Morning Has Broken

I loaded these in the proper order, but they didn't post that way. The 2nd photo should be first.

We just returned from three days at Carolina Beach; a well-deserved respite after my heavy work last week. The sun rise was incredibly beautiful both days, and I was lucky enough to record some of it. Enjoy!

Before long, it will be beach and pool time (yay) and soon many of us will be on the yearly treasure hunt to find a bathing suit we can live with (or in). Since beach attire doesn't resemble the ones in the photo at left anymore (and in many cases, it's a real pity they don't), we have trouble finding something that minimizes our bad points and maximizes anything we have that may qualify as good. As we age, there are fewer and fewer points to emphasize and more and more we ought to cover up. Don't you find that to be true? Will you be shopping for a suit this year?

This old photo was in my parent's collection, but as most, it was not marked with names or dates. It is really too bad, since they are almost surely relatives - and we will never know who they are. Don't make the same mistake - label all your photos before it is too late.

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As usual, I had several more ideas for blog posts over the last 8 hours, but not one of them comes to mind now. How typical. By the time I get to a pen and paper to write down the idea - it has left my brain - never to return.

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The plumber had to be called yesterday. Mr. kenju thought he detected the sound of a drip under the house, and went down to check it out. He was right. My ears are so useless that I couldn't hear the leak, even though it was somewhat obvious through the air vents in the guest bathroom.

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Spring usually mobilizes me to get busy with heavy cleaning of the house. Ordinarily by this time of year, I have washed some curtains, cleaned windows (inside), polished the silver, and washed all the colored glass bibelots in the dishwasher. So far this year I have "Spring cleaned" exactly one thing - my kitchen window and the things that sit in it. I need motivation, but so far it eludes me.

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Yesterday I accomplished at least one thing of value. I went through several plastic bins of stuff/junk/memorabilia and found most of the Eastern Star photos and booklets I had promised to a woman in my hometown. I contacted her several months ago, asking if there would be any interest in this stuff my mom collected in the 50's. It turned out that the chapter my parents belonged to back then is having their 100th anniversary this summer - so my donation of memorabilia from the 50's is right on track. The best part is that she remembered my mom and dad. I will take the stuff to her this summer when I go back home for a visit.

Butterflies, Spam and a Picnic

On Sunday, I walked into the garage and saw this butterfly on a table, sitting very still. I walked back into the house to get my camera, and when I went back into the garage, he started to fly away. I followed him in hopes he'd stop and I could shoot a photo - when lo and behold - he lit on my arm!! After I put this photo on Facebook, I had several comments saying that it was good luck. I had not heard that before, so it was pleasant news. So, now I'm ready for the luck to start.....

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Are you getting any spam comments lately? I have noticed more than a few, plus a new way for people to have access to your blog (and your readers, to theirs) that you may not want.

Sunday afternoon I clicked on my blog and found a new "follower". Now I love having followers, but some are sneaky! I clicked on the icon to see who it was and the site it directed me to was all about "Asian girls" (with huge boobies, and not the blue-footed kind either). I promptly set out to find a way to rid myself of that follower - and I blocked her. You may want to be on the lookout for similar followers. Although some guys will find them acceptable - I don't!

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My neighborhood is great - and most of you know that - if you've read here for any length of time. This past Sunday we had a pot-luck picnic; planned by 3 of our women and they did a bang-up job. If they aren't careful, they'll be asked to plan every event we have and their fame will spread far and wide, so they might be asked to plan elsewhere too!

They grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone else brought side-dishes, buns, drinks, ice and desserts-to-die-for! I donated 4 long, folding tables and tablecloths, and took 9 pounds of baked beans!

They had one large tent and 2 smaller ones, and everyone brought their own chair. We were blessed with perfect weather; the children had a basketball court, tennis courts, badminton, croquet and each other to play with. There were about 40 adults and 20 children, out of a possible 100+, but it's a good number and not unmanageable.

We usually have a pulled-pork barbecue in the spring; and a company of out Wilson, NC is hired to bring the food, tables and drinks. That's always good, but I love the variety provided by the pot-luck. We have some amazing cooks here - I think we ought to do a neighborhood cookbook!

