Getting out a bit

We used to pay a lot to go on a retreat, a place apart from our regular lives, maybe organized by some leader or group or another, with meals provided, new places to sleep, new people to interact with. At least I did that a few times, and was so pleased to bring home what I'd experienced for a few days at least.

For the first few days of social distancing, I think this felt like that. Then I was sick for a few days. While that happened, I kept wondering if I would get worse and would I have "retreat" in medical settings. Then I woke up one morning feeling fine again.

Yesterday I drove around in nice 80 degree weather, with the car's window down. A lot of pollen in the air from the blooming trees! I came home to cough it all out over the next few hours.

One of the older homes in my area...right up the hill off  N. Blue Ridge Rd. a turn to the left onto Taylor Street. The sign says "Peaceful Hemlock, Est. 1937, 100 Taylor St.

She's Baaaack

 There are tiny hostas pushing up from last year's hump of leavings. And a couple of dandy-lions in the grass.

 Another bunch of hostas is coming up next to my porch. The bareness is blessed by them and my little Gardenia bush (potted) and the funny St. John's Wort dead plant (I think) which is so artistic that I left it on the porch all winter. I know, it's also saddening.

But as I go up the steps, I notice the little azaleas are about to bloom. They face north, so are retarded in their blooms. And the bush used to be huge but was trimmed to almost nothing a few years ago by the landscape crew. No comment.

My neighborhood

Some yellows for you today

Feeling good again

I woke up feeling really good this morning. No more fever, which has plagued me constantly for the last 4 days. Whew. That was not fun, though I wasn't that sick, just figured I might get sicker the next day. And here I woke up feeling as good as the weather outside.

Yes I'm a fare-weather bird...glad it doesn't rain any more here than it does.

Just wanted a chance to let my blogging friends know whatever laid me up seems to be overcome. Lots of rest, less food than usual, plenty of fluids...naps most days...well, I can't claim that any one thing helped.  My friend who took off from her job because her throat and chest were hurting says she feels better today too.

So healing is also on the news...mine and hers at least.

I'm very selective about what I listen to on the news these days.

The windows are open, I can see robins listening for worms and bugs (how do they do that anyway?) and then capturing their breakfast. A little sparrow follows behind her seeing if she missed anything.

And trees are about to burst. My maples have buds that are beginning to open. The Bradford Pear, which was our first blooming tree, lost it's blooms and is fully green now.

I wonder how long I'll be able to see the mountain tops across the valley...before my nest here in the treetops is covered with green leaves!

what tourism?

Sepia Saturday this week shows a lovely postcard.

Tourists were enjoying the seaside, various venues to enjoy their time away from their regular lives.

These days, nobody in my county is allowed out of their homes unless going for provisions or medicine, or maybe for a walk by themselves. It's not really being enforced but it sure cuts into tourism.

May we all have healing after the "social isolation" is over, and may we remember that our mother earth is needing care!

Here's an interesting article from "The Atlantic" about what the future may hold.

Living on the side of a steep hill

 Leading off the parking lot is this enticing path. I think I'll have to go exploring!

 Our little apartment complex sign is there for those who already know about it, I think.

Looking back down the hill of N. Blue Ridge Rd., there are my pretty azaleas!

 Those white hanging blossoms are sourwood, a local favorite tree for honey in western North Carolina.

I like these Qi-gong breathing exercises.

If you have it, what do you do about it?

I've had a fever off and on for the last 24 hours. And since I have a chronic cough, this one doesn't really feel any different.

I'll call my doctor this morning and see what he says.

My own choice is to shelter in place. Unless I get really out of breath or the fever gets higher. I'm not inclined to take the test for Covid-19, because as of now the turn around time to get results is 10 days. And tests are in short supply.

I figure I should get over it about the time they tell me anything. Of course I'm being optimistic that I won't get any sicker.

I'll let you folks know, as long as I can sit here and do my breathing treatments (which should help me fight this I'm thinking).

Azaleas catch your eye!

These were the first I saw on Thurs. March 19, 2020. Then I noticed some more about to open on my own parking lot...yay!

Updated March 24, just in from blogger Wendy Welch and her husband...a great poem for those of us who don't mind a bit of language (which we all feel like saying anyway).

wendy-welch.com

Some Critters

 I made these little bunnies last year, on a whim. So now I've decorated for Oestre...or Easter.

Then these 3 ducks are so used to parking lot cars coming and going, and people with dogs walking around the lake, they decided nothing was more important than a snooze!

Spring at the lake

Not as many people walking around the lake at 2 pm, (last Thursday) and it's a bit cloudy when I did this half around walk. Didn't feel up to the whole way, so I went 1/4 way, then turned around and came back. That adds up to half around, right?

