When Norfolk pretends to be Venice...

I'm going to break my nearly three-month blogging break to show photos of what my lovely neighbourhood looks like when a tropical storm meets a North Easterly wind and high tide. This was after the water subsided about 2 feet. Many ruined cars this morning - some were even moved off the street onto the sidewalk! Thankfully the City of Norfolk opened parking garages for residents and my little Honda was safely parked on the second floor during the deluge.

Lake Yarmouth... the street behind me.

The water at the Wisconsin was well over the bulkhead.

The Pagoda was completely surrounded by water at one point.




These are my neighbours. There were still a few cars in these below-ground parking garages. I feel so bad for their owners.


As far as other news - I'm doing well. Went on a trip through New England with my mom who was visiting from New Zealand which was lovely. I will try to post pictures of that when I get around to editing them.

Otherwise I've just been working hard and doing lots of clearing out of old, unnecessary belongings. Will try to post again soon!

Mowgli and Baloo

Cute...

Not so cute...

The update on Curdie is that he's actually starting to enjoy their company. They all play together now, which is fun for him. He occasionally has to put them in their place, but generally they aren't intimidated by him even though he's 3x their size. However their craziness does scare even Curdie! I love them to pieces and it's going to make me sad to give them up...

Sketching, photography & kittens...

Have been slacking on posting recently. Here's a quick update.

It's been a busy summer. July is "graphics month" at work and we focus on all things to do with architectural graphics. It's really inspiring, but it also adds to the workload since I help out with the organization and planning of it. One of the fun things is that we get to do more sketching. We take lunch breaks and go to a location to sketch as a group.


The above are a few that I did for office/marketing stuff. We occasionally do sketches of a campus or building when we really want to win work. I got to help out with these since our illustrator was completely swamped with project work - such fun! How can I get to do stuff like this for a living?

Other than that, I'm taking an online photography course which is really challenging, but I'm learning so much. I wanted to learn how to improve my technical skills to get consistently better exposures. Sometimes I rely too heavily on Photoshop to correct stuff after shooting - the lazy way of doing digital photography. My photos have already improved - now I just need more inspiring stuff to shoot than the Wisconsin battleship... wishing I had another trip to Cali or NZ in my near future.


And finally, I am getting closer to being a true crazy cat lady. I was volunteering at the SPCA yesterday and there was a girl out in the parking lot with two kittens which she'd found abandoned in her apartment building. Her husband was seriously allergic so she couldn't keep them and she'd been turned away since the SPCA had no more space for take-ins. They'd directed her to animal control. Knowing that they didn't have much of a chance there (they euthanize within 5 days if animals aren't claimed or adopted) I decided on the spur of the moment to at least foster them until I can get them adopted out. They have the sweetest temperaments. Truly the most affectionate cats I've ever encountered. One will not allow me to sit down for 5 minutes without jumping on my lap for a cuddle. Named them Mowgli and Baloo - one is a skinny, mischievous little boy and the other is a more rotund, laid-back character. So, if you know anyone who wants a kitten/s, let me know!

Wontons

A few fun pictures for the foodies out there. I spent an entertaining few hours yesterday learning how to make wontons. I've been talking to Yvonne (who is originally from China) about having a food tasting. Apparently there have been a number of girls at work who she's talked to as well so she had us all over.

The whole folding process. I had a hard time taking these pics because they were going so fast! These little "nurses hats" were then boiled and added to soup. Great afternoon.

Long Weekend

Work gave us an extra day for the Fourth of July so I headed up to Blacksburg for the four-day weekend to see Mary and Dan. Had a lovely weekend with them just relaxing around the house, taking walks and doing a bit of photography.

We also had a full afternoon of yummy food on Sunday. Mary made some baked brie with her home-made black raspberry jam. Yum. Still dreaming of it, Mary!


These were some wild grapes we saw growing along the edge of a hiking path.

We took their dog, Dynamite, down to the New River so he could swim and play in the water. Lovely afternoon. Dyno is a character. I like to think he's the dog equivalent of Curdie - unusually good-looking, very intelligent and also slightly wacky. Curdie didn't get to see Dynamite this time, although I came back smelling suspiciously of his roommate of six weeks.

Norfolk Sunset

I was driving home the other night and saw this view of the sunset over Norfolk. So beautiful! I just had to stop to enjoy it.

Things are going well on this side. Work has been busy. I was sent up to Albany NY on Tuesday to deliver an important package for work. Initially I was just flying in and dropping off the documents with the local architect who met me in the airport lobby, but all flights out were canceled due to bad weather. Ended up spending a night there. Not bad. Got to watch TV for the first time in about 6 weeks - weird! Delays are much easier to handle when you're not itching to get somewhere - like back to SA and every day is precious holiday time you're missing out on! This was almost a mini-vacation (without a toothbrush and extra clothes!)

I've also been helping out a lot at the SPCA. Last week they took in 32 poodles they'd rescued from a puppy mill in Pennsylvania and I went in to take photos of the process. They were so dirty and stinky from sitting in their own muck for weeks - poor things, but they were showered and given haircuts and were ready for adoption two days later. And they were so affectionate - amazing since this was probably the most human interaction they'd ever had.

My Street

Today at work one of the preservation architects did a lunch-time presentation on the Historic Downtown District where I am now blessed to live. It was really fascinating. Who knew that in the late 1790's the street I now call home was THE street to live on Norfolk?

Two hundred and ten years later I can see why. It's just lovely.

Pulling out the red carpet

An update for Mama K: Here's the boy on his favourite rug. He's still really not used to the new place - it must smell really different, everything is strange and the construction on our street makes him panic.

But since I moved in the rest of my furniture he's been much happier. He rolled around on the big red rug for what seemed like hours the first night it was out. Now that smells like home! All he needs now is Mama K and Tommy back. :)

New home...

After a great 6 weeks living with very gracious friends, I'm half-moved in to my new home in the Freemason district. It's beautiful here. I went for a walk this evening down to the water and just soaked it all in - the quaint old buildings, the cobble-stone streets, couples enjoying drinks on their porches at sunset. It's also really wonderful being able walk everywhere - to the grocery store, to work... I could even walk to church if I could get up early enough to make it there on time! Sigh... very happy here and very blessed by how it has all worked out.

The Curdster is back from Blacksburg. I wish he was as happy as I am in our new place. With all the moving around he's been a bit of a wreck. Last Sunday he disappeared for about 6 hours. While I dragged loads of clothes etc. upstairs I let him out to explore. When I came back in he was gone - I couldn't find him anywhere! I was worried he'd escaped out of one of the doors. But no - he had squeezed himself underneath the dishwasher and was exploring the dark recesses of the building. Eventually I heard his plaintive cries as he started getting hungry. I lured him out with food and the hole was promptly blocked.