One Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty Three

And that my friends is the number of photographs I took from early Friday morning, through Sunday late afternoon. And while I admit it sounds like a lot, and let's get real, it is, between award presentations and action shots, I could have taken far more with 177 participants in the inaugural Murphy Pickleball Tournament. Thank goodness I did not!! D'Anna and David's son Patrick married in February and they just received the digital images and there were around 2,000 between the various events associated with the wedding. When we married, the photographer was the only one with a camera and our budget allowed for twelve 8x10 prints and a handful of 4x6. I mention the only one with a camera because at the tournament when I was meant to photograph the winners, I kept having to remind them to look at me rather than their friends! Slightly irritating, but after a few days of it, I learned to do what I could! 

Big Brothers and Sisters benefitted from the registration as well as a raffle of some pretty darn amazing items. We won nothing, however, Grayson, Bruce's little brother, for those who don't know, won a new paddle. The age limit was lowered so that Grayson could play with Bruce and as it stood he was the youngest. Now, just try to imagine Bruce having to play against, not only big fellows, but YOUNG ones as well!

You might note the guys sweat-stained shirts and that is because it got so incredibly muggy by Sunday afternoon. I don't know what was worse, standing in the sun all day, or the mugginess. Both were very unpleasant for this volunteer. The good news though was that folks had fun, predicted rain did not fall, and money was raised for a worthy charity, although truth be told what they need are volunteers to be mentors. 

Grayson is experimenting with a new look in case you were wondering. 😀

Another crazy thing happened this past week and that was while walking on the river walk, I found a set of car keys lying on a bench. With not a soul around, I got in touch with Laura who runs the facebook page for the river walk, asking her opinion on how to proceed. Her suggestion was that she would put it on the Facebook page and I should take them to City Hall which is what I did. It was a bit of a trek, not to mention hot and sunny, but I turned them in hoping the owner would maybe look on the Facebook page. Thursday, while volunteering at Soul Table, where. we had a record 60 guests I might add, I thought to call the fitness center and pass on the information. Gosh I hope they got them back! 

Downtown Murphy is having a decorating contest for America 250 and the independent book store on Tennessee Street is doing their part.

Before all that happened I was imagining a leisurely walk, as is my wont, when I could observe and bask in the wonder of nature. 

What a privilege it is to walk out the front door and within minutes be surrounded by wildness. Of course man-made bird boxes are not wild, but you get my drift. In this post, which you may or may not have read,  there are some photographs of a Tree Swallow and Bluebird at odds with one another on who was using the bird box. Along the other end of the walk, I saw a Tree Swallow flying around and discovered it had won the box race with a bluebird and was flying hither and yon to find food for these hungry ones.

You've seen this type of bird before in the Camera Crazy annals, but I suspect you are dying to see one again, what with their beautiful jewel-toned coloring.

There were some goslings on the river who seem to be calling out to their parent leading the way.

While preparing to put posts together I scan through my photos and choose ones to share, however, sometimes I don't use them and they remain on my desktop, which is what happened with this photo that now that I look at it, I believe it deserves an audience!

So let's meander to the neighborhood and specifically to Campbell Street.

In the post that I linked to above, I asked for opinions on the frame color for our new painting. What I did not show you was why I chose the white to match the window frames.  

Please feel free to tell me it was not my best idea and share yours!!

Rose of Sharon are beginning their blooming season!! Yipee!

The early morning light is so good on everything. 

I wish I could tell you that I had a bumper strawberry crop but that would be a falsehood! It remains to be seen how many tomatoes we will have but so far so good. 

The new flower garden is coming along nicely. 

Bruce fertilized the yard last year and it shows. Now you can see why my garden efforts are a bit challenging because I took this at high noon and no sun in the yard aside from the sides.

I love the photo above because Bruce must have just mowed the yard and there are no magnolia leaves all over the back part, unlike what it probably looked like a few hours later. That tree is something else but man does it produce a lot of litter! Between a huge number of leaves and seed pods, it keeps us busy. 

Look who made a pie crust that turned out just fine!

It's not perfect, but it got the job done. As I recall, I made a quiche. 

Bruce is sitting at his desk, working on a new sign listing the new pastor's name. It is shocking how many things that the trustees are in charge of. Next up, a group of volunteers will be painting the interior of the parsonage; the paint Bruce had mixed is in our basement. Seriously, you would think he's gone back to work! 

Having a blog for nearly twenty years is just great for me because even though I don't do it often, I can go back in time. For some reason I did just that recently and came across the photo below.

Remember those days? It seems impossible what all happened during Covid doesn't it? I asked Bruce who I gave these masks to and he replied, "a bunch of people." 

The back yard looks so pristine in the photo above but truthfully we have piles here and there of grass clippings, magnolia pods (a gazillion), and sticks and lumber. This little Song Sparrow was having a little fun hopping amongst the sticks.

I forgot the landscape bricks too! 

My neighbor Becky has been sharing her blue bird box camera footage and to say it is remarkable is an understatement! I wish I could share it with you but imagine FIVE baby bluebirds in one little nest!! Fantastic clarity on the camera too. To watch the parent come through the hole, well aren't we the lucky ones?

Monday morning I needed to get away from looking at all of those weekend photos and what better way than to go outdoors? One thing that happened is my first cabbage, with all the outer leaves removed, came into the house!! 

I am like a proud parent!! Actually what I said to Bruce was that I needed to attend to my outdoor pets which includes the plants and the birds!! I came across an opened bird egg which we believe was one that came from the box that I saw the Tufted Titmouse going in and out of. Never have we seen any babies, so who knows, but those bird eggs are so small and delicate, it is a wonder it all works.

But then again, aren't most things a wonder? Seems like they are to me.

your friend,

Gail 

Mostly About Plants

Sometimes vignettes just appear before me, this being one of them. Red fence, mountain laurel, several shades of green--what's not to like?

So yes, I did come across this, but what my intention was on that afternoon was to find the source of the loud chirping I was hearing in the lane. Lo and behold, luck was with me that day. This is a pair of House Wrens, birds that I rarely see, but there they were, really almost out the back of our yard 

Loud as can be, it was not but a few days later that they went out on their own. I think they might be coming to our feeders now and if not, some look-alikes are. As in small brown birds.  It is astonishing how many birds we are attracting at the moment, including one of my favorites and definitely not a regular, but welcome nonetheless, a Eastern Towhee with a little sunflower seed in his mouth. 

Here's something that is a little bit amusing, or some might find it so. My bean harvest to date.

Green beans are said to be easy to grow, however I had a heck of a time getting them to sprout, thus one plant and four beans to date. Unlike my romaine lettuce that grew too big and with the constant wet weather of last week, that I wrote about here, began attracting slugs, thus I did a big clean up of the garden and pulled all of the lettuce leaves off.

Whether it was a good idea or not, for a different reason I also clipped off all the bottom leaves on the cabbage plants. And what would that reason be, you ask? They were so large and were shading the burgeoning cucumber plants. The four cucumber plants are now flowering, the broccoli is forming new little plants, and there are tomatoes on the vine. Aside from some "pest pressure", I am overall pleased with how things are progressing.

The rainfall since last I wrote has diminished somewhat, yet still the threat of rain has loomed meaning finding the right time for Bruce to paint the parking lot with a new directional sign using a giant stencil he made using a large cardboard box, was tricky. 

Buying a stencil that large was not in the budget, so he got creative.

Unfortunately, people are still coming in the wrong direction, but he did what he could. Note the looming clouds pictured above and about two hours later it looked like this!

Not a whole lot later, the clouds opened up wide.

As I have mentioned before, hard rain is not that common here; instead it is slow and steady, however on that day, it came down hard and fast!

That same day, while waiting on Bruce, I met the new pastor and his wife and son who were coming to Murphy for the first time. Porter, aged four, is as cute as a button. A catered lunch was held on Sunday following church for Pastor Wil, Lea, Nathaniel, and Norah. 

Nathanial, aged nine, was still just a baby when they came to Murphy, but now he is a budding preacher because he took the mic at the after event with no nerves at all.

Mayor Tim Radford spoke as well because Wil was such a presence in the community. Saying that they will all be missed is an understatement!

