The Mountain Thymes

What disappointingly was going to be a quiet alone Christmas, became an unexpected noisy and comforting Christmas Day.  Matthew, Taelor, with great-grandson Christopher and possibly Mark had planned on spending Christmas with us.  Plans changed when Matthew took a new job and couldn't get enough time off to stay overnight and Mark decided to fly to Florida with his girlfriend, Jen, and spend Christmas with her family.  After we absorbed the news and accepted the idea of a much down-sized dinner,  I decided not to make pies or dessert.  Sunday Barb and Mike arrive in Georgia and the day before Christmas, Barb called and asked what we were doing on Christmas Day. So Christmas Day Mike and Barb arrived ready to mash potatoes and make gravy.  Actually, Barb was ready to make gravy.  Mike took pictures of us doing "women's" work. Mike continued to take pictures of noteworthy events. Mike doing "women's" work.   Dinner was

The blessings of Peace The beauty of Hope The spirit of Love The comfort of Faith May these be your gifts this Christmas season MERRY CHRISTMAS to all Peace and goodwill to all creatures on Earth. 17 degrees at 7:30 AM!

Temperature this morning was 23 degrees at 7 AM  but we reached  a marvelous sunny 52 today.  Yesterday while Cliff was on the phone with his mother, he witnessed a bright red male cardinal fly into the living room French doors and land on the porch carpet.  We have bird alert decals on the windows but the decals only last 3-4 months and then new ones need to be put on the windows again.  We watched as the cardinal slowly got his wits about him and within 15 minutes he was hopping around and he flew away.  This afternoon I washed the outside windows with the Windex outside hose sprayer, let the windows dry, and applied new bird alert decals to the peak windows and the french doors. You can understand why birds fly into windows as the reflection appears to be the sky to them.  The bird alerts do work.  During the spring and summer, no hummingbirds or other birds hit the windows.  It's so disturbing to hear the thump.............. and wait and see if the injured bird will fly away

We were so-o-o lucky to have driven home from Massachusetts when we did.  If we had been visiting this past week, we would still be there.  There is no way we could have left.  By Friday all of the truck route, rte 81, was under winter storm warnings. The Poconos, Scranton, and all the other cities we passed through were iced and treacherous and thousands were without power.  All I can say is WHEW!! That Saturday on the way home, we did stop in Virginia, spent the day with Lauria, Jim, and children and the two dogs, three cats, a black bunny, and a gaggle or a herd of chickens.   Jim was making Challah bread with Sofia. And of course, while Jim and Sofia are trying to bake, Olivia was doing a River Dance on her father's heels. We ordered Chinese (what else?!) take-out so nobody had to cook.  Low mein noodles, egg foo young, fried rice, mai fun, won ton soup and more being spooned onto little children's plates............ hungry adults, happy chatter.....................

Cliff's mother was released from rehab three days before we arrived in MA and was overjoyed to greet us in her own living room.  None of us really believed she would be well enough to go home.  She worked  diligently with OT and PT wile she was in rehab.  Since she's come home, she'll have a visiting nurse, OT and PT a few times a week for a short time to acclimate her to her new routine at home.  Cliff spent Thanksgiving with his mother and sister-in-law and I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family.  A couple days before Thanksgiving, I went with Vic and Retta went to Gerardo's Italian Bakery in Westboro for cannolis, Italian cookies, carrot cake, and cheese cake.  You can put on 10 pounds just walking through the doors in that bakery. Just two of the many cases filled with luscious pastries.   My oldest son, Michael, and grandson, Mike Jr. came down from NH and  I got to meet my new great-nephews, ages 1 and 2 years old, for the first  time. Grampy Vic and

