Late Summer in Murphy

 I did not wake up yesterday morning and think to myself, "how about making some chicken cacciatore for dinner" and yet, that is what I ended up making. Perhaps I wanted to celebrate Mr. Bruce feeling like himself again, after a Tuesday that found him mostly in bed?

Shocked is what you are probably experiencing as you read the above because aside from Covid our first December in the cottage, Bruce just does not get sick. Instead I get both of our share of illness! It seems to have been a 24 hour bug and he is good as am I. Hallelujah and amen to that.

The chicken was good despite the fact that I have not made that dish in years. I wonder why I waited so long? 

Speaking of years, oh my goodness! Old blog post HERE. I was making note of my 701st blog post back in 2010. Call me amazed when I read that post, and you should too by the way, that I was praising to the hilt a book called Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann. Matt read it too and we both could not believe how good it was. Well, if you can imagine, and I suspect you can, I am currently reading a book I got from our local library, two streets away from here, and one of the blurbs on the back of the book is from him! What are the chances that I would come across that blog post yesterday? Slim, my friends, slim. Tommorow There Will be Apricots  is what I am reading. Somewhat emotionally draining which is fine after the fluff book I mentioned in my last post. What I had no idea about is that she turned that book into a little series, so there were others who were entertained, or so it seems.

Whew, let's put in a pretty picture! About time!

While I am not complaining, heretofore there has been a shortage of butterflies for me to ogle. No longer friends. The one above was from Sunday when we finally went to The Crowne for brunch following church. Matthew gave Bruce a gift card for his birthday (5/18!!!) and we surely had taken our sweet time going there. You may recall that restaurant as the site of the wedding in June. 

The garden that serves the restaurant has grown significantly since we were last there and was producing loads of shishito peppers that the owner was picking while I was taking butterfly photos!

With only one plant it is hard to amass too many at one time, but ours are coming along, as is our okra!

And strawberries!! Usually because, again, one plant, I leave them for the birds.

I do love their little pink flowers. On the subject of pink flowers, one of my dahlias!! I love those flowers and I still cannot get over that I put a seed in the ground and voila!

I know that sounds silly, but it is so miraculous to be involved in the process of bringing beauty into the world! 

We take no credit for most of our plantings as they were here when we arrived, but what I will take credit for is appreciation. I am all about counting my blessings and our landscape is full of things to be thankful for.

Rose of Sharon is in the hibiscus family and talk about a prolific bloomer. The tree that split in two is still producing great numbers of flowers in two cycles . It is astonishing. 

Here is a look at the garden in late summer. (yellow dahlias!!) upper right.

It takes a sharp eye to notice that the bean plants are winding their way around the handrail with beans coming along nicely. The herbs are all fantastic and just this week I planted new broccoli plants!! The amount of sun hitting the garden has changed dramatically since I started in late March with plenty of sunshine happening now. Perhaps it would be better to have lots of sun earlier in the year and now when it is so hot, less? I'm still learning! Aside from the mosquitoes, I just love it! 

I've got some insects for you.  A Katydid on the front porch column. 

Bruce spotted this scary guy in the church parking lot. 

That would be an Eastern Hercules Beetle with that scary looking horn in the front.  

Isn't it fun coming across things you've never seen before or rarely see? That beetle is a case in point, however I have to admit it would not be anything I would want to touch. Bruce did pick it up and it had a hard shell. Two days ago I was walking home from the library and thought perhaps I would go around the block to our home and was I ever glad I did because the sun was shining brightly and I was not sure what I was seeing up ahead and then it became clear it was a hawk. A small hawk.

Merlin identified a Red Shouldered Hawk in the vicinity earlier in the morning, a rare occurrence. The truth is I heard it myself, but I'm giving Merlin credit nonetheless. One would think I could identify lots of birds by their call, but one would be wrong.  I do, however, at least recognize the call of a hawk as it not only distinctive and plentiful in Orlando.

