Visitors from England, 2024 – Part 5: Celebrating James’s birthday

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I’ve already talked about one of the biggest parts of James’s birthday celebration, the baseball game, but there were a couple of other features.

Presents! Of course, presents. They have an interesting tradition in the family of arranging the presents in the shape of the person’s new age and having them waiting for them when they emerge from the bedroom on their birthday.

In keeping with his enthusiasm for the game, but also cognizant that everything had to be toted onto a plane back to England,  James’s presents included several small baseball related items – some cards, glove oil, batting gloves, etc. and a new mitt from his proud grandparents (i.e. myself and my husband). Along with some games and puzzles, his parents also gave him a card for a trip to a local zoo, with the privilege of feeding the gorillas.

The baseball trip described in the previous post consumed much of the day, but later at home, we did celebrate with cake, candles, and a round of “Happy Birthday.” Note the baseball-themed cake, with decorations created mostly by his sister Freya.

Visitors from England, 2024 – Part 4: Baseball/James’s Birthday

Karen McCullough Posted on by

My son, Joe, has been a huge baseball fan for most of his life.  Even moving to England hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for the game. Through the magic of the MLB app, he can view games from overseas, though he usually has to do it the next morning due to the time difference.

For a while now, his son James has been joining him to watch games and begging to play it. Although he also loves the games he participates in at school in England, football (we’d call it soccer), rugby, and field hockey, he also is a baseball fan.

He knows that a visit to America is a chance to indulge that interest. He can watch some Atlanta Braves games on television in real time. And there is the chance to see actual professional baseball, though minor league, in person.

The one thing James told us he wanted to do for his eighth birthday was to go to a baseball game. Our local minor league team was not playing at home on that day. But they were playing their just-down-the-highway rivals in nearby Winston-Salem, the next city west of us, so fulfilling his wish was still feasible.

We bought tickets to a game there between the Grasshoppers and the Winston-Salem Dash , and we got so much more than our moneys’ worth, in all sorts of good ways.

To start with, it turned out the Dash and the Grasshoppers were playing a double-header to make up for an earlier rain-out. Two seven-inning games for the price of one!

The Dash’s stadium is somewhat smaller than the Hoppers’ and a bit less imposing, but still well-laid and with a lot of nice features. When we arrived, there was almost no one there, although the first game was already in progress. I’d guess no more than a hundred or so fans were present. We got to park very near the stadium, a nice bonus on a hot day.

We had assigned seats, but at that point those seats were in the baking sun. Since there were a plethora of open places, we settled in shadier accommodations along the first base line. James brought his brand-new glove, hoping to snag a foul ball, though we kept telling him the chances weren’t all that great.

Within ten minutes a foul ball was hit in our direction and landed just a few rows away. James and his dad took off to chase it. Another man found it before they did, but respecting an unwritten rule of baseball fandom (If a child is chasing a foul ball and an adult gets to it first, it’s considered good form to give it to the kid), he tossed the ball to James. And he didn’t even know it was James’s birthday! James was ecstatic. His day had been made. We gave the generous man a round of applause.

With so few people there, the Dash’s mascot, Bolt, working the crowd, came over and did some fake indignation over the Grasshoppers tee shirts and hats the children wore. He still willingly posed for pictures and high-fived with them.

The Hoppers won the first game. The half hour between games was just enough time to have lunch. Though in general we think the Grasshoppers’ stadium provides a better (and considerably cheaper) overall experience, I have to admit that the food possibilities were better there. There were more different stands and a greater variety, though those included dubious offerings like a concoction of a chopped-up Krispy Kreme Doughnut, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Not to mention the Heart Attack Hot Dog stand. No, I am totally not kidding.

We confined ourselves to more conventional hot dog and French fry offerings, but couldn’t resist the meals that came in a slightly too small batting helmets. James brought a couple of those home with him, too. And I have to admit, I thought their basic hot dog actually tasted better than the Hoppers’ version.

James with some of his game loot!

The second game was entertaining but didn’t go as well for the visiting team. The Hoppers lost that one, but the day’s bonuses weren’t finished. There were so few people that when it came time for the tee-shirt toss, Steph was easily able to catch one. It was really large, even on Freya, but she happily claimed it for a sleep tee, proud of the “Dash” logo on it.

A final bonus was the invitation for children to run the bases after the game. Of course, they had to be accompanied by an adult, and Joe seemed almost as eager as James and Freya for the opportunity.

