The Mountain Thymes

 There have been good days and challenging days and the days run into each other.  Some mornings I look at the full pill square to see what day it is.  I find the better days as those when I get up with the sun and stay with  a routine.  Lucky for me this time of year is my outside time.  This morning I walked to the garden at 6:45 and dug up the poor beets.  My beets did not get the eight hours of sun that they needed so are puny and sad.  If they were sold at the farmers markets as "baby " beets they would be in a class of their own.  Every year is different.  If perfection is your goal, then gardening is more of a challenge.  Luckily, I'm not a perfectionist.  This morning the beans needed to be picked again.  We have enough for three more meals but not enough to preserve.  My bean patch is only large enough for our weekly meal supply. Rogue flowers are popping up all over the garden but we're not seeing the hummingbirds, many bees, or butterflies this year. This m

 Sometimes these hot heavy humid days with afternoon thunderstorms are rough on our bodies.  Of course Cliff has intestinal inflammation from the chemo destruction so some days his body aches too.  Last night my right knee didn't like me so I tossed and turned and he had a rough night.  We moved slowly this morning until Cliff suggested we drive to the Ocoee River and see if it was open to rafting again since the fire destroyed the Ranger's building months ago.  It was nice to see the rafts ride the rapids again.  We didn't stay as long as we usually do because it was 91 degrees and quite uncomfortable. We were almost home when Cliff's pager toned out a brush fire up the side of a mountain not far from us.  Conveniently, we were close to the station so I jumped into the brush truck with him and went lights and sirens to the scene.  Its been over three years since I responded to anything with him.  This volunteer climbed up the side of the mountain with his booster hose