CRIME BLOTTER

Not much in the local paper's crime column this past week. Most of the problems dealt with drivers being stopped, then being arrested on outstanding warrants. Or fleeing a traffic stop and then being arrested for DUI, drugs and/or other offenses. One encounter did kind of stand out though.

Seems a woman called police about a man who'd sold her some crack cocaine. He then threw a beer at her. She also complained he owed her some money for personal favors.

Hmmm. Wonder what they were.

When police arrested her for possession of cocaine, she managed to escape her (double-locked!) handcuffs and flee.

Must have been related to Houdini!

But, alas for her, she was recaptured. Then she was taken in for booking after a side trip to the emergency room to be checked out for injuries incurred while fleeing. Or maybe it was injuries from the thrown beer. That was a little unclear.

Personally, I suspect she was sufferings from delusions of innocence!

Ah, goodness. The local police have so much to put up with. Although I suspect they do get a few laughs now and then.

CORNEA TRANSPLANT

I've had eye problems for a long time and earlier this year, I had to have a cornea transplant. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see the light flashing off some of the stitches on the right. Dr. Hays used a row of sixteen stitches around the outside, then four tack stitches on the inside. Every eye doctor who's seen it admires his work!



The cornea takes awhile to adjust to its new eye, but this one has done quite well. Now Dr. Van de Vere (my doctor down here who's been supervising my recovery) says it's time to consider taking the stitches out.

I am quite excited. Maybe once the eye gets settled down, I can get my glasses prescription and finally be able to see (well) again.

Until this happened, I'd never thought about cornea donations -- that was something for other folks. But since I had one, I have a new appreciation for those people who choose to leave their corneas to the eye bank, and to the relatives who allow their loved ones' corneas to be donated. Without someone's generosity, I would be blind in this eye by now. And my other eye is getting to be almost as bad.

Unlike a heart or kidney, the cornea is mostly collagen tissue. There is a chance of rejection but it's far less than for other organs. I hope when at some point, you're asked if you want to donate your or your loved one's, cornea, you at least think about it. I know I will be grateful the rest of my life to my anonymous donor.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

The county has been readying for the Fourth of July for weeks. On the island, we will have our own celebration that naturally includes fireworks. But other things are going on, too. Here are some of the old cars showing up:

A close-up of the first one:

This little biplane takes passengers on rides over the area:

Not to forget the ships that have made our port so busy, here's a distant shot of three of them. You can barely see the tops over the trees:

And here is one going out (the one on the left) and one coming in (the one on the right);

Oh, how busy we are! Especially with the tourists already loaded up the streets and restaurants in preparation for the holiday!

BRUNSWICK STEW

Ah, who doesn't love Brunswick Stew? And everyone has his or her own favorite recipe. Probably not the one that includes squirrels and/or rabbits but certainly more than one meat. Along with the several meats the recipe takes, are several vegetables including but not limited to, lima beans and corn.

No one seems to know quite how Brunswick Stew got invented, but there are some interesting tales. Below is the pot that supposedly first cooked Brunswick Stew on St. Simons Island in 1898.

Why it should be displayed in Brunswick, Georgia rather than on St. Simons is a mystery, but there it is. And notice that there is some ambiguity here. The meaning could be that the first time the stew was made on the island was 1898. Or it could mean that that first time the stew was ever made, was on the island.

In any event, there are other claimants to the title of inventing it. One goes that it was originally made in Brunswick, Germany. Since most of its ingredients are indigenous to the Americas though, I kind of doubt this one is true.

Another one comes from Brunswick, Virginia. According to their marker (below), in 1828 a camp cook stewed some squirrels with onions, butter, stale bread and seasonings.

Since real Brunswick Stew requires several meats and vegetables (and so far as I know, no bread), this seems doubtful to me, too.

The most likely theory to me is the old Indian hunting stews, where bits of meat and whatever vegetables were handy were simmered together in a communal pot and enjoyed by the hunting band.

But despite the claims, there's no clear-cut answer.

My advice, when you come across it, is to enjoy it. Especially from Southern Soul, here on the island. Their stew is reminiscent of the Brunswick Stew my daddy used to go out and bring home when someone he knew in the country was cooking it. And oh, boy! It was good then and it's good now!

CARDINALS

For a few years, we've watched the birds at our back yard feeder. We saw a cardinal couple raise a baby last year and once again this year, they have a baby tagging along with them to the feeder.

I've read that the male feeds the female when they're courting, but I've seen them both feeding the baby, coaxing it up to the feeder.

Here's the daddy at the feeder:

Here are the mother and child:

And this is the squirrel who lurks in the background. He desperately wants to eat, but when he gets on it, his weight pulls the sides down and covers the openings. I see him every day, staring at the feeder as if he's trying to figure out how to get to the seeds. Then he'll shake his tail in frustration and leave!

This squirrel-proof feeder has been a good investment!

BOATS PASSING

Walking down to the pier, we sat enjoying the breeze and watching the water. We thought we saw a ship on the horizon and sure enough, in a few minutes a pilot boat came roaring back over the waves. The seagull on the post paid it little attention.

Then, after ten or fifteen minutes, the ship (pilot onboard) came in. Now there are two birds watching its progress.

It was a big car carrier and they're always fun to watch because they look like they're going to run into the pier. But the channel goes right by our little island pier and arcs around to just miss the Jekyll Pier.

There's always something to see here!

BEACH WALK

The tourists have thinned out a little. Not much, but if we go to the beach early, it isn't crowded.

Our beach has changed a lot during the past ten years. Here we're standing on the beach looking back toward the shore. This beach used to be a sandbar that was unaccessible at high tide. Now it's connected all the time, with several large tidal pools at low tide as seen below.

Where once the river flowed between the sandbar and the beach and back to the sea, has now become the tidal pools. This is the end of the river. If you could walk to the left, you'd come over to the houses.

As I said, a few people were out, including this paddle-boarder.

And a guy playing with his dogs.

And this bird. I don't know what it is but I'm sure someone does. He reminded me of a sandpiper except bigger.

He was a cutie, running in and out of the waves!