Annapolis Cousins some 35 years later

Howdy all,

Jeff and I left the bird festival and headed to Annapolis...we landed a little after 7pm. Parked at the Annapolis Elks club then went inside to meet up with Toni and her husband Phil. Later Sandy and her daughter Tina joined us for a nice reunion evening at the Elks.

When I was a child my family would travel to Annapolis every summer to visit my fathers family.
That was our only vacation. My dads father passed away when he was young, and his mother raised the family after that. We would visit Grandma and Uncle Vic in Annapolis. Toni and Sandy and their siblings would visit us. Their dad was my fathers half brother. I have fond memories of Annapolis and my cousins. We stopped traveling to Annapolis when I was in my teens. Jeff and I have seen cousin Janice and her family in Florida and it rekindled my desire to catch up with the rest of the family.

The visit was short but nice. We will try and get together some more in the future.
We also drove by my grandmothers home that we used to visit....the homes around it are very nice...but my grandmothers home seems vacant and in disrepair.

.Check out the pictures and video in the slide show...You can also go to my webshots album to view the pictures as they were taken.



Annapolis cousins 40 years later

Goodbye North Carolina we are On the road again

Howdy all,

Thanks for all your calls and cards and cyber-birthday cards...I had a nice birthday...and a great birthday meal.

We left Adele and Craig's (boo-hoo) on Thursday and made it to Davis Lakes campground...our destination for the Great Dismal Swamp Bird Festival in Suffolk, Va.

We had a wonderful time at Adele and Craigys as usual....Jeff got a bit of golf in...but had shoulder and elbow problems...I did some gardening...and we both did a bit of birdwatching.
It was sad to leave as usual...but we will be back again in November for some more fun.

But back to the bird festival.....I have never been to a bird festival...where you don't pay for the walks or tours....where they give you water and crackers to start your early morning bird walk...free coffee the second day...along with hot dogs, chips and water again...as much as you would like...
And to boot...Jeff and I were both given kits and made bird houses....wow..

This is the second year of this small bird festival, and it is sponsored by Suffolk Tourism, Fish and Wildlife Bureau the Dismal swamp national wildlife refuge and a few others. The festival is three days...with a few bird walks, bus tours and some displays.keep in mind it is quite small when it comes to bird festivals, but it was very nice and we saw some birds....ha..
The first day was Friday. Jeff and went on a 6:30 bird walk, an afternoon tour to the lake and an evening owl prowl..no owls were seen on that prowl....oh well...

The second day an 8am walk...with warm coffee to start.....and after the walk we had hotdogs and chips and made two birdhouses which i will give to Mom and Dad if they want them....i don't think the birds would appreciate us taking them touring around the USA with us.

We saw two life birds for us.... a yellow billed cuckoo, which is actually quite common here....and a Swainson's warbler.. We also saw many other birds, the Prothontary warbler is quite common here....Hooded warbler, black and white warbler, Acadia fly catcher, Redstarts, Great crested flycatcher and others.
It was a nice little bird festival and we recommend it if you happen to be in the area.

We are now headed to Annapolis, should arrive around seven this evening....We will park at the local Elks lodge and my cousin Toni,who i haven't seen in 30 some years, will meet us there with her husband...So i am excited to see her again after sooo many years.
Will get back tomorrow with pictures....
catcha later..

They say its my Birthday

And its true....Today I turn 52...Yikes...

I am going to get a massage later today...and for my birthday present I have pre-ordered Wii Fit

(thanks Tammy for taking care of that for me)

Around the Garden and Nobbies Urn

Howdy all,

I took the above picture for you to see mom...you wanted to see Mr. Nobbies urn...it is a nice marble urn...i attached his collar a chicken wishbone, a few feathers and a clump of nobbies fur....
You can see the nice rock cairn that Patti made.

Today I did what i have been doing around here lately and that is working around the garden.
So i took a video...its rather long so i had to make four videos....and it may be boring...but ha...just don't watch them all...
I figured Adele would love to see what her pups are up to during the day...
And although it looks like i just sat and looked at birds most of the day....I did actually do some work..ha.

Pittsboro, Hillsbourgh and Carboro....

Howdy all,

Yesterday Adele, Jeff and me...and I? anyway.... we went on a car tour through a few towns north of here in the Raleigh-Durham area. Adele and I liked the town of Hillsboro...small quaint town center...a few very nice restaurants...a nice co-op and sweet old homes...some nice old estates as well. Plenty of open spaces around to make if feel as though you are in the country...close to Durham and Raleigh..... The top three pictures were taken at an estate that we did a little walk around...dreaming about living there and having all that land....

