Scarecrow Contest

  There weren’t many entries in the annual Scarecrow Contest this year. Not sure why except maybe everyone was tired out from the huge wooden boat show the weekend before when there were thousands of visitors on the streets in Georgetown. 

  Anyway, here are some of the offerings. 

It was a beautiful October day, clear skies and cooler temperatures in Rainey Park.

 

Representing The Shrimp Dock, where the shrimpers come in to sell their catch, is Gorty the Georgetown fisherman. 

  You can tell Gorty is the Real Deal because he is wearing the white rubber boots that tell you he is a man who makes his living from the sea. 

  Now she’s pretty, but would she scare a crow???

  And, our favorite, the scariest scarecrow in the park, is this guy.

  

Not sure who sponsored him or who he is, but those worms and cockroaches are definitely 

crrrrr—eeeeepy!

  In other news this week, we became grandparents again, to — another baby boy! This is Grayson and his big brother Jackson, age 2.

(If anyone is counting, its now grandsons 8, granddaughters 0!)

Meet Frank!

  This is our new family member and Bob the Border Collie’s new best friend.  

It’s Frank! 

  Frank is 10 months old, adopted from the St Francis Animal Center, the No Kill shelter in our town. He was rescued along with 40 other cats from a “hoarding situation” this summer, vaccinated, neutered, and microchipped at St Francis. Pronounced healthy, he moved on to the Purr & Pour Cat Cafe in town to be socialized and adopted.

  The Purr & Pour is so popular you have to have a reservation to come in for a coffee, tea, or glass of wine and a baked people-treat to spend time with the cats!

  It’s also a $20 donation to St Francis for the privilege and the place is alway full.

  We visited the day before Hurricane Ian hit and they had 17 resident cats.

  There is every kind of fun for cats at the Purr & Pour, along with chairs, couches, and fluffy rugs for the human visitors to share with the cats.

  I spent a couple hours petting and playing and holding cats and … couldn’t decide for sure which cat was ours.  

So I called The Writer to come and help. 

  He walked in and petted two cats. The second one licked his hand, presented his belly for rubs, and purred with all his might. He (The Writer) was smitten! Funny enough, he had no idea it was the same cat of the 17 I had been leaning toward choosing!

  You can’t just walk in and walk out with a cat. You have to provide references and answer questions about your past pets and other pets at home. You sign a promise that the cat will have regular checkups and vaccinations and that it will be an indoor-only cat. Then you wait while they check up on you to get a phone call saying, come and get your boy. So, we went home with an empty cat carrier to wait and see. 

Just as everything was shutting down for the hurricane the next day, we got the call saying we could come and get him.  

   

  It’s taken Frank no time at all to make himself at home.  It’s funny how he has fit himself into Bob’s routine and expects a treat for himself at the times Bob regularly gets one. 

 

  I’m so happy to have Frank. It just doesn’t feel like a home is complete without a cat! 

Exploring Another Part of South Carolina

We’ve been camping in the mountains, enjoying the northwestern corner of our state. 

In case you’re unfamiliar with South Carolina, we live on the east coast, in Georgetown, circled in green. It’s about 4 1/2 hours from there to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are part of the Appalachians. The western state border, with Georgia, is a series of lakes and a river from top to bottom. We stayed in three different parks (two state parks and one county park) and had a campsite on the water at each of them.

  We have a small travel trailer with a bed inside, a galley under the hatch at the back for cooking, and a screen room with drop sides for privacy and rain (and bugs).  

Our first campsite was on Lake Hartwell. The red clay in the lake made such a beautiful contrast with the sky and trees. (Not too nice to walk in the water, though. Your feet come out orange!).  

This was our view. 

Every day of the trip the sunsets and sunrises were spectacular!

Another site was on Lake Keowee.

Morning tea, sunrise on Lake Keowee, catching up on my journal. 

  I’m going to quit here with our last-night campfire on Lake Russell. I have more about our trip but for some reason my whole page has disappeared twice and I don’t want to lose it again! So, see you soon. 
  

‘It Is With Deep Sadness …’

1926 - 2022

1952 - 2022

“I said I’d wait for you”

Jason Goldrick, artist

Minnesota, At Last

  After 2 1/2 years (thanks, Covid!) I finally got to go home to Minnesota and spend some time with my family. We crammed as much as we could into a few days. 

“Hi, Nana!”

   I know it’s cliche but …

        My goodness, how they’ve grown!

            (8, 13 and 13, 14)

  Fall sports were just starting up and Mason had football practice. First year for wearing protective equipment, but it’s still touch football, not tackle. Whew, glad of that!

Minnesota Twins played the Texas Rangers.

Grown-ups only. It felt very strange to leave the boys home without a sitter. 

  Our seats were right behind home plate and the ball was coming at us at up to 103 mph! How does a batter ever hit that?!!

  Nail biter until the very end and the TWINS WON! 

  I did not recognize one player left from my days of being a Twins fan. 

