The Mountain Thymes

It's a stormy morning so not a good time to weed between the lettuce and thin the carrots.  I could vacuum.  May do that later.  Yesterday we removed old reflective bird-saver decals from the porch windows, washed and squeegeed the three windows, and put all new hummingbird decals on.                                                       Taken from inside the house. We're getting radishes and pea shoots from the garden. Gardening challenges differ from year to year sometimes due to winter temperatures.  I'm seeing earlier insects and copious weed growth.   Around the shed and path to the garden we've noticed large mounding tunnels this year.  I've been nurturing a healthy looking volu...

 I started this post last week but my pictures wouldn't upload..........again..........so I had to wait for Cliff to return from Florida and troubleshoot the problem.  Originally, he had planned a bike trip to Daytona for Bike Week during the first week of March.  I came down with the acute infective tracheobronchitis and as I was getting my immune system back in order, two days before his trip to Daytona, he came down with the virus.  Even though Bike Week was over when he recovered, he still wanted to visit friends and ride.  He'd made arrangements to stay with our long-time friends in Deltona, Jim and Sharon.   Two days before he was scheduled to head south (his second try), Jim called and now he was down with the virus.  Also, Florida has been extremely dry with wild fires and thick smoke causing road closings and dangerous conditions.  By the time everyone was recovered from the virus, the fires and smoke became a cause for concern.  Sti...

Yesterday was stormy with much of the south under tornado watch.  Public schools and our local college dismissed students at 11.  We skipped the gym, stayed inside to avoid 1.5 inch hail that was in the super cells.  Atlanta airport stopped incoming/outgoing flights during the worst of the storm.  Power was knocked out in some communities but we lucked out with no damage from any of the three rounds of storms that passed through. During the late afternoon we had a break in the weather and at 6:40 I spotted a small tail pointing down from the backside of a hummingbird feeder.  Our first hummingbird had arrived during the miserable wind and rain, two days earlier than last year.  The next couple of days and nights will be cold.  The garden is quite wet which the weeds seems to love.  Today and tomorrow we under a wind advisory but then we're back to normal 70 degree weather.  Yesterday when we were stuck inside, I made a braised red cabbage r...

"If anyone is looking for a cow that got out of its pasture, it's walking down hwy 294 by Candy Mountain Rd where the dumpsters are." ~ posted on our local radio station Facebook page. What an interesting place to live!! (not the picture posted on the FB site.  I couldn't copy it to my blog so pirated another one.)

Late this afternoon, as I stood at the sink cutting broccoli florets for a soup, with an eye on the recently hung hummingbird feeder for a glimpse of our first hummingbird, and in a trance with relaxing Pandora music, I received a call from Laura.  (Not Lauria) Her voice was melodic and sweet and she spoke to me as if I were her best friend.  I asked her who she was and did she have the wrong number.  She recited that she was calling to inform me of the availability of a state burial!  State burial!!  I'm making a healthy detox broccoli soup.  I went to my Zumba and yoga classes this morning!  My turnips and Swiss chard are in the garden waiting to be fertilized.  She obviously had the wrong number.  I'm not going anywhere!  CLICK!!! Still no hummingbird sightings, but in the early morning just as the eastern sky shows a glimmer of blue, the forest is alive with bird songs.  This is my favorite time of year.  Standing on the ...