The Mountain Thymes

Embrace frayed edges,worn pages, and laugh lines.  True beauty lies in imperfection. I haven't practiced New year's resolutions in years because I've never been successful for more than two weeks.  It's exciting and renewing at first to anticipate changing old habits at the start of a new year but then boredom sets in and I fall back into the old habits.  I'm more successful if I just make a plan of attack and do it right away no matter what month I'm in. I also love it when I read an article that justifies something that I am already doing.  Recently, in my Whole Living, body and soul in balance magazine, I came across an article entitled "Wabi Sabi You Life."  When my eyes first scanned the title, I avoided the article and continued looking for new healthy recipes to try on Cliff or DYI instructions to a new project that I could tackle.  Then one day as I sat sipping my warm lemongrass tea in one of Grandma Still's old English tea cups, th...

Today turned out to be just gorgeous.  Funny how 43 degrees with bright sun feels glorious on your face and arms.  It's all relative.  Maxine and I sat out on the side porch for awhile in the sun.  There is still a peaceful hush here only interrupted by the sound of melting snow clumps falling from the trees.   I see spots in the woods where the snow has melted and dead leaves are visible. Observing and listening to winter melt brought to mind My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  I loved that novel every year I read it with my fifth graders.  It has more meaning now. This gives a whole new meaning to taking the trash out!  We walked down the road this morning just to get out of the house for awhile and the walk is good exercise.  We saw lots of fresh wildlife tracks and were fortunate to catch sight of  six deer as they came down the mountain, paused and looked at us then continued down into the woods. Had lunch at our...

What a difference gravel makes! Had to hitch up the horse and buggy this morning and mosey into town. We walked down the mountain road to the car this morning to see if we could get out to the store.  It was an emergency.  I ran out of coffee creamer!!  The walk was actually very peaceful and serene.  Deer tracks with long strides show where the deer had run down the side of the mountain and we saw some large fat paw prints.  Maybe bobcat, maybe bear. Walking in the woods after a snowfall reveals the activities of nocturnal creatures.   Temperature is in the mid 30's, a few clouds now with the sun warming the ground.  It'll still be a few days though, before we can drive up and down here due to the road conditions.  The paved roads are clear and some are dry.  Once you get off Boulder Creek, the going is good.   We stopped at the diner and ordered a BLT and coffee, went to Lowe's, then picked up milk and a large container of coffee cr...

 Santa forgot to take him when he left our gifts.  Max got a new play cube.  John and Carolyn sent my favorite Kansas wines.  We visited Somerset Vineyards when we out there and did some wine tasting. Good gifts......warm winter hat and gloves.  What a Christmas!  There's always someone worse off than what you're going through and this morning it's blizzard conditions in New England.  This was Christmas day as the snow quieted the woods.   Early in the day, Mark drove his rental down to the bottom of Boulder Creek and left it so he could get out Sunday and try to make his flight back to MO.  Cliff drove him back up but later brought the red car down and left it so we could get out when the main roads cleared.  If Mark had brought his winter boots, we would have walked the road and enjoyed the quiet and peace that comes with a new snowfall.  He doesn't mind this and often walks the parks out in MO after a snowfall....

That's what spectators yell at a rodeo performance when a cowgirl is thrown and stands up even if all her bones are broken!  Our power returned at 10:32 PM.  We had just gone to bed with layers of clothes on in anticipation of a long heatless night. Cliff ran the generator and the kerosene heater until 10 which made life bearable for the three of us.  Just having lights and warmth kept the spirits up.  This morning we have hot coffee and can flush toilets.  What more could a person need?

