Tree Work and Yard Work

 During and following Hurricane Dorian we lost nine trees around the house. They were cut and cleaned up a good while back.

Later on, however, we began to notice another large tree that was beginning to lean more and more toward the back deck and back side of the house.  As we watched it carefully, it was obvious that it was making a slow decision to fall!

Instead of waiting for the inevitable, we went on and had the tree removed.  There were three benefits:  no longer are we afraid that our deck will get squashed or the back of the house damaged, we gained a great deal of sunshine for the back yard and especially the banana trees there, and, we got several loads of good wood chips out of the bargain.

We are using these wonderful cedar smelling chips to fill in low places around the yard and to level uneven areas.  We then seed them with winter rye, which comes up quickly and gives us lovely winter green, and then oversow more grass in the spring.

Trish loads the chips and I push the wheelbarrow and unload them.  We come out about even that way.  We both love working in and on the yard it it is getting more beautiful all the time.  At the end of the day we are both worn out, but, I got to take the picture,

A Quick Trip!

 Today we are driving toward home at the end of a quick trip to Indianapolis.

Last year I was scheduled for a performance for Story Arts of Indiana at the Indiana History Center Theatre in Indianapolis.  With the advent of COVID, that performance was cancelled.

As the year progressed, Ellen Munds, director of Story Arts, began to look at ways to redeem the season. We rescheduled the event for November 14 hoping things would reopen by now...they did not.

So, the plan was to either do a totally virtual event or a hybrid event in which I would go to Indianapolis, perform for a small audience, and have the event streamed via Zoom to the entire audience.  This was the option I choose.  So, last evening, in the 300 seat theatre, I has a very well spaced out audience of about thirty people while all the other ticket holders watched from home.

 It was a great joy to be on a real stage with real people out there, even if the number was safely limited.  Right now we are learning to do whatever works to keep storytelling alive and well and to do so feels very appreciated and embraced.

The History Center was filled with more than a dozen beautiful trees for the coming holiday season.  Trish and I could not resist having our picture taken in such a festive setting.  Besides indoors, there were lighted trees all around the center.  With the drop in temperature between Ocracoke and Indianapolis, we really did feel like Christmas is in its way.

Now we go home and insert Thanksgiving on the island before we get back in touch with Christmas.

Back in Business!

 In September,  Google Blogpost totally changed the way you create a post.  At that moment I was thrown for a loop and could not figure out how to get in to it and make it work.  Also at that time things were very busy with virtual festival recording and I just let the blog slip.

Now you have been reminding me that I need to bring it back to life, so, I am trying to learn the new system and do that.

I  am enter text with no problem, but the photos are giving me a hard time.  Sometimes I can upload a picture,  but cannot put a caption on it.  So, I shall just keep trying.

To show you what I have been doing, I have finished another model ship.  This is a Drakkar Viking Longship from about the year 1,200.  This ship would have been 71 feet long with a crew of about 40.  They went all over Europe and even to Greenland and down to New England.  

The other thing we have been doing is harvesting our gourds.  They went high up in our trees and are now all coming down. No, we don’t know what we are going to do with them.  It was just fun to see then grow.

So, the election is past and our lives go forward.  We live with care and hope for the 2021.  

Tiny Neighbors

 At this time of year we have more than our usual population of nature’s tiny creatures all around our neighborhood.

There are little tree frogs everywhere; they love to populate the windows at night waiting for mosquitos that are attracted by the light inside the house. Even though they leave tiny little frog poops on the windowsills, we welcome them knowing that they are insect eaters.  When we have rain, their chorus of frog songs brightens the sounds of the evening as darkness comes.

We have multitudes of Green Anole lizards.  Yesterday I saw a little cluster of four babies dashing across the deck.  Like many lizards, they change color depending on the surrounding colors of the background ranging from bright green to gray and brown.  But, their eyes are always blue and the little sack under their chin is always reddish.

