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Roanoke, Va AirportIf you are a native North Carolinian, you likely have faced the question of mountains or beach more than once in your life.

I remember hearing the discussion of the relative merits of the coast and high peaks from my earliest years.

Now many of us wrestle with which is the best place to live? Should we reside at the coast or in the mountains?  I am lucky enough to still be able to taste both.

My mother loved her two weeks of vacation, and every year she wrestled with the choice of beach or mountains.  Since we lived not far from the Blue Ridge Mountains, the beach, which was the more exotic destination, won more times at least in my memory.

She would pack as many kids as she could into her 1953 Ford, and we would head off to one of North Carolina's many beaches. Along the way we got to enjoy one of her famous picnic lunches which were based around country ham biscuits and fried chicken so perfect that we'll never taste its like again.

I can only remember two trips outside of North Carolina in those early years.  One was to Virginia Beach and the other was to Folly Beach near Charleston.  Neither met her standards so we never returned to either.

Her favorite beaches were Nags Head, Atlantic Beach, and the beaches around Wrightsville including Kure Beach.  We never got to stay right on the beach, but we always had lots of fun.  We stayed out on the beach most of the day so our accommodations mattered little. 

I don't even remember ever having air conditioning, but it didn't matter because we were so tired at night that we fell asleep no matter what the temperature.  Of course we didn't have air conditioning at home so not having air conditioning was seen as normal.

I was always in tow behind some of my teenage cousins who were experts at enjoying the beach during the day and its amusements at night.  It was a wonderful, magical time each year that made us look forward to our next trip.

When we didn't go to the beaches we would head off to Cherokee, Tweetsie, Blowing Rock, and even Gatlingburg, Tennessee which seemed to be okay even though it wasn't in North Carolina.

While those days ended with my going away to college, I had one summer when I alternated between camping on Ocracoke Island and pitching my tent deep in the Black Mountains of North Carolina.  After college, I moved away to a sixteen year adventure in Atlantic Canada.

Then in 1989, our family moved down to the Virginia mountains after a short two-year stay in Columbia, Maryland.   Columbia proved too much of a cultural shock to us after living in the laid back world of Canada.  Roanoke, Virginia seemed like a much easier place to re-enter American life.

From our home in Roanoke, Va we still see mountains when we roll out of bed, mountains when we walk to the kitchen, and mountains when we sit down to have a cup of coffee in the morning.  Our existence in Roanoke is wrapped in the soft blues of the Blue Ridge Mountains and their neighbors to the west and north.  The only time we don't see mountains is when the fog rolls in, or it is snowing so hard they are hidden behind a wall of white.  While Roanoke isn't in North Carolina, it is close enough to feel more kinship to North Carolina than to Northern Virginia, which I have I called the epicenter of shopping.

In the fall of 2006, seventeen years after our move to Roanoke, we bought a second home on the coast of North Carolina near the beaches of Emerald Isle and the beautiful waters of Bogue Sound and the White Oak River.

After years on the mountain, I wanted a place where I could put my kayak in the water without having to get in a car.  I wanted to be able to fish from my backyard and to go for a bike ride without loading my bike on the back of a car.  My hiking trails on the mountain behind our Roanoke home had been crowded out by development. 

I felt some protection with the Crystal Coast being surrounded by the 56 miles of the Cape Lookout National Seashore on the east, the 158,000 acres of the Croatan National Forest to the north, and Camp Lejeune to the west of the White Oak River.  Our home is on the waters of Raymond's Gut which feeds into the White Oak.  To the south there is nothing but Emerald Isle and the Atlantic Ocean.

I was also tired of winter snows.  While snows are rare in Roanoke, there have been enough good storms to remind me of those many years in Canada when shoveling snow was as common as opening the garage door.

We still have both homes, but in 2012 I am hoping to be down to just one home.  I'm pulling for living on the coast because I love the warm December beach days that sometimes bless us.  Having shorts weather in December makes up for the occasional nasty winter that we have on the coast.

