Last photos from Virginia Beach

Gregg had some problems getting his wi-fi to work while visiting the family, and as he had to get some important e-mails off to his company, he decided to go over to Barnes and Noble to take advantage of their cafe, which is all geared up for people to use laptop computers. I went along for the ride and took my Nook with me.

Two hours later after trying and trying and trying, unsuccessfully, to get his laptop to connect up to the wi-fi, we moved over to Panera Bread. We spent another hour there, again with no success and as it was closing at 9.00 p.m., we moved to McDonald's because we saw one with a sign that said "Open 24 hours". I'm glad I took my Nook along, I got a lot of reading in that night.

After another hour at Mcdonald's I heard him say very quietly and with what sounded like total disbelief, "I don't believe it, I finally got it to work." I looked up and this is the expression I saw on his face. Of course I had to tell him to hold it while I got my camera. Does he not have a happy but "I can't believe it worked after all this time" kind of look? A happy man, and a happy wife because I was getting a bit tired of drinking coffee and milkshakes after four hours, well maybe not so much of the milkshakes but even those you can only stretch so far.

Next day I took this photo of Celia preparing for the forthcoming picnic.....

and one the next day after that, of Gully enjoying a cup of coffee in the early morning.

Celia and Gully had recently acquired this brilliant old family photo of Gully's mother, Gregg's grandmother with her sisters. From left to right back row is Vinnie (pronounced 'Viney'), Clara (Gregg's grandmother) and Millie. In front, left to right, Annie and Rose Lee. Gully's family was originally from southern Norway. After living in Wisconsin for a while, they headed west in a covered wagon pulled by a blind ox and settled in south-west North Dakota, initially living in a home dug out of the earth. It's a wonderful story, like many stories of immigrants back in those days. They were a very brave people willing to leave everything behind to own a precious piece of land, and they faced many hardships to give their children a better life.

One morning when it was very quiet I took a walk around their garden to see what I could find. This is the back of their house. It is a single level, ranch-style, It would be called a bungalow in England. Since they moved in they have done a lot of work inside and out. At the back there is also a brand new new room surrounded by large glass windows. It's what they call a Florida Room.

Just off that room they have had a deck built. When we first arrived it was a balmy evening and we sat outside enjoying the surroundings. The garden is edged with the tallest pine trees.

This is one of Celia's cute bird feeders just off the deck. It has a ceramic bird attached to it. Later when we were inside the house Gregg looked out and said that there was a real cute Blue Jay sitting on the feeder. I looked out and knew what he was looking at and I had to smile. It does look like a real one from a distance and I had to do a double-take when I saw it that first time.

There are two great big planters filled with yellow Hibiscus and I couldn't resist.

The bugs were out and about and I spotted the Japanese Beetles on the squash. As you probably already know it is one of the most devastating pests in the eastern United States. It was first found in this country in 1916 after it was accidentally introduced into New Jersey. Before that this insect was known to occur only in Japan where it is not a major pest. However, the eastern US provides a favorable climate and there are no effective natural enemies, so it thrives and voraciously devours all the plants and flowers it can find. If you click here it gives some good advice on how to get rid of them.

I'm not sure what type of dragonfly this is but I talked about it before in a previous post here.
Celia has a squash garden and this is one of the blooms.

I liked the look of these bright red berries....

and the bright red leaves in the middle of all that green foliage......

and also the dead leaf that had fallen on the ground.

One last photo of these pretty purple asters and that was the end of my walk around the garden.