The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We did it!! Christmas has come and gone and although our family was absent in body, Facetime saved the day with us spending hour after hour chatting over/into (?) our screens. I started to write that we have been alone before, but shame on me for that because while we were in Vancouver, Matt and Tom visited for Christmas. Read about that here.  I just read it myself and that was a fun reminder of another cold Christmas, relatively speaking. Actually it was in the 50's on Christmas day, but we have had a multitude of dreary days which just makes it feel colder. 

Guess what?? There were snow flurries this morning, beginning when we arrived for pickleball at 9AM wearing many layers of clothes to ward off the chill. Our first hint of snow!! Allegedly, more might come throughout today which is slated to only go up to 38 degrees!!! 

Our pickleball friend Cobby along with his wife Diane organized a ministry at church whereby twice a month lunch a free lunch is served in the fellowship hall. Of course we would like to help with the Christmas feast! The man who did the majority of the cooking the day before is pictured in the black top hat on the right hand side of the picture. Two turkeys and three ham along with sides! 

In the foreground those folks, one of whom I am confidant you recognize, kept the food flowing to the gathered group. Pastor Will, seated with his back to us, is chatting with the mayor of Murphy, pictured in the tie.

As for Will, he seems to be a really nice young pastor with three lovely children. He's youngish, they are really young! His wife is a gem too. We really liked our tiny church, but there are just more opportunities for service here at the Methodist church that has been the centerpiece of downtown for more than 100 years.

That would be you-know-who's shadow on that bright, sunny afternoon. The sky seems to be either a clear and crisp blue, or a dull grey. So far at least anyway. 

Back to what is called "Soul Table" your favorite blogger was meant to be a greeter and chatter, both of which play to her strengths, wouldn't you say? Santa came to hand out small gifts as well as pose for photos. Cobby and Diane below.

Not only did they invite us to an event the likes of which we had never attended, they drove us there as well. Meeting up in the community college parking lot near Brasstown, Cobby drove us to Crane Creek Vineyard to meet up with other pickleball friends for a Winter Solstice event. Because we were so busy during the summer, I never even wrote about this beautiful winery with stunning mountain views and what turns out to be surprisingly good wine.  Even though the sky was dreary that day, here's a look at what we saw in July.

Note the barn on the bottom left that looks like this up close!

In other words, this Florida gal has a hard time wrapping her head around how different things look in the winter. I know I sound like a broken record, but it can't be helped my dear readers. It was one thing living in a city and watching winter transform the landscape, but out here in the country is a whole other ballgame! Anyway, we had no idea what to expect, in part because I have rarely given much thought to the longest night/shortest day of the year. Apparently lots of folks have as many traditions associated with the first day of Winter have sprung up over the centuries. Perhaps because it hardly exists in Florida? 

We met up with our friends who had already brought chairs and a prime spot next to the roaring fire.

Of all things, although I was worried beforehand about being too cold, between the fire and the milder temperature, we were very comfortable indeed. 

Not only did they have a couple entertaining the crowd, a wonderful chili with toppings galore to choose from was served for free. Baby saltines were a bonus!

The biggest event of the night occurred just after sunset when a huge bonfire down by the lake was lit with sparks flying high in the air. 

Bruce and I made our way down the lighted path, getting close to the raging fire.

It won't surprise you in the least to learn that we met some Florida folks there will it? Should you be in North Georgia I highly recommend visiting Crane Creek Vineyards! 

In other news, one morning it was so cold the pond had a little ice.

I am absolutely thrilled to have finally gotten a good shot of the Eastern Towhee.

Isn't it just a super bird? Speaking of birds, we visited Blue Ridge last fall, visiting a wonderful shop with all things related to wild birds. Think heated bird baths, for example. Well, the week before Christmas another trip to BR was planned to shop at T.J. Maxx and while we were there we drove by the shops that recently burned, one of which was that bird shop!

There are those amongst you that have visited that darling town and will recognize this area. According to news reports, at least six businesses burned, most with nothing salvaged.

The absolute worst part? Many of the shop owners were uninsured. 😢

Woo hoo!! I tried the Yorkshire Pudding recipe from my new Joy of Cooking! Lo and behold, it worked!

