Rainy Season
Getting ready to head for the coast for our traditional celebration of the autumn equinox (this year on September 22nd). This closes the season on a lush summer which saw our groundwater in Albemarle County replenished for the first time since the great drought half a dozen years ago. I can hear the creek at night just like when I first came to the hollow in 1985. I would have dreams of murmuring conversations and wake to the lullaby of the creek.
For the first time in many years, we do not head back to the cottage at Jennette’s Pier at Nag’s Head, for many reasons. Family and friends beckon from Wilmington and Southport and we will see Ocracoke, our honeymoon lo, nearly 28 years ago, but the real reason is the fake beach we found last year.
I remember never knowing how the coast line would be re-figured each visit, after the various hurricanes and storms that etched the Outer Banks most every fall. Sometimes we tip-toed along a narrow strip of sand up against steep dunes carved out by the waves and had to hurry back before the tide came in.
After the final bit of the old wooden pier got washed away from Isabel, they re-built a giant one out of concrete that needed a guaranteed wide beach for weddings and surfer conventions. Thank God for Pea Island Reserve a few miles south, but this part of the Banks is gone forever.
I have relished for many years heading out from our hollow in the foothills down through the piedmont, toward the coast and shore, and teaching the first Sustainable Landscape has made me even more aware of the precious ecologies of our region. The documentary Ribbons of Sand celebrates this fragile heritage.
Off we go.