Canoe trip, critters, lights... bits and pieces left from pre-Eastern Rendezvous posts.



Sometimes at lunchtime, especially if it's a night set or a new store, a bunch of us will get together and have lunch in the parking lot. This time, we were joined by a few critters.


I'd always seen GREEN praying mantids. This one was brown. Sue said it was probably a Carolina Mantid.
( Note: now that she's seen it, she says no, it's either an American or Chinese Mantid. )

I went back to the Chesapeake Campground to have some more of the available fun - a friend joined me for a trip up the Dismal Swamp canal. We rented a canoe from the campground. It was a beautiful day for it.



I have always wanted lights for my awning. Kroger had some on clearance that I liked, so now I have a set. They make systems to hang your lights from the channel on the awning but I didn't have any so I made my own. I used bone hairpipe (beads) and hemp from my jewelry making supplies. The hairpipe fit in the channel perfectly, and the loops of hemp held the lights up.

Pinehurst RV Resort is a city run campground in Pinehurst, NC. It was maybe 10 miles from the store I'd just finished, and R&R was in order.



I set up camp, coaxed my warped-out-of-shape door into closing and latching, and headed for the pool.



After a refreshing swim in total solitude, I took a walk around the campground.



There was a larger percentage of big Class A motorhomes than I normally see in a park I can afford. Beautiful rigs.



I noticed that although there were plenty of RVs, there were no people outside enjoying the campground. Finally I figured it out: This was the middle of golf country. There are LOTS of golf courses around here, and the denizens of these big rigs were on the links enjoying the outdoors there instead of in the campground.



This bunny posed for an amazingly long time, showing off how well she blends in with the scenery.



There were a couple of rigs for sale in their storage area. I particularly like this one - about the size of mine but with a basement.



This is their lake, a peaceful place to be. I look forward to another visit.

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

I'd seen the sign last time I worked on a store on Little Creek Road, but hadn't followed it. This time - it was a night set, so I had time during the day - and shade was important! So off I went.




These crepe myrtles are trained to cross decoratively like this.








Stacy, this pic's for you: an arbor of lavender and roses.










Mostly I'm posting rose garden pics because the rest of the zillion pics I took from the tour trolley. Hard to line up good shots from a moving vehicle.

Beadwork!

And catch-up time! Ah - a moment to breathe. And post. Kate's right, it's been a



while. Since I last posted, I've squeezed in some extra work in addition to the normal, gone to NC and back to tidewater, had my scoot fixed and ordered a door for the motorhome, and taken a week off to visit the 18th Century. That's another post, though. This one is to show you some of that beadwork I've been doing.








These are the sort of earrings I taught the class on.
And this is a set with a choker to match - my current favorite of my quill stuff.












I had these neat little black beads with white lines in them, like the back of a skunk. (I really like skunks.) It took 3 different bead stores to accumulate the rest of the beads. But that's normal - and that's why I can't get out of any bead store with all my money.
















I had a paisley pattern top I wore a lot and had no jewelry to go with - so I wore it to the bead store and matched the beads to the top. And discovered they go with darn near everything I own. There's a necklace, bracelet, earrings, anklet, and cell phone leash. Cell phone leashes are important jewelry - if you are totally dependent on your Treo like I am, you can't have it dropping off your waist at an inopportune moment.




I've had the large beads for this for ages. The tubes between them are peyote stitch.
















These are some bracelets, in various bead weaving stitches.




















And this is a terrible picture of my favorite set. I promise to shoot it with the good camera and replace this. Don't know if you can see it - that's a cat on the pendant, and the earrings are little cat heads. The oval beads have a pattern that looks like their tails.

One of the things I've been doing this summer instead of keeping the blog up to date is beading. Suddenly it seems that everywhere we're working, there are bead stores. I don't even want to think about how much money I've spent on beads.

This weekend, instead of taking classes, I got to teach one. I taught how to make porcupine quill earrings at All About Beads, in Virginia Beach. We had a lot of fun and everyone made very cool earrings.



Over the weekend, I stayed at Chesapeake Campground. It's a nice family campground with more fun to be had than I had time to have while I was there. This time I spent a lot of time walking and swimming and beading and doing laundry. I mention that exciting topic only because their pool is right next to the laundry and I could get very addicted to tossing the wash in the washer, hopping in the pool for half an hour, moving the wash into the dryer and hopping back in the pool. Next time I'm going to rent a canoe while I'm there. They also rent bicycles and have pony rides for kids on the weekends.

Instead of Blogging - I've been seeing the chiropractor, working, swimming (it's been HOT in Virginia), working, going to a family wedding (it was nice but I doubt you want to see the pics), working, modifying my cargo trailer, working, going to the many bead shops in the Tidewater area, working....
This week, after work and a third trip to the local bead shop, I went to Oak Grove Lake Park here in Chesapeake. I'd found it earlier in the week by making a wrong turn and decided to return and explore when I had more time.

It's a small lake - 2 miles around.
I know: I walked the walking path which circumnavigates the lake. No swimming, although it looks quite inviting. People fish there, and use radio controlled boats. Kids ride bikes. People walk. People run.

The walking path is wider than many West Virginia country roads and is sprinkled generously with rest stops








and fitness stops - the latter built by a Boy Scout troop.



It winds through the woods along the lake shore, then between the lake


and the highway, then on along the shore.

On this side of the lake, the walkway is lined with crepe myrtles courtesy of the PTA I believe.







All the rest stops had trash cans, and there was not much litter to detract from the scenery.



I was surprised to see billboards tied along the path to and from the parking lot, though. What's up with that?