The Mountain Thymes

I began this writing last night with a Florence update in the background until Cliff switched over to our next Amazon episode of The Sopranos.  I think it ran on HBO years ago but we never got involved because we never had HBO.  Surprisingly, I'm more interested in the story than I thought I would be.  My brain and heart can't tolerate emotional and physical cruelty/violence so I remove myself from TV or conversation that involves toxic drama.  This series isn't just focused on the mob whacking people but the struggle in Tony Soprano's attempt at being a good family man while running the New Jersey mob.  After our evening meal, Cliff stacks the dishwasher for me, cleans up my messy cooking pots and pans and counters before we settle in our recliners for the next episode.  Watching the series has given me a vivid image of our saying " going all Tony Soprano. " As of the 5 a.m. Weather Channel update on Florence, the present track shows the tropical low o...

Yesterday evening I decided I'd better clean up the 102 emails sitting in my mailbox.  Many of the emails are articles I had saved to read later when I felt like sitting and reading them.  Later never happened.  Before deleting The Farmer's Almanac posted on August 18, I wanted to know The 20 Signs of a Hard Winter.  These were the most interesting to me. 1.  thick hair on the nape  of a cow's neck 2.  heavy and numerous fogs during August (those we had) 3.  insects marching in a line rather than meandering 4.  unusual abundance of acorns  (not here, our acorns are puny and scarce) 5.  narrow orange bands on the Woolybear caterpillar warn of heavy snow 6.  my favorite..............pigs gathering sticks!! These are only a few from the article.  From what I gather on further reading, we're in for a cold, rainy winter.  Acorns are scarce this year bringing the bears closer to homes searching for trash bags and...

This is not a fuzzy dark rotting tree stump! 11:49 this morning................... At this point I brought the iPhone out to the front porch with me for better photos than through the kitchen screen.  Oh, no! Not the feeder............Please don't yank it off the hook and destroy it..................  While she shook and tipped the feeder, I stood on the top step banging two metal kitchen pots together and asked her to go feed in someone else's yard. She just looked at me.  She went back to her eating and I remained on the top step watching her in amazement.  She's thin.  Not enough berries and acorns for the wildlife to fatten for winter.                                          She's so beautiful................Maybe she found me annoyi...

Delightfully cool 52 degree morning! Many years ago, maybe about fifteen or so when we lived in Florida and Cliff's mother was in her early 70's, she flew down a few times to stay with us.  We took her to D.J.'s, our favorite outdoor eating place, where we sat at umbrella-covered picnic tables only feet away from the inter-coastal water, watched the fishing boats come in, and the pelicans perch on ocean-weathered wooden piles.  Back at the house we often just sat on the screen porch and chatted.   On our work days, Dot would spend her day on the porch reading or enjoying the birds at the feeders and occasionally would spot a brown bunny cautiously emerge from the woods making its way to seeds dropped from the feeders.  On our arrival home from work, she would recant her daily activities but on this one day she told us that she watched the bunny for hours that afternoon and for some strange reason it never moved from its spot.  We chuckled and Cliff had to...

Just an update........ Cliff has his implants.  Thursday's surgery was a little more difficult.  By evening he felt some pressure in the eyeball and by Friday morning he knew something wasn't right.  He drove back to the Hayesville office first thing in the morning where the ophthalmologist checked his eye pressure which was in the mid-40's but should have been around 11.  He was given a Rx to get the pressure under control.  That afternoon he saw our optometrist in Murphy to recheck his pressure which had dropped down to 19.   He seems to be responding to the Rx and will see our optometrist Monday morning for another pressure check. 

Friday Cliff had his one week post-op eye appointment with our optometrist only to walk out of her office with continued restrictions.  She felt he needed another week to allow further healing which brings him to the time of his right eye surgery.  That was depressing news for him.  So many daily tasks that we do automatically, like reach down and tie our shoes, empty the dishwasher, pick up things that drop on the floor, he still has to remember to modify or ask me to do them. He's restricted from running fire/rescue calls, doing yoga, yard work or anything that kicks up dust and debris, including not lifting more than twenty pounds, and has to keep water from running into that eye.  For about the next three, maybe four weeks, lots of chores around here will be put on hold.  Saturday morning we did the usual errands, had lunch, and headed to the Ocoee River Gorge in Tennessee to get Cliff out of the house for a few hours. The river rapids are wild after conti...

Since awaking at 4:50 and unable to fall back into a sleep,  I figure this may be a good time to do something useful, like blog a few minutes.  Cliff's eye-drops regimen consumes our days.  It starts at five a.m. and ends at 10 p.m.  Thank goodness for iPhone alarms that remind us every four hours it's time to do drops.  A small plastic sandwich bag full of Rx vials travels with us during the day no matter where we go.   One of the Rx drops is a thick viscosity and I apply that at 5 a.m. and since I'm up, two minutes later I do his second Rx.  He crawls back under the covers and most times falls backs into a sleep.  I'm awake and up for the day.  Sleep after 5-ish doesn't work for my brain.  So I read a novel or thumb through some old magazines for about an hour until I hear the coffee pot start and smell the fresh caffeine wafting from the kitchen.  Around 6:30, after scanning my outdoor surroundings, it's time to hang the seed fee...