The Mountain Thymes

 The floors need to be vacuumed.  Both bathrooms need to be cleaned.  Dishwasher is waiting to be emptied.  It's raining again and I can't go outside and play in the dirt.  Temperature is a comfortable 76.  So this is a good way to avoid unpleasant tasks.   Last week I used the pry bar to remove the rotted step board, pulled the crooked nails out of the porch wood, and bought a new 6' treated step board at Wilson's Supply.  They made a 6' cut from a warped 10' board that would sell and only charged me a couple of dollars.  I stained it and allowed it to dry for a few days before screwing it into its new home.     That step will darken as time goes by and it gets restained.  Eighteen years ago the whole house used to be that color.  I wasn't going to try and match it for one step.  I had another porch board replaced two years ago and it's darkened and beginning to blend in.   Last week when I was in...

 Temperature was 63 this morning!  A lovely start to this sunny day.  Hummingbirds were fighting over flower blooms early this morning and the raccoon got into the back porch nectar feeders in the night to drank all the nectar.  It hasn't touched the feeders all spring or summer but now it's time to take them in each evening at dark before I locked up the porch doors. Early signs of seasonal changes.   Busy in the front gardens.......   She's eating weeds between the pineapple sage plants.  They will begin to shoot red trumpet-like flowers in late August. Such a beautifully peaceful sight. Pruning the forsythia for me. Drinking from the ground water dish.     Before she came to the garden I had a doe with her fawn spend time browsing around and then later another doe wandered up from the woods heading toward Charlie's yard. I planted more moon flowers yesterday in the fenced garden.  They can climb the garden wind vane in the f...

 Some mornings I spend a couple of hours in the hill garden, as opposed to the kitchen garden in the driveway, just enjoying everything that grows in the garden and the lush surrounding trees.  Even the "weeds" moving with the gentle morning breeze are pleasant and I don't have a need to destroy everything that doesn't serve my purpose.  A few weeks ago I paid a young man to weed whack the whole yard as it was out of control, too much for me to clean up with a whimpy whacker. This morning I started pulling weeds in the garden around the butterfly plants, pulled up the rotted tired zucchini and summer squash plants to toss into the woods, and found a few green bean plants that I planted late May and have ignored them because with all the rain and cloudy days we had before this dry period, things weren't thriving. To my surprise I picked a serving for me to fix up for today's lunch.  No rot, not blemishes, just beautiful beans.  After clearing weeds from a vacan...

   Happy Summer Solstice!  It was a beautiful start to this day.  The typical mountain fog had settled in when I got up at 6:30 but burned off shortly after.  I always go outside when I first get up, scan for wildlife, and walk around soaking in the morning peace and calm.  Did about 20 minutes of stretchy yoga, showered and had a light breakfast of cream of buckwheat with ghee-fried peaches.  I still felt  a little full from eating Italian food with Janice last night.  We go out at 4:30 and take our time eating and talking, have a glass of wine and Friday night is dessert night.  Janice is doing better.  It'll be a year in August since she lost Ernie.   I left the breakfast dishes in the sink and headed to our Murphy Farmers Market.  First stop was "Healing Ways" produce farmers for fresh Swiss chard, butter crunch lettuce, and a bunch of young summer squash and zucchini since all of mine are falling off the plants....

 After four weeks of mostly blender meals and occasional ice-cream, I can chew again and what an amazing feeling.  We take chewing and digesting foods well for granted.  Going without gives a deeper appreciation of things that we do day to day.  My gum discomfort and sore spots caused fatigue, more than I realized.   Clouds and rain..............  My wisteria is blooming a second time.  This has never happened before.  One spring bloom is all I've ever been able to enjoy.  I figure it must be the plentiful rain. Morning sun on the squash and zucchini open the flowers for the bees to pollinate.  Checking them a few days later I found the baby squashes dropped from the plant rotting on the ground from too much rain and not enough sun.  When it's not raining, the cloud cover doesn't allow any sunlight.   The thunderstorm that came through earlier this month caused a lot of damage throughout Hayesville and areas in Murphy...

 Started today by helping Janice fit a new soft cone on her sweet little pup.  Lilly had major hip surgery last Friday and has to wear the plastic cone for two weeks and Janice has to do PT four to five times each day.  She calls me when she needs support or help with Lilly. The new cone didn't work  because it was too soft.  This afternoon the new surgery pj's from Amazon arrived.   It looks like the pj's will stop her from licking her itchy stitches but she can't pee without wetting the suit. They will both get through this annoying trial. Yesterday morning I washed and bleached the uncovered deck getting it ready for stain.  This morning I began staining when I got back from helping Janice.   I'd like to wait until Thursday before walking on the stained steps to do the skipped ones but will have to check the forecast tomorrow.  It feels good to get this done and this amount shouldn't hurt my wrist or shoulder.  This afternoo...