Book sale!!

Friday was the bi-annual book sale! It runs Thursday thru Saturday - I always go on Friday because it's 1/2 price day. Still plenty of books. Good cause - they are trying to raise money for a new library in Pittsboro. Our current library is very quaint, but just too small for such a well-read community!


Of course, it was rainy, so they had to put up all the tarps again on the porch. The Kiwanis Club is nice enough to donate the use of their entire building for this sale each time. An amazing quantity of books!



Here's my "boat-bag" full of my stash....the paperbacks were 5/$1.00....so I just picked a bunch of books-by-there-cover. Some of those probably won't get read - they be donated back to the library. I just didn't have time to be too picky at that price! Total for the bag $6.50 - (was $9.50 minus the $3.00 coupon you get for being a "Friend of the Library"!!)

The lovely Amaryllis

Boy, it takes a long time for the Amaryllis to open fully!

Here's what she looked like when we got back from the boat last weekend....just about to burst open, I thought.



Here she is yesterday in all her glory. I'm enjoying it - I know it won't last long!!

New Venture - Our very own book club!

Sorry, no photo - can you believe nobody snapped a photo at our inaugural meeting of the......______________ Book Club. And worse yet, we don't even have a name to go by!

A lovely group of 9 ladies met on Wednesday to start our book club. Check out Joyce - she posted a nice blurb about us!
She invited a friend, Cathy, who runs a Tea store. I invited my long-time friend from Scouting - Marianne And- I invited the neighbors, Gretchen, Lindy and Diane. Lindy invited a friend Charlee - who invited her friend/neighbor Luan. Really cool - we seem to be a diverse yet compatible group!

More as we read - first book - Water for Elephants....

Eddie - come down for your flowers!!

As you may remember, the local florist offers free flowers to anyone with the "name of the day".....well, "Karen" just isn't on the agenda! But my Bro' Eddie can come down and get some flowers!!! How about it?

Just some pretty springtime vegetation

When I wander around outside looking at my flowers, alot of the items have "history". In other words, someone gave them to me!


Like these Japanese Iris's from Mom....just sprouting up out of last year's dead leaves.


Denise and Keith gave me this stuff- I think it's akin to Sedum ...prolific ground cover!!

Columbine from Mom - this one doesn't really like our drought/hot summers but it's been hanging in there year after year....

These have no history - but they are pretty, late blooming daffy's - I'll separate them this year and maybe pass on some history to one of you!!!


One our airport neighbors, Randy, gave me a bag of Day Lily tubers this winter....I stuck them in the ground - it will be neat to see how they turn out!


Hosta's from Mom just now making an appearance...I always love to see those little spikes poke thru the ground every year.



These pansies don't have any real history except that they were purchased from Lowe's several years ago and keep coming back!!

Photos of Richard's 4 Runner

I was out enjoying the last of our warmish, clear weather yesterday - we have 4 days of rain forecast again! Richard drove up in his 4Runner....he's now taken the "cap" off - looks chilly to me! (It's parked in the hangar now, out of the rain....)

A couple of boat photos

Our sail on Sunday ended up to be fairly short - because it was chhhiiiilllly!

I always love seeing the shrimp boats heading out of the industrial dock in Oriental...something cool about people who make their living on the water.


This is one of our marina neighbors. I forwarded this and some additional photos I had snapped of them under-way to their email. Hard to get a photo of yourself like this though - maybe someday someone will snap photos of us and share!

Just a tiny bit of boat work

When I was down last week painting the stripe on the boat, I had taken loose a vent cover on the lower hull of the boat. I took 2 of the 3 screws out to get it out of my way while I was painting the stripe. Uhhh, and I proceeded to forget to put it back in place.



When it was on dry land, this would have been extremely easy to remedy. Once back in the water, not so easy. It's about 6 feet down to the water, so reaching over from the deck was out of the question.

We had to launch the dinghy.....I was hoping that my beloved, Duane, would volunteer to do the honors. He DID help me put the dinghy in the water.....laughed as he handed me the screwdriver......


2 minutes later, all done.....sailing tomorrow when it warms up a bit!! I won't publish the great shot he got of my rear-end.....

Pretty Amaryllis

This pretty amaryllis is several years old now. I'm assuming it's one my grandmother gave me for Christmas one year. I'm always amazed when it decides to send up the "shoot" every year. I do absolutely nothing to it all year - just water it a few times. This was taken over a month ago when I first saw the "pod" start to form.


Here is is this morning - about 3' tall and just about to burst.



I'm afraid I might miss the best of the flower - we are heading to the boat....hope it's still pretty when we get home!

7:30AM call from the police! Not to worry, though!

This morning at 7:30AM the phone rang....I was snoozing, Duane was already off to work. "Mam, this is the Siler City Police Department"...pause....then the beep that says you're being recorded......"we have a fellow at the entrance gate to the airport saying he is supposed to do some roofing work and wants to be allowed in the gate". OKay, now I can breathe! No problem - let's allow the roofer in!!

A beautiful pleasant day to replace the roof of the terminal building!! (now all that dreary fog is gone!)

Foggy morn

Very foggy this morning!! Turned nice and sunny, though....Spring is almost here!!

Yaaay! The 4Runner is "Running"

After much greasy work, Richard's old 4Runner is back on the (dirt) road! I say that, because we haven't gotten the inspection/tag/insurance yet....he'll have to wait until everything is legal before it goes back on the paved road....obviously, it needs a little more work on the headlights and turn signals.....

