Virginia Is For Families

We arrived at the beach yesterday and were amazed to see our building covered in green drapes!  It’s undergoing a facelift and there is scaffolding over much of it.  See the photos for a better idea of the situation.

Beth pointed out to me that you can stand in a room and look at a wall socket and see. . .

Daylight!

Nice.  And the “windows” are covered with plastic.  Fortunately it only got down to forty something last night and there wasn’t much wind up here.  But who knows what it will do tonight!  My lovely wife keeps telling me it’s an adventure.

And we did have a very nice day after the rain cleared out.  We walked the boardwalk and went out to dinner.  Then we got under the blankets and watched Carolina dismantle Michigan State in the NCAA basketball finale.   Congrats to our ACC!

I woke up at six this morning and headed for the beach to take some photos.  It was pretty cold but that didn’t prevent a couple of surfers from heading out into the surf with their wet suits and gloves.

I found a perch and took a few photos of the birds,  our denuded building and the US Corps of Engineers dredging Rudee’s Inlet.  Lots of maintenance going on as the beach folk prepare for another vacation season.

Hopefully somebody will arrive once it is all completed.

Click on the photos to enlarge

[Show as slideshow]

 

Charlotte Church
Play Dream A Dream

01-dream-a-dream1

Victory is born  in  the heart. . .

When the night is still
And the sea is calm
Lonely shadow, you call upon me

Lay by my side
Fear not tonight
Lonely shadow, you’ll find a new light

Dream a dream
And see through angel’s eyes
A place where we can fly away

Ride with me upon a shining star,
Above the moonlit sky
We will find Elysium

Hear the nightingale
Sing a lullaby
Lonely shadow, you’ll find a new light

Dawn will be kind,
All will be bright,
Lonely shadow, rise from the darkness

I need to get out and take some photos.  Yesterday was the first day in over two weeks that I felt really good.  So  I will be going out and looking for targets of opportunity soon.

Here is a photo from an ice storm we had awhile ago.   It’s pretty bad when you have to resort to this, isn’t it?  But it’s a new photo anyway that I have never put up and it’s kind of nice.  It has a certain symmetry

Or not.

This past weekend was a real eye opener as far as the economy is concerned.  We went to a Christmas party that is packed every year and there were quite a few empty tables this year.  Then we went to see The Nutcracker and there were very many empty seats at the Saturday evening performance.

It’s not looking good sports fans.  Have you noticed anything like this in your neighborhood?

But it said on the news that people are still buying Christmas trees.  So that’s good.  Maybe they are just staying home and enjoying them more.

I hope so.

04-jingle-bells

We are going to go over to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and view their Christmas display again this year.  The photos I took last year seem to be very popular and they do something different every year.  So we tried to get in the first night it was open but the parking lot was full and they were diverting traffic out into the darkness.  I didn’t stick around to follow the trail.

Apparently I’m still not completely cured where crowds are concerned.  In any case here are some photos from last year’s exhibit.  I haven’t posted these before (or I don’t remember doing so…take your pick).  In fact I never really looked at them (or don’t remember etc…).  They needed some light and some cropping.

And here they are.

[Show as slideshow]

 

Click on photo to enlarge