We've been without power since 1:30 PM.  So how am I blogging, you ask???????  Cliff hooked up something to another thing that connected to a router that is connected to the battery backup on the side of the house from the power company.  Got that?  So I'm typing quickly before the house battery dies. It's 6:30 PM now. Just as I took the turkey out of the oven the power dropped and was gone.   Luckily, the potatoes and winter squash were done.  The turkey should have been done because it had been cooking for 4 1/2 hours.......but it wasn't.  Not sure if the dozen flickers of power confused the oven elements or not.  So our dinner was a bread dressing, a new recipe that I tried and don't like, squash, cranberry sauce, and a baked potato, pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  We have a fire in the fireplace and a few minutes ago Cliff fired up the generator that he just repaired last week!  We're able to read and I can use the internet as long...

Mark arrived safely early Thursday afternoon . Friday we all went to the gym for an hour and burned a few calories, then mingled in with the last minute shoppers weaving our cart through the flow of people.  After working up an appetite from our strenuous morning , we headed to the Japanese buffet at the Tin Loon in Blue Ridge, GA.  We took Mark to Mercier's Orchard but we were all too full to eat fried pie with ice-cream .  Gives us something to look forward to on his net trip out.   It's been snowing all morning and we probably have 6 inches on the ground now at 12:30 .  The turkey, potatoes, and dressing are still cooking.  Electricity has been flickering for about the last hour.  We're hoping to get the diner cooked before we lose power. If not we'll have to eat candy, fudge, pistachios, and cashews.......good food groups.  I'll be back with more pictures...........

 From our last snowfall..............saw deer resting in a patch of leaves in our backyard. Cliff installed two sections of his ham radio tower.  Will put the rest up and his 40 meter beam on the next 50 degree day. 

We went to another Christmas gathering Friday.  This time we were guests of Cliff's friend, Judy, who is a volunteer with him at Bellview Fire Dept.  Judy recently joined the Culberson Volunteer Dept. and invited us to accompany her to their event because her husband had to work.  He flies the medical helicopters out of Blue Ridge, GA.  Until recently, the medical choppers came from Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN or Asheville, NC, which meant at least a 30-minute arrival time here.  Now that the choppers are coming from Blue Ridge, the fly time is about 12 minutes.  The department held their party at the local Chinese Buffet, good choice. Finished stockings for Hayden, Sofia, Grant, and Olivia and finally got them mailed on Friday once we were able to drive down the mountain road.  Used all scraps of material that I found in my sewing drawer.   Sewing machine is put away to make more room for pies and cookies. Carolyn bought this nice soft, war...

Guess I'd better let my readers know that I haven't slit my wrists or jumped off the mountain.  We had thawing all day yesterday but still had some very icy patches so couldn't get down the road.  Cherokee County Schools have been closed all week and kids won't go back until next year.  From a teacher's point of view, this must have been a nightmare. I know some parents think the teachers were jumping with joy but there are  lesson plans and a curriculum that the teachers needed to complete.  Cliff's night classes also were cancelled so he'll go back in January and finish up this course. Thawing continued throughout the night and we were able to get off this blasted mountain  road this morning.  It's a good thing because we had eaten all the Oreos and i cooked up the last brownie mix.  This morning we drove to the Pack n' Ship and I finally mailed the Christmas packages and cards.  Then we went to the butcher shop for more fish, chicken, an...

OK...............so I'm getting ready to make Dr. Weil's black bean soup recipe.  First I have to pick the bad beans and other foreign objects out, then rinse and soak the beans for 8 hours.  What does a bad bean look like?   Foreign objects, like what?  And who packs these beans??????

I've had calls from friends wondering about our conditions here on "witch mountain."  Monday we did get down the mountain, did a few errands, had pizza in town, and picked up our mail.  On our return, we crawled at a snail's pace down the "slippery slope" holding our breath, made it up the hill by Red Oak, which by the way has nice gravel because it's where the president of the HOA resides, and continued past Karl's house.  But as we turned onto Clay Durrett we lost traction.  Cliff backed up slowly sliding, tried two more times to get up the hill, but all we could do is spin the wheels.  Each time he backed up, the car slid a little more toward the ditch.  The poor car has been sitting in the curve since Monday.  We carried our groceries up the hill and told the car we'd get her home as soon as we could.  Temperatures have been single numbers each night and barely hitting 20 during the day.  Cliff hasn't been able to respond to any accidents...

