Lazy River: Hoagy Carmichael

This sweet old song, sung by its composer, seemed the right fit for all the calm water in these parts.


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Life in the country

We live about two miles away from this view, the downtown waterfront of Edenton. For my morning walks I now hop into my car and drive into town, where this spectacle awaits. The first thing I do is walk all the way out on the concrete fishing pier, where nothing separates me from the water, just to savor the sight. It was exceptionally clear this morning: I could see the land on the far side. The water is Albemarle Sound, the huge, shallow bay that separates North Carolina's barrier islands--famous as the Outer Banks--from the mainland. After seeing the water, I turn north up the main drag, Broad Street, and walk straight for about 20 minutes before choosing a side street to explore. Each house in this lovely town seems more beautiful and gracious than the last. I've never seen the mansions of Charleston or the fabled squares of Savannah, but Edenton will do just fine until I do. When our house is finished we will be living about twenty miles away from this lovely place. We'll miss it, but we'll always know it's here for the occasional visit.

Yesterday, my next door neighbor--that's the one with the goats and the chickens--came over to tell me he was selling his sweet corn. A whole trailer load of it, $2 a dozen for the biggest ears you've ever seen. I paid for a dozen and got fifteen. We ate four of them last night for dinner and the rest will go into a special salad I'll show you this coming Friday. Sweet and crunchy, all it needed was a little butter. It just doesn't get any better.

Today we go to the big city--Elizabeth City--to check out some flooring for the new house and do a little shopping. Then it'll be back here to the goats and the chickens. Care to join us?

Rainbow Room....

I'm back there today.

Woodstock: Alice Smith

A song about being back home after a little R&R seemed right.

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Back home

I really do mean to try to be more regular with my posts from here on out, but if this morning is any indication, it will be a challenge. What used to take seconds is taking hours at the internet speeds I have here--at least that's the case today, when my air card has to try to read signals through a cloud cover. It literally took 2 hours to upload pictures of our Cincinnati trip to Picasa, and a half-hour to upload the one song I'm playing today to Hipcast. I had intended to show you a photo album of the trip, but half the day is already gone. If I didn't start writing now, I never would, so I had to put off arranging the uploaded pictures into an album until later.

The picture above shows the status of the construction project as of last Tuesday, before we left for Cincinnati. The ground clearing had been completed and the pad for the actual house was laid and flattened--that's what you see there. The driveway meanedering through the woods is becoming a reality, and the idea of the house peeking through the woods as you approach it is becoming clear. We're going to visit the property later today to see what more, if anything, was done while we were gone. If there's anything to show, I will.

Really the thing to talk about today is the wonderful time we had in Cincinnati with Michele and John. Michele was the other Peace Corps volunteer in my city, Kumasi--we've been close friends since that time 40-odd years ago. She and John were scientists with Procter and Gamble. They started their careers with the company in upstate, rural New York, and we used to drive up there from Arlington for great, sometimes snowbound Thanksgivings. After many years they moved to P&G headquarters in Cincinnati, so now we go there to see them. John is the foodie to end all foodies. He loves the chance to cook for an appreciative audience, and for three days he had three happy captives (here's Steve, Michele and John after Wednesday's repast)hanging on to his every pinch of salt. Pulled pork with coleslaw and 3 other sides awaited us when we arrived after the 12-hour drive Wednesday. Thursday was a "round the world" sample menu of 10--yes 10--different dishes, starting in Mexico, and ranging through Germany, France, Asia and the Caribbean as we progressed for three entire hours. Friday was pork tenderloin night, and Saturday we had a traditional July 4 feast John-style, with, among many other things, a mixed grill and my potato salad (I was beyond flattered to be invited to contribute).

Michele and John also love to show off their adopted home town, so in addition to all the home-cooked food, we toured the best breakfast places (oh, we didn't just pig out at dinner!) in fascinating and beautiful little corners of the city, and did a walking tour that took us across the Ohio River into Covington and Newport, Kentucky, the two cross-river suburbs that have their own distinct charms. Cincinnati is a beautiful city I wouldn't think twice about living in except for the dominant rightward trend of its politics....

We're off to inspect the property now, and maybe find a Goodwill store to buy a secondhand microwave oven to heat up our Cincy leftovers.....

Checking in

Whew! This moving and building business makes you busier than you think you'll be. We broke ground on the property today--actually, guys were there at 8 o'clock this morning taking down some trees in preparation for leveling the building site. (That's what the picture is about.) We were there to ceremonially watch and photograph the first lick of work to be done, then we had an appointment with the kitchen contractor to talk about some design details we had previously not thought of (this rental house has reminded me of one thing I can't deal with in a standard kitchen: deep cabinets with stationary shelves under counters that make me scrunch this tall body down to its hands and knees looking for things. For another $1000 we added some drawers and pull-out shelves. We'll save that much in back pain meds.), then we went about getting our cars registered here. Must have a state safety inspection first, and the only place that does inspections for cars from miles around requires an appointment. Each inspection takes a half hour and we could only get appointments an hour apart. So that shoots the day for everything else. We still have to go to Elizabeth City, the nearest sizeable town, to see about a cell phone for Steve. That'll have to wait until tomorrow. Etc., etc. etc. I used to say, "that's life in the big city." Now it's, "that's life in the country."

I've entered a brave new world on the internet, as well. I'm coming to you via a broadband aircard that allows me only so much space per month and then I'll have to pay extra. Suddenly concepts like kilobtyes, gigs and megas have direct application to my life and I'm watching my usage like a hawk. I have no idea how much space posting pictures will take up, nor music, nor even sitting here on the blogger site. My posts will be fewer and further between at least this week, because we are traveling Wednesday to Cincinnati to visit our friends Michele and John for the July 4 holiday. After that, I'll just have to see what's doable.

The stars here are as visible as Mother Nature intended, and we've been getting what I can only call a phantasmagorical display from lightning bugs as they congregate in the trees surrounding this property. It's the biggest mass of twinkling light I've ever seen, and it only grows more intense as the night progresses. The goats next door came to greet us the day we moved in. Know what? Up close, they smell like goat cheese!

That's why we moved here.

it's so great to feel my fingers on the keyboard again! I hope to be back soon.

Hit the Road, Jack: Ray Charles

We'll be taking Ray's advice Friday morning.


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