2013 Project 365 – Week Twenty-One

I can’t believe my vacation is almost over! I’m sitting at my dad’s house composing this post, knowing that tomorrow we head back to Ohio & our regular lives. Which I do enjoy, usually, but compared to vacation time it will seem a little lackluster at first. And I’ll be spending the first week getting caught up on blogs – I’m pretty sure that I didn’t read a single post by a single person all week!

Dr. M did a great job of documenting each day, so I’m just going to share a select few (ha!) pictures & then let you head over to his blog to check out the others. You’ll especially want to see his bird & lighthouse pictures I’m sure. (I’m linking to individual posts below, but it might be easier just to start here & then go forward).

Saturday, May 18^th    

Travel day. I was hopped up on Benedryl so Dr. M drove the 660 miles by himself. I kept offering to help - & then I’d wake up an hour later. Good thing he didn’t take me up on my offer! This is the view from our hotel room in Kill Devil Hills – bliss!

Sunday, May 19^th    

Today we just stayed around our hotel so Dr. M could recuperate. He took about a gazillion pictures of pelicans & other birds, which you can see here and here.

Morning beach…

Lifeguard boot camp – now THAT was entertaining to watch all week!

The moon!

Monday, May 20^th

Today we drove down to Cape Hatteras, passing Bodie lighthouse on the way. We took Carolina Cow along for the journey :) To see more lighthouse pictures & pictures from our stop at Pea Island Nature Preserve (including a battle between a goose & an egret – ha!), go to Dr. M’s post here.

This is why I didn’t climb any of the lighthouses. Doesn’t sound like much fun does it?

Tuesday, May 21^st           

On this day we drove over to Roanoke Island to check out the park there dedicated to the Lost Colony. We were a week too early to see the outdoor drama that they have (although we could hear the choir rehearsing while we were there). Dr. M has a post here and here about the trip, but here are a couple of pictures. I had to laugh at the description of persimmons.

We also visited the Elizabethan Gardens. It was pouring rain for part of our visit, but still quite lovely.

Sunset over the Wright Brothers National Monument.

Wednesday, May 22^nd   

Sunrise – glorious! (Um, yeah, Dr. M took these – I didn’t get up early enough).

We visited the Wright monument today. Dr. M did a great post about it – you can find it here. This is my determined face before climbing up.

Partway to the top.

I made it! The State of the Bug – astounded!

The monument.

I’m so glad Dr. M suggested that I change out of my cute sandals – these babies were much more appropriate for that hike.

Dr. M doing what he does :)

The moon!

Thursday, May 23^rd     

We drove west today, to spend some time with our folks before heading back home. Once again Dr. M drove the whole way himself (400 miles this time). I had to laugh when I noticed how old our NC map is – ha! And we didn’t even move to Ohio until 1997, so this was out of date even by then. Sheesh.

On our way we stopped at Edenton (go here to see what Dr. M has to say about that).

Friday, May 24^th  

We spent today just hanging out at my dad’s house. I took a bunch of pictures of the yard.

The moon!

Saturday, May 25^th    

Today we spent some time with Dr. M’s dad. I found a mulberry tree in the back yard.

Dr. M’s great grandmother brought this rose bush to Lincoln County when they moved there in the 19^th century. Who knows how old it was when she moved it. Quite a family heirloom!

Dr. M’s dad told us stories of working for the mill owners when he was a small boy – doing small tasks around their house so he could avoid the “real” work his grandmothers would have had him do.

On our way back to my dad’s house we saw these lovely wildflowers.

Whew! OK, so I still have a lot of pictures on here – ha!

Go to Mamma Fran’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

Wordless Wednesday (The Be Back Next Week Edition)

2013 Project 365 – Week Twenty

With a couple of exceptions, this week is basically “As seen in the Bug’s back yard.” Nice quiet week around here – full of laundry & mowing & waiting impatiently for our vacation. Even so there are a gazillion pictures. I’m just getting you ready for next week because that will be out of control. Or maybe I’ll split the pictures up into different days. We’ll see. Oh, and as if these aren’t enough pictures, if you haven’t already, please check out Dr. M’s post. There are some pictures I put into a collage here that he shows individually, so you might like to see those.