After returning from any trip comes the dreaded unpacking of folded or rolled clothing, lugging armsful of pillows, winter jackets, boots and sneakers, and the snack bags.  We also had a cloth bag full of library books-on-cd and Christmas music to take some of the boredom out of the long drive.  The stories we really enjoyed were Robert Parker's Jessie Stone mysteries.  Of course, I envisioned Tom Selleck for hours while listening to High Profile and Stranger in Paradise.   Since we weren't sure how many days we needed to spend visiting Cliff's mother, we filled two weeks worth of vitamins, supplements, and Rxs in the pharmacy snap cases labeled Sunday to Saturday AM/PM.  Those containers were also put in a soft bag (along with peppermint patties, Cape Cod potato chips, and a can of low sodium almonds to cancel out the sodium in the chips) and strategically placed in the back of the Kia where I could grab them when needed.  We did pretty good staying on our regimen.  When

How could you possibly have a bad day when greeted by a dancing 4-year old first thing in the morning?! We arrived home from our week away yesterday afternoon around 4 o'clock.  Before returning to our mountain, we stopped at Ingles and picked up a half-gallon of milk and my coffee creamer, two critical items for breakfast this morning.  During our packing and preparation the day before we headed to Massachusetts, the refrigerator iced up for the second time in a year causing the fan to whir-r-r-r louder than our clunking dishwasher.  We were able to store some of the cold foods in our neighbor's refrigerator but threw away too many items such as partially used bottles of dressings, relishes, yogurts, etc. so we wouldn't take up all of Alberta's refrigerator over the holiday.  The next morning we left the refrigerator standing with its double doors and freezer draw open like a wide-eyed child in awe while we were gone.  The day before the refrigerator froze up, I spen

I am thankful for................ my parents because without them I wouldn't have been on this earth to experience all the colors of life the breeze of the wind, the sounds of rain on leaves  music that lifts my spirits knowing and feeling sadness and happiness the comfort and love of family and friends HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME........................... I was probably pouting because I was caught sneaking into the kitchen cabinet to eat the brown sugar.  Those were the good old days.  Now I can eat chocolate cake for breakfast and all the cotton candy I want at carnivals and country fairs.......................but it's not as much fun as when it was verboten ! 

Rumor has it we may see snow showers Wednesday as a cold front comes through.  I pulled up the last of the kale, what was left of the Swiss chard after the deer nibbled on them, and left six broccoli plants to see if they are as hardy as they appear.  Cliff finished tilling the garden this afternoon.  I stood at the edge looking at the freshly turned clumps of clay envisioning my potato rows at the end of March.  I'm still covering the porch geraniums most nights but will put them in the garage Tuesday night before the front comes through.  These last couple of sunny days, our temperatures reached 65-70 degrees by 3 pm.  Fall color seemed to peak quickly and then be gone.  In three months, I'll be ready to plants peas and start my seeds in the south windows.  In this week's CSA box from Candy Mountain Farms, there were lots of Asian greens, including a deep green bok choy.  It's such a beautiful shaped vegetable and so easy to prepare, I'm thinking of planting some

This time of year, I welcome the time change.  We're situated about 1.5+ hours from the Central Time Zone so at this time of year, we weren't seeing a glimpse of morning sky until after 7:30 am.  Very difficult for me, being an early riser, to feel the day begin.  I don't mind cocooning in the early evening when the sun slides behind the mountains in the west.  This morning's sunrise blended brilliant cadmium orange and quinacridone reds throughout the eastern sky for just a shot time.  I was lucky to have observed this wondrous sight for it changed within minutes as the sun rose from behind the hills and greeted me through the trees.  My geraniums still sleep out on the porch all night even with the temperatures dipping into the 30's.  No threats of a frost or freeze yet but it won't be long before I tuck them in the garage for the winter.   After shaking the summer dust off the warm-weather curtains, washing and line drying them, the curtains have been neatl

