Our First Tournament! Some Other Stuff Too

Most everyone I play pickleball with knows that I am in it for the fun. Although my Vancouver friend Dale sent me an article from The Globe and Mail with an opinion piece written by a woman named Gail who stated that a friend taught her the mantra, "in it to win it" which I admit sounds clever, but still I can't really bring out much competitive fire. I have no killer instinct!

 So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that both Bruce and I signed up for the tournament at the courts today. 

Saturday was for the lower level players with Sunday being reserved for the more skilled.  It was suggested that we arrive early to warm up which we did, and boy was it the foggiest we have yet seen as we were leaving our darling little rental house at 7:30 this morning.

It is but a little more than a two mile drive to the courts where others were already warming up when we arrived.

The purpose of the tournament was to raise funds to complete the bathroom at the pictured pavillion on the left. It is really impressive that the players took on the project with a storage room, as well as the nearly completed bathroom. Plus there are overhead fans! Since this is such a small town, funds are limited, so they took matters into their own hands and the result is the nice spot to rest as pictured above. There are eight pickleball courts and two tennis courts. And of course there is the mountain view.

I am standing on one of the empty tennis courts that see some use during the week. The format was a "round robin" which was all new to me. A couple of years ago, not too long after we learned how to play this fantastic game, Bruce played in a tournament with our neighbor Denny, however, being very new it was not really much fun. This tournament was low stakes with a good many people we have already played with, especially in our bracket. In the lower bracket there were loads of people I did not know. 

We played six games with assigned partners and in a stroke of good luck, both Bruce and I won four of our games. That said, he and another gentleman "pickled" me and my partner Denise in the sixth game which absolutely did not help my point total!! For the uninitiated, pickled means we lost 11-0!

Following the games played, the points were totaled.

While the rest of us waited to hear who our winners were. 

 In the end, he and Angela tied for the silver medal. 

She is a darling young woman, about the age of our twins, who began playing since we have been here. Obviously she is a very quick learner! So, it was way more fun than we thought it would be, and so much so that when Harry asked Bruce if he would partner with someone tomorrow, he agreed. We shall see!!

 I have so many, many photos and field trips to document, but that will have to happen over time. For now let us remain at the cottage and specifically the kitchen where I have finally begun baking, albeit in makeshift fashion. I believe this rack is from the toaster oven but it works okay for small cookies. The oven rain a little hot but after a batch or two I think I've figure it out.

Yeah for banana bread!

Note those gorgeous red tomatoes, bought from this gentleman in the parking area for the Chatuge Dam.

Bruce is sharing some salted peanuts with him after I purchased four of those beauties for $3.00. The flavor is outstanding! Like unbelievable. I must tell you briefly about our new friends who gave me green tomatoes. The condensed story is a really great small town one; basically we were walking down the street, a man offered us cucumbers, as well as pickles. Yup, homemade cold pickles, sort of like the Claussen pickles I have had such a hard time procuring since the pandemic. Bruce was wild for them and we stopped by after church, finding he and his wife in their garden. She loaded me down with four new jars of pickles as well as basil, rosemary and green tomatoes of various sizes. Holy cow, the best fried green tomatoes ever!

I am dying for more just looking at the photo I took a few weeks ago. 

Let us walk out the door now to this gorgeous sight!

The plant, unfamiliar to this Floridian, is a Glossy Abelia according to the handy feature on my phone, a member of the honeysuckle family. Not only does the fragrance perfume the air, but it attracts butterflies like nobodies business. 

As to those pictured fruits? Passion fruits are popping out like mad from the wandering vine.

At home I am no stranger to passion vines, however, seeing the fruit is a first. We shall see what happens next. 

The plants are adjacent to the steps which lead to the screened porch where we thought it might be fun to put some pots out with mums as they are abundant in the garden centers here. I had a few ideas for the small pots until I realized, uh oh...do deers eat them? Although we are not seeing the same number of deer, they are still coming around. Look how big the fawns are getting! This fawn anyway!

What I find fascinating is how close their head size is now. How about you? I do know I was thrilled when they showed up on the front lawn. Nonetheless, we started with one pot and began adding them as the days passed without interference.

There are three on the other side and so far, so good! I will keep you posted. Bruce was doing a little work in the side garden and oh my goodness, look what he found!

Apparently they are more common here than in our neck of the woods because I cannot remember the last time I saw one. That little tidbit comes from Patti, a new pickleball friend who shared that with me when we were out to lunch with her and her husband John. Florida transplants they are, which will not surprise you in the least! 

The praying mantis was in the tree, just below the hummingbird feeder which is providing us with endless entertainment as they flit back and forth, hover and dance in the air with one another.

Having a hummingbird feeder is something I have coveted, but never actually did anything about it before now. What was I waiting for???

When we tell folks where we are living in Murphy, we always say that you turn at the fire station on the corner. We have no idea why the trucks were out on this day, but it was a nice sight to behold. There is a lot of volunteer fireman around these parts.

Here is a neat story for you. This little boutique opened recently and I am now a fan.

Visiting her this past week I thought, hmmm....what is different? The building is now charcoal grey is what is different! She told me her landlord saw a photo of the building and decided it needed sprucing up. That was pretty cool. Not only is she friendly as can be, but her merchandise is crazy reasonable should you be in the area, it is a highly recommended downtown sight.

This may not be classified as a neat story, but it is a sweet one. As you know, the church we are attending is super small with only one family having young children. School started recently and our sweet Pastor Maggie did a backpack blessing for the two boys.

She is an exceptional woman that Maggie!

Charlotte's Cottage has provided us with some wonderful memories and is so comfortable. How could we not love it? 

And we even had some nice color the other night at sunset!

