Yesterday evening I decided I'd better clean up the 102 emails sitting in my mailbox. Many of the emails are articles I had saved to read later when I felt like sitting and reading them. Later never happened. Before deleting The Farmer's Almanac posted on August 18, I wanted to know The 20 Signs of a Hard Winter. These were the most interesting to me.
1. thick hair on the nape of a cow's neck
2. heavy and numerous fogs during August (those we had)
3. insects marching in a line rather than meandering
4. unusual abundance of acorns (not here, our acorns are puny and scarce)
5. narrow orange bands on the Woolybear caterpillar warn of heavy snow
6. my favorite..............pigs gathering sticks!!
These are only a few from the article. From what I gather on further reading, we're in for a cold, rainy winter. Acorns are scarce this year bringing the bears closer to homes searching for trash bags and destroying bird feeders.
The end of August brought an unusual number of early falling leaves. One afternoon as we sat on the back porch listening for the approaching thunderstorm, winds picked up and flurries of early brown leaves twirled and danced to their final destination.
Traffic has been crazy in Murphy due to the Labor Day holiday. In all the years we've lived here, there are many nearby places we haven't explored or realized existed. We've driven through the Nantahala Gorge on our way to Charleston, SC or Bryson City but have never stopped at the NOC, Nantahala Outdoor Center, because we thought it was just for rafting and kayaks. Today we followed the NOC signs onto the Center grounds. It's a great place for outdoor families. In 2013 the Center hosted the International Freestyle World Championships. From our window table in the Rivers End Restaurant we watched kayaks and rafters brave the rapids. Experienced kayakers challenge themselves by flipping under the rapids and returning upright over and over again. I told Cliff that's like throwing yourself into a tornado to see if you can survive it. There are hiking trails and zip lines but our favorite part was the restaurant. If I had lived here in my 50's, I'd be doing the zip lines and rafting but now the joints prefer I just enjoy walking and appreciating the outdoors.
1. thick hair on the nape of a cow's neck
2. heavy and numerous fogs during August (those we had)
3. insects marching in a line rather than meandering
4. unusual abundance of acorns (not here, our acorns are puny and scarce)
5. narrow orange bands on the Woolybear caterpillar warn of heavy snow
6. my favorite..............pigs gathering sticks!!
These are only a few from the article. From what I gather on further reading, we're in for a cold, rainy winter. Acorns are scarce this year bringing the bears closer to homes searching for trash bags and destroying bird feeders.
The end of August brought an unusual number of early falling leaves. One afternoon as we sat on the back porch listening for the approaching thunderstorm, winds picked up and flurries of early brown leaves twirled and danced to their final destination.
Traffic has been crazy in Murphy due to the Labor Day holiday. In all the years we've lived here, there are many nearby places we haven't explored or realized existed. We've driven through the Nantahala Gorge on our way to Charleston, SC or Bryson City but have never stopped at the NOC, Nantahala Outdoor Center, because we thought it was just for rafting and kayaks. Today we followed the NOC signs onto the Center grounds. It's a great place for outdoor families. In 2013 the Center hosted the International Freestyle World Championships. From our window table in the Rivers End Restaurant we watched kayaks and rafters brave the rapids. Experienced kayakers challenge themselves by flipping under the rapids and returning upright over and over again. I told Cliff that's like throwing yourself into a tornado to see if you can survive it. There are hiking trails and zip lines but our favorite part was the restaurant. If I had lived here in my 50's, I'd be doing the zip lines and rafting but now the joints prefer I just enjoy walking and appreciating the outdoors.
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