Evening at the Beach

 So many pretty sights. ❤️❤️

Alligator

There is always an alligator at Greenfield Lake, usually up close to the walkway. I couldn’t resist this one.

Last May POTD!

 An alligator and people in a canoe. 

Psalm 27

 

Duck Buddies

 These ducks hang out in the parking lot at my nearby grocery store. So cute! 

St James Church

The Market Street side. My Mommy’s name is on the wall in the Memory Garden and some of her ashes buried there. Same with my Uncle Marty. Soon my Aunt Margaret’s name and remains will join them. She lived to be 98! Pretty amazing. 

Longfellow. A Treasure of a Book

 

This book, over a century old, belonged to my mother and has some of her early penmanship in it. She and my grandmother knew by heart several of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poems and and quoted them often. Here is a tender one. 

                            It Is Not Always May

In a Backyard

 

Fly your banners high

 

Full moon evening at CB

 

Pole Beans

After several days of fun when photo ops were plenty, today is a day of staying in. What to do for my POTD? 

On Saturday, my friend and I had stopped at a really good farmers market, and I spotted some pole beans, something I thought were no longer available. And here they were! They were a Southern favorite in the summer, broader and  better than green beans. I bought only a few, since there is only me to feed. They have been in the ref since Saturday, but I cooked them tonight. A taste from the past and so good. 

Headed Home

 

In Raleigh Tonight

 Moon over the building where I had a delicious supper. And Betsy’s rosé, pretty with the other colors in the room.

Strawberries

 Purchased yesterday in the country. They taste real! So delicious. 

Front room in Event/B&B house visited on Saturday in small town NC

 

Blackbird. Grackle.

 

Art Today

The group of abstract women artists are here for the second year. It is thrilling for me! I arrived at the AW today, lucky me, when they were starting a 40” square piece on which each of the twelve artists painted. Therefore . . .  I took videos of practically the whole process. Took about 12 minutes. The top one is the completed one they all painted on that will be donated. The bottom one is how the room was set up, etc. 

Beautiful Ft Fisher

 

POTD Gull

 

So many delicious little restaurants here

 

Trees in my yard

Magnolia and Bald Cypress. So Wilmington.

This guy has the coolest plants

 At a market today.

From a downtown roof at sunset

 

Family History

 Following up on yesterday’s event:

This is the still standing house in old downtown Wilmington that my great-grandfather was brought to when he was shot that August evening in 1865. He did not die on the spot, but, like Lincoln and Van Gogh, was taken to a residence and died the next day. The house was owned by his father-in-law who took care of the family while Thomas was called to serve in the Civil War. A few months after his death, his wife Mary gave birth to my great grandmother Ida with the middle name of Thomas. Sadly Mary died soon after, “grieved herself to death,” per my grandmother’s family lore. 

While we (I) often criticize the current medical profession for over-reach and under-knowledge, both of these young people would have been treated and saved today, from a bullet wound and severe reactive depression. 

End of Watch Ceremony

Every May the police department here honors the ones who have died in the line of duty. My great great grandfather is at the top of the list, the first to be recognized as his killing took place in 1865. A young man with one child and a pregnant wife, murdered as he was getting off duty, shortly after he came home from the Civil War, when angry men were roaming the streets. Occasionally that happens to law enforcement officers today. But here we are over 150 years later, his descendants, honoring his life. This is my cousin and me at the ceremony. 

Pretty Church Building

I drive a certain way every Tuesday afternoon and am still seeing see new places, like this lovely church. Episcopal churches are always architecturally interesting, a quality missing from new buildings today. This one has a fairy tale quality or looks like it could be in an old European village. But it is right here in Wilmington! Photo from car window.

A Special Bridge

 This was featured multiple times in a TV drama filmed in Wilmington. Can’t remember the name of it!

With pizza, anything goes

Friends gave me a yellow pepper, fresh oregano, and fresh chives, and I was inspired to use them on a pizza. I made the dough for the crust, mixed those topping ingredients along with sun dried tomatoes and a little smoked Gouda, sprinkled them on the smear of basil pesto on the dough, et voila. Lunch. Here it is assembled and ready to go in oven. 

Lowe’s

 My pledge to myself to post a daily picture in May, comes with a story today. After church, I went to Lowe’s to look for paint. Usually I dread going in there. It seems overwhelmingly big and confusing. and I try to find someone in a red vest to ask where in such and such, so I can get in and get out. But today was different. Some happy shoppers were getting plants and garden stuff, but most interesting were the many dogs that were brought it. One was a gorgeous blonde golden retriever type. I would have taken her home! Also two French bulldogs, a black one being pushed in a cart, and a light one on a leash. Some mixed breeds and others, and this little fella, a teacup yorkie.  So tiny! I asked if I could take a picture. When I commented to the employee about the dogs, he said they are an animal friendly place. Once a toucan came in on a man’s shoulder, and another time someone brought in a kangaroo! 

