Upcoming Show Schedule

     I'm never sure where the time goes but I see by my previous post it's been a while since I made one. So much for making promises and keeping them. This is why I gave up on making New Year's resolutions years ago. In fact, the only one I ever kept was to never make another one.
     All this aside, I do have a few shows coming up, not as many as other years but I still need to keep the exposure up for my work. So, following is a partial list of where I'll be and when:

July 18-20, 2014 : Yarmouth Clam Festival Art Show on the Merrill Library Lawn, Yarmouth, ME.
July 23-27, 2014 : North Haverhill Fair, Grafton County, North Haverhill, NH
Aug 9-10, 2014 :  Village Shops & Town Green Fair, Lincoln, NH
Aug 23-24, 2014 : Lakes region 35th Annual Fine Arts and Craft Festival, Meredith, NH
Sept 6-7, 2014 : Fall Apple County Craft Fair, St Peter's Episcopal Church, Londonderry, NH

   
There are more dates pending but I hope this sneak peak will get your artistic juices flowing. And I truly hope I'll see some of you at one of these events.

Saying Goodbye

This is just a notice to all friends and family who didn’t receive any post cards from Carl and I during the month we’ve been camp hosting here in MD. I don’t want you to feel left out. We didn’t send any cards to anyone so, you see, I didn’t forget you. And now it’s time to say farewell to all the things we love about Assateague. Goodbye to the Decatur Diner with all of it’s menu items which are large enough to serve two, each entrée with home made potato chips. And goodbye to the Dumser’s Ice Cream Stand where they make 15 flavors on site, each even tastier than the one previously enjoyed. And goodbye to countless pizza places, all making thin crust pies and some even fired in real brick ovens. I must say goodbye to the dozens of White Tail and Sika Deer who have given us hours of pleasure as we’ve watched them browse throughout the campground. A fond farewell to the hundreds of rabbits hopping in and out of the bushes along the sides of the road, some have even played tag with our golf cart.

It’s been a pleasure to spend an entire month in one location. We can comfortably find the locations of    Laundromats, barbers, liquor stores, the tastiest restaurants, seafood markets and even the local Wal-Mart. Gas stations, Arby’s, RV Repair shops and a dozen or so “Sun-sation” locations where they sell super cheap souvenirs of Ocean City made in China and even cheaper made tee-shirts made in Sri Lanka or Pakistan are now common stops. We haven’t left yet and I’m already looking ahead to when we can return.

Sadly, this means I also have to say goodbye to the resident bands of horses we’ve had the pleasure to observe during the month. There’s the chestnut stallion and his 3 mares that call the Bayside campground  and surrounding marsh home. We’ve also watched a beautiful sorrel stallion, 2 chestnut mares, 1 bay mare and one of my favorite brown and white pinto mares, with a waving flag on her left side, who roam near the Over Sand Vehicle Path at the end of the paved roads. It’s been fun to keep our eye on a solitary bay stallion trying to stay out of trouble while actually squatting on the border belonging to the two dominant stallions and their mares. In time, he’ll mature, steal a mare or two and fight to carve out a piece of the island to call his own. A small territory near the ranger’s station has been claimed by a chestnut stallion and mare. The marshy area that includes the state park campground is grazed by a bay and white pinto stallion with a map of Georgia on his left side, 3 chestnut mares and that darling 5 month old tri colored filly. If it were possible, I would have followed her all day long. I’m really looking forward to watching her as she matures. And finally, grazing rights just before the Verrazano Bridge belong to a beautiful chestnut stallion, a brown and white mare and a white and brown two year old. Last year we watched this same youngster sitting like a puppy dog while the rest of the band munched on marsh grass in the afternoon sunlight.

And last but by no means least, we have to say so long to the staff of Assateague Island National Seashore Park Rangers who were very tolerant of us beginners. We hope to see you next year, Dick, Ethan, Mike and Cari. Gee, I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.

Things We Did

Lists Of Things We Did This Week: Chased campers off their sites after checkout time, reminded campers to watch their fires during high winds, Insisted campers go register, told campers to restrict tents to the proper number per site-3, warned campers about improper storage of food and how destructive horses can be, informed campers these horses are still wild in spite their being more or less tolerant of our presence, yelled at idiots to roll up their vehicle windows while horses are attempting to reach in to search for food, policed the roadways convincing motorists to pull out of the lane of travel while snapping photos of wild horses, collected abandoned firewood from vacant sites in hopes we will have at least one campfire before we go home, laundry and dishes as needed, dug a few mussels to have with our stuffed shells and contributed to the dietary needs of the Rangers by leaving them a ½ pound of Harman’s Really Aged Cheddar and a stick of Ridgeway Venison Sausage with Jalapeño and Cheddar. They enjoyed the gesture and I’m hoping for a few more mail order customers.

Things We Didn’t Do This Week: Kayak around the island due to high winds, have 2 consecutive days without rain, fish because the water temperature is still too cold, travel over the sand to the VA line and have that camp fire to roast hot dogs ( the only thing I’ve really wanted to do.)

Campground Life

April 18, 2014

On Thursday, we had the morning shift for both campgrounds. Our golf cart allows us to travel easily through all three loops of Bayside and two loops of Oceanside. What it doesn’t do is help us to patrol the 60 plus walk in sites sprinkled throughout the dunes. That takes endurance and a good sense of direction which is where Carl and I make a pretty good team. His endurance walking in deep sand and my general ability to read a map kept up heading in the right direction. Carl thought since we were headed out there to make sure certain sites had been vacated, we should check on people and their sites in general. This made us late for turning our morning paperwork over to the noon shift and the exertion in the sand cause my blood sugar to plummet.