We've been on an extended roller coaster ride for about the last ten days since Cliff's mother tripped on a berm and landed on her face crushing her glasses into her face.  After her fall, Dot was taken to the hospital, released, only to be readmitted a few days later due to feelings of fatigue and confusion.  Concern over whether she had another stroke or not, doctors ran more tests.  A few days ago, she had a reaction from a medication that caused this little woman to be combative and be put in restraints. We've gone from planning on her return to her apartment, to thoughts of planning her funeral, to the most recent diagnosis of rehab.  The roller coaster car has been stuck at the top when suddenly it races to the bottom taking your breath away.  Cliff is weary.  He sobs, catches his breath, tries to sleep at night, and has learned to wait patiently for things to work out.  Meantime his sister-in-law, Diane, is in Clinton with Dot going through her own fatigue and emotio

Two years ago we went to Punkin' Chunkin' in Hayesville.  Vendors, music, and activities were set up in the quaint common and the chunkin' was held in a nearby field.  That day was brutally c-o-l-d and windy.  The hot Brunswick stew felt so good going down.  This year the Punkin' Chunkin' was held on the Payne's private airstrip and acreage.  The quaintness and small town feel didn't exist but things do change.  With all the extra land, a zipline was set up and one could take a small plane ride for only $15.  I tried to get Cliff to go up but he didn't want to. The chunkin' catapults were set up at the end of the airstrip so when a plane was taking off or landing, the chunkin' activity stopped for a few minutes so as not to take down the plane. Some of the hurls put the punkins 950' out in the field.  Behind the catapults were dozens of vehicles, probably those of the participants and the crew. During one of the hurls, the 8-10 lb

  We're in for our first fall cold snap with a freeze warning tonight.  Today was quite breezy toppling over some of the larger potted plants.  Downtown Murphy hit 57 in the sun so we were probably 54.  Cliff fired up the stove and split more wood.  I moved the wicker chair and cushions from the porch to my sewing room leaving space for the winter wood pile.  Porch plants are scattered in all the rooms including a few geraniums out in my sewing room.  Being the first winter in the sewing room, not sure how they will fare.  The wooly caterpillar, with its thirteen distinct segments of black and brown, have been a predictor of winter weather for decades.  I spotted one with brown sandwiched between black front and back.  We heard that a local spotted one that was all black indicating a cold snowy winter.  If squirrel behavior is a barometer of this coming winter, we're in trouble.  As part of my fall decoration, I placed a large straw bale topped with a pumpkin and

I believe she's gone....................migrated south.  This morning she appeared quietly around 7:30 perching on a thin branch near the back porch.  I just happened to get a glimpse of her.  Yesterday morning she chittered wildly.  I told her I knew it time for her to go.  She was the last to leave.  I sighted her once hitting a feeder in the late afternoon.  And as she did last year, she left again on Cliff's birthday. We've watched them and enjoyed their antics for six months.  During the months of July, August, and part of September, I boiled their sugar water daily and kept the feeders free of mold.  We sat silently on the open porch each morning with our coffee waiting for tiny wing sounds or chittering as they approached the feeders hungry after a night of deep sleep.  During the day, they tapped the red trumpet flowers, perched on branches, and chased each other fighting over territories. Our hummingbirds brought us such enjoyment, but now it's time fo

Earlier this week the weather forecast predicted a 50% chance of raining out the two-day fall festival.  Each day the percent changed so I quit watching, knowing that I would be attending, rain or shine. the open barn where Friday night concerts are held  inside the barn Different groups performed each hour from 10-4 both days. Friday evening as vendors were setting up their tents, Cliff and I attended The Lone Mountain Band performance in the Keith House.  We saw their performance last year at the Brasstown Community Center and enjoyed their concert.  Not only did they entertain the audience with bluegrass banjo, guitar, mandolin, and bass fiddle strumming, but they also charmed us with humor and yoyo demonstrations.  Never a dull moment. demonstration of wood turning on the workshop porch  handmade Christmas dolls and life-size figures   food vendors    more food vendors There were twelve different food vendors this year.  Saturday