R/T Cookies

 My POTD is a wall in a friend’s house that is adorned with cookie cutters, molds, kitchen tools, etc. The look was much cuter (and wider) than this quick photo reflects. 

Downtown today

Gailllardia

 Blanketflowers grow well in Wilmington and by the beach.

Voluntary Viola

 It’s May again! Time for a photo a day. Why not begin with May flowers.

Stuff from a Saturday

After "work," I skipped the entrance to my neighborhood and drove to WalMart, about four miles further down the road. I thought I'd go tomorrow after church for gas and a pack of coffee, but as it is Saturday evening, and I had nothing to do, why not. It's always entertaining and a little scary. (Not really.) Why is it that "WalMart people" are real!? The main thing is, I have no one to be accountable to, all decisions are mine, and I can do what I like when I like. I'm beginning to love life as a single girl. And If I want hors d'oeuvres for supper, why not! 

While at "work," the AW, i.e. studio, after conversing with everyone I could, I stayed in my room/studio and spread some acrylic paint around. This is what I ended with. One of these days, I am going to get back into oils, but for now, I am pushing layers of buttery soft acrylics of pretty colors around on 12 inch square canvases, and they all somehow seem to end up looking like this. I guess it is my style and my palette. aargh . . . I think its title will be "An Uncommon garden." Parts of it, I'd like to change, but I occasionally must call something completed. 

When I moved here, I discovered ..

 Wilmington is a mecca for creativity.

I don’t know if people are drawn to its vibe or if they are freer to release their creative nature after being here. Maybe it is the light of the sun or the energy from the waters we lie between. Maybe it’s like an Italian city in that way. We have a dynamic mass of painters and makers of visual arts. The theatre and music communities bless our town in so many ways. New chefs come and set up their own small restaurants with delicious and diverse manus. I’m not in touch with the writers here, but it is lonelier work, and Wilmington is also quite social. Anyway, it is a good fit for me. Even if I had not had to come home to Wilmington, beloved homeland of half my ancestors, I would love it. 

Golden cardinal

 

Wisteria

 The wisteria vine is a pretty addition to spring.

Easter 1948. Wilmington.

 

New Art Club

 For the past few months, back into fall 2023, I have been helping start a new art club. It not like the one I slaved for before I got the gallery. It’s fun, and I am beginning to get the hang of what it could be. 

This evening was our second meeting. Not every meeting will be a meeting. Some will be activities, like the plan for next month. But back to today, tonight. I had a bad dream early this morning that it was a failure, that hardly anyone came and that those who did started leaving as soon as we were sent to a small back room to meet. And none of the people who showed up had come last time and who were they anyway. 

In reality, fewer people people did come, but a lot was happening in and around this town of ours, and it was expected. The totally awesome speakers we lined up were appreciated and enjoyed by all in the room.  My camera was charged and ready for use, but I was so caught up in the moments, I never took it from my bag.  

I hope this cool new art club will live long and prosper.  

Forward or Backward

A tag in my jeans read: Save the planet. Wash less, wash cold, dry on line. How funny and sad.

Red Onion

This onion was so expensive, I needed to give it a starring role.

Trees

 

Mama’s shoes

I went shopping today for new wearable items. 

First a trip to Rack Room in the mall. A few years ago, BC (before Covid), I bought four pairs at once, and was I proud of myself! Today I did the same, and what a great price I paid for all four! 

I know I’ll be happy I got them. 

As I was loading the fours shoe boxes in the car, I was reminded of my Wilmington grandmother and her shoes. Mama bought one pair a year. It was a big deal that day when she went downtown to carefully select them. They new ones looked like the old ones, black pumps with a bit of a sturdy heel, just shinier and unwrinkled. The new shoes were saved for church or other dressing up, and the older ones she wore around the house. Both pairs were kept under her side of the bed. Mama couldn’t walk without shoes! It seems I remember she had a very old pair of black lace up boot-like shoes, the kind that needed a special tool for lacing. I was born in 1944 and spent a lot of time with her the first seven or eight years of my life. I love having those memories to compare with how life is lived today. 

KBeach

 It is most wonderful to get to any beach. It is healing, invigorating, and inspiring.