Yet I still understand the pull of the mountains.  I absolutely love waking up in the morning and seeing the beauty of the mountains spread out before me.  It is a treat than not many people get to enjoy.  In the summer taking a nap on our screened in porch is like having a magical rest in a tree house.

Actually I don't even mind the snow.  Even at over sixty years of age, I still haven't seen a storm that I couldn't clear with my snow scoop.  Our family was all together at our Roanoke home for Christmas.  As our youngest daughter was leaving, mountain winds were blowing around the house.  She turned and said that she was going to miss spending the night.   She said that she loved to hear the wind gusts while safely tucked into her bed.

Our mountain home has a huge covered patio accessed from the walkout basement.  Since it is sheltered, it is like a different world both in the summer and the winter.  In the summer, it is cooler than any other spot, and in the winter, it is warmer and protected from almost all the cold winds.

Our coastal home on the Southern Outer Banks has the advantage of a water view from some rooms in the house including my upstairs office.  It too has some places which seem to defy the weather.  The back steps of our deck stay warm almost all winter, and the area around our garage door is a hot spot in winter and a place that draws cooling breezes in summer.  I also find that living near the beach has made memories of earlier times on coast come back to me.

While it takes me thirty minutes to get to a lake where I can kayak in Virginia, it takes me less than ten minutes to get my kayak in the water and out into the White Oak River.  We also now have a skiff on a lift behind our coastal home.  I can drop it into the water and be in Swansboro where the river meets the Intracoastal Waterway in about ten minutes.  The ocean is only another ten minutes away.  We can also be walking on any of the miles of beautiful beaches of Emerald Isle in ten to fifteen minutes depending on where we head.

The reality is that this debate could go on forever.  The mountains and the beach both have really good points.  You can enjoy a wonderful breeze near the beach, or you can find some breezes and cooling relief from summer heat and humidity in the mountains.

It all depends where you are in your life.   It makes a difference whether you have filled your lifetime snow quota or if you need lots more.  Of course there is also a beach walking quota, and I am working hard to catch up on mine.  I would like to be at 110% by the end of next year.

Big Beef Tomato SlicesGrowing tomatoes is a tradition in our family.  My mother used to grow them at our home in Lewisville, NC and later at our family home which is now the Sobotta Manor Bed & Breakfast.

I started growing tomatoes in 1972, the spring after I moved to Nova Scotia.  Our farm on the shores of the Bay Fundy was a great place to learn how to garden, but it was a challenge to grow tomatoes there in the fog of Nova Scotia.

In the fall of 1974, we moved to Tay Creek, New Brunswick.  While it was much colder in the winter, it was also much warmer in the summer.  Vegetables like corn and tomatoes did very well there.  However, ripe tomatoes didn't show up until the middle of August at best.

After a few more stops, we ended up in Roanoke, Va in 1989.  Sometime in the mid-nineties, I started growing tomatoes once again.  Not many years after that, a friend living in North Carolina and I started the Great Tomato Race, a friendly competition to see who could get the first ripe tomato of summer.

With Roanoke being in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, and my friend being located in Lewisville, NC in the warmth of the North Carolina Piedmont, I didn't have much of a chance.  However, I did win one year in the first three or four.  Eventually it got very hard to grow tomatoes at our Virginia place because of deer.

In the fall of 2006 we moved to the Southern Outer Banks of North Carolina and settled in the area known as the Crystal Coast.

While I didn't win in 2007, our first summer on the coast, I came very close.  The next year on June 1, I got the first tomato in the contest.

I repeated as tomato king in 2009 with the first ripe tomato being picked on June 5.

In 2010 I was dethroned by another coastal grower with a May 31 ripe tomato.  This year I actually conceded early in the year, because I was growing my own plants from seed, and I got them started late.

Even with a late start and growing my own plants, I managed to get a ripe tomato on June 9.

