Cotton balls, that is. Any other balls I may possess are strictly metaphorical in nature.
I've been documenting the growth of the cotton plants in the farmer's field behind my house. You can see past photos here and here.
This is what the field looks like right now. I love all the orangey-reds in the leaves.
Now for some pics from my yard...
A cardinal stopping by for a snack.
My honeysuckle is still popping out blooms. Hence, the hummingbirds are still around. That's a month later than they stayed last year. Saw one yesterday.
My mum plants are ENORMOUS. I have two in the back garden, this is one of them.
I really like the way the buds look when they're about to burst open :)
The back garden looks pretty much the same as when I showed it to you last month. Someone should really take that dead lily stalk out of there.
*looks over shoulder*
Really. Will someone please get that? Anyone?
*sigh*
And here's a truly scary sight, just in time for Halloween...
I'm such a lazy ass. But no one can see this atrocity but me. And that's only if I choose to open the blinds in my bedroom.
My okame cherry has filled back out with all that rain. Just in time for it to re-drop the leaves for the winter. *sigh* Love that dark, satiny bark though.
I wish my neighbour's boat wasn't in every shot of that tree. I'm just going to start telling people that it's my boat.
Last year my crepe myrtle leaves turned a fiery red-orange, and stayed that way for about a month before dropping the leaves. This year, most of the leaves are dropping without turning colour.
My poor butterfly bush got uprooted during the storms. It's only half uprooted though, so it's still growing. But it doesn't want to behave when I try and pull it back this way.
Toad lilies are going all out.
Some of the ageratum I had planted in the spring survived the temps of the summer, and bounced back.
More mums.
Some petunias. Man, I love the smell of those things. And they do really well as long as I water them every couple of days. No fuss.
And my holly bush is now covered in bright red berries!
I love it, it just looks so Christmassy!
Oh shit, I just said the C-word!
Oh shit!I just said shit!
I'm sorry!
Not really.
What a mood I'm in today, eh?
I might as well include the pics of the storms we had. I'm never going to get around to writing a blog about it.
I will say that it made my life hell at work, because I spent an entire shift trying to find enough garbage cans to catch all the leaks in the store. And that night I couldn't get home from work, because the flooding was so bad in my area that the police blocked off every route in, including all four lanes of the highway. Had to sleep on a generous co-worker's couch. Sucked. SUCKED.
The ibises loved it. Bastards.
How come pics of rain never turn out to look as bad as the weather actually is?
My neighbour's 10 year old apple tree was uprooted completely. It's still sitting in the neighbour's driveway because they don't know what to do with it. (they're just renting the house)
My house is at least up on a little higher ground than some in the area. These are pics my friend Jennifer (who lives just down the road) took at her house. Much more dramatic looking...
Her house looks like it's got a moat.
The weather THIS week has been bitchin'. Sunny. Comfortably warm. Nice cool breeze. Best. Vacation. Ever. And I still have 5 days!
Canadian Thanksgiving was a roaring success. I am significantly fatter. That is, of course, the measurement by which I judge the success level of a holiday.
The football (see IG, I said FOOTBALL) match I was supposed to play in on Sunday afternoon did get cancelled. I was highly bummed. But hopefully the one planned for next Sunday will stay on. And it was probably for the best anyway, because we had a lot more preparation to do for dinner than I thought we would!
In our house, Chuck and I team up on cooking big dinners. Chuck's favourite dishes had to be started the earliest. Here his is chopping a pukeabaga, I mean, a rutebaga...
We actually had a small argument about the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga. Luckily it did not come to fisticuffs.
I made sure the table was set, and the beer was stocked!
Yes yes, the orange stuff was for the one teetotaler that we invited. We're not all sots you know! Just most of us.
We cooked a ham and a bone-in turkey breast, and when we went to open the turkey breast, we found that there were no giblets in the cavity!
Chuckles was highly disappointed. His specialty at thanksgiving is making his famous giblet gravy.
When I first met Chuck, I went down to Florida with him for American Thanksgiving in November. His sister had made some giblet gravy, and I was slightly horrified.
"Turkey HEARTS? IN MY GRAVY??? And what the hell is a gizzard??"
I must have turned green.
I've always been a picky eater, but I decided to suck it up and try it.
And it was delicious!
