Memories from Murphy

As Christmas is but days away, I wanted to stick close to home today. We've been asked numerous times about going home for Christmas, but although it has only happened once before when we were in Vancouver, our Orlando family is okay with us not being there. Of course it helps that we have sons who have wives with families which, let's be honest, should take precedent over ours! Happy wife, happy life and all that jazz!

Where shall I start?? Maybe reporting that the prints are in the store? As far as I know, only one has sold and that was to Jenn our friend with the wine bar. She wanted to be the first to buy something of mine. Now how sweet was that? Would you look at that...a birdhouse! There is quite a bit of competition around here, so I am keeping my expectations low.

Christmas cookies! Nothing new, been making them since 1977, but for some odd reason, this year they turned out crazy good with perfect size and delicious taste. It's funny how some years that happens isn't it? 

You might note something striped in the background and that would be two potholders made with the fabric Nancy sent me as part of our Christmas gift. I suppose I mentioned that I brought the sewing machine this trip?  As well, I made some Christmas napkins along with a decorative placemat for the island.

Perhaps I mentioned that while in Asheville we popped into JoAnne fabrics and these are the results of that shopping excursion. I brought almost nothing Christmassy with us, in spite of knowing we would be here for Christmas, but I did bring placemats, something we use daily. It made me happy to get them out of the cabinet in early December.

Laura made us some lovely Swedish Christmas bread featuring cardamon that her family has been making for generations. 

It was light and yummy! Fantastic as French toast too!  

A funny thing happened a few weeks ago that might amuse/interest you. Atop the living room bookcases here, there was a huge metal bucket with an emblem of some sort imprinted into the metal.  I thought to myself, "self" why don't you gather some pinecones and fill that up with them as part of our decorations. Going down to the property edge, I gathered what I could find, pinecones unlike any I've ever seen before.

Before we could put said pinecones in the bucket, which btw, I had nowhere near enough, Laura got in touch asking if she could come pick something up from the cottage. Well, duh! It's your house, so yes indeed! The bucket, she wanted the bucket to use for letting the dough rise. Perhaps I'm imagining this, but it seems to me that she said she would be making 50 loaves!!! Honoring her families traditions, which if you have watched any Hallmark movies, and it must be said, the litany of other companies who've gotten into the Christmas movie act, she would be in good company. Last week we were treated to a small gathering at their home for other Swedish fare including her recipe for spiced wine in the Swedish tradition. If I could make the symbols on my computer to type the name I would. 

There is so much of Charlotte here at the cottage that she helped design and lived in for five years or so. For one thing, there is Huckleberry, her cat, who is still roaming around today. Oftentimes he loves perching on John's truck,

and on these winter afternoons he is often to be found sunning himself on our front steps. How he stands the cold is beyond me! And it has been cold to the tune of 23 degrees the other morning, although we are now in a mini warming trend. An 80% chance of rain is the Christmas forecast with no mention of anything white! 

One of the things I periodically come across are recipes that Charlotte printed out in 2002, one of which was for focaccia and I thought, what the heck, I'll try it.  We'd had it at the restaurant and it was delicious so here we go.

It was far better than it looks!! I will definitely try it again, and as for the holes, Bruce did them for me because my attention span is so abysmal, I would begin doing them in a row and then before long, well you know how I am. Next time I will not flatten it as much and we will make the holes deeper. As to olive oil, I think it could use more. 

While we are still in the kitchen, setting up my sewing machine on our dining table, the ironing board is in the kitchen with plenty of room to move around. Continuing our thrift store goodies, this iron! Would you believe $2.00? You should.

Lastly in the kitchen, let's talk fresh eggs. I bought the eggs at the last farmer's market and they were left on the kitchen counter per their instructions. When we returned from Asheville I wondered, had I let them get stale? Contacting the folks via facebook, she told me about the water test, meaning if the eggs floated they were bad. If they stayed on the bottom and laid on their side they were still good but not as fresh and if they were on one end, you are golden. I gave it a try.

Oh boy I almost forgot. There is a chicken coop next door that has gone unused for some years, however, John is now set on strengthening it so the coyotes can't get to the chickens and get this, we are to be part owners of said chickens! That's the plan anyway. Holy cow, this is getting interesting!

