We were somewhere in the negative numbers this morning but not sure what the actual temperature was. Downtown Murphy was 4 degrees at 6:30 AM. Our thermometer falsely read -17. We're usually about 5 degrees lower than downtown. I think our thermometer went into a state of shock. Yesterday my birdbath de-icer arrived from Dr. Foster online and kept the bathwater from freezing all night. The birds thanked us this morning as they gathered around the water and didn't bang their little beaks on a solid block of ice. I don't know how people choose to live in a frigid tundra for 6-7 months. It's so confining and all a body wants to do is eat and build up layers of fat cells and lather on whale blubber to keep warm and keep the skin from cracking. We were thrilled to feel the sunshine bring the temperature up to low 40's by 3 PM. Friday should be low 50's and Saturday may reach 57. Dig out the capris!
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Yesterday cardinals regally appeared all day at the back porch feeders, the front garden feeders, and down at my garage feeders. Cliff and I counted at least ten pairs of red birds during this snowy cold time. We had never seen so many show up to feed. We also had the rufous towhee, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, juncos, and finches staging on nearby branches for the feeders and suet. This year we're seeing more downy woodpeckers and flickers riveting dead logs and pounding on high energy suet. The hairy woodpecker became our newest addition to the suet and decayed trees. One of Cliff's favorite birds to watch is the wood thrush which resembles a chicken scratching the ground and flinging dead leaves into the air looking for bugs and grubs. It worked one small area all yesterday, continuously flipping over snowy brown leaves eating anything it could find until it finally flew away at dusk. I kept a pot of water on a low boil on...
In yoga practice we honor our bodies by listening to them. Movements are deliberate, mindful, and with intention. Sometimes joints and muscles tell us to back off slowly. Today with this "polar vortex" that Jim Cantore keeps talking about, my body is telling me to eat chocolate cake with lots of frosting. Last night I made a thick red lentil soup, threw pieces of chicken in it, and ladled it over a bowl of Basmati rice and had hot honey corn bread muffins. That was very satisfying. Tonight will be warmed up leftover chicken soup, more honey corn muffins, and my father's favorite "beat-in-the-pan" chocolate cake. I haven't really minded the cold snap we're in right now because this gives me time to catch up on inside activities that I won't do when the spring weather beckons me outside. It's a wonderful time to bake breads and ginger cookies, sip warm chai tea, and dig through old recipe books that have collected dust. Earlier today ...
There was a tease of spring in the air yesterday as I sat on the porch in delightful 58 degrees and sunshine talking to Barb in Florida. Sunday afternoon was spent writing up my seed orders from Annie's Heirloom Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I so enjoy the images from Baker Creek Catalogs. I order online but still need to hold the catalog, touch the pages and flip them back and forth, dog-ear them, and jot notes along the margins. I've ordered a few of the same reliables from past years and added a few new ones according to their interesting names, their history, or delicious looking images. Cour Di Bue Cabbage forms a pointed oxheart-type head and is an old European heirloom. Cosmic Purple carrots have a bright purple skin and a spicy sweet tasting root. Beurre De Rocquencourt Bush Wax Beans will be planted because I like the name. And of course, my favorite tomatoes are the juicy rich Black Krim. This season I'm adding...
Embracing the realities of life, the things we cannot change, is a pretty powerful way to truly understand and accept the impermanence of life. One of the Five Remembrances by Thich Nhat Hanh 1. I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old. Bummer!!! Along side other spiritual passages posted on my refrigerator door, are the Five Remembrances that help me in the present............. the now. Those words help keep me grounded some days. I have a tendency to overdo, to tackle more than I should. My father's words echo in my brain. "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach." As a child my mother called me a butterfly as I quickly flitted from one flower to the next enjoying the flight without a care in the world. At my last monthly visit with my massage therapist, one of my indulgences since retiring, she reminded me, with all due respect as she worked my aching shoulder, that I wasn't a spring chicken anymore...
When we stayed with my sister and brother-in-law over the Thanksgiving holiday, Cliff was impressed with the crispness, color, and clarity and great sound from their new 46" tv. He had been talking about getting a new tv but i kept discouraging the idea because the one we had was perfectly good, very expensive when we bought it years ago, and what would we do with the old tv? It was too big to replace the old one in the bedroom armoire. Trying to sell it on Craig's List or a local ad wouldn't work. No one buys old tvs. So when we returned home and settled in to watch our old tv, I agreed we needed a better one with crispness, color, and clarity and great sound. Some days after buying our new Vizio, the weather was cold enough to sit back with a good Netflix movie and a fire in the stove. When the air is heavy, it's more difficult to pull a good draft when starting a fire. The house filled with smoke making it impos...
Last evening a gust of wind suddenly whipped up the mountain, blew open the back door, and showed up in our kitchen. The porch wind chimes rang continuously throughout the evening and all night. Around 10 as we were falling asleep, we heard a noise close to the house that sounded like a tree brushing against objects as it fell. We got up, checked the porch, and Cliff went outside with his flashlight but couldn't find anything unusual. When I went out on the back porch to fill the feeders this morning, I saw the cause of all the noise not far from the porch. Fortunately for us, the dead 50' oak fell in a northerly direction away from the house. We had a light dusting of snow during the night. Cliff cancelled his PT appointment and I opted not to try to get to the gym. Secondary roads have patches of black ice. The temperature was about 12 degrees when we got up and the birds have been hitting the feeders and hanging on the su...