The Mountain Thymes

Cliff's seven foot tall True Black Brandywine standing proudly in the container garden.  It's full of green tomatoes that are slow to ripen this year.  Finally weeks ago the one on the right started showing a color change.  He said the left one was probably embarrassed and figured it had better follow suit.  Tomorrow he'll pick the ripest one but I'm not sure he'll let me cut into it to make a fresh-tomato sandwich.  I think he's expecting a tomato-picking ceremony.  And......he wants to save the prize seeds for next year's garden.  Also in a container is a Cuor di Bue Albenga that stopped growing at this height.  It's pencil thin and produced only one blossom.  It's planted in the same soil as the Brandywine, gets fed and watered at the some time. I chose Cour di Bue Albenga seeds because it's an Italian heirloom that's great for fresh eating, canning, and making sauce.  It's disease resistant and produces a nice pear-shap...

Over two dozen yellow and green beans were planted in May. This is my harvest.  With every visit to the garden, I found missing bean leaves, chewed down until only a bare naked stem stood.  The garden is wrapped in a wire fence with tent stakes holding it tight to the ground.  There were never deer prints in the clay but we know we have the large bunny residing nearby.  I kept thinking the bunny was too large to fit through wire squares and we checked for openings often.  Mice can squeeze through a nickel-size opening but I never expected this large bunny to be able to get through this fence.  A few evenings ago I stood on the back porch admiring  the garden and the full lushness of the forest from all the rain we've had.  The air was still, not even a slight breeze, but one of the Swiss chard leaves was swaying back and forth.  Then large bunny moved on to the next leave and blew his cover.  Cliff and I stealthy  sneaked down to...

This afternoon I pulled out last year's calendar so I could justify that I'm not loosing my mind.  I usually keep a couple of years calendars tucked in the back of the kitchen cabinet to reference and because the pictures and the quotes bring a calm to some hectic days.  Each year when I get the new calendar, I transfer birthdays, anniversaries, other memorable events month by month.  Through the years, of course, we've accumulated more grand-babies, nieces and nephews, and added more family members by marriage. What used to be a quick task now takes longer and I also make notes of the ages.  He's where my justification is needed.  So far I missed one birthday and texted a birthday wish a week early to Grant.  The aging process seems to be cluttering up the once neatly organized calendar boxes with more doctor appointments, too.  Then I made the mistake of buying a smaller wall calendar this year.  Big mistake.  Next year I'll skip the 1" squ...

Happy Father's Day! No crowded restaurants for us today.  Cliff decided he would rather spend time outside at the Ocoee Gorge watching the rafts and kayaks.  No swimming allowed today as the water was too high and very rapid.  Great for riding the rapids. With our folding chairs and a picnic lunch we sat under a shady canopy enjoying the day.  Actually, there were quite a few families there today.  All picnic tables were occupied but our chairs were much more comfortable than the wooden benches when sitting for a long time.  It's pretty warm and humid today and with dark clouds building there's a good chance of thunderstorms later, On Boulder Creek Rd heading home............ Young mother doe trying to get her new fawn to follow her and get safely away from us. Wobbly legs and following the scent of mother's milk.   We wonder if it's only a couple of days old.  It wobbled slowly up the hill following the doe into the forest...

Hannah picked up her yoga mat and moved to the Roanoke, VA area in January.  I used to drive to Brasstown Tuesday evening to enjoy her instruction for gentle yoga, a wonderfully calming way to settle in for the evening.  Her voice is soothing and her sense of humor enlightening.  A couple of weeks ago I found out she has been doing an online 7:30 am wake-up yoga session daily.  Now I join her her group every morning that I can.  For some reason, which neither Cliff not I can understand, the session won't play on my iPad but will play on my laptop.  Weather permitting, Hannah's instruction is performed on her open porch in Virginia, undercover porch in the rain, with birds singing good morning and the cicada chorus loudly trying to outdo the birds. The freedom of stretching, breathing, and welcoming the day outside sparked a vision of a yoga deck overlooking my garden. Cliff couldn't square the corners because the tree was in the way so he used a differen...

On his way to Kansas City, tropical storm Cristobal spread his energy outward bringing us a couple inches of rain, flattening many of the garden vegetables. Who ever heard of a tropical storm in Kansas!  This morning we're mid fifties at 7 am with sunshine and pleasant temps for the next couple of days before it rains again.  I told Cliff I'd much rather see this rainy cycle we're in than the dry parched cycle we had the first couple of years we moved to Murphy.  That hot dry cycle stressed the forests and the animals.  The tropical energy causes achy joints and a little inflammation for a few days until it moves on.  So I have to take it easy and not build a stone wall or carry bags of wet mulch.  I say that because I did carry a bag of wet mulch on my shoulder down to the garden a few weeks ago before we bought my new wagon. I found the wheel barrow pulled me down the slope when it was loaded and was difficult to push back up the slope.  Cliff ...

Friday May 29............. Mark turns 47 tomorrow red, white, and green...............colors of the Italian flag............and beauty in simplicity I found her the other day when I was playing "where's Waldo" in the sweet pea patch.  I thought I had picked all the peas, set the bowl down to pull a few weeds, and found more peas camouflaged between vines.  The wild roadside daisies that I transplanted last year have filled out even more in the past week with the tropical wet spring weather we're having.  It's good for the gardens but tough on the hips.                  spinach and beets doing great this spring All the lettuce has been ready for harvest these past few days so I'm bagging it and giving it to neighbors again.  I froze three large bags of spinach and we have two more in the fridge to enjoy fresh.  This year I planted a few broccoli rabe to see how they would do.  I got enough...