Survivors

 

There's even a new lavender blooming at the top of this shot. The tint of red behind the spiky rosemary is a last gasp of the geranium.

While nightly there has been frost on all the cars and rooftops, these little plants on my balcony have continued to thrive and stay blooming.

It's a mystery.  

At 32 degrees F this morning for about 3 hours, I didn't want to even open the door to capture these hardy souls...so this is through the glass shortly after dawn. Later on I did do my walk, and dug out a wool hat to wear too! It really helped, though it admittedly was in the high 40s by then. I admit I love cold weather when it's a dry humidity level. If it's wet at all though, I don't enjoy it as much. (I wrote this on Nov 24)

I'm adding this shot of the flowers hung above the balcony last week for Thanksgiving and the day following. Then frost was again forecast, so it went back on the floor!

I took this photo as the cloud/fog was finally dried up by the morning sun. You can just see the clouds over the valley, and what I was most trying to capture, the drops of dew on the branches of the trees with sun hitting them. I guess having 3 aims in one photo is asking a bit much!

Maybe this one is better for the water droplets in the sunshine...and that one lonely leaf!

More at the lake

 

Silhouetted Evening Primrose remains against Lake Tomahawk one Thurs. morning in Nov.

The sign tells about Evening Primroses, which of course are now dormant.

Thurs. the mechanism which drains the lake. Note all the ducks sleeping in the shadows.

This Canada Goose was scary, approached me with his eye on my face, and I clapped and shouted "get away." I've never had a goose attack me, and wasn't about to let this lonely one do so. There wasn't another goose at the lake that day!

More rocks of different sizes were piled high, then placed where they belonged. (Thurs)

By Friday there was dirt spread around, and the stream seemed to be wider above the new falls.

My favorite seat is a bench on the earthen dam, looking north to the Seven Sisters Mountains. Tomahawk is the closest one. Somewhere in there is Greybeard.

Friday shows all the decorations finished on the Lakeview Center for Active Aging. All of us Seniors are active just walking round the lake these days!

Our lovely Blue Ridge Parkway

 

A couple of vintage photos...of an area nearby which I fail to visit as often as I would like.

So let's see some of my older photos of actual visits there. Swing back to 2012. Remember when Obama was President?

It was early October, and only a few leaves had changed color.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday...come on over to see what other vintage photos might have been shared by others.

Last Wed. Walking the Lake

 

Can you see the Public Works guys in orange shirts putting up Christmas decorations on the balcony of the Lakeview Center?

And behold! there are children on the new playground surface! The actual equipment hasn't changed with having the playground closed for 2 weeks. But now kids will fall on a rubbery surface, should they tumble!

Water is still being discharged, keeping the lake level low so construction can continue on the incoming stream.

The water level kept going down all last week. (Taken on Wed. Nov. 18)

My Thanksgiving plans went down the tubes with an internet which was drowned, swamped or otherwise disabled by 1.) rain on the day prior, or 2.) overload of the servers on the holiday. I tried rebooting the modem and router several times with instructions from technical advisors. Still couldn't download pictures, nor Facebook, which is a large program by itself. My phone finally was able to get the weather program to work. But I will have some kind of service technician come on Mon. Nov. 30, or maybe sooner according to some waiting line. I don't think I can work on the newsletter that should go out on Dec. 1. But we shall see.

Immense Thanks (from FaceBook)

Right now there are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone you haven't met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God's children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, "nourish them."

Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you.

Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favorite food is, and treat you to a movie.

Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you — for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they'll be thriving like never before. From where they are, they just can't see it .

Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to arrive, will get precisely what they want — and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in it's reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all "So worth the wait."

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche — this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.

Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe.

Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.

Someone is regaining their sanity.

Someone is coming back from the dead.

Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.

Someone is curing the incurable.

You. Me. Some. One. Now.

~ Danielle LaPorte via

Mary Standing Otter

ART: Caroline Maniere

I am so thankful for many blessings in my life.

Yesterday I got my broken filling fixed at the dental clinic, an emergency appointment was available within 2 days of calling for one. How nice to have my chompers in as good a shape as they can be these days (meaning in this time of COVID, as well as this time of my life!)