(Anne, what do you think?)

Where I've Been

Marriott's Grand Dunes Resort and Villas in Myrtle Beach - is where we've been for 3 days. Mr. kenju, me, our daughter and one granddaughter (all her siblings and cousins are at camp in the mountains of western Virginia for two weeks.) The weather on Sunday was perfect, but we didn't get there until about 3pm that day. Monday was overcast - as you can see - and we had spent about 20 minutes on the beach when it started to sprinkle. We stayed there for 10 more minutes, hoping it would blow over, but we had no such luck. So, up to the indoor pool and hot tub we went. It sprinkled off and on for an hour, and the sun didn't show its face again until well after we went to dinner. Can you believe that I still got a bit of sunburn?

That crane is hard at work on the third (or it maybe the fourth) building in the vacation villas section of the resort. I haven't been in the villas yet, but Mr. kenju and our daughter were there 2 months ago and they said it is perfect: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a full kitchen and nice size living area with a full balcony fronting the ocean. The villas have their own heated pool and hot-tubs with outdoor grilling area and tables.

Here are the two outdoor pools; one is fresh water and the other is a salt-water pool. They also have an indoor pool with hot-tub, and a second hot tub outdoors, as well as a kiddie pool and a water slide, which is a very big hit with children., and some adults. Our granddaughter must have gone down that slide at least 100 times!

When we left there today around 11 a.m., the sun had come out again and it was proving to be a gorgeous day. Isn't that always the case? No one minds leaving the beach in the midst of rainy weather, but most of the time when we leave, it is so beautiful you can hardly tear ourselves away!

I didn't get much sleep last night and tomorrow morning, I have to take my daughter to the airport at 5:00 am. I hope to get to bed early tonight, so wish me luck!

"Mack.... the Knife"

More stuff I found last week: my mother's knives. They are fairly small, and two of them are pearlized. I know they were mom's because they were found in her dresser after her death. My dad had his own share of pocket knives, which I'll post after I locate them again. They were larger than mom's (more manly, I suppose). Do you carry a pocket knife? I never have, unless you count my folding florist knife, but I don't carry it all the time. My dad used the blade of his to clean his fingernails and as a young child, I marveled that he could do that without cutting his fingers. He never did, that I know of.

Florists often cut themselves, especially when they're in a hurry. I haven't done that in a long time, luckily, but I have scars from previous cuts. There is a faint scar on the back of my left hand that I have had since I was nine. I was playing hide and seek with a group of neighbor children and I hid around the back of our house, peeping out around the corner. The kid who was "it" sneaked up behind me and I was scared out of my wits. When I jumped, I cut my hand on the metal flashing under the siding of our house. I bled like a stuck pig! That scar is barely visible, but I have never forgotten how I got it.

The Beaufort Old Homes Tour

Click to enlarge (I hope). I've been wanting to tell you about the Beaufort Old Homes Tour, but I had to find these photos first. The Mace House was owned (at that time) by a friend of mine named Grady Wheeler. Grady was a florist, and we often worked together in Raleigh, as well as other cities in NC and in his home - Beaufort, NC. He used to show his home on the annual house tour about every 3-4 years, and he always did flowers in every room. In 1998, he asked me to come to Beaufort and help him decorate not only his home, but one of the other houses on the tour. I was thrilled to be asked and went there with bells on. I started decorating the other home, and Grady was going to go and start on his house. When I finished the other home (seven hours later), I went to Grady's to discover that he had fallen ill and I had to do his house too! That was not, unfortunately, the last time I pulled an "all-nighter" with Grady. It seemed he worked best at night - even when he wasn't sick - and I had to follow his lead if I wanted to work with him. It was worth it.

Shortly after that, his home was damaged in two separate hurricanes (Fran was one), suffering water and wind damage. His insurance company sent their appraiser; an architect from the South who worked on historic properties. He fell in love with Beaufort and liked Grady very much. He decided that the company needed to bring Grady's home up to code and up to the standards that a home listed on the Historic Register should have. They packed up all of the furniture and clothing and personal effects and stored all of it for nearly a year. The demolition began, and all that was left were the exterior walls. The house was essentially rebuilt from the walls in; re-plastered, re-wired, re-plumbed; the floors were refinished, the chimney was re-bricked. In short, the house was completely re-done and heat and air conditioning was added where it had never been before. The photos you see here were made the first time I visited Grady after the renovation.

