The Mountain Thymes

Four-and-a-half year old Olivia is high maintenance.  She talks more than her mother and her grandmother combined.  Her imagination is infinite.  She doesn't fall asleep easily at night and doesn't nap anymore.  She's got something going on all the time and would wear out the Energizer bunny.  Olivia is precious and if we lived closer, she would come spend time with us so Lauria could breathe, maybe take a nap, or read for more than 10 minutes.  For over a year, Lauria has been threatening to put Olivia in a large box and ship her FedEx to Murphy, NC.  Today FedEx pulled up and the driver carried a large heavy box to the porch. "Papa, your Olivia is here!" I thought about writing "to be continued............................." Inside the box was our new Kokpelli firepit, grill, and spark screen. With cool fall evenings coming, we'll soon be sitting out under the stars enjoying the night sounds.  It's portable and for now will go ...

What an awesome weekend.  Being at the Folk School is like attending a camp for adults. Basketry, dolls & bears, blacksmithing, cooking, woodcarving, weaving, storytelling, hiking and nature studies were just a few of the other courses available this weekend. The cooking class used heirloom tomatoes and other fresh vegetables from the school's garden in their recipes.  Today they made spring rolls as their final exhibit.  Yesterday we played and practiced for about six hours before quitting at 5 pm.  We learned so much my brain was on overload.  This morning I woke at 4:30 am with Amazing Grace pounding in my head.  I learned how to tune for DAA, DAC, & DAD and how to add some chords to my music.  During our lunch break a few of us walked the grounds and visited the craft shop.  The JCFS is known world-wide.  This morning at breakfast I sat near a young woman from New Zealand who was taking courses for 3 weeks then traveling around th...

Woke at 5:30 this morning excited about my second music session.  Wednesday after our regularly scheduled pizza lunch with Pat and Larry, I drove to the John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown and signed up for a weekend dulcimer class.  My beautiful dulcimer has been sitting in its case for a couple of years now only to be taken out to show friends or play " T winkle Twinkle Little Star ".   I've been following the local scholarship site at the JCFS hoping to be able to catch a free course, but the dulcimer sessions are never offered for free.  Being a full-time resident, I'm allowed one free course per year from the local scholarship listing, which changes every couple of weeks or I can take any course anytime for half price.  When I read beginning dulcimer with Anne Lough was offered this weekend, I decided it was time to take the dulcimer out of the case for the weekend.  I must confess, I have been intimidated by this 3-stinged instrument.  It's m...

The porch thermometer read fifty-seven degrees Friday morning at 6:20.   We were cloudy most of the day with off and on spitting rain so temperatures only reached seventy-one but felt like sixties.  I dug out a long sleeve jersey and jeans so I could work in my room with the windows wide open.  I've been experimenting with stencils on paper and on fabric and working on some designs for this year's Christmas cards. The open barn concert Friday evening at the John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown featured French Ida, a group of musicians from as far away as France and as near as Brasstown.  We were entertained with fast paced dance music such as the mazurka played on mandolin, accordion, fiddle, guitar, and shadow drums.  We're not always crazy about the groups on stage but enjoy the open barn experience more than being corralled into the small Keith House when weather dictates where the performance are held.  French Ida was just OK.  We probably...

Blairsville, Georgia is a neat city.  Only about twenty minutes down the road from us, we can shop at Home Depot, eat at Fatz or The Armadillo Grill and do an energizing walk at Meeks Park.  It's not far from Young Harris College where we can go to the planetarium then drive a little further to the winery.  Blairsville would have been our second choice when we moved here.  Imagine my excitement and surprise when I found out Barb and Mike had purchased their future retirement home in Blaisville!  Last weekend they were able to steal three days from Barb's busy back-to-school schedule and spend time in their new home.  Barb and I stood on the back porch and imagined where the birdseed feeders and hummingbird feeders would be place and visualized her chickens running around the back yard and where Mike would build his "man cave."  After a few days of shampooing carpets, scrubbing the back porch, and all the other exhausting chores that have just begun for...

Headed to the weedy garden around 7:30 this morning to see how the new fall broccoli plants were doing.  Plants are about two inches high and not nibbled on yet.  Cow peas are clinging to their fence support and stunning purple blossoms are beginning to bloom.  Deer or bunnies chewed all leaves and blossoms off the Cherokee Trail of Tears bean plants.  We did get a few summer squash.  May get more as the plants are still producing large yellow flowers.  Tomato plants are now sadly resting in peace at the edge of the woods. My visit to the garden lasted three hours.  I started pulling a few weeds which led to the removal of rotting tomato plants, pulling more weeds, planting fall beets, and other garden chores. As I post this tonight, I'm actually surprised my knees and shoulders aren't complaining about the way I treated them this morning. The hummingbirds frequently visit the garden to drink from the nasturtium.  We're finding nasturtium an...