OUR VISIT WITH THE BRADSHAWS IN TOXAWAY, NC

To go back a bit to earlier in the summer, we had a delightful trip to southern North Carolina to visit friends who spend their summers in the mountains there.  It was the first trip away from the island and a treat to get away from the confusion of the move from Colorado.

 We Drove past wonderful green fields of corn.

 And beautiful Rivers reflecting the blue sky above.

 This Giant guitar as we entered the state of Tennessee,

And past rock walls that seemed to reach the sky.

The Smokey Mountains of North Carolina showed that they deserved their name.

Till we found the little Village of Toxaway Falls, high in the mountains almost to the boarder of South Carolina.

The mountain flowers were beautiful.

The falls from which the village got its name was right outside out friends condo.

 
                   Knowing how much I like waterfalls
                   and enjoy photographing them, our    
                   friends took us to see several others.
                   Though this part of North Carolina                    was  experiencing a drought and
                   "Big Water" Falls wasn't living up to its                     name it was still beautiful.  We walked
                    could take this composite of 3
                    photos.






 
 

 From the top  we could see Toxaway Lake in the distance.

And "Dry Falls" despite the drought did not deserve its name either, unless it got its name from the fact you can walk behind it and stay dry.

    

We visited antique shops in near-by towns, while our husbands showed great patience.

And had a lovely lunch in this beautiful Grove Park Inn in Asheville, filled with history.  We sat on the porch overlooking the golf course and countryside, a beautiful setting!

I enjoyed browsing the antique vehicles  displayed inside.

SUMMER'S END

After Labor Day at the New Jersey Shore, life returns to normal for the local residents.  School has started and the beaches are quiet, except for the lonely lifeguard, for whom college has not yet begun.

The waves pick up, often a boon for local surfers.

Sailboats head South, and the ocean glistens in the early morning light.

 Back at our house a pair of cardinal parents brought their two young fledglings to the feeder to try to teach them how to fend for themselves.

 Having watched  his parent enjoy the grapes Scott threw out for the birds, this little guy decided to try it for himself.

 Giving up, he returned to dad for a some help. Being a good father, he patiently tore off bits of the grape and fed it to his son.
                                                          
Dad then left to ground to enjoy a bit of gird seed in peace,
           

In the meantime a baby Mockingbird decided to try the grape left by the baby Cardinal.

Dad watched from above, but refrained from interfering.

Back on the beach that night the fall full moon shone over the ocean, while the work boat for the beach replenishment lightened the horizon.

THE HOT, HUMID SUMMER CONTINUES

Having spent all or part of every summer for the past 80 years on Long Beach Island, all but 2 in this house, I have to admit that this was the hottest, most humid summer I can remember.  Part of that might by age and arthritis, but many others have felt the same way.  In recent years, duplicate bridge has been the filler that has replaced the physical activities we enjoyed in the past. As out small home addition was concluding, we took the opportunity to attend a tournament at the Hunt Valley Inn in 

 Virginia

.

 It was a beautiful facility, located in the heart of horse country, that can be attested to by the creative plantings in the front yard.

The bridge was fun, and accommodations excellent, and it was a wonderful mini vacation.

I enjoyed the beautiful green of Virginia and the interesting white cloud above.

Even the bridge we crossed returning to New Jersey was interesting to me.

Our son,Keith and wife, Leslie arrived from California for a visit, and we all went to Oyster Creek

for a great local seafood dinner.

 My husband, Chuck and our daughter, Vicki enjoyed this local scene from the railing above
.

Back at home the red sunrise was another indication that the hot summer wasn't yet over. Though the heavy equipment was gone from the beach, the fence posts for the railing had been dropped off.

We enjoyed a Labor Day weekend visit from old friends and neighbors, Rich and Lisa Spoerl.

SUMMER PAST

I have totally neglected my blog for the past 6 months, and on this rainy day near the beginning of October I have decided to see if I can begin to catch up!!  Since this is something I do mainly for myself, kind of a photo diary, I doubt anyone out there will care either way, but just in case I will give my excuses now.   Late in April we moved out of Colorado.  We had sold our home in Crested Butte the year before and then rented a nice little house in Gunnison for a year.  Much of that time we debated if we were doing the right thing, selling possessions mainly on the internet and packing up what we couldn't and the things we thought we could fit into our already much smaller furnished home on the New Jersey shore.  The trip East was uneventful arriving 3 days later with two vehicles, a grown son and two cats.  The moving truck arrived a few days later, filled partly with our daughter's possessions, as she had moved to our home a couple of years earlier.

Then the fun began!!  We filled our garage to the ceiling, AND a large storage locker on the mainland, brought inside what we could and began hoping the small addition we had planned to our bedroom would begin before too long.
                                                                                         

Helped with a 50th anniversary party for neighbors.

Our favorite Pittsburgh Cousins arrived with their friends.

Got up early to enjoy a beautiful sunrise on our beach.

And watched the sunset turn the dunes and their early flowers pink.

 

An early walk on the beach at low tide always gives me a feast for my camera.

And later in the day we are joined by the gulls.

I am always fascinated by tracks made in the sand by small animals.




The small bird on the left seemed to drag its toe, but does anyone know what made the track on the right??





 

But because another beach replenishment was scheduled to begin soon, it was easy to tell what made this track.  The "crab" that was measuring the height of the beach to determine the amount of sand that would have to be pumped in.

BEACH REPLENISHMENT RETURNS !!

Just before the summer season was about to start, the equipment for the beach replenishment arrived.

The Crab kept on measuring the height of our beach while the tractors moved it around.

The cranes shoveled it into the hoppers to sift out the larger shells and other debris to keep our beach as clean as possible.

The crew worked day and night no matter what the weather.

At the end of our street, and others the dunes grew higher and higher,

Until to see the ocean you had to climb a small mountain.  Nature will reshape all by next winter I am sure.

Meanwhile July 4th weekend arrived and the beach that wasn't being worked on looked like "Coney Island".

Meanwhile back at our house, the mockingbirds who for generations have lived in our Holly Tree, built a nest in the Russian Olive,

 And produces offspring for the next generation.

 This little one was the first out of the nest and was ready to venture into the bigger world.

 And for us, the addition began with the removal of the roof where the new dormer was to be.

The structure went up fast and the new roof section was sealed and dry by the time of the next rain.