The Mountain Thymes

Nature painted a most vibrant sunrise around 7:45 this morning.  I wish my iphone could have captured the true explosion of colors that changed quickly within minutes. The sky burst into hot yellow "flames." Within minutes blue sky appeared through Persian pink clouds.  The temperature was about 45 degrees and the mountain was quiet.  The only sound I heard was my slippers crunching on the gravel as I walked up and down the road looking for the best place to capture the colors. We hit our peak color a few days ago. A few days ago we had 10 nice fat turkeys in the front garden filling up on dropped birdseed.  They read my lips (m-m-m-m, drumsticks) at the kitchen window and began their march up the road. 

The newest blog photo reveals where the fairies live.  I love this photo!  On one of our visits to Virginia, Olivia told me to take a picture of the fairies home. After researching the word faeries, I decided to use fairies instead.  Faery is a much older concept, a powerful mystical being who is usually quite dark, even when it means well. 

Last week my sister and brother-in-law headed to Nashville via Murphy.  We spent a wonderful weekend talking, laughing, and relaxing together.  We picked Vic's brain on how to tackle some of the projects that have been put off.  To me, the most urgent one was finishing the driveway with some sort of fence.  Clliff and I didn't know how or where to start.  I need an image in order to do anything.  The driveway is so packed we didn't think we'd be able to get through the crush-and-run to put in fence posts.  Vic started digging into the hard packed driveway and explained what to do. The break bar we bought did the trick.  I'll also use it when I put in the daffodil bulbs  today.  I leveled the posts while Cliff put Quikrete in the holes.  Next day we cut and fastened 2 x 6's to the posts. Excess posts cut off. Staining.  Notice that he's on the steep sloping side of the driveway. The rocks kept slipping and slid...

There is a site called Journey North that I have followed since moving here.  It's a free Internet-based program that explores the interrelated aspects of seasonal change.  In the six years or so that I've used it, the site has expanded for the citizen observer and for teachers.  Until recently, I accessed this site only in March to track the hummingbird migration from Central America to their arrival in the eastern United States.  Cliff and I often wondered if the migration south is just as exciting as the journey north is to observers.  Every April on my calendar, I record our first hummingbird sighting along with temperature and weather conditions.  Every October I do the same, noting the last hummingbird sighting.  Last year it was on Cliff's birthday, the 11th, that we saw the last hummer.  So this year when I spotted one on the 12th, it was a bonus.  I always keep the feeders supplied with fresh nectar for over a week after the last si...

HAPPY 71st BIRTHDAY, CLIFF Two and a half years ago holding his first great grandson, Christopher Clifton Bush. His mother's favorite picture of him after getting his haircut at Avalon. And his favorite pug, Toby. Best wishes for a wonderful day!

Cliff decided a few weeks ago that for his birthday he'd like to take a leisurely drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and spend some nights in Blowing Rock until flooding rains from Hurricane Joaquin closed much of the Parkway.  On Sunday plan B kicked in.  He decided to celebrate his birthday with Hayden, Sofia, Grant, Olivia, Ben, Lauria and Jim, a pug and two cats.  I changed our reservations to a Holiday Inn Express in Warrenton,  packed our bags and headed to northern Virginia.  After the 10-hour drive, we stopped by to hug everyone, pat the pug, talk to the cats and told them we'd see them in the morning.  In our hotel room we started unpacking, placing shampoo, toothbrushes, etc. in the bathroom, hanging some of the clothes on hangers and looking forward to a soothing shower and settling our weary bodies.  The room temperature was 88 degrees but we couldn't get the thermostat to turn on.  The desk manager came right up but couldn't get the unit...

We surprisingly still have 3-5 hummingbirds (all females) a day competing for nectar.  Even with this continuous rain from Joaquin, they swoop and dart to and from feeders and flowers.  One day the rain gauge percher sat on the gauge with her head toward the sky, fluttering her wings, and just enjoying the drops of rain falling on her feathers.  We've noticed the little birds have bulked up on insects preparing for their impending departure south.  This is the first year I've seen three window collisions and heard multiple screen bumps.  Every 3-4 months I remove the old window alert decals and replace them with new decals as the old ones lose their effectiveness.  The decals do work so I couldn't figure why I kept finding a hummingbird on the porch floor.  I even climbed back up the ladder and added a few more decals to the large windows. The decals contain a component which brilliantly reflects ultraviolet sunlight that glows helping the  bir...