Ship Island

Yesterday I took the ferry out to Ship Island with a couple friends from work. This is one of the barrier islands 11 miles off the coast of Mississippi. It takes about an hour to get out to it and no, the oil is not there. The water is cleaner than where I live, though, so you can get in and swim. There is also an old Civil War fort on the island called Fort Massachusetts as well as a snack bar and shaded pavilion.

On an unrelated note, this is a Biloxi sunset from my front porch. Enjoy.

On the way out to the island there were a ton of pelicans. They sit on top of the poles that are marking who-knows-what out in the Gulf.

This is a fishing boat we passed. Apparently we don't like these because the particular fish it catches and/or method used to catch said fish really disturbs the environment. It was hard to hear the overhead speaker so I'm not clear on the details.

Coming up to the island you see Fort Massachusetts first.

Closer view of the fort.

Friendly ranger that will take you on a free tour of the fort. I passed, straight to the beach for me.

You walk about 1/3 of a mile to the beach along a boardwalk. This is what it looks like most of the way.


Someone carved Spongebob into the sand!

Looking down the beach. There is a tower where lifeguards monitor swimmers. On the way out you're told to shuffle your feet as you walk in the water to scare up the stingrays so they don't sting you. I didn't do this and I was fine. Also, there was a kid catching baby jellyfish right near shore...I'm starting to think this water isn't so safe. It sure was warm though!

For a fee you can rent chairs and umbrellas. The only shade on the island is the covered pavilion so it's not a bad idea. Unfortunately it costs $20 for one umbrella and two chairs. I'm too cheap to pay that!

On the ride home dolphins were jumping in the wake of the ferry. I was only fast enough to catch this one but there were two jumping together.

Meet Ricardo

This is my new pitcher plant. They sell them in the commissary here, which is the base version of a grocery store. I saw them every time I went, then this last time I went there was only one left. I decided to finally buy it. It's a carnivorous plant, so bugs are attracted to the pitchers, fall in, and the plants digest them. I killed a couple mosquitoes and dropped them in to get him started. I named him Ricardo.

This is Ricardo hanging on the front porch. Apparently they love humidity so he should thrive here.

My garden! Everything's growing now. I had to thin out the tomatoes and put some in the annex. So far, so good.

Garden closeup by special request from Robin.

I also decided to give Chowly her first Biloxi haircut. This is the before picture. I had to spread the haircut out over a couple days because the razor was dull and could only cut parts of her the first day. Then I had to go buy a new one and finish up. She looked bad that first day, real bad.

This is the after picture! It's only a coincidence that she looks angry here, I'm sure she's actually much cooler and therefore happier...

In other news, I graduate from my nurse training in only a couple more weeks. After that I'll be working on the medical floor on orientation for 10 shifts and finally I'll be set free. I'll be working nights for the first four or so months, which I've never done before so hopefully it goes well. Eek, we'll see.

The Cemetery and Such

I have three days of in a row this week so I thought I'd wonder around the streets by my house and take some pictures. I started in the cemetery. The oldest grave I found was of someone born in 1812 that died in 1895. Sadly, there are a lot of teenagers and children buried here- some of them very recently, like three months ago recent. Also, lots of gravestones have pictures on them of the people laying underneath, it's weird and sad and creepy.

The cemetery is one street behind my house. I come here a lot to walk the dogs and ride my bike. I was unaware, until today, that there was a bee problem.

The people of Biloxi love them some Mary. It's kind of hard to see here but there are 7 statues of Mary just in this one picture, which represents less than 1/4 of the entire cemetery.

I stumbled across this and thought perhaps the Brown family could invest in one so that we can spend eternity together.

But then I looked inside...you can't go in, I tried. You can, however, peak in the windows. The silhouette you see is an angel standing on a table. Resting at her feet is a large key ring with several huge keys on it. I'm talking BIG skeleton-key style keys. Why on earth would you need a key to a grave?? I left immediately and decided not to pursue a Brown Family Monument. Or maybe if we just don't have keys...

One of several amazing trees in the cemetery. This one happens to be my favorite.

Another tree, obviously.

A grave marker peeking around a stump. Kind of cute in a non-traditional sense of the word.

And for those of you who are wondering, no, the oil has not hit here yet. My beach is behind the barrier islands, though. From what I hear some of those have some oil blobs but I think they were still part of Alabama.

I'll keep you posted. This is one of many large drain pipes that empty at the beach. Apparently they connect to the streets and drain the rain water.