  We’re a family who loves puzzles. 

  This Star Wars challenger has 2000 pieces! 

  Mason’s really good at puzzles but doesn’t have the attention span of the big boys. 

  Never at a loss for things to do however!

  (Or maybe he thought this was a better vantage point for finding that certain piece?)

Chillin’ with the grand dogs, Annabelle (right), a Texas kill shelter rescue, and Nettie (left), a retired show dog. They are both so sweet, and the best cuddlers. 

Lots of ball games — basketball, whiffle ball, football — to use up that boy energy.

  The big Minneapolis farmers market with real farm-to-table prices and So Much Stuff! How do you even choose?

  Sarah still has her Mexican taste buds and bought a bowl of each of these kind of peppers. 

   She snacks on them like carrot sticks!

“Surprise” birthday party for Anna

My beloved daughters, Anna and Sarah 

  And the final evening, a bonfire with marshmallows, singing, and dancing around the fire. Until the mosquitoes chased us inside. Not a Minnesota summer evening without some of those!

So hard to watch them drive away at the airport! 

So thankful to have this time together!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I want to say a few words about my last post, the one about the neighborhood man who feeds the feral cats. First, I am aware that cats kill birds and other small animals and that pet cats should be kept indoors. The cats I have owned have all been indoor cats for that reason, and if I get another cat, she will be an indoor cat, too. 

  There is a cat problem in the small Southern town I live in. Traditionally, cats here are outdoor pets. Although there are no-cost spay clinics and individuals who attempt to trap the many cats that live around the fishing and boat docks, it’s a drop in the bucket. There are so many stray cats that the local animal shelter provides outdoor shelters, food, and neutering for hundreds that come and go near their facility. 

  And finally, the man who feeds these cats in my neighborhood is old, poor, in terrible health, and alone. Feeding these 15 or so cats brings him some happiness and a feeling that he is doing a kindness to God’s creatures. Who am I to judge? He has lived here all his life; I have lived here six years. 

Here, Kitty, Kitty

  Since I am still catless, I have to get my cat fix where I can. This house on my morning walking route provides a constant supply of cat cuteness! An elderly man lives here and feeds all who come to the table. I counted 12 waiting this morning. I think he leaves the watermelon on the left for the fox family that lives in the woods next door. 

 
  We recently spent time with my mom at her care home in Florida where indoor and outdoor sitting areas allow the human residents to enjoy the wildlife — raccoons, egrets, squirrels, ibises, and this Sandhill Crane family.  The guy on the right with its beak open is a youngster still being fed by the parents. 

  Besides the animals, the grounds are beautiful with huge 400 year old oak trees draped with Spanish moss along a large creek. The craziest thing though — the prettiest view is reserved for the smokers, which seems very unfair to Mom and to us! 

  She isn’t always happy to be there but she does love being able to take herself outside and enjoy nature.

  On the drive back home we spotted this interesting cloud towering in the sky. 

  

  The top appeared indented and bowl-shaped.  

  Never seen one like it before. 

  Meanwhile, the South Carolina summer does not disappoint those who love heat and humidity. 

And here’s how I handle it! 

A fair bit of complaining and …

😎 😎 😎

It So Hot Here …

  I put ice cubes in the hummingbird feeder!

  Why? 

  

  When I was cleaning it, the nectar I poured out was really hot and I figured it just might burn those tiny hummingbird tongues.  

  Can’t have that! 

  Speaking of birds, we have had fun with a pair of Carolina wrens this summer. They are very noisy, very friendly, active, and messy little birds. We like them a lot and have encouraged them to nest in our YARD with two very nice bird houses …

but one very determined pair had other ideas. They seemed to want to be near us. In our sunroom, to be exact. Over a couple days we removed several nest starts, hoping to encourage them to build elsewhere. Then one afternoon we came home to …

a done deal! 

  I didn’t get a picture, but there was a jacket slung over my bike handlebars and tucked inside it was a completed nest. Inside the nest were …

  Yes, four little spotted eggs, each the size of my fingernail! 

  They had us! It was too late take it down this time. 

  What to do? 

 

 I carefully removed the very sloppy, loosely constructed nest from the jacket and placed it in a small wicker basket I hung on my handlebars. We were surprised when mama wren came right back to the nest as if nothing had changed and settled in. From then on we gave over all use of the sunroom to the wrens and had to leave all four sliding glass doors open night and day. 

  We have to walk through the sunroom a dozen times a day to get in and out of the house but it didn’t seem to faze the wren parents in the least. In 13 days the eggs hatched. 

  Feathers grew.

 Then one morning 12 days later we came out and the babies were gone. They had somehow made their way out of the nest, out of the sunroom doors, and were hanging out in the azalea bushes, being shepherded and fed by their excited parents. 

    Carolina wrens are monogamous, mate for life, and raise up to three broods a year. Ours have apparently sought a change of scenery for their next family. We miss them but we are glad to have our sunroom back.