Lake Tomahawk and earliest fall colors

 These shots were taken on 9.23.21.  We'll go back again and check on the colors as they change.

Not sure which  I like of the two shots above, with the tree and grass in the foreground, or without.

And dear fellow bloggers, please remember to wear masks, and social distance, and wash hands. I recently lost a friend to COVID, and another one who was masked and had had his booster shot is due to come home soon from the hospital where he stayed a few days from COVID.

Today's quote:

Words, when written, crystallize history; their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

And my reading just before sleep these days is Winston Churchills' History of the English Speaking People, Vol. 1...out of 4 volumes. It's slow going, because I just have no clue about most of his geographical sights where things took place. But I've gotten to Alfred the Great so far...and learned about his influence to this day...which is gone from my mind right now, so I'll go back a few pages and find it!!

Waiting and lunching

 

I patiently waited in my little car as this strange railroad vehicle closed the crossing for quite a while. And before my road's light changed to green, another one of these came across the crossing. 

I'd just had lunch with my friend at "Fresh" one of our favorite restaurants. It is known for wood fired pizza, but we usually each get one of their yummy salads.

The view sitting on that veranda isn't all that great of the parking lot, but at least we are sitting outside!

From the menu...

We commented that Black Mountain has at least two small breweries now...this one across the street being one of the latest.

I inadvertently captured the mailman, who pushes a cart along for deliveries...

Inside the restaurant are some outstanding pieces of pottery on display, made by the owner.

In case you think I'm eating lunch out every other day, I guess I may do it 3 times a week now. It's almost the only contact I have with some friends...and we always eat outside. A few female friends are married, so we do things together like day trips, which their husbands might not want to do. A few friends work jobs, so my visits with them are scheduled on their days off. Fortunately I've got a lot of retired and creative friends who make their own schedules!

Today's quote:

If we stop long enough to gaze at what is laid out before us, to let the mystery of beauty and the wonder of the seasons sit deeply in our soul, our hearts cannot help but burst forth in thanksgiving and gratitude to life itself.

DEBORAH ADELE

Climate crisis and pastries

Sweet Joe Pie Weed was in bloom here. In many places it's already gone to seed.

ER Correction by Tom....your Joe Pye Weed is sedum, perhaps Autumn Joy!

Thanks Tom!

It was noon at Four Sisters Bakery on Church St...right behind the Red Rocker Inn.

By the time my friend got there and we ordered our pastries and drinks, it had started to drizzle. But we kind of tucked under the eve of the building and had a most enjoyable conversation about the climate crisis, and her planned art/sculptural installation of hundreds of people who are affected by loss of their supportive climate, i.e. clean water, shelters, food, clothing, livelihoods. I talked mainly as a clay adviser, and think I helped her with a design which may be easier to build many little people with self drying clay.

As always, I enjoy talking with her. When I left I told her I always feel stretched whenever we talk together.

Today's quote:

It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

PAUL COEHLO

Veins and Arteries

 Arteries push the blood out of the heart all over the body, and veins bring it back to be returned to the heart.

Having some issues with my foot, so was referred to a vascular specialist.

At 7:45 am!

All the way in Asheville. But it was closer than going to another Dr. in Hendersonville, which is 45 minutes away rather than 15-20 to Asheville.

So I dragged my coffee with me, and went through a test of my blood pressures in ankles and arms...comparing them.

And found out I now have yet another chronic condition...as shown in the poster from my exam room. But my results are just at a moderate level still. So it won't mean much change in my lifestyle, besides wearing compression hose sometimes. And the specialist didn't ever answer my concerns about my foot turning purple sometimes...she said we'd need to wait till all my bruises heal from when I toppled over from kneeling to lying on my back. So now I'm waiting to get my bruises to go away. With my blood thinners, it takes quite a while, since I turn purple every time I bump anything.

I hope that increasing my walking will also help. She said it was a good idea. At least blood pressure doesn't cause pain. Thank goodness for that.

And I go back in a year.

Today's quote:

In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary". -Ellen Jane Willis, writer (14 Dec 1941-2006)

Clouds and the pool

 

Back a few weeks ago, I took these pics through the windows of the Lakeview Center. Here's a view of one of the parking lots and part of the playground...but what most caught my eye were the reddish leaves on the dogwoods. First color I've seen of fall. Though a lot of leaves have begun to drop.

You might say the skies were moody, or at least misty!

Same view, without the balcony fencing. Which do you prefer?

Without fenced balcony?

...or with the balcony?

And I noticed the pool is closed and tarped up for the winter. It will be 8 months before it comes out again. Considering how short the season is for swimmers, I dare say the serious swimmers are enjoying the gymn of the YMCA, which has a heated indoor pool. Maybe I'll try it one of these days.

Today's quote:

In our world, there is always someone in need of our best efforts to rally a group of helpers and healers.

Sepia photos from long ago

 

It's lucky that photography was invented before the automobile, so we have lots of pictures of horse pulled vehicles still around. All my photos today were found on FaceBook, so thank you to those who provided them for me to share here.

