home

Piper the dog takes in sunrise at Miniscule Beach. (Jennifer Smart photo)

Playin’ the fiidle with Unknown Tongues, Brian Blake @ Ol’ Front Porch.

Unknown Tongues drum kit, Saturday @ Old Front Porch Music

As part of Ol’ Front Porch, The Gospel Ensemble play twice Saturday, 11a and 3p at Oriental United Methodist Church.

Saturday’s festival openers are Los Sabrosos Del Son, coastal Carolina musicians playing Caribbean and Latin rhythms. They’ll get the morning started with the high-energy sounds of Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata. See (and dance with) them Saturday morning at the Riverfront stage, 11a.

Another new band at this weekend’s Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival: Barefoot Movement, a progressive acoustic and Americana string band. Known for front-porch style bluegrass and lush harmonies, the Nashville-based quartet blends Appalachian roots with elements of modern acoustic rock, folk, and pop. Find them on the Riverfront stage, Saturday at 3p.

Hailing from from Snow Camp, NC, the Tan & Sober Gentlemen bring “Celtic punk-grass” to the Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival. The Bristol Herald-Courier describes them best: “If hurricanes could play music, they’d sound something like North Carolina’s Tan and Sober Gentlemen… They make music that’s a mix of moonshine and rocket fuel. It’s wild and free bluegrass mated with punk rock. Incorporated with unabashed Gaelic influence, they thrive from a hammer-down style.” They play the Riverfront Stage Saturday, 5p.

The Unknown Tongues are a long-running Cajun and Zydeco band based in the eastern North Carolina fishing community of Gloucester. They’ve played Oriental before, and get the crowds dancing. This weekend, catch them at Oriental’s own Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, playing the Riverfront Stage, Saturday at 1p.

The evening sky over Oriental Harbor Village Marina, down by the dinghy dock. (Izzy Keppner photo)

Out in the county sits an abandoned structure; maybe a house, maybe a storefront. A couch sits under the portico amid a lawn cut low. Dear reader, this is a photo in need of a caption.
Click for the big view and Caption This: Give us your best caption for this photo. Best will be chosen by staff and posted next week. Send your submission to info@towndock.net.

High waters have many docks covered. This heron is loving it… he can fish right off the end of the newly renovated dinghy dock. (Jennifer Smart photo)

SV Stimulus at the 2021 Oriental Cup Regatta. The 2026 regatta is coming Oct 10 – learn more at orientalcupregatta.com.

It’s Monday morning at the corner. A heron takes in sunrise from the waters just off South Avenue & Vandemere. (Kevin O’Neill photo)

September has had some magic sunsets… Oriental’s harbor shows off her colors.

This weekend Oriental’s Julia Tingle is riding in Bike MS, pedaling over 100 miles to raise $ in the fight to cure MS. Help Julia reach her fundraising goal – it all goes to the National MS Society.

Otters. A group is called a romp if on land, or a raft if on the water. At Broad Strokes Gallery, stoneware artist Natalie Morse simply called them a family. Click for the big view.

Saturday’s sunrise delivered color. (Jennifer Smart photo)

Friday morning Southeast Pamlico Volunteer and Florence Whortonville Volunteer Fire Departments marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. To begin the ceremony, local firefighters geared up and walked across the Oriental Bridge and back. This honored the 343 fallen FDNY Firefighters who climbed 110 stories of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Flip flops, abandoned at town dock. Ominous sign? Perhaps a rapture that those reading didn’t make.

Pirate Jam requires suitable attire, which Scuba Steve suitably exemplified. A look the 2026 Pirate Jam, here.

Relaxing in a Swift Canoe at the 2026 Pirate Jam.

This is a honey bee. One of several thousand housed in hives in and around Oriental. He’s taking a break on the way back to his hive.

The rain held back Saturday, delivering ideal weather during Pirate Jam 2026. Like in this image, many boats had collected each years distinct Pirate Jame flags.

