Today on the island...

As of today, no one is allowed on the island except permanent residents.  This means that people who own houses here but do not live here full time cannot come into the island.  There are also no tourists allowed and all the rental houses and restaurants are closed down.  This step was necessary because people were coming to hide out here feeling it to be safer and the island cannot handle this kind of influx.

What are we doing now?  Well, first of all we are eating very well.  We have not had to go out to eat in nearly two weeks now and our tummies are loving it!  We get to plan and fix our own food, and, since Trish and I both love to cook, it is like a feasting holiday.

Right now our little mushroom “farm” is really working overtime putting out giant oyster mushrooms.  Tonight we have plans for a mushroom, asparagus and bacon quiche.  Maybe mushroom pie tomorrow.

We have multitudes of fresh mushrooms!

We are so fortunate to have our little garage apartment to live in while our house is being finished.  But, yesterday, our fifteen year refrigerator totally died.  Fortunately we live where we do.  We just. called Manteo Furniture yesterday afternoon and we had  a new refrigerator here at nine o’clock this morning.

New refrigerator in place and the old dead one gone!

Over and over again we are glad that we live here!

Being Hermits

The island is now officially closed to outside visitors while Trish and I are “sheltering in place”  at home together.   The store is open and fully stocked and the bank and post office are also open.  Other than that the entire island is closed...including all of the restaurants.

What are we doing on these days?

Well, the weather is absolutely beautiful with sunshine and clear skies and temperature in the low seventies by noon each day. So...Trish and I decided to go out and walk on the beach. Unlike the television scenes of spring breakers violating good sense on Florida beaches, there was absolutely no one on our wide sixteen mile beach.  We walked for more than an hour and finally decided to head back home.  We saw no one else walking on our beach.  We shall probably do this again on most days.

The entire beach belongs to us these days.

Back inside another project was waiting.  I had made an English Paper Piecing quilt a few years ago but had never sewn the final binding on the quilt.  So, the afternoon was spent with Trish showing me how to use her machine (not one of mine) on which I sewed the binding and then started the hand finishing.  It will all be done before this weekend is over.  It is such a luxury to have this enforced time off to be able to complete unfinished and lingering projects.

Happily sewing away!

Finally, we learned that the painters will be here on Tuesday and we may be beginning to move some things back into the house by the end of next week.

So far no one is sick on the island and we live in thankful joy each day!

Island Hermits

Trish and I returned to the island last Saturday after our last event for the time being, Patchwork Tales in Rock Hill, South Carolina.  This was, as well, the last public event there before both the schools and the public library closed down.

It feels very good to be at home here on our little island.  Out store is well stocked and Tommy, the owner, reports that there are no issues related to restocking and getting anything that we need (even toilet paper!).

Our wonderful medical clinic is having people not come in unless specific plans are made my phone in advance.  They have a “well time” first thing each day and then sick patients are brought in after consultation.  I was to have my annual physical today after having blood work done last week.  Instead of an actual physical, I will have a telephone appointment with Dr. Baker to go over my blood work, review prescriptions, and talk over my general health issues.  The in-person physical exam will happen at a later time.

All of our work events have been cancelled until into May at this point, so, there is no income for the time being.  Everyone in our storytelling world is in the same situation as wonderfully planned events must be cancelled for everyone’s medical good.  We will get through!

The good side of things for us is that our house is almost ready to begin to move back in from the garage where we have lived since the September hurricane.  Trim work is being finished this week, then the painters will come in, then we hope that the appliances and furniture can be delivered.  This time at home gives us the chance to clean things and move back in properly instead of just grabbing days here and there between work events. It is a very slow process.

The hard thing is that there has been no tourist income on the island since the hurricane on September 6 and people here are desperate for the season to start and to have a good summer ahead.  But...as of today the island is officially closed to outside visitors.  The only people allowed on the ferries are residents plus service and delivery vehicles.  We are closed down for now.

Trish and I feel safer here than we would anywhere else and we are thankful for that.  We hope that all of our family and friends are living carefully both for themselves and for others.  We need to keep in touch and continue to care for each other from afar as we move through this new adventure of life itself.

Connecticut and Back

All this week Trish and I have been in a storytelling workshop we conduct three times each year in Madison, Connecticut.

We did leave home a day early on our drive up so that we could go to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, Virginia, on the way.  We shopped, looked at quilts, and joined some of Trish’s treasured friends from Roanoke while we were there.

We are each working on quilts right now that are made of hexagons.  Hers is made of about a million small ones that build up to larger diamonds.  Mine is simple and uses larger hexagons. I call it Joe’s Garden based on my daddy’s garden and made of rows of vegetable fabric.

Shopping for fabric (you can never have too much!) at the quilt show.

We got on to Connecticut on Sunday afternoon to meet our workshop group at Mercy Center in Madison.  Mercy Center is a lovely small retreat center on the shores of Long Island Sound, a former convent now maintained by the Sisters of Mercy Order for small conferences and retreats.

Very serious workshop participants!

One highlight of the week is going in to New Haven on Wednesday evening where I do an evening of storytelling at the New Haven Friends Meeting.  It is such a good time because many workshop attendees from past years come and it makes for a kind of small reunion.

Bill Graustein, our host for the week, introduces our evening of storytelling.

When the week was over we drove down to Goldsboro, NC, where our son Greg and his wife, Annette are stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.  Of their three children, Mallory, Lucas, and Jake, it is almost Jake’s birthday...so we got to deliver presents and watch excitement!

Counting down to an important birthday.

Today we will take the ferry home and be surprised by the work done on the house while we were gone.  It is getting closer!

The return of Daylight Saving Time and the Full Worm mega-moon remind us that spring is indeed on the way.