An Abundant Life

This time, last week I was on a birding excursion, or walk as Alina called it. While we did walk, and we did see a few birds, we mostly listened to her and wondered if she were making things up. Skepticism has no place in birding, because others are sure of what they saw, so maybe it was just me who was breaking the unwritten rule of not being a skeptic. 

That would be our neighbor Becky in the bright pink shirt who was much better than I was using her binoculars. With my glasses I really struggle.  Not far from this location we did see a sweet little Downy Woodpecker; much easier for me to identify through my camera lens.

Not long thereafter a super exciting spotting occurred:

It was a across the river and while I wish it were me that spotted them, it was not. Further down the river they blended in so well, I imagine we might have missed them had we not been following them so closely.

Along the same stretch we did spot a  male Kingfisher. And how do I know it is a male you ask? Alina told me so! 

At the confluence of the two rivers, I left the group to head home. With the quiet and the tree canopy much lower I did finally spot a few birds. Do you see the little Tufted Titmouse?

Now you get the notion that it is darn hard to find tiny birds when they are forty feet in the air and flitting from branch to branch. I have to warn you that this post is going to be loaded with photos so I hesitate to add this, but what the heck, here goes. Where's the bird?

Indeed.

Another day Bruce was mowing at the cemetery and since he left his phone at home I walked over to give it to him. Not that he was going to be chatting or anything, but we have been waiting on a call from yet another electrician. 

Naturally I could not resist putting my camera to use and so when I spotted this bit of color well, I did what I do.

Not really paying much attention to the marker so much as the photo composition at the time, it pleased me to no end to see that it was the gravesite of the Fain family. What's up with that you ask? Well, just the week before we bought a print from a local artist named Annie Fain who is part of a family of creative people. These folks were her great-great grandparents! 

It may have been that same day that we did a little thrifting and when we walked into one of them, I spotted a framed art piece and thought the frame just might be the ticket. And so, for $8.00 and a little work from Mr. Fix Everything,  it is.

Michelle, in advance of their trip asked me if our town decorated for the season and my answer was yes; folks, businesses, and churches most certainly do.  

I had to chuckle because on that day, as I walked into town, all two blocks, I believe I saw more birds than I did on my birding walk!

I am including the photo below for posterity because we will want to remember how far the town came when all the parks are completed. Everyone is anxiously awaiting the completion.

Another soccer game! The team looked very good while playing Andrews. I believe I mentioned how Grayson's coach relies on him to put the ball in play.

There are several girls on the Andrews team and while you probably won't notice it, I could relate to the girls in the picture as they are grimacing as the ball is coming at them.

I was just getting over a silver-dollar-sized bruise on my left forearm and then I got a new tag about the same size just yesterday. So, yes, I do grimace quite a bit! 

At the last minute they made it 4-0.

The day we had been  anxiously awaiting finally arrived and that was last Friday when the Libers offered to take us on a very scenic drive.  

As a motorcycle enthusiast, David has traveled all over the mountain roads so a driving trip is right up his alley.; not to mention he knows where to go. 

Before getting on the road to the Cherohala Skyway we stopped at the Tellico Plains visitor center in Tennessee.

Followed by a delicious lunch here:

The food was so good in part because all the bread, baked goods, and pizza dough are made on premises. 

Having a restaurant builder in the family we are always noticing what makes a place feel inviting and while the brick walls are good, and the abundant use of wood works, it was the blue curtains that did it for me.

A super tiny town it once boasted more industry than it does now, as is the case with so many of the mountain towns. Across the street is a darling coffee shop.

Super cute on the outside, and super cute on the inside.

I am really puzzled by the sign on the swinging kitchen door. Any ideas?

What it does have is tourism, especially at this time of year because it is the gateway to a road called the Cherohala Skyway, our destination as it were. About two years ago a friend told me for the best color go to the skyway and it had not happened yet until this day and I could not have been any happier.

Onward to the skyway, which if you didn't already click on the link above, you might want to now.  About six miles off the skyway, David wanted to show us the Bald River Falls, and who can blame him?  When you love showing beautiful things off, you want to share, right? May I present the Pecks!

Some of the photos I have seen show it with lots more water but I suspect the lack of rain for the last few weeks diminishes the output.  In our view it was fantastic! D'Anna squealed with delight seeing as there was a rocky path down to the bottom that his old lady said, you go ahead without me. Fortunately David was not as reluctant.

At this lower altitude there were some changing leaves, but not a whole lot yet.

Because we have been here in beautiful Western North Carolina for more than two years now, we have seen our fair share of rivers with rocks. The boulders on this river outdid them all. Some of them nearly the size of my MINI Cooper! 

Not far from this location was a campground we checked out with a lovely lake.

D'Anna and I get along so well because we share great enthusiasm for just about everything!  Continuing the drive we kept going further up in altitude, seeing mostly motorcyclists along the way. 

As we neared the top, 5,560 feet for those who are interested, we were enveloped in a cloud. 

As you might note from the previous photo we had been looking at blue skies. Within a few minutes, the clouds began to open a wee bit,

followed by a wee bit more.

Mountains and clouds as far as the eye could see! 

Unfortunately, as we traversed the road down, the leaves were brilliant albeit behind us with no pull offs! David is not easily dissuaded, so he told us he knew of another spot reached by a little walk. Great!

Once we arrived at the look-out platform our hopes were dashed as the trees were so thick as to block the view. Nonetheless, it was good to stretch our legs and enjoy the forest scenery.

On the road again, Lake Santeetlah is gorgeous. 

From what we have been reading we are about two weeks until this is filled with brilliant colors of yellow, red, and orange. 

Because of his vast experience, David had one more spot in mind for us to have a clear view that many folks aren't aware of. I absolutely love how the clouds seem to be suspended in air leaving their mark in the form of shadows. Wait, they always are suspended aren't they?

You might wonder how we have made so many friends here in Murphy and in some regards, I can't imagine it either, but somehow we have, and what a blessing it has been. Between town friends, pickleball friends and church friends, life is very sweet for us. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with gratitude because while it seems as if we are footloose and fancy free, which is true now, it has not always been this way. Raising four children, Bruce traveling most weeks for nearly 25 years, me holding down the fort, that was our life before. Because we married so young it was a long time ago. Not that the work was not satisfying, and Lord knows, we would not change having four sons for anything in the world, it took a lot to get to this place. When you read about these adventures, keep that in mind. Having a beautiful happy family and a new grandson is not the icing on the cake, it is the cake! All four have given us their blessing to live into our mantra, "doing all that we can, while we can." 

Whew, heavy stuff right? I will close with a photo of some friends from way back who have their own happy ending. Talk about marrying young and making it all work out. Oh my goodness, what a life they have led.

Happily they got in touch as they were not too far away on a little vacation. Arriving just as we returned from pickleball, after a visit at the house we walked with their dogs to the nearby Murphy Chophouse where we enjoyed lunch. They did get a kick out of seeing our Mayor and a small entourage, including Laura walk down the hill beside us. So while I have said it was our friend Karen who first introduced us to Murphy, in reality it was Mike and Nancy who asked me about 16 years ago to photograph their cabin for a vacation rental site, in what we learned yesterday was nearby Andrews. Holy Cow, I still have the album of photos I took!  Some years later they sold it, but the happy memories remain.  It took a little sleuthing to find that album in my blog, but while doing so I came across something really special from another post at that time about an incident that I recently told someone about.  My second ever published photo!   Talk about some sweet and challenging memories!!

your friend,

Gail

p.s. Should you have missed last week's post, here it is.