The Mountain Thymes

This was our dog for about 12 hours.  Monday night around 11:00 she wandered onto our porch and spent the night sleeping on the porch carpet by the door. In the morning I walked out and became the dog whisperer.  She cautiously approached me, let me touch her and I sat on the carpet talking to her with my hands on her face.  Then she nestled her  head under my arm and sat across my lap.  I called all the local vets and searched our WKRK Facebook page for lost dog postings. None.  Vets had no owner calls reporting a missing golden lab. My heart sank.  We couldn't keep her.  She let her guard down and put her trust in me.  She followed me everywhere in the yard, barked at squirrels chasing them up trees, always returning to my side.  Around noon we drove out to the Humane Society Animal Shelter and surrendered her.  I cried as I told them how she came to our home and why we couldn't keep her and cried all the way home.  She is ...

Since Cliff has been making a true effort to lose weight and maintain, he's been reading labels for ingredients and taking note of portion size.  In our doctor's office, there is great visual reference chart comparing food portions to items in our every day life, such as a pack of card, a baseball, a computer mouse etc.  Today with his open tuna sandwich, Cliff placed some Cape Cod 40% reduced fat potato chips on his plate.  We hardly include them in our meals anymore.  He questioned whether he was allowed 40% more chips to equal 100% fat.  A serving size is 19 chips/28 grams.  He asked what size chips and how do you count all the broken ones?  I do have a kitchen scale that I use when measuring almond and rice flour grams for my gluten free baking, but he figured he's just estimate and settle for 40% more chips. Our mountain temperature was 31 degrees this morning at 7:30.  I did bring in the aloe that Barb brought me from Florida.  That p...

The hummingbirds were on their journey south when we returned from Shawnee, Kansas.  We still had two females the day before we left so I filled all the feeders with newly brewed nectar to carry them over and nourish any new travelers passing through.  The nectar-rich trumpet flowers on the pineapple sage plant will continue blooming until our first freeze, which may be tonight.  Yesterday Lisa and Bill's bees swarmed around all the flowers working tirelessly gathering nectar before the cold air sets in.  About four weeks ago we noticed more hummingbirds around and more turmoil at the feeders.  One of the females perched herself on the hummingbird swing like a matriarch mob boss watching over her territory.  When other birds tried to feed or perch nearby, she would chase them off, return to her command swing ready to defend her nectar again. She was one of the travelers we had for about a week on the journey south. Another HB perched atop a little...

Cliff decided on the spur of the moment that he wanted to spend his 74th birthday in Kansas with John and Carolyn.  Tuesday before we left he did a Fire Prevention Program at Martins Creek Elementary School for pre-K through third grade.  Little petri dishes of bacterial cultures.............. Wednesday evening he seemed to be sniffling more than usual but we thought nothing of it.  Pollen and mold spores have been high here.  We sneeze a lot.  Thursday morning we headed toward our hotel in Cape Giradeau, MO about an eight hour drive with stops for eating and stretching.  By that night Cliff was coughing so we knew it wasn't the pollen.  Thursday night his hotel sleep was interrupted by continuous coughing.  We arrived at John's mid-afternoon.  Weather in Kansas City was old and raw.  Saturday I was able to get a walk in, 53 degrees, before the temperature dropped and rain set in.  Sunday was just plain bone-chilling miserable, 41 ...

It's been three years since Cliff and I visited Matthew, Taelor, and our two beautiful great-grandchildren in Kentucky.  Alexandra was a baby and Christopher was two years old. Christopher is in first grade now and Alexandra just turned four.  I don't know why so much time passed between visits.  We won't let that happen again.  Once you get to Kentucky it's a beautiful drive. We had a wonderful time with our little ones and their parents.  Once Christopher got home from school, we headed to Golden Corral buffet, which was right next to our hotel.  When Matthew was little, Cliff and I would take him to "all-you-can-eat" Red Lobster specials.  Red Lobster stopped the all-you-can-eat shrimp deal since then.  I think Matthew ate them all.  He and Cliff made multiple trips to the popcorn shrimp buffet Tuesday evening.  The rest of us enjoyed the chocolate fountain after our meal.