Since then it has been an exceptional crop, even better than last year's strong crop.  I managed to pick over 100 tomatoes in one day around the Fourth of July.  Even a portion of that day's crop was impressive.

One of the reasons that I grew my own plants from seed this year was to find a solution to my plants dying early in the season.

The first two summers we grew them here on the coast, we had tomatoes well into December.  The record date for my last tomato picked off the vine is December 19.

Last year, I had to pull my tomatoes out in August and early September.  I am hoping the new varieties that I am trying and some improved tomato cultural practices will fix my problem.

The four regular size tomatoes were are evaluating are all hybrids that we got from Totally tomatoes.

1. Bush Early Girl Hybrid Tomato  
2. Talladega Hybrid Tomato  
3. Big Beef Hybrid Tomato  
4. Fletcher Tomato  

So far, I am leaning towards the Big Beef Hybrid as an all around tomato.  The tomato slices on the plate in the picture at the top of the post are from a Big Beef Tomato.

We are still evaluating for taste, texture and disease resistance. Hopefully the season has several months left in it, and we will have some clear results.

You can follow the season in pictures at this web album.

Tomatoes are one of the three plants that I think every true Southerner should grow.

I cannot even imagine summer without tomatoes.

New Mayor, Bluewater CoveI take a lot of bird pictures, and I stalk some good sized birds like Great Blue Herons, but until April 26, 2011 I had never been challenged by a bird.

I have spooked birds, and I have seen some mocking birds buzz our cats.  There has even been a time or two when Canada geese thought about challenging me but decided against it.

All that changed on Tuesday, April 26.  I walked the length of our neighborhood's boardwalk and managed to take a few pictures of a young great white egret.  He eventually flew over to our boat ramp, and I circled back around to get some additional photos.  I was just about to step into a pine needle mulch bed and walk behind the egret when I heard a very excited bird.

It took me a minute to figure out that the bird was at my feet and was daring me to come forward.

I was startled enough that the first photo that I took wasn't even in focus which was unfortunate since the Killdeer who confronting me was all puffed up at that time.   The Killdeer basically stared me down, and I changed course.

I still got my other pictures of the great egret, but I also learned that it is best to respect a Killdeer standing its ground.

Having a neighborhood Killdeer is actually pretty neat.  Yesterday after a thunderstorm, I watched as the Killdeer bathed in some puddles.

Earlier in the week I watched her do some test nests, and as soon as I mowed my yard, the Killdeer moved in to see if there were any fresh insects.

I will be on the watch for the new "Mayor" of the neighborhood on my morning walks.  This year they have yielded an amazing number of birds including most recently a beautiful Prothonotary Warbler.

Recently I have seen lots of smaller birds like bluebirds, but in mid-winter most of our visitors were larger birds like pelicans and great blue herons.

I am very happy to live in a spot where I can be enjoying birds even on the way to get the morning newspaper.  Even as weather pattterns change, and summer is  around the corner, I expect that I will keep seeing some neat feathered friends.

Any if things slow down in the neighborhood, I can always head over to the shore.  It's only minutes away.  With all the water we have in the area, you usually can find some birds somewhere.

This weekend we even enjoyed look at birds at the new Emerald Isle boat ramp.  Besides a squadron or two of swallows, we saw a Greater Yellowlegs with a baby and plenty of redwing blackbirds.

The good thing about birds aside from our pushy Mayor is that you never know what you will see when you open the door in the morning.  It is a great treat.

I wonder if I could get the "Mayor" to run for president of the Homeowners Association.  She might make the clowns building next to me clean up their mess.

Oyster Rocks Near Bluewater CoveOur home is just off the White Oak River.  The White Oak River is one of North Carolina's unique blackwater rivers.  The total length of the river is around 40 miles.  Even though much of my life has been spent in North Carolina, I had never heard of the White Oak until we found a home on an inlet of the river in the summer of 2006.  I have grown to love the river.

