Bald Head Island - a quiet, beautiful place.

Want to know what’s weird? I have a blog post up on The Island Times, Bald Head Island Limited’s blog, about silence. It has some recordings you should listen to. Recordings of silence.

I know what you’re thinking – Recordings of silence? Impossible? But no, not impossible. Just like Bob Weir recording “heavy air” and “light air” to use on the Anthem of the Sun album, I have some recordings of silence on Bald Head Island.

Before you go read the post and listen to the sounds of silence (sorry S&G-funkle), read my story, Silence, in this year’s haven magazine. The link is here. Once you’ve read the story and have an idea of what I mean by silence, visit The Island Times, read the post and listen for yourself. Then go out and find some silence of your own.

For Wrightsville Beach Magazine I went to Brunswick Town, one of the first long-term settlements in the colony of North Carolina. Brunswick Town was an important shipping center and was the site of the first Stamp Act Rebellion, a (mostly) nonviolent (well, no one was killed but there was an angry mob and a small siege on the Colonial Governor’s house) protest against the Stamp Act, a tax on all paper goods in the colonies. The town played an important part in the Revolution in North Carolina and later played a significant role in the Civil War and an even bigger part in the events just after the war. Well, If I tell you any more you won’t need to read the article. So, if you like history, or even if you don’t, you can read my story in Wrightsville Beach Magazine here.

Take a peek at haven, Bald Head Island's lifestyle magazine and visitor's guide. I have two stories in there.

haven comes out once a year and includes stories of the people, places and things that make Bald Head Island a great place to visit; it also includes rental and event information to help you plan a visit. You can visit Bald Head Island Limited’s site here and order a hard copy, or save some trees and read my stories on the online version of haven.

Flip through the magazine, but be sure to stop at pages 26 and 116 for my stories. On page 26 you’ll find a piece about standup paddleboarding, a new sport taking the world by storm. This was photographed by the awesome team at Millie Holloman Photography (there’s also a story about Millie and her family in this issue, written by my lovely wife) and the shots look great. In The Last Word, on page 116, I explore what it means to be silent and find silence on Bald Head Island. The story was inspired by Gordon Hempton’s book One Square Inch of Silence. You may find my take on that interesting.

Happy reading, and be sure to come back and look for more of my adventures on Bald Head Island throughout the year.

Ernie Brown, Spokescat for Teakettle Junction Productions.

Lauren and I have a cat, Ernestine Brown The Chocolate Kitty. She’s a good cat – little, playful, likes to sit on my lap. If you’d like to see what my typical workday is like, check out The Oatmeal’s recent comic, Cat vs Internet.

An anhinga (the snakebird) I saw while on Bald Head Island helping with the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count.

On January 2, I went over to Bald Head Island to help with the Audubon Society‘s Christmas Bird Count. I know what you’re thinking, The Christmas Bird Count? But it’s January. But that was the best time for bird counters on the Cape Fear Coast to get together.

I’m not an experienced birder, so I found myself attached to a friendly group who was happy to have a novice along. They even lent me some binoculars. The day was foggy and it was cold and you can read about it on The Island Times, the blog of Bald Head Island Limited.

Snowy palm tree in my neighborhood.

I miss snow. Living at the beach, we don’t see it much and it’s an even when we do, everyone down here in Wilmington panics and they forget how to drive and they buy all the bread, milk and toilet paper at Harris Teeter. The road crews down here are always caught off guard by snow, they don’t really have much equipment or many supplies (or really much experience) dealing with it, so an inch of snow will shut down the county for a day. Usually the threat of an inch of snow is enough to have the school board declare a snow day.

Yesterday, Sunday, was one such day. At 3 p.m. a note appeared at the top of the screen. “School Canceled – New Hanover County.” I laughed. Lauren laughed. The forecast was for snow and a “wintery mix” and every time the weather man has made this same forecast, the school board closes school and the public panics.

This morning it was cold, but clear. About a half hour after I got up I noticed the first snowflakes. A few minutes later I looked again – the car had some snow on the top. Over the next two hours it snowed about three inches. Now there’s a nice layer of sloppy, sleety, icy crap under three inches of beautiful snow. Since I work from home and Lauren was too, we took a quick walk around the block. Here are some photos.

Lauren in the snow.

Our house in the snow.

Lauren and I, self portrait with Android phone.

A beautifully decorated Christmas tree welcomed visitors to my in-laws' house on the Southport Christmas Homes Tour.

