None one who lives at the beach is surprised when they hear that some sand has moved.  It happens on the beach.  Even some roads here get sand covered.  We plow sand here at the beach like folks plow snow up North.

Still the story of the Point at Emerald Isle is an amazing story even to those of us accustomed to sand moving.

In late October, 2007, a little over a year after we moved here to the Southern Outer Banks, I decided that I would get a beach driving permit.  It did not take long to get one from the folks in Emerald Isle. Right after we got it we headed down Coast Guard Road to the Point area which as a wintertime beach access for vehicles.

We were surprised with what we saw, but first I will give you some background information on the Point.

I have a little direct history myself with the Point.  I first visited it in the summer of 1969 as a college student.  My Uncle Austin and I drove down Bogue Banks from Morehead City.  Most of our drive was along the beaches since there were no roads on the Western end of the Point.
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It is March here on the Crystal Coast and the winds that herald the changing of the seasons have arrived.  While wind on North Carolina's coast is not uncommon, the wind is rarely as persistent as the wind that we used to endure on Nova Scotia's coast.

However, even the spring winds here in North Carolina do not give up easily.

Predicting the winds is about as easy as predicting the weather.  For over twenty years we had a home on a mountainside in Roanoke, Virginia and we got some serious wind there.  A gust of wind hit the front of our home late one night and a window got blown into the room of our youngest daughter. It certainly shocked her and made sleeping in her room during roaring winds a little bit of a challenge for a while.
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As we work our way through the last parts of winter, sometimes blue sky can become a scarce commodity.  You might find it reflected in the water  early in the morning and then clouds make it disappear by the time you finish a walk around the neighborhood.

The cold weather and lack of blue sky can easily send me off to dreams about summer, warm water, and beautiful puffy white clouds in the skies.  There are times when a brush with winter means that the skies are blue and sunny and I can deal with the cold much more easily then.
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February 9, 2013 will be frozen into the memories of many folks along the east coast. Nemo, the blizzard/nor’easter/storm, will not be easy to forget   I’m happy to be living in Carteret County, North Carolina where snow does not make a lot of appearances.

I have paid my dues when it comes to snow.  My wife, Glenda, and I lived in Atlantic Canada for sixteen years. I remember one storm of over three feet when it took me most of the morning to blow a quarter mile path to our nearest barn.  That might sound about right, but I was using a 100 PTO HP tractor and an eight foot wide dual auger snow blower.  It took me the rest of the day to get to our cattle.  

It was one of many adventures which came from living in a Canadian snow belt.  You know it is bad when you live in area famous for snow in country where most think it snows year round. 

It was very different. The snow plows did not even get on the road unless we had more than six inches of snow.  The first year I kept track of the snow.  We had twenty-three feet.  There were times when our fields had over six feet of snow on them. 
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I love to walk.  That explains why I live in a great place for walking.  Being able to walk out our door and go for a nice easy walk was one of the reasons that we chose Carteret County as a place to live.  We used to live on a mountain.  Walking was something you really had to want to do.  It helped to have a big dog that needed to be walked a lot.

Now that we live near the coast, walking has become a passion with me.  I try to go on a couple of walks every day.  However, I am a sunshine or fair weather walker.  I do not mind cold as long as the sun is shining which it does a lot here along the Southern Outer Banks.  However, mix in some clouds and fog and I would rather stay in the house and work.
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After a series of days when the low temperature struggled to get below sixty degrees Fahrenheit, it takes a little adjustment to walk outside and find the thermometer reading 30F.

It is the nature of weather that we take whatever we have whether it is warm December waters or frost on the kayak and in the marshes.

I enjoyed my morning walk the first day we saw frost after our mild streak in December.  Still I had to remind myself that the sparkle on the boardwalk was slippery frost. Looking up at the wrong time could easily turn me into a meal for the crabs.  read more »

It is hard to believe that just a month ago I was writing about a fall that looked like it was going to be colder than normal.  While we have had some frost, our weather has been exceptional for the last few weeks.  November has been very nice and this is a great start for December.

Just like the first week December 2011, the weather has been so warm that I have been forced to go back to shorts.  I was kayaking in the middle of the river today and it was pleasant enough that I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.  Considering the water temperature is in the fifties, the air temperature had to be cooperating.  read more »