The Mace House.

The living room.

The living room.

The den (that's Grady in the portrait over the mantel)

The den

The dining room

The kitchen

The kitchen

The sleeping porch

The dependency kitchen; the only structure on the property that was not hurt in the storms. This kitchen came from Grady's wife's home place in Georgia (I think). It was taken apart and each board was numbered, so that when it arrived in NC, it was put together by the numbers. He and his wife used it for storage.

Grady was insistent that his home be decorated in the manner in which homes would have been in that era. He had an unfailing eye for quality, but when he couldn't afford the "real thing" he was very adept in placing a modern, inexpensive copy so that unless you were a dealer or an appraiser, you would never have known. He loved blue and white china (as you can see). Some of the pieces shown here were worth hundreds of dollars, and some were "dime store" copies. Almost anyone would have been hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Grady and his wife are both deceased now. Unfortunately, his wife was in a nursing home before the renovation happened, so she never saw it. Grady only lived about 9 months after the renovation, and I always wished he had been able to enjoy his lovely home for a longer time. Oh, and you should know, that after the insurance company spent thousands and thousands putting it all back together for him - they dropped him like a hot potato.

The Beaufort Old Homes Tour is held every year on the last weekend in June. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys period homes and beautiful interior design.

Vestiges of Summer Camp ~ The Sharpshooter

Here are some things I found when I cleaned out a closet - the badges I won for Riflery. I won the Sharpshooter badge when I was ten; shooting prone at a 45 degree angle. I can still conjure up the smell of the spent bullets (22 gauge) and the loudness of the rounds. Hmmm....maybe that's something that contributed to my deafness. We never wore ear plugs back then.


Go here to read all about it and see the target.

Family Reunions

The top photo was taken in my great-grandparent's yard before I was born, sometime in the 30's. This was in Wyoming County, WV near the town of Oceana. I recognize about 8-10 of them, but the rest are a mystery. Take heed: Label your photos! Fifty years from now, hardly anyone will remember who the people are!
The bottom pic was from the summer of 1942, when I was not yet 2 years old. The family had grown a good bit by this time (or maybe some of them didn't make it to the first one). This was taken in our front yard, in St. Albans, WV. Route 60 ran right in front of the house. We only lived there for about 2 1/2 years, so I remember very little about it. I have one or two other photos from this house; in one I am "swimming" in a zinc tub out in the yard, and in the others (which I posted recently on JAJ), I am sitting in an old yard lounge, trying to put on sunglasses.

This is Rock Lake, near my hometown in WV. Click to enlarge.

In my area, we had a huge (400 by 200 feet) swimming pool complex that had been built into the side of an old rock quarry. Virtually everyone went there on weekends, as it was one of the few public pools around in those days. They had the big main pool, baby pools, a games area and a dance floor, and they always played the current popular songs for our "dancing pleasure". And dance we did; as the sun burned brightly and tanning or swimming became boring, we piled onto the dance floor like sardines in a can. It was heaven. If your current boyfriend was not in attendance that weekend, there were always scores of others waiting in the wings. And don't get me started about life guards; they of the bronzed bodies and rippling biceps. It was every 15 year old's dream, even if the guards were far too old for us.

These photos must have been taken on a weekday, or early in the morning, because on most weekend days, you could hardly move for the numbers of people there!

I lifted this from a previous post on summer memories, written back when I couldn't post pics. I thought you'd enjoy seeing my "old swimming hole". If I keep posting photos of warmer days, maybe they'll get here soon......LOL

Edit: The pool closed in the 60's, a victim of integration, according to the story I read.

And another one: Jennifer asked if I was sure it closed in the 60's. I am not; that is the info in an email I got, and it could be wrong. I left that area in 1963 and never attempted to go to Rock Lake again after that, so I don't know.

Yes, there was a charge to get in, but I don't know how much it was. Probably something like 50 cents. It was not a public pool (in the sense that it was not city-run). It was privately owned.