May in Nags Head

In between the beginning of the trip to NC and the final leg of it, Pat and Bob and I joined two of their children, spouses of those children, and children of those children for a week at Nags Head.  We had a great place on the beach with plenty of room for the 12 of us.  We were pleased to see that the beach restoration from last year was holding strong. The weather was beautiful most of the time.

There were plenty of good food and good times,  We started early on with a celebration of Emily-the-Younger's third birthday.  She was delighted with the whole thing.

Little Abby got into the spirit of things by wearing her ice cream, which was very becoming!

The older children love to do craft projects, and we had several to choose among.  Even Emily got into it this time.  Jake still would rather play with his cars, but I think the girls enjoyed it.  Here are Emily, Ava, and Elizabeth hard at work on one of the activities.

 Of course the beach was the main draw for the younger set.  The dads got into the construction on the beach with the youngsters and they had several projects going at one time or another.  Ben, Ava, and Elizabeth started the ball rolling but the sea kept sweeping it away.

Then Len and Elizabeth tried building a seawall to protect a little boat.

Of course that didn't last very long with the incoming tide, so re-enforcements were called in, both human and construction.

Then Emily got the idea to add a different type of re-enforcement and they set about doing it as a team.

But in the end, it was all for naught.

Meanwhile, the mothers and Abby looked on from a safe distance.  Abby was happy in her mother's arms, but she is a little young to appreciate the surf.

When the beach got to be a bit much, the pool provided a calmer atmosphere.  Even Abby got into it there.  She's quite the little water baby.

Elizabeth liked playing the regal queen of the pool in the float, giving her queenly wave, but she and Ava both swim very well.

The dads were good at catching the kids who wanted to go down the slide but needed a little help at the end.

And if we ever needed extra protection, there was always Superman Jake to the rescue.

It was a relaxing, happy week.  Even the clouds occasionally had stars in them.

 For family members who haven't yet had enough of my yammering, there are a few more photos at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ejoyce2

May in Central NC

As I get older, driving to NC to see family and friends gets a little more difficult, so when I do it, I try to space things out and see as many folks as I can manage.  This May I went to see my sister Nancy and her family in Rockingham, stopping on the way (coming and going) with Doug and Colleen and also spending a bit of time with niece Sara and sister-in-law Martha. 

I hadn't actually seen Nancy and her family since last summer, so it was nice to visit in their new digs and have time to chat.  What made it even nicer was that sister Pat and her husband Bob were there from PA, so we had a real tribal reunion. 

Nancy and R.C.'s daughter Julie and son Chase are living with them for now.  Chase is a very active four-year-old with an impressive stance for swinging a baseball bat.  He often connects with the balls, too.

To say that Nana is proud of this little grandson would be an understatement.

One of the things we did while we were there was to go to the cemetery and check out things there.  When last all three sisters were together, it was to bury our mother, so we wanted to check out the state of the family gravesites.  We were pleased with what we found.

Nancy and R.C.'s grandson Brandon showed up with his son Bentley, and we all feasted on ribs barbecued by R.C. (with Bob's help). 

 It was a nice visit, and one we hope not to have to wait a year to repeat.

Easter Fun

Easter in Pennsylvania with family is always a special time.  This time I had a special project in mind and enlisted the aid of the older grandnieces, Ava and Elizabeth.  I have a project to do for my church this spring; it involves posed pictures.  I rarely do posed shots, preferring to catch my subjects in action, but my camera is relatively new and I needed practice with some of its capabilities, especially when it comes to incorporating the tripod.  The girls first posed in sitting poses and then they modeled some scarves from the dress-up box in the playroom.  I think we all had fun with it.  Here are a few of the results:

Of course the younger crew couldn't be ignored, but I just did my normal thing with them--made a valiant effort to catch them on the run.  At ages 3, 2, and 1, that was the best I could hope for!  If you can catch Abby looking out the window, you have a fighting chance.

Emily is more likely to be found on the run.  I think she was chasing soap bubbles but I'm not sure why she needed the shovel.

Jake stopped running long enough to show me a feather he'd found.   After all, Auntie Em is a lover of all things birdy (except when they decorate my car, the ungrateful little things).

The weather was beautiful, and it was a great weekend.

A Nice Deed Well Done

While on a flight from Atlanta to BWI yesterday (last leg of a return trip from San Antonio), something happened that I think shows the better side of human nature. A tall, broad soldier headed to the back of the economy class, which would have been a miserable ride for someone that tall. The flight attendant stopped him, asked him to wait where he was for a second, scooted to the back and came back smiling. A first-class passenger had asked her to find someone who needed or would enjoy flying first class and give him/her the seat. They opted for the soldier, in thanks for his service to his country. At first the soldier was overwhelmed, a tear or two in his eyes, and then a mighty grin broke out as he called out a "thank you" and said with awe, "I'm going first class!" And he did!

