Land of Abundance Group Shot

Check out this shot of the staff and agents of the Leland, North Carolina office of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty wearing our L.A. hats. L.A. stands for Land of Abundance and we welcome you to give us a call or stop by at 1018 Grandiflora Drive, Suite E in front of Magnolia Greens.

George Is Looking for a Home

George the Peacock really needs a forever home. There's a lot more to this story than I'd reasonably expect anyone to read, so here's the short version. I'm happy to fill in more for anyone interested. The bottom line is this bird needs a home, but catching him is not easy - not at all. Several peacock-experienced individuals and groups have tried multiple times with no luck, so don't just think you'll walk up with some peacock chow and he'll jump in your arms.

A family across Futch Creek (where we live) used to have four peacocks. For various peacock reasons they've left (the birds, not the people). The family isn't interested in getting them back. So this guy, and he is a male named George, had been hanging around our neighborhood since the summer of 2007. The photo above was taken in March of this year. He's still around but his tail feathers have molted (they're gone) - but they'll be back next spring (it's a mating season thing).

Anyway, George can fly and if you try to catch him he does just that - up on the roof of the nearest house. He isn't too much problem and he's really a gorgeous bird, but he drives the dogs crazy - seems like he knows it and prances back and forth in full view of dogs (our dog Pepper anyway) and the dogs go nuts. Twice Pepper got loose and tried to catch him and as soon as George realized he couldn't waddle faster than Pepper can run he went airborne.

Another issue with George is that we live on a corner of a winding road and sometimes George wanders into the middle - he's likely to get hit sometime and could cause an accident. Fortunately neither has happened yet.

Below are two more shots of George from March 2008, in full display, taunting Pepper on our back deck. One from the front, and the other from the back (I think George was intentionally mooning Pepper).

If you are interested in catching (and preferably owning and keeping) George, give me a call at 910-297-8753 or e-mail me at brucerbrown@yahoo.com.

Please realize that catching George won't be easy. It also could be dangerous as they get pretty vicious (I'm told) when cornered and caught. I'm also told safe catching (for the bird and for the catcher) involves heavy blankets, eye protection, heavy gloves, and probably a heavy jacket as well. The jury is still out if

tranquilizer darts would work and be safe for George. If so, that would be a snap because he only runs away if you chase him. If someone did catch him there are any number of folks who'd like him to live at their place, but none of those folks, several of them who already own peacocks locally, have been able to catch poor George.

Pepper Loves Downtown Wilmington

Sunday was such a glorious day! Marge, Pepper and I took advantage of the great weather to hang out in downtown Wilmington for a few hours. As usual Pepper made lots of friends. Marge and I pretty much gravitate toward Kilwins at 16 Market Street whenever we're in downtown Wilmington. Yesterday I had an excellent (and generous-portioned) single scoop cup of Turtle ice cream - my only complaint was the plastic spoon was kinda flimsy which slowed my progress. We also bought some of their nifty chocolate-covered stick pretzels to fuel our progress around town. Spent some time in Native Soul Indigena at 25 Market Street and Marge bought some very pretty pink shell earrings.

Pepper loves to pose for the camera. Ever since she was a puppy she learned to sit and stay when I would take her picture, and she still is great about that. Even though there were a lot of people around the river front river walk I put Pepper on the walkway and told her to stay while I took her picture with the river in the background and she was great about it. Pepper is a strong people magnet.