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Dried citronella leaves on the porch + an overcast summer day in Currituck, NC = a beautiful wabi-sabi still life photo…

Winter Storm Leon drops a record 8″ of snow on Waterlily in Coinjock, Currituck Outer Banks, North Carolina.

Looking at this warm Currituck Sound sunset from the other day, it’s hard to imagine that tonight it will be 18° and snowing in OBX!

36° 26′ 40″ N   75° 50′ 36″ W

The other week I shot this newly renovated beach cottage up in remote Carova’s Swan Beach. It’s a 5 bedroom, 5 bath, ocean front home with numerous decks, a gourmet kitchen, swimming pool and hot tub, and loads of other amenities. Located in a very private area, which is also home to Corolla, North Carolina’s famous wild Spanish Mustangs, you need a 4×4 just to get to it — which makes it even better for a quality-time getaway with family and friends. If you’re in the market for an amazing summer rental, check this place out!  

Disclaimer: Sorry folks, the tequila’s not include.

Facebook: ‘Lightly Salted’

www.CarovaCottages.com

36° 31′ 54.3″ N 76° 11′ 3.9″ W

Just south of the Virginian border along Rt. 168 in North Carolina (the Sweet Potato state), is a town called Moyock.

In 1785, Reverend Thomas Coke wrote that he had preached in Mowyock, according to the late local historian Marion Fiske Welch. Coke was pretty close to spelling the town’s name as locals pronounce it, Mo-yock. But like most people who are not familiar with the area, I originally pronounced it Moi-yock. “They tell on themselves,” said another historian and native of Currituck County’s largest community. Like many Currituck County names, Moyock comes from an Algonquin Indian word meaning “Place of the Oaks by the Trail” and it may have appeared on a map as early as 1735.

Moyock began as a commercial hub starting about 300 years ago, when an industry in cypress shingles thrived along a creek there. For decades, the place was known as Shingle Landing. When a post office opened there in 1857, the official name returned to Moyock, Welch wrote in Moyock, A Pictorial and Folk History, 1900-1920.

These days, though Moyock is a thriving business district and the gateway for travelers headed to the remote Outer Banks, you can still see some great remnants of the past…

Check out some of my recent images shot at Moyock Muscle where they restore classic cars and trucks of all kinds. You can bring in your own vehicle or pick out one from the many available in their lot. I found my dream truck; Tim found several—maybe yours is here too?

Reference: article by Jeff Hampton/The Virginian-Pilot

36° 22′ 50″ N   75° 55′ 10″ W

If you live on the East Coast of the US then you are abundantly aware of just how much rain we’ve had recently. Along with the abundance of rain has come an abundance of mosquitoes, humidity and very grey, dreary days. The other afternoon I’d had it with being trapped indoors and ventured out to run a few errands. The rain turned to a drizzle just long enough for me to capture a few shots of what looked to be little gnome-style villages — so weirdly beautiful, the different sizes, shapes and details of these toadstools. It reminds me of a story from a few years back…

When I lived in the city, my weekend escape was to my home up in the country in the western Catskills. The previous owners were landscape architects who had created an amazing garden on the property. It was a challenge for me to maintain but I loved it! I grew many epicurean delights. My friends and I enjoyed them at their peak of ripeness and again months later as preserves — dill pickles, sweet pickles, pickled hot peppers, tomato sauce, brussels sprouts, strawberries, grape jam, hot pepper jelly.

Not far down a nearby country road was a little store that sold oil paintings, jewelry, crystals and arrowheads. The owners were an older couple originally from Spain. The gentleman, who was (very, very) small with white hair, had a sweet, friendly personality. He told me stories about growing up in Spain and hunting for wild mushrooms in the foothills of the forest. He also told me about the gnomes that he’d caught glimpses of sometimes while he was scouring the landscape in the quiet, early hours of dawn. He had a true love and connection with the land. He missed Spain but said the surrounding area reminded him a lot of “home” and that’s why they’d settled down there. When he felt up to it, he still went out into the forest to see whom he could see… Naturally, he sold ceramic garden gnomes as well in his shoppe (ironically the owner looked a lot like a gnome himself) and the day he told me this story I bought one as a memento. I believe my Gnoman’s watchful, welcoming presence had significance in the deliciousness that sprang from my garden there after his arrival.

….

When I returned home from my excursion the other day, I went out back to check on what’s left of my struggling, late-summer, mini garden of 3 tomato plants and 1 green pepper plant that had been all but destroyed by Hurricane Irene. And to my surprise I found a troop of mushrooms growing all around my plants that were, almost magically, again starting to blossom.

My special thanks to the gnomes.

36° 22′ 55″ N   75° 56′ 06″ W

I am so excited to share with you my first blog post. Our recent move to the rural outskirts of the Outer Banks of North Carolina has been an interesting transition. To say it’s quiet here is an understatement. It is a far cry from my Margaretville days on the Gulf of Mexico or either of my previous lives in NYC or Delaware. The serenity and beauty here are something to behold. It is truly spectacular in a way that is distinct to anything I have seen before. The summer has been HOT – I am looking forward to the break of fall to explore beyond the tourist beaches. As the days get cooler and quieter, looking for new and exciting things to do that will put a would-be explorer in touch with the pulse of what’s happening locally is definitely a part of the game plan.

My boyfriend, Tim, and I live in a town called Coinjock (allegedly an Indian word meaning “Place of the Blueberry Swamps”), which covers a small area just north and south the Intracoastal Waterway off Rt. 158, the road headed to the beach. There is no town center here – no “Main Street” – just a small post office, but what the area does offer is full of rich history and local flavor. There are few other newcomers like us but mostly generations of families that live here, which we are slowly getting to know. They are always polite and friendly in a wave-to-you-from-the-porch kind of way and yet keep to themselves at the same time.

Technically, we live out on an island named Waterlily, or as it’s been locally coined “Church’s Island”. Waterlily sits between The Currituck (an Algonquian Indian term meaning “Land of the Wild Goose”) Sound and the Coinjock Bay. As Carl, one of our neighbors, aptly described it – “This is God’s Country”. And while it’s beauty speaks to just that sentiment, my guess is the island’s nickname came from the couple dozen cemeteries that are scattered along this 7 mile strip. Truthfully no one really knows.

There is a restaurant, The Coinjock Marina, just one mile off the main road that entertains the locals and the super yachters alike. They serve up great food, live music and relaxing views of the water, and they make one hell of a Bloody Mary. There is a canal they call “The Ditch” that runs up through the salt marsh to the sound where the brackish waters make for outstanding fishing for striped bass, flounder, red drum and spotted seatrout. There are shrimpers, crabbers, pleasure boaters and hunters; it is the birthplace of the Currituck Skiff – the water is a way of life here. But there are also farmers, Eagles and Scuppernong grapes. We are told there are even black bear and though we have not personally seen any yet the pears from the tree in our backyard disappear as promptly as they’re ripe; the Meyer’s lemon tree we “imported” from Florida remains untouched. Hmmm.

While I’m sure I will post many images from the area over the course of time, today I thought I’d show you a few shots from around the “neighborhood”…

Welcome to Waterlily.