In the mountains of America (and I don't know where this photo was taken) many a home was built with minimum of knowledge about the structure. Having the chimney in the middle of the house meant more of the heat was kept inside. But the roof is sadly sagging already. The siding shows a mill had made this lumber, though the pickets on the fence seem to not have a good connection.

I don't know which "Great Road" this is referring to, nor which Panther Springs. If you do, please let me know. But I notice that it has been built of huge logs that were flattened at least on the outside, with some white plaster-like material between the gaps. It has two chimneys from inside the house, and the roof looks pretty well supported.

Many families could easily have had a dozen children, though often that meant the man had remarried after a first wife had died. Every child would have some chores to do on the property, so that a lot of the food to feed these mouths could come right from the farm.

A young bride would live with her parents and her new husband unless he'd already built their home. The oldest daughters would have the same skills as their mothers in use of a wood stove. My sister had a bigger one than this when she "lived off the land in the mountains of TN." It had an oven next to the firebox, as well as warming oven above the surface to the back of the stove. She learned how to get the temperature right with different kinds of wood for different cooking. What an art!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week. Love the old photos!

Today's Quote:

From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad. -Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (9 Oct 1892-1975)

Take out for lunch

 

I was eager for my lunch pick up/take out and sat patiently in my mask...which even has some bugs on it among the leaves. Yes that's Frieda Kahlo on the wall behind me! I look like I'm hungry enough to eat the bugs off my mask!

Considering how many people wait in this lobby to go into either one of the two dining rooms, or out on the patio, not many of us stop and look at Mrs. Ole's treasures.

This is the dining room with a bar.

A couple of little Mexican puppets hung above my head.

Frieda was featured in lots of places, this is the bench upon which I waited.

I finally got my Baja tacos (a la carte which costs just $7.50 for the 2 of them!) and went home.

Today's quote:

The tragedy in the lives of most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled lane with people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and impoverished lives. -Florence Luscomb, architect and suffragist (1887-1985) 

Flowers

 

A huge hydrangea bush at a friend's house...

Even as they fade and autumn arrives, I think they are beautiful.

Yes, she got another grocery story bouquet for this week!

Today's quote:

The Buddhist attitude is to take care of anger.

We don't suppress it.

We don't run away from it.

We just breathe and hold our anger

in our arms with utmost tenderness....

Then the anger is no longer alone,

it is with your mindfulness.

Anger is like a closed flower in the morning.

As the sun shines on the flower, 

the flower will bloom,

because the sunlight penetrated deep into the flower.

 

Mindfulness is like that.

 If you keep breathing...

mindfulness particles will infiltrate the anger.

When sunshine penetrates a flower, the flower cannot resist.

It is bound to open itself and reveal its heart to the sun.

If you keep breathing on your anger,

shining your compassion and understanding on it,

your anger will soon crack and you will be

able to look into its depths and see its roots. 

 

 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Autumnal Equinox

Are you going to do anything different today? 

After all, our mother, the earth, Gaia, is stopping in her tilt to start turning the other direction.  On...

Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at 3:21 pm EDT, the EARTH WILL STAND STILL (while still spinning!) and lead us into Autumn and then Winter.

I feel so very connected to the people who erected Stone Hinge today! And then all my own ancestors who grew crops and tended animals in order to survive, those who would know that on this day each year, there was 12 hours of daylight to match 12 hours of night.

Stop.

Stop your business. 

Go away from your screen. 

Look at the sky, the earth, any natural plants around you. 

Get somewhat connected again back to your belonging to all that brings us our lives.

As a famous scientist said...

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. ~ Albert Einstein

Ojibway Family sharing how they lived in comfort before the western Europeans arrived.

Not only the older ways are amazing. Here's a video from Pandemic Times, showing the way we  still came together in music! Thanks to fellow blogger Myth and Moor.

Friendly faces I've run into, and Hugo Awards

Let's start with...for those who are Sci-Fi fans, and maybe have read some things which received the Hugo Award, here's  a link telling who Hugo was!  This man certainly was one who predicted scientific advances as many Sci-Fi publications have.

Bruno is a 7 month old Burmadoodle, who will be a very big dog (after his Burmese Mountain Dog side) but won't shed (after his Poodle side) I met him at the plant sale, and he was very well behaved. I'd say he's taking some good obedience classes!

One of my granddogs, Severus, who lives with my adult grandchildren in Tampa FL.

Here Severus looks bored or sound asleep, and his housemate, Persephone had her tongue working on a paw.

Another shot of Persephone. 

And though I haven't seen this granddog lately, she barks frequently while I'm on the phone with her dad, out in CO.

And how a bout a chuckle about how many dogs it takes to change a lightbulb, according to their breed.

Today's quote:

When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.

BRYAN STEVENSON

My artist neighbor

 

This small painting appeared last week on my little table where I do my gardening, on my front porch. I like her Van Gogh type style.

I moved it back so I could see the volunteer petunia in the succulent planter. See, AC, you're not the only one with volunteer petunias! And I only have purple ones growing, so this seedling must be a throwback!

Today's quote:

What do happy people have in common? They appreciate what they have.

CHRIS WOODMAN