Okay, I have had it with winter.  This morning it was about 34 degrees Fahrenheit when I got up here in Bluewater Cove on the White Oak River.

Last year on the same day we woke up to 56 degrees Fahrenheit.  For anyone who has forgotten, at the time we thought last year's winter was pretty cold.  In fact three days later we had snow on the ground.

What is really getting to me is that because of the strong winds out of Canada, there is hardly any difference in the morning temperature all along the east coast.  All the way from Beaufort, NC to Halifax, Nova Scotia including Forked River, NJ and Boston, Massachusetts, you will only find a difference of one or two degrees in wake-up temperatures.

That friends is ridiculous. What is the good of living in the south if my morning temperature is the same as Fredericton, New Brunswick which is 1,236 miles north of Cape Carteret?  We both are sitting at 34 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Play all day and walk away.
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From the water this morning, I would say that the temperatures dipped to freezing last night.

There were just a few patches of slush on the water.  They disappeared quickly, which is no surprise since the temperatures are already up to 45F at 10 AM.

We are supposed to get into the low fifties.  I will take that temperature.  It is better than many places.

The skies are a very deep blue this morning.  That probably has something to do with the extensive low pressure system moving on through Canada.  Back to the west of us, Boone is still at 25F, but to the north of us, Fredericton, New Brunswick is at 34F.

This is just a weird weather year.  I would not be surprised to see another snow storm here on the coast.  Fortunately there is no sign of one today.  The winds have died down so we would be out hiking today except I am all booked up to show property.

A week from Monday here on the coast we should see temperatures in the mid-sixties.  That is getting to the point that we can start enjoying the water a little.  It cannot get here fast enough.

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Considering my NJ friend told me that the winds at his home sound like a freight train, I think a complaint about this morning's stiff breeze might sound a little wimpy.

It was a nippy walk out to get the morning's paper, but the sky is a beautiful blue and the sun is shining brightly. The small cattail surrounded pond next door to us did have a skim of ice on it this morning, but it must be fished out since the herons are ignoring it.

I was happy to hear that this latest storm missed Washingotn, DC,  Those poor folks are finally starting to see some results from digging out of their historic winter.  On top of that I have heard their cherry trees have had a tough winter.

New England on the other hand, with the exception of my old boss, has been complaining about the lack of snow.  Likely this week's weather has resolved that problem to at at least a few people's satisfaction.  read more »

What a difference a day makes.  This week we have enjoyed some warm temperatures. It is actually been nice enough to start dreaming about going fishing.  Yesterday I even dropped the skiff in the water and ran the motor for a few minutes.

That was the first time this winter that I can remember doing that without wearing a coat.  Even then the nice weather was beginning to change and had a little edge to it with a cool breeze trying to erase the memories of Tuesday's warmth.

I guess I should not complain.  At 8:30 AM we are almost to forty degrees Fahrenheit and the precipitation seems to be gone.  My friend in New Jersey is bracing for what they are calling the Snowicane.

I did see that we might get some higher tides today.  And this morning the water in Raymond's Gut is behind the marsh grasses for the first time in several weeks.

The wind has also picked up so I suspect we will see the breezy forecast fulfilled.  I would like the sunny part of the forecast to happen as soon as possible.  Like everyone, I am ready for this winter to end.

The cloudy skies and wet weather have returned.  Fortunately the warm air hung around long enough to let us have a nice visit to the beach yesterday afternoon.

It was a busy day with a trip to Morehead City to visit Staples and Walmart, but as the day was winding down, we decided to go chasing sunsets.

As we drove down Highway 58, I thought about driving down to the Croatan Trails and taking a picture of the sun setting with Swansboro in the background.  Just before the turn, I decided to gamble on catching the last rays of the sun on the beach.

We headed to the oceanfront listing that I have on Heverly Drive in Emerald Drive.  We happened to run into the owner who was working on the front yard, but we still managed to make it to the beach before the sun disappeared.  Today's picture came from the boardwalk over the dunes behind the home.
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I know this is not the end of winter, but I think yesterday might have mortally wounded the old man.  It might take a while for him to disappear, but we have seen spring and any return to winter will not drive the memory of yesterday's warmth away.

It was just a great Sunday. By the time we headed to church at Cape Carteret Presbyterian, I knew we were going to have a beautiful day.  As we walked back to car after the service, it felt like spring.


After lunch, we celebrated our first day with the temperature reaching to sixty by trimming our roses and hauling the waste to the trash transfer point.  It was like grand central station with pickup trucks.  Everyone was hauling yard waste.  We even saw my colleague, Ed from the real estate office, backed up to the bulk container.
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Today went by in a flash.  I was out with clients all day.  My wife joined me for the last showing of the day at around 5 PM and once my last client was on the road, we headed home. It was then we both decided that some fried flounder would taste mighty good and be a fitting ending for such a nice day.

Our experiences with the T&W Oyster House have been particularly great since Earl has come back.   T&W is also practically on our doorstep so once the decision was made to go flounder hunting, we headed up Highway 58 to T&W.  We got there just a few minutes after 5 PM.  They were already busy.  We were very surprised by the large early crowd.

Fortunately T&Ws is a huge place so we did not have to wait for a table.  We did end up in the last of the great dining rooms which have cedar posts supporting their ceilings. 

That we ended in the last room was a testament to the rapidly filling dining rooms.  We placed our orders not long after getting our iced tea.  My wife got a senior flounder fillet.  I got a combo of flounders and fried oysters which I shared with her.
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Being here on the Crystal Coast yesterda was a real treat after our week in Roanoke, Va .  It was the first time since leaving the coast on February 11, that we had been outside and seen temperatures above freezing.


Just going about daily chores in yesterday's warmth was much more pleasurable than when we were up in the mountains and surrounded by snow.  We ended up in Morehead City late in the day and decided to drive back down the beach.


