12.13- Spirit of Christmas & Luminaries, Part Three

Luminaries along Hodges Street at the close of Oriental's Spirit of Christmas celebration
(Click on image or here for full size)

This year's Oriental Spirit of Christmas celebration concluded today with a host of activities that included the Spirit of Christmas street parade and the post-parade luminary-illuminated streets.

FOR MANY MORE PICTURES OF SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES AND LUMINARIES,
SEE MY POST FOR TODAY AT "THE DINGHY DOCK"

12.12- Spirit of Christmas Boat Parade

A sailboat decorated with lighted forestay and backstay follows a lighted power boat in the Spirit of Christmas nighttime Boat Parade

(Click on image or here for full size)

After sunset today, a fleet of lighted and decorated boats paraded from Whittaker Creek to Oriental Marker No. 3 and back, as spectators watched from Lou-Mac Park and the South Avenue waterfront.

It was a bit difficult to capture the boats on camera as they passed about a half-mile away out in the Neuse River, but I like how the above time exposure shot shows the motion of the boat in the squiggly trails left by each of its many lights hanging along the forestay and backstay(check out the full size version to see the squigglies) They remind me of a seismograph output, or the medical monitors on the hibernation pods in "2001 Space Odyssey."

I have for the past few days been indulging in not quite sticking to the "Photo" (singular) part of the "City Daily Photo" concept, and I was tempted to do so again today...

But I must really stop that: that is why I have another blogsite, after all.

So, you can see more photos of tonight's Boat Parade, decorated boats, caroling crowd, and lighting of the "Spirit of Christmas Star" at my other blog, "The Dinghy Dock.""

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12.09- Luminary assembly, Part One

Candles for luminaries are "pre-lighted" on the lawn of the Toucan Bar in preparation for the "Spirit of Christmas" parade

Oriental's annual "Spirit of Christmas" parade is coming up on December 13. That means it's time to assemble the 3000 luminaries (little paper bag lanterns) that will line Oriental's streets for the parade.


Parade Elf Lori Wagoner supervised the process, which this year took place at the Toucan Bar on the grounds of Oriental Marina & Inn.

The first step in the assembly process was to fold 3000 bags and "pre-light" 3000 candles.

The candles were each lit and allowed to burn a few minutes before being blown out and put back in their boxes.

This makes it easier to light the thousands of candles once they are in their bags and in place along the streets.

While the candle lighting took place out on the lawn, other volunteers folded the bags on the deck and inside the Toucan bar.

Parade Elf Lori Wagoner displays the "Bag Folding 101" instructional poster
(Click on picture or here for full size)

Folding the tops of the bags down provides some structural rigidity to the luminaries. The army of volunteer bag folders enjoyed some beverages and fun company during the arduous task:

The next steps will be performed another day... filling little sandbags, placing the sandbags in the paper bags, placing the candles in the bags, and lining up the finished luminaries for delivery.

You can follow the whole process right here over the next few days.

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12.06- Village music (Skywatch Friday is prior post, below)

A band plays in Oriental's old village, next to the Fulcher Seafood Market store on the corner of Hodges Street and South Water Street

I wish I knew the name of this band... I think it was "Hot Buttered" something or other...

They were a vast improvement over the usual "wedding bands" that play around here (you know... everyone's favorite 50's, 60's, etc. pop tunes, from "Ride Sally Ride" to "Sweet Home Alabama")

I guess these guys might be called a "jam-band," whatever that means. The songs, instruments, lyrics and arrangements were far from the usual rock'n'roll standards bands that play the wedding receptions and Tiki Bar throughout the spring and summer.

This is the first live outdoor music since the contentious "noise ordinance" Town Board meeting of earlier in the week (See post of Dec. 2, below)

No word yet on any complaints. I sure had none for this band.

[12/09 Update: today's Pamlico News weekly newspaper reports complaints were made... the paper reports three different complaints, but doesn't make clear whether they all came from the same source or from different homes]

In any case, no rioting in the streets... just good music, a warm fire, and dozens of Christmas trees on the corner lot.

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12.05- Celestial alignment - Skywatch Friday

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter in alignment

My "Skywatch Friday" photo this week comes from the night of December 1, 2008.

The waxing crescent Moon flew past Venus and Jupiter tonight (in the picture, Venus and Jupiter are seen through the tree... Venus is the second brightest object in the sky, with Jupiter the third)

This is apparently an astronomical rarity.

The steeple in the foreground belongs to the new Bethany Christian Church in the nearby burg of Arapahoe, NC.

The new church replaces one that burned down on June 25 of 2007.

You can see the story of Bethany Church's corporeal destruction and inspiring rebirth at their blog site.

I had a hard time balancing between the very bright moon and the relatively dimmer (but still bright to the naked eye) Venus and Jupiter... Some pictures showed the moon better, more like the crisp crescent it was, but Venus and Jupiter were just too dim in those shots. I picked this picture because the planets show up well, even though the moon as a consequence is overexposed.

It was an awesome sight, particularly out in the country away from the few towns around here.

HAPPY SWF EVERYONE!
I look forward to seeing the other Skywatch pictures from around the world on the other SWF sites listed at:


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8.24- Sunday Night Shrimping in Oriental Harbor

Trails of light left by small boats shrimping in Oriental Harbor.

Sunday through Friday is shrimping time in NC, and Oriental Harbor is no exception.

There is a shrimping curfew from Friday midnight to Sunday noon, which is why there are dozens of large commercial trawlers docked in the harbor on the weekend (as seen in the banner photo at the top of this blog), and almost none during the week... Local lore has it that the Sunday noon ending time is so commercial shrimping crews can go to church, which is a bit of a laugh...

While most of the large commercial trawlers that operate out of Oriental (featured in the header photo at the top of this blog) are out shrimping in Pamlico Sound, Oriental Harbor hosts many local shrimpers in much smaller boats (see my post of July 22 for a daytime picture of "Play'n Hookey," a vessel similar to the ones leaving the light trails in today's pictures).

The small boat shrimpers circle around in a complex dance around Oriental Harbor and the channel into the Neuse River, towing their nets and periodically stopping to haul their nets and separate their catch... shrimp are kept, while untold hordes of mullet, menhaden and other minnows so prolific in local estuaries are unceremoniously dumped overboard (usually dead or dying).

Sunday night sees the heaviest small shrimper traffic of the week, with a dozen to twenty or so boats working the waters.

After sunset the boats putter around in almost complete darkness, most of the time with only their navigational lights on... Spotlights are used intermittently to illuminate obstacles (shoreline, other shrimping boats, anchored sailboats, channel markers, bridge piers, and the buoys that float above the ends of each boat's net), and deck lights turn on when it is time to haul in the full nets and separate the catch. All these lights contributed to today's photo.

The soft glow in the sky on the right side of today's photo comes from the lights of Beaufort and Morehead City, about 20 miles to the South. You can barely see the glow at night with the naked eye, but it becomes more pronounce in this time exposure photo.

Some of the boats have music playing on board; tonight I heard some AC/DC and Led Zeppelin as the boats passed near the bridge from which I was shooting pictures.

Technical info: this picture was taken with a Canon Rebel XTI, with the following settings: ISO 400, f.5.6, with exposure time of just under 8 minutes.

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