The Mountain Thymes

Our winter finches molted their drab feathers to become brilliant yellow spring birds.  Carolina chickadee pairs have begun their real estate search for acceptable housing.  Near the end of winter, Ernie, my neighbor up the road, built a shelf for me, attached it to a porch post and placed a decorative birdhouse  on the shelf.  Chickadees have been seen popping in and out, sitting on the roof, and talking about the little house.   Sourwood trees are dropping their flowers while dogwood blossoms are slowly opening their showy blooms.  Last weekend was the "dogwood winter" with temperatures dropping into the 20's.  The locals tell us we have one more cold spell,  the "blackberry winter." This last snap of cold air will sweeten the blackberries.  April has been such a windy month.  What ever happened to "March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb?"  We've had weeks of March winds with gusts to 16 mph so  I've be...

I have a post started but once again I'm having issues with importing photos from the iPhone.  It seems every time we do an update, whether  it's on the phone or the computer,  it screws up my blogging process.  Cliff's been trying to troubleshoot it but so far no luck.  Geesh!  My typing errors are beginning to look like my doctor's notes! 

We spotted our first ruby-throat hummingbird yesterday!  He zoomed to the kitchen window feeder, perched, looked above and around before settling to drink.  This is a day earlier than last year. Last night's temperature dropped to 27 here on the mountain.  We'd love to know where he goes to keep warm on these cold nights. Let the games begin............... The bag of mole repellent came out of the shed a few days ago. I poured two tablespoons in five tunnels that day and found two new holes this afternoon near the radishes. Last week when I was in Wayne's Feed Store an elderly lady was telling Wayne that recently she paid an exterminator to get rid of her house and yard rodent infestation but she's finding mice again.  She was buying a peppermint spray solution and was going to place peppermint soaked cotton balls around the house, hopefully to deter the mice. All the firewood has been removed from our back porch giving the mice no place to hide near our d...

Cliff and I haven't seen Boni and Bill for maybe seven or so years.  I began my teaching career at Deltona Lakes Elementary School (Florida) in the first grade when I was forty years old.  Boni was my peer-teacher and really helped me so-o-o much during that year.  Student enrollment increased heavily and first grade consisted of thirteen teachers.  A few years later Timbercrest Elementary opened and I was fortunate enough to be placed with Boni at the new school where first grade started with five teachers and we were a great team!  As time went by, I needed to try teaching older students.  Starting with first grader basic skills was invaluable.  Eventually, I was moved to fifth grade and taught with Bill for many years.  Those were the days when teachers actually taught.  We all retired at different times.  At present day, Boni and Bill spend about five months at their Colorado cabin and seven months in their panhandle home which is cl...

"Every beat of your heart is the rhythm of your soul."  Yogi tea bag Sunday night did not bring a peaceful or relaxed sleep.  Earlier last week, Anita, our yoga instructor, asked me to sub for her on Monday. Without hesitation I agreed, then thought about what I had just agreed to do.  As a participant, yoga is meditative and healing.  As an instructor, it's a continuous guidance session with demonstration and voice. I needed a theme or focus for the 75-minute class so spent a few hours Saturday and again Sunday researching, watching YouTube yoga, making notes, and practicing on my mat. Basically, the same people show for the three classes each week and we're all very comfortable with each other.  So it was not a class of strangers.  But...... it's different being in front of your peers than being on your mat following someone else.  I decided my focus would be Inner Wisdom and listed more than enough asanas to fill the 75 minutes.  Cliff placed...

Cliff has been spending hours working on the North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshall incident reports for one of his volunteer stations. It's a good thing he enjoys sitting at a computer for hours because I would have hurt someone by now if I had to do all those reports. The garden has been tilled and Mantis-ed as deeply as one can on the side of a mountain.   Cliff rebuilt the raised gardens for me which gives me lots more room to over-plant and more room for some wild flowers, honey bee and hummingbird attracting flowers.   Our compost and Wayne's mushroom compost should enhance and lighten the heavy clay for good root growth.  Radishes are kind of like cockroaches.  Nothing bothers them and they thrive even under the worst conditions.  There's no sign of carrots or beets yet that were planted the same day as the radishes, yet the radishes have proudly sprouted their little leaves through the rocky clay. Rhubarb has really grown nicely since ea...

It's convenient to have enough leftovers from a meal sometimes to warm up later for another meal.  I used to chuckle at my parents saving small amounts of leftover vegetables that hardly seemed worth using space in the refrigerator.  But every small amount eventually went into a soup or some concoction that ended up being eaten.  A few weeks ago we had about 1/2 cup of corn left from our supper that could be thrown into a soup so I left it cooling on the counter.  Most of the time I remember to cover things with Saran wrap within an hour after clean up.  About three hours later I went to the kitchen to set up my coffee maker for morning and discovered the corn was still sitting on the counter.  I hemmed and hawed.........hmmmm.......wondering whether to pitch it in the trash or save it.  It got covered with Saran and  placed in the fridge.  When I get home from Zumba and yoga, I'm hungry and usually grab an apple or some leftovers to hold me ...