This time of year, it is a challenge to follow 58 down the beach to Emerald Isle.  The sun is almost perfectly aligned with the road.  You have to use your visor and sun glasses to stay on the road.  We made a couple of stops for pictures and a last stop at the Food Lion at Emerald Plantation.


By the time we got out of the Foold Lion, the sun was dropping quickly.  I made a decision to head to Clyde Phillips to capture a sunset surrounded by shrimp boats.  Then just as we turned on Highway 24, I got behind two vehicles driving side by side at 35 MPH.  Needless to say, the slight delay coast me my sunset photo.  read more »

It happened this past weekend.  It really snowed on the Crystal Coast.  I think it is safe to say that many places got six inches.  Some got more and a few received less.

In Bluewater Cove I think the total was right in line with the four to six inches. At least that looks like what was on my boat.

Last night I talked to some Canadian friends who were unsympathetic to our snow plight.  Knowing first hand how much snow Canadians have to shovel, I can appreciate their position.

However, this morning I read an article on Accuweather that showed a blocking high sitting over eastern Canada. That is what is driving the cold air towards the south.  The result is that our temperatures are much colder than normal.

This morning I was thinking of retaliatory moves, but I know that "normal" weather patterns are bound to resume eventually.  read more »

Yesterday with its blue skies and relatively warm temperature was a good day to run some errands.  I had promised a client that I would visit a subdivision in the Beaufort area and give him an opinion on the water access.

After lunch we headed off from Bluewater Cove to Beaufort.  It is a relatively short drive which takes 35 minutes or so unless we get caught by the drawbridge in Beaufort which adds five minutes.

As long as it is not raining, we always stop and take a walk on the boardwalk.  Yesterday it was very empty with just a few people.
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There is frost on the truck windows this morning, and a light skim of ice on the water from our dock out towards the river.  From the backside of the dock to the end of the gut, it is mostly clear because of the warm spring waters.

I got a note from a friend last night.  He lives in Blacksburg, Va. and was saying how tired he is of all the snow.  He closed his note with a question asking how much snow we have?

That was an easy question to answer since we have none.  I did tell him that we should be due another "coastal snow storm" sometime in the next five years based on the last two being six years apart and our last one being January of 2009.

Those answers are probably not what he wanted to hear as he walked his dog this morning on a windy Blacksburg morning.

Here on the coast are seeing colder than normal weather, but at least we get up into the forties or fifties each day. When you wear sneakers without socks and the lightest fleece that Lands End makes, you cannot complain very much about winter.
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Last night we got pictures from my daughter of snow in Northern Virginia.  My wife and I were talking about them at the table this morning.  She sort of felt left out by not being there for the storm.  Personally I did not miss shoveling all that snow.  I might have suggested that how much shoveling you do has something to do with how you might miss a storm.

As I walked to the end of the driveway to get the newspaper this morning, I thought the north winds had a special bite to them.  Perhaps blowing across 3 feet of fresh snow adds something to the cold.

I know that having that much snow to the west and north of us will make spring a little later this year.  Already the area farmers are talking about the wet weather preventing them from getting their onions and potatoes in the ground.

My tomato planting is about seven weeks away, so there is time for things to dry up before then. 
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It has been a long winter for water birds.  There was a time in January when the quiet water around Bluewater Cove was frozen for almost two weeks.

We have had only a few really sunny days like Wednesday of this past week.  Mostly we have had to endure rain which would be okay except all that freshwater drives the saltwater fish to the sounds where the winds are worse.

Maps at Water.Gov show Carteret County has seen ten inches of rain since the first of the year.  That comes on top of the 35 inches of rain that came this fall.  Forty five inches of rain in four months is a lot of rain even for water birds.

Last night it rained so hard that it sounded like houses were being pressure washed.  We had some nice temperatures.  The mercury even got up to 61F before falling to 39F this morning, just eight hours later.  read more »

Today is a day to be thankful for a home on the Crystal Coast.  Our neighbors to the north and west of us are once again getting snow.

The picture in the post comes from Roanoke, Va. and was taken just before noon today.  Roanoke is on the line between the heavy snow and the really heavy snow.  By this time tomorrow they could have anywhere between six inches and over a foot.

I have had a number of calls from relatives and friends in North Carolina.  It appears that the area of state south of Interstate 40 is getting rain at least as far west as Interstate 77.  The area north of Interstate 40, east of Interstate 77, and west of Winston-Salem had four or five inches of snow this morning, but the snow had changed to rain and freezing rain just before 10 AM this morning.
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I think I am a little like the rest of the folks on the east coast of North America.  This cold weather is getting a little old.  All the stories about below average temperatures are not helping.  The pictures of the ice and snow to the west of here are depressing at best.

We had a few minutes extra yesterday afternoon, so we headed across the bridge to Emerald Isle.  A friend in Atlanta had sent us a picture of a beach house which he thought might be interesting.  I wanted to track it down and see the actual location.  As I suspected because of its address, the driveway was on Emerald Drive.
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Given how cold yesterday was, I was not surprised to awaken to some ice on the water behind our home.  The water is part of Raymond's Gut which flows into the White Oak River.

A gut is a narrow passage or waterway according to the dictionary, but to us it is our watery road to the river. 

During warmer times it is a nursery for an amazing amount of aquatic life.  In the winter we have herons and pelicans who come to feed on the small fish.  When the gut is frozen they have to find other feeding grounds.

The freezing pattern on the gut this morning is more typical of freezes we have seen in other winters.  It is completely different from the pattern we saw during the serious early January freeze which lasted for several days.

When we have a serious freeze, the warm spots where the springs enter the gut freeze over instead of staying open like they did last night.  read more »