade Sweet Potato Biscuits

(canned crescent rolls for those who don't eat biscuits)

Sweet Tea

Chocolate Cheesecake

Cream Puffs

Christmas cookies

We baked and cooked for 2 days! 

My daughter, her husband and our 3 grandchildren

Ray and I with the kids and grandkids.

 My husband's eyes were closed but this was the overall best shot with the kids.

Near the end of the night, a call came in from Santa making last minute checks to his list.

May the Peace of the Season be with you and your families. May you be Blessed with Love and Good Health.

May you also have good luck and prosperity in the New Year!