The Mountain Thymes

I put out two hummingbird feeders on Wednesday and made up the first batch of nectar.  On 3/27 a male was reported only 93 miles from us in Hoschton, GA and another east of us in Asheville, NC.  They're on their way and I wanted to make sure the "travelers" had food for their journey north.  Last Saturday I hung a gourd birdhouse that I had quickly carved out. Shortly after hanging the gourd a chickadee went in and looked around.  There were still gourd seeds in the house and he worked like a mule getting those seeds out.  Sunday I hung a cedar house and within minutes two chickadees were hopping from branch to branch checking out the real estate.  Haven't seen any commotion near the purchased cedar house but there's always noise coming from inside the gourd.  Whenever I go to the garden or empty my kitchen compost bucket, the gourd is rocking and there's a tapping noise coming from it.  I'm wondering if the chickadee is remodeling the insid...

When it rains, it pours.  Late Friday afternoon our 4-year-old refrigerator started making a whirrrrring noise that progressively got louder.  We recognized the sound because two-and-a-half years ago that sound cost us $250 for a new fan and labor.  Figuring the fan would burn out over the weekend before the service man could get here and we'd have no place to store the food, we bought a dorm-size refrigerator that is now sitting empty out on the back porch.  This time we didn't need a fan but still had to empty the fridge so the repair man could take off the back and use his hair dryer to melt all the built up ice.  He told us that new appliances have more things that go wrong because of the technology and chips, etc.  So now we have an empty fridge on the porch and we don't even drink beer.  Guess I'll put some ketchup, relish, mustard and things that we'll use when we eat on the porch. Eight o'clock Monday morning as I headed out to the gym, my Ki...

 AH!  Sunshine!  Haven't seen sunshine in a week.  What a beautiful sunrise! Garden will be tilled Tuesday afternoon.  Have to start tomato seeds today and put them on the window sill.  Basil are in the window box trying to adjust to their new home.  Suppose to be 70 today and warmer tomorrow.  Hallelujah!  Rich, my new neighbor on Red Oak is building shelves for my sewing room so I can store threads, boxes of bias tape, etc and get them up off the floor. The worst of winter is over.  Love March here in the mountains.  Daffodils are in bloom, trees are beginning to bud.  Time to break out the capris and short-sleeve t-shirts and head outside to the gardens. Attended our annual Empty Bowls event last night.  While standing in line for an hour in the misty rain, we were entertained by the folk school musicians. The bowls we chose this year.  We were served a thick rich beef stew (gluten-free, no barley) made w...

Hurrah for daylight savings time! I'm so happy to have more daylight at the end of the day so I won't feel so sleepy by 7 o'clock.  Yesterday our new neighbor came over and helped Cliff take down two enormous trees from the south end of the garden that were throwing too much shade on my vegetables.  The white oaks will give us two or three more winters of firewood.  Our garden needs to be tilled but the clay is still too spongy.   We've noticed that no farmers have plowed their gardens yet.  Today was about 69 and sunny by 3 pm but we're in for five days of rain which will delay any plowing or tilling. I bought another hummingbird feeder and am getting excited about putting them out towards the end of this month.  I noted on last year's calendar that I put the feeders out on March 25 and had our first hummingbird look in the kitchen window at me on April 3.  I'm thinking spring!  Will start watching my hummingbird migration site to follow t...

Just want to share two of my many hobbies and activities.

We received a phone call from the nursing facility last night around 9:30 that Cliff's mother had calmly slipped into her eternal sleep.  The staff had soft music playing and her curtains drawn when we arrived to say good-bye.  Her hair had been brushed and she looked comfortable and free of any mental anguish.  May she rest in peace.