Anyway, the little red roofed YMCA building in the distance just barely showed over the trees by the lake.

 There were ome visitors who asked me what it was, the YMCA Assembly building for conferences. I didn't mention that it had also once been part of the Black Mountain College.  Sometimes you know more than tourists want to know.

 Cherry trees are starting to bloom.

Remembering a cheerful friend

On March 3, 2018, I lost one of my best friends ever. And just an hour before her husband called to tell me she was gone, I was notified by email that my sister had died 5 months before. These coincidences don't happen often in our lives, and I'll never forget that as I woke up that morning, I had had a vivid dream about a visit from my mother (long gone) that reminded me of our immortality.

Yes, I wrote to my friend's husband describing that dream. I may have blogged about it, but I doubt it. I think I figured you all were too rational to want to read my experiences with loss...not to mention dreams.

After I moved to Black Mountain, with the Beddinfield's help, we had a picnic by the lake. George is surrounded by beauties, right? (Me on right in photo)

 I took George and Rosie to visit Penland school of crafts...where my son Tai was doing a residency.

George and Tai at clay studio at Penland, 2008

Here's the video that her son, Mike, made for her memorial. Rosemary Beddingfield is not in my thoughts daily, like the whole year after she died. But there are still many things around to remind me of her. And I'm still of the opinion that she, as well as my sister and mother, and father, and grandparents, and everyone I've ever loved, have life in a spiritual world after this one in our present universe.

I sure don't know what it's like. And I am not particularly eager to go visit it, because the gates seem to slam shut once we do die. So whenever it may happen, it's inevitable in life being that we all die, I hope I'm ready with curiosity and an open mind.

I don't remember the dates of their deaths, it's not the anniversaries that give much joy. I do remember the birthdays still!

Below is George with his back to the view, while Rosie is in rocker in red shirt, and right behind her is Kathy, George's sister, who lives in Etoah, NC.

George and Rosie in Etowah July 2006. When I visited them for my vacation, I decided this would be a great place to retire, which I did a year later. In top photo Rosie is holding one of their 3 cats at the time, Dutchess.

Bottom photo is Rosie and myself trying out rockers in Brevard, NC.

Bicycle girls

A "vintage" Schwinn bike, for sale at $350 with another $100 shipping. This one is a 1973 model. Mine when I was in college in 1960 was a 3 speed, with hand brakes. This was new to me, as well as those thin wheels. I'd been on balloon tires with pedal brakes up till then.

But I learned quickly, riding it to and from classes every day.

Then I had another bike when I finished my BFA and my M.ED. and Ed.S. at the University of Florida in the 1980s. I loved relearning how to swerve along walkways to avoid other bikes and pedestrians.

AND, I was carrying my little son on the back of the bike a lot of the time. We didn't wear helmets at that time, and I usually had a back pack on with books. I again had a thin tire bike, not like the woman below. Also our baby carrier was just yellow plastic, but it did have a seat belt. I'd drop my son at the day care, or his kindergarten, then wheel across campus to classes. We lived on campus the last 3 years of my study, which was another tiny apartment in my life.

The bicycle girls...on Sepia Saturday this week.

Introverts rule!

Well, not really. But we're ahead of enjoying the isolation that is being promoted these days. Books to read, blogs to read, emails, Netflix, some TV shows, some news, music to listen to...plants to care for, driving around looking for those great photo shots...us introverts are in our element.

Of course I'm sitting way too much, and my inner Mom-voice says I need to be walking more. I'm also eating way more than I would if I were out working on my various interests. Sitting just goes along with snacking.  Oops.

Where I sleep, and sometimes read and rest. The small bedroom in my apartment.

If you had as many photos...

Well, I'm certain the professional photographers who share their beautiful work on blogs, do have more photos than I do.
But I'm going to be sharing some old ones for a while. At least till the weather is better and I can hunt down some nice scenes, by myself of course. Nobody else in the car till the virus thing is over and gone.

 This is my office space. That door leads only to a 3 foot square balcony, but the whole space in front of it has to be kept clear according to fire regulations.  I keep the old flat screen monitor and sometimes hook it up if I am watching a movie...but it's really not better than the laptop itself.

 At times it's been so cold when I get up (because I've turned the heat down at night) that I use the little tower heater as well as the larger wall unit, at least until the room is warm and toasty.

 My two windows can have a much better view of the mountains and the valley, if it's not completely fogged in.

I've already taken the large planter outside - the gardenia had started to push out lots of new growth leaves, so I thought, as long as there's no frost, it might do better on the front porch.

So these show you just a bit of my living environment.