Nice Shabbat - Day 1005 (Year 3, Day 273)

Lexington, NC

It was a lovely, restful, peaceful day as hoped.  The weather was mostly nice (partly sunny, in the low 70s), so we were able to sit outside, facing the lake, to pray.  We both always find it a bit more spiritually uplifting being outside, and even more so when it's in a scenic setting.

Our Shabbat walk was very nice as we explored the campground a bit more.  So many trailers are left here for the year and I expect this place will be hopping in a few weeks when the season opens and folks return.  When we walked down by the lake, we not only saw my turtle, but the rest of the family: baby and parent sitting on a log and the other parent swimming nearby.  We watched the crane (or heron) fly by, and lots of ducks either swimming or walking around.  There are also quite a lot of bird species here.  I commented that it would be great to see them a bit closer and Mitch reminded me that we do own a pair of binoculars!  I found them and used them and had a wonderful time scoping the trees and looking for birds.  So far, I've identified Carolina wrens and nuthatchers, but I know I have more to figure out.

We also have weekend neighbors, who just finished a year long project of a school bus conversion and this was their maiden voyage (they're from Midland, NC, about 50 miles from here):  grandparents, parent and 2 kids.  Thankfully no dogs.  Absolutely beautifully handcrafted inside and out.  They were nice.  We got to talking a little, but didn't really do any hanging out.