It was not until I was able to use my bird id that I discovered that this small hawk is actually a Cooper's Hawk that was kind enough to pose for me before flying into a nearby tree.

And that, my dear friends is why I always carry a camera!

An absolute gem of a rose lives on that same street where I saw the hawk.

My zinnias are very tall and very covered with powdery mildew that I have been unable to stop from multiplying. I read somewhere about spraying with diluted milk, however, that does not seem to have worked at all! Bruce raised the bird feeder, as I mentioned and it is six feet about the ground now which gives you an idea about how tall the zinnias are! 

Too bad there are no hummingbirds on the feeder in the picture above but I will tell you that they have been plentiful this year.  Note the addition to the pole. I caught Lucifer looking longingly above his head, but so far it is too tall for even the likes of that crafty cat.

The hummingbirds feed on the zinnias but until two days ago I'd not seen a butterfly on them until two days ago when I jumped up from my lunch, telling myself to not get my hopes up as I reached for my camera from it's bag by the front door on the coat rack. Generally birds scatter when they hear the door open but not so with this butterfly with a torn wing.

Come to think of it, Dolly Parton died that day. Of course I needn't include her last name because she is one of those unforgettable persons that has done so much good in the world, she is recognizable by only her first name. We have yet to visit Dollywood which is just 100 miles of roads with more curves than you can shake a stick at. Friends have gone though and say it is beautiful and who is surprised by that?

We did an errand yesterday and drove home on some roads we'd not used before which is something we need to do more often because there are lots of interesting things going on around here. This was quite the sight. He had just finished putting feed out alongside the road and looked up and waved when I took the photo.

Those are some fancy chickens, aren't they?

Bruce has been working on all kinds of projects for the church in his role as chairmen of the trustees. Whew...it is a lot, but anyone who has worked with Bruce in the past knows that he does not know how to not put in a lot of effort. It is in his DNA. Good thing I am used to it!

I wish I saw more Carolina Chickadees because they are as cute as a button.

Being the citizen scientist that I am (haha), my bird count was but six this morning, down from at the height of summer, in the 15-18 range. As has been said before, I am learning what birds are here in what months. Plus I am tracking the times of the sunrise and sunset which I know can be done with a phone but it is just as handy, if not more so, to open a notebook with your own handwriting and see what you want to see.  Practicing my handwriting is part of the process because I find when I do need to write something my handwriting is deplorable. 

It's a good thing I know how to type!!

your friend,

Gail

Butterflies and Mountains

A winning combination for sure. Who does not like butterflies or mountains??? Not me! In fact I love them and this past Friday I got a chance to see plenty of both. Earlier in the week I had a health issue that kept me from being as active as I like to be, but nothing to worry about. More like a nuisance. 

By Friday I was rip roaring to head to the Liber's house for what D'Anna called a lake day. We left the house at 9:30 and got home at around 8pm so it was as advertised. Forecasted rain never materialized, much to our relief. Within a few minutes of getting there my camera saw action as there were so many butterflies on both her huge phlox bushes and a large butterfly bush. I cannot remember seeing so many butterflies at one time unless it has been a butterfly attraction. Honestly I was in butterfly heaven!

I took an obscene amount of photographs because what if the next shot was even better than the last? Bruce got into the act as well.

Here is a funny little story: Knowing that my friend has had a lot on her mind of late, when I did go out for a walk one afternoon last week,

just over the bridge I came across a Tiger Swallowtail on a flower and snapped this shot to send to her.

Little did I know that she was running a butterfly sanctuary at her home and could take all the photos she wanted!

On that same walk I did come across some pretty cool mushrooms brought on by recent rains.

Have I mentioned before that while the iPhone is a whiz at identifying birds and plants, mushrooms seem to have it stymied. I've yet to take a mushroom picture and get an identification, so perhaps one of you knows what type of mushroom was under a tree along the river in abundance?

