My new bodyboard/ boogieboard

I guess I was happier this summer than the last summer. I got everything new. Besides getting new bathing suit, new leather flip flop, I bought the new blue, 37" boogieboard from Walmart. I love it. To me it was borned on July 23, '10.

The hard slick on the bottom surface is to resist waterlog from avoiding the bodyboard from becoming heavy. Now my beach gear completed and need to test how good it performs in the water.

And detachable wrist leash to keep board close to body

We decided to go to the beach in the evening because we were expecting big waves when high tide coming in. The wind was blowing strongly when I packed the stuff in the truck and almost blew my surfboard away when I try to snap some pictures. This time I styled my hair pigtail braids.

 

The wind speed was like 15 mph when we reached there and the force of the wind passing over making the particles of sand loosely and hitting our legs when we were walking along the beach to find the good spot. I cannot say it was a bad day but the sandstorm preventing me to take picture of me riding waves on that day. The waves was awesome for a while but then it became wild and violent. We planned to go back there on Monday.

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Figs, and alotta figs

Well here comes again in the summer time, mid of July is just the right time for me to harvest ripe figs in the yard. Anyway there are varieties of figs like Brown Turkey fig, Calmyrna, but what we have is Celesta figs. It is the only one figs tree behind the building and it's very productive since last year.

 It is best time to harvest in the morning because I won't get sweat when the sun goes high up. The Celeste figs are small, brown to purple in color when they ripe.I found that figs grown extremely well almost all the branches.

They grown low, with no thorns and soft leaves. Some of them grown ripe on the top branches of the tree so I have to climb up the ladder to pick them up. That tree like a shade and cool that made my dog laid under the tree while I was picking up the figs.

 

The ripe figs will separate easily from the tree when you lift them upwards from their normal drooping position. The unripe figs are green or yellow color, harder more firmly attached, and do not droop.

  I got two buckets full of figs for today and they are more to pick them up for the next day. The fresh figs won't last long at room temperature so I put them in the tight container and stored in the refrigerator just for several days.

There are many options to make them last long because the cool temperature will make them mushy and the taste won't be good. Last summer I made fig newtons and some fig preserved after kept them a few days in the refrigerator. I am thinking now to make fig newton bar tomorrow and dry them up in the dehydrator. The dried figs can be eaten in the winter season.

Juicy Figs after cutting them in half

For those people who have never eaten them; The fresh figs taste are totally different than fig bars, dried figs or figs preserved sold at the store. They have unique taste and texture. The texture of fresh figs are soft like a ripe peach, the smoothness on their skin, their flesh taste are lusciously sweet and there is no pit because the seeds are so small. Another important thing is the figs are a good source of dietary fiber, potassium and manganese. You see how juicy they are in the container. Yummy! 

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Fun under the Sun

Now it is the beginning of my first day of this year to step on the sand land. I  wore new bathsuit today and we drove off to the Emerald Isle of Atlantic beach on Sunday Morning. We stopped  and unpacked the stuff from the truck at this sign board.

And walked through this wood bridge which access to the beach

We located our stuff closer to the water because low tide will be at 2 pm. The weather was so nice, breezy, the soft white sand and the sound of waves was magnificent. Robert can't wait to go for surfing and he set up the umbrella and everything quickly and rushed to the water.

 I was just chilling on the beach chair taking some pictures and looking at the blue ocean.

When he came back from surfing, he invited me to go into water together, looking for the good waves coming and surf with boogieboard. Catching the good waves and riding on it making my feeling so wonderful. Once the waves pushing you off to the beach made me want to ride it again. I got up and wading in the water while carrying my board. It's totally body workout today especially my legs. I feel the burning of my muscles when running against the waves.

We spent about an hour in the water and we stopped to have some lunch.  We enjoyed some bagel pizzas, juice and water while seeing people walking by and doing things at the beach. Some people walking with their dogs and the sound of barking sometimes annoying us when they let their dogs keep barking to the other dogs.

Playing frisbee on the beach was the other exciting part. Catching the coming disc while running through in the water deep to the ankle making us embrace the  wind breeze and the sand. We played close to the water and it's deep enough to make a great splashes and cool our feet. We jump to catch and doing few techniques to throw the disc. Seriously we had a great exercise. 

The heat of the weather obvioiusly made us dehydrated. We stopped plalying and get back to our spot to refresh ourselves.  The water level start rising around 5 pm and that is the signal of high tide. We decided to pack our things when the water reaching our spot and we went home happily.

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The heat of summer

The weather was cloudy since I got up this morning. I was so excited today because we planned going to the beach at 10 am but Robert had cancelled it when he referred to the weather forecast on the internet that showed raining will be at noon. I have a little bit frustrated because the rain started at 5 pm. I thought we could have time if we did not bother the forecast.

I haven't been to the beach yet since I have been here a month ago. The weather was so hot for weeks that made me to turn off to the beach. I rather stay in the house than get sunburn on my skin. Staying out of the sun preferably in the afternoon time and went out in the evening to play basketball at the Western Park or went to the store.

 

I know there were a lot of things to do at the beach. I had a lot of fun in the last summer especially when I caught some waves and surfed with boogieboard. It was awesome! Surfing, swimming, sand building and watching pretty waves on the beach is what makes my day to the Emerald Isle beach so memorable.
 

I also got a new Rusty sexy bathing suit, an Oakley boardshort and a new Reef pink flip flop from Robert. Thank you baby for choosing the best stuff for me. All those thing were wonderful gift and motivated me go to the beach and I am excited to wear them soon and looking forward to ride some fierce waves:P

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Young American Robin

It happened during summer time on my husband's birthday. I found the small, brown, full feathered bird was hopping around in the backyard. It must have fallen out of the nest. The nest must be somewhere on the trees but it was very hard to see it. He tried to spread his wings out for few times to fly but only he can do just hopping and it's wings has not fully developed like adult bird.This was my first time seeing the bird alone on the ground.

A few birds flying over my head and making noise which they chirping to each other when I tried to touch him. Maybe they were his mama and papa. He did not scare of me and stand still when I snapped some pictures with my camera phone.

I showed the picture to my husband and we were thinking about the danger might came to that bird. We decided to keep him in the box. I rushed to the garage and looking for the box in the middle of old cabinet. There were few dusty boxes with different sizes and the rectangular shoe box was my choice because there has a few round holes at the side of the box. I ran quickly to the backyard. Now where is that bird? My eyes can't focus since the brown chestnut fruits on the ground had camouflaged that brown little bird. Finally I found him under the pear tree.

I put him in the box and running back to the garage. Feeling curious and wondering what the bird was, I searched on the Internet to find out the type of the bird and steps to take care of him. Aha! I found out that was a young American Robin and it was called fledgling bird meaning a young bird that has just grown the feathers needed to fly and  it is capable of surviving outside the nest. I looked to other few websites and found they advised it is best to "let nature take it's course".

After sitting down a while, I had thought that it would be selfish if I kept this bird and let his parents searching for him around the yard. So I decided to put him back nearby to the pear tree. The next day I didn't see that bird. Something has taken him. What kind of the nature take it's course? No one know.

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