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Oysters in Raymond's GutI cannot remember when I first learned about the oyster's amazing ability to filter water.  It was probably a long time ago.  I do recall the best demonstration that I have seen of that capability.

Last summer on August 2 we visited an open house at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort.  There we were shown a bucket of murky water and another of clear water which contained oysters.  For a demonstration they had dipped two buckets of water and placed oysters in one.

At 50 gallons of water per day per oyster, it did not take them long to clear up the water.  We live on the White Oak River which at time appears to be one giant oyster reef at least from the perspective of someone piloting a boat down the river to the Intracoastal Waterway.

I snapped the shot of the oysters in this post while walking on the boardwalk around our clubhouse in Bluewater Cove.  We have had very little precipitation in the last couple of months so the river is absolutely clear except for the brown tint that it always has.

We were out on the river not long ago and noticed a boat working one of the channels.  It turns out that the boat was a deep water clam rig.  One thing that you can be certain of is that if they have opened the river for clams or oysters, the water has tested very clean.  They are very careful about shellfish.

Some folks don't like the brown tint of the White Oak.  It is actually called a blackwater river.  In spite of that the water often looks very blue as it does in this slide show that I created after a recent run on the river.

I don't mind the color of the water.  I actually enjoy the variety of colors that our local waters mirror.  I especially like the wonder blue-green colors that we often see when the light is just right and the sky is very blue.  A good example would be these slides from last summer.

I am glad we have oysters around.  I love to eat them, I am proud our waters are pure enough that the oysters do well here and can be eaten most of the time.  We have a tremendous variety of marine life in the area.  The slides taken when we visited the Duke Marine lab have pictures of what hides in our waters along with some random ones taken that day.

I also did slides from our recent visit to the NC Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. There are plenty of marine neighbors there.

Somehow when your back steps lead to the water, you feel the need to get to know your neighbors.  It happens to be one of my favorite preoccupations.

Raymond's Gut open waterWe have just been through some snow here on the Crystal Coast.  The low temperatures that brought us the snow also brought us ice on many of our waterways.

The morning after the big storm I was doing my normal morning survey of our homestead when I noticed a strange area of open water.

It looked like a skiff had started down Raymond's Gut towards our home.  However the straight edges made me suspicious. I really doubted that you could back a skiff up without breaking more ice.

I walked over to our clubhouse where I could see the water leading to the White Oak River.  It was pretty obvious that no boat had come in from the river.

I sent the picture to one of my college roommates who suggested that I should check on my crop circles.  On closer examination I could see splash patterns that looked remarkably like water that would fly out onto the ice if ducks were using this as a runway.

It just so happened that I had noticed some Mergansers in the water behind the house before the snow.  I started wondering if their swimming had kept the water open.

This afternoon after the ice had mostly melted, I saw the Mergansers swimming in the same area.

I am pretty sure they are responsible for the open water.

I guess we all had to make some adjustments since this is the first snow in six years for the Crystal Coast.

My chosen home port has the unfortunate recipient of some unseasonably cool weather this fall.

We have also had more than our fair share of gloomy weather.  That has kept me on the lookout for great sunsets and scenery to brighten the winter.

With the economy in a tailspin and the weather not giving us those warm fall days that we had last year, the pressure has been building to find some relief.

After a holiday weekend in Roanoke, VA where we even saw snow on some of the roofs, I felt the need to get out to the beach.

We managed a trip up Emerald Isle on Tuesday of this week and I shot some video which I posed on YouTube.  It was a simple video designed to highlight the peace and quiet of a winter beach. If you watch it, try the high qualtity version if you have the bandwidth.

Going over to the beach is great, and with clear winter skies we have been treated to a color show for the last few weeks when the clouds have not interrupted the sunset.  On Thursday of this week, I snapped these photos at the Croatan Trails access point in Cedar Point.

They were a good dose of color to cheer up my winter spirits.

Still I can hardly waite for spring.

Last of fallAh fall, we hardly got to know you.

Actually I really do miss fall. It seems like the heat from summer over stayed its welcome well into September. It took much of October for the waters to begin to cool.

Then the winds and the rains started playing havoc with planned fishing trips. Everytime we turned around, there was a front coming through the area.

Fortunately we just started fishing closer to home. We could watch the fronts come through, and if there any serious storms or winds, we could be back at the dock in five minutes.

While that helped, it certainly did not give us a lot of time for fishing. Then this cold weather showed up. First it dropped to the low sixties, and for the last couple of days the temperatures have struggled to get out of the forties.

I am no fair weather fisherman, but I would like to keep from freezing my rear to the seats on the boat.

Actually I have gone from suspecting that this is winter to confirming that this has to be winter.

In less than a month I have gone from being very optimistic about November fishing to becoming resigned that this is not going to be the fall season that I had hoped.

We caught some nice fish this fall, it just wasn't the great season I wanted it to be.

The good news is that we might still get in some good days, and if we don't, there is always next year.

The weather along the Carolina coast is often pleasant in the fall. We have cool nights and warm days.

Sometimes we go through a few rainy days. Dampness along the coast seems to take its toll on those of us living here. Most of us came here for the blue skies and warm days not rain.

While our heat pumps have run some during the last few days, we have not used our gas logs in a few weeks.

The gas logs are one of the first things we turn to in order to drive out the dampness when things head downhill.

Next we resort to warm meals, and we switch to blue jeans instead of shorts. Then we throw on a sweatshirt, and we are winter ready.

One of our favorite meals during cold spells is homemade clam chowder.

It usually warms me up quickly. It is like one of those soup commercials when you warm from the inside out.

From watching clouds and the weather reports, it ls seems that we are in for a weather change. We are expected to get rain tonight and tomorrow. We could get up to two inches.

Then we get a break and some more rain on Friday.

I would like to hope we get some nice warm rain, but we are already about ten degrees too cool for that.

With temperatures approaching seventy we are not going to suffer too much. However, it looks like after the rain clears out that our high temperatures will only be in the fifties.

I guess I should go buy some cans of clams. For the latest on coastal North Carolina, visit my coastal paradise website.