"something" happened to Richard and Miranda when they were off-roading in the Uwharrie's last summer.....and there was damage to the driver's side....plus the engine....but that's all behind them now!





Happy guy....

Rainy Sunday

It's just a cool, rainy day here! The week promises sunshine, and I'm ready for it!!




Everything is soaked thru and thru - even the daffy's are so soggy they can't stay upright!

Rich and Duane are still plugging along at the 4-Runner - the new engine is installed - just needs a few "tweaks" to run well. Now they're doing some other maintenance to the wheels/brake system....I'll get the tag/insurance for him tomorrow - so maybe we'll see he and Miranda wheeling around in it soon!!!

Garden Plans

Like everyone, I'm feeling uneasy about "the economy"....I'm trying to be pretty conservative about everything right now. Less unnecessary driving, less eating out, etc. And I'm going to do a small garden this year. (I usually get lots of garden goodies from our neighbor, Cordy/Pat and Mom/Frank - but this year I feel like having my own again. I still, of course, will be the happy recipient of any surplus anyone wants to send my way!!)

With our little warm spell beckoning me outdoors, I planted a tray of seed. Just the things I really like fresh - tomatoes, grape tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers. And some basil and cilantro!


I also started several different flower seeds - a couple of them were freebies enclosed in my gardening magazine that Keith and Denise gave me.

I'll post more as the seedlings start to sprout!

More strange animal photos!

I was walking over to the hangar and noticed a bird perched on the top of one of the mechanic's truck.

Strange, he didn't seem inclined to fly away.


He let me get much too close, although nothing appeared amiss. He literally sat there for hours!


Alright, you bird lovers out there, what is this bird? A seagull (we're 200 miles from the sea!!) a pigeon? I'm not used to either being totally white. Very pretty though....

Music

I've added a music bar on the right side of the blog....just music I'm "into" . I'll update it often - the songs usually remind me of something or have a special phrase. Just click the "play" arrow if you care to listen.

I like "Pooh Corner" just because it reminds me of the ramifications of growing up / older. "there's so much to be done!"

Whirlwind day yesterday!

I took a photo of my dashboard - can you read the time? It says 5:33 and that's AM!! I am usually blissfully unaware of the lower single-digit hours of the morning!


Yes, I'm going to bore you with boat stories again.......

The marina called Tuesday afternoon and said that they were about finished with the bottom painting and would be putting the boat back in the water soon to free-up space on their yard. I have been wanting to paint the "boot stripe" for a while now. It's the purely decorative blue stripe above the water line on the boat. It has gotten faded and discolored and I want it to be pretty! The marina gave a quote of $850 - I'm sure they were going to mask the boat and spray a fine paint. Well, nobody wanted to spend that much money and I was convinced I could do it pretty much for the cost of the paint ($30 at West Marine for a special marine grade paint).

Here she is ready for me to "attack". I toted ladders, sanders, extension cords, supplies, etc, etc, from home to make sure I would have everything I needed.


First I had to have breakfast - I brought my bran cereal to mix with some yogurt....and coffee. Had to have lots of energy!

Here's a "before" shot - see the discoloration?


So I got to work - I sanded the entire stripe....40 feet long - I was tired of it by the time I did one side - and I had 40 more feet to go!!!


Ahhh, nicely sanded - now the real work began!


I had to carefully tape the edges. Definitely not rocket science!!


Carefully rolled on the paint with a foam roller.

Here I've already started to take some of the tape off. What looks like an imperfection is actually the reflection of a ladder in the shiny new paint!!



All done! I'm pretty pleased with it - note that the new paint matches the color of all the canvas on the boat (sail-cover and bimini).

It took me about 6 hours start-to-finish. I was one tired puppy - and I had to drive 3 1/2 hours back home!

I couldn't believe my eyes

On my way to work, I was following an older model Taurus stationwagon. Lots of stickers, kindof hippie-looking. As I got closer, I saw something moving in the back of the car, thought it was a kid....and it WAS a kid, just not a human one! It was a small goat! I scrambled to find my camera - and snapped this photo as they were pulling into the veterinary office. You can see the goat in the window on the right hand side of the car. I guess they've got to go to the vet somehow!!

More flower photos

My daffodils seem to be holding up well this year. Other years, it seems like they bloomed all at once and then a week later they were all gone.


My Phlox is making an early appearance - just a few blooms now.

I thought all my Crocus were gone...but a couple seemed to have made it...lovely little flowers!

Even More 4-Runner Work

While the guys got dirty again exchanging engines in the 4-Runner, I did some minor house-cleaning.

I've accumulated too many towels - lately we've been given some really nice, luxurious towels as gifts (thank you very much!!). My bathroom closet was just overflowing with 10+ years of all kinds of towels - kids themed, striped, solid, beach towels - you name it - I had it! Many were beginning to fray at the edges or I had splashed bleach (oops!!)

So, I pulled them all out, sorted thru the ones I wanted to keep and took the rest to the hangar to use as rags.





I know that a full towel is usually too much "bulk" to use as a grease-rag, so I sat down on the hangar floor and set to the task of cutting them into usable pieces. I thought about hemming the edges....and then I quickly decided that I really just wasn't that enthused! They'll work fine with the raw edges and can be tossed after use!




Richard working on the 4-Runner - note the "new" engine in place now!!


I had to sneak a shot from across the hangar....I think they're getting tired of me with my camera......I think we all enjoyed the 80 degree day!!