Keith Bruno of Endurance Seafood talks bait mullet, old drum & flounder fishing, and Wanchese swordfish in the September fishing report. Stop in, or give Keith a call, 252-249-2558.

Broad Strokes’ artist of the month Jay DeChesere says he was kayaking to Masonboro Island when he encountered this clammer. He had to convince the man his “mission was artistic and not regulatory” to get the reference photos for this watercolor painting. See the full painting and more of DeChesere’s work this month only at Broad Strokes Gallery.

There have been free ferries for decades, but starting in 2027 the legislature has North Carolina’s free ferries scheduled to be tolled. This has been attempted before, and pulled back before.
Wednesday night the NCDOT has a listening session, 6p at Pamlico Community College. You’re invited.
Greg Piner writes in pointing out that tolls are really inefficient way to raise funds.

A dog stares longingly at a heron on the Sailcraft docks, perhaps invoking the spirit of Wile E. Coyote. (Joe Clark photo)

Sunday morning moon (Jennifer Smart photo)

If the clouds allow it, up above is an August full moon. An August full moon is traditionally called the Sturgeon Moon because giant lake sturgeon were caught in the Great Lakes during late summer.
Artist Laura Turgeon created a drawing of her version of a Sturgeon Moon. We call it the Turgeon Sturgeon Moon.

A Nimble Nomad, Vamoose, found an unlikely berth Monday evening: South Avenue. The boat and trailer were parked along the river during Monday’s thunderstorm. (Click to see more Nimble pics)

If you’re a regular at The Bean, or Mariposa on the weekends, you’ve seen Neal Whicher a time or two. If you meet him today, wish him a happy birthday; Neal turns 90.

Rumor is, there’s a lady in the village.

This is a photo from the first Ol Front Porch Music Festival in 2014. It’s the Green Creek Bluegrass Band, Ernest Dunn, Ken Belangia, Jim Baluss and Becky Ackiss, leaning in towards the one mic on the porch of the Old Central Hotel. The 2014 festival had musicians playing on a dozen porches and was inspired by the jam sessions on the porch of the Ol’ Store owned by the late Billy and Lucille Truitt.
The 2026 festival is set for Oct 2-3, all in Oriental.

A cloud bank of dense fog delayed the first glimpse of the sun this morning.
But then…. it glowed. (Ben Casey photo)

If you’re a fan of the TV show Stranger Things, this might remind you of the creatures of the Upside Down. If you’re a bee or hummingbird, however, this might remind you of lunch. The scarlet rosemallow is a native species, grows up to 8 ft tall, and is popular with the pollinators.

The Fisherman, a painting by artist Charlie Frye. Charlie will be painting a new salty fisherman this afternoon @ Nautical Wheelers, and you can too. You paint, you sip wine, you create. 4p today.

Oriental crime spree? Saturday late morning a truck was making its way from South Water St to Hodges, and took out the stop sign. Word is, the truck attempted to depart the scene, but it was all observed by Provision Company employee Ann Frederick, who stopped the truck, and called Oriental Police.
Order has since been restored to the village. (click photo for more crime spree pics)

Nearly every day at sunrise, the ‘morning crew’ gather at the corner of South Ave and Vandemere St to watch the sun rise over the Neuse. (Kevin O’Neill photo)

Line, cleated and coiled, in the harbor.

Caption This: Give us your best caption for this photo. Best will be chosen by staff and posted Wednesday on the front page. Send your submission to info@towndock.net

An early morning walk found a golf cart stuck in the sand at Minuscule Beach. Click for the big view, and a closer look.

It’s watermelon Sunday today… watermelon at the Bonds, starting @ 4p.

Nature. Love. Paparazzi. Only if you’re ready, click the image.

Fishing vessel Lord Willin comes into Oriental harbor after fishing.

What’s for dinner? A grasshopper balances on a flower, while being admired by a lizard. Click the photo to see the next image of nature’s beauty. (Ben Casey photos)