I was pleased as punch that the prime rib turned out beautifully, as did the roasted asparagus and scalloped potatoes. The desert, however, was, well, while not a complete flop, pretty darn close to it! Bruce expressed alarm when I replied in the affirmative that I intended to show you the flop, but not wanting you to get any ideas that most things I do are good, of course I will show it. That said, it is rare that a cake does not perform as planned. It started with me thinking we would make a pecan pie for dessert. Oh wait, we gave the rolling pin back to John and they are in Asheville. (btw, an Amazon gift card has since changed that) So, because I have buttermilk in the fridge, let's go for a chocolate cake made using strong coffee as one of the ingredients. Why I put it in this angle food cake pan is beyond me. Because I am well aware of how it can leak out of the bottom I placed it on my new jellyroll pan purchased at T.J.Maxx. Whether that was my first mistake is hard to know, but when I pulled it out of the oven and it looked like this I knew things were not going as planned. Sadly the evidence is blurry but thankfully we cannot go back in time for a re-take! That ring like thing in the middle is quite chewy.

Getting it out of the pan was an adventure, but eventually we have what I am calling, "a cake in four parts" that while it looks pretty terrible, actually tastes fantastic!

The powdered sugar covers, what our late mother would say, a "multitude of sins!" I guess another way to describe the cake would be "deconstructed"? Sounds pretty modern, right? The good news is it will last until my birthday!

I have, however, gotten way ahead of myself because I left out something that was really, really special to us this year. Most years we have good intentions of going to church on Christmas Eve, but rarely do we follow through for one reason or another. This year we made sure to get there in time for the 30 minute handbell concert preceding the service. All was pretty darn quiet in Murphy when we arrived.

The church looked magical in the candlelight.

Our seat afforded us a close up of Suzanne playing the piano and let me tell you, it was a blessing and just plain delightful hearing the old carols played from such close proximity.

When the lights were really turned down low, and candles were lit one from another, with the sweet music of Silent Night being sung, well folks, it was good. It was very, very good. To tell you the truth, any other wonderful happening, such as talking to all of our family, was just icing on the cake. 

Speaking of icing on the cake, my eyes welled up, as is my wont when I get sentimental, when I opened the gift bag from a lovely young woman, wife and mother of two, who has taken a liking to the two of us.

Brittany brought the bag to the courts maybe a week or more before Christmas and I told her that because our gifts were few, I would open it on Christmas day. Oh my word! So when you worry about us up here in the cold and gloom, just think of this sweet gift and how we are making our way just fine. Of course Bruce is huddled on the couch under a quilt watching the bowl games, but isn't that what quilts are for? Lord knows I have made many that never get used! 

Here's to a Happy New Year to each and everyone of you! May 2024 bring health and happiness.

your friend,

Gail

Memories from Murphy

As Christmas is but days away, I wanted to stick close to home today. We've been asked numerous times about going home for Christmas, but although it has only happened once before when we were in Vancouver, our Orlando family is okay with us not being there. Of course it helps that we have sons who have wives with families which, let's be honest, should take precedent over ours! Happy wife, happy life and all that jazz!

Where shall I start?? Maybe reporting that the prints are in the store? As far as I know, only one has sold and that was to Jenn our friend with the wine bar. She wanted to be the first to buy something of mine. Now how sweet was that? Would you look at that...a birdhouse! There is quite a bit of competition around here, so I am keeping my expectations low.

Christmas cookies! Nothing new, been making them since 1977, but for some odd reason, this year they turned out crazy good with perfect size and delicious taste. It's funny how some years that happens isn't it? 

You might note something striped in the background and that would be two potholders made with the fabric Nancy sent me as part of our Christmas gift. I suppose I mentioned that I brought the sewing machine this trip?  As well, I made some Christmas napkins along with a decorative placemat for the island.

Perhaps I mentioned that while in Asheville we popped into JoAnne fabrics and these are the results of that shopping excursion. I brought almost nothing Christmassy with us, in spite of knowing we would be here for Christmas, but I did bring placemats, something we use daily. It made me happy to get them out of the cabinet in early December.

Laura made us some lovely Swedish Christmas bread featuring cardamon that her family has been making for generations. 

It was light and yummy! Fantastic as French toast too!  

A funny thing happened a few weeks ago that might amuse/interest you. Atop the living room bookcases here, there was a huge metal bucket with an emblem of some sort imprinted into the metal.  I thought to myself, "self" why don't you gather some pinecones and fill that up with them as part of our decorations. Going down to the property edge, I gathered what I could find, pinecones unlike any I've ever seen before.