I’m fortunate enough to live near and have a great relationship with my in-laws. They live in Southport, NC, only 30-odd miles south of Wilmingtong, and I worked for a few years with my father-in-law, Bob Dzubak. Bob taught me to build cabinets and some key design principles and introduced me to the world of woodworking. My mother-in-law, Kathy, or KD, has a great eye for design. A few years ago, Bob and KD were looking to move out of a gated community and into the town of Southport, so Bob and I built a house. Well, we didn’t exactly build it, he hired framers and painters and all that, but we refined the layout and look of the house, designed, built and installed the cabinetry and built a beautiful home. This year KD decided to decorate in her usual way but put their home on the Christmas Homes Tour. Here are a few pictures showing off the house and the cabinetry. Enjoy, and Merry Chistmas.

It was a rainy day, but the house's holiday spirit couldn't be dampened.

A table-filling poinsettia greeted visitors on the Christmas Homes Tour.

There was a giant Santa in the TV room. He freaked me out a little (sorry, Santa).

A table full of Santas. I hope they bring me lots of presents.

KD festooned the breakfast bar with live greens and fruit. The pomegranates were my favorite.

No detail was spared, even the shelves above the butcher-block cutting board were decorated.

The dining room table was carefully decorated.

KD sait it took forever to wrap all of the little presents on the table.

Two amaryllis (amaryllises, amarallisi?) that KD grew for the occasion.

The living room was filled with live greenery, flowers and even the Grinch.

Like I said, the Grinch.

KD's treatment of the mantle shelf was beautiful.

Down the hall is the master suite, where KD was showing off her green thumb with this table of plants.

The kitchen table looked so great, I thought you'd like to see it again.

No Boundaries International Art Colony took over Captain Charlie's Cottages for two weeks of furious art making.

Three Wilmington artists started an art colony on Bald Head Island a few years ago. Now the No Boundaries International Art Colony brings artists from around the world to Bald Head Island for two weeks of art and camaraderie with fellow artists. I was lucky enough to visit No Boundaries for the second consecutive year and to attend their closing gala and gallery show. I wrote a story about it here.

Shawn Best, director of The Woods Gallery on Bald Head Island, paints on the porch.

Tubes and cups of color wait for the artists return.

I know what you’re thinking, Great, but how’s that going to make his Adventure Blogs better?

Well, for starters, if I’m paddleboarding, surfing, kayaking or doing something where I may get wet, I can leave my camera in my Sea-to-Summit dry bag and use my phone, which shoots 5 mp (plenty for web-quality photos) to get some action shots and even video.

I wish I had one at the start of summer when I went paddleboarding for the first time. I was way too nervous to bring my camera, but with my phone in the DryCASE hanging around my neck, I could have taken some awesome first-person shots to let you see what paddleboarding is all about. It would’ve been awesome to have when I went sailing too.

So, the DryCASE comes with a buoyant armband (so my phone won’t sink if I fall out of a kayak), a lanyard, and a waterproof headphone jack. Oh, and a sticker for your car/kayak/helmet/trapper keeper (I wish Mountain Hardwear would send me a sticker, I love their logo and I buy enough of their gear, come on Mountain Hardwear, send me a sticker already).

Before I used it, I had one concern about DryCASE – the responsiveness of my phone’s touch screen through DryCASE’s heavy plastic. The answer is fine. It’s a little slow, about like having two screen protectors on the phone, but doesn’t hinder the operation of the phone at all.

When I went to Bald Head Island this week and it was raining and the ferry was sort of splashy, I put my phone in the DryCASE, plugged in my headphones and was fine. At the end of the day, after walking around and driving a golf cart in the rain, my wallet was damp but the phone was dry.

As I was listening to Pink Floyd’s Animals on the ferry ride back to the mainland, I thought of a brilliant invention that I could sell to the creators of DryCASE – waterproof headphones. Turns out they already have them.

The only problem I found with my DryCASE was fitting my phone into the pouch. I have a silicone protector on the phone and it was a little sticky when I was putting it in. Once I took the protector off, the phone went in quite easily, so problem solved, but if the bag were only slightly bigger it would accommodate phones with cases a little easier.

DryCASE has just released a larger version that fits iPads, Kindles and other tablet-style devices. I imagine that if I had an iPad I could use it as a GPS unit on a boat or kayak without worrying that it’d get ruined, but I don’t. As it is, I could use my phone as a GPS or even use my GPS as a GPS in the smaller DryCASE and navigate just fine.

All in all, for $40 ($60 for the iPad version) it’s an awesome product for beachgoers, water-sports enthusiasts and snow-sports enthusiasts (I remember sledding with my walkman in a sandwich bag in my pocket, you probably don’t have a walkman, but you get the picture – snowboarding with your iPod or phone protected from getting wet = win).

Even though the DryCASE is going to help me get some better pictures for this and other blogs, my favorite thing about it is that it’s a local product. Dry Corp, the company responsible for DryCASE, is headquartered right here in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a small-business owner, I love seeing a local company succeeding and competing against larger national brands. They couldn’t do it without a good product and DryCASE delivers.