Oh my, the winter sky with a sliver of a moon and the beginning of sunset. For those of you wondering, if you love taking sunset photos, go for it now as winter sunsets are the absolute best!

The shadows are great as well. 

As mentioned earlier, it has been cold but it has not kept us from playing pb. Layered up for sure. My side is nearly 100% thankfully. As has become my custom, I go out on the porch when it gets light in the morning to see how cold it feels.  I was freaking out on this morning as I looked to the end of the driveway just before daybreak.

Putting on shoes immediately, as well as a coat of course, I grabbed my camera hoping they would not take off before I made my way down the driveway. This little guy walked right to me!

The light was dim, the lens was wrong, but I did manage to get eight of them in this shot. Look closely!

And you better believe I hightailed into the warm and cozy house when they ran off! 

The river walk continues to provide entertainment in unexpected ways. Honestly, when I came across the Eastern Bluebird action, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Well maybe a wee bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

This was taken last Saturday and I am sad to report I've not seen any action there again! You can well imagine that I will keep trying. Exiting the official walk, I landed in front of a darling house that I may have pictured before with Corgi Christmas decorations out front. Does that ring a bell? Well, on this afternoon, I was greeted by the real thing.

And one more!

Ordinarily I might not even include these, but because I want to remember the encounter, here they are. Watching someone pick up dog poop is not my favorite pass time, but on this occasion I did so with interest because the picker-upper person was the lovely young woman who owns the beautiful Corgis. Boy did she have a story to tell! Blood cancer at 40 followed by horrible chemotherapy that caused irreparable damage to her hips! In January she had both hips replaced because she lacked blood supply to her joints. Plus, it took multiple visits to different doctors who all dismissed her complaints before she was diagnosed. That sort of thing makes my blood boil! After a horrible couple of years, she finally thinks she can get out a little bit and I emphasize little. Her husband wanted to go to Iceland, but he agreed to go to Fort Wilderness campground instead. Quite the trade-off huh? She explained that she is not quite ready for a big trip. I hope that when I left, it lifted her spirits just a little bit, knowing someone was willing to listen and empathize with her story. The corgis...our darling former neighbor Regina, who turned 87 btw, has one who is aging and whose heart will break if Argyle does not hang on longer than she! Come to think of it, Regina did act like a queen!

Winter, you have just begun, by the calendar anyway. 

I was bundled up as sunset was nearing on the Valley River. Usually we play pickleball until around lunch time and that is because we are starting later rather, like 9:30 or so when the temperature is maybe above freezing, we have lunch, followed by a little rest for the man of the house, and then we head back to town when he works on his aging bodybuilder stuff and I roam. Then it is dark and then we head home to the fireplace and our cozy surroundings. Should you be curious. :)

Friends, the birds are having a heyday at our feeders! 

Gosh if you only knew how many photos I have of the sweet things. One morning it was particularly exciting as there were so many, including two Cardinals who kept chasing one another. This photo is big and the birds are small, but it shows what they were up to.

Do you see them??? If only you were reading a blog post by a better photographer! Nevertheless, it was quite entertaining seeing them go at one another. John told us that some of the leaves stay on the trees until the new ones push the old ones off. I'm thinking what you are seeing is what he meant.

In spite of all the local festivities, it is still hard for me to imagine Christmas is but days away. Some folks we know who are from Florida are planning to go out to eat but in a first, I plan to make a Prime Rib. When I saw Ingles had them on sale, I thought to myself, "why not?". Hopefully, we will have fun cooking something new. Through the magic of Facetime we will stay connected with our beloved family. One thing to note is that last Christmas in Murphy, the temperatures plunged and folks, including Hank, had frozen pipes. Apparently it was very, very cold. It won't be like that Monday, but whatever it is, we will make the best of it!!

Merry Christmas dear friends from,

your friend,

Gail

An Asheville Rendezvous

Good grief it has been far too long since last we met; it was not intentional, but when a son says he wants to meet up before Christmas, but of course that takes precedent over all else! For some time now, Matthew has been flying to New York for work which made him think, "I am on the same continent and all, why not visit with Mom and Dad?" Or something to that effect anyway.

