SPRUCED UP FOR SPRING

In the Village, there is a right whale statue of a mother with her baby on her back. Placed by the children's playground, it rises up out of the ground like a whale rising up out of water. The kids love it. I've often posted pictures on this blog showing them climbing it or sitting atop it.

We walked by it the other day and my mouth dropped. It had been all gussied up. Its eyes sparkled bright blue, its barnacles stood whitely out, and the concrete body had a new coat of gray paint.

But what first caught my attention? The sand that normally surrounded the base had been overlaid with blue chips of recycled rubber. That made the whale look like it was rising from a pool of blue water!

Artificially dyed blue water, true. But still... The kids will love it! I think it looks pretty spiffy, myself.

WEDDING

I was fortunate enough to be present when a young couple exchanged vows in front of the old courthouse on the mainland. They fell in love on our island and wanted to marry down here so they eloped -- kind of. Relatives and friends knew they were going to do it but since they've thought about it for years, no one was really sure what would happen.

It was a gorgeous day, not too hot but sunny. When the probate judge came out of her office, the bride chose the patio surrounding the stone-walled planter for the ceremony. There, under the magnificent oaks dripping spanish moss, the bride and groom said their vows as their daughter watched.

The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome and the little girl an absolute doll.

Oh, and before the ceremony, we had to have an obligatory whale picture of little Miss Julia!

A shame they couldn't stay with us longer, but pre-K awaits the little one and a cruise awaits the honeymooners.

All good wishes go with them. May the rest of their life go as smoothly as the ceremony.

LIGHTHOUSE DECORATED

Seems like I can't get by the lighthouse at night but I'll try to soon. Here's the holiday decorations in daylight. If you look closely, you can see a tourist standing up there.

Oh, and the big thing at the bottom is our much-loved right whale statue. No kids climbing on it today.

WHALE IN THE PARK, PART 3

They came back to the park and worked on the poor whale's mouth. Looks like they concreted it and painted it black. It looks much better. Although I really wish they would put a tongue back in.

Ah, well. Anything's better than the gaping hole!

WHALE IN THE PARK

I blogged a while back about the tongue missing out of our whale down at Neptune Park. I pointed out how people were throwing trash inside it, and that the opening was large enough for a small child to slip through.

So a couple of days ago, we caught a county worker putting a metal mesh net in the mouth to block trash and kids from getting inside. We stopped and told him how happy we were they were fixing it. We learned, to our chagrin, that the county had not removed the tongue because it was coming apart as we had assumed. No, indeed.

Someone had stolen the tongue.

Now why would anyone want to steal a wooden tongue the size of a scooter wheel?

Anyway here's the latest pix even if you can't tell much about the wire netting that's supposed to keep trash and people out. Wonder how long it'll last.