Building the sand castle complex

Sand castle building at the beach on Assateague National Seashore across from Chincoteague.

A view of the tunnel entrance from the guard walls.

Through the tunnel to the courtyard.

Mortaring a wall.

Another entrance.

Assateague light house panoramas

Slightly offset.

Kite flying on the beach at Assateague

I actually thought it would be too windy to fly kites yesterday, but it worked out. At first we were working to keep them up, then we noticed that it was so windy nothing was going to stop them.

Lynn and Linus realized they needed a whole lot less effort.

Assateague Light House

No trip to the Atlantic coast, or anywhere with shore or lake line, is complete without light house visits. Assateague light house was recently reprinted and is still in use, though you can visit and climb to the top.

175 steps gets you away from the marauding mosquitos at the bottom. From the top are views of Assateague, Chicoteague and Wallops island.

We couldn't go up to the light because it is a working light. Two beams with electric lights point out and rotate. No fresnel lens or whale oil anymore.

Wildlife at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Even at the visitor center there is wildlife at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. This black rat snake was in our path.

There was a frolicking family of Delmarva fox squirrels playing among the trees. Lynn noticed that these squirrels do look different from the common grey squirrel that we see all the time. Especially the faces and ears are different and also the coat color. She described them as alternate world versions of the squirrels we see everyday, subtly but noticeably different.

Delmarva fox squirrels are an endangered species that used to live all throughout the peninsula but slowly disappeared as the forests did, they are making a comeback and might be taken off of the endangered species list.



I had some good conversations with the park rangers about these sightings.

Butterfly enjoying a petunia

Which side do my tie stripes go?

Apparently it does matter which direction the tie stripes go only repp tie, according to this informational plaque at the Downton Abbey exhibit at Wintherthur.

I will need to check.

Lego balloon seller

Linus put this together with only some following the instructions help.

My favorite part is the helium tanks.

Snake on the driveway

I scared it away getting the picture. I'll film next time. Or burst.

Sunflower seeds planted

I planted these seeds on Saturday, June 7th. The packages say they germinate in 7-14 days, but I just got word that some of them have already sprung from the ground.



You will note on the packages that one type gets to four feet tall and the other gets to twelve feet tall. I planted

lots of these, let's see what happens.

Peonies again

These peonies smell as good as ever.

There were moved twice early this season in the redesign of the perennial beds.

I think that means we lost some blooms, but these made it through pretty well.

Tradescantia Blooming

Just when you think a flower has washed away in the floods, or burned away in the droughts, or withered due to benighted neglect, they come back. These always seemed to be sat on by groundhogs or bunnies.

These pretty tradescantia are blooming and have grown from seeds scattered by their predecessors. The blueness and purple makes them some of my favorites.

Tradescantia blooming is the second in my trilogy of flower themed mystery novels.

Dead vole or mole evidence?

This dead vole or mole in my lawn provides pretty conclusive evidence that they late making the tunnels in my front yard.

I often see them scurry away when we walk out there and this us the first dead one I have seen. I did not kill it, and it got a water burial in the creek after documentation.

I suspect that these may be moles because of the mole-like face and mole-like front claws, though it is still hard to tell.  Voles look more like mice.  Comments?

My happy omelette on Saturday