The Mountain Thymes

This is not a fuzzy dark rotting tree stump! 11:49 this morning................... At this point I brought the iPhone out to the front porch with me for better photos than through the kitchen screen.  Oh, no! Not the feeder............Please don't yank it off the hook and destroy it..................  While she shook and tipped the feeder, I stood on the top step banging two metal kitchen pots together and asked her to go feed in someone else's yard. She just looked at me.  She went back to her eating and I remained on the top step watching her in amazement.  She's thin.  Not enough berries and acorns for the wildlife to fatten for winter.                                          She's so beautiful................Maybe she found me annoyi...

Delightfully cool 52 degree morning! Many years ago, maybe about fifteen or so when we lived in Florida and Cliff's mother was in her early 70's, she flew down a few times to stay with us.  We took her to D.J.'s, our favorite outdoor eating place, where we sat at umbrella-covered picnic tables only feet away from the inter-coastal water, watched the fishing boats come in, and the pelicans perch on ocean-weathered wooden piles.  Back at the house we often just sat on the screen porch and chatted.   On our work days, Dot would spend her day on the porch reading or enjoying the birds at the feeders and occasionally would spot a brown bunny cautiously emerge from the woods making its way to seeds dropped from the feeders.  On our arrival home from work, she would recant her daily activities but on this one day she told us that she watched the bunny for hours that afternoon and for some strange reason it never moved from its spot.  We chuckled and Cliff had to...

Just an update........ Cliff has his implants.  Thursday's surgery was a little more difficult.  By evening he felt some pressure in the eyeball and by Friday morning he knew something wasn't right.  He drove back to the Hayesville office first thing in the morning where the ophthalmologist checked his eye pressure which was in the mid-40's but should have been around 11.  He was given a Rx to get the pressure under control.  That afternoon he saw our optometrist in Murphy to recheck his pressure which had dropped down to 19.   He seems to be responding to the Rx and will see our optometrist Monday morning for another pressure check. 

Friday Cliff had his one week post-op eye appointment with our optometrist only to walk out of her office with continued restrictions.  She felt he needed another week to allow further healing which brings him to the time of his right eye surgery.  That was depressing news for him.  So many daily tasks that we do automatically, like reach down and tie our shoes, empty the dishwasher, pick up things that drop on the floor, he still has to remember to modify or ask me to do them. He's restricted from running fire/rescue calls, doing yoga, yard work or anything that kicks up dust and debris, including not lifting more than twenty pounds, and has to keep water from running into that eye.  For about the next three, maybe four weeks, lots of chores around here will be put on hold.  Saturday morning we did the usual errands, had lunch, and headed to the Ocoee River Gorge in Tennessee to get Cliff out of the house for a few hours. The river rapids are wild after conti...

Since awaking at 4:50 and unable to fall back into a sleep,  I figure this may be a good time to do something useful, like blog a few minutes.  Cliff's eye-drops regimen consumes our days.  It starts at five a.m. and ends at 10 p.m.  Thank goodness for iPhone alarms that remind us every four hours it's time to do drops.  A small plastic sandwich bag full of Rx vials travels with us during the day no matter where we go.   One of the Rx drops is a thick viscosity and I apply that at 5 a.m. and since I'm up, two minutes later I do his second Rx.  He crawls back under the covers and most times falls backs into a sleep.  I'm awake and up for the day.  Sleep after 5-ish doesn't work for my brain.  So I read a novel or thumb through some old magazines for about an hour until I hear the coffee pot start and smell the fresh caffeine wafting from the kitchen.  Around 6:30, after scanning my outdoor surroundings, it's time to hang the seed fee...

Wednesday evening I brought the feeders in sometime after 8:30 and boy, the cardinals were ticked at me.  Cardinals are the last to give in and call it a night, feeding until almost dark.  I've always scanned my surroundings before bringing in feeders at night and when hanging them back out around 6:30 in the morning but now I'm more careful.  At 10 the Blink app went off and captured this shot of our bear again but it didn't stick around when it couldn't find any food.  No bear last night.  (Thursday) Cliff's cataract surgery went very well Thursday. We were both so-o hungry by the time he was released from the hospital around 1 pm so we stopped at a newly opened restaurant before heading to the Doctor's off in Hayesville to have his follow-up.  He ordered a Philly cheese steak and I had the strawberry/pecan salad.  Follow-up went well. Tiring day.  Now that he knows the procedure, the right eye surgery shouldn't cause such anxiety. We ...

A familiar clinking noise in the driveway startled me at 4 a.m. this morning.  Our neighbors up the road trapped a flying squirrel last winter when they found it was gnawing on their new home.  I thought maybe a flying squirrel was running around the metal gutters.  Since I was awake, I pulled back the curtains in the front bedroom, focusing my sight on a large dark shape near the birdbath.  No movement so I went back to bed.  A few minutes later Cliff's Blink app went crazy.  There were noises on the back porch like someone tripping over the metal ladder that's resting against the porch rails.  We pulled up the camera app to find............... We estimate the bear to be about 5'9" weighing around 170-180.  It pulled the two bird feeders off their hooks in the front yard and was going for this porch feeder when we flipped on the porch light.   It just sauntered off the porch slowly and moved on.  Needless to say, bird feeders will ...