I'm looking forward to a short zoom talk with my family today sometime. I know two members are joining another family of four. I don't know about the family of 5, nor the mixed family of maybe 5 or 6.

Such is the way our families are existing these days...working people, two who are in college, one working from home for a high school, and those whose jobs kind of stopped last spring...what a sad time for us all. But we're looking for rainbows still.

I have begun eating plant based foods (mainly) and so no turkey for this gal. I still eat yogurt made from milk. I don't know what kind of stir-fry I'll have, probably with rice. I may do some mashed potatoes...just because they sound good, and I can do them with Rice Dream rather than milk and butter. And I'm set for making some dynamite spinach salads! Lots of fresh veggies!

I hope everyone out there reading this has a Happy Thanksgiving.

High Windy view

 

Thanks to Jack Ollis who shared this photo from High Windy Mountain of Black Mountain. The blue in the lower right corner is Lake Tomahawk, while the larger blue to the upper left is the reservoir (Burnett's Reservoir) which supplies Asheville with it's water. I like this shot, which probably includes my home somewhere in the many buildings among trees.

A springtime shot from my balcony towards High Windy. The sun often strikes the peak first thing in the morning.

Last of the flowers

 

A rosebush just seems unaffected by the frosty nights. Of course it sits by the lake, so that water keeps it a bit warmer. But not much longer.

These huge old rose bushes were also full of chirping little birds...totally safe behind the thorns!

Cold around the lake

 

When the temperature drops, I can still walk around Lake Tomahawk, all bundled up.  Here's the finished playground. The idea of accessibility was for a parent to be able to roll onto the playground in his wheel-chair, apparently...not to have any playing equipment for a child in a wheel-chair. We have one resident who was injured in an accident a few years ago, and he had been a coach at the local college. So the whole thing (raising the money) and publicity was for him to be able to be there with his kids. Of course the report in local newspapers also said that the paving company donated time and materials for the new driving ramp next to the new softer rubber playground itself.

Yet another tree had been removed, as well as another bigger pile of dirt!

The lake is still not at it's regular level.

I do like the new little waterfall on the creek though. But it's sure going to clog up with debris as these leaves already have shown.

Exercise indoors - on hold

 

The YMCA at Cheshire, Black Mountain NC. The round windows are in the pool area. Since it's heated it does entice me, but not when COVID-19 requires masks. Ugh, a wet paper mask is not a good idea.

A bit more jazzed up tread-mill machine, and I did my usual 20 minutes but did a "slow down" in order to sip some water, and it lost my tally of minutes walked. I'll have to do it differently next time.

I'm on my own, but told one of the trainers that I want to lose 10% of my weight...which had been my final goal at the Heart Path pulmonary rehab. Of course setting that goal the week before I finished their rehab meant it was pretty unrealistic there. But hey, it's my goal, not theirs.

After finishing my 20 minutes pedaling on the New Balance stepper, I was pretty tired. There's only one of these machines in the area where masks are mandatory.  The other two are in a small area where exercisers have a "mask optional" rule. No thanks! We did much the same routines as the Heart Path gym, cleaning the equipment with disinfectant wipes both before and after our workouts.

I was pleasantly surprised to only have a half dozen people working on the machines, and that they only allow every other one to be used to keep the social distance of 6 feet between people. There had been a class going in another area that I might join later, "sit and be fit" I think. They only allow 11 people to reserve space in that classroom, and reservations must be made within the 24 hours before the class, and then everyone in a class mut be masked.

It seems like they're doing the right things to stay safe. I will be back...when?

And on another note, my diet, low-fat, plant-based eating. If you haven't watched Forks over Knives yet, let me say this is the most important video that anyone thinking about their health, and the health of the planet should consider. The link above just takes you to the trailer. I was able to check it out from inter-library loans in North Carolina. It's unfortunately not available (yet) on Netflix.

And I must update this (as a few days have passed since my visit) and say I'm walking around the lake or in my neighborhood, but not going to any gym at this time of higher incidence of COVID-19. Fortunately the Y explained that they don't bill my insurance if I'm not coming in and using the electronic sign-in. It's all automated.

Stay safe, y'all!