Flying, Falling and Finding Myself

This painting is called "When Pigs Fly" by Michael Sowa. It's one of my favorite paintings because it reminds me of jumping off the pier in Deltaville as a kid.  There hasn't been much pier jumping in my adult years.  There's been some floating around on the creek, but adults just don't run and leap off a perfectly good dock.  

Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking, maybe what you might call soul searching.  It might even been considered something of a mid life crisis or some kind of AARP-membership-on-the-horizon-turning-50 meltdown.  Whatever you want to label it, I've been reflecting on life, choices I've made, choices I want to make, where I want to be and most importantly who I want to be.  Because somewhere along the line I completely misplaced the person that I was and that I was on the way to becoming. 

Fast forward to this Labor Day weekend.  I arrived in Deltaville in the evening on Thursday. 

I immediately walked to the pier.  The water was high, nearly touching the boards, and in that moment I wanted to run and leap off the end like I had all those years ago as a kid. But like I said, adults just don't run and leap off a perfectly good dock.

I stood there thinking about it- my heart wanting to and my mind telling me I'm too old and that it would be ridiculous. 

But something shifted in me.  I kicked off my shoes, removed my socks, emptied my pockets of my car keys and cell phone and ran and leaped off the end.  I savored the moment that I was flying even if only for a handful of seconds before plunging into the cool slightly salty water.  Going under, touching bottom and breaking the surface again I came up laughing (It sounds more graceful than it looked I'm certain).  

I jumped 3 more times half laughing half screaming while I flew over the water for about 3 seconds before gravity pulled me in and under.  

In those brief minutes of throwing myself off of the pier, I began remembering who I was supposed to be.  It was as if the creek water did the opposite of rebirth.  I wasn't emerging as something new, but rather something I always was and forgot about along the way.

I've remembered that I'm supposed to be the girl who laughs like a loon before running and leaping off a dock into a salty creek.

 

Long Time, No Blog

Today, I found myself wandering back to this little corner of the internet—my Deltaville blog—and realized something: it’s been four years since I last posted.

A lot has happened in those four years. Life shifted, priorities changed, and consistency—especially when it came to blogging—went out the window. I'll spare you the personal details (for now at least). Basically, I wasn’t making it to Deltaville as often as I used to. I didn’t mind skipping long holiday weekends on the water. I drifted from old blog friends and the routines that once brought me joy.

Truthfully, I was just… lost.

Anyway, I found my way back over here to the blog and started reading things I wrote a long time ago and somehow, like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes.  For the first time in a very long time, I wanted to write, I wanted to get back to photo excursions and I wanted my sanctuary back.

So, I’ve dusted off my gear—charged the camera batteries, unpacked the new tripod, and cracked open my old journals. The plan? To slowly ease back into photography and writing. Maybe I won’t say anything profound, but if I can entertain—or just feel a spark again—it’ll be worth it.

And for those of you out there feeling a little (or a lot) lost, don't lose faith.  Eventually you'll find your way back where you need to go.  

Anniversary

Hard to believe it's been nearly two years since I've written a post here.  It hasn't been from lack of Deltaville fodder, just a lack of time for sitting and writing.  But today I wanted to take a moment to celebrate an anniversary.

Ten years ago tonight, an F2 tornado touched down in Deltaville from Porpoise Cove Rd across Rt.33 down Jackson Farm Lane and across our little Jackson Acres community.  And I bet now you're questioning my choice of "celebrate".  Despite all the destruction the storm left in its path, not one person in Deltaville died. Not one person was missing. Not one person received an injury more severe than scrapes and scratches.  The same goes for pets. 

And in the days and weeks following the storm, the community came together. Those who were unaffected showed up and offered aid to those who were affected. Neighbors helped neighbors, people in nearby communities offered help to Deltaville.  

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is something to celebrate.

We've all had a doozy of a year.  

Between riots, injustices, politics and pandemics, it seems like people are quicker to point a finger than to offer a hand these days.  Despite that, I'm confident that when the chips are down, your neighbors (whether actual physical neighbors or not) will have your back.  

So instead of mourning the loss of property and the landscape, I'm going to choose to celebrate the miracles that happened 10 years ago.

God Bless Deltaville.

Here are the original posts about the tornado:

This is Not a Test
Miracle Monday
The Bright Side
Our House Not So Very Fine
Good Friday

Wordless on a Thursday

Projects

Now that the house has been saved, it's time for some long overdue projects.

The yard has always been a problem. 

Grass rarely grew there under the shade of all the trees.

Now that we've lost most of the trees, 

we finally have some grass growing.

However, there is a lot of erosion because of the lack of those trees.

It's just a never ending problem.

So, for our first project, my mom and I purchased some ornamental grasses 

to plant along side the relatively new steps down to the pier.

The steps help slow the flow of water,

and the grasses should help with additional erosion in the area once established. 

It wasn't all work, there was some goofing off.

Here I was channeling my inner Karate Kid.

I did this once when I was much younger on the taller pilings on the end of the pier.

I'm older and not as agile now.

I mean, even my dog Lucy was a little concerned.

The planting went a lot quicker and easier than we expected.

We got all 5 plants in the ground, put landscape fabric down, 

purchased mulch, ate lunch

and mulched in just a couple of hours.

For those interested, we have 2 different ornamental grass varieties.

One is a dwarf Maiden Grass that gets 3-4 feet tall and 3 ft wide

and the other is a dwarf Maiden Grass that is called Little Zebra and has the 

striped grass fronds. It gets 2-3 feet tall and wide. 

We were very pleased with the end result.

The grasses softened the steps,

and the mulch really polished it up.

Later we went out and purchased some solar lights to place in between the plants

and it really finished off the project perfectly.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent evening shot of the light.

There are some other outdoorsy projects we need to get to.

We have a plan for fixing some eroded areas

that include grass seed and a firepit. 

The Par-Tay

It's been a little over 2 weeks since we had our big shindig in Deltaville 

to celebrate saving the house.  

It's taken me two weeks to blog about it because 

it's taken me two weeks to recover from the party things have been busy. 

As with any good party on the water,

steamed crabs and beer were the top menu items.

We had family travel from several states to be there.

Some hadn't been to the house in several years.

Some go every year 

and some live there now.

Even the dogs partied. 

The kids all jumped in the creek 

and stayed there until dark

when I warned them that sharks feed at dusk.

Our cousins who live down the road brought over their paddleboard

that the kids got to try out.

Hard to believe this kid on the paddleboard 

was terrified of the water just a couple of years ago.

And there were some boat rides for the older kids.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

There was much discussion about family history and genealogy

and about returning soon to check out some of our ancestral property. 

Looking forward to spending a lot more time in Deltaville.

Do Fireworks Go Bad?

While at the house in Deltaville cleaning up and preparing for our party, I came across some fireworks that have been around for quite some time.  These particular explosives were a birthday present to one of my kids (seriously, why didn't I ever receive explosives as a gift??).  So the question was, do bottle rockets go bad?
I looked this up on the handy dandy internet and in short, no, there is no expiration date on fireworks.  However, there is a chance the humidity could make them a tad unstable.  So, we're going to get my dad the retired firefighter to set them off and see what happens.
Can't be worse than nearly blowing up a sailboat, or having a mortar fly straight for the audience, or have a firework fall and shoot inches from the truck hood.  I'm not admitting that happened before, just that those scenarios could be worse.

Bring on the explosives!