Wilmington, North Carolina ~ Part Un

One of the things I've done over the last busy week was take some time to go on a date with my husband. We've been together for over 5 years, but I think dates are still important!


We took the whole Saturday to go down to Wilmington, which is about an hour south of us on the coast. Wilmington is a beautiful city, and has something for everyone. 18th Century houses, beautiful beaches, awesome restaurants...everything Jacksonville doesn't have.

You can't go just anywhere and have a horse dressed as a bunny pull your carriage on Easter weekend!




We saw so much and took so many beautiful pictures, this'll have to be a two parter. Hell, I took so many, it may turn out to be a three parter! O_O


Like I said in my last post, I've been trying to be more active, so we fit some fun excercise into the day. First stop was to play frisbee in the Hugh MaCrae Park. The park has such pretty landscaping, so of course I took some pictures! Thank god there are none of me sweating with the frisbee...

The camellias here are just about done blooming, but this one was still pretty.


I'm a sucker for a retaining wall...


The azaleas are starting to bloom out everywhere. In fact, Wilmington's annual Azalea Festival is being held this upcoming weekend. I really wanted to go, people open up their historical houses and gardens to the public for tours!

But my brother in law is coming to visit this weekend, he hasn't been here in years. I'm taking a garden bullet for you Steve!!

Maybe I can talk them into taking me down there anyway, and I can drop them off in the pub all afternoon while I go out touring....hmm... :)


Some of my favourite azaleas of the day:






There's no Newcastle Brown in there, Mr. A!



The dogwoods are also in full bloom. I'd love to have one of these. They're very short lived trees though, and prone to disease.



From the look of this tree, I'd say it's a cherry. Look at the trunkage on this thing!


This is only one small part of MaCrae Park. I just think it was so pretty :) Most of the park is just pines. There are giant Koi in that lake. Huge! I'm surprised one of them didn't flip out of the water dolphin-style and snag that kid!


Some turtles chillin' like villains on the only island in the pond. Maybe they're afraid of the Koi too.



Cool Japanese Maple. Which I had to get in front of, of course.


Ham alert.


Eastern Redbud, I presume?


Very weird duck. I've heard of Turducken before, but this is ridiculous.


Some more of his homies resting in between tourist feedings. They didn't even have the decency to look scared when I got close to take a picture.


Lovely place. Couldn't play frisbee for long though, it kills me! I have bruises all over my shins, and my fingernails got shredded. I'm not a girly-girl, but c'man! Enough was enough!


Mr. A and I went for a pint in the Grand Union Pub, and had some fish & chips. Yes! There is an abundance of delicious seafood here in the coast, but no one's really done an 'authentic' fish & chips. Grand Union's were AWESOME. Ok, not really authentic, we weren't eating them out of paper or anything. But so tasty!

Usually when you see a place advertised as a 'pub' down here, it's a murky establishment with one pool table and a fat hillbilly behind the bar serving Budweiser in a pint glass. I always back out of the 'pub' slowly...no sudden movements...


After lunch, what did Mr. A treat me to? A visit to the 'Airlie Botanical Gardens'.

Beautiful! Amazing! Astounding!

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the pictures :) No time to post them tonight. But be on the lookout tomorrow!

Today was the tepid appetizer. Tomorrow? The filet mignon!!

Juggling

I'm so sorry everyone, life is getting in the way of my blog this week :D

I've been working my butt off...like literally. Now I have to carry it in my purse. One of my friends calls Barnes & Noble 'Barnes & Shenanigans'. I could write a whole blog based on the crazy people that come in there every day...I'd probably get fired though?

And I'm trying to lose some weight (and it's successful so far), which takes up an hour of my day every day.

AND my camera is being stupid, so it's hard to get my pictures on here to supplement the witty banter. I'm hoping to get a new post up tonight or tomorrow. I know you're all chomping at the bit! ;)

Mr. A and I did visit some beautiful gardens in Wilmington, NC over last weekend. I can't wait to share those pictures :)

Saw my first hummingbird at the feeder yesterday as well. I'm glad I put it up, I thought it was too early in this area!

Once again, apologies. Hope no one thought I died lol.

