View from the Mountain

Savoring a Southern Fall

I recently talked to some friends who live in central New Brunswick in Canada.  They were neighbors when we had our cattle farm in the same area in seventies. 

Last week they scrapped frost off their windshields at least three times.

I am glad it was them instead of me.  I am not sure that I have time for a serious winter at this stage in my life.

Winter takes time and planning.  In Tay Creek where we had our farm, you had to be especially careful to pick up your tools in the fall.

The reason was that snow could blanket the ground at any time after the first of October.  It was not that unusual for it to come in November and the ground stay covered until late April.  You could spend a lot of time digging around in the snow for a chain that you thought you left in a certain spot.

Given that history, it was with great pleasure that I snapped the knockout rose picture in the post this morning as I walked back from the mailbox.  Our temperature are still mostly in the eighties so shorts and sandals are still our uniform.

My second crop of tomatoes planted on August 22 have a few serious tomatoes on them already.  I am curious how long they will produce.  Yet I am not concerned about it since fall brings so many other pleasures.

Sunday we went for a wonderful beach walk at Atlantic Beach.  The water has actually warmed a little from earlier in the month.  I am pleased with that since one of things I enjoy most is wading along the shore.

Saturday was as much or more fun.  We went for a boat ride in the morning and hit the beaches in the afternoon.

It is not that cannot go for a boat ride or walk the beaches in Canada in September.  It is that blue jeans are going to your uniform on the beach and boating is going to be pretty nippy.

We have just come through our humid August so having slightly cooler temperatures is a real treat here, but the best of fall is still around the corner for us.  Soon we should get some decent fishing weather, and all of our fall festivals are on tap.

About the only thing I miss is the certainty of cool almost cold weather for Thanksgiving. There is just something wrong about a hot Thanksgiving. Usually we get that cool weather, but we can be warm even later into the year.

Of course all things are relative.  We enjoyed living in Canada and thought fall with its changing colors was a wonderful time especially since the black flies disappeared.  The weather was great for working.  My Canadian friends said September has been their nicest month this year since it rained most of the summer.

Like many others I would not mind if the rain slacked off for October.  We had 8.3 inches on Labor Day and last night we had 2.4 inches.  I know we have had some additional rain during the month.

Still I am not going to complain about my Southern fall, I could be feeling around in a snowbank looking for tools.

An appreciation for calm water

I can remember being out in the middle of Carvin's Cove in my kayak one afternoon when the wind whipped up the water.  A kayak does not offer a lot of protection from waves so I was pretty happy when I got to shore.

Living on the North Carolina coast on the shores of a tidal river makes me keenly aware of the water.

Every morning one of the first things that I do is to check my tide post.  It is one of the pilings on our dock where I have marked normal high tide.

If you click on this link you can see our dock in the first picture.  My normal high tide line is just visible a few inches under water in the first slide.  Today we had higher than normal tides.  It was possibly due to the passing of hurricane Bill.

I do not mind a nice high tide, it actually makes navigation a little easier in our world of shallow sounds and inlets.  Sometimes we need all the water we can find just to get around here.

However, a high tide and a storm are two different things.  We are lucky to be where we are in Bluewater Cove.  We are a couple of miles up the White Oak River.  It is not unusual for us to have a larger boat or two anchored in our inlet during a bad storm.  It makes me feel a little better about where we live.

As a boater, I just live for that glassy smooth water that you often see in early morning fishing trip like my Mackerel Morning slides.

The picture in the post was taken Saturday, August 22, after Hurricane Bill passed our area well out to sea.  Still our beaches felt the impact.  There were red no swimming flags flying everywhere, and we did find the higher than normal surf had created a few changes on the beach.

However, it was a quiet night on the beach.  The foamy water, beautiful blue skies, and neat late evening light created a magical moment.  We enjoyed it greatly.

It is always nice to lose yourself in the sound of the waves and the limitless possibilities of the ocean.

That is one of the reasons we walk the beach as often as possible.

Mountain Morning

One of the great pleasures of living in the Southeast is that a few hours of driving can completely change your climate.  We spend most of our time near Emerald Isle on North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.

We actually live on the mainland on the banks of the White Oak River.  It is no secret that the North Carolina coast can be hot and humid in August.  I figure the reason why we have so much great beach to is help us endure that heat.

Every now and then the only real relief is to escape to the mountains, and we often do just that.  We have been enjoying southern mountain weather for the last few days.  We actually slept with the air conditioning off the last couple of days.  We close up the house and turn the air on around 11 AM each day when it starts to warm up.

When the outside temperature gets under seventy at night, we turn the air off and open the windows again.  It is not a bad way to live.  That is typical late September and October weather for the beach.  In the mountains sometimes you get a cool August and can get away with some open window nights like this year.

