Fridays are Golden

Our Lucy loves to have a pillow.  That's why she especially likes her plush bed with bolsters.  She frequently shares a bed with Ellie in order to use Ellie for a pillow.  Sometimes she selects pillows that look rather uncomfortable.

Here she is lying with Ellie, but apparently decided to use the chair rung for her pillow.  You figure.

A pair of shoes will do in a pinch.  If you take off your shoes, as we often do, Lucy will use them for pillows.  Sometimes I have to vacuum dog hairs from inside my husband's shoes.  She seems to prefer his shoes to mine.

Here we are in October already.  Every year I dread the first day of October because one of my neighbors puts out a giant smiley-face pumpkin near her mailbox.  It's the first thing I see as I pull out of our driveway.  Don't know why I hate it so much.  I might as well get used to it.  I'll have to live with it until mid-November!

The great Louis Armstrong was once asked how he could keep singing about a wonderful world what with wars all over, hunger, and pollution.  He responded:  "Well, how about listening to old Pops for a minute.  Seems to me, it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doin' to it.  And all I'm saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance.  Love, baby, love.  That's the secret, yeah.  If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems.  And then this world would be better.  That's wha' ol' Pops keeps saying."

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE!

More Signs for Stupid People

,I love to read tee shirts.  They tell a lot about the person who wears them.  Interestingly enough, when I was a child the only tee shirts with printing on them came free from companies and were definitely not trendy.  I never dreamed we would be paying money to wear a company logo.

Now you can find almost anything you want and wear it proudly to proclaim one thing or another.  The other day I saw a man with a CSI tee shirt.  I used to watch that all the time so I found his tee shirt interesting.  As he passed by me in the cereal aisle, I saw that it wasn't related to the television show at all.  Beneath the CSI was this:  CAN'T STAND IDIOTS.  A very quick search led me to several Web sites that sell this tee shirt, along with the usual coffee mugs, key chains, etc.  (Ain't the Internet grand?)

This was downloaded from Zazzle

Somehow I think the guy wearing the tee shirt might enjoy the following signs:

 If you can't see the windmill, I strongly suspect you can't see the sign.  (Photograph by Steve Juliano taken in the Netherlands)

Nothing to add to this one.  (Photograph by Sue Bayer-Jabb taken in Neenah, Wisconsin)

Don't Blame the Horses

Like most young girls, I went through a "horse book" reading phase.  (I think it came somewhere between Nancy Drew and the teen romances.)  One of my favorites was Misty of Chincoteague, a story about the wild ponies of Chincoteague.  Chincoteague is in Virginia, but I was pleased to find that North Carolina has its own wild ponies and horses.

There are herds of wild horses and ponies all along the coastal areas of North Carolina.  Descendants of the mustangs brought to the Outer Banks in the 1500s, the horses lived on the barrier islands for centuries.  As the area became inhabited by more people, the horses became a tourist attraction.  Our family vacationed every year in Nags Head, then a quiet family beach just south of the areas where the wild horses roamed.  Imagine my delight when we would drive north and actually see the wild horses running across the sand.

Today the wild horses, especially in Corolla, NC are in danger.  Their major problems date to the expansion of Highway 12 in 1988.  Before that time there were no paved roads to Corolla.  Other herds in NC are federally protected, but the mustangs in Corolla do not enjoy such protection.  The size of their State sanctuary has shrunk as the number of vacation homes has risen.

The expansion of the highway naturally brought expansion of development.  Now the horses are being called nuisances, competing for limited wildlife resources reduced by the over building in the area.  The people came, the people built, and the horses are the losers.

Current plans (backed by the federal government) are to reduce the Corolla herd to just 60 horses.  With the human expansion, the horses are now described as feral animals, not native to the Outer Banks and a danger to native wildlife.  Opponents of the reduction plan fear that a 60-horse herd leaves them vulnerable to inbreeding and other problems related to a very small gene pool.  It appears that the intention is to leave enough horses to attract tourists, yet not inconvenience the people who have built their colorful beach houses in the area.

Both photographs from the Internet with no credit given to the photographers.

I have mixed feelings about the horses.  Truly they are not native, but they managed to survive without significant environmental impact for more than four hundred years.  The environmental impact in this case is caused by humans moving further and further into the previously undeveloped areas causing all wildlife to have to compete for the few remaining natural resources.  I do NOT have mixed feelings about the over development along the fragile Outer Banks.  On a visit there last fall, I was appalled at the number of houses and condos dotting the area.  Given a false sense of security with no major hurricanes in the recent past, people have built on unstable areas.  I saw houses built on land that I remember as inlets.  That is the way of the sea.  The Outer Banks have historically changed and will continue to change in the future.  New inlets will cut through and establish new islands.  Sands will shift and land will be lost.

[Disclaimer:  I must admit to a very selfish reason that I detest the unsafe expansion of homes along the Outer Banks.  In North Carolina, insurance companies are allowed to underwrite policies across the risk spectrum of the state.  Therefore my insurance is much more expensive, since I help to pay the cost for the insurance on the beach homes.]

