Back to Kure for Thanksgiving

Well, it was a long drive down to Lisa's with the two kitties in the back seat but they were real travelers and gave us no trouble whatsoever! We have a dog kennel with a second floor. One kitty really was totally ho-hum about the whole experience while the other let us know that it sucked, but he wouldn't give us any trouble as long as we didn't do it every week! They both were perfectly quiet!

Upon arriving at Lisa, I found a dvd with pictures of all the quilts in the Holy Mola Challenge hosted by Pat Pauly. Priscilla Kibbee and Marcia Decamp (links are on the side) both have pictures of all of the quilts, taken by both Pat and by Marcia at the dinner that was held. Marcia won the prize for the best but I managed to get one of the two honorable mentions as well, so I was pleased! Pat Pauly got the Viewers Choice which was my choice as well, even though I didn't officially vote!

We spent a couple of days in Charlotte at Lisa's trying to intermingle the two kitty families which met with only partial success. They will have three weeks to come to grips with this while they stay with Lisa while we are in Florida in December!

We made it down to the beach house a couple of days ago but the weather was iffy for awhile. It brightened up today and we celebrated by walking down to the pier to watch the fishermen and then on to the newly constructed boardwalk addition! The air temp had to be in the high 60s and the skies were a bit cloudy but the sun peaked through a bit! It was glorious to sit outside on the porch, watch and listen to the ocean and finish my book in a t-shirt
This is looking out to pier. There were not many fishermen but they were catching lots of fish -- whiting, sand sharks and some skates.

Now a pelican for me is not all that surprising. However, this is the FIRST time in all the years that I have been to NC that there were pelicans actually sitting on the pier. I see tons of them and have for years flying overhead and diving for fish but never landing! There were two on the pier today. These were both mature birds.

We also saw quite a flock of ibis as well as a pond full of American Coot. I will get picture of these before I leave but couldn't from the car!

This was one of the many cowbirds (at least I think it is a cowbird) that were hanging around the fisherman.

Here is the cowbird, up close and personal. They are obviously very unconcerned by all the humans as were the pelicans!

Now I picked up these very odd seed pods from the ground on the way to our walk. They are about 3 inches long, prickly and quite heavy. They look like pine cones but came from a tree that looked suspiciously like a magnolia. Well, after some research, I found it was a magnolia, probably a grandiflora which is supposed to grow well in coastal areas and is an evergreen. These are great pods! Evidently the seeds are a brilliant red but I don't remember seeing them! I saw two of these trees on my walk.