these photos were taken this morning around 8am

Oh my time has passed since I last visited the blogesphere but the weather here has just been too good to be indoors! Any one who made it to the Banks this week or last had to be happy.

My #3 son and I made it up to the mountains last weekend and it was a good trip. I did not have time to take any photos while I was there, it was a there and back trip. We did find time to see Pirates of the Caribbean (liked it) and go to Barns & Noble I also talked to a builder and made arrangements to talk to two architects when I’m up there in July. Man I guess we were busy.

Things here on the yard & garden side are going good (of course that’s not unusual for this time of year). Every thing is just so….. green. I love it!

I will say that the weather on the Banks this past week has been PERFECT. Temperatures in the upper 60’s to 70 with bright sun and mild winds. It has been a pleasure to be out. Work has been slow but of course that will change Friday when the first batch of true summer visitors arrives. I think it will be a good weekend for any who visit.

As good as things are promising to be here at the beach my #3 son and I will be leaving for the mountains Friday for a short (48 hours) trip. #3 son has found the perfect summer job, he will be installing wireless internet. This trip may be the only time this summer he will make it to the mountains and as I enjoy his company and the fact that he likes it up there as much as I; short trip or not we are going.

One little thing about the cost of gas. It went up 4 cents yesterday to $313 a gallon. I’m not the least bit surprised. I can’t wait to see what kind of profits the oil companies post this year. You would think they would have spent some of the profits from last year on refinery updates. Oh well. I love my Jeep but I will be using it less this year. All trips will be thought out, no short trips to the store. I’m also looking into electric scooters. What would be ideal is to have one that could be charged using solar. I really think that renewables are the future. When I’m living in the mountains I will need a 4 wheel drive but for short trips a scooter would work just fine. This web site is a good source of information related to electric and hybrid vehicles www.evworld.com

They promised us rain today and while it is very cloudy and there have been a few sprinkles there has been no rain. I have been spending as much time as possible in the yard planting and fertilizing hoping that this year’s garden will not be as disappointing as the last years was. Of course if the garden does not pan out this year it won’t matter because next year I will try again. Gardens are always a surprise; all of the flowers with the exception of the pink dianthus in the photo above were planted in years past I don’t even know what most of them are but they came up this year and they are beautiful. There are a few plants that have yet to flower I can’t wait to see what they turn out to be.

Now what?

Well I have one more certificate under my belt so I am now even more certifiable than I was before. Of course the course I took, which is required if someone wants to work in the department I work in, is being updated so many of the protocols we were tested on are not in use or have been updated so I really should retake the course in 2008 but I don’t have to until 2011. What would you do? No more education for me until September, right now I can relate to how the kids feel as the school year ends!!

We have had a lot of weather on the banks this week. Today is cloudy and cool, yesterday was “hot” and partly cloudy. I felt bad for my neighbors who came down from Northern Virginia for the week but that is part of a spring trip, anything can happen weather wise.

To all it applies to:

“Happy Mothers day”

view of the beach near the Avalon pier. the wind is kicking so bad that it felt like I was being hit with a sand blaster

A few weeks back I posted some photos that shows happens with the NW wind. we get flooding. With a NE wind the opposite happens the water goes out and you can see the muck that sits just under the water. The water filled areas are channels.

Another windy day here on the banks. The kids in dare county have the day off thanks to the wind unfortunately this will mean school on Saturday and no trip to the mountains this weekend for #3 son and me but heck we will go the weekend after next. Other than the wind, which is going to calm down by mid week, and a small chance each day of some much needed rain looks like a good week ahead

I have finally found some fellow Outer Banks bloggers. I have put links to some of them on my side bar. Thanks to Ronnie Roach there is going to be a blogging summit this week (May 10th) at the Kill Devil Grill. I don't think I will be able to attend I have a class that I have to be at on the 10th and the 11th. I hope it goes well and that there are going to be more summits in the future.

Last night we got some much needed rain and today we have a blustery wind. The flags are flying straight out and the sound is rough, the waves each crested with white foam. It is not what most people would say a good day at the beach should be but then most people aren’t me. This is a great day to read a book and just relax. I have the window shades open so that I can watch the trees bend with the wind and the clouds speed by allowing brief intervals of blue sun filled sky. Days like this invite people to relax, sit back and slow down.

Last week was one heck of a busy week. My #3 son got his blue belt in TaeKwonDo, work was busy as all get out, my mom went into the hospital (shes fine and back home) and I helped my niece and her family in Norfolk move. Yesterday it felt good just to sit down!!

We did have some nice weather for Bike Week which lasted through last weekend. The motorcycles were everywhere I think there were a lot more bikers this year than last. It seems to be getting more popular. All the business owners I spoke to were happy to have the bikers and no one I spoke to had anything bad to say about the Bike Week event. I was too busy to go check out the bikes but I saw some nice looking bikes on the road. It got a “little” noisy but other than that Bike Week was good for the Outer Banks

I did some errands and some tooling around today. I stopped at the Avalon Pier. The water was a nice aqua blue and the sky was bright. If it did not get so darn hot here in the summer, if the weather stayed like this, I’m not sure I would move to the mountains. Spring and fall the best times of year here on the Outer Banks!!