Auction - Ocracoke style!

I went to the annual OPS fall membership meeting tonight, which included several different elements. We started with a potluck, which in my book is always a good thing. After dinner, there was a short membership meeting, during which the blank on the page pictured here...



...got filled in with a name. My name. Somebody should probably stop me before I volunteer again! Just kidding - I'm actually really looking forward to being more involved with OPS.

Then, we enjoyed the performance of a couple of songs from the musical Blackbeard, performed by two guys named Dave - Frum and Senseney.



Finally, there was an auction of unique (and some historical) Ocracoke items.



The auction was hilarious. Yes, that's right, hilarious. I know that "hilarious" is probably not a word usually associated with auctions, but this one was really funny, in true Ocracoke style. You see, the thing about an Ocracoke auction is that almost everyone participating knows everyone else by name, including the auctioneer (which was Charles Temple this time, as Philip - who usually leads Ocracoke auctions - was off the island). This fact leads to some rather amusing exchanges, such as:

Charles (to Vera, trying to encourage her to bid the price on another item as high as she had bid the previous one, much to her husband's (good natured) chagrin): Come on Vera, bid on this one!
Vera (indicating her husband Ralph): He made me put the paddle down!
Charles: Give her the paddle back, Ralph!

Me (to my friend Jen): You should bid on that!
Jen: Be quiet!
Charles: No, don't be quiet!

Carol: I'm out!
Charles (to Carol's husband, to get him to encourage Carol to bid more): Tom!
Tom: Was she bidding?


(bid was at $55, with Brian winning over Tom's previous bid of $50, when Charles momentarily lost track of the current amount)
Charles: where was I?
Tom: you were at "sold for $50"!

And there was a really heartwarming moment, too.

Merle (realizing that she was bidding - on an item made by Butsie Brown - against the person who now lives in Butsie's former home): Oh, you should put that in your house! (Then she stopped bidding, so he would win.)

Aaaaaw. I love an Ocracoke auction!

Fall color

We see very little in the way of changing leaves around here (the mountains of NC have the corner on that particular natural phenomenon). But there are a few plants on the island whose leaves do turn red, most notably poison ivy. I don't think this is poison ivy (I'm not sure what it is), but it is sporting some lovely fall color.

Birds, birds and more birds

This morning at the beach there were several huge flocks of birds flying northeast just off the edge of the island. It looked to me like several hundred birds. Not sure if this is just the normal time of year for this kind of migration, or if perhaps it has something to do with the storm headed this way. Either way, here are some photos.

Boats

I rarely see boats out on the ocean even though I go to the beach nearly every day. I am not sure what the reason for this is. Maybe the boats are usually there earlier in the day, before I get there, or perhaps they are usually further out and therefore not visible. Or it could be that most of the fishing happens in the sound (I see boats in the sound quite frequently).

Anyway, this morning I saw not one, but three boats out on the ocean. It seemed photo- and blog-worthy to me, so here it is!


These two were pretty close to shore.


This one was further out.

Better

I finally got a better picture of low flying pelicans than the last time I tried, so I thought I would share and redeem myself.

November moon

My friend "not so anonymous" asked me to try to take a picture of the moon recently. It took me a few tries to get even a halfway decent one, but I liked the way this one turned out, so here it is.

Yard sales galore!

There were several yard sales on the island today: one at Village Thrift, one at the Methodist Church, and one at Barefoot Bohemian (which is closing). There may well have been others that I didn't know about, too. It was a perfect day for a walk, so I headed out on a mission to shop and managed to make it to two of the three sales.

The Village Thrift sale had lots of clothing, and several tables of Christmas items. I love Christmas, so I spent most of my money there. I did buy one item of clothing, but it's actually for Christmas, too!





I didn't end up buying anything - except lunch - at the Methodist Church yard sale. Lunch was traditional Ocracoke clam chowder and sandwiches, both of which were delicious.