Before we could put said pinecones in the bucket, which btw, I had nowhere near enough, Laura got in touch asking if she could come pick something up from the cottage. Well, duh! It's your house, so yes indeed! The bucket, she wanted the bucket to use for letting the dough rise. Perhaps I'm imagining this, but it seems to me that she said she would be making 50 loaves!!! Honoring her families traditions, which if you have watched any Hallmark movies, and it must be said, the litany of other companies who've gotten into the Christmas movie act, she would be in good company. Last week we were treated to a small gathering at their home for other Swedish fare including her recipe for spiced wine in the Swedish tradition. If I could make the symbols on my computer to type the name I would. 

There is so much of Charlotte here at the cottage that she helped design and lived in for five years or so. For one thing, there is Huckleberry, her cat, who is still roaming around today. Oftentimes he loves perching on John's truck,

and on these winter afternoons he is often to be found sunning himself on our front steps. How he stands the cold is beyond me! And it has been cold to the tune of 23 degrees the other morning, although we are now in a mini warming trend. An 80% chance of rain is the Christmas forecast with no mention of anything white! 

One of the things I periodically come across are recipes that Charlotte printed out in 2002, one of which was for focaccia and I thought, what the heck, I'll try it.  We'd had it at the restaurant and it was delicious so here we go.

It was far better than it looks!! I will definitely try it again, and as for the holes, Bruce did them for me because my attention span is so abysmal, I would begin doing them in a row and then before long, well you know how I am. Next time I will not flatten it as much and we will make the holes deeper. As to olive oil, I think it could use more. 

While we are still in the kitchen, setting up my sewing machine on our dining table, the ironing board is in the kitchen with plenty of room to move around. Continuing our thrift store goodies, this iron! Would you believe $2.00? You should.

Lastly in the kitchen, let's talk fresh eggs. I bought the eggs at the last farmer's market and they were left on the kitchen counter per their instructions. When we returned from Asheville I wondered, had I let them get stale? Contacting the folks via facebook, she told me about the water test, meaning if the eggs floated they were bad. If they stayed on the bottom and laid on their side they were still good but not as fresh and if they were on one end, you are golden. I gave it a try.

Oh boy I almost forgot. There is a chicken coop next door that has gone unused for some years, however, John is now set on strengthening it so the coyotes can't get to the chickens and get this, we are to be part owners of said chickens! That's the plan anyway. Holy cow, this is getting interesting!

Oh my, the winter sky with a sliver of a moon and the beginning of sunset. For those of you wondering, if you love taking sunset photos, go for it now as winter sunsets are the absolute best!

The shadows are great as well. 

As mentioned earlier, it has been cold but it has not kept us from playing pb. Layered up for sure. My side is nearly 100% thankfully. As has become my custom, I go out on the porch when it gets light in the morning to see how cold it feels.  I was freaking out on this morning as I looked to the end of the driveway just before daybreak.

Putting on shoes immediately, as well as a coat of course, I grabbed my camera hoping they would not take off before I made my way down the driveway. This little guy walked right to me!

The light was dim, the lens was wrong, but I did manage to get eight of them in this shot. Look closely!

And you better believe I hightailed into the warm and cozy house when they ran off! 

The river walk continues to provide entertainment in unexpected ways. Honestly, when I came across the Eastern Bluebird action, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Well maybe a wee bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

This was taken last Saturday and I am sad to report I've not seen any action there again! You can well imagine that I will keep trying. Exiting the official walk, I landed in front of a darling house that I may have pictured before with Corgi Christmas decorations out front. Does that ring a bell? Well, on this afternoon, I was greeted by the real thing.

And one more!

Ordinarily I might not even include these, but because I want to remember the encounter, here they are. Watching someone pick up dog poop is not my favorite pass time, but on this occasion I did so with interest because the picker-upper person was the lovely young woman who owns the beautiful Corgis. Boy did she have a story to tell! Blood cancer at 40 followed by horrible chemotherapy that caused irreparable damage to her hips! In January she had both hips replaced because she lacked blood supply to her joints. Plus, it took multiple visits to different doctors who all dismissed her complaints before she was diagnosed. That sort of thing makes my blood boil! After a horrible couple of years, she finally thinks she can get out a little bit and I emphasize little. Her husband wanted to go to Iceland, but he agreed to go to Fort Wilderness campground instead. Quite the trade-off huh? She explained that she is not quite ready for a big trip. I hope that when I left, it lifted her spirits just a little bit, knowing someone was willing to listen and empathize with her story. The corgis...our darling former neighbor Regina, who turned 87 btw, has one who is aging and whose heart will break if Argyle does not hang on longer than she! Come to think of it, Regina did act like a queen!