The Roanoke River which is the picture at the top of the post is probably at its summer low right now, but it is not nearly as bad as it was during the drought a few years ago when the Roanoke River got as low as I have ever seen it.  Though the river recovered in the fall of 2007, it looks like it could could use some rain now.

With some tropical disturbances out in the Atlantic there is plenty of opportunity for more than just a recovery.

While the Carolina coast can take take several inches of rain like we have seen this past week when we had 5.75 inches in a couple of afternoon storms, the mountains have a harder time dealing with that much rain.

In June of 2006 heavy rains made the Roanoke River escape its banks.  Roanoke has a history of getting whacked by the remnants of hurricanes.  When we moved to Roanoke in 1989 we were living in an apartment waiting for our home to be finished when Hurricane Floyd knocked trees down in Roanoke including one into our almost done home.

Our Roanoke home is enough up on the mountain to be in no danger of flooding, but the winds from dying tropical storms can be pretty impressive.

With blue skies and fluffy white clouds right now, it is hard to think about hurricanes visiting this peaceful mountain valley, but it does happen.  Once we even had a glass topped table blown off our deck during a dying tropical depression.

Even with the damage they bring, sometimes those tropical storms are welcome for the rain that they add to the reservoirs.  They are part of the natural cycle here in the southeast.

I am hoping to enjoy a few more cool nights on the mountain before I have to start really worrying about hurricane tracks.

However, that same proximity that allows you to escape the humidity of the coast by driving a few hours inland, means that even up here on the mountain, we have to pay attention to tropical storms as they take aim for the southeast coast.

This is the south

I enjoy helping people make a decision to move.  It is usually a tough decision.

It is easy to get comfortable in a place. Folks often know when they are too comfortable and need to move.

Most people are pretty realistic about going to a new location.

They realize that things will be different, and that there never has been a perfect place.

Then there are the other people. Those who want to move to the south so they do not have to face cold winters but refuse to accept the fact that a place without cold winters is likely to have hot summers.

Having lived in places with very cold winters, very warm summers, and everything in between, I have reconciled myself to taking without complaint whatever the weather is going to hand me.

There will be hot days in North Carolina and Virginia, they are part of the south.  There will also be some very pleasant days.  In fact it is almost a sure bet that there will be more of those very pleasant days than there will be of those very hot days.

Some of the people who are not willing to accept the trade-off on a hot summer for a warm winter also want to live in place with no bugs, snakes, or mosquitoes.

On top of that they would like to be close to a beach which has nice water for swimming.  I just told someone that I know of a beach area where there are no snakes. It's Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.  The only trouble is that you turn blue when you jump into the water.

I want to say that people should understand what acceptable risk is.  I have been in places on Hatteras Island in the summer when you could hardly breath for the mosquitoes.  Yet I live on a salty gut of the White Oak River and hardly ever see a mosquito.  All I know to tell people is to check with the neighbors before you buy a property.  Mosquitoes seem to inhabit much of North America.  They might find your property.

I have probably seen about a dozen live snakes on or near our properties over my sixty years.  I remember seeing one when I was growing up in Lewisville, NC.  We regularly saw the same blacksnake in Roanoke, Va.  I saw a number of copperheads sunning themselves on roads near us in Roanoke.  Since moving to Carteret County, we have seen three snakes.  One blacksnake and two water snakes.  I do not know anyone who has ever been bitten by a snake, but I guess that could happen.  The odds, however, are against it.

Given my experience with snakes, I find it an acceptable risk to live in a state with snakes.  I would rather have some snakes around than live in Canada where there are no snakes and the winters have no end.

I might be hot once in a while, occasionally see a snake, and maybe get a bug bite every now and then, but all that comes with living in the south which is well worth the risk.

After all, you also run the risk of having a perfect beach day or losing yourself by spending a day on the sound.

Cool mountain breezes

The heat has arrived on North Carolina's Crystal Coast just in time for the 4th of July.  Heat is welcome on the coast during July.  It makes the waters warm for swimming and keeps the tourists happy.

There are a few downsides like having to mow your lawn really early in the morning, but you get used to those ways around the heat.

Still it is nice to get a break from the steamy temperatures.  Last night when we opened our car doors we knew that we were someplace different.

The last few days on the coast, it is still warm and humid well past nine PM.  Here in Roanoke, late in the evening the air has cooled.  With mountain humidity which runs a litle below ours on the coast, the evenings are very pleasant on the mountains surrounding Roanoke.

There are still a few weeks before Roanoke starts to really cook with the hot days of August.

Early heat does have its advantages.  We are bringing homegrown tomatoes to our friends in Roanoke.   The garden season at the coast will start to wind down around July1 after the watermelons become prolific.  The Roanoke area's vegetables will just reach their peak in July.

This morning's sunrise reminded me of how beautiful the Roanoke Valley can be.  The early morning peace and quiet is a reminder of life before all the factories.  It is a time to enjoy the day before the summer heat makes it tough to survive without air conditioning.