As the beat goes on

My, where does the time go?  I can't believe that it's the end of February already.  Today Lawrence and Teresa have left for home and on Sunday Harry and Marian are heading to Millegeville for a visit with Liz before heading home.  We've been here two months and it feels like we just arrived.  Mark and Katrina arrive tomorrow for a visit with John and Grace which will be really nice for them.

It's been another good week filled with golf and enjoying what Myrtle Beach has to offer. We enjoyed a nice dinner together on Wednesday at the Gulfstream Cafe and had a happy hour yesterday at the Simonse's to wish them farewell.

One morning the seagulls were flying around in circles coming really close to the building which was quite unusual but it was fun to have the opportunity to photograph them.

We haven't had many really pretty sunrises as the weather was been unsettled.  The clouds though still offer lots of drama.  We did see a couple of thunderstorms as well this week.

Today we're golfing again (taking advantage of this beautiful sunshine).  Yesterday while golfing at Willbrook Plantation we saw a few alligators and one even walked across the cart path in front of the boys.  Yikes - I'm glad it was them and not me.

It's been another great month.  I am looking forward to enjoying our final week here and hope that the weather remains sunny.

Another week goes by

This week has flown by.  The first couple of days (Monday and Tuesday) we were out golfing with Lawrence and Teresa.  We golfed at Carolina National in North Carolina and at Burning Ridge near Conway.  We enjoyed both courses and had a lot of fun.  We have been having rain at night and sometimes during the day making the courses pretty wet.  In North Carolina the majority of holes were cart path only which was a little frustrating as we had called in advance to check to see what the condition of the course was like.  All in all though we had a fun game.  When we first started coming to Myrtle Beach, we enjoyed a round at Burning Ridge.  We had lots of laughs as we recounted how much our game has changed in 11 years.  The course was fun to play and we look forward to playing it again.   

At Carolina National, we expected to see a lot of birds since this course is certified by the Audubon Society as a bird sanctuary as it runs through the marsh and apparently many birds reside here.  We saw very few, and we suspect that this might be due to the overcast day.  It was interesting to see this boat tied up to some pine tree's that came down during Hurricane Florence,  Apparently no one has come forward to claim it.  The tree's that came down cracked the hull of the boat.

This past week most mornings have been overcast so there hasn't been many opportunities to photograph the sun coming up.  This sunrise was on Wednesday and it didn't last very long but it was pretty to see.

The last two days have been cold and yesterday it rained all day.  Today there was ice warnings on the weather station and we required warm clothing when going out.  The temperature was 31F when I woke up this morning.  Ralph an I both managed to get our walks in although we were both very bundled up.  After lunch we decided to go to Huntington Beach for a while.  We were surprised at how cold it was there thinking that we might be more sheltered in the Marsh.  We bumped into Harry and Marian and Lawrence and Teresa while we were there.  They went on a hike while Ralph and I stayed back and enjoyed the birds.  We were only there for about 30 minutes though as it was too cold to hold the camera steady.  It was still nice to be out and we got to enjoy seeing some new birds.  I believe the first two pictures are a Sandwich Tern.  I may be wrong, but it definitely is in the Tern family.

Who would have thought I would be excited by the weather?

The forecast for today was predicting some rain but nice warm temperatures.  The weather station indicated that we might reach record high temperatures.  Oh how exciting. I didn't expect much with respect to a sunrise as the forecast was for cloudy skies all day. When I woke up this morning and looked out of the window I was amazed at how much fog there was. I guess it makes sense that when the temperature above the ocean is warm, it will cause the fog to form.  

On the beach I could hear the gulls making their noises but I couldn't see them. Thats how thick the fog was.  By 7:00 a.m. I decided to head out and see what it looked like outside. It seemed that the fog might be lifting somewhat so I was curious to see how it would be captured with my camera.

By the time I came inside, Ralph was awake and ready to join me for a coffee.  We decided it would be nice to head out to the Pier so I could take some pictures and he would take his walk.  It was still quite foggy when we got there which I was pretty excited about.  Ralph left me by the Pier and I spent the next hour delighting in my hobby and also doing a little shelling as well.  I found another Sea Urchin which I can't wait to see as it is quite large.  It now out on my balcony drying so that the spines will fall off and the flies can eat the meat inside.  

Before lunch, I went out for a walk along the beach.  While I was out, Ralph spotted some dolphins in the water.;  He got a great shot of one of them.

After lunch, we decided to go to Huntington Beach for a while to photograph the birds and also hoped see a sunset.  While we were there, the weather changed significantly and we could tell that rain was on its way.  We were still able to spend some time enjoying the birds before heading to the condo for a relaxing evening.

As the time goes by

It's been a week since I updated my blog.  My it's been busy.  Last Thursday, early in the morning I slipped off the stair down by the beach and sprained my ankle.  As a result,  I was off my feet for 2 days icing it every couple of hours.  The swelling was pretty significant but the ice helped.  Ralph bought me a special brace to support my ankle to help with walking.

Since I wasn't able to be as active, it gave me an opportunity to work on some of my sunrise and beach photo's.  We have been so blessed with amazing skies.

We've played golf a fair bit these past couple of days with rounds being completed on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.  We have a tournament today.  After this I need to take a few days to rest my ankle as it was pretty swollen again when I woke up this morning.  With the weather being so nice, the alligators have started coming out to warm themselves as well.  We saw many of them at the Witch while playing there. We also saw quite a few turkeys.  Their colouring is beautiful.  Much prettier than the ones we have at home.

We enjoyed a really nice visit with Liz on Sunday.  We shared a potluck dinner at the Simonse's condo all together.  What a lovely evening we had.  As we were there, John noticed how red the moon was as it was coming up.  I raced back to our condo to try to capture it, but it came up so fast, it was a bit of a challenge.  I was better prepared on Monday but it wasn't half as beautiful as it was on Sunday evening.  I'm glad that we were able to see it all together that evening.  

The weather has been really nice this year with the temperatures averaging in the mid 60's to low 70's.  These are perfect days for walking and enjoying being outside. Today is starting off nice with a beautiful sunrise.  We're having a fantastic time.