animals!

I saw an extra lot of animals last week because I got to visit my brother, who lives about 100 miles away, and to get to him, I drive through the countryside. This is a list of the animals I saw, just last week.

5 groups of deer! When it's warm and damp here, thick layers of fog form over the asphalt as high as the tree's leaf line, especially near the lakes and in dips in the road. I can see why people associate this area with pirates. Often in the midst of the fog, deer eyes would turn toward my headlights, and then necks and bodies emerge as I get closer. No deer were in the road this time.

A wolf. After I got out of the country, I passed into a desolate warehouse area of one of the abandoned downtowns near me. A tall, lean creature was loping along out of town, heading right for those deer I had passed 20 miles back. He was big and grey, moving quickly in the street on the other side. I thought he might be a coyote, but Josh says wolves are the tall ones.

a little brown bunny, bouncing through my backyard.

Hawks. I see these every day, and I think we have a hawk nest in our backyard. They have big beautiful wingspans that stand out in the bright sky. They cut way down on the usual backyard vermin. I had no idea this would delight Jesse like it does, but it's unusual to see a squirrel here, and we've yet to see a pigeon. Pigeons in Watertown can get together and rip off gutters and tear into roofs!

A gray blue crane. We have seen these at the lakes nearby, but this one was at my house! I face a large window while I work, and one afternoon a huge shadow passed in front, covering the whole window, about 5 feet from me. I looked up and saw the edge of a blue wing, so I ran out to the deck. The lake crane flew up very slowly and lighted on our neighbor's roof. These have the long, curved necks.

When I went out to get the mail today, it was warmer outside than in! I saw these flowers at my next- door neighbor's house -- spring has sprung!

the college down the road

Lately I'm excited about the weekend- long series of concerts that will be held at UNC - Greensboro to honor Laszlo Varga, former cellist for the NYPhilharmonic, and the local film fest to be held this week. I am excited to see Varga perform in some of the concerts. At the others, all- cello orchestras are playing pieces that he adapted. This is their schedule. This guy is cello- crazy! Apparently the director of music at UNCG is cello- crazy, too. He holds these "cellobrations" every couple of years and has contributed to UNCG's music library, which holds "the largest body of cello music in the world". I am glad that they are a bit cheezy about this ("Cello there!") because maybe Varga will be encouraged to mess around with the students and talk about working with Leonard Bernstein. I loved "West Side Story" as a kid, and still do.

I'll miss terribly the fun of getting to share these experiences with friends. I'd love to see these 10 minute short films with my friends and then have a beer at a fun pub afterwards and discuss it all. What little clip would make Melsie shut her eyes and laugh? What cinematic perspective would inspire Alejandra with new vision? Which ideas would have Paul scouring the internet, and coming up with 100 more, even more fascinating ideas? And I'm just pulling out the obvious things that tantalize me at this moment -- I miss EVERYONE. The delicious perspectives of my friends are so dear to me.

Yesterday it was so sunny that I decided to pick up lunch at the deli from the college, up the street, and snapped some pictures along my way.


This is Elon College, and I'm on W. College Ave heading toward West Lebanon Ave. Eerily familiar for the Dartmouth kids!


Elon just changed their mascot and team name from "the fighting Christians" to "the phoenixes." I love the pheonixes, and they'd be in close competition with tigers in my mind. But I used to get amused imagining the fighting christians taking on the blue devils of Duke in an apolocylptic smash-up. However, the blue devils are bigger and better at sports, so my imaginary outcome isn't much of a mystery.


I enjoyed my sunny little walk. Probably like any college, there are some kids here who think they are pretty cool. It's funny. A kid in an audi cluelessly stole my parking space, and I honked him. That was my first honk of NC!


In the picture below, right in front of the building, there is a yellow haze -- that's a volleyball net. There is a huge sandpit for it, also. I'm not sure if they have it up all year, or if people actually play in the winter.

During the weekend, Jesse and I found this park on one of the lakes near us. Since it was "cold" not many people were there, but there were some hard- core folks out walking and fishing. Apparently, they also have paddleboats at this park! I told one of my friends in Boston about it, and he said that I might make paddleboat friends! That sounds so wonderful that I wanted to share it. Making and deserving paddleboat friends will be a good aspiration.


We have been going on a lot of hikes recently, since there are great places to go here. I am renewing my love of the outdoors. Also, we usually see at least one other couple wearing some red sox or new england type garb. One of these times, I am going to let out the little "hi" inside. People say "Hi" here a lot. It's nice getting to walk outside -- makes up for the fact that, here, you can't walk anywhere as a part of your routine. You can't fight it. You need a car. It's a strange place that has good and bad differences from Boston. There are fee-less ATMs all over the place, but they are drive- ups.


More of the lovely lake park. It is so sunny here. I forgot how sunny it could be in the winter -- must be a fault of mine!


This is in our neighborhood. There's a little creek, and it goes through our backyard! Now, when I see creeks nearby, I wonder if our creek is part of what I see.

This is a great example of what you see here. I drove through, and Shamrock golf course is quite fancy, all the grass is a deep shade of green, even in the winter. And right next door, someone else is sellin' worms!

I miss my friends up north terribly. I have my identity partly because of you wonderful people, and it's because of what I've learned from you and seen of you in the past couple of years, that I'm able to let go of badness and be happy right now. I want to be a better friend and show you how wonderful I think you all are. Things are getting better each day as we all grow into even better versions of ourselves. I want to see that happening with all of you, and be able to share my own silly stories with you. Thank you for being the people that you are -- I am so enlivened and enriched to know you. I feel this way all the time.

with love,
cc

gotta go sell some worms.

some of my surroundings

Here's how things look near my little town!


The view from my door, going out to explore! It's extremely suburban where we are. People walk their dogs every night at dusk. In the summertime (and at Halloween) our small streets are often full of people walking.




Main St, USA. This is the "downtown" part of our neighboring town, which is a bit bigger.



Our town is right on a train line -- we are in a little whistle stop town! Now, people just take the highway that runs almost right along the train tracks, and the train is mostly used for freight. But we hear the whistle a couple of times each day. The town is doing a reconstruction project on this caboose, and letting people go inside to see how they used to look.

This was the old train station, now there are little concerts and Christmas celebrations here. They've made a tiny ampitheatre outside nearby.


A local "downtown" diner. I hope you guys in Boston are enjoying your sandwiches, because apparently, they are famous.



We have been going to a Quaker church, and last week we held some signs with them after the meeting. This area is historically Quaker! I don't really believe that seeing a sign will change anybody's mind, but I need to be a go- getter if I'm going to meet people, and I was curious about how people would react. I was really surprised at how many people waved and honked, and were positive toward us. No one was mean. (They held up thumbs, not fingers, Moens!) A lot of young people were positive, but really it was mostly the older crowd who were vocal about it. Anyway, we think we might like this church. We like the silent time and the sharing that they do in the Quaker service.



This is a random snapshot, less than 10 miles from our house. It's made of logs, and there is a shed behind it with a tin roof. This is really pretty country.