None of us (at least where I sat) knows who the donor was, but all of us heard the the exchange between the flight attendant and the soldier.  There were some big smiles all around and extra "thank yous" given as he passed us going to the front.  Someone quietly set an example of gratitude and kindness.  Maybe some of it even sunk in.

Hunting Bird

Earlier today I went out to retrieve the trash can and put out bird seed.  It occurred to me that the normal bird noises were noticeably absent.  Suddenly there was a whoosh from the brush nearby and little birds scattered out of the brush in a panic.  The creator of the original noise whooshed away but I caught enough of a glimpse to be fairly sure I had a Cooper's hawk as a visitor.  Later as I was preparing to come in and little birds began to twitter again (but not appear), the hawk came back.  This time he stayed awhile, and I was able to capture this shot of him:

I'd really rather get closer shots, but considering how high he was in the tree, this shot will have to do.  It was handheld at 18x magnification, so it turned out better than I had any right to expect.  As an example of what I would rather do, here's a great egret from my coastal trip in January.

 


Big birds a Chincoteague NWR are sometimes very cooperative.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Thanksgiving is best shared with family, and I had the privilege of sharing it this year with Steve and Julie as well as Julie's mother Joan in Park City, Utah.  The table was set beautifully, all ready for the arrival of guests, and the host and hostess were ready as well.

 As always, the food was excellent and we all ended up feeling as stuffed as the turkey!

On another day, Steve and I ventured over to Antelope Island State Park, which is situated in the Great Salt Lake and accessible by a long causeway.  The purpose of the trip was to find a life bird (one I had never seen), a chukar, and find it we did, although not until the very end of the day.  It's a pretty little bird, originally brought in as a game bird, but it escaped and went forth to multiply.

While we were cruising the island in search of this bird, we also saw pronghorns and bisons.  Bisons are huge and they own the road when the decide to use or cross it!

The most unusual thing we saw/heard, at least from my standpoint, was a couple of coyotes wading in the water and stalking ducks for dinner.  No joy for them there while we were watching, but we heard coyotes howling behind us and they were eventually joined by one of the ones in the water.  While I have seen coyotes before, I've never heard them howling.  No pictures of that scene though.  My new camera is good for some distance shots but not THAT good!  We did, however, chance upon a porcupine ambling up the road.  By the time I got to where he was heading off the road, he was somewhat hidden by grasses, so this is a "find the porcupine" shot.  He takes up most of the frame, but he shut his eyes!  If you look closely, you can see the quills (or click on the shot to enlarge it).

The sunset that afternoon was pretty, even with a cloud cover moving in.

Steve does beautiful photography work, and a neighbor asked him to take a picture of their little girl for their Christmas card.  Jasper and I went along for the ride.  I was hoping to pick up some pointers; Jasper was just hoping someone would throw something for him to fetch.  The photographer at work:

His subject is adorable and was very much into posing for the shot.  I couldn't resist taking a couple just for practice.

The subject decided SHE wanted a different background, so off they went up the road to find just the right spot while her mother, Jasper, and I watched from a distance.  

While Julie and Steve did other things, Joan and I got started decorating the Christmas tree.  It was up but not decorated when we arrived.  We had fun with it, but Steve's help (and a ladder) were needed to complete the job.  That's a tall tree!  Later Cosette (the cat) and Jasper (the dog) decided that under the tree needed some help, too.

It was hard to leave all that.  And besides, I don't get sunrises like this from my bedroom window at home!

How Dumb Can You Get?

Once in a while I do something that is so dumb I even surprise myself.  Today was one of those days.  A friend and I went to Catoctin Orchard north of Frederick. The object was to take photos of the pumpkin pyramid at the orchard and to try a restaurant my friends like.  When I got home and downloaded the photos, I discovered to my great disgust that I had inadvertently turned on the date/time stamp when I was looking for some other control in the new camera, and I have this orange honking date on every picture.  There's no turning it off.  Believe me, I tried, and I researched it.  The only way to deal with it is to crop it out or painstakingly clone it out!  Fortunately these shots are just for fun and not some vital record of a family function or part of a photo club challenge shoot.  All I can say is that one must be very careful playing with settings on a touch-sensitive camera like my new Canon.  Otherwise the camera may do things you REALLY don't want it to do.  On the first outing with this camera, it kept zooming in and out like a thing possessed.  I finally got exasperated and went into the "Tools" and other settings area and discovered it came pre-set with a desire to find and focus on a face.  I was taking scenery.  It was not amused.  That feature got turned off rather quickly and things got a lot less bizarre.

Here are a couple of shots that amused me enough to rescue them.  I have no idea who the children are.  They are from a school group that was touring the orchard.