Weren't we supposed to be focusing on plants? The title says it so it must be true.

I was a little greedy, thinking I could separate the plant above (Paristemon), and by golly I seemed to have done it with success as two of the three are now in the ground. Whether they will make it is another story, but I'm thinking that if they were going to die, that would have already happened..

Lavender in pots on the front steps, 

and Autumn Sage, a very fragrant plant, adjacent to the front door. 

I keep buying more plants, in part because I can, and in part because so many are new to me I want to see if I can grow them successfully. 

So cute, right?

Hummingbird's Lunch Cigar Flower and Strawberry Fields Gomphrena are two newish plants in one pot near the hummingbird feeder because they are meant to attract the same.

Speaking of hummingbirds, sightings to date have been few and far between, but every now and again, a little gift of seeing one happens. One morning I was captivated by the antics of one on this plant below.

Keeping a garden notebook is helping me keep these new names straight! What in the world did I do in the winter because I sure was not tending to plants? 

One thing I have not done as much of lately is walk on the river walk, but yesterday afternoon I corrected that, in spite of the warm weather which we all know I am not a fan of. The depth of color, as well as the shades of green when I was at the park made me think of a book I once loved, How Green Was my Valley. No coal was mined around here, as far as I know, but talc was, as well as marble that still is  being mined.

Anyone else read that book and love it like I did? That was a long time ago for sure, but it just popped into my head. There was a small flock of Starlings that would all fly off at once, in a very mini-murmuration. It's fun to watch that sort of thing and try to catch it with your camera. I failed miserably, but I did get this one shot that if you look closely you will see them all lined up on the fence top.

Something else that caught my eye that was something entirely new to me.

I have no idea what happened, but the butterfly seemed to be trapped and never moved while I watched and waited. So strange.

According to my notebook, this garden experiment began on March 5, 2026, and I've learned more than I can imagine with a little help from our friends on YouTube, as well as friends who have gardened here for years.  It's very common here and you know what they say..."when in Rome" . Yup, that's me.

your friend,

Gail

An Abundance of Rain

 If you have ever tried dead-heading a viola plant, you know it is quite the pain as there are so many blooms and, frankly, oftentimes it is hard to tell what is a bud, or what is a spent bloom. With that in mind, I decided to do an experiment and I am thrilled to report the results so should you find yourself with said plant you will benefit from my experience. I was sitting on the front porch steps, diligently picking off what I supposed to be spent blooms in order to force new ones. So far, so good. Except, with four plants it became seriously tiresome which is when I thought to myself, "self, what do you suppose would happen if you just gave the plant a serious cutting back?" Friends, that is the ticket! After about a week, blooms began appearing and the plant now looks better than ever, just when the warm weather is meant to cause a decline!

Foliage was what remained after the shearing, and take a look at it now!! Bonus points for maple tree starts! Actually they are happening in all of my potted plants out front. As well, Bruce planted a Japanese Maple that started under our tree; apparently they are very slow growing which, in part, is why they are so expensive. A tree that looks beautiful in every season! 

I took the photo above a few days ago and you can see that it is changing from the deep magenta right before my eyes. Well, Bruce's as well, but he is just a wee bit less enthusiastic about all that we see. Not that he does not like it but, let's just say, there are times where he is more focused on doing things. Such as making the frame for our painting which now we are questioning my color choice for the frame. The idea was to match the adjacent windows in the craftsman style, but neither of us are completely sold on the white. Any other ideas? We want to honor both the painter and the frame maker so we want to get it right.

Last week was not nearly as busy as some which left Bruce time to do something he has wanted to do since we moved in. Not the fireplace, although I have information on that front in a little bit, but paint the basement floor. What a task that he made look so easy because he is so methodical. We do not share that trait! We went to our local paint store and by that I mean the one that is privately owned for the last 50+ years and Jeff had just what we needed. Epoxy garage floor paint that had been sitting for awhile so he gave Bruce a half price deal on four gallons. Paint in hand, he was off to the races. You might wonder how he managed and I am hear to explain. He moved things around a little bit at a time.

He has amassed a lot of equipment in our two years of residence, 

and there were plenty of cabinets and what have you when we got here. Look at this!!!

That ancient, well ancient is a bit strong, but anyway, the decades old basement floor now looks amazing and brightens up the whole space.

One of the things he moved out of the basement was an old grave marker. Say what? We've been told the house was once on a Halloween ghost tour because of said marker that from my research has been there for 50+ years! Of course we did not know what to do with it except probably not keep it in the basement any longer so carrying it on a dolly Bruce placed it below the gigantic magnolia tree.

It seems as if it is from the man of the house Roy Dennis Chandler who died the year we graduated high school.  From the linked information, I see that his wife Ruth, who lived here for 50 years, lived to be 98 years old! Well, I suspect when you opened Camera Crazy today that you never imagined I would be writing about this subject. What is interesting is that apparently both Roy and Ruth are buried in the Sunset Cemetery that is up on a hill adjacent to the river walk! It's a small town folks. 

Wednesday, last week, was the day we were scheduled to go to the fireplace store in Waynesville, a town of 10,000+ about 80 miles east of us. 

We saw a version of this gas model which is the only one suited for an old coal fireplace. 

A list of questions a mile long was on Bruce's pad and the young man answered them well, however, we did not say yes that day. It is a very involved project that apparently we needed to warm up to! 

Actually, six days later, I think Bruce has pretty much decided, why not? 

The town is very cute,

and apparently the gateway to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

The mountain backdrop is really something!

And of course, Waynesville is where our pastor is going and will be leading this big church that takes up a whole city block!

We have become accustomed to the idea, but no one is saying that we are not still sad!

The drive to Waynesville was so lovely with walls of green beside the road. Please forgive me for going on about the green, but it is just amazing this year.

Which is actually weird because rain had been sporadic until this week when the heavens opened wide! 

A crazy thing happened last night and not for the first time since we have lived here. We were having dinner at a friend's house up high on one of the mountains during which time it stormed like crazy. During a break in the action, Jonathan happened to text me, saying he was seeing big storms in store for Murphy. Mind you he is in Japan and who knows what time it was, but anyway, I said we needed to leave before darkness fell and it began pouring again. Bruce is better at mountain driving, but is still not a fan of nighttime driving, especially in the rain. Driving on the only road we know out of there, and well, a massive tree had fallen across the road.

The fellow pictured above was coming to see if we had a chain saw, which of course we did not because we have not taken up that practice just yet. Apparently his chain saw got stuck in the huge tree! Now what? I have no idea what happened to him, but fortunately for us, using our trusty iPad, we found an alternate route, one which took us past a pasture with like 25 deer in it!!!! If it weren't dark and raining we most certainly would have stopped for a picture.

Whew! We made it home safe and sound! One more crazy thing about that night is the house was built by John and Laura when they still lived in Dade City and came up for the summers. They used the same floor plan that was on the first floor for the cottage we rented!! It was sort of weird. Then again, it was good thinking about how much we loved the cottage.

Garden update: Cabbages are forming in spite of having "pest pressure" a term I learned on one of the Youtube videos. 😁

Lots more to say about the garden but I will mostly save that for another day. Please tell me why are the pests eating the very marigolds that are supposed to be protecting my plants?!

Shishito pepper plant with a tiny pepper and flowers, okra and spinach on that row. Bottom row are peppers, tomato plant seedlings, bush bean plant and other beans. Time will tell!

It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Woo hoo!

The next two photos are another super cool thing I witnessed, taken 5 seconds apart. Tree swallow family was considering a move into the bluebird families home.

Not so fast!!

Both parents swooped in at once! A little before the above photo, I took the one below that is so fun.

So what about all that rain? I wish I knew. One thing I always did in Orlando was watch the rainfall in the newspaper which recorded how far over or under we were from the norm. And while they measured it at the airport which obviously was not the same for everyone, at least it was something. Here, I have no idea where to look for that information. One bit of information I have is that my garden is happy because of daily rain!

Guess what? Do I really need to know? No. Each and every day I am learning to change my ways and just be grateful. This morning when Lori and I were walking to the bank to pick up the offering, I told her about Carol and Maureen and the motto we adopted when we moved here: doing all that we can while we can." It still applies!

your friend,

Gail