From our back yard boat ramp, this morning I set off in the yellow kayak, coffee in the convenient cup-holder, the water itself still and dark as coffee, with shreds of mist in the slanting sunbeams.
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| Morning mist, a sign that summer is waning (2008 photo). |
Cruised into "Stillwater Harbour," (yes, with a "u") a former quarry now on the verge of becoming a marina for a prospective development "where nature is your neighbor." (No "u.")
That tagline, which I saw on one of the project's brochures, cracks me up. Their promotional materials show acres of uninhabited woodlands and blue (?) waters. But that's soon to become "64 homesites, including 36 waterfront and 28 interior homes...with docks, sidewalks....[T]he community offers the best in all-natural living." So far, only one house has been built there.
Actually, the best in all-natural living is in the fishing camps on the southern side of the "harbour." These trailers and cabins--some funky and primitive, some well-tended--and their modest, weathered, mostly rickety docks, have served as getaways for folks for a long time, it appears. Under tall trees, on the narrow band of land that separates the quarry from Brices Creek, these sites are "waterfront" both fore and aft. Last Sunday, a fellow in farmer's denim overalls sat in a lawn chair on the creek bank, smoking a pipe--a timeless Labor Day weekend scene.
The contrast between this simple setting and its neighboring community-to-be of "neo-traditional" homes is typical of the evolution of New Bern. We're part of that change, of course, as are the many other newcomers here. As it grows, can New Bern maintain balances between the egalitarian and the esoteric, the traditional and trendy, pokiness and prosperity, charm and sophistication?
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