last PI pics...

After the little rain Friday afternoon, the color of the air was pretty and clear. I have a new camera, well, a new used camera, and I'm learning a little about it this weekend. Not a good time for a study project!























A little out of focus, but the little birds were just so bright I couldn't resist snapping this image! We watched them fishing and scampering through the waves.












Our last beach sunset, and it was pretty.












Mark, standing on the front of the ferry that will take us back to the mainland Sunday afternoon late. No vehicles coming over, but three going back.

Thanks, Worth and Karen, for a great gift!

More PI pictures...

View of Portsmouth Village, from the Widow's Walk in the Life Saving Station. Terrific exhibit here, with lots of pictures and drawings of the men, boats and equipment used when a ship wrecked on the constantly shifting shoals off the Outer Banks. There were more than 20 Life Saving stations along the Outer Banks at one time. The church seen here is the Methodist church, rebuilt after a fire in 1915.

We met the current caretakers, a couple from MI, who are living at the Village for six weeks. She told us about the birds she's seen, and little more about the maintenance of the Village.













This house was so pretty in the morning light, the pink roses climbing on the picket fence. No one lives in any of the few houses left, but two (maybe more?) are held by long-term lease by descendents of former residents. There is no electricity in the Village, but there are generators and big batteries to help the seasonal workers live more comfortably.

We spent the morning seeing the exhibit in the old post office/store, and one other house that is open, walking through a graveyard, before heading back through the forest and back onto the beach side.

We met two men coming through the flats towards the Village. We had passed their camp earlier today. Several tents and 3 or 4 trucks...looks like a weekend of fishing. They told us of a sweet fishing hole at mile 4B, where they pulled them in as fast as they could bait a hook. We drove past the site, not wanting to crowd them.



Mile 8 looked good to us, so we pulled close to the high tide line, and called it a campsite. Close by are two turtle carcasses, meant to be undisturbed...this is one of them. It's nesting season, and we are close to a turtle nesting area.
Last night's brief storm had a little wind, and this pattern in the sand around the grass was pretty.

A few more pics in the next post....

Portsmouth Island, NC pictures

Morris Marina runs a ferry from Atlantic, NC over to Portsmouth Island, about a 40 minute ride.  The ferry crew is friendly and efficient...Mark sized up the vehicles waiting for the 3pm Thursday afternoon ferry, conferring with Rick on the logistics of putting the four vehicles on.  Our truck/camper is extra wide, and will only fit in the center.  There is a Toyota, pulling a trailer loaded with kayaks, and two other trucks.  I do not see any way to fit all these vehicles on that small ferry, but they make it happen.  Mark, in an effort to help me back Worth's truck onto the ferry, broke the driver's side mirror off the mounting bracket.  Now, I'm backing an unfamiliar vehicle totally in the blind!  He's a good guide, and once I'm loaded, there is so little room between the trucks I have to open the window and climb out, stepping on the truck hood to get over.

There is an osprey nest just off the marina cove, and the pair of adults are sitting on four eggs.  Rick drove the ferry close enough for me to catch this picture.

After we arrive on the island, Stuart and I kick off our shoes for the next four days, and set about letting the air pressure down on the truck tires.  Worth said they'd look like they'd come off the rims, and he was right!  We dropped the pressure from 65 pounds to about 25 pounds.  We locked the hubs, changed to four-wheel drive, and headed south.

The ferry comes in at Long Point Village, about 10 miles from the southern end.  We cross over the dune and see nothing but sand, sea and birds.  After driving just two miles, we stopped to visit with two men fishing.  Dave and Bill, nice guys, told us they'd been on the island for 10 days.  We visited a little, and drove south, to find a place where we could spend the night.  The picture above is our camp...  Worth has added a "back porch" of gridded metal, just large enough for a chair and the charcoal grill.  We enjoy a couple of adult beverages, and cook a chicken on the grill for our first sunset party.
Friday was just gorgeous!  We slept well, the ocean breeze blowing through the camper, no humans in sight.  We drove on to the south end, where the island is much wider, and the wildlife is more plentiful.  On the way south, we were directed to cross over the dunes, and drive on the road on the backside of the island.  We were detouring around a shore bird nesting area.  There are several miles of bird nesting areas and turtle nests that are closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic this time of year.  Students from NCSU and a VA college are managing and studying the areas, along the with Wildlife people and the National Park Service.  Stuart and I picked up a few shells, watched the birds, and headed north.  We drove on past Long Point Village, and noted that the sand was much softer in this part of the island.  After another two mile detour and more soft sand, I voted for a stop.  I think we were at milepost 10, just south of a nesting area.  We spent the rest of the afternoon and the night there.  Lovely spot to fish, shell, walk, read.  A rain shower passed by, leaving the sky colorful.

