The Mountain Thymes

Last Thursday morning we left Murphy pointing the Kia toward Kansas City for a visit with John and Mark and their families.  Our stopping point Thursday evening was Marion, IL.  Early Friday afternoon we arrived in Kansas  City, MO.  Mark was thankful he had a valid reason for leaving work Friday noontime to be home when we arrived. Mark with his and Jen's rescue greyhounds.  Ember, closest to Mark, was anxious around us so I was lucky to get this picture of her.  She was rescued from an abused situation and our visit made her uncomfortable.  She adores Mark and Jen.  Mark reassures her by picking her up and cuddling her. Schroeder posed for his picture.  He was more comfortable with us as he got used to our being there. Panther led me up the stairs to show me where his dry food feeder was so I could remove the top and hand feed him.  It's a timed feeder that drops food once in the morning and again in the evening but he figured I was a new person in his life and he

Wednesday is Benjamin's 7th birthday..........already.  I try to text or email the children a few weeks ahead of their birthdays reminding them to send me their wish-list.  That way their birthday gifts arrive before their day.   Ben only asked for one thing and Lauria included the Walmart link so I could easily purchase the correct item he wanted for his birthday.  I went online to the Walmart site using her link, ordered the Battleship Game, and designated her as the pick-up person.   So today she went to her Walmart to pick up Ben's gift but it wasn't there.  Cliff installed a virtual private network on my computer some time ago so I figured it accidentally went to Phoenix, AZ or Butte, Montana but it didn't. The game was ready for pick up in Murphy.  When I texted Lauria about the gift, I asked her to explain to Ben that his Pau Pau is old and sometimes she gets mixed up!  I'll pick up the gift and mail it to him before he turns eight. Pulled up all the tomato

With the sun a bit lower in the sky now, the garden gets fewer hours of required light needed for plump tomatoes and yellow beans.  We've been weeks with little or no rain leaving the soil cracked and dry.  Morning watering can't compare to a soaking day-long rain.  A few days ago I pulled up the green and yellow beans and put in a few new dill weed plants and two dozen onion sets.                                               No more beans.                                                    new fall onions   Basil did well this year.  Basil doesn't like soggy feet so I had no black rot on the stems and leaves.  I've frozen eighteen cubes of chopped basil leaves in olive oil and eight chives in water cubes for winter cooking.                                                     morning glories Early morning temperatures have been about 58 degrees.  Before the heat of the day set in this morning, we did our walk around Konehete Park in town then built my pott