There are lots of crabs of differing sizes on the island.  The ones with the delicious meat are the blue crabs. They ate mostly in the Sound waters are are normally caught there.  We also have multitudes if Ghost Crabs.  They scurry all over the beach digging holes and disappearing into them, but they also appear anywhere on the island.  They quickly “crab” along sideways to avoid getting caught.  We are in a living ecosystem and all these critters are indicators of biological healthiness.

Almost Stuck

During this last weekend we had some very tricky weather on the island.  We got a lot of wind for three days along with high tides from passing Hurricane Teddy.  The high tides were boosted by the full moon and additional northeast winds.  The result was that Highway 12, our northern link to the island, has been closed both on the island and on Hatteras Island between Rodanthe and the Basnight Bridge.  

In addition, shoaling in the Pamlico Sound ferry channel at Bigfoot Slough has limited the ferry to Swan Quarter to one run each day on a smaller ferry.  This single run is backed up with reservations for days and some weeks as reservations from the cancelled ferries have space priority.

So...we can’t go anywhere right now and we have had no mail this week and no groceries or other deliveries in a full week.  People on Hatteras Island are totally stuck as they cannot go anywhere in any direction.

Highway 12 was covered with five to six feet of sand as the entire dune system was at times washed over the entire road.  As Hugh tides have continued removal work is frustrating in that sand washes back while it is being removed.

We are told each day that the road may open and then, by the end of the day, that word is taken back.  It is just one of the great adventures of living here as discovered by many people whose vacations have been involuntarily extended!  Have fun!

A Wonderful Visit.

Since the year 2000 I have had the privilege of playing with the Jonesborough Novelty Band during the National Festival weekend each year.  This past week Trish and I traveled to Jonesborough in preparation for this year’s virtual festival.  Among other things, I got to do video work with the Novelty Band.

The organizer and leader of the Novelty Band is Terry Countermine, retired from computer science at East Tennessee State University and a long time Jonesborough resident.  Terry has served as both Vice-mayor of the Town of Jonesborough and as a Board Member of the International Storytelling Center.

Following our recording work earlier last week, Terry and his wife, Sandy, came home with us for a visit on the island.  They brought with them storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith, now a resident of Jonesborough and a long time good friend.

We are all visiting at the Ocracoke lighthouse.

We have had a wonderful time visiting together this week.  The Countermines have been in the guest house where Trish and I lived during hurricane recovery and Barbara has been in our home.  We have explored the island and enjoyed long talks and shared food together.

Sandy and Barbara took our picture after a walk to the Springer’s Point beach.

This year it is a special joy to be able to have a safe visit with friends after being isolated with COVID for most of the year.

Trip to Jonesborough.

Early this week Trish and I had a brief trip to Jonesborough, Tennessee, the home of the National Storytelling Festival.  The purpose of the trip was to do some filming in preparation for the 48th National Festival which this year, due to COVID will be produced virtually.

On Tuesday morning Barbara McBride Smith hosted me for an interview studio in which we talked about the past year including the journey Trish and I have had with recovery from Hurricane flooding of our house and also multiple issues related to learning to live in a coronavirus world.

Barbara has great questions for the Studio interview session.

Afterward I made several video spots related to festival promotion and hosting.

The next day the Jonesborough Novelty Band (with which I am privileged to play each year for the Festival weekend) did some filming of music to be interspersed throughout the virtual festival.  Barbara joined with us for Kathryn Windham’s special and unique version of “Show Me The Way To Go Home.”

Playing with Terry Countermine while Barbara sings with the Novelty Band. 

That evening I had a small safely-spaced and fully masked audience of about thirty people while I told the stories I had planned for the Wednesday evening before the festival show this year. That filming will be used to kick off the upcoming Virtual National Festival.

Telling in an actual tent with a real (masked) audience!

Be sure to go to: storytellingcenter.net to get all the details and buy tickets for the Virtual National Storytelling Festival.  It will premier on October 1, 2, and 3 and will continue to run for the following week.  It will be a one-of- a-kind adventure!