I’m posting this tonight because we’re leaving early tomorrow & I don’t think I want to mess with posting pictures once we get there. Ha!

Sunday, May 12^th – Mother’s Day

My Facebook status for the day: Happy Mother's Day to all you mothering type people! You know, back when my grief was fresh I resented the hell out of Mother's Day. "Where is Motherless Day?" I wanted to know! But now, 8 motherless Mother's Days later, I am back to being amazed by mothers. What a job! (And, just because I'm the person I am, I have to point out that when you say the word "mother" too many times in a row it starts to sound hilarious. Ha!)

The doggie next door. He is always so curious about what we’re up to.

Mr. Ken’s irises.

Downy woodpecker – I love the one where he is giving the house sparrow that look – “what are YOU doing here?”

Clouds

Monday, May 13^th

I can never resist robins in the bath.

I took this day off to do some things to get ready for our trip. We decided to take a little mini road trip. Yep.

I love these exploding tulips!

Papa cardinal.

This looked pretty scary from Dr. M’s perspective – although I’m sure they were further apart than they look.

My latest project.

The moon! Whew – did you think this day would never end?

Tuesday, May 14^th           

Red-bellied woodpecker.

Squirrel on a wire.

Crow!

I pass these flowers on my way home – lovely…

Wednesday, May 15^th   

Goldfinch!

The man behind the camera…

Thursday, May 16^th    

Honeysuckle on the back fence.

Our hanging basket is looking gorgeous.

Grackle – love the fanned tail.

The moon!

Friday, May 17^th  

The State of the Bug – I woke up with a cold. Yes, the day before vacation. I ran out of Kleenex at work & resorted to some paper towels that were in my car. They were still softer than the facial tissue our office has.

Ahhh Choo!

Our neighbor is going to babysit the hanging basket while we’re gone.

Aren’t his poppies lovely?

Saturday, May 18^th    

We’re headed to NC’s Outer Banks today. See you later!

Go to Mamma Fran’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

Flat Paper Folded

I spent time today

making dozens of

origami cranes –

flat paper folded

into life with a tug

on each paper tail.

They soared across

my desk, mingling

with Oreo crumbs

and hope.

Wordless Wednesday

Bittersweet Day

I joined the Cult of Creative Memories in the early 90s. Would you like to see my photo albums? No? After we moved to Ohio in the early aughts I joined the Cult of Stampin' Up (they're not the least bit incompatible, & in fact each cult encourages the other). I made cards for friends and family for about five years. Here's one of my favorites, sent to a friend who was getting ready to have breast reconstruction surgery:

I stopped making photo albums when my mom died. I think I did a few more pages & then just quit. Apparently I was making the albums for her. (Well, getting a good digital camera also contributed to my lack of print picture interest).

And then about five years ago I lost interest in making cards. When we moved I thought that maybe a change of scenery would pique my interest. Not so much. And so I've had all this STUFF sitting around collecting dust for all that time. I finally decided that it was time for me to get rid of the vestiges of these two cults. I am giving it all away to some folks who I know will appreciate it.

I had some fun testing all the ink pads to make sure they still work. Although there was a twinge - I used to stamp the penguin on the backs of the cards I made & then write "Danamade" in its belly. Feels weird to know I won't be doing that anymore.

And then I came to this box:

It was a silly extra thing that I just had to have - it came with plastic pages where you could arrange all the pictures you wanted to put in an album & then store your layouts in the box until you were ready to put the pages together. I opened up the box to see September 2004 - the trip that we took to Lake Erie six months before Mom died.

And wow it was hard to take those pictures out of that box, knowing that I'd never put that album together. Fortunately, Dr. M knew this would be a tough process, so he brought in a cow to stare at me :)

Really, I'm glad to give all of this stuff to someone who will use it. And it removes that feeling I've had over the years of something left undone. And as we all know, I have a new obsession now. All that yarn has to go somewhere!