The Mountain Thymes

It was mid 40's when I sat out on the porch with my cat and my coffee at 6:45 and I got buzzed by a hummingbird . This shot was taken around 7:30 AM. The colors are golden at that time and change quickly. The morning calls me. As soon as I get my garden in place and get some plants, I'll be like Nona, tromping around outside in the morning in my boots with hoe and rake in hand. You never know what you'll encounter up here in the mountain. We bought a 4' X 8' piece of lattice to push tight against the house and secure in the railing as a large gate across the porch. If Maxine wants out as the sun is coming up in the morning or dusky at night and I feel it's too dangerous to let her off the porch, I put the lattice up and she can sleep in a chair or be free on the porch. She loves to look through the rails. The air was calm last night, no winds when we went to bed. This morning when I opened the kitchen door to let her out, the lattice had been pushed away f

Every once in awhile I come across something in the house that has an old price tag still on it. I'm making Olivia some "messy bibs" and found a yellow spool of thread that was purchased at TG &Y (whatever that was) and cost 22 cents! How long ago was that? Was it originally my Mother's? Right now I'm on a quest to find my bobbin box which I put somewhere before Lauria and Jim came with the kids weeks ago. In trying to make the house "Olivia safe", I put tempting items in drawers, up on high shelves, and in other places.......... I do have one bobbin that was in the sewing machine and until I locate the bobbin box, that bobbin will be a rainbow of colors.

OK........thank goodness........... Cliff just got online and saw his score for his state medical responder test that he took Friday at Southwestern Community College. He got a 90%! Of course, now he wants to know which questions he got wrong! If i had had to wait 30 days for him to find out about his score, I would have taken Maxine and moved deep into the woods!!! type A people are impossible!

Phoebe songs echo back and forth through the trees. Cup of coffee in hand.......greeting the morning. My time for reflective prayer and meditation Clouds move rapidly this morning. Imagine the sound of the creek rushing and cascading down the mountain boulders. Wild dogwood............fresh green leaves of spring. Wild azalea will bloom in soft orange flowers in the summer warmth. The other day I clipped and trimmed the mountain laurel, stacked some of the dead wood. We'll see the blossoms appear sometime in the summer. As you can tell by most of my shots, I love the morning mist............ greeting each new day. Some wild flowers.............. This one is a little blurry. Maxine kept rubbing up against my arm as I knelt down on the ground to capture the colors. Beads of rain on sourwood leaves. Whew! What a powerful storm we had in the early hours of the morning. The weather radio blared tornado warnings until 3AM, lightning flashed continuously followed by ear-deafening clap

On our way to Southwest Community College for Cliff to take his first responder state test. All of this was way too much work for me. He's been buried in the books for more than 9 weeks, living, eating, drinking, dreaming this course. Very pretty drive. We went through the Nantahala National Forest and saw people trout fishing and kayaking. Lots of motorcycles weave along this route. Sylva is only about 80 minutes from us and sits right in the mountains. The test was scheduled for 6 PM so we spent the afternoon walking around the little town going in and out of shops. Sylva has a lot more traffic than Murphy, very busy downtown area. It's right in the Great Smokies, has many hiking trails, waterfalls, great trout fishing, peaceful scenery, and the community college with a university 7 miles from the cc. We stopped in at Annie's Natural Bakery to have a cold drink, Cliff ate a creamy-filled eclair to try and settle his nervous stomach. I visited the Papou's Wine a

Herb window box. Basil from seed. Early girl tomatoes from seed. I get so excited when the seeds actually pop through the soil and don't shrivel up and die. Nights have dropped into upper 30's so been bringing all the plants in at night and toting them back out to the sun every morning. It's like having kids. You've got to bring them in every night or the neighbors will report you! Wild dogwood in our woods. Trees downtown and other areas are fully leaved. We're a bit colder at this altitude so get leaves later. Went to our Tuesday flea market downtown in the pouring rain to buy these plants. They're usually cheap, locally grown. You have to get there early because the flowers and bushes go quickly. That's our propane submarine in the background. I was thinking about painting it yellow and then painting round windows with a face staring out. You won't be able to see it from the road by the end of May when everything is thick and green. Above the

Those are 40 foot bolts holding the mountain together. Just another bolt holding boulders in place. All the trees and boulders slid down onto US 64 covering the road, blocking all passage through the gorge from Tennessee to NC. This was major because rafting is big business along this area and this is the route trucks and loggers use for transporting. The gorge when the water is not flowing. I had some pictures I took in the summer of 2008 when the water was flowing at a rapid pace but can't find them. The water is controlled and the dam is opened Friday afternoon until about 3 PM Sunday afternoon. Rafters and kayakers rough the waters all weekend. I'll take more pictures soon and post. 40 ' bolt All trees and bushes to the right were crushed and destroyed in the slide. Last week US 64 to Tennessee opened again. The highway has been closed since Nov. 11 after a massive landslide shut off the route from Murphy to Chatanooga. I tried to import photos from a site that

Just spotted our first hummingbird at the feeder......skinny little thing needs lots of sugar water and oreo cookies.......maybe some fudge.................1:36 PM

The first hummingbird here on the mountain was spotted about 4 days ago up the road at my neighbor's feeder. I've been putting fresh juice out for about 2 weeks trying to be the first. Yesterday I made new juice and placed it on the porch again to try and lure her bird down this way......didn't work.

Sourwood in bloom. Flaming hot sunrises. It's been so-o-o hot here, record breaking temperatures. The highest we reached during this time was 89. The sourwood trees bloomed but blossoms aren't staying long....too hot and dry. Daffodils opened, made their appearance, and are on the way out. Thunderstorms are due Thursday then weather should be back to normal high 60's-low 70's.

This recipe honors your health and the Earth. ROASTED BABY ARTICHOKES with CICI BEANS and SUN-DRIED TOMATOES 6 baby artichokes (or one 15-ounce can artichoke hearts in water, drained 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 tbs . vegetable oil 1/2 medium sweet onion, like Vidalia, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 medium Roma tomatoes, diced/drained 1 tsp. whole fennel seed 2 tbs. chopped sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil and drained) 1/2 tbs. agave sweetener or other sweetener one 15-ounce can cici (garbanzo) beans, rinsed/drained 2 tbs. lightly chopped fresh basil, or 1 tbs. dried basil 1 tbs. olive oil Wash artichokes, remove tough outer leaves. Throw them in your compost heap. With a knife, trim stem and cut 1/2 inch off the top of each artichoke. Place artichokes in large bowl of water with 1 tsp. lemon juice; soak for 2o minutes. (This helps preserve color when cooking.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove chokes from lemon water (turn upside down to drain thoroughly) and place in lightly oil

Grant and Hayden playing with blocks on the porch. Eating breakfast and coloring. The pirate princess showing off her spring bonnet. Checking for the expiration date. Daddy and Sofia reading a princess book. "Big people take too long to feed me. I'll just eat right out of the box." Breakfast at our diner. The girls hanging around at the playground. Grant and Mommy. Putting lots and lots and lots of candles on Mommy's birthday cake. This is the way we dress in the mountains. Grant helping Pau Pau clean up the frosting. Mommy and Olivia on engine 1752. Driver engineer Grant. Chief Hayden Sofia in charge. Check this out. Hmmmmmmm....I might be here awhile. Good reading...........on the last chapter.