It is a river that boating visitors to the area often ignore because of the many oyster rocks in the river.  The river is not one where you can boat without paying attention to where you are. It is actually probably not the easiest spot to learn how to be a boater, but as a couple of people have told me, if you can safely boat on the White Oak and in Bogue Sound, you have become a competent boater.

I can still remember the day we first launched our boat at the Bluewater Cove boat ramp. We had hired Captain Jay Cusick of Morehead City to help us with our first boating adventures.  That day when we went down the river we knew little about the river other than what I had gleaned from talking with neighbors, looking at charts, and some nearby kayaking.  It was a strain to see the buoys that first trip, but since then the river has been become my backyard playground.

The White Oak River from our channel out of Bluewater Cove is well marked to Swansboro and the Intracoastal Waterway.  The main reason the channel to Swansboro has buoys is help boaters avoid oysters rocks which at high tide are sometime just below the surface of the water.

If you zoom in on this Google map, you can see from the aerial view that most of the turns on the route to Swansboro are made to avoid oyster rocks or reefs of oyster rocks.  While it seems to be a crooked path on a map, it really isn't too bad when you are down on the water.  This Google map of another trip down the White Oak has some pictures attached to the points on the map.

There are still days when the sun is low in the sky or the reflection is really strong off the water that I am very happy to follow the nice track that I have on my boat's Garmin GPS.  Yet when we are fishing or just wandering around the river, we often get far off the track.  There is no secret, we just watch the depth finder, the color of the water, and go very slow.

I am not an expert on the oyster population in the river, but I do know that any oysters that are here in the river, help keep the river clean and clear.  I am all for that.

While oyster rocks were once something that intimidated me a little, today I look at them great structure for hiding fish.  They also keep down the traffic on the river.   While those of us who live along the river have to learn how to navigate the river in order to get to the ICW, Bogue Sound, Bogue Inlet, and the Atlantic Ocean, some of our visiting anglers would rather not take the time.

That also okay with me.  While I don't mind sharing our jewel of a river, I would hate to see it become crowded and over used.  There are a lot of days when I fish the White Oak, and I might see just one or two boats.

The White Oak is a very scenic river whether you are heading down the river in the fall like these pictures or up the river to the land of marsh grasses.  The oyster rocks that sometimes stick above the waters of the river are more than scenery, they are part of the living and changing ecology of the river.  I hope they never disappear.

The Great Blue Evil EyeThe funny thing about a natural environment is that if you really work at it, you can almost disappear into the edges of it.

After my recent close encounter with a great blue heron while hiding on my dock, I got some additional opportunities for great pictures.

One of my favorites is the one included in the post.

It almost seems like the heron is communicating with me.  I think he was getting a little tired of the cold rain.  Perhaps his look was expressing some frustration that the water has stayed cold for so long.

Anyway it turned out to be a great picture that made me think that the resident great blue heron is starting to tolerate me.

My winter collection of bird pictures has continued to grow as I continue to hide behind trees. After a week of traveling, I hope as I get back to walks next week that I will get some more neat pictures. 

You never know when the birds will move on to a new territory.  Of course they will be back. The feeding ground behind our home is too rich for them to ignore for long.  Only the pelicans ignore us for most of the year.

I am also pleased to have finally gotten some good pictures of a kingfisher.  The shots of bluebirds in the top of a tree were a real unexpected treat.  I was guessing that it was a little early for them, but apparently my timing was just right.

Winter can be a tough time to find beauty in your surroundings.  I am pretty lucky to be able to watch a wonderful collection of water birds right from our kitchen window.

I would rather eat breakfast with the birds than face the annoying chatter of most morning news shows.

Somehow the news seems to make it to me without the chatter, and seeing some beautiful birds is a great way to start the day.

I also love finishing my day by walking among the birds along the marshes.  It is a great way to unwind and remember how small we are compared to the wonders of nature.