MS Bikers Ride to the Shore

    MS bikers were lucky that the rain held off today. Got a few photos as I headed off to the shore myself and no matter which rural road you take you can hardly avoid them. I have no problem but they do claim the whole lane to themselves. It is a bit risky to pass the little groups but this year it was do-able.

Caught these two fellows from my driveway:

Love seeing the bikers and motorcycles going by my house.  Here's a video:

This guy is sporting a non-traditional helmet.  Took this one while I was driving S-L-O-W!

Stayed behind this chase car from Connecticut:

Another Little Frog

  This is the year of frogs and toads!  The only thing I haven't seen is a snake.  I usually encounter at least one snake every year.  Again, I believe it is a tiny frog.  Its body is only a little more that a centimeter in length and appears to be a different variety than the previous little frog that I found this year.

Grape-Stomping

  Hurricane Irene caused the cancellation of the first fall festival at Renault's Winery this season.  So this weekend was the rain-date for the grape-stomping festival with a Lucy impersonator.  They have several festivals during the year and it seems they continue to be profitable events for the company.  Since it is just around the block from me I go to get a take-out tray.  For $6.50 I got  barbecued pulled chicken on a roll, a small piece of corn on the cob and a cup of coleslaw.  The food is great.  I heard from another grape grower that the grapes were relatively unharmed by the hurricane.

Posting here a close-up of the grapes my mother grew on her arbor:



Imposing goose at Renault's pond:

Lucy impersonator and Mr. Milza:

Lucy, graciously posing for me:

 Grapes ready to be stomped on for a fee and then you get a bottles of the moosh:

Red begonias line the walk ways:

My Son Visits on a Rare Day Off

 This is my second day with my new little Fuji FinePix camera.  It's compact does a decent job of macro and takes 720 HD video.  The only bad thing is the lack of a view finder.  My son and I decided to try the new Japanese/Chinese restaurant in  town. Nime? Hime? I couldn't decipher the letters.

 Also, I wanted to re-post one of my favorite videos of his here.  It has various family clips, Philadelphia sites, and clips from a spring visit to New York City two years ago. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/ptbernard#p/f/2/Kiuy-KypPS4

Son:

What to do with chopsticks:

Across the street from the restaurant:

Hime or Nime:

Excellent sushi:

Crab appetizer:

Nice decor:

Back to School--Second year I'm not back

  Well, it is around eleven o'clock and I just took a nature walk and it is unbelievably quiet around here in contrast to what it was early in the morning. Rain clouds threaten and the kids at the high school down the block must be listening to teachers going over classroom management routines. That's what I would have been doing two years ago on the first day back to school and possibly having a fun activity to make them feel that they are glad to be back which normally they are anyway. Around seven in the morning buses and teachers' vehicles start filing down the road that officials promised would not be used for anything but delivery trucks and cafeteria workers. It is no surprise that this is the situation and I have no real problem with it. I am surprised that some of those teachers or other workers have those "boom" cars or other sound systems that allows for loud music to blare. They are lucky because the old lady at the intersection is on hospice care and I always liked that loud bass sound. Also, quite a few just have bad mufflers on what I suppose are trucks. Since students are not allowed to drive to school, I am assuming these vehicles are driven by staff members. I want to keep this blog going so I think I am going to focus on my nature walks around the yard, activities at the high school, and my occasional ventures away from home. I plan on doing another blog using all the videos and photos I took during the building of the high school. But for now here are my nature walk photos:

Watching Rose as Rose watches me with reflections of the red impatiens flowers.  Mee--erow---ally like you :

Hoping that this honeybee is of the species that is battling to make a comeback around here:

Last of the raspberries:

                            A mushroom with camouflage:

Yeah, this is nature!!!  Human Nature! (on the road to the school)

  Last hibiscus---I will bring the plant inside this winter and it will go into shock and drop half of the leaves.  My sister brings an eight-foot+  tree hibiscus into her small kitchen for the winter:

Bumblebee on a succulent flower--a type of sedum.

Note the bright orange pollen bag bag.  Probably from the dahlias:

Should have taken a photo when the garden was at its peak but here it is after hurricane Irene:

Just a good representation of your typical white mushroom:

This one shows how the earth was pushed up by the strength of this mushroom. But I can squish it down to nothing with one step!  What laws of physics are in play here?

