Beach Version 2018
LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog
1. We spent July 7-14 in a house at Pawley's Island, SC. The opportunity came up rather quickly. We just wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, to breathe different air for a few days. I was scanning the internet when a sale popped up for this property. A cancellation had occurred and the owner was offering a 20% discount to re-rent it. We snapped it up and had a great week in a creek/marsh-front house, only a few houses from the north point of the island - easy to either boat or walk to the point, from which we could see marsh on the left and ocean to the right.
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| View from the walkway down to the boat dock. |
2. Both our children and their spouses, as well as Mike's sister and husband, spent the first couple of days with us. Brother-in-law then left his boat with us for the week - a great treat that led to some good fishing opportunities. Our daughter-in-law proved to be the best fisherman in the group - she caught enough for us to have flounder for supper one evening. We really enjoyed using the boat.
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| Daughter-in-law and daughter - both love to fish. |
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| Mike the fisherman. He enjoyed catching this flounder even if it had to be thrown back. |
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| One of the many views from the boat. |
3. Wonderful opportunities to observe birds - the best in years. We constantly saw shorebirds from our house - several kinds of herons and egrets, other shorebirds, songbirds, and more. We also took several trips to Huntington Beach State Park, about six miles from our rental, which is known for premier birding on the U.S. east coast.
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| Laughing Gull on a sandbar |
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| Immature little blue heron looking for lunch in the waters at Huntington Beach State Park. |
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| I call this one "Praise Jesus!!" :-) It's an anhinga - they spread their wings out to dry. |
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Roseate spoonbills, They are young birds, not as pink as adults.
But they were a lifer for me - first sighting ever! |
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| Black-Crowned night heron. Another lifer. |
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Painted bunting singing its heart out from the top of the tree. I believe this is an immature
because of the yellow wash on its breast. |
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| I call this picture "Church Potluck." :-) |
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| This little "marsh hen" (clapper rail) was seen often from our back deck. That's unusual --these birds are normally very secretive and hard to observe. But it would sneak out from the marsh, looking for food, or running to the marsh on the other side. I got several pictures of this quiet little bird. . . |
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| . . . as well as a couple of pictures of the little chicks that were with it. They were hard to catch with a camera because they quickly ran from one marsh to another. |
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| Purple Martins lined up on their house. Most of the time they were flying, catching mosquitoes.
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4. After family left, we had a few days to ourselves, and then dear friends came for a couple of nights. So it was a great vacation, save for one thing. . .
5. A diagnosis. On Sunday of the vacation, I "face-planted" onto the dock while getting out of the boat. It was a really hard fall, and rather awkward with the whole family looking on in horror thinking Mom has killed herself. I had pain in the chest area for the rest of the week, but for the most part it was mild and only affected me with certain movements and bending over. It seemed to be healing over the course of four or five days, and by the time we got home I didn't even feel it, and forgot about it, until about three days ago. This Tuesday the pain came back with a vengeance, incapacitating and much worse than during the vacation. Went to the dr. yesterday - I have a broken fifth rib, not displaced, which means it's not nearly as serious as it could be. Dr. said I probably bruised it last week, and then some normal movement caused it to crack this week. So I am learning how to deal with the pain of a broken rib. BUT - it still goes on FFF because I am relieved to know what is wrong and that it can be managed with rest, ice, and some pain medication.
Thank you for putting up with all my bird pictures!!
