an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
View from the Veranda
After a short night of sleep, morning came a little early. The first thing I heard after daylight – besides whippoorwills, gulls, bobwhite quail, crows, turkeys, crickets and cicadas – was Ken’s outboard chugging up the creek. Kevin M and Ken were already putt-putting across the water in LIttle T and the O’Day with everyone else on board.
video, the sail to Sotterley Creek
Back at the beach Kevin B, freshly escaped from civilization and its discontents, was prepping Slip Jig. The Navigator was quickly launched, in the water and ready to go. That left Mike and his Haven 12 1/2, saved for last to eke out every inch of the rising tide.
It’s crazy that he can haul this boat behind a little Subaru Forrester. The boat looks bigger than the car, but it works. A tongue extension on the trailer helps get to deepish water, and six of us are able to shoulder it off pretty easily. Everybody’s in.
Broomes Island from the water
Why the long previous explanation? Well, on Thursday, for the first half the group, the vacation started as soon as we passed through the bent and rusty gate at Broomes Island. It was pretty clear that no one was going to get ruffled about anything.
Inside
click to open the images, then you can zoom and pan
Outside
Seventeen Year Cicada, midway through transformation
A few days ago, the hatch of Magicicada Brood II began here in Virginia. These are the periodic cicadas on a 17 year cycle. It’s pretty amazing how many there are. They’re everywhere.
They’ve only started tuning up on their “singing” – in another week the noise will be deafening. Almost literally. At close range, a cicada can pump out 120 decibals. That’s enough to do permanent damage to your hearing.
The girls came home from their separate away homes for the weekend. Amanda brought Paul, and we all had a little birthday get together. Storms knocked out the power again Friday night, but we happily made do with grilling and eating by candlelight. When the power finally back on, we just turned out the lights and kept going.
Winter took one last swing at us, then skulked off into the woods. Friday evening was snow flurries and sleet. Saturday was almost 80 degrees. Took only three days for leaves to bust out on the trees.