 

Bowling bowl in garden:

Green bowling bowl in garden:

Butterfly

Beautiful fungi:

Comical fungi:

Hurricane--Sister's Visit---Letterboxing

If you become a "follower" I will be encouraged:

Here's a short video of trees swaying during hurricane Irene (not very impressive!) :

  After the hurricane I checked on a letterbox near me. The Peace Pilgrim box is intact after Irene and several new signers or stampers have been added including the Peace Pilgrim's sister, Helen Young. Although our town has commemorative activities for Peace Pilgrim at this time of year I have not participated but this does not diminish my fondness of her ideals. So I feel honored that in a way I have her blessings.  My daughter carved the master piece for the Peace Pilgrim stamp.  Check out this site for clues for the Peace Pilgrim's Letterbox and more information.
http://www.atlasquest.com/

 



  I lost power during hurricane Irene that includes most of the time that I had my youngest sister visiting from Charlotte, North Carolina. During the storm we took off around four heading for Hammonton to visit our sister Roe. Started to think we made a mistake as we got to Hammonton but we decided to eat at Joe Italiano's Maplewood Inn. Fearless and hungry patrons packed the popular restaurant that serves homemade linguine. After dinner the storm eased up so we were able to visit our sister. I am having trouble remembering the timeline for the activities during my sister's visit but here is a bit of a summary:

• visited nursing home where Roy resides and was being evacuated. It brought tears to my eyes to see the line-up of ambulances and bedridden residents being moved out.
• my sister talked to staff members at the home where she once worked.
• lost power in a storm that seem rather innocuous in the end.
• spent about an hour in the cellar waiting for the tornado alert to be over.
• walked in the woods around my house and saw a hawk and a pair of killdeer.
• spent an hour at Ulta beauty store and tried on make-up and perfume.
• introduced my sister to my favorite store --the Christmas Tree Store.
• went to Wildwood and spent the day before the hurricane walking the Boardwalk there.
• went home on the Parkway and was enmeshed with the traffic of those who were evacuating the barrier islands
• my sister took Rose, the cat, to the vet for an emergency visit for a collar problem that I won't explain here
• neighbor allowed us to use an extension cord to get power from them to run the freezer but upon the return of the power service I forgot to plug the freezer back into the wall outlet
• had two visits with our father at the assisted living home and watched a good deal of the Phillie's game
• We took dad for a ride when my sister went shopping at the famous quonset hut "Ideal" clothing store. Judi wearing her newly purchased jacket from Ideal:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut

      I cooked scrambled eggs in an electric frying pan on the garage floor.

• We did not visit our sister Linda because she was in England, specifically Wales.  She was visiting our niece who had an engagement party. She plans to marry a Welsh young man named Samuel. He recently proposed to her on a trip back to Italy where she had met him while spending a semester abroad.
• We got to see Marisa, our niece and Vince and David, our nephews
• We talked to our mother's brother, Uncle Billy.  Almost got on the ferry to visit him in Delaware.
• got introduced to some very interesting beach reading by Margaret Mead (after some research I think it was Margaret Meade's mother, a sociologist also), the famous sociologist.  I still have to check on the name of the little book.  It does contain some remarks about early Italian immigrants in Hammonton, New Jersey that are a bit derogatory.

           http://marie.bravepages.com/ischam.htm

• made a pre-emptive strike against my gutter system and possible flooding of my basement.  My new gutters were channeling water against my foundation  and I was seeing some moisture in the cellar.  My contractor added pipe extension to the ends of the gutters and installed a sump pump.  I did not consider that the pump would not work if there was a power failure. Luckily the reworking of the gutter outlets was enough of a solution for my problem. 

Lone grave from 1785 near my home:

Irene's minor damage here:

Neighbor's ducks and geese enjoyed the rising water:

Not so Wild Wildwood

 Thought we were going to spend a couple of hours in Wildwood, New Jersey before getting on the ferry to visit our uncle in Delaware but our plans changed.  So three sisters spent time on the boardwalk with the rain holding off until the late afternoon. With Hurricane Irene threatening, the ferry ride might have been a little scary as even on some goods days it is a little rough.


No rolling chairs in Wildwood.  It's the tram.

Nephew Vincent:

An update on an old idea--I like the pink truck:

Yeah, not so wild: