The Mountain Thymes

Last night kicked off the first event of the season in the open barn at the John Campbell Folk School.  The weather cooperated for the Brasstown Morris Dancers, Dames Rockets, and the Hoop Dancers.  Our weather went from hot and dry to cool and rainy over the past couple of weeks.  Last week we had over five inches of rain in two days.  Days of thick clouds put our house temperature in the mid-sixties and we put the heat back on.  Last evening was beautiful and very comfortable while watching the costumed dancers.  Individual slices of pie were sold to help fund the dancers upcoming trip to England in June where they'll perform in the streets of Britain. The Morris Dancers.  The little performer on the right is the massage therapist that Barb and I go to.  She's little but she's mighty.  The Dames Rockets. We've been working on the shed.  Being that the shed is located on the mountain slant,  I needed a step to prevent me fr...

Morning in the garden...................                                                     sweet pea blossoms                                                     blue potato flowers                                                 my toad hou...

A couple of months ago while dancing in my morning Zumba class, my head kept tilting to the left as if I had a clump of garden clay embedded in my ear, maybe from all the tilling Cliff did.  The Zumba instructor suggested I make an appointment with her husband who's an ENT & Facial Plastics doctor.  On the way home from the gym, I made the appointment.  At my visit, tiny ear forceps were used to extract dead skin tissue (gross), wax vacuumed out, and  the doctor gave me a DIY recipe to keep the ears clear and comfortable.  He did a quick hearing test which I passed and asked if I need to discuss anything else.  I knew he meant baggy under-eyes and loose vulture-neck skin, but I've chosen to keep what I've earned in my 70 years.  What a relief to be free of garden dirt. This past week I made Cliff an appointment to have his ears cleaned and checked.  I needed to know if he had a selective hearing loss.  During the exam and wax removal, the...

We've gone from very humid 80's and A/C to 41 degree mornings and running the heat again.  A few days earlier four of my many tomatoes were transplanted to their new home in the garden because they were outgrowing their pots.  This is our blackberry winter and the last of the cold snaps.  The wild blackberries are in full bloom and the locals say this cold spell sweetens the berries.  The tomatoes are covered with straw and for as long as this spell lasts the seedlings and sprouts on the porch get covered with sheets at night.  I had planned on setting up at the farmers market today but the cold morning changed my mind.  Lettuce is starting to come in. The last of the radishes.  Can't freeze them so Cliff may get a few radishes with each meal and for snacks. Another vole/mole hole spotted today while I was weeding and planting spinach seeds.  My first spinach planting attempt failed.  After talking to one of the farmers this morning ...

It's a stormy morning so not a good time to weed between the lettuce and thin the carrots.  I could vacuum.  May do that later.  Yesterday we removed old reflective bird-saver decals from the porch windows, washed and squeegeed the three windows, and put all new hummingbird decals on.                                                       Taken from inside the house. We're getting radishes and pea shoots from the garden. Gardening challenges differ from year to year sometimes due to winter temperatures.  I'm seeing earlier insects and copious weed growth.   Around the shed and path to the garden we've noticed large mounding tunnels this year.  I've been nurturing a healthy looking volu...

 I started this post last week but my pictures wouldn't upload..........again..........so I had to wait for Cliff to return from Florida and troubleshoot the problem.  Originally, he had planned a bike trip to Daytona for Bike Week during the first week of March.  I came down with the acute infective tracheobronchitis and as I was getting my immune system back in order, two days before his trip to Daytona, he came down with the virus.  Even though Bike Week was over when he recovered, he still wanted to visit friends and ride.  He'd made arrangements to stay with our long-time friends in Deltona, Jim and Sharon.   Two days before he was scheduled to head south (his second try), Jim called and now he was down with the virus.  Also, Florida has been extremely dry with wild fires and thick smoke causing road closings and dangerous conditions.  By the time everyone was recovered from the virus, the fires and smoke became a cause for concern.  Sti...

Yesterday was stormy with much of the south under tornado watch.  Public schools and our local college dismissed students at 11.  We skipped the gym, stayed inside to avoid 1.5 inch hail that was in the super cells.  Atlanta airport stopped incoming/outgoing flights during the worst of the storm.  Power was knocked out in some communities but we lucked out with no damage from any of the three rounds of storms that passed through. During the late afternoon we had a break in the weather and at 6:40 I spotted a small tail pointing down from the backside of a hummingbird feeder.  Our first hummingbird had arrived during the miserable wind and rain, two days earlier than last year.  The next couple of days and nights will be cold.  The garden is quite wet which the weeds seems to love.  Today and tomorrow we under a wind advisory but then we're back to normal 70 degree weather.  Yesterday when we were stuck inside, I made a braised red cabbage r...