As fate would have it, our neighbors also own a condo in beautiful Asheville, NC and had been encouraging us to use it to see the city. The plan was hatched and our rendezvous began last Friday night after he was kind enough to take a Lyft from the airport as it was well past our preferred driving time. What a joy it was to see him even though it has only been a few months since our anniversary trip. Thinking back to Covid,  we didn't get to see him and Tom for nearly two years! Those were some crazy times as I think we can all agree. Sadly it rained, most of Saturday and Sunday, but we are all first class shoppers so to the mall we went, taking this photo in front of the tree there.

One super cool thing that happened while we were eating in the food court is this group from the Asheville Choral Society performing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Memory flashback to a time many years ago, almost 30 I think, that came to me. Matthew was but 17 in his first year at FSU and had a red VW Beetle that was old. At the time, I was maybe a little too nervous for my own good, but anyway, Matt was driving home for Christmas and because I was so nervous I corralled Jonathan and his friend Kyle and went to see HM at the old Bob Carr auditorium to distract me from worrying about the drive. Since that time, he has traveled the world in safety and I no longer worry. Well, maybe just a wee bit here and there. :)

There is more to report about Asheville but I would be negligent if I failed to report the time leading up to it, beginning with Fallon sending us an air fryer! In passing I mentioned that I did not bring ours this time, (the one she gave me when my home oven was not working) and she picked right up on that and sent one here. If anyone is counting, this is the third oven she has gifted us, the two air fryers, AND the awesome camping oven which turned out to be miracle worker. Those are some potatoes in the bowl and boy were they good.

In no particular order, let's see what I saw....

My Florida friends cannot relate, but gosh, I hope the occasion arises where these sleds become necessary. Not for me, mind you but I can watch!  It has been super foggy some mornings,

and frosty most, with the lowest temperature to date of 23 degrees!!

So far it has been fine by me, but we shall see as the days march on. 

In my last post I showed this same spot but with a taller pile of stones.

That same post was filled with foggy photos of the river walk that I often take in the park, very atmospheric and some might say gloomy. As such, let's see how pretty it is when the sun is shining!

So many of these types of shots I take to record what things look like at different times of the year. 

Forgive me if I have mentioned it before, a real problem for us seniors, but when we got here in the summer, the water was high and John called it a lake. Okay, not like any lake we've ever seen, but who are we to argue? Another thing we both thought was it did not look very inviting because it was brownish and I am here to explain why that is the case. Duh, the bottom of the river bed is BROWN and the water is so clear, well, you can put two and two together I have no doubt! Whatever color, it has been such a blessing to me.

Speaking of blessings, Bruce won this super cool vase by Harry Hearne a pickleballer and local celebrated potter. You can find his work here. 

The little bird was already perched on the shelf albeit with a broken tail but Mr. Peck took care of that. There was a charity drawing and my husband entered and lo and behold, he won! You may recall the photos from the folk school festival of Harry and his lovely wife Julie in costume as Morris dancers. Oh what the heck, here's the link to that post. 

Charity also comes in the form of toys and what we have learned since being here is the Valley River Picklers, led by Cobby Barfield and Nancy Frahmann are keen to participate. Turns out I had my camera that day and I took a few shots, one of which was published in this week's Cherokee Scout, Uncredited which was a shame because it would have been fun to see my name in the Scout! 

At the same time, the group gathered for a "pickleball family" shot.

Fully half, or maybe more, have Florida connections! I have been nursing my side injury and finally I may have turned the corner. Talking with our son David, he reminded me of the time he had what seems like a very similar injury diagnosed as an intercostal strain. While I have not been to the doctor, I am certain I am suffering from the same. Our friend Ann, took a tumble some months ago and did the very same thing. The three of us all agreed it is far more painful than you can imagine without having one yourself. Trust me, you do not want it. Healing takes anywhere from a few days to several months!! I know Matt was alarmed at his parents, what with my rib and Bruce's knee suffering from arthritis, made worse by the cold and rain, but he need not have worried. Seemingly we bounce back just fine, just takes a little longer when you are in your eighth decade. Well, technically I am not there just yet, but what is 16 days amongst friends? 

Bucee's fans will get a kick out of this photo taken at a crazy house across the street from the gym.

