The Mountain Thymes

FRIDAY NIGHT FESTIVAL in the BARN Last night we attended another wonderful mountain concert in the open Festival Barn in Brasstown.  This one especially grabbed my attention.  Hammered and mountain dulcimers accompanied by the bass, autoharp, and guitar delighted the audience for an hour of total enjoyment.  Anne Lough, singer, performer, recording artist, and resident instructor at the John Campbell Folk School, opened the show strumming her mountain dulcimer before turning the stage over to Doofus.  With a band name like that, I already had a preconceived idea of what the evening was going to bring, but was delightfully surprised when the four members of Doofus performed their lively old-time music.  Voices and music blended smoothly as they played lively old-time music, sang songs from Ireland, and selections from Gordon Lightfoot's music.  "Doofus" came about as a token of their affection for each other and the music they make.  Th...

When I go the the garden each morning to see what the deer and rabbits have left us after their night visits, I approach the cucumbers and squash cautiously as not to agitate the bees and tick them off.  So far I've been pretty lucky to avoid being stung when reaching into the thicket of vines and sweet blossoms full of buzzing and commotion.  Sunday morning I returned from the garden bite-free after cutting kale, Swiss chard, and bee-swarming cucumbers.  The kale and chard were soaking in the kitchen sink to get the little insects off as I rinsed the cucumbers by hand.  From my right eye I spotted something coming at me.  Not swatting quickly enough, the black wasp lit on the tip on my nose and stung me.  The bite made my eyes water, my nose swell up, and turn red.  I have no allergies but asked Cliff to sit with me to make sure I didn't have any reactions.  I made him promise no Italian nose jokes.  Needles to say, that wasp will never stin...

With the warmer than normal temperatures and the dry conditions we've had for so many weeks , many of the summer garden vegetables have given up and surrendered.  Yesterday I began pulling up the summer squash as the vines no longer supplied nutrition to the baby squash and the blossoms rotted.  Early spring beets had been planted in two different locations a few weeks apart to see if one produced better than the other.  Yesterday I pulled the remaining few beets from the first planting because the deer and/or bunnies ate all the beet greens and the beets wouldn't grow any bigger.  New tomato and broccoli plants were set in those spots for the start of my fall gardening.  I also have a row of fall Scarlet Nantes carrots and a new row of Chioggia beets started.  In little pots on the porch are the fall cauliflower and cabbage plants getting a few more weeks of growth before going to the garden.  Yesterday my neighbor combed her Irish Setter and brought ...

Our newest forest addition. Momma Taken right outside of the bathroom window. Yesterday morning after enjoying my coffee on the porch, I decided to check the cucumbers, tomatoes, Swiss chard, beets, peppers before the temperature became unbearable.  Heading down the path to the garden with scissors, my mother's aluminum bowl that she gathered vegetables in, and the camera, of course, I was surprised by the doe standing at our back porch looking at me. She was kind enough to hold the pose while I zoomed in a little and snapped her photo.  Then I calmly turned around after thanking her and returned to the porch to watch where she was headed.  She nibbled some dewy low scrub and sapling leaves as she wandered about our woods remaining in our sight for about fifteen minutes. 

"Going to the garden in the early morning is better than having a birthday every day." ~ me Melrose peppers are the newest pickin' from the garden.  We walk the mountain each morning around 8 AM before the temperature becomes too uncomfortable.  Mornings are humid now and around mid 60's when I get up at 6.  This morning I pulled up more tired plants in the vegetable garden to make room for the fall planting.  In the 5 weeks since I set the eggplants, they never got any bigger.  After looking closely at the leaves, I discovered lots of tiny aliens which probably laid their eggs and invaded the plants.  Anyway, they're history!  I think I'm the only nut who opens doors and windows every morning to let the mountain air in for awhile.  It's really quite pleasant out here on the back porch now at 10.......74 degrees.  I brought the computer out hoping to see the new fawn and mother passing through our forest.  They were sighted a f...