The Second Day of Autumn

It's here!! In Florida, the first day of fall comes and goes without much fanfare, in part because it is still hot as blue blazes. Winter is what we long for, a time when the air is drier, the skies are bluer, and for the most part, it is perfect aside from a freeze here and there.  I read just the other day the average date for a freeze here in Murphy is about a month away. Is that what happened last year? Let's check. Going back to posts from both September and October of last year, there was frost in the third week of October!! I wrote this post about a year ago and if you were not reading Camera Crazy back then, you might enjoy it. 

The truth is that while nothing like September in Florida, we have had some hot sunny days. The heat only lasts a few hours but baby that sun is strong if you are having the pleasure of watching a young man play soccer at the high school field. 

The person holding that big umbrella had the right idea! Grayson is standing just behind the 30 yard line. In the post from last year that I linked to, the above field looked quite a bit different than on this afternoon. A homecoming football game tends to fill the stands for sure. The soccer team that the Murphy middle school played was from Cashiers, NC, a town that is quite a bit different than ours. It is 74 miles east of here and because of the winding roads it takes nearly two hours. Geographically it is not that far, but as far as economics are concerned, it is the polar opposite of Murphy with the median home price there being 1,000,000!! I mention that because watching the kids from both teams it was evident that the Cashiers kids played as if they had far more advantages than ours. Nonetheless, despite having a big early lead (six goals), our kids worked hard to make a comeback and in the end made it competitive.  The picture below is celebrating a goal made by that much smaller boy. He and number 15 were super fast and focused!

Grayson played defense and got plenty of touches.

He is wearing #3 jersey. It was nice because we got to meet more of his family at the game. This week they have away games, but we will be back during their home games. 

The game was last Thursday and on Friday I went with the pickleball ladies to Vogel State Park, organized by Camille who was kind enough to include me in her car. Bruce and I visited there once before and it was every bit as beautiful as I'd remembered.

Just before taking off on our walk, I took a group picture.

Our first stop was going to the waterfall, which although it looks like I am a hiker in the photo below, I am not!

I am far better and more confident using what is in my hand above.

My confidence is shaky at best; someone always ends up helping me down the rocky paths whereas plenty of the ladies acted as if they were taking a stroll at the mall! 

By choice, taking up the rear is my preference so I don't hold anyone back. The rest of the hike was smooth sailing as we circled the lake.

We had a nice lunch, including a large sandwich tray provided by Camille who will soon be heading back to Florida for the winter. Pictured above on the left, walking with Nancy on the right. 

Since our last visit they have completed a lovely new visitor center with some outdoor seating.

My days are all mixed up in this post, but what the heck, there is no exam so let's forge ahead. Thursday was both Soul Table in the morning and later on an annual fundraiser put on by the area clergy. Soul Table is our bi-weekly free lunch and one notable thing happened and that is that I now know how to freeze peaches.

One of the attendees brought in a mostly full large box of peaches, many of which were on their last legs. Can peaches even be on their last legs? Why not? Anyway, many people took ones that were not too horribly bruised, and then everyone went home aside from the dishwasher and his wife. What to do with a haul like that? Why take them home, cut aways all the bad stuff, peal with a knife and freeze. At least that is what I did. 

One morning, while opening the bedroom curtains I did not see any deer if that is what you were thinking that I was going to write. Nope,  I saw the moon and such a bright light adjacent to it. I knew it just had to be something because it seemed way out of the ordinary to this amateur. Indeed, after taking a few photos, I went inside and found this. 

If you look carefully you will see all three.  You've heard me say it before, but is this world fantastic or what??? 

This is what my weary cucumber plants look like these days. I picked the last good one a week ago and what you see are a few that got too big for their britches.

Following our visit to the farmers market here in Murphy on Saturday we headed towards Andrews for me to revel in the roadside sunflowers. No such luck my friends as they have already been mowed down. Boo hoo! Both sides of the road are graced with them at some point in the late summer, so I do have one photo that I may or may not have already included.

Who doesn't love a field of sunflowers? I will tell you who....a grouch! Decades ago I decorated my kitchen with sunflower everything including a wallpaper border that I used like a chair rail. I have happy memories of that kitchen with our house full of boys! 

Speaking of kitchens, I finally chose a paint color for the kitchen and Bruce painted a bit of it this morning so I could see if I was pleased with my choice. So far so good. Next week will be the reveal!

What we did go check out was the new AI complex that is underway. David, Grayson's stepdad is a FedEx driver and although the place is not on his route, he has heard they are receiving at least forty packages a day. Of course in this household, inquiring minds want/need to know. Holy Cow...there is a LOT going on at this former Coats factory. Coats as in a thread manufacturer.

Look at all these, what I think are servers. 

My photographs are not doing this giant project justice. Following the closure of the thread factory, prior to this iteration, this was a bitcoin mining place.  This link has more information and really the only reason to look at the link is because their graphic is a far cry from what it looks like now! BTW, Marble is an adjacent town, known for, you guessed it, marble.

Later on Mark and Erin picked us up for a date night with them, first to the town square of Hayesville for a small festival. Note the blue bags.

The bags contained all sorts of things but for our purposes they also contained a ticket you filled out with your name and put it in the container next to the big basket you hoped to win. More on that in a minute. Hayesville is very cute and is not a big mess downtown like Murphy. 

Don't misinterpret that because although it is taking far longer than we hoped, our town is going to be very, very cute when it is all said and done. We ran into pickleball friends if you can believe that!

Erin and Mark are on the left and that is Debbie on the right. She, too will soon be returning to Florida, Port St. Joe in particular. Oftentimes Bruce will tell people that we thought we would be doing that, however, as it turns out, we like it here more than we ever expected to!

Across the street from the square is a restaurant that everyone has raved about since we arrived. Called The Copper Door, I think Bruce and I are in the minority because for us, it was underwhelming and we were not the ones who had a full water glass pour into their lap. The server seemed to be very new and was completely flummoxed with little to no support from other staff. I have to give it to Mark and Erin, who sat through the meal with wet clothes, they remained cool, calm and collected. While we were eating, guess who got a phone call....if you guessed Mr. Lucky, you guessed right. Indeed it was a big basket chock full of, among other things, local pottery. Plus a subscription to the newspaper in nearby Clay County. 

The year-end win count for Mr. Lucky stands at four which is more than probably his entire adult life. 

The parking lot adjacent to the church is underway! 

Since I took this photo it is much further along. 

Holy Smokes, the annual clergy-run fundraiser was last week and it did not disappoint. David and Pastor Wil serving up food to the crowd.

Most of the local pastors and priests participate in the effort to raise money to help folks with rent, food and other necessities of life throughout the coming year. Think of it like a giant pot luck.

It seemed as if the crowd was bigger than last year with quite a few from our church, of whom a small sample are pictured below.

Finally because I can, I am making a new bed quilt and it is super simple. I am bringing in the precise one to help me get those blocks perfect. After I cut them out, he used a template he made and if you could have seen how inaccurate many of my cuts were, well you might be wondering why I even keep at it! Then again, you might wonder that if you saw me playing pickleball. Fortunately it is easy for me to laugh at myself and there are any number of opportunities to do so. :)

Autumn began yesterday and I am ready and excited.

In spite of being a hiking wuss, I do love picking up the goodness to be found on the forest floor and having a space to display it makes it all the sweeter. Bring it on!

your friend,

Gail