Before we get back to the lake day I do have a few photos of interest, or at least they are to me. I was standing on the front walkway, studying the Mourning dove's nest when this little critter flew in. 

Insects are usually identified as was the one above as a Swamp cicada. Now you know! Me too.

Much to our dismay, our baby doves have grown up and left us but not without siblings to come. How about both parents on the nest with the new batch?

We shall see what happens next. The backyard bunny continues to entertain us. Still much smaller, she seems to come every morning and evening to munch on the weeds. 

The little cotton tail shows when she is on her haunches.

As you may recall, the house came with all sorts of art work, most of which has been fine, but not necessarily what we would pick leaving us with no choice but to fined new pieces, a task that is easier said than done. While Bruce was changing this essential lightbulb that had burned out, it does show off one of the latest pieces from the downtown antique store. I have named her Dixie and she replaces a huge wooden pineapple from the Philippines which was fine but, well, you already know my thoughts.

Her sassy look is watching over us as we exit to the basement or the back porch. That was a very challenging lightbulb change, so hopefully the advertised nine year life span is correct!

Ask me if I have any cowboy decor in my house aside from Dixie. I suspect you know the answer to that!

Alrighty now, back to our lake day and the multitude of beautiful things to see.

More butterfly goodness.

What were once white hydrangeas are now pink.

I love seeing birds at feeders, but when they land way up in a tree, especially when I have a zoom lens in my hand, it is magical.

Nantahala Lake is a few miles from their home so with the boat already on the trailer we took off and went to the beautiful water. First stop once we were on our way was for lunch at the terrific restaurant on the lake. The approach is beautiful!

Duh, I did not need to tell you that because you can see it with your own two eyes! 

We sat on the upstairs porch admiring that huge willow tree all while eating. Back to the boat, after heading down some steps,

it is lovely to behold. And to think that in only a month or so it will looks completely different!

Before we actually got to the restaurant we watched folks jumping into the water near the dam that makes the lake possible. As is the case with all of the nearby lakes, they have been created by the TVA.

I love seeing the mountains from the car,

and I love seeing them from a boat!

I am just taking a moment here to acknowledge how incredibly lucky and blessed we have been since moving here, to not only be a witness to seasons that will before we know it will change this scenery drastically, but to meet so many wonderful new friends. To tell you the truth, I hardly know what to say.

Returning to the story, David was driving us to a fishing spot that he knew about and had Bruce very excited as it has been a very long time since he was able to fish. Before we got there though, David noticed some folks waving for help and so he helped them by towing their boat quite a distance to their home dock. After that, we got on our way,

and look who is fishing off the back end of the boat? 

No fish were caught, but fun was had. Whoops, I almost forgot! D'Anna and I went swimming. Initially it was chilly ,but before long we were comfortable as can be. Time to head back to the boat ramp, and look what I saw!

Once back at their home, we sat for awhile on the front porch enjoying the multitude of hummingbirds coming to the feeders. The humans enjoyed some refreshments as well! 😊

Whoa Nelly, the drive home...

was fantastic with those low clouds hanging in the mountains.  

On Fridays it has become our custom to play pickleball but on that Friday we went boating instead, meaning we had to miss Karen and Rich who were visiting from Orlando. Staying in a nearby town they are not afraid of driving, so returned to Murphy on Saturday and we went to the annual Bloody Mary contest at the farmer's market where they were celebrating all things tomato. But under the big tent, restaurants vied for first place. Case in point. the new Gordon Ramsey restaurant at the casino.

They definitely went all out, including a skewer with a slider, tomatoes and a jumbo shrimp! We asked a passerby to take our photo before they went back to their sight-seeing.

So much green in this post!! We will all enjoy it while we can. Bruce and I popped over to the market and I want you to get a look at the variety of jellies!

I tried the one made with Rose of Sharon and it was pretty good. I am finding it so hard to imagine how she does it. By the way, our Rose of Sharon trees are on round two of blooms, and it is just delightful to witness.

