Another beautiful morning in the Outer Banks.  Well, not exactly the Outer Banks;  I saw this sunrise over the Currituck Sound, near my friends' house in Waterlily.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla.

 

To get to the Outer Banks, you have to go over the Wright Memorial Bridge.  If you travel north, you get to Duck, then Corolla, where the Currituck light is, and then Corova, where the wild horses are.  Farther north you are in Virginia.  If you travel south, you get to Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head.  From Nags Head you can go west on 64 and get to Manteo, where there is a sign.  Hey, maybe I'll show you that tomorrow.

 

I'm still here in Virginia Beach, for a few more days.  

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

 

 

Look at this beautiful trellis of hyacinth beans.  It is in my friend's yard.  She bought the seeds at Monticello, the Charlottesville home of Thomas Jefferson.  Botanically they are Dolichos lablab, and she promised to save some seeds for me to grow in our mountains next spring.  Yay!!!

 

I found them in the Baker Creek Rare Seeds Catalog, and the description included the reference to Thomas Jefferson.  But they named the genus and species as Lablab purpureus.  Seems pretty close, but maybe they are different.  I think I'll go with the offspring from the Monticello ones.  Thanks, Elaine.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Have I shown you Bayberry before?  I think I have, but I love it, so I'm showing you again.  Myrica cerifera, also called Wax Myrtle.  It doesn't really grow well in the mountains, but it is all over the place here near the coast.  Typically it grows near wetlands, which is where I took this picture.  I read that the roots can withstand burning, regenerating the plant even after the tops have been burned to the ground.  I think that's pretty interesting.

 

Of course, the waxy blue-gray berries are used in the making of bayberry candles.  It's my favorite Christmas scent.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I also visited my friend in Waterlily, and went for a walk every morning.  The sun was just coming up this morning, and the sky was so blue.  I could see the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla across the Sound.  It's on that strip of dark land, just below the clouds.  I also saw an osprey on her nest, but she flew before I could get her picture.  

 

I thought you might like to see another beautiful part of North Carolina, the Outer Banks.

 

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

 

And while I was taking the picture of the egret, this Great Blue Heron was watching me, or maybe watching us both.  Maybe it was just looking for a good fishing hole.  I love it.

 

 

HAPPY, HAPPY!!!

 

I am here in Virginia Beach, and every morning I walk up and down the pier.  At one end is this beautiful golf course, and at the other end is the marina for our condo community.  It is a lovely walk, and I get to see lots of birds.  This egret was fishing just across the way, and didn't mind my being close.  I guess he knew that I wasn't a threat.

 

I love seeing these huge, beautiful water birds.

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

 

 

 

As I was traveling to Virginia last week, I saw lots of fall color in and around Asheville.  Of course, I couldn't take pix and drive at the same time, but when I stopped in Black Mountain, I took this picture for you.  Their Bradford Pears are already changing.   And we will be seeing lots of our own fall color soon. 

 

I love watching every day for the changes.

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

 

Walking in the park last week, we saw this little squirrel, and she was very interested in Jon.  I love this picture.  Can't you just imagine that she is offering to share her acorn with him?  

 

 

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!!!

 

I got an interesting message from a friend the other day, asking me what tree was dumping all the golf ball-sized fruit on Moccasin Creek Road.  I knew immediately that it was Black Walnut, just as he suspected.  So, here is a picture of the tree, and if you enlarge the picture, you can see several fruits way up there.  (My picture of the fruit on the ground wasn't so great.)  When the fruits drop on the ground they kinda make a mess, especially when they fall on the road.

 

I looked up Black Walnut, and found out some interesting info.

 

Its botanical name is Juglans nigra, and is in the same family as English Walnut, Hickory, and Pecan.  The fruits are special too, just like English Walnut, they are very tasty.  Unlike English Walnut, they are a pain to extract from the husks and the shells.  The husks that protect the nuts are full of a yellowish-brown stain, that early American settlers actually used to dye hair!!!  Anyway, that stain can also be used to dye fabric, yarn, wood, and your hands if you're not careful.    

 

We had a friend in Harrisonburg, VA who gathered the fruits as they fell from his trees, and pushed them into his driveway.  Then he ran over them with his truck to get off the husks, without touching them with his hands.  We brought some unshelled nuts home one time, and tried to crack them on the potting bench using a hammer.  Well, you know how THAT turned out.  In order to crack the shells we had to really smack them hard, and when they broke, the shells smashed into the nutmeat.  Yuck!  I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but it was kinda fun to do, once.

 

Interestingly, Missouri is a major producer of Black Walnuts, using machinery to extract the nuts. So, somebody has figured out how to get to the tasty nuts, without infusing them with bits of shell.

 

Next time you eat Black Walnut cake or cookies or ice cream, you will appreciate them in a new way.  

 

 

THANKS, MARK FOR ASKING ABOUT THEM.  We all got to learn something new.

 

 

Jon just brought in this butternut squash.  He took the pic with a quarter in it for perspective.  Hahaha!!!

 

It could be the smallest butternut ever.  Well, at least the smallest that ripened and is edible.  I'll let you know if it's tasty or just tiny.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!