A damp hike

 Well, the rain did hold off until we had just packed in all the picnic things, checked for ticks that might be riding home with us, and piled into the car.

So the dampness of our 1-1/2 mile hike down to and up from the High Falls was due to the woods as well as our own  sweat. The woods were very thick, with some oaks  and beech and pines, very high up. And many Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron as underbrush.

Then on the forest floor were the ancient leavings of leaves and humus that was inches thick, upon which all kinds of moss and fungus could be found.

I thought this might have been Indian Pipe, a kind of fungus without any chlorophyl...but it didn't have any leaf-like structures.

I initially thought all the little white specks were something caught in spider webs. But no, they are individual heads of tiny little fungi. 

This was a falls you hear as a roar immediately. No trickling sound, just a big waterfall! Not many glimpses through trees at this time of year. I think I'd like to try to see it when less greenery is everywhere.

Teresa and her granddaughter at High Falls.

Myself and Helen. I was so grateful to have my walking stick with me.!

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Today's quote:

"May we not neglect the silence

printed in the center of our being.

It will not fail us."

~Thomas Merton

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Sharing with https://myworldthrumycameralens.blogspot.com/2025/08/my-corner-of-world_01104525954.html

The trip to High Falls NC

 

Bee Balm

From the internet, and I somehow am not old enough to do this!

At the High Falls visitor center we enjoyed checking out the diorama/detailed map of the area.

Helen is standing near the Covered Bridge, which is right upstream from High Falls. I really wanted to go to the Covered Bridge, but was voted down. The falls were extraordinary, and I'll try to come back to see the bridge in the fall.

We were standing in the visitor center.

It was good to see most of the falls and the trails were open (following tropical storm Helene 11 months ago). Most of these hikes were not considered easy, and the one to High Falls was listed as either moderate or easy. Lots of more agile people were just breezing by us...proving that this elder needs to work on stamina (still!) But my breathing limitations are caused by a disease process which is incurable and due to get worse over time, so I may be just kidding myself that I can improve.

High Falls, Cedar Mountain, NC

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Today's quote:

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Saturday's Critters a day late

 

For many years I had tropical fish, and in the small tank, gold fish. 

From the internet

My own photo of Swallowtail on the butterfly bush.

Pup Zora and my son just relaxing!

Sharing late  this week with Saturday's Critters.

Several dogs were on the trail to High Falls on Thursday last. I feel for their paws, because all the fresh gravel was sharp and big pieces.

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Today's quote:

It's 83 years now

 Happy birthday to me. So here I am, now 83...starting my 84th trip around the sun. And I don't expect lots of wishes, which of course are welcome, but not necessary at all. I do expect to continue to share and converse sometimes with other bloggers. I never know what you all are going to post each day!

From the  1960s

My joy for 12  years after retirement...playing in clay!

Here are some memories of my 80th weekend celebration:

Russ is behind the camera. Going around the table starting with G-D Caroline looking over her shoulder, to left is G-D Audrey, her sis, D-in-L Kendra, Son Tai, G-S Michael (Marty's son), me, Son Marty, G-S William, and G-D Cayenne (William's sis.)

Celebrating my 80th in 2022 with lots of family members at a luxury cabin in the woods, gifted by my three sons. (Left to r: Will, Cayenne, Audrey behind, Russ, Caroline behind, myself in hat, Tai behind, Marty and Michael. Kendra is behind the camera.

Lake Lure in 2022!

Yes, it did qualify as a beach. and even then the water never got above 4 feet deep. 

Sons Tai and Russ and grandson William seated.

William and I enjoyed Kaleidoscope app while others hiked.

Cayenne giving a great pose!

Audrey at the base of the falls.

The hat and myself climbed down to upper falls, and back up. Then we left the hikers to go to lower falls.

My three sons (not often I  get a shot of all of them together) Tai, Russ and Marty.

Granddaughters Caroline and Audrey.

Sepia Saturday suggests a nuclear family is all dressed up to go somewhere. 

Our SS host, Alan Burnett says:

There was a period at the beginning of the twentieth century when family photography moved out of the confines of the studio and into the open air. This was the age of amateur photography: cameras and film had developed to such an extent that ordinary people - enthusiasts, at least, could afford to buy cameras and start taking photographs. Cameras and films had not progressed far enough, however, to enable such photographs to be taken without a plentiful supply of natural light - and so garden photographs suddenly became popular. This week on Sepia Saturday you can share your photographs taken in the garden, of the garden, outside the garden .... or nowhere near the garden. Simply share an old photograph on or around Saturday 23 August 2025 and add a link to the list below. And then you can pop out into the garden and see what is coming in the next few weeks on Sepia Saturday.

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The Sepia photos...

Grandmother "Gummy" holding me with my older cousins, Claudette and Sandra. Alex was their father, Houston, TX when I was 11 months old. I looked very much like my father as a baby.

George Rogers, my father, as a toddler.

My second (or third?) birthday with Mother/Daughter dresses.

August 12, 2025, having no more dizzy spells after Doc checked me out Wed. afternoon!

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Today's quote:

The Theosophic doctrine that the physical world is an externalization of an astral plane or even the higher Platonic doctrine that it crystallizes a world of divine ideation is given to beginners as a help to give them a crude grasp, a first step towards the theory that the world is an idea, until they are mentally developed. 
When their mind is mature they are then told to discard the astral plane theory and told the pure truth that all existence is idea.

—Paul Brunton
Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism

Chapter 3: The Individual and World Mind

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Apologies, I know I said I'd have waterfall photos soon. Soon!

Miscellaneous week ending

 

From the internet

This is your brain!

researcher Alexander Shapson-Coe decided to focus their gaze—and the full power of electron microscopy—on just one cubic millimeter of the temporal cortex. 

The dent in my landlady's brand-new car. Mea culpa.

Before hiking the trail to High Falls.

Almost finished with the 1-1/2 mile hike...yes we were plumb tired out. Then had our picnic.

I'll share the wonderful High Falls soon!

Sunrise TN.NC by Jack Cathy Ollis, from FaceBook. Sharing with Skywatch Friday.

Throwback photo:

A gathering of pottery and plants 2015. 

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Today's quote:

The human skin is an artificial boundary: the world wanders into it, 

and the self wanders out of it, traffic is two-way and constant. 

 

—Bernard Wolfe