Trip Ahoy! From Cary to Marshallburg and all the points in between!

Here is Cary where I alighted from the Carolinian 'not-quite express' and here is Marshallburg where I stayed with my second Mum (Martha) and her sister (Aunty Paula). Aunt Paula has kept the lovely family cottage going strong that their Dad built with friends and family.

Distance: 168 miles (or 270 kilometers) and the approximate travel time: was supposed to be 3 hours but it was a tad more than that because of the confusing 'alternate' route system! Here is Mum in driving mode and here is Clamalot cottage and the beautiful view!

This a place of rich estuarine life - the birds were too fast moving for me to photograph but I captured this stationary bird and very stationary oysters!

In fact this is a place of such beauty and ecological significance that everyone banded together to create the North Carolina Coastal Reserve & Natural Estuarine Research Reserve. A wonderful biologist Rachel Carson undertook research in the area in the 1940s and a reserve has been named after her. Here's a picture of Rachel in the local Beaufort Museum.

Rachel was not the only person of note associated with the sea depicted at the museum - there was Black Beard a few years earlier - a fearsome and successful pirate until he met his rather gruesome end. Here's a Johnny Dep version of Black Beard and here's an earlier disaffected artist's view of Black Beard. And a few of the local pirate flags.

Where there's sea and quiet ports there's always something a little clandestine going on. Here's a non-clandestine picture of 'Port' Marshallburg. 

And here, many moons ago I was led on a wild goose chase by my family when I was 16 years old and was more gullible than I am now which is still rather gullible. I was invited to a Snipe Hunt. I got out my potato sack in the dark waiting for what I imagined were quail like birds to go into my potato sack after being driven in in by Uncle T and Co. who had gone ahead and made lots of clapping sounds to drive the snipe into my potato sack - after which I would then release them back. But instead  Uncle T and Co. Tucker included, walked straight past me - with no Snipes in sight - and drove off! Oh well. There was lots of laughter that evening. Here's a picture of snipe terrain and what I imagined a snipe might look like. 

There's so much of Martha and Paula's family history in these parts. Everyone is related in some way shape or form. This is the country where Martha and Paula's Mum came from - the lovely Evelyn Estelle Sellars - or Gran Nanny as I knew her. Here's a street sign with another relative's name on it - and Gran Nanny's house that she grew up in. Evelyn would eventually marry Henry Brown Fountain - a wonderful man - or P-Pop as I knew him.

History lies close in the land in America - with all the local cemeteries around. Many headstones are too worn to decipher and the overhanging live oak often gives the cemetery's a definite southern ambience. And there's always the particular poignancy of lives ended too soon - but I am not sure what to make of the British Soldier buried upright in the Beaufort Cemetery! There is, like Australia, signs of clashes between settlers and Indigenous peoples - in this case the Tuscarora - of which few signs remain - and less of people.

Apart from cemetery hopping there is another past-time here - decoy carving. It's a craft that is celebrated and held in high regard. (Lots of duck hunting evident around here). 'Wooden sculptures capturing the spirit of the bird' best describes it for me -  and Aunt Paula has some wonderful examples of this art.

 Here's some plastic ducks at Clamalot.

And wooden carved ducks - on Harkers Island - I think.

But moving away from ducks for a moment - the whole reason I was at Clamalot was to hang out with my host family for Thanksgiving. Here is Aunt Paula with fresh-baked stuffing. I was eating so much I completely forgot to take pictures of anything else - although a lovely local goat and Beau the beautiful cat caught my eye along the way.

So much to sea! Which included the beautiful Atlantic on a pristine day and migratory feathered friends. I even got to see some porpoise.

Closer to home were the small welcoming churches.

And there was more, but ... sadly I must end here! Thank you everyone - to Mum, Aunt Paula, Tucker, Bobby, Sandy, Tana and Ethan - not to mention Beau and Rocky and all the kind people I met along the way.

On the Wings of a Duck - or was that a Snipe? - I take my leave!

Train travel..choo choo...gudung gudung

I traveled on the Carolinian Amtrack train recently to see my North Carolinian family - the family I stayed with when I was an exchange student in 1977! I found the time travelling on the train to be a blessing in the sense of having time to slow down and contemplate things - rather than rushing, rushing.... I can stretch my short legs out - and I had the added bonuses of having a good traveling companion - along with the changing views out the window. I left Union Station in Washington DC at 10.30am and arrived in Cary at 5.30pm during one of the busiest travel times in America - around Thanksgiving. Here's some pictures I took around my departure area - a long with the picture of the place where I purchased a breakfast bagel. I couldn't go past a good bagel.

And here's some of the changing views I saw out the window - from Washington DC and what look like vestiges of the Roman Empire through  to wintry Virginian and North Carolinian landscapes and rivers and towns...

And here's a tiny video that captures the movement and rhythmic sound of the train ... choo choo...gudung gudung!

Visiting a nearby Vietnamese Temple

A wonderful Vietnamese family regularly visits our KPC Temple in Maryland. In fact many Vietnamese regularly visit. On this occasion we were invited to visit the Chua Xa Loi Temple by this family on the second anniversary of the death of one of their family members to assist with prayers. At Chua Xa Loi Temple I met Nun 'Bao Minh The' originally from France and 'Bao Thai Jack' born in the USA! A Zen Monk -  Temm Bikle also joined us in the chanting. After we (Gonpo, Ani Palmo and I) had joined in the chanting for the departed family member we all gathered outside and circled the statues of Amitabha Buddha and Chenrezig to complete the ritual. Later we had a wonderful vegetarian lunch. Yum! Here's the inside of the Temple during and after the prayer and chanting ritual.

The story of how this Vietnamese Temple was established is quite amazing. There was only one Grand Master from the Buddhist 'Bao' line left to continue this particular lineage in Vietnam. It was a difficult time to be a monk or a Nun so the Grand Master had to be very careful about who he trained and how he conducted the training.This monk had only one student in the beginning - a young boy in the local village who he carefully and quietly trained, being sure not to attract any attention to himself. And from that quiet new beginning came a new Temple in America which is now a gathering place for a large Vietnamese community. Wherever we are - we all need a place to call home.

Here we are outside - walking slowly as we chant. The line was much longer than I can show.

We went three times around each Buddha statue.

And then it was time to eat - although you shouldn't let technology get in the way! Bao Thai Jack is actually reading a note but Gonpo is definitely on his phone .

The pictures below include one of my friend Noreen eating an artificial lemon that another wonderful woman who visits KPC made. It tasted much sweeter than a lemon!

And here is one of a peacock's that the Chua Xa Loi community care for - they have a whole flock of peacocks. It was a wonderful day. Thank you for inviting us to come to the temple Mrs T.