From the Top of a Mountain

 ...to bird watching and so much more!!

It will surprise no one that the week has been full here at the house on Campbell Street. We did visit the top of a mountain in Georgia, the highest spot in GA for that matter,

on that same day that we did a drive-by of a local alpaca farm that Michelle wants to visit during their time here.

And a whole bunch more, so let's get to it, shall we?

How many amongst you have had erroneous activity on Amazon? Now we have. I spent so much time on the line with Amazon over the last three days that I want to scream. Has it been sorted out yet? The latest representative claims it has so we shall see in a few hours. Bruce tried to order something only to discover our account had been frozen. Hmmm.....what can that mean?  Fortunately it had not gone through the bank yet but I assured them I had not purchased a $400 Apple gift card for anyone I know. Come to think of it, maybe I did try to buy one over a month ago and it would not go through? No, they are just messing with me! Oh my goodness, the perils and pleasure of being digitally connected!! 

The kitchen is done!! I made some Heath Bar cookies for Soul Table and when I took the photo realized it showed off the new paint at the same time. 

As I mentioned I am trying to put some of the fixed elements together in a design sense so the new paint is a step in the right direction. The ivory colored dishwasher does not match but darn if it does not work so well that I really hesitate to replace it having had experience with new appliances that, while they look good, are not nearly as reliable as the pictured one. Third world problems, right?

As I recall, I spent time sewing last week and the result is that I now have the entire top put together and am still puzzling about the backing fabric. After some additional thought my original idea for backing is not going to work out. I am still trying to use only what I have on hand, so we shall see.

One evening I went to join the Chimney Swift observers and counters. Walking down our street this happened!

It happened so fast that the shot above is the only one I got, thus I have no clue what kind of birds these are.

I am far too slow to use a counter, but Alina seemed to think there were about 315 birds that went into the chimney that night.

Not a single photograph of the bird action was kept, however, this view of the alleyway and the nearly full moon remains was a keeper.

On Friday we missed pickleball to go on a recognizance mission looking ahead to when David and Michelle visit later in the month. Before we left the house though, Bruce filled the pantry after waiting a whole week for the paint to cure.

It is beautifully organized at the moment, but for how long before I mess it up, remains to be seen.

We drove to an area called Hanging Dog to check out the route to the alpaca farm and what a lovely nine miles it was. The day was beautiful as was the scenery.

There are pockets of changing leaves but the best is yet to come.  Booking our tour just today we all have something fun to look forward to! 

We got a sandwich at the Hanging Dog General Store. Before you ask me where the name came from I am not exactly sure but I believe it is from a Cherokee legend.

One of the young women that worked there asked me where I was from and I said Murphy. "Before that?" Apparently, my accent gave me away as an invader! Folks around here are of two minds. Some realize that growth and outside money can help the town, whereas others are fine with things the way they have always been. Sound familiar to you? Locals everywhere get it for sure.

Following that we drove a few miles beyong Blairsville to Brasstown Bald, as mentioned earlier, the highest point in GA. 

From the parking lot you would never know how high we were at 4.784 feet above sea level. The shuttle pictured took us that last leg although there are hardy souls who hike it.

Earlier in the day the skies were crystal clear and blue as can be, but by the time we made it to the top, clouds were moving in.  The provided link above has some very interesting facts to learn about the place. After having had several people recommend we take our family there, we decided to check it out first. The viewing platforms afford views of Tennessee, Georgia (below),

and both North and South Carolina. In a few weeks those green trees will all be various shades of goodness!

That night was the monthly art walk downtown and in spite of the ongoing renovations a good crowd turned out.

Next year when I post this same angle, there will be a park in the foreground and one across the street as well. 

The big event for the weekend though was the festival at the folk school, in fact the biggest event of the year. Traffic, something we are no longer accustomed to makes it is easier to get a little impatient as was the case in the parking lot with some folks. Cars as far as the eye could see.

Perfect fall festival weather...check! Big crowds....check! Artists having sales.....check!

Students stay on campus, having most of their meals prepared from this garden that was looking so pretty.

And how do I know artists had sales you ask? John had his double booth with furniture and especially Saturday, when Bruce sat with him a good part of the afternoon while I helped in our ladies group's booth selling water, snacks, popcorn and apples.

My post was standing next to Robin, pictured below.

Sarah June drove to the orchard in Blue Ridge to buy the apples and they were scrumptious. Crimson Crisp was the variety and I did my best to sell them at the low price of $1.00 each. This lady bit.

We had some lively entertainment across from us.

We arrived only two hours before my shift so I did not see nearly as much as I did. last year. For instance, the booth below was jam packed with goodies.

How does one not photograph this?

None of my buddies had ever been in a booth before and when I was telling Jonathan about it later, he said, they don't realize what a pro they had in their midst! Ten years! 

As we left the parking area looked like this, a far cry from seven hours earlier! 

The money raised goes to helping the children here in Cherokee County with all manner of things including school clothes and shoes. 

Bruce finished up the hand rail he made up for the stone steps out back. While we could navigate them fine, having a hand rail is always the best course of action.

Yesterday we went to Grayson's home soccer game.  Although we missed some away games, but since it is so close, why not? He's easy to spot now that he has some new blue cleats.

As you can see Grayson is not only one of the tallest boys on the team but one of the most athletic as well. We discovered that when he was learning to play pickleball and picked it up in an instant.

One of his coaches is not only a father of one of his team mates, but he is also the son of a family in town who once owned a very popular restaurant in town called Perrone's. It was just a block or so away from our house here on Campbell Stree,t but when they decided to close someone else took that location. Apparently they missed it so I think it is tomorrow that a new, highly anticipated, Perrone's is opening in a new location downtown. 

That is the thing about living in a small town, there are so many connections. I will be writing about a few things in my next post how that is so true, even for us who have been here for only two years. Two years already!

your friend,

Gail 

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

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