Song, champagne and good advice

I went to the final performance of the Ocrafolk Opry last night. I greatly enjoyed the singing and storytelling (Fiddler Dave doing some poems from the Rumgagger show), and even joined the group of ladies on stage for "Bald Headed Men".

After the show, we shared a bottle of champagne. A couple of folks poured it from the bottle into something they had with them (a water bottle, and a soda can), but most of us just passed the entire bottle around and shared. It didn't feel awkward at all (not to me, anyway). The Ocrafolk crowd is made up of my friends, and being with them feels like home and family.

After we polished off the champagne, I walked out of the theater with Marcy. She gave me some wonderful, simple yet profound advice. In fact, I think this is some of the best advice I have ever received. Hearing it gave me peace, and implementing it has given me more (and will continue to bring even more, I suspect). I hope it will help you, too. Marcy said:

"Breathe. Pray. Know you are loved."

'nuff said!

Duck parade

Every morning, there's a duck parade, and I'm usually up early enough to see it. No, this isn't the Peabody Hotel with trained ducks and a wrangler to lead them.

And it isn't Disney World. Although some visitors seem to think it is. One person suggested to me earlier this summer that we should build a large parking garage at the mainland ferry docks, requiring people to park there and walk or bike throughout the village. When I told her there was an effort underway to establish a tram service which would run throughout the village, she said "Oh, that would be even better...like Disney World!" When I replied that, of course, Ocracoke is NOT Disney World, she looked at me blankly and I had to go on to clarify "real people actually live and work here". But I digress. I was telling you about the duck parade.

There is a large group of mallards who spend most of their time in an open area, which is usually damp and has a veritable miniature lake in it after a rain, next to a house around the corner from where I live. Each day, they walk together (not exactly in a line, but more or less) down the street, around the curve of Loop Rd, across Lighthouse Rd, through a couple of backyards and to a soundside beach. Once they get there, they are out of my line of vision, so I'm not 100% sure what they do, but I have seen mallards swimming and playing in the sound on other occassions, so I'm betting that's the purpose of their journey. After a while, they walk back (in their ragged, not-exactly-a-straight-line way) to their neighborhood, and their pond. (Sometimes a few of them stop by to eat some of the food I put out for my outside cats.)

I enjoy watching them, and probably should take a lesson from their consistency. There's something to be said for doing the same thing every day, especially when that thing is playing in salt water. :)

Almost full

...the moon, that is. My life is still, as usual, over-full. It is a quiet, clear night here this evening. I just got back from a short bike ride, during which I very much enjoyed the silvery rays of moonlight sparkling on everything from my bike basket to the harbor. The ride made me sleepy, so I'm off to snooze!

Happy Fall, by the way. Yes, I know I'm late. I love Autumn, though, so I still wish you a happy one, late or not. :)

Art Walk

If you visit Ocracoke often, you may already know about the many artists who live and work here. If you don't, you have a great opportunity to learn more about them on Sept. 29th. That's the day of the annual Art Walk.

As the name implies, the event is a great opportunity to walk around the village, stopping in the shops, galleries, and sometimes homes of many island artists. There is a great variety of participation: artists who offer everything from jewelry to paintings to photographs to ... well, come explore and see for yourself!

The fall is a lovely time of year on the island, and the weather has been beautiful for the last couple of Art Walk weekends. Hopefully this year will be the same. But it's a great event, regardless of the weather. Join us if you can!

Visit the "Art on Ocracoke" website for more information.

Lost costumes

Have you heard about the fire last week which destroyed most of the historically accurate costumes used for The Lost Colony? (The entire Irene Rains costume shop burned to the ground; the only costumes spared were some which happened to be out for dry cleaning.)

If you have ever seen the Lost Colony show during a visit to the Outer Banks, you know that the costumes were lovely and elaborate. This was truly an awful loss for the show.

The Lost Colony producers have already announced that "the show must go on", and they are working to raise the money required to create new costumes. Want to help? Click here to find out how.

Coming up for air

Well I finally have a few minutes to blog! I can't believe how busy life has been recently. Actually, I shouldn't say "life" has been busy. "Work" has been busy. Work has been keeping me away from life. It's beginning to get on my nerves, frankly. The fact that I have been so out-of-it that I completely forgot to go to the "welcome" party for Charlotte (Marcy and Lou's baby girl) yesterday even made me cry. I sometimes wish I didn't have the job that keeps me so busy, but then I remember what real estate costs here.

Okay, so enough whining.

The weather here has been lovely recently - neutral to cool-ish days and clear skies. The evenings have been beautiful, and I have enjoyed riding my bike under the sliver of early moon to go touch salt water. It's a good thing I'm a freak about my salt water touching, or I wouldn't even have gotten outside much in the last few weeks!

Here's to fresh starts...hopefully this will be mine!