Dump and Die

Our neighbourhood has had enough.



I live in a rural area. We're about 5 minutes away by car from a small town called Swansboro.

We're about 20 minutes away from a small city called Jacksonville. We're definitely rural. I live next to trailers with toilets and pig cookers sitting in the front yard. Redneck central. Usually I don't care, it gives me something to blog about.





But...being rural DOES NOT give people the right to back their trucks down our road and dump their trash in our ditches.

People who are too CHEAP and too LAZY to take their trash to the Onslow County dump on the other side of Jacksonville. To dump it there for a few measly dollars. Is that really HARD? Is it???

Trash = many things.

Rocking chairs...



Barbeque grills....




And make sure lamp/magazine stands aren't left out...



Those three things have been dumped down that road all in the span of
three weeks. Within a few feet of each other.

Mr. A and I did not nail that sign to the tree. But we APPLAUD the people that did. Some people have no respect for the people living in this area. We're a new-ish subdivision, and house building is really starting to boom back here. When I first moved here, all that was dumped were beer cans and condoms/condom wrappers. People have decided to upgrade I guess. No more condoms, only grills!

I had seen this sign posted yesterday when I was taking a daily walk. Mr. A and I jumped in the car tonight so I could show him and take some pictures. There were some people walking down where the trash had been dumped, and they looked at us like we were the dumpers!

Mr. A said that we should let the people who were walking know that we weren't responsible, and I didn't want to because I thought that was silly. But I ended up saying ok, and we drive down after the walkers.We came upon them, and explained ourselves. Thanks goodness we did! They said they were going to take our license plate tag numbers and report us, because they thought we were the dumpers! LOL

I love my house, and I love my yard. I just wish they were in a different place :P

There are bombs and guns going off on the nearby Camp Lejeune Marine base. There are people spotlighting deer on the side of the road so they can shoot them when they're dazzled. There are people running deer dogs through the woods to drive the deer out, so the 'hunters' can shoot them.

I'm tired of it.

I say, leave my bit of home alone!

Pretty in Pink

I totally would have picked Duckie over Blane. After a dance like this? I would have married the the guy on the spot. Epic fail, Molly Ringwald, epic fail.



The blooming of my 'Ann' Magnolia is one of my favourite parts of the spring. Ok, ok, every part of spring is my favourite part.

But come on! Get a load of this:



I really wish I had planted this shrub in a different spot. I think it gets a leetle too much sun. The leaves get a bit crispy if we have a long heat wave in summer...but it's not too bad if I water a lot.

And it almost looks like one of those little cacti that you see in the checkout line at Lowe's. A green finger with one, huge, fluorescent-coloured bloom on the top of it. The same flower bud on 'Ann' always blooms first, and always blooms the biggest. There are a few other blooms, but they're always smaller and less impressive.

'Ann' is such a slow grower that it'll take forever to get to it's full size. Which, according to the plant tag, will only be about 8ft x 8ft.

Jess @ Children of the Corm is convinced all plant tags lie though, so we'll see. Or maybe I won't...I'll probably be living somewhere else by then!

'Ello, Guvnah!

The Governor of North Kynalina has granted a 'stay of execution'.





I have decided that the 'Blackout' asiatic lilies will not walk the Green Mile. They will not buy the farm, bite the dust, kick the bucket, nor take a dirt nap!



I have to redo this part of my back garden, which hasn't really been touched since Mr. A ripped down the old fencing and edging.



I found I don't really care as much about the colours back there. And I won't break some of my readers' hearts by killing them ;).It's far enough away from the house that they're not under my nose.

...But they'll be under the bees' noses!


Do bees have noses?

I'm happy to see those fellas flying around, noses or not.

When In Doubt, I Rip It Out

On my daily garden tour, I noticed that my asiatic lilies are coming up. I love asiatic lilies.

My only problem is that I planted them when I had a different colour scheme in the porch garden. Yellow and red and orange were the chief colours...it was my very first year gardening, and I thought I was going to love it!

Then everything came up...HATED IT!



I found out that I'm really not into the whole 'warm tone' thing. Or if I was going to go for warm tones, it would have to be more monochromatic to float my boat.

