EvieArtsJournal: July 2011

Greetings from the Neuse River

Life here along the banks of the Neuse River, overlooking close to four miles of water, is a sharp contrast to living in a city. Most months, it is idyllic; then, there are the months that remind you that Mother Nature is definitely in charge.

This neighborhood of houses face the Neuse River and backs up to several acres of farmland -- most years, soybean --- then thick tracts of pine forests to the main road.

I love to watch the sea gulls, sometimes the pelicans, and cormorants or egrets and the occasional eagle or osprey. The cute visitors are "chickens" that my neighbor called me about photographing who were grazing in her yard. Even at 100 feet away, they were skittish and flew to the further neighbor's yard but just enough for me to photograph them for identification. These "chickens" turned out to be cattle egrets. The flock numbered about thirty -- by the river bank...not sure why they picked her yard.

I suppose you could say this blog is an occasional picture-book of life in Pamlico County or whatever comes to mind at the time.

Friday, July 29, 2011

DOG DAYS & DRAGON BOATS

The 2nd Annual Dragon Boat race happened last week in Oriental and we are still in dire need of rain. It should be about 99 degrees today - maybe 100. Unless some much needed rain gets here, farmers may well lose the crop of soybean across the street -- the bushes are wilting.

The flip side, of course, is that the ditches are dry and way less mosquitoes. But, the birds need water and I bought a better "watering hole" for them.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

ESTELLE'S TREE

It's amazing how one's mind works. I got up this morning and for some reason decided to look at the series of osprey shots that I took over a year ago. I recalled how these big wings flapped by the sunroom...I looked out and saw this big bird land in Estelle's dead pine tree - two houses down. Estelle kept this dead tree in her yard by the river -- keeping it, she said, for an eagle to land. I felt sure that this bird was Estelle's eagle...never having seen an osprey. I checked it out with my binoculars and rushed for my camera. It had a big fish in its tight grip.

Something told me to look up the date that Estelle passed away. I knew it was July a year ago. Sure enough, it was almost to the day when I last saw her. She died a couple days later. And, I believe a storm took down the dead pine tree shortly afterwards.

Here's to a lovely lady!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Beach Fun....

...appropriate for July. But, it's still enough to warm my heart that others are out there relaxing. This was my photo that won 2nd place last week at the Beaufort County Arts Council Photo contest. It is titled "Beach Figure Series: Family Fun"....taken earlier this year.

I'm "grandma" again to my second set of bluebirds. There were 4 eggs a couple of weeks ago. A couple days ago, there were...what looked like...newly born babies. I saw Mama Blue bringing in food before it got real dark.

The killdeer activity seems more this year than usual. Lots of feigning of broken wings going on and their familiar cries. But, haven't stumbled upon a nest yet.

EvieArtsJournal

Oriental, Sailing Capital of NC