My Day Off

This is my first trip to the beach with the dogs. We had a lot of fun. At first I didn't let them off the leash because I thought they'd head out to sea and never come back. Turns out if I yell loud enough, they listen. That's Biloxi in the background. The beach right by my house doesn't allow dogs so we came to this one which is about five minutes down the road.

I just thought these looked cool. I'm pretty sure they serve no purpose.

This is one of several huge dead fish that the dogs sniffed. It was nasty and I'm not sure why there were so many. They were mostly heads attached to skeletons, too, which was weird.

This is my garden. Every section is growing! Any day now they'll be ready for picking...

This is me at work. You can tell this is towards the end of my shift based on the exhausted look on my face and the level of frazzledness that my hair has taken on. I'm much peppier looking at 545 in the morning when the shift starts. Wait, no I'm not, that's a lie.

Growing Day 2

Only a couple days into growing season and already I've got little sprouts sprouting! It's only a matter of time before all my food will be home grown...or at least the six things I planted. Yay!

Check out those zinnias! (They're the little ones behind the fence). So many have already sprouted!

This is the cilantro that I transplanted from the indoor pot. The roots smelled like cilantro when I dug them up! Seems obvious, I know, but still exciting.

I'm A Gardener!

I started a garden today. I think it will go well. I planted zinnias, chives, cilantro, oregano, peppers, sweet basil, and tomatoes. The downfall to this plan is that I have no idea how to garden or when I should plant want or how to actually make things grow. So I'm hoping that all of these will thrive with nothing but my love and some water. We'll see.

These are the peppers (left) and cilantro (right) that I will soon transfer to my garden. I just don't want to yet because they're doing so well- I fear they may die outside.

This is my garden! There aren't any drain holes in the bottom of the giant pot but there's a crack down each side so I hope that will be an effective drain. The little pot on the ground has nothing in it...yet.

Sparti sitting in the garden!

Garden close up. Behind the tiny wire fence are the zinnias.

In case you were expecting more pictures, you should know that the large pot itself is the whole garden. And the little pot will be the garden annex, whenever I figure out what to put in it.

Mom visits Biloxi

My mom came down to see me this weekend! Actually, I think she was just ready to get rid of my dogs, but I'm going to think that she really missed me. The good news is that the weather was beautiful and I didn't have to work too much. The bad news is that I came down with a fever Thursday night and by Friday it was over 101. I went to the doctor and got a prescription but I'm pretty sure tonsilitis has struck again and it's only a matter of time before I get it for the fourth, that's right, FOURTH time this year. Luckily, I feel okay if you don't count the fever or the feeling of glass being lodged in my throat every time I swallow. Here, however, are the pictures from her visit and a few other things.

This is at the picnic the previous NTP students had for the current students. I took my mom and we ate all sorts of delicious food. (She just didn't want to be in any pictures.)

This is a dead fish we saw on the beach. Most were marked with little flags, I have no idea why. This guy did not have a little flag.

This is my mom wading out to show how far you can go and still only be up to your ankles. She could have gone a good bit farther. I'm not sure why but the water doesn't get deep until you go waaaay out.

Another dead fish. My shoe is there for size comparison. Note the little flag.

Another dead fish!

A dead sea turtle. I could say it's from the oil spill but that'd be a lie since it's not here yet. I really don't know why this guy is here but it appears he's been dead for some time.

These are all the dogs that came to see me. I think they like cruising around my back yard. The house is a little crowded but it's not too bad.

This is the crock pot I bought while my mom was here. Apparently you can cook a lot of delicious meals pretty easily in these things and this one was on sale so it was a win-win situation. The chunk of meat in there is about to become pulled pork. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE:

This is the s'more making fire I built in my backyard fire pit.

My mom and I making our first s'mores!

S'more making is serious business.

But it can also be fun!

S'more self-portrait.

My mom excited to be eating s'mores!

(Side-note: the words in the background were written by the former owner of the house. She was apparently a very 'free spirit' and may or may not be currently living in a renovated school bus down by the ocean. Seriously.)

This was way tastier than the look on my face implies.

My first ever homemade pulled-pork: pre-sauce.

My first ever homemade pulled-pork: post-sauce. Next to my first ever homemade pulled-pork sandwich. I couldn't taste it because of my sore throat but my mom said it was the best pulled-pork sandwich she ever ate. And I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with the fact her daughter made it- it was just that delicious. I love my mom. Happy Mother's Day!