Homemade Parade part 2

As promised more photos from the Homemade Parade in Hillsborough, NC.

The ice queen?

More of the five-lined skink.

I really liked the blue winged women.

This face was 6 foot tall or so, huge!

Lots of drummer at the parade, really enjoyed watching and listening to them.

Kissing frogs!

Handmade Parade 2012

Yesterday I just happened into the Homemade Parade in Hillsborough, NC. Meg and I were at the second Handmade Parade in 2009, see my blog post. Meg was visiting with her Mom and got there just in time for the parade with a back up camera, I did not have my camera with me.

This heron was as wide as the entire road!

 The Five-lined Skink was my personal favorite this year!

 Lots of kids had their handmade costumes.

The parade seemed to be about twice as big as the Homemade Parade was in 2009. Sure wish I could keep up with stuff like this so I never miss it.

Thanks to Meg for saving the day and bringing the camera! I have more photos if you would like to see more?

The garden mid August

I've been cutting Bronze Fennel for Meg the past few mornings for her class room caterpillars. We decided they had enough fennel this morning. I did a quick count of the cats in our garden, 31 was what I came up with, Meg has 22 in her class room. So 31 cats here eating up the fennel like crazy, I think we have enough. In past years we have had 4-5 dozen cats on our fennel. Those of you growing dill or parsley for Black Swallowtails, you never have enough, Bronze Fennel grows to 6 foot lots of food get some.

These Black Swallowtail cats were not posed in the garden, lots and lots.

Donkey, he's some very cool yard art Meg bought me for my birthday last month.

Stray cantaloupe from our compost. It is huge. Please tell me how does one know when these are ripe? Alice?

The stray Butternut Squash, we have 4 huge ones like the one shown above, note it is 3 inches wide at the base to give you a sense of scale. We have 4 more coming o n like the one shown below, it is 6 foot up in a willow tree. This is a monster plant.

A few local notes about local things going on.

 First Paperhand Puppets are having weekend shows in Chapel Hill, we plan on going Saturday. This year it is "City of Frogs" can't wait to go, we'll do a post on it for sure. They'll be preforming every Friday Saturday and Sunday until September 9th at the Forest Theater. And the following weekend(Sept 14,15and 16) at the Museum of Art in Raleigh. Please don't miss it.

This coming Sunday is the Durham Butterfly Count, I'll be leading a group looking for butterflies. We'll have 6-7 parties of people out looking for butterflies. Contact me if you want to go.

Oh, the last thing public schools teachers just sign new contracts for less money, longer hours and smaller class budgets. Way to go Republicans, tax the rich and make sure teachers, policemen and firemen get paid what they deserve!

The End is near.....

For our pond this is. It looks like the pond will be dried up by Tuesday! I'm thinking at this point we have more water in the two rain totes (about 350 gallons) than the pond has water. Pretty sad considering hurricane Irene has left devastating floods all up the east coast and just gave us winds with a tiny bit of rain.

 We do not have fish, not having fish is good for the frogs and dragonflies. So we'll loose a lot of tadpoles and some dragonfly larva and damselfly larva. I think some might be able to bury themselves in the mud and survive. The pond dried up in 2008, the recovery was not too bad. I'm sure we'll have wonderful frog concerts next spring just the same.

For forecast currently is spotty for rain. These 1/8  and 1/4 inch rains only coat the top of the ground and dry up very quickly. What we need is several rains of 2+ inches to bring the pond back. Hurricane Bob years ago overflowed the pond, the only time I have seen it overflow in the 14 years I have lived here.

Just wanted to remind any local people visiting this blog that The Paperhand Puppet Intervention show will have the last three shows in Chapel Hill this weekend. Next weekend it will be at the Raleigh Art Museum. We went last night it was a lot of fun, should not be missed. They also have a parade you can see my photos from October 2009 it was a blast. Last night guess what? I forgot my camera....

Homemade Parade More Photos

Folks,

More from the Hillsborough, NC Second Annual Homemade Parade. I heard that Paperhand Puppets held community workshops to prepare for the parade, likely sponsored by the town of Hillsborough and the Orange County Arts Council.


Miss Piggy?

Two heads are better than one...

The band after the parade playing the Saints Come Marching Home.

Drumming jam session after the parade.


Duel between the Preying Mantis and the big spider!!

So much enjoy these tall ladies. They are even taller than me.

One of the band playing during the parade.

The juggling clown every parades needs at least one. The pileated woodpecker in the back was carried by the local Museum's butterfly house director.

The frogs were calling and so cute.

Handmade Parade!

Today Hillsborough, NC had their second Handmade Parade. Last year we missed it and stopped in town only to see a couple of people carrying costumes. Meg had a hair appointment in Hillsborough and I grabbed her camera and waited for the parade.

Well the parade was more than I expected. VisitPaperhand.org If you get the chance in late summer be sure to check out the Paperhand Puppet Intervention this is their mission statement.

This gal IMO won the best costume award. She really rode that bird.

The Preying Mantis was pretty cool and you got to love the sun creature.


This Monarch kiddo was a milkweed with caterpillars and an adult Monarch butterfly. She surely had the best kids costume.

I didn't get this at first. The blue is our Eno River and all the creatures that live in it, very creative.


There were three of these girls dancing about, very fun to watch them play.

Team work and some kids homemade puppets.


Did I ever tell you we live in the land of Paperhand Puppets. I took 300 photos today and edited them down to 63, here are 10 of just the parade and not the party afterwords. Anyone want to see more?