Sunshine

Today we do have bright blue skies, and it is a bit warmer than yesterday, but the breeze still has a chill to it. More like Columbus weekend.

But at least it isn't rainy today!!!!

:)

Not sure what is on the agenda-maybe work in the yard.

This weekend has been relaxing but kind of uneventful for me-hoped for something more fun-

like putting in the boat-

but that is ok.

Last night I worked on another Shutterfly book- my latest photo obsession.

This time I was putting together photos from July, 2011 when my husband and I went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

I really really liked it there and hope to go back some time.

So today I will share with you a few snapshots I rediscovered last night.

Makes me think it is summery and beach weather, or should I say, boating, weather.

Above is a photo from Duck, where we stayed our first 3 nights. A friend of mine had rented a house and we were there to celebrate her 50th birthday with her. 

I loved the pelicans there. We don't have them this far north in New Hampshire.

We went down to Ocracoke for a day and were having an outdoor lunch when this guy flew over, hoping some charter boat fishermen would look away from their catch just long enough for this guy to scoop them up.

Ocracoke was a quaint little place with miles of very empty beaches- even in mid-July. We spent some time in the sun and in a few hours, no one even passed by us. 

On the other end of the Outer Banks there were wild horses. We took a horse tour, since we didn't have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to maneuver over all the sand dunes. The horses were left here by the Spanish centuries ago.

And it is the land of pirates. Here's Dave with a new buddy.

And of course, any time you are near the ocean you find lighthouses. We saw 4, but here's a couple.

This one is Bodie Island, which you cannot climb and here's the one we climbed.

The views from the top were pretty cool.

I mentioned the empty Ocracoke beaches, on a Sunday afternoon, in mid-July, didn't I?

Just perfect.

Dave was wishing this was a real fish and that he caught it.

Ha-ha-ha!

The other morning we went out to breakfast and I had some crab cake Benedict. Delicious. For a couple of morning I had an egg McMuffin type of sandwich with a crab cake and I tell you- crab cakes and eggs tastes fantastic together. Who'd of thought?

Look at this cute little group of ducks crossing the street in Ocracoke.

You know on parts of the Outer Banks you need to cross bridges to get from Island to Island and on other parts the land is so narrow that from the road you can see both the Atlantic and the Sound bodies of water at the same time.

I am dreaming here about warm days, that's for sure.  I had looked into going back there this summer, but we decided to head west instead. Not that I am complaining. After my trip to Taos, New Mexico last February I have been very much wanting to go the Mesa Verde National Park and see more  ancestral Pueblo dwellings, and that is on my the list for my trip this summer.

We had a lot of spectacular sunsets too. This one on the sound is particularly colorful.

So this summer we are off the the 4 Corners Region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Doing a bunch of National Parks. Can't wait for that.

Maybe next year we'll go back to the Outer Banks!

Have a great rest of your long weekend or great Monday if you don't get a long weekend.

Rainy Sunday

Kind of nice to have a lazy Sunday morning seeing it is cloudy and damp and did rain  a lot last night. More rain today, and maybe in the next few days too.

So I woke up this morning and realized that I only have 3 weeks left until I go back to work and 3 weeks from today Katie movies back to school. I know...no one has sympathy for me, but still means summer has (as usual) flown by and is still flying.

So yesterday went to the Wolfeboro Street Fair. It's an old fashion country fete-a big yard sale and a place to help raise cash for the local hospital. They have a lunch tent, a small carnival, I bought some 1950's knitting books and some old Jacques Cousteau ocean animal books (remember him fromt he 1970's and 1960's?) and some text books for school. Not much else, I guess they didn't have as much donated this year. Was fun though, and then went and hung out at my mother-in-laws and went swimming, but the pond is a bit warm now for the heat-would rather it be cooler. Friday I went to my craft store and bought a few new things...including this great scrapbooking quote/title book  called Inspiration Station by Betsy Flot.

Speaking of books, finished reading the 4th book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series by Arianna Franklin, and found out the poor author passed. And this book was left hanging....oh poor me....though at least I am alive so I don't mean to sound so shallow. Now I'm reading  Bill Bryson's a Short History of Nearly Everything- he's a great author.

So anyhow...still need to photograph some art but here's some more summer photos, many from our trip to North Carolina which seems like forever ago. I do have TONS of art to show you too. Please be patient.

The very NORTH of the Outer Banks, beyond Corolla, are the wild horses. We took a jeep adventure trip to check them out. hat was a worthwild thing to do, just to see this part of the Outer Banks.

Here's 2 of the horses we saw with a cattle egret on one's back.

Lighthouses! This is the Cape Hatteras lighthouse viewed through a window of a building on the grounds.

Ocracoke Lighthouse and my lovely hubby.

Bodie Island Lighthouse. You can't go up this one or Ocracoke. There's 1 more lighthouse in Corolla that we saw but didn't stop at. It is plain brick.

The stairs going down the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, since you can climb that one and we did, all 260ish (maybe 257) steps.

And this is the view from the top of the actual point at Cape Hatteras.