change of seasons...

So, I finished up my last day of work at my job and I'm going to enjoy a few days off and head home to Delta to visit my mom. I'm hoping to see some of my siblings families as well while there. And I get to meet Rachel's beau. Then on Monday, I start up my new job along the parkway. I am looking forward to working in this park and meeting a whole new crew of people and interacting with all the visitors who come through the parkway. Yay!

Some friends are in town visiting, so we've been out enjoying the spring rain by mountain biking. I've come to the conclusion that while I might like to mountain bike, I don't really have the finesse that some have. On one ride, I clipped my handlebar on a rhododendron branch and I had to bail off the bike into a patch of green briar to avoid hitting a tree. I had to lay there for a moment to figure out how to untangle myself from the briar. It was sweet! Then later on in the ride, I slid out on a rain slick rock. I guess by riding in the rainy season, I'm honing my skills for dry weather...maybe.

Springtime 2009...

it's here, or at least it sure feels like it.  The rest of this week the lows are supposed to be in the 50s.  Doesn't really feel too much like winter around here.  The trees are all blooming, tulips have bloomed and we have planted half of our garden.  We are hoping to plant the rest this weekend.  It's been raining quite a bit, so our yard is quite green and we've had to mow twice all ready!  I seem to recall that happening last spring and once it hit June we mowed about two times throughout the summer.  Hopefully, we don't have a drought again this year.  :)

We have enjoyed having Mat's gram living close by and being able to hang out with her at the family dinners.  She's a great addition to the gatherings!  On Monday, she and I had a lovely girls day out.  We shopped until we dropped and then went out to lunch.   Funny thing is, I don't think we actually bought anything!



Gram is hanging out on her porch enjoying the nice new bird feeder.  She also has a hummingbird feeder that has had several visits all ready from hummingbirds.  Lucky her.  I've got my fuchsia hanging plants out and although I haven't seen any hummingbirds at them yet, I enjoy looking out the window at the plants!

Sam's Knob

To take advantage of the beautiful spring weather yesterday, Jess and I took the dogs for a hike up Sam's Knob and around the Flat Laurel Creek loop off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The dogs sure enjoyed themselves running around, exploring and doing the creek crossings.

It was nice way to spend the afternoon...thanks Jess and Avery for going hiking with us!

The Outer Banks

We have been wanting to explore the Outer Banks for a couple years now and just haven't seemed to make it out there...the 8 hour drive has been a bit daunting.  But, we decided to make a trip before Mat starts his job and it was definitely worth it.  We drove to Swan Quarter and took a ferry ride (with our car) to Ocracoke Island.  We arrived in the dark and stayed at the only campground open at this time of year.



In the morning, we walked the beach, cooked up some breakfast in a parking lot and checked out the last of the wild horses on Ocracoke.   We then took a ferry to Cape Hatteras, which is a long skinny island.  We spent most of the day at the Pea Island Refuge looking at birds and biking the service road.  We went back to watch the sun set that evening.





We camped on this island for 2 nights, because it had a primo view and was in a pretty good location and wasn't as crazy populated with houses as the Nags Head area.  That area was so populated that they didn't even have campgrounds!  Just large homes you could rent for the week.



We checked out the Wright Brothers Memorial and saw where the first powered flight occurred.  It was pretty amazing how thorough and scientific their approach was.  And I was amazed that they created/made their own engine to power their plane as well as designed the actual aircraft frame.





We also walked through the Nags Head Woods Preserve, which was interesting because there were species of trees/plants that you wouldn't normally see living together.  Mostly a combination of maritime forest and northern hardwood forest.  All less than 1/2 a mile from the ocean.  I found these ponds fascinating, because they looked so green and thick but it is duckweed growing on the surface.



This was my favorite lighthouse of the bunch, because sitting in the visitor center was a man who actually lived there as a child.  His father was the last lightkeeper of the Bodie Island Lighthouse from 1919 to 1940.  The volunteer lived there from 1919 to 1932 when he joined the Navy, because that was the only way he could get a ship in the depression.  It was amazing to get to speak with someone who actually lived there 90 years ago!!!

It was a fun trip to the beach, even though we had to stay bundled up and didn't really spend any time laying out.

We are adopting!!!

We just received the paperwork in the mail and we are so thrilled that we've been accepted as fit to adopt through the state of North Carolina. We have been contemplating doing this since we moved and purchased our home and I finally filled out the paperwork a couple of weeks ago. We just received notification that we've been accepted. Yay! Now, we just have to give the State of North Carolina a call and they will drop off some orange bags and vests and we'll be able to pick up the litter from our newly adopted road.

Gardening preparations...

For the past month or more, I have been getting really excited about the garden and have been contemplating and planning what we'll plant this year.  Mat and I have also been on the search for compost (mushroom, cow, horse) to add to our clay garden.  We found it yesterday.  Sara told Mat about a spring melee that Mountin' Hopes was having on Saturday.  For a donation they will give you composted horse manure.  Since we are heading to the beach on Saturday, I called to see if we could get some in advance.  They were very accommodating and said we'd be more than welcome to come shovel some manure early.  (On Saturday, there will be a machine loading your pickup.)



So we spent some time out shovelling manure into the pickup and brought it home to our garden.  When we return from the beach, we will till the manure in and then we just have to wait until the last frost date (mid-May) and we can plant up our garden.  Yay!  (We do have peas, spinach and mesclun mix planted all ready.)



Yesterday, Mat also spent some time chainsawing out a hole in the stump that we have in our yard to turn it into a planter.  It was a dead tree we chopped down last year.  So I am perusing container gardening materials to determine what will be the best plants to plant in there.   We are getting excited for spring to be here fully!  The Bradford Pear and Cherry trees are blooming right now and they are beautiful.

Happy B-day Spencer

To celebrate Spencer's birthday on Wednesday, Mat and I went on a bike ride in the North Mills River and we chose to ride Spencer's Branch and Spencer's Gap Trails. We had a fun time celebrating Spencer's b-day, some day maybe we can take Spencer on them.

I love google earth and map my ride.  The bonus is Mat combining the two, so that we can see where we have ridden our bikes.  Yay!