Whale Watching

Turns out we weren't the only ones who saw the whale on Sunday (refer to my previous post)...a couple out fishing caught a video and posted it on youtube:

Wildlife Sunday

It was another of those days that just make me incredibly grateful to live in an area of such fantastic beauty! We had the opportunity to take a couple of friends out on the boat and play tour guide for them...the wildlife certainly put on a show! It was a record day of sightings for us.

We began by showing our friends the local osprey nest. We enjoy stopping by this particular buoy every time we launch to see these fine birds working on enlarging the family.

Next we stopped along the banks to see the Shackleford horses. Not a bad vista....
Blondie was checking us out.


Our next wildlife sighting was a sea turtle coming up for air...didn't have the camera out, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

But, by far, the most exciting sightings were when we went right outside the hook of the Cape. Not only did we see a pod of dolphins....
But we saw a whale! The first time I've ever seen one. It was amazing. Okay, I was shooting "blind"....the sun was bright, I didn't want to miss anything, so I just had the camera out and was pointing in the general direction the whale kept surfacing and clicking the button....you'll have to take my word for it that this shadow really is a whale. In talking with one of the park service employees later on, we believe it may be a minke whale.
Such a fabulous outing!

Cat Haiku

Cuteness in a cat,
Blinking, stretching, contentment,
Love serenity

SotD: Funhouse by Pink

Room Service & Pioneer Woman

I went to Raleigh on business at the end of the week. Stayed at a very nice hotel and decided I could adjust just fine to staying in luxury accommodations. Raleigh was a very handsome parrot whose cage was in the ground floor of the atrium. They gave you fair warning about the biting...what they didn't tell you was that he'll put his lovely yellow belly right up to the bars and try to lure you into petting him.I really liked the atrium style...
Room service? I'm in! These blue cheese chips were incredible.
After my training was done, my SIL met me and we drove to Charlotte for a book signing at Joseph Beth Booksellers. Maybe I'll post more pix of the store soon. It was a great store...large, airy, waterfall sign...
If you've never been to Pioneer Woman's blog, I invite you to click on the link here on my page. My friend at Goblins in my Garden first told me about PW. I have now been following her blog for several years and adore her. Her photography is fabulous. Her writing is real, down-to-earth (too much so for some?) and I just love keeping up with her life at the ranch. She published a cookbook at the end of last year, and has been doing some touring to support it. It was so refreshing to meet her, and discover her to be incredibly gracious and down-to-earth in person. We had the best time meeting her!

Blenheim Palace

Well, *finally* I'm going to take you back to the UK for a bit. Have been wildly busy around here and neglecting ye' ole' blog. But now that I'm here, I want to share with you another of our adventures from our February trip to the UK.

We took a side trip to Blenheim Palace. It's the home of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and (I believe I have this straight) the largest privately-owned palace in the UK. It's also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

I'm going to share some pictures of the outside of the palace and the grounds...inside photography was not permitted. I encourage you to go to the official website for some more of the history, and a peek inside. It's a fabulous place. (I could live in the library!)

http://www.blenheimpalace.com/


I adored some of the magnificent trees. There was a photography exhibit inside that featured the Blenheim trees and I desperately wanted to take at least one of the pictures home with me!