Winter, you have just begun, by the calendar anyway. 

I was bundled up as sunset was nearing on the Valley River. Usually we play pickleball until around lunch time and that is because we are starting later rather, like 9:30 or so when the temperature is maybe above freezing, we have lunch, followed by a little rest for the man of the house, and then we head back to town when he works on his aging bodybuilder stuff and I roam. Then it is dark and then we head home to the fireplace and our cozy surroundings. Should you be curious. :)

Friends, the birds are having a heyday at our feeders! 

Gosh if you only knew how many photos I have of the sweet things. One morning it was particularly exciting as there were so many, including two Cardinals who kept chasing one another. This photo is big and the birds are small, but it shows what they were up to.

Do you see them??? If only you were reading a blog post by a better photographer! Nevertheless, it was quite entertaining seeing them go at one another. John told us that some of the leaves stay on the trees until the new ones push the old ones off. I'm thinking what you are seeing is what he meant.

In spite of all the local festivities, it is still hard for me to imagine Christmas is but days away. Some folks we know who are from Florida are planning to go out to eat but in a first, I plan to make a Prime Rib. When I saw Ingles had them on sale, I thought to myself, "why not?". Hopefully, we will have fun cooking something new. Through the magic of Facetime we will stay connected with our beloved family. One thing to note is that last Christmas in Murphy, the temperatures plunged and folks, including Hank, had frozen pipes. Apparently it was very, very cold. It won't be like that Monday, but whatever it is, we will make the best of it!!

Merry Christmas dear friends from,

your friend,

Gail

Asheville Proper

Today's installment will be covering a lot of territory with loads of photographs so don't say that I did not warn you in advance should you become weary!! Or bored. :)

You may recall that Matt arrived via Lyft to the condo in the River Arts District about 8:30 on Friday night. Following some big hugs so and perhaps a Hallmark movie, we did little else aside from going to bed somewhat early. On our drive to Asheville we stopped at the Publix in Waynesville and I will say that it felt good to be in a Publix. Don't get me wrong, Ingles is very nice but once you have Publix in your blood it is hard to replace! Anyway, with breakfast fixings in the house, peering out the windows, we  wondered what in the world we could do on such a rainy morning. As you learned from my last post, we went to the Asheville mall which is doing some better than other malls in the country. At least at Christmas it was. We shopped in the Belks which of course brought memories rushing back about when my mother worked in the shoes/handbag department at the Belks in Colonial Plaza. A few weeks ago, December 7 to be exact, I had this feeling and looked at the date, something I do with increasing infrequency. It was the 20th anniversary of our Mom's funeral, as well as the day Bruce's dad died. Yes, you read that right. It was a very dark time to say the least. 

Following our mall excursion, Matt gave Bruce directions to downtown. If you have not been to Asheville I am here to report that it is fairly compact and at least from my seat, pretty easy to navigate. It was fun to be in a city setting again amongst the hustle and bustle, such as it is.

As is the case when we are with Matthew, he leads and we follow. Funny how it comes to that when you get old. Not so may years before it was us who was leading him around! Here's a view down the street to the City Hall and Buncombe County building.

I read a fascinating story about their construction history, a little bit is included here. From what I read somewhere else, it was quite the local story at the time. You might note the word art on the city bus and it is there for a good reason because one can find A LOT of local art in Asheville, so much so, one wonders how there is enough business to go around. 

The Grove Arcade was beautiful!! Finished in 1929, Wow! Stock market crash anyone? 

Walking back to the car, we came across this group ready to serenade the passing crowds. 

Don't you just love this sort of thing? In contrast to the fancy Grove Arcade, a music mecca below.

As the parking meter was running low we decided to head back to the car and return to The Radical, the hotel restaurant located across the river from the condo. Because it was so close, Bruce and I ate there the previous evening making for an easy walk home. As is our custom, we sat at the bar of The Golden Hour, thus the gold chains?

We were delighted with our meal, so much so that we wanted Matt to experience it as well. We began with the bread service followed by an array of vegetable dishes in keeping with Matt being a vegan. So good.

Pickled vegetables, focaccia and compound butters...oh my! The hotel is funky to say the least.

Sunday dawned chilly and rainy and although it was interesting, maybe it was not my best choice when I suggested we visit the Tobacco Barn antiques. Unheated, it was indeed a huge barn, to the tune of 77, 000 square feet!

