Features

Ongoing

Oak Island Art Guild exhibit, Oak Island Recreation Center, 3001 Oak Island Drive, 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit renewed every 60 days. For more information, call exhibit coordinator Miriam Pinkerton at 278-5562.

Every first Friday through December

Even if you’re not old enough to remember the Jim Stafford song from the 1970s, you probably don’t like coming in contact with creepy critters like spiders and snakes. Knowing there are only two venomous spiders and six venomous snakes in North Carolina usually doesn’t help, so let’s take an objective look at the snakes we share this corner of the state with and see if we really do have something to fear.

As summer progresses, the number of insects found in our landscape increases. There are millions of types of insects in our world and more than 100,000 different ones active in the United States; however, less than 1 percent of these actually feed on plants in a harmful way.

Before you pull out the insecticide, take the time to identify the insects on your plants. You just may find out that they are beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are those that are helpful in some way, as predators or pollinators. A number of beneficial insects occur naturally in our gardens.

Ongoing

Oak Island Art Guild exhibit, Oak Island Recreation Center, 3001 Oak Island Drive, 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit renewed every 60 days. For more information, call exhibit coordinator Miriam Pinkerton at 278-5562.

Every first Friday through December

People often ask: “What is that yellow butterfly that is flying around everywhere right now?” From my observations, I would say we are beginning to see the first wave of sulphurs visiting our landscapes.

The Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) is a small to midsized butterfly in the family Pieridae found in the Americas. There are several similar species some with angled wings or other sulphurs, which are much smaller. They have a wide range, from South America to Canada, and are most common from Argentina up to southern Florida and Texas.

Angela Thompson lets her faith guide her, and it has taken her from her hometown of Detroit to Shallotte, where she has practiced family medicine for the past eight years.

And now it has led her to something she never expected—a career as a gospel songwriter and recording artist.

“I’ve liked to sing all my life,” she said. “I really started writing and performing since I moved here.”

Recruited in her residency by Dr. George Saunders, she moved to Shallotte in 2000.

OAK ISLAND—Mariah Brazil was on the lookout for a special dog.

Grieving over the death of her mother late last year, the Oak Island resident scanned the cages of homeless dogs at the Brunswick County animal shelter, searching for a special canine companion to help fill the void.

It took a K-9 to come to her rescue.

Brunswick County K-9 Sgt. Tommy Tolley was also at the shelter. He overheard Brazil tell a shelter employee she just hadn’t found the right dog yet.

After four or five months of growing, many landscape beds are probably in need of a good weeding and edging. Most plantings would benefit from a late summer renovation. This would include hand pulling the annual weeds and grasses and spraying a contact herbicide on the tough perennial weeds and grasses, if you have any.

Maggie Stephens will start sixth grade in the fall, and she is already considering a career as a crime scene investigator.

Like thousands of other students in Brunswick County, she is preparing for Aug. 25, the first day at her new school—Shallotte Middle.

Maggie says math is her best subject, and after spending the summer in a school-age kids program at Tiny Tots Child Center near Shallotte, she’s ready for the challenges of middle school.