To this day I can't actually touch giblets without being grossed out. But I sure do love the word 'giblet'. Giblet giblet giblet. If I had a son, I'd name him Giblet. Gib for short. It would be cute! (This is why it's a good thing I'm not a mother.)
Anyway, with no giblets in the cavity, I ran off to the grocery store for the express purpose of seeing if they sold giblets seperately. And they do! Score!
They look way more delicious when they're chopped up, I promise.
My friends came over after 5. They came bearing ramekins of pumpkin mousse, and a nice bottle of Shiraz. And more beer!
I forced my friend Sean to carve the turkey while we were getting the last of the dishes ready to serve. He insisted on using the electric knife for obscene purposes.
Hell, all three men attending are Irishmen. I should expect shenanigans.
How many Irishmen does it take to carve a turkey? Two.
I don't even have a punchline. It just takes two, huddled quietly in the corner.
That's Sean's girlfriend Andie on the left, and my friend Kristyn from work on the right. Her boyfriend Dave was probably outside smoking.
Here's me showing off the present my Mum sent me. Perfect for Canadian Thanksgiving!
My stepdaughter was also in attendance. Here she is in her natural habitat...in front of the computer, watching YouTube.
Dinner was absolutely delicious. We decimated the meal. After we were finished eating (actually we were kind of grazing like cows until late night), we all fell into a tryptophan coma. A couple of us had the meat sweats.
Andie had the same reaction to the gravy that I first had when I heard about it. Although she didn't find out until after she had eaten it...which was probably a good thing.
"You mean giblets are organs? There are organs in this? I just ate organs??'
Luckily it was delicious, so she forgave us.
And now that thanksgiving's over....I'm gearing up for thanksgiving!
In 4 short weeks, we'll be ready for round two!
If you need me, I'm going to be jogging. A lot. Because if I put on another 15 pounds, someone might accidentally shoot me with a tranquilizer dart and tag my ear.
You pull my pin, and you trip my wire, You come in and set my heart on fire You knock me out, you rock me off my axis, You and me are gasoline and matches...
Was going to write about all the crappy rain we'd gotten.
But you know what?
I'm too happy. I'm on vacation, bitches!
Eleven days off....sun is shining....temperature is perfect. No grumpy customers to deal with. A plethora of naughty beverages to be consumed.
Canadian Thanksgiving is on Sunday, and I have delicious food to be eaten with good friends. Good friends who I suspect are only friends with me because they get two thanksgivings out of the deal!
Aaaaand....I finally found a soccer team to play with!!!
*fanfare*
Took me five damn years to find one. They just happen to be playing their next game on Sunday, so I have to escape for a couple of hours before I stick the turkey in the oven because I have been invited. Can't wait to dust off those football boots!
Actually, those are Chuck's from the 70's. Mine are too new looking to be 'dust offable'. I left my old ones in Canada...*sigh*.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.....I treated myself to the pansy purchase you see above. Not expensive, but sexy as hell.
I'll write about the rain another day...when I'm way less happy.
I accidentally lied last post. I forgot. Instead of going straight back to the hotel after the Pride parade, we actually went out for a pint and some fish and chips at the James Joyce before getting ready for the concert.
It happened to also be the 30th anniversary of the death of John Bonham. Being the Zepheads that we are, we dedicated a pint in his memory.
The food was pretty good, and we had a good time. It was near where the parade took place, so the place was full in the middle of the afternoon. We had to sit by the bathrooms. Very amusing watching all the drunk people stagger in and out.
Anyway, on to the review of the concert.
The venue was the Reynolds Theater on the Duke University Campus, right next to the famous Chapel (which we have visited before, and that place is beautiful inside).
Filing in to the venue, I was very surprised at the crowd demographics. 75% of the crowd was old white people. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are such a young group, I can't believe all the blue-hairs that were in attendance.
The seats were very comfy. Photograhy was not allowed, so I have no pictures. Usually I take one or two anyway, but this place seemed to be strictly enforcing the rule. There were only about 600 seats, and the auditorium was packed.
The opening act was Joe Henry. In addition to being the opening act, he also produced the Chocolate Drops' newest album.
His act consisted of him singing and playing guitar and the piano. He did have a friend of his provide stand up bass accompaniment.
Henry's music and lyrics were very....artsy. I don't have any other word for it. Not really my cup of tea, even though I did like a couple of his songs. My opinion is that he's a better piano player and lyricist than a guitar player. He kept blaming his mistuning on "the humidity". I'm sure that can be a factor, but sometimes it was really off.