A quick run from first base to home, high-fiving the Dash’s mascot at second and an oversized minion at third was the perfect way to top off a great experience.

Visitors from England, 2024 – Part 3: Greensboro Science Center

Karen McCullough Posted on by

The Greensboro Science Center isn’t exactly a hidden gem, since plenty of people know about it, but it’s still a local treasure. Any time we have children staying with us, it’s one of the must-visit places. And since they keep adding on and improving it, there are always new things to explore.

We arrived there early, just as they were opening at nine a.m., since the day promised to be warm and went directly to the outdoor zoo section first. Hitting that part early meant not only cooler temperatures but almost no crowds. After saying hello to the tortoises, the meerkats, and some of the birds, the children headed for what has proved to be the most popular feature with all of my grandkids – the treehouse play area.

The collection of four or five treehouses and a couple of platforms are connected by a network of rope bridges, net platforms, rough ladders, climbing areas, and slides. Inside the treehouse feature (I’m told) small rooms, mazes, and even a climbing wall. The children played on this for about an hour before we moved on to viewing the rest of the zoo.

The young pygmy hippopotamus was visible in their indoor retreat but positioned in a way that I couldn’t get a picture. We also saw the Cassowary, which looks like a giant dinosaur turkey, several varieties of cats, (some with kittens), flamingoes, maned wolves, and the lemurs. Sadly the tiger was lying low somewhere out of sight, so we missed him. The large dinosaur statues provided some interesting photo ops, however.

When we stopped in the viewing box for the lemurs, the children were having an apple snack. The lemurs either recognized by sight or more likely smelled the apples, because both of them quickly approached the viewing window and stared at us from just the other side of the glass for some time. One of them spent some time searching for an opening to get out of their enclosure and into the viewing nook. Fortunately, they failed to find any passage.

By that time it was getting quite warm and more crowded, so we moved inside and headed for the aquarium.

There we all got to pet the Rays and a small, lumpy creature they told us was a shark, though it didn’t look much like one. I thought it resembled a particularly ugly catfish, without the spiny whiskers. The Rays have a very odd surface texture. Not quite slimy and not quite spongy, but somewhere in between.

The aquarium has an extensive and varied display of creatures. I adore the little seahorses and am fascinated by the variety of corals, anemones, and jellyfish, but the real treat this time was the Giant Pacific Octopus. As many times as I’ve been to the Science Center aquarium, I’ve never gotten a good look at the octopus. He’s always folded up into some nook or cranny of the rock background. Not this time. He was out and displaying his gorgeous self to the world, with his tentacles spread across the glass and held there by the suckers, his purple head hanging in the water, eyeing the masses ogling him. Count us among the fascinated oglers.

We also spent time in a large room full of mazes and a variety of other brain-teasing puzzles that kept us occupied for quite a while. Finally we ate the lunch we’d brought, topped off by ice cream from The Meerkat Café. A visit to the butterfly garden finished off the day in a lovely manner.

Visitors from England, 2024 – Part 2: A Trip to the Coast

Karen McCullough Posted on by
Heading for the pool in Uncle Alan and Aunt Liz's golf cart

Heading for the pool in Uncle Alan and Aunt Liz’s golf cart

A few days after my son and his family arrived from England, we all traveled from Greensboro to Beaufort, North Carolina to visit my oldest daughter and her husband, Aunt Liz and Uncle Alan to the children. Liz and Alan own a boat repair business near the coast. Their housing development also has a pool that everyone happily jumped into.

For a bonus, Liz’s daughter, Melanie was visiting at the same time, with her son (my great-grandson) Vinny. Although she lives in Greensboro, we don’t get to see them often enough. Freya and James had a blast playing with Vinny in between all the other activities on the long weekend.

The Olympics started that weekend and they made a nice background to the other things we did, providing entertainment and conversation starters when things got quieter.

On Sunday, Alan took us for a boat excursion around the Back Sound and out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore and the beach that sits in the shadow of the hulking Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Along the way we got a view of the city of Beaufort from the water and even saw a group of wild horses milling around on the shore of one of the protected islands of the Rachel Carson Wildlife Preserve.

We spent some time on the beach, with the children dabbling and swimming in the calm, clear water. Some of us walked up to the lighthouse, though we came to regret doing that barefoot, since the sand in some places was really hot. Afterward we had a picnic lunch on the boat before returning. (Boat picture from Stephanie McCullough.)