From the looks of things, the owner has a variety of interests.

Another look at a few of our wonderful ornaments! What story would they tell if they could speak? Why did someone give them away? So many questions with no answers.

Deer caught in the headlights.

An earlier post I talked about seeing Dark Eyed Junco, but had little photographic evidence to support my claim. Now I have.

Grey with an almost pink little beak. The good thing about winter is the birds are easy to spot amongst the leafless branches. Below is the Eastern Towhee. Or at least the back of it! 

While we were gone the birds cleaned out the feeder so upon our return we quickly filled them up as the birds have been very much appreciating the seed. The Carolina Chickadees are plentiful and oh so cute.

Do you notice how puffed up it appears? It seems to me it has something to do with it being very cold!

Robins, I see them regularly, but each encounter is a joy and a privilege.

As Christmas draws near we are of course missing our friends and family, but at the same time, we are so enjoying a change of scenery. Yes, it is cold but that's what coats, boots, gloves and hats are for. We Floridians sometimes don't realize how good we have it only having, basically, one wardrobe. All the cold weather gear is very expensive. 

Perhaps I should leave you for now with this photo I took a few weeks ago at Wal Mart. Can you imagine?

Seemingly there are a lot of ugly sweater competitions going on in these parts! By golly, I just realized I didn't talk about the Christmas parade that we watched from this perch at the First Methodist church.

Unfortunately most of the photos were trash, including this one, but here it is anyway. Clamoring for candy is what is happening.

We thoroughly enjoyed every moment and are grateful we are seeing life, for now anyway, with new eyes. In this post from 2017 we enjoyed the Vancouver Christmas parade.  Being able to relive experiences is one of the things I most love about having blogged now since 2007!!!  

Our Asheville rendezvous with Matthew while short and sweet, was a Christmas blessing. 

May you all have your own Christmas blessings this very week. 

your friend,

Gail

What Reader Doesn't Like Nature?

I can answer that one in a heartbeat. No reader of mine doesn't like nature, otherwise they would have moved on long ago! Or am I just imagining things?

There is just so much to tell you about that I am slightly overwhelmed, thus I am dedicating this post to flowers, deer, butterflies and what would a Gail Peck post be without birds?! Plus a few other things thrown in for good measure.  Let's get started then.

One afternoon recently, while Bruce was in the gym, I planned to walk on the, you guessed it, river walk. At the very moment I was gathering my gear, Nancy called and as it was crazy hot that day, I went over to the pavillion next to the courts to sit in the shade and chat. Well chat we did, for so long that I decided to begin my walk. After crossing over the bridge I was greeted by a beautiful display of pink (Barbie anyone?) phlox, as well as another pink flower that I am unsure of. What I was sure of though was that there was a gorgeous Swallowtail flitting about so, putting my phone on speaker and setting it on the curb, I continued talking as I shot photographs. Here is one of said photographs.

As you can see it was bright and sunny and although I took a bunch, I kind of like this one with the sun shining through the wing. Not only was there that beautiful black one but a little further down the path, the yellow version was flitting everywhere, mostly hovering over the dirt which is something I also saw when we visited the Hiwassee Dam, a field trip which I've yet to mention.

On that day there were two who kept hovering above the rocks. Go figure.

Pro tip....take loads of nature photos as the action unfolds in order to get the best shot. Not very often, well make that once, and I cannot even remember where it was, but I was talking to some folks about taking photos and my advice was thus, start shooting the moment you see something unfolding even if you are far away as you never know when your subject decides to fly or run away! But you knew that already, didn't you?

The bird feeders are providing endless entertainment as they are hung just outside the living area window. Oh yes, the hummingbirds like my nectar just fine.

Do you care to guess how many hummingbird photos I have attempted? Double or triple that guess!! Tufted Titmouse,

as well as Carolina Chickadees are the most common visitors, that is if you don't count the Goldfinch family. They will not be making an appearance today, however very soon as I might just have finally gotten some shots that I am happy with.

I do miss my raptors which are so prevalent where we live, so I was surprised and delighted when a hawk finally landed high in a nearby tree. 