Mostly overwhelming with so much to see I took only a few shots including the one below highlighting penmanship, something I wish I had a better grasp of these days. Should I be graded on such, as in our long ago elementary school days, I would probably receive a "C" grade. Maybe even a "D". I cannot remember the last time I formed the letter Q in that fashion. How about you?

There was more we wanted to peruse downtown so with free parking on Sunday, off we went. I wanted to the visit Mast General Store. 

Remember what I said about cold weather clothes being expensive?  You can find them there should you want to! You can also find fun things like this little candy mecca.

Maybe I am getting the days mixed up, who knows and for that matter, who cares? That said, one of the days we visited two floors of mostly local art housed in a former Woolworth, complete with an old fashioned soda fountain. Naturally the quilts attracted my attention! 

We saw photographer after photographer all pretty much with the same subject matter. Don't get me wrong, because there were some beautiful landscapes, but it seems to me should I actually care to sell anything here in Murphy, it needs to be out of the ordinary stuff. Time will tell, but those are my thoughts here to date.

It will only set you back a cool $60K to purchase these neat wooden motorcycle.

More exciting happenings including a flat tire, fixed with expediency I might add, as well as a trip to Jo Anne fabrics for me!! Nancy sent me some fabric for Christmas and I needed just a few things to make something happen. Next post for that.

By now the weather was even more dismal, but after a trip to the REI store in Biltmore Village, Bruce steeled his nerves and we headed to the airport in the pouring rain on an interstate undergoing construction. Sounds fun, right?

Not to mention we were saying goodbye to our son for who knows how long! He arrived with plenty of time for his flight, but somewhere along the way, he missed his connection to New York from Charlotte. God was good however, and there was still another flight that night to London. All of this is a distant memory to him as he and Tom have now embarked on a two week vacation beginning in Okinawa and ending in South Korea where the temperature there is predicted to be minus every day of that portion of their journey!! 

Earlier John suggested that we stay another day because of the less than ideal weather, so because we are foot loose and fancy free, we decided to do just that. Woo hoo, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. Well I was anyway because Bruce is not nearly as keen as I am to step outside in nightclothes!

Baby it was cold outside with steam from the New Belgium brewery across the street filling the air.

The long shadows of winter and plenty of frost on the ground.

Would you like to see tiny bits of frost? Of course you would? Am I crazy?

Don't they look neat? I walked down the street, crossing the bridge over the French Broad river, in an attempt to figure out where the entrance to the river walk was. Finally I found not only it but some brave souls using it as well.

I was feeling excited with all that I'd seen and then on my walk it got even better! Because it was so chilly I only brought my regular zoom camera, not the one with the very long lens which I regretted the moment I watched a flock of birds fly into the top of a tree in front of me. Of course I am freaking out just to witness it but the thought that I would not be able to identify said birds hurt too.

No amount of enlarging on my computer helps. Such is life, right?I sound like an ingrate is what I sound like. The experience should totally be enough. Or, should it?

During the rest of the morning we visited Harris Teater and the adjacent Trader Joes. The former because I wanted to see what it is like, the later because I wanted to pick up some goodies to take home in our cooler. Oh yeah, and we tried to visit Hole Donuts but they were closed. Apparently a trip to Asheville is incomplete without a visit there.

Oh yeah, another thing we did was drive through a very large area covered in street art. The best of the bunch to me was the Clint Eastwood.

As you can see it turned out to be a bright, sunny and gorgeous day. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect!

We ate lunch at a cool neighborhood restaurant called WALK for West Asheville Lounge and Kitchen.

Next up the Asheville Botanical Gardens which although mostly bare trees there were some birds on a very cool feeder.

Winter has it's own beauty.

I'm going to stop right here even though I've more to show you. I know that I have a habit of talking to much and writing too much so maybe it is a good time to quit while I am ahead. That said, one more thing that happened on Saturday that I cannot wait to show my bird loving friends!

I was just coming around the corner in a part of the river walk I don't take advantage of enough and lo and behold I about freaked out! It is a wonder that any of the photos came out I was so excited! That is a male and female Eastern Bluebird. So cute!!

This afternoon, in the middle of writing this I went for my walk and for the first time I saw nothing. Perhaps it is because it is not only crazy windy but the temperature is dropping and is predicted to be 24 degrees tonight!! And to think winter is still days away. 

your friend,

Gail