   

         

     

On Monday we checked out the pier and a few shops in Atlantic Beach before returning for a great dinner of shrimp and fish fillets cooked on the grill by Alan.

Tuesday meant a trip to New Bern, a town with a lot of history and some very neat shops and places to eat. We skipped the old governor’s mansion, which is worth a visit, but we’d done it before.

Instead we stopped in at the Birthplace of Pepsi museum, a modest storefront selling Pepsi products in bottles as well as ice cream and a variety of souvenirs. They do have a nice display of older bottles and promo items for Pepsi products. Since my son is a major consumer of Mountain Dew, when he can get it, the place pressed a few of his buttons.

We checked out a couple of wonderful shops, including one that featured marvelous blown-glass items by local artists. Prices were way out of my range, but I still admired the wonderful creativity and artistry on display. After a great lunch at Captain Morgan’s eatery, we hit a couple more shops, including a neat candy shop that had a variety of old-fashioned candies before heading for home.

Later that day some of the family went to a local arcade where the owner refurbishes and sells game machines popular in the eighties and nineties. While waiting for them to sell he leaves them available for use. And, as my son explained, since they’re older, they still have the older prices. You can play games for a quarter! Ten dollars worth of quarters kept them all entertained for a couple of hours.

The next day we bid a melancholy farewell and headed back to Greensboro.

A Visit from the Family in England – August 2024

Karen McCullough Posted on by

My son lives in England, along with his British wife and two children. We don’t get to see them nearly as often as I’d like, but we did just have a wonderful two-week visit.

(Click on the pictures for larger versions)

After a small adventure with the rental car before they even got here – more on that later, maybe – we picked them up at the airport in Raleigh, about an hour’s drive from our home in Greensboro. As expected, they were pretty much wiped out from the trip, so we took it easy for a bit. Their flight was good, even though the food was bad, so they were glad to get a real meal here.

By the next morning, though, the children were ready for a trip to our local playground to work out some energy.

 

We ventured out for some shopping – new shoes for Freya, 10, and some sports equipment for James, almost 8. A number of things were bought covertly for James since he would be celebrating his birthday while they were here. A few other things for the children. Grandma doesn’t get to indulge them nearly as often as she’d like.

The children’s number one wish was to get to a baseball game at our local minor league affiliate, the Greensboro Grasshoppers. We’d arranged the timing of the visit to be sure they would be in town for at least part of the time.

After a day of rest and recovery, we made it to a ‘Hoppers game the next night. The experience was a huge success. The Hoppers played a great game, one with lots of action and lots of scoring, mostly by the home team. The adults enjoyed it and the children at it up…along with the hot dogs, Cracker Jack, and ice cream, which might have contributed to their enthusiasm.

Whatever. We all had a great time. And there were even better baseball experiences to come, but that’s another post entirely.

(Right is Freya with Guilford the Grasshopper, the Grasshoppers’ Mascot)

The July Garden

Karen McCullough Posted on by

It’s hot, hot, hot, here in central North Carolina. Daytime highs are in the upper eighties, often climbing over ninety. As is frequently the case, it’s also dry. Summer means occasional thunderstorms provide most of the rain. Until a couple of days ago, when we finally got some significant downpours, they haven’t happened here in the last couple of weeks.

The weeds are amazingly undiscouraged by the heat and dry conditions, but I do have to water frequently to keep the flowers and shrubs healthy. In fact, the gardens need weeding pretty badly, but I have to limit myself to short stints, in the cooler part of the day.

I also now have a hole in the border along my back fence, where I’d transplanted some strawflower seedlings. The seedlings were coming along nicely until one morning in June when I went outside to look and discovered that every single plant had disappeared, gnawed all the way down to the ground by some hungry critter. There are plenty of suspects: rabbits, chipmunks, and moles are common. Unfortunately, a combination of being busy with some other projects, a minor injury that took me out of commission for a week or so, and dangerous heat levels have meant I haven’t really had the time or opportunity to get replacement plants. Such is the gardener’s life. Not everything will survive or thrive.

On the other hand, the gladiolas are putting on their brief but stunning show, the daisies (African and Shasta) are covered in blooms, and the zinnias are brilliantly colorful. I divided most of the daylilies this spring, which suppresses the number of flowers this year but will yield better results in the future. The roses are putting out what will likely be their last round of blossoms until fall. They hate the heat and mostly shut down operations until temperatures cool down again.