Before I close this uplifting post, I have some sad news to report. As you know, we work twice a month at our church's free lunch where Bruce washes dishes and I greet the folks as they arrive. This last Thursday a woman arrived who usually has two friends with her, one of whom I had the hardest time learning her name. Finally I had the name Angela etched in my mind and asked if she was coming? Imagine my shock when Emma told me she had died over the previous weekend, her husband having found her dead in her bed. Gosh that hurt. Emma was devastated as she, along with another woman, had gone out to lunch together on Friday and she was just fine until she wasn't on Saturday afternoon. After a year of seeing these folks bi-monthly, it is easy to get attached. 😢

After that sad report I want to end this on a positive note, staying in step with my title.

Butterflies, mountains, friends, water, clouds, trees, cicadas, rabbits, holy cow, it's a wonderful world out there my dear ones.

your friend,

Gail

Primarily Pink

Easter week has come and gone and what a week it was for us, busy, busy, busy. Unlike most years, we attended most all of the services. Oh wait, maybe all of them.  In a first for us, we participated in what was called a "cross walk" where those participating carried the cross for some distance from the Catholic church where we gathered, to the Methodist church. Along the way there were breaks for scripture readings. To be honest with you, when we began we felt a little self conscious but quickly that silliness faded as we joined with others of similar faith. Mr. Peck, as we are approaching the church.

Behind the Catholic church I spotted a Camelia, one of only a few on the plant. Big deal, right? Perhaps they are prevalent here but this was my first sighting of a flower I am accustomed to be admiring in the winter. Of course it was pink, everything is coming up pink these days!

I mean check out the incredible number of blossoms on this tree!

And this one.

One day we drove to see some furniture friends are selling. Super cool house, super cool folks and some of the furniture will work, or so we think, not to mention it is reasonable. Wow, we are discovering that furniture is darn expensive!

Oh look....it's pink!

Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, "what is the big deal?" to which I would reply that after months of bare sticks, it is downright startling. Plus there are variations on that theme with different shades of pink. Now this makes no sense to me, but folks are telling me it is a red bud tree. I see pink!

The view from the porch is glorious. I cannot get enough of this look.

Note the green small tree in front with blossoms just beginning to open. Wonder what it will look like in a week? Because we have been busy, I had not imported all of the photos I'd taken, so it surprised me how much this scene has changed since taking this photograph.

Those white trees, whatever they are, are now mostly green. That's the thing, I've got to get these photos when I can because everything changes in the blink of an eye. These are the leaves from the tree in front that were once red and now are burgundy.

We are so grateful to be surrounded by beauty at every turn here at the cottage. Again, this tree is nearly green now, but what gorgeous color the blossoms were.

The Goldfinch are turning gold or more neon yellow in my book. That has been amazing to witness as it happened.

One day we stopped by city hall for Bruce to talk to the city manager and thank the city for granting the money for the fence and gates on the pickleball court. That's easy to do in a small, small town. 

Leaving we saw that it was the ribbon cutting for the shop that has my prints for sale so we stopped to chat. While there we ran into a young woman we met on the courts whose job it is to promote Cherokee county; her official title escapes me. She asked if I might share some photos of the county with her for her to use however she saw fit. You know me, way too prolific in both words and photographs some might say. Scanning through nearly a years worth of photos I am actually pretty proud of myself for only choosing this many.