I have no answers for the problem, but I can assure you the horses are not at the root of the problem.  The people are the root cause.  I give you this fact:  Corolla has a year-round population of fewer than 500 people.  There are 1,300 (yes, one thousand and three hundred) homes in the Corolla area.  You tell me...is it the horses or is it the people?

Fridays are Golden

The Golden Girls love to play.  Fortunately we have a large den with heavy furniture where they can be pretty active even indoors.  When they play outside the girls have a posture that indicates a wrestling match is about to begin.  That doesn't seem to happen inside.  One dog always instigates the interaction while the other dog is disinterested.  But in every case, the instigator will persist until the other dog joins in the fracus.

In this instance, it is Lucy who starts the fun.  Sometimes it looks rough, but they never hurt one another and it's all good clean fun.  Lucy always goes for Ellie's ears and they end up wet every time.

Ellie comes right back at Lucy.

The Lucy is on top again, making Ellie look pretty submissive.

Lucy has grabbed their favorite toy...an old blue tug that has seen better days.  Ellie decides to take it away.

Lucy is pinned to the floor still hanging on to the blue tug.

Abruptly the play stops.  At the end of it all the two dogs lie down to rest.  We can never predict what prompts this sort of play indoors.  And the dogs know it is not allowed anywhere except the den.

Although the weather here seems to dispute it, this is the first weekend of fall.  Summer seems to have passed by so quickly this year.  I hope you have a wonderful fall weekend.  Find some joy in your life.  For some it will be harder than for others, but there is always joy to be found if you look hard enough.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING!

Won't Be Autumn Without the Pumpkin Pair

September 22 marks the Autumnal Equinox, the official first day of fall.  Here in the mountains we look forward to fall with mixed feelings.  The mountains that bring us the unbelievable fall beauty also bring us tons of tourists.  Our businesses rely on the tourism so we take that as part of season.  We are extremely fortunate to have so many backroads to travel...roads that tourists don't often undertake.

One road we must travel in order to get home from downtown is US 276, a very heavily traveled route that is well known for its potters and mountain views.  Every year a local shop puts together a pumpkin display next to the shop.  The tradition was kept even when the shop changed hands a couple of years ago.  I just loved rounding the curve and seeing the pumpkin people so friendly and hospitable.

Alas, the shop has been sold and the new owners have a car detail place.  The beautiful knoll on which the pumpkin people stood has a rental shed in front of it.  The place is an eyesore and I  hate it everytime I drive past.  The shop has one of the best views in the area and not only are there no pumpkin people, there is an ugly shed there.

So here are Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin from a previous year.  Notice the gorgeous view behind them.

They waved to everyone passing by.  You would not believe how many people waved back.

I will miss the pumpkin people.  I miss the shop since I frequently popped in to buy something or another.  I'm sure that regular tourists will miss the pumpkin people as well.  Many of them marked their mountain trips with annual family photographs with the pumpkins.  I imagine they will be driving up the road and wonder, "Wasn't this where the pumpkin people were?  Did we miss them?"  Yes, and we miss them too.

It WAS the Bird I thought.

The bird I saw last week was exactly what I thought it was.  The first Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the fall migration.  These birds do not nest here, so we see them only during migration.  The males always arrive first.  After a week or so, the females arrive and the males stay around a few more days.  Then the males leave and the females remain a week or two longer.  Then it's over for the season.

While he is a beautiful bird, his fall plumage is not quite as striking as his spring color.

One of the birds came to the feeder.  At first I thought it might be a female.

But when he flew into the trees I saw the faint reddish coloring on his chest.

Another male has joined the group.

He is waiting for me to go inside so he can fly to the feeders.

What a beauty!

The fall migration is such a wonderful time of the year.  We will enjoy these grosbeaks for a few weeks and then we will look forward to our next migrating friends.

Fridays are Golden

I saw it fall. Straight down from the sky. It didn't hit any part of the house until it landed on the deck. Our hummingbirds have been unbelievably agressive this year. Every now and then they actually crash into one another and temporarily lose their lift and begin a free fall. Most often they are able to regain their flight and go at it again.

This time, one of them didn't have enough space to recover from the crash and it fell down on to the deck. It sat there stunned and seemed to wonder where it was and how it got there.

Lucy was lying near the door and immediately got up to look at the bird.

Lucy stared at the little hummingbird and it stared right back at Lucy.

As the bird moved on the deck, Lucy moved to different positions.

She wagged her tail every time the bird moved a little.

Within a short while the little bird recovered and flew to the feeder. Lucy, satisfied that her watchful eye had made for the recovery, went back to bed.

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur during which our Jewish friends will observe a day of atonement. This holy time is set aside to reflect on the past year, to change one's behavior and amend one's ways. The day requires that the people seek forgiveness for the wrongs they may have done to others. What a wonderful thing to do. Perhaps all of us should follow this example. So this weekend think about the past year. Try to reach out and mend fences. And vow to be more understanding and tolerant of your fellow human beings in the year ahead.

Oh! Look! Is that what I think it is?

Let the fall migration begin!!!

Have a safe and wonderful weekend, everyone!