Right now it’s mostly about keeping things alive and growing through the hottest days of summer. And enjoying some pretty arrangements of blooms inside, and time spent in the glider or chair outside in the garden.

Writing Update

Karen McCullough Posted on by

It’s been an up and down last couple of months on the writing front. With a beach trip and family visits, writing time has been limited and I’ve been distracted.

Put that together with hitting a bit of a wall on the current work in progress, Unleashed for Murder, and receiving some helpful feedback on the previously finished draft for Treadwell House – Sanctuary, I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern. On the novel, front, anyway. I have still been writing. I’ve finished a couple of short stories that are now in submission and another one that’s almost done.

Unleashed is right about at the halfway point, but I’ve realized it has some structural issues, so I may have to go back and rewrite some of it. And I need to do some rewriting on Treadwell to deepen some of the tensions and add more conflict. Plus the descriptions need to be amped up. I’m kind of excited about doing that.

Chihuly Exhibit at Biltmore

Karen McCullough Posted on by

We recently made a trip to the Asheville area for some family business, but we also had some time for a side trip to Biltmore House and, especially, to see the Chihuly glass art exhibit.

Note: click on all pictures for a larger version.

I’ve long loved glass works and been fascinated by the process of glass blowing and shaping. The way light plays around and through the material is endlessly intriguing.

As an artistic medium it has an enormous range of possibilities. And I don’t know of anyone who has explored and pushed the limits of the art of glass-working as much as Dale Chihuly.

Seeing some of his masterworks was truly awe-inspiring. The range of imagination and the creativity on display simply overwhelmed. So many forms, colors, textures, sizes, and embedded designs made a feast for the eye. Even more, they invited and repaid closer study with subtle detailing and intricate mixes.

My pictures can’t do these works of art justice. They have a weight, a presence, a bit of humor in their inspiration that compels attention.

The cylinders and soft cylinders are delightful with their brilliant, eccentric shapes and unique embedded designs. The trees and chandeliers, made from hundreds of narrow glass tubes, are a visual delight.

The Persian ceiling looms above you and bathes you in a gorgeous array of colors and patterns filtering the light above it. The effect is stained glass on steroids, allowed to go beserk, yet never forgetting its mission to be beautiful.

But beyond every other piece or grouping, the enormous Mille Fiori is truly the masterpiece. It was displayed in a large room of its own with a number of benches scattered around, because it’s the kind of piece you want to sit and spend some time with.

The Persian Ceiling

It features possibly a hundred or so square feet of alien garden composed of individual glass pieces, sculpted into a huge variety of shapes, curves, textures, colors, sizes, and opacities. The colors are rich and saturated, vivid and glowing. Lit from above, in a mostly dark room, set on a reflective black surface, it’s so compelling you almost want to climb into and revel in the world it creates.

That’s discouraged, of course, and the impulse is counter-balanced by a reluctance to harm the perfection of the various pieces.

Mille Fiori

As a writer, I instinctively feel there must be lessons I can glean from the piece that I can apply to my writing. What are the analogues for brilliant color in unlikely combinations that shouldn’t work but do? How do I present so many varied forms, shapes, and textures through the medium of words? Does each separate piece stand in for a character? A scene? A bit of dialogue? How does the tension between curves, corkscrews, shallow bowls, and straight uprights work to produce a piece with wild variations and a sense of completeness?

Oddly, seeing the Mille Fiori has given me some ideas for how to approach editing a manuscript I recently completed, one which I know has problems. The work has me considering whether each bit of dialogue, paragraph of narration, suggestion of characterization, action sequence, etc. is as polished and deeply textured as I can make it. And does it blend in with the overall whole both smoothly, but not too smoothly — in a way that generates tension toward creating a cohesive whole?

I’ve realized that I sometimes indulge in lazy writing. I take the easy, shallow way to bring a story to life, showing just the surface, instead of digging into it for the deeper, richer color or more intriguing shape. I smooth over the competing rough textures instead of seeking to rub them together for the sparks they could generate.

But that’s what rewrites are for. The first draft gets the story down on paper. Revisions explore the nooks and crannies and unexpected twists and turns, sharpening the shapes, smoothing the curves, finding the different textures, and making the rich colors glow. I hope I can carve up, polish, and reshape this work into something far better than it is now.

I’ve uploaded more pictures from the exhibit to my Facebook feed at https://www.facebook.com/karenmccullough