Someone asked me about being in a dark sky area and while that seems to be true, during the summer it stays light so late, and it seems to me it never really gets super dark. Plus there is a lot of fog. That said, because it is getting dark earlier each day, we have been outside to see what we can see overhead. You know what? I'm thinking the stars are going to be plentiful, very, very soon.

Should that be true, I cannot wait. Oh yeah, leaf changing season is nearly here! Oh my, oh my!

your friend,

Gail

Murphy-Bound

 So why would we be Murphy-bound? Here's why.

On a day when the heat was extreme and the noise upstairs was the same, I fell in love with this darling place in Murphy, NC. As many of you know, Bruce and I had been looking to buy a summer place in North Carolina, however, to date nothing seemed right. Not to mention, our sons, whose opinions we hold in high regard, were slightly skeptical of how practical it would be for us. 

Actually I did search a few other locations on VRBO, but once I came across this place, I thought to myself, this is the one. Bruce was all in after I showed him. Our connection with the owners really clicked and between that and having Hank, our brother-in-law in Murphy, not to mention other friends, it did seem just right. SO, when the week ahead seemed empty of obligations, we decided to see it in person before we moved there for 3 1/2 months. What would we need to bring that was not provided. That kind of thing were questions we could only answer in person.

So let's go back to how we got to Murphy, shall we?

In my last post, which if you missed it you can read here, I mentioned that Bruce spotted something new and different to us. Leaving The Rockwell House, but not before I spotted this adorable Easter Phoebe,

we drove back to the river to check it out, parked, and made our way to the overpass which looks like this:

And just would that be? After a little sleuthing, along with observation, we learned that they are Barn Swallow nests and was it ever fun to watch them in action that morning!

See the little heads in the holes? Dozens and dozens of them were flying every which way, darting in and out of the nests. So good.

But the road called, so onward we carried. 

More gorgeous wildflowers along the way.

Smart looking horses, 

and almost no one else on the roads. We were driving on 441 and after spotting Commerce on the map,  recalling our delicious lunch there on our last time passing through, we returned and enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed the authentic and reasonable food again.

I get very excited indeed, when the terrain starts to become a little hilly.

And it only gets more thrilling when more than one mountain comes into view.

The route we chose this time was winding with plenty of ups and downs. Bruce is getting better all of the time driving the mountain roads.

This was a new route for us and I cannot decide whether it is more or less winding, but one thing I do know is that it was beautiful what with all of the Spring green. Because we last saw this type of landscape in the fall, with multi-colored leaves, the trees coming back to life, clothed in their shocking spring green colors was a real treat. What I will also say is that it is a darn good thing that switchbacks do not make either of us car sick!!

Who doesn't love seeing little towns dotting the highway?

Much to my surprise, after checking it out just now, this little town of less than 2,000 souls is growing in population. That is quite a feat as most of them are shrinking. 

Murphy is not too far from the Georgia state line so by late afternoon we arrived at Charlotte's Cottage. Just as great in person as online. Here's where we will be spending most of our indoor time.

I think I love it so much because it is so different than our decor. In that spirit, I decided to make a quilt for the bed. A very, very light one, I might add, as I get so hot while sleeping. Because we have nearly zero red in our home, any of the quilts I already have were going to be a no-go with the red curtains which are repeated in the bedroom. Super easy and quick, it is underway.

Using only my stash I found scotty dogs, cardinals and shorebirds amongst my overflowing baskets of fabric. I'm hoping it will be cute when it is completed, and I should know within the week. Or that is my plan anyway.

The cottage, called Charlotte's after the owners mother who used to live there before she died, is set up on a slight hill which we will be learning to navigate. Living in Florida, it is all flat, flat, and more flat terrain.

My goal is to walk the 2.2 miles into town by the end of our first month. Ambitious for sure, but what the heck? By then we should be far more used to the ups and downs. At the end of the drive it looks like this.

There is both a pond, where Bruce caught a fish on his first cast, and a fire ring. Just lovely. I am so looking forward to watching the season unfold. At the moment there is beautiful Mountain Laurel blooming in the woods adjacent to the house. How long this lasts, I have no idea.

According to our new landlord Laura, this plant is called a Flame Azalea.

We drove into town, checked out the pickleball courts, which were easy to find since we played there last Fall, followed by a trip to Ingles where we bought a few groceries. Once we returned, Laura came over to greet us and share a glass of wine, which she provided, btw. We were so pleased with the bed and the darkening curtains which is something very important to me. Everything was checking out perfectly. 

I will show you what I saw in Murphy itself in the next post, but for now, let's switch our focus to  Mother's Day which happened yesterday. I'd contacted our sons saying gifts were not necessary but cards are highly encouraged. Because MD is celebrated in a different month in the UK, cards are not readily available so we made do, wonderfully I might add, with a wonderful Facetime chat with Matthew before church. I did not open the card from Jonathan and Alissa until after we had a long chat with them on our way home from church but once I did, oh my! Cards are getting to be works of art aren't they? This came in the one from them. So cute and it is now decorating the kitchen table.

Bill dropped off the real thing,

and then we went down the street to David and Michelle's condo where we had pizza and wings, a repeat of a successful celebration last year. It is hard to dissuade this group so there was a cake,

some beautiful purple tulips in need of water,

wine from Bill and Fallon, along with another fantastic card, and a gift card and yet another super greeting card from D & M. 

I've decided that our digital picture frame will accompany us and this lovely shot of our Orlando family will be included.

Bill and Fallon on the left, David and Michelle on the right. Your favorite blogger in the mirror!

During play this morning I was imagining leaving everyone for more than 100 days and I felt a wee bit sad, but then when I began heating up like an oven, all sadness disappeared! While it will still be warm in Murphy, it won't last as long, nor will the sun be SO hot. There's a lot to be said for that!

your friend,

Gail