The Mountain Thymes

Every couple of months our neighbors up the hill at the top of the road, Janice and Ernie, open their house for a neighborhood gathering.  Janice sends a group text with the date and the time is always 5:30.  Anyone wishing to attend replies back with the dish they will be bringing.  Weather permitting, people gather outside on her comfy porch, around the dining table, and in the living room.  Sometimes it's a small intimate group but this Tuesday about sixteen neighbors gathered at their  home. I decided to bake a cauliflower/carrot dish with Parmesan cheese melted on top and a gluten-free dessert that I could eat.  There's always two or three delicious desserts on her counter.  I found a recipe for pumpkin cookies frosted with cream cheese/confectioners sugar icing.   The recipe called for 1/2 can pumpkin puree.  The remaining puree stored in the refrigerator.  Meat choices were hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers along with all the...

Coldest morning so far........twenty-eight nippy degrees. Cliff built me a wooden frame for the kitchen garden. For now we're just covering it on the low thirty degree nights with sheets.  There's basil, Swiss chard, parsley, and some flower that I planted but didn't label still thriving.  Clear plastic is a better cover but we're searching for a smaller quantity than what Lowe's has on huge rolls.   Flowers and spinach down in the garden won't be bothered until a hard freeze.  Once the sun warms the neighbors' hive, the honey bees still get nectar from the red and blue salvia, basil blossoms, and holy basil flowers.  The lone chocolate pepper finally ripened. Sunday night we armed the Blink cameras after Charlie texted Cliff that a bear was on his porch at 4:00 am Saturday morning heading down our back hill.  At 3:16 Monday morning the cameras caught him in the driveway.  I believe he stayed off our porch when the flood light came on....

It feels like only weeks ago that the first hummingbird sighting took my breath away and my heart leapt with joy.  For the past coupe of weeks we've only spotted one hummingbird and an occasional traveler fighting over the feeders.  Cliff's birthday was Friday and in previous years that is about the marker for hummingbird departures.  I'll change the feeders one last time for any travelers.  The last sighting was yesterday morning and the feeders have been quiet ever since.  The lower garden on the slope is still full of red salvia and other nectar producing flowers along with the large pineapple sage with its red trumpet blossoms at the front porch steps.  The only action has been multiple butterflies and a few of Bill and Lisa's honey bees.  From my sewing room window I get to watch a female red-breasted grosbeak sit in the feeder tray for 15-20 minutes at a time eating and looking around.  She stays through all the the titmice and chickadees se...

Cliff is in Central Florida riding his Harley, hanging out in the bars, visiting his favorite breakfast hangout, chatting with a few friends and living la dolce vita!   He didn't know why he went to the bars.  He doesn't even drink.  This is his adventure so I stayed here on the mountain where it's peaceful and serene.  He left early Wednesday morning and I high-tailed it to my rheumatologist in Tennessee. I needed to do this alone.   The thought of the side-effects of the new medication I needed to get on was causing me terrible anxiety but I needed to get the progression under control before winter weather arrives.  My doctor patiently went over everything again with me, talked me through the injection procedure, then watched me as I talked myself through the real thing.  Injecting into the belly was not the problem.  Doing things in the correct order such as swabbing, putting the syringe into the vial, drawing out the correct amount o...

OCTOBER is Breast Cancer Awareness month........ and for all women world-wide.........................

Over a month ago I visited our small library looking for something light and relaxing to get into.  I didn't know what I wanted but did know that I didn't want to read anything tense, like David Baldacci's government espionage series or murder/suspense novels.  Browsing novels to me can be compared to the way I choose a wine.  Wine labels have become quite artsy and I pick many a wine first by the label appeal, secondly by the description of the wine's fruity or oak flavors.  I choose novels  in the same way, by cover appeal followed by reading the back or the cover flap.  It was just by luck that I found my new reading series by Donna Ball. Three life-long friends make a life-altering decision to buy a run-down mansion in the Shenandoah Valley facing challenges and obstacles together.  I love these women for their strength and compassion in making their new journey together work.  I'm now on the second book of the series, At Home on Ladybug F...

The last couple of weeks have been lovely with crisp mornings in the mid-fifties, not reaching mid-eighties until late afternoon, but the last couple of days we've seen low nineties in the afternoon.  I've noticed that the leaves are slow to turn this year and the forest is still lush and green.  Fall colors are suppose to be a few weeks late with a brilliant show.  I've started pulling up some of the old tired plants from the dry garden soil I started three chocolate peppers from seeds in June and had a terrible time keeping some kind of pest from chewing the leaves.  This is the only plant that survived.  I faithfully sprayed leaves, top and underside, each evening and morning with a soapy solution but each day I found newly chewed leaves.  Then one week I noticed new blossoms and whole leaves with no chewed holes.  I got so excited!  Picked and sauteed the last of the Swiss chard. Starting to pick and dry herbs.  Fresh basil h...