June in Carolina Beach

Last week I visited my son Joe and his wife Danielle in Carolina Beach, NC. We had a very nice time.

There are a lot of feral cats in their neighborhood and they love them. They rescued two injured kittens which became house cats. They've captured and neutered several more including the main mother and feed them outside. Here is Joe with one of the outdoors cats. They are all named, but I don't know which one this is. Joe and Danielle do.

When they bought the house in Carolina Beach, it had this striking painted metal salmander sculpture on the outside.

I was surprised to see it in new colors this time.

We spent a pleasant afternnoon in historic Willmington on the river. Here are Joe and Danielle under a sculpture of the endangered Venus flycatcher, now confined to the Carolina coastal area.

We took a ghost tour led by actor John Scott.

Carolina Beach has a summer carnival with fireworks on Thursday nights.

It's a good community I enjoy visiting. Except for having to fly to visit, I'm glad Joe and Danielle moved there.

Back From Carolina Beach

I visited my son Joe and his wife Danielle for Thanksgiving. We went to their beach house at Carolina Beach and had turkey with all the trimmings. My nose ran the whole time because their are new little ones in their family. There are feral cats living in a wooded vacant lot near their beach house. One of the females is somewhat approachable, especially approachable when they feed her. She had kittens and two of them were found wounded, sick and starving. Well, Joe and Danielle took them to the vet, got them treated, and adopted them. Their big master cat, Riley, had to get used to little pests, but he seems to like them now. They're very kitteny, bouncing around playing and adorable. The female is Roscoe and the male Brutis. I love cats despite my allergy.

I didn't take so many photos while I was there. We walked around the town pond and I tried to identify the black ducks there. I think they are scoters.

We attended the Carolina Beach tree lighting and drove out on beach to watch the fireworks at the Wrightsville Beach flotilla festivities. It was a very nice holiday.

I've been working on a couple of gift needlework projects so I can't show you or tell you. One is a crochet project that I nearly finished. I'll show that after it's gifted. Crochet is a good activity to do while riding the train. The other is an ornament for exchange at my crazy quilt group holiday party, but it turns out no one else got their's finished either. We've cancelled the exchange, so you'll have to wait a year to see that one.

Now, I'm busy getting ready for my trip to visit my sisters and their families in Ames, Iowa, December 20-30. I'm going there by train, too, so need to make myself some needlework kits to work on. More on that later.

One Sock Finished on Way to Carolina Beach

It's nice to crochet while riding Amtrak, so I finished one of my socks on the way to visit my son and his wife. They live in Apex, North Carolina, near Raleigh, but we went directly from the station to their beach house in Carolina Beach, near Wilmington. It's about a two and a half hour drive. They have had the house about a year and have been doing a major remodeling job, now done. They have also been redoing the landscaping, still ongoing. It's all very attractive and comfortable. In addition to shopping at nurseries and working in the yard, the visit included making and eating a delicious pot of shrimp boil and grilling cheeseburgers on the beach in Freeman Park. It was rainy off and on, but the sun was out nicely for the beach. There is a big colony of feral cats in Carolina Beach. Joe and Danielle have a favorite that they are feeding and trying to befriend. She's a small female they named Silver, who has already had kittens. It's too bad she isn't spayed along with all the others.

Other needlework underway, besides crocheting the second sock, includes finishing embroidery on the border of the scrap block piece, making a holiday ornament for an exchange with a friend, and working further on my beaded sewing kit. For the latter, crazy quilt friend Maureeen gave me a cigar box from her vast stockpile. (She has a cigar connoiseur husband.) It's a perfect size to hold the covered needlebook, the pin keep and the other things I've collected for it and still fit in my project bag. For the scrap block piece, I plan to use the French facing technique Allison Aller described on her blog, referring to her article in CQMagOnline. I'm excited, hoping this will be a technique to rescue me from my poor binding corner skills.