The Mountain Thymes

There's always a story unfolding from my kitchen window.  Some mornings the story is as calm and peaceful as a doe out strolling with her twin fawns or a gaggle of turkeys parading across the road. A chocolate zucchini bread had just been removed from the oven to cool on a rack.  The bread needed to cool for an hour in the pan before removing it and longer before slicing.  My curiosity got the best of me and I sliced a piece while it was still cooling in the pan.  Of course it crumbled as the heat rose from the slice and it took a spoon to dig out so I could satisfy my curiosity about the new recipe.   When testing cakes and quick breads for done-ness , the tester should come out clean.  Leaving the bread in the oven for a few minutes longer because the center was still moist ended up making it drier than I like.  Anyway, that was my reason for diving into the chocolate bread in the first place.  That's my excuse. But before cleaning up the mess, I walked to the laundry ar

                               Our mail delivery................ Three-foot weeds and some as tall as trees overrun the garden............ ......but among those weeds the resilient butterfly bushes thrive showing their deep magenta blooms, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.  I go down to the garden and pull weeds for about 15-20 minutes whenever it's not raining.  Much more than that some days causes wrist pain.  If the weeds ever dry, Cliff will weed-whack those not near my garden.  In early spring I broadcast a packet of shade-loving wildflowers seeds in hopes that they would germinate and the voles would leave them alone. The seeds didn't disappoint me.  Thai holy basil reseeds itself and shows up each summer.  Makes a wonderful tea. The flowers and leaves will be harvested to dry and be stored for tea all winter.  Thai holy basil is an adaptogen providing the body with a plethora (I love that word) of health benefits that can treat a variety of ailme

Our plans were to leave last Friday morning for Fredericksburg, VA and spend the weekend with Lauria, Jim, and grandchildren.  My rheumatologist appointment was Thursday afternoon but early Thursday morning the office called and asked if I could be there in one hour.  I whipped on clean clothes, brushed my teeth, and headed to Tennessee for a 9:30 appointment.  We were back home by 11:30, had lunch, pulled the clothes from the dryer, finished packing and hit the road a few hours later arriving in Statesville, NC around 7 pm for the night.  Breaking the drive up was a much better way to travel.  Friday afternoon after checking into our hotel in Fredericksburg, we spent the rest of the day with family.  Hayden, Sofia, and Grant are 13 now.  Olivia is 9 and Ben will turn 9 in September. Ciao!  Our favorite thing...........eating!  Especially Italian.  Finisci di mangiare! On left.....Cliff, Sofia, Grant, and Jim.  Ben at the head of the table. On right....Lauria, Olivia, Hayden.

"Roll me up and smoke me when I die.........." ~ Willie Nelson No, I'm not dead.  Although, some days I feel brain dead, like altered mental status.  We had days of pretty violent thunderstorms roll through about a month ago bringing quite a barometric pressure change which caused my RA to flare.  The inflammation made me tired and "brain dead", cranky, moody with loss of appetite for a couple weeks.  My doc told me to soak in very warm Epsom baths, rest, and try to avoid biting Cliff's head off.  Try soaking in warm bath water for 20 minutes when the temperatures are in the 90's with high humidity.  Oooof!  I've got it under control..........for now.  Barometric pressure hasn't really bothered me so this was a new symptom that I hadn't experienced.  I've been lucky.  I was so moody that Cliff wondered what he had done wrong and was ready to bang his head on something hard except he had just finished taking a course on head trauma and k