Today there was a bit of excitement in Bayside Campground. Some of you may have heard about “bear jams” in Yellowstone and other National Parks. We are subject to “horse jams” here at Assateague. All it takes is 4 horses grazing and a few people in cars to notice. Before we knew it, we had about 15 cars parked all over the place, people getting way too close and horses mooching from picnic tables where families were having lunch just moments earlier. Carl headed out to help with people control while I went in a different direction to answer questions, get cars off the grass and keep my eye on the feisty stallion and his mares. I even had to order a guy to roll up his windows because one of the horses was checking out his seat cushions. Or perhaps he was looking for an afternoon snack. Eventually the horses drifted out into the marsh and the crowd slowly broke up. All that’s left now is a bit of excitement between us camp hosts.

The photo is of Bottle Trees taken on the way to Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge.

Decisions

Today, the big decision ended up being what we were planning for our days off on Monday and Tuesday. Being so close to Washington, DC during Cherry Blossom time is tantalizing but the weather forecast for Tuesday is dismal not to mention the prospect of driving three hours to find no parking spot available. There’s that inherent difficulty in getting around a city full of one way streets crawling with thousands of tourists who also don’t have a clue where they are headed. And then the three hour drive home.

Our other option is to take a drive to the VA end of the island to visit the Chincoteague half of the herd. Recently the volunteer fire department held their annual spring round up to collect the horses who have had free range of the entire Virginia end of the island for the winter. The round up allows for a wellness check, inoculations and a head count of foals born during the nine months since the Pony Penning Days held in July. Perhaps we’ll be fortunate to see some of those foals although any horses seen are a plus.

Mother Nature Holds All The Cards

Why does the weatherman always get it right when I need better light for my photos?  Those of you who have followed my blogs know the weather always seems to work against us. During our epic 24 state trip to Alaska, we were plagued with rain at several stops. People in Texas were begging us to head their way and give them relief from their drought conditions. And this assignment has been no different with the worst of the weather on our days off.

Our Monday decision was to head to Chincoteague in Virginia because our blue sky morning was not going to last. Hindsight is 20/20 and we should have chosen Washington DC and Cherry Blossoms. From everything I’ve read, they were at peak. I guess my decision making process needs a review.

We have never seen many horses when we visit the home of Marguerite Henry’s classic, Misty and Monday was no exception. There were about 15 horses in the distance, to far for my lens, grazing on the marsh grass. We only saw one mare up close on the walking path around the swan pool. It is our belief she either escaped the Spring Roundup or wasn’t included because of her apparent age.

In either case, we did have one bright spot. The Assateague Light, resplendent with a fresh coat of paint, was a jewel sitting high above the sandy shoreline on it’s promontory. The classic wide red and white bands showed no stress and the ironworks around the now electrified navigational aid appeared pristine. The lighthouse stands 142 feet tall, is owned by Fish and Wildlife but maintained by Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge, and can be seen 19 miles out to sea.

Eureka!

After three days of morning, afternoon and evening foal patrols, we finally found her this evening. And believe me when I say the wait was worth it. She is an absolute cutie. She was born the later part of December, late by anyone’s timetable, into the marsh band we spent so much time observing last April. Her sire is an impressive Tobiano dark brown and white Pinto with my perception of what a “map of Georgia” might look like on his left side, 4 black leggings and a mixed mane and tail. Her dam is a solid chestnut with white socks although the thick marsh mud makes it difficult to tell for sure. The filly is a complete mixture, dark brown on her front quarter, chestnut on her rear with an irregular white band around her middle. Her mane will eventually be black and white while the stubby paddle which serves as her tail will be brown and black. Now, I just need to find out what her name is.

Most of our meals are fixed at the camper but we have gone out to eat twice. Without turning this into a food blog, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention both places. Last week we stopped at J & J’s Oven Fired Pizza on Rte 113 in Berlin, MD which was pretty good. I consider myself somewhat of a pizza aficionado and am fond of saying there is no such thing as bad pizza. I have been proven wrong from time to time but if you get a chance to eat at J & J’s, you wont be sorry. Today’s lunch was at the Decatur Diner on Rte 611 in Berlin, MD. I enjoyed a huge Chicken BLT served on a pretzel roll and home made potato chips while Carl enjoyed a Cheddar Bacon Burger with hand cut French Fries. We came away from the Diner completely filled for around $20.00 which included a soft drink.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for almost two weeks and are still finding new things to observe each day. Both Carl and I have noticed in those two weeks how quickly the grass is greening and every day there are new flowering shrubs erupting in color. A few days ago it was the forsythia and today these trees loaded with white blossoms are everywhere. I just don’t recognize the variety. Help, anyone?

We are consistently seeing 21 horses, many recognizable from the last time we were here. What is a bit surprising to me is the loose family structure currently defining the bands. Stallions are allowing their harem mares a much wider latitude, members of bands are mixing and grazing territories are not as clearly defined as they were in August. I did expect to find the two year old stallions who are too old to stay with their dams but not old enough to establish their own bands out roaming on their own. There are many horses we have yet to find reinforcing the apparent need for full waders or a 4 wheel drive over sand vehicle to reach most of the terrain. We are working on this.