What I'm discarding, and nature, are on my mind.

 Today the furniture goes...

While I wait for Habitat for Humanity to come truck away the dining table, a book case, two dressers and a couple of little shelves, let's consider what's happening in the rest of the world.

A woman athlete made some waves in the news while I've been watching a few World Cup games. Well, I don't watch sports news most of the time, I admit.

The Ferris Fire - this view from his ranch in Cortez, Montezuma County, CO - by Larry Don Sukla

Craggy Pinnacle Trail from David and Julia, Appalachian Mountains. Even without rain these trees just fog everything up.

Not my tent, but a reminder of all the people out enjoying wilderness this time of year.

Some of the small things going to the thrift store this week! Of course the watches don't work. And some of these pieces were my mother’s.

Speaking of watches, did you see the new fangled timepiece which uses numbers by name, arranged alphabetically?

This week a man at lunch time asked me the elevation of Durango CO (my soon to be new home) and I just answered "Mt. Mitchell." Thus my recent trip to the 6640 foot peak in North Carolina was to help me acclimate to the higher elevation where I'll soon be living.

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

AUDRE LORDE Sharing with Sepia Saturday!

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.”

- Alice Walker

OK before the furniture is picked up a special coffee meeting is scheduled, to meet fellow blogger Mary Moon. Just had to add this bit of earth shattering news...hold onto your hats, big event here!

Metagraywacke and amazing big rocks (mountains)

 If you have no interest in geology, just skip this post. We visited the museum on Mt. Mitchell, and I only took a few photos. It was definitely user friendly with lots of gadgets to push, wind, pull or turn.

The monument on top of the mountain, which has been replaced by a big platform with lots of explanations of what you're looking at.

Yes, I've posted about climbing to the platform, and looking at each direction to see which peaks were out there. It's really kind of fun at the moment, but later on sort of boring.

I loved this rock's name!

I did pick up a piece of gravel at the picnic area, which of course is illegal in state parks, I guess. But it also could have come from miles away and been trucked in there.

The town of Black Mountain is about 15 miles due south of Mt. Mitchell as the crow flies. Of course I've never flown it, but drive along the parkway to get there, about 30 miles or so that way.

Manipulative Republicans posted such stupidly hilarious photos of a dying (or perhaps brain dead) senator...as well as this contrived AI three-armed wife and 6-fingered man! The video of him break dancing is really hilarious. All for the love of power of majority votes. What kind of people do this?

Power is not about exerting our will over others, it is about being in complete truth with yourself.

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Mt. Mitchell State Park

 

Our first stop in the state park was at the restaurant parking lot. From there we could see across the valley where landslides were still bare after the hurricane in Sept. 2024.

Nature sure has its way with storms and the aftermath. Many trees have the balsam wooly adelgid killing them, which is a source of many bare trees we saw.

I was happily the passenger while Teresa drove, and her granddaughter had the back seat.

Of course you want to see more of the mountain, and the museum, and the picnic….which will have to wait. 

We had lovely weather up there at around 6600 feet. Then came down to partly cloudy 80+ degrees. But it was a good time.

I came home and resumed packing. Took the first picture off the wall…there are half a dozen more to go…wherever I can fit them.

Did I tell you how thrilled I was to find an old Tupperware tub which will fit the toaster oven just right?

Simple pleasures!

I was able to breathe at the higher altitude, though I didn’t walk *hike up to the look-out platform. Came home and did use oxygen when resting between boxes. I sure was ready for my nap!

This attitude is moving toward peace between people who were at war with each other in the Civil War…certainly we can find a way to deal with the craziness in our political situation somehow.

Just some photos

 

Large plastic (of some kind) tree of life, lightweight...free to anyone who will come get it in Black Mountain. Color is soft forest green but can be painted. (Give a comment below if you are interested!)

Aerial view of Central Park, NY by Lensaloft photography

That's how I learned how to dive!

Wordless Wednesday was my goal. 

But there's this which was quoted on Wordsmith's Word-a-day yesterday.

NOT sure I agree...

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.”

Beryl Markham