We've got about 4 inches of snow out on the porch and we probably can't get down the mountain today.  But we don't need to go anywhere.  Schools are closed and many of the businesses are closed or will open late mostly due to icy road conditions and dangerously low temperatures.  This will be a great day for baking Christmas cookies, blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and a nice big chicken soup. I would have been making and addressing my Christmas cards today  but couldn't find blank cards at Wally World.  Good day also for doing some recliner shopping online.  Boy!  I'm glad I'm not cruising in the Mediterranean on Brilliance of the Sea! 

Standing outside on the porch all I can hear is the sound of the wind as it comes up the mountain through the trees.  Weather is suppose to get progressively worse overnight and dangerously cold.  We may not get down the mountain tomorrow.  I've been throwing birdseed out on the ground and filling the feeders.  Birds are eating everything is sight. Made a cauliflower soup.  Now the house smells like someone had gas and I can't open the windows.

 My blog image above is in Helen, GA taken last year.  It's the sister city to Fussen, Bavaria. I started this last night, got tired and went to bed......... Our temperatures reached 51 degrees Friday.......much more normal for this time of year, but will this will  be short lived.  By Sunday snow showers will be moving in and Monday is going to be brutal with a high of 24 with rain/snow showers!  These days will be good for baking Christmas cookies, soups, and trying new recipes.  Cliff got a chance to get the wreaths up and a few more strings of lights on the house.  Monday and Friday are my yoga classes at our wellness center in town.  The more frequently you practice yoga, the easier it becomes to be in the present moment, not living in the past or worrying about the future.  When I "enter the room" and begin mindful breathing all thoughts of the day's responsibilities and tasks are left outside.  After slowly stretching and wa...

 Cliff trying to put the outside lights up in raw windy temperatures. " #@%^&#*!!"  Jim, if your gifts look like they were wrapped by an animal................ It's stinking rotten cold out!!  Thermometer registered single numbers when Cliff responded to a medical call at 4 AM.  We sleep with the thermostat at 64 and I heard the furnace run all night.  Our temps are about 20 degrees below normal.  Tuesday Cliff dropped me off at the gym because I was going to help one of the instructors with Tai Chi.  He then drove to meet a friend at McDonald's for coffee and to discuss purchasing some fire dept. equipment for training sessions .  It worked out that there were no available rooms to practice our Tai Chi so I decided to just bundle up, had my warm fur-lined boots on, and walk from the gym to McDonald's.  Funny how when you drive somewhere it seems so much closer!  Tuesday was raw, no sun, windy and now I know McDonald's is at least ...

My mother loved this time of year........her greatest pleasure was giving.  Recipe cards and opened cookbooks, gingerbread men and ladies lined the kitchen counters, and the smell of contentment and  pride filled her kitchen. Christmas cards decorated the doorways, the Nativity took its place each year on the dining room hutch, and homemade jars of jam and zucchini relish were neatly wrapped and ready to be given.  In church she reverently sang "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" and "Joy to the World."  This was a joyous time for her.   One of her favorite passages from the Bible that gave her daily strength was Isaiah 40:31~"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." My mother's spirit has taken up residence in my kitchen so I know as I pull out her wooden recipe box and turn on her electric mixer to begin my baking frenzy, she...

Temperature was in the high teens when we got up at 5:30.  We've gone from unusually warm beautiful comfortable fall temps to below average cold. Today will be low 40's.   Birds will be knocking on the windows shortly if I don't get out there with more seed.  Maxine stepped out on the porch, did a 180 degree turn and walked right back in.   Tomorrow is the downtown Murphy parade.  Cliff isn't driving a fire engine this year.  He's decided to watch with me from the sidewalk.  Last year as he drove down main street, he held a death grip on the steering wheel as little children ran out to grab candy being thrown by firefighters from the trucks. Started making Spritz cookies yesterday.  Will frost and sprinkle them today for tomorrow's party at station 25.