Staying close to home, I have mentioned that I am slightly obsessed with finding mushrooms haven't I? Well count me thrilled to have found some Chanterelles that I cleaned, not this one but you get the idea, and dry sautéed them to freeze for later use. All that rain we were experiencing has all but disappeared, thus the mushroom count is slightly down. Hard for me to imagine, but I am now missing the rain, in part because it has been replaced with some very, very warm, well let's be honest, hot temperatures!

Still near home, the other day we were returning when lo and behold, near the turnoff, what to our wondering eyes should appear? 

You have to act fast in this situation and not shooting through a windshield yields much better results! Some days the deer just stare at you, especially when Bruce begins chatting with them in a soothing voice.

If you are viewing this on a phone enlarge the above photo in order to appreciate the antlers. How amazing are antlers? Pretty darn amazing; that's my opinion anyway.

We made another trip to the folk school gardens, where there are still delights to be found.

Not quite as many flowers, but still enough to please anyone who appreciates the hard work of the gardeners.

I freely admit being enthralled with the structures in both the herb and flower/vegetable gardens. I imagine you kind of are too.

Should you have been wondering when I was going to get to birds, wonder no more as I have two interesting things to share. One is that I have no clue if these are young Purple Martins or Barn Swallows but there were a bunch of them flying around.

You might note that the day was gray, however the skies produced no precipitation and it was cooler so there was that. At any rate, as Bruce was dragging me away from the above spectacle, he abruptly stopped as did I following in his footsteps. (no pun intended) On the ground in front of him was what we believed was a hatchling and after further investigation, we discovered it was a Blue Gray Gnatcatcher. 

Which brings me to something I wanted to discuss and that is how darn awesome the sound id feature is on Merlin.  Using the sound feature, it identified the bird we were hearing, thus it led us to the conclusion that this was a Blue Gray Gnatcatcher which is a mouthful indeed. In order to keep this moving I won't show you the flying attempts, but we believe it was unhurt and just learning to fly. Don't delay, download Merlin today! You will love it.

Our next stop that day was the fantastic Crane Creek Winery in Young Harris, GA where some of the grapes were ripening,

and gorgeous flowers were blooming.

Red Echinacea are new to me but darn, I am in love.

I cannot wait to show the winery photos, however, that is a post for another day.  As most anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows, I am never without a real camera no matter how inconvenient.  God bless Bruce who has stopped along streets, roads, and highways countless times when I see something that interests me. Not to mention turned around! Who wouldn't be interested upon seeing this amazing floral display along the road?

This is but a tiny fraction of this person's labor of love. Seriously, it was downright amazing and I will have to go back to my library and dig out more photos of this incredible display. Just the other day I am like honey, "can you back up?" Sure darling, he replies. Yup, he is wonderful like that.

Around the corner was a huge Hydrangea bush which for some folks is a common sight, however, for a Floridian, not so much. I am pretty sure that is a Pink Magnolia tree just beginning to bloom above it.

All of what we have seen is beautiful and requires love and attention which can all be destroyed in short order by the Japanese Beetle that Bonnie pointed out as so devastating.  I am pretty sure that is what caused this. Apparently they eat the leaves and leave the rest.

As we parked for church one Sunday the sound of a nearby Cardinal caused me to scan our surroundings. Well that was easy! Right above our head was a male Cardinal that appears to already be molting.

I wonder if that means something? There has been a four part series in the newspaper with what the author calls "mountain signs" regarding the natural world that has been very interesting. Speaking of the newspaper, yesterday we picked up the North Georgia paper and there was such a heartwarming story on the front page it begs to be repeated. A parade. yes a parade, was held in nearby Blairsville for a 24 year old resident who suffered a devastating brain aneurysm on January 8 and was not expected to live. Large crowds greeted her return to continue her rehabilitation closer to home. She was not expected to ever walk or talk again, both of which she can now do. There may not be a lot of shopping options in small towns but by golly, there is seemingly a good deal of caring. 

My goodness the weeks are flying by. We are nearing the end of our seventh week, each and every one of them has been filled with joy.  But being surrounded by nature will do that for a person, or in this case couple.

From the very simple to the more elaborate, we find something to appreciate by all that we see. I keep pinching myself and wondering how we got so lucky? 

Here's hoping you enjoyed our nature walk today and as always, I remain,

your friend,

Gail