So that took me far too long when I could have been blogging. Additionally choosing photos to enter in the Senior Games contest, which has come up far sooner than I was paying attention to, took another big chunk of time. Honestly I should have just skipped it this year as my mind is swirling with house details. Adding to that, I entered myself into the literary category, more specifically writing about a life experience, which also took a big chunk of time. Seriously folks what was I thinking? I did sit down and write about writing a blog for 17 years which will appeal to probably no one. Again, what was I thinking? John has a printer below us and after typing seven double-spaced pages, the printing went haywire so I was doing something wrong. Again another time waster. Back to the prints, I sent the files to Roger,  or really I should say RTArt because it is all employees these days, but old habits die hard. Anyway, they should arrive today, or so FedEx claims and then I need to find some frames and deliver them on Thursday morning. Apparently the judging is done that afternoon and a reception follows on Friday. I would say wish me luck, but honestly the photographs I chose will probably be the wrong ones. One of the criteria was to be creative, so with that in mind I chose, for example, the old tool photo I took at the flea market. I wonder if I shared that? Anyway I will breathe a sigh of relief when it is over. 

 Shopping, oh my goodness, we have been shopping. For furniture of course, but goodness me, we are going to need a lot to begin a new household. I told Bruce it feels like we are newlyweds again although we won't be having any showers to help fill our new nest. That's not really true though because both Bill and David declined birthday gifts, which btw, they turned 45 (!!!) on Monday, choosing instead to add it to the fund to outfit their Dad's new shop.  One of things I wrote in my submitted piece was about how great it is to be a blogger with memories at your fingertips. Well I didn't actually say it like that but it was of that ilk. Anyway, Bruce once had a shop he'd been outfitting since the time he agreed to "me wanting a baby if he could buy a table saw days".  Yes indeed, that happened and the result is Matthew. Anyway, when we went to Canada, I wrote about our garage sale here. That was painful for us but the reward was great but now it is once again, "all about the future". That will become clear if you go back and read the old post.

Speaking of shopping our new friend Latasha had a pop-up shop set up in the back room of the wine shop and of course we could not let her down.

That is kind of how we feel, you have to support the small businesses when you can. I bought a dress for Easter, but as it turned out, it was far too cold to wear it because we attended sunrise service. Wonderful hearing the birds singing along with the humans. The view was nice as well.

The flower cross was lovely with many folks choosing to add daffodils from their gardens. 

There is an insert in last week's Cherokee Scout, more like a little magazine, about the history of all of the little communities around Murphy which has been so informative. As a newcomer, I am learning just how rural this area of the country was for a long time. As an example one of the communities did not have electric power until the late 1960's. For a woman raised in a small city, now a big city, I am gaining a new respect for how the towns have come to be. Some locals, of course, are not keen on some of the progress, but the same could be said for lots of places, including our hometown! Neither Bruce nor I am overly pleased at the place Orlando has become.

I'm hoping to use these stained glass windows for color inspiration in the living room on Campbell Street.

We looked at this couch and stool along with a chair to match over in Blue Ridge, but ultimately we went a little bigger buying a green sofa yesterday.

The bluebirds are busy too! This has been so fun to watch. Hopefully the little ones will arrive before we leave our beautiful cottage.

One day I decided to walk to the house from the river walk, clocking the walk back to the courts which turned out to be 10 minutes. As I was approaching the house on Campbell Street, look what I found.

Another day, driving by we were thrilled to see the front yard tree, completely bare only 10 days prior, with leaves to delight the senses. Now we are super excited to be having a Japanese Maple tree out front.

Isn't it glorious? The view from inside I took that first day.

This blog post has rambled a bit and gone way off of my title theme, but that is okay. Another thing that has happened this past week is I've had a cold, not been sleeping as well as I would like, and have a cold sore to boot. Nevertheless, I am carrying on, as we do, and hoping it will pass before too much longer. Tying up that loose end, let's look at these few primarily pink photos to close things out. Isn't it gorgeous?

Honestly I have taken so many photos ...

Butterflies galore.

Can you stand one more? (credit goes to John and Laura for providing me with more photographic opportunities than is good for my overloaded photo library)

What is most surprising to me is how gorgeous it has been, and how the trees are so colorful, somewhat like a reverse Autumn. Eventually, that is in the next few weeks, we will have to return to Orlando for some of our things, like clothes for example ,which is going to please me to no end. But for now I am still reveling in things being primarily pink.

your friend,

Gail