However, he was pretty funny when he spoke in between songs. He had a voice and manner like Christopher Walken. You almost expected him to ask for more cowbell. And he really liked to name drop. 'When my close friend Madonna and I were having a dinner party last year...' stuff like that. Which is cool, if I knew famous people I'd probably name drop too.
He played for an hour and a half, and then the Chocolate Drops came on.
They blew the roof off.
It was amazing. I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you stop by and see them play if they tour in your area. Even if you don't care for the type of music they play...they just have such energy and talent. Truly they're something special.
They would switch instruments every song. The fiddle, the guitar, the banjo. The woman, Rhiannon Giddens, got up and danced a couple of times while the other two were playing, and WOW. That woman can dance. She even does Celtic throat singing. Cool as shit.
The other thing I've never seen is someone playing the bones during a concert. So neat. This is 'Snowden's Jig' from a previous performance.
I think they're touring in England right now, or will be soon. If you live there, see them!
Chuck decided to ham it up in the parking garage before we left.
Ladies, flex IS accepted. And Chuck's got it for ya.
The next morning, Chuck and I decided to hang out in Durham and check out the Maplewood Cemetery that we were going to see before we got sidetracked by the parade.
The place is HUGE. I'm talkin' MASSIVE. We didnt' even know where to start really. It was too overwhelming. I didn't even get more than a couple of pictures.
We did happen upon the Duke family mausoleum.
Apparently though, the 3 most influential members of the Duke family were exhumed and reinterred in the Duke Chapel.
And we thought this was pretty cool:
The headstone is being swallowed by the tree. Makes you wonder what the roots did to the business part of the grave underground... O_O
If you want to see way more interesting stuff about the cemetery, I found this blog post that takes you on a more intensive tour.
We decided to go and visit Chapel Hill for the rest of the morning and afternoon before making our way back to the coast.
Chapel Hill is only a few miles out of Durham. It is the home of the University of North Carolina, which is the oldest state university, established in December of 1789.
College basketball has a vast following in the US, and UNC has one of the most illustrious teams. The Tarheels are Chuck's favourite team. So he was pretty excited about touring the campus.
Just as Duke has the Chapel, UNC has the Clock Tower.
It was just about noon when we got there, so we got to hear its beautiful chimes.
We were pretty close to the football stadium where the Tarheels football team plays. Chuck took some pictures, and I sat outside and yawned.
We spent some time walking about and seeing the sights...I love being on a university campus. Makes me feel all nostalgic and stuff. If I could just quit my job and attend university forever, I would.
It was the last really super hot day I think we'll have this year. We sweated all over campus (which is why you don't see me in many of the pictures from the weekend, I felt really gross), and decided to make our way down Franklin Street and seek food and drink.
I think everywhere across North America, if there's a university, there's a street nearby like Franklin Street.
In Durham, it was Main Street. In Edmonton, it's called Whyte Avenue. A street with lots of little, great restaurants. A street with a lot of pubs and clubs. A street with a lot of artsy little shops and galleries. A street were people just come to hang out and be seen.
We settled on the Carolina Brewery. Great beer, and very good food. Although I don't know if I would have picked it, had I known how many TV's they had inside. ALL playing different football games. They even asked which football team Chuck followed before we were seated. He said the Cleveland Browns. They sat us right in front of the tv that was scheduled to play that game.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
That's just what I wanted. To be ignored during the whole meal on a date.
But I have to say that I deserved it. I did drag him to Gay Pride the day before. Karma always wins.
Here's Chuck texting a friend about the score of the game.
After the pub, we went out walking again. It was starting to sprinkle rain, so I figured we didn't have a whole lot of time left to walk around before getting drenched.
I was right. I snapped off these last pictures in front of the science observatory before it started to pour.
The whole front of the building was a rose garden, and had a giant sundial in the center of it.
I'm not used to seeing so many healthy rosebushes in one place. Out here in the coast, they all get black spot.
We made a dash for the parking garage. It was a deluge for a lot of the way home. Which was an omen for the week to come.
We've had horrible, flooding rain all week long. My area even made CNN. I was actually going to write a blog post about it, it was so bad. But I wanted to get this one up first.
The next post will be about the nasty weather we've had all week...it was crazy. I've never seen anything like it.
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