Saturday morning we drove on north, taking another detour to the back of the island, heading for Portsmouth Village.  The island is very wide at the north end, mostly salt flats that flood with even the slightest high tide.  It's dry today, as we drive across the flats.  We have "suited up", with long pants and long sleeves, sprayed our clothes with insect repellent, in anticipation of the horseflies and other large biting insects.  I was a little anxious driving through the maritime forest, slipping the Big Truck through wax myrtles and red cedars without leaving parts of the truck or camper behind.  No problem! 

This is the little sign at the beach side of the village.  I think most visitors come by boat from Ocracoke Island, just a short trip across the inlet.  The National Park Service has done a great job of restoring a few of the old houses and the old Life Saving Station.

Next post, more pics....

Portsmouth Island, NC

Paradise bound!  My darling brother and SIL offered Stuart and me the use of  their truck/camper for the weekend, specifially for a visit to Portsmouth Island, NC.  It's part of the Core Banks, some folks might think of it as the southern end of the Outer Banks.  Truthfully, all the beaches in NC are islands, making them ALL Outer Banks.  Portsmouth Island is directly across the inlet from Ocracoke Island.  From the Village of Ocracoke, you can see the state historic site of Portsmouth Village.  It was a 'ship lightering' community for more than 100 years.  The people living on this sliver of land on the edge of the mid-Atlantic made there living fishing, crabbing and shrimping, and unloading the ships loaded with goods from Europe bound for the eastern US.  The shoals prevented the ships from coming closer, so the people of PI loaded the goods into smaller boats, moved to the island  The goods were then loaded onto other ships, and moved up and down the east coast, beyond the treacherous shoals 'outside'.

Hurricanes changing the inlets in the early 1900's changed the game, and the ships could come closer in other locations, eliminating the need for the lightering services.  The last permanent residents left PI in 1971, with the death of some of the last people.   African Americans made up about one third of the population of the island, but until the 1970's blacks remained marginalized by the whites.  Laws prevented white and black children from attending the same school, and schools were never built for black children.  The site of Portsmouth Village is now a historic site, accessible only by boat from Ocracoke and the ferry landing on Portsmouth Island, about 25 miles south.  There are no roads on the island.  Morris Marina, in Atlantic, operates a ferry for the park service, dropping people and four-wheel drive vehicles at the south end of the island.

So, Stuart and  I have brother Worth/SIL Karen's truck and slide-in camper for a few days, and we're very excited about the trip!  Pictures, taken with my new camera (hopefully!), later....

Art and Soul, 2011

This is a page from a journal created by Ingrid Dijkers. I took a class with her at Art and Soul 2011, Hampton, VA. She had such great creativity, and great technical knowledge...I have several pages of notes, and a few pages prepped for drawing, after a day in her class. I also studied with Kari McKnight, another graphic artist who is very talented; and LK Ludwig, a photographer/book-binder/artist.

What I don't have is a picture of my friends! Hopefully, someone else has one, and will share with me.

A couple of things I learned:

household primer is a great 'gesso' according to one teacher and a terrible choice according to another teacher. Liquitex is The Best gesso according to one teacher, and never-to-be-considered by another teacher. Stabilo pens are awesome. Future floor wax is a great, reasonably priced sealer. Archival, too, so no worries about fading or yellowing. Gesso can make ANY paper sturdy. There is a built-in Magic Grid in most point-and-shoot cameras. When photo'ing people, you should probably take 5 steps forward; who cares what shoes they are wearing? A Dremel has four DIFFERENT colletts. Who came up with that stupid design? There is now available a universal collett. A woman demanded that sensible notion, I'm sure.

"A woman can run faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down", Tremmie Jewel Waller, ca 1930.

Make art every day.