The Mountain Thymes

  HAPPY HALLOWEEN.............................. We made it through hurricane Sandy with no scars.  A few windy days with gusts to about 25 mph and unmeasurable rain gave way to a crisp sunrise this morning.  As meteorologists began predicting the perfect storm  to make landfall somewhere along the northeast coast, we anxiously watched to see where Jim Cantore would be stationed.  After experiencing three hurricanes in about a 6-week span in 2004, cleaning up debris and destruction for weeks, we knew this storm was going to be more devastating that anything we could imagine.  Only about 1 1/2 hours away from us in the higher elevations, the mountains received 12" and more of heavy snowfall.  I brought in some of my potted porch plants and removed Halloween and fall decorations so they wouldn't land in Clay County.  During the two days of rainy, windy, raw conditions I made a hearty pasta e fagioli zuppa and started mending a very tattered quilt...

Our wonderful weather is about to change.  Today is 80 degrees, sunny with a little humidity and no complaints from anyone.  We've experienced chamber of commerce conditions for the month of October and with all the festivals and outdoor activities in western NC, this has been a bonus.  Leaves began gently dropping a few weeks ago until just the other day little bursts of wind invaded the forest and the trees gave up their hold.   Crispy yellow ocher and  brown leaves rained onto the porch and the forest floor. From my view at the edge of the garden....................... morning glories still vining a winter squash hiding under nasturtiums  nasturtiums cabbage not too badly destroyed by slugs rosemary and parsley broccoli I've been able to freeze 5 bags of  chopped red and green peppers for winter recipes and picked the last of the kale the other day.  The bottom third of the garden was cleared of tired vegetables an...

Yesterday felt like it was Saturday all day.......so much that I entered 10/13 in my checkbook ledger with each purchase.  I must have really needed my work week to be over..................oh, wait, I don't work!!!! Weather is still delightful with daytime highs around 72 degrees and lows in the low 50's.  I saw our plump hummingbird yesterday morning but haven't heard or seen her today.  She may have finally migrated south. "May the wind be always on your back and the sunshine warm upon your face, until we meet again" little HBs........in early April.  We'll be ready and waiting with clean feeders and fresh brewed nectar.  Made a white bean and kale soup a few days ago with fresh picked kale from the garden.  It's a bonus to still be picking kale from the original plants that I started from seed in early spring.  I've been freezing our red and green peppers as they ripen.  The winter squash planted this summer have produced only two beautifu...

"Let your mind dance with your body." ~ Yogi teabag A few pictures from Sofia's camera............. Pau Pau with Benjamin and Olivia The last remaining hummingbird.  He's so fat that when he leaves the feeder or the branch, he sinks a bit before gaining altitude.  Cliff says he looks like a tennis ball with a  beak.  All the others left a few days ago but he just hangs around eating and sitting on little branches. We've decided he's too fat to fly and he'll have to winter with us. Nature's simplicity....................by Sofia Hayden got the Lego ambulance set for her 8th birthday. We took Papa out for Mexican food for his 68th birthday.   For five days there was laughter and energy abounding, yawning and napping, cooking and eating, bathing and bedtime stories.  I became Ben's favorite adult which gave me the honor of helping him bathe and dress, cooking his breakfast, putting his shoes on at least 20 t...

Yesterday Grant asked repeatedly if we could walk to the mailbox and back, 1.2 miles round trip.  On the way home from downtown, Lauria dropped Sofia, Grant, and me off at the mailbox so we could time our walk up the mountain to the house. Grant was sure it would be a piece of cake.  About 1/3 of the way home, he decided he was pooped and wouldn't ask to walk to the mailbox again.  Sofia ran most of the way, only stopping because I asked her not to go out of my sight.  Grant and I did the 0.6 walk in 11 minutes.  Grant and I will never tackle a marathon. This afternoon we all walked down to the bridge to see the creek This weekend was also the John Campbell Folk School Fall Festival.  The children ate hot dogs and Jim tried the venison and wild boar stew.  We ate fried apple pies, chili, and an apple cake, sat in the open barn listening to Bluegrass music. Back home..............Sofia knitting and Mommy crocheting. Olivia and ...

They're here! And the hummingbirds stayed as I hoped they would so the children could see them in action around the feeders. Sofia waited patiently out on the porch with her camera and captured some amazing close-ups.  We printed her favorites and she created a photo album. Under those long shiny locks is Olivia drawing a dinosaur.   Benjamin singing "Old MacDonald Had  a Farm" while constructing with the wooden blocks. Hayden  Olivia at the playground. Ben and Grant  Papa helped the kids build a fort in the back yard. Yesterday we took the children to Downtown Pizza and Grant thought it was the greatest pizzeria in the country.......no the world.  He wanted to eat there every day for the rest of his life.  Grant, Sophia, and Hayden have been helping me prepare meals.  They measure ingredients, grate cheeses, crack eggs, set the table, and even sweep up all the food that misses mouths and finds a home under o...

View from the kitchen window. Cliff's mother and sister-in-law flew into Atlanta on Thursday for a 3-day visit.  We finally arrived at the house at 7 PM and had homemade pasta fagioli and strawberry-rhubarb crisp.  Dot did very well for 89 years young.  Travel day is always tiring not matter what your age.  It's a day of driving to the airport two hours before the flight, sitting, waiting, boarding, more sitting and waiting, then in this case, a 3-hour drive to Murphy through Atlanta rush-hour traffic.  Friday was suppose to be a trip to the Ocoee Gorge in Tennessee to show Dot and Diane where the 1986 summer Olympics kayaking venue was held but it turned into my 6-hour out-patient stay in the ER.  While I was at the hospital, Dot and Diane sat out on our porch enjoying the hummingbirds.  Dot has had only one visit her feeder in Massachusetts and has never heard their chittering because she watches the feeder from inside her complex.  She was ...