What did I do? I ripped everything out and started over! A few of the casualties...







Ok. I didn't rip out everything. I left these.



'Blackout' Asiatic Lily. I have 4 patches of these in my porch garden. Actually, maybe it's three now? I think I accidentally removed one of the patches when I was messing with the soil...

Anyway, I don't know why I left them. Don't get me wrong, I think they're beautiful, I just don't think they fit in with my garden. Any of my gardens, really. They're a lot more burgundy than they look in the picture. Hence, the 'Blackout'.

AND they spread like wildfire. I'm not a fan of plants that do that. Most people would be happy because they get more beautiful flowers, and don't have to shell out the extra dough. But not moi.

I guess it's the control freak in me. When I was a kid, I was always one to colour inside the lines. And I expect my flowers to colour inside the lines too.


Back to the question. Why did I keep them? I guess because the flowers are usually gone by the time I really get going with planting. And Mr. A told me that he really liked them once, so maybe that's why I have a soft spot for them. I like to call it Executioner's Guilt.



Normally I don't have a problem ripping things out of my garden that I don't like. Look what I did to Dusty Miller in 'You Say Potato, I Say Potahto'. The only thing I regret removing are the red dahlias in the last 'casualty' photo I showed you above.

I would give the asiatic lilies to friends, but none of my friends really garden. And the one that does, plants mostly shrubs and foliage plants.

So...what do you guys do when you decide you don't like something you've planted?

Do you make like a Beatle and Let It Be? Do you rip it out without a second thought? Do you give it away to friends? Or have you been satisfied with every planting decision you've ever made? :P

Inquiring Kynas want to know!



I may have kept the crayon inside the lines, but I definitely wasn't a boring kid...

Don't Rain On My Parade

I woke up this morning a bit out of sorts.

The weatherman had promised me that on my day off today, it was going to be partly sunny and 67F. I had planned an awesome day outdoors. I wanted to get into my garden so badly...

He promised! I made him pinky swear and everything :( Damn you Les Still!



(I know, I know, I have mad skills with 'Paint'. If you ever need any graphic design work done, just call me...)

Mr. A woke me up this morning and gave me the bad news, Dennis Downer style. "Hey Kyna, guess what? It's going to be raining all day and kinda chilly. Oh, and our house payment went up."

!!!

*insert many nasty expletives here*

How does the weather report change that drastically overnight? How could Mister Still not see that coming?? Or should I call him



And it's not even a pretty sort of rain. I love it when the day is sunny, with awesome thunderstorms here and there to break up the day. I love a good thunderstorm...

Last September, Mr. A and I took a trip to New Bern. New Bern is a town to the North of us, founded in 1710. Their 300th birthday celebrations will be going on this summer. Fun Fact: New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi. I'll write more about New Bern another day, it's a beautiful old town (I didn't take this photo)



New Bern has a beautiful waterfront. There's a massive gazebo, and a beautiful walkway that winds around the edge of the Neuse River.

At the end of last summer, millions of fish started floating dead on the top of the river. They showed pictures on the news, and we couldn't believe it. We decided to take a trip up there (it takes about 45 minutes) and check it out.



This picture is terrible and blurry. It definitely doesn't show the massive amount of fish carnage, you'll have to take my word for it. Farther out into the water, it looked like there was a weird, patchy foam on top. The foam was dead fish. You shoulda smelled THAT smell. O_O

Apparently something happened in the water where the oxygen levels just happened to drop rapidly. And voila! Dead fish. There was a complicated scientific explanation, but that's the best I can do with making it short. This went on for weeks.

While we were there, the weather alternated between beautiful and stormy looking. You could be standing in the sunshine, and 50 feet away from you there would be sheets of water coming down. And that rain would sometimes skirt around you! It was crazy. Of course I took a few pics. If you look closely at the water in the third one, you can all of the dots of fish...bleah.












This is the kind of rain I like. Not the gloomy, monochromatic, melancholic, overcast mess I'm seeing out my window this morning. I'm trying to think of it as a good thing, but rain is never a good thing when it's on my day off!