The restaurant Adele wanted to go to was closed so we went to Tupelos. Adele and I shared a nice salad and a sandwich that had fried green tomatoes and lettuce and bacon. Jeff has Jambalaya. It was all Yummy...

The bottom picture was taken in Carrboro..which a college town...close to Chapel Hill...
Adele wants to steal this old cement lady and put her in the garden....

We did a quick drive thru Pittsboro, which is another sweet little town that I like. It has a food co-op....a few nice restaurants and funky little homes, some old...some just run down.

thats all....today is overcast again...which is good...need rain....Jeff went for a bird walk this morning and saw and photographed the Prothonotory warbler. He will take me in the next few days so that hopefully i can see it too.

The first picture is the one jeff took with his little digital camera...the second one i found on the internet...

Some Birding Walks in North Carolina

Howdy all...

First before I get into our birding walks....I want to say to my sister Lori...that I am glad her gallbladder surgery went well and I hope you are out of pain soon...Poor Lori...she went to the hospital in terrible pain....I have been told gallbladder pain is the worse....I can only compare it to my kidney stones which was pretty horrible too...
So get well soon Lori..
Please everyone....stay healthy for a while....my little heart cant take anymore sadness....

So.... Jeff and I have been going on some theraputic birding walks...
A few days ago we saw our first Ovenbird.

That is not me holding it....just found the picture on the internet.
We went to Raven Rock state park.
The park was about 35 to 40 minutes from Adele and Craigys home. We followed a small creek through the woods to the river and the rock that the park takes its name from. We were there birding pretty much all day....saw this sweet little bird that is hermit thrush like in coloring ..but tiny...very strong song for a tiny little bird.

Oh ...just now went outside and saw a lifer for me... a yellow throated vireo..
This is an exciting time to be here...the migrants are coming thru....cant wait to see the Blue grosbeak and Indigo Buntings again...they usually come to the feeder.

Anyway here are a few pictures of Raven rock...Yesterday we went for a birding walk in Weymouth woods. It was the day of Pattis Memorial in California...so we decided we would go on this hike in honor of her love of birding and her great birding skills. Patti was with us as we saw our first Broad winged Hawk. A Lifer for us...
They were banding birds as well...so we got to see some close up views of a few birds. Jeff wanted to see the prothonotary warbler....so he went off trail...i didn't join him because i didn't want to deal with the ticks....he came back with over fifty ticks...yuck...and he didn't find the bird he was looking for. This time of year it is best to stay on the trails in North Carolina.

We did get great views of the Red cockaded woodpecker, and endangered species, that lives in just a few areas around here...and the Prairie warbler a bright yellow bird...we also got a close up view when it was being banded...see the yellow head below.

So thats all for now...today is overcast, which is nice for the garden here....maybe I will stay in and read today...or if it gets nice go out and do some gardening.

a migrant....Black throated blue warbler

Goodbye sweet Mr. Nobbie

Howdy all,

Our Mr. Nobbie was put to sleep on Wednesday.....Our sweet little fur boy has no more pain...

...After three months of many vets....reiki...lotions and potions...
All the Kings Horses and All the Kings Men couldn't put poor Nobbie together again...

Nobbie rallied several times in the three months...He seemed to respond well to the Reiki....
but then became worse again....We were hoping the Reiki person was correct about her feeling that nobbie just has a bad tooth infection...but she was wrong....

He had a few nice days sitting outside here in North Carolina before getting sicker....His left eye filled with blood....He had some blood in his ear as well.

I could tell he couldn't see very well. He also had was in some pain ...I gave him arnica montana and that made him sleep....

Monday ..We went to another vet...a holistic one, who said he indeed had cancer... he also recently went blind...she felt he also had gastritis....and if he could rallied we could address what else was going on. We went home and I started the pill regime, feeding with a syringe and cleaning his eyes and ears....He was also in more pain...i would give him his remedy and it seemed he would feel better for a while. Wednesday I could tell nobbie had enough...he didn't want to take the pills and would gag them up...he was very disoriented....I knew it was time to say goodbye...

We took him to the vet Adele uses for her pets...She was very nice....she shaved nobbie where she was going to put the needle in and said his skin was not pink...that it was yellowish...which meant his system was shutting down....

He went to sleep very easily and we held him and kissed him goodbye...

I have to say that I am in many ways very relieved......it was very stressful taking care of this sick little furboy and seeing him in pain..... I miss my sweet little noblet.

Last night he came to visit me in my dreams and walked around the bed and rubbed his face on me.....

This past week has been a very sad one for Jeff and I and each day it is filled with tears....
I miss my Noblet and I miss My dear friend Patti....
They were both sweet souls....