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.

Thankful Thursday again!

 

If I don't comment for a while, I'm pushing things into boxes. Taking boxes to thrift stores or the garbage! Or piling up the ones to keep and take to Colorado in a bit more than a week. My brain is fried.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

And near where my son lives in Cortez CO...

Lightning sparked the Long Canyon fire in Mesa Verde National Park on Monday, shutting down some of the park's popular attractions, the National Park Service said.

The Ferris Fire has moved south from Delores County into Montezuma County as of July 8 - the county where my son's home is.

“Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.”

~ Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Hodge-podge day

 

Posted to Southwest US on Facebook. I don't plan to be hiking much, but it's nice to know that others can!

These pop-together toys were only available for a while, and I saved this one for my inner child to play with.

An old saying (don't know who wrote it or drew the sketch) which I liked enough to keep in  spite of the damage.

My Uncle Jimmy sketched me when I was about 10 years old. He was an accomplished artist for an insurance company in Wisconsin. I used that knowledge to study art for years myself, hoping that I could have some of his talent in my genes.

---------------

I'm so sad from the recent Supreme decision that will put so many immigrants in jeopardy. The political situation will probably hit me one of these days...from losing some programs which help me live to maybe infringing on my voting rights. I will sure make a lot of noise, if that happens. But I also make a bit of noise now, though I feel pretty powerless. The least I can do is to say something here.

------------------

An old photo of my ex hubby's family, with our two sons as kids. Only the 5 people to the right are still alive, my ex (with the beard) and his sister and her hubby, as well as the kids. My ex just turned 87. 

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

"Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much."

 -Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)

Nature in a pot

 No nothing about pot, not even really about pottery either!

Just what is growing in my pots. Here all the other buds but one have fallen off, and this is what the cactus is putting out.

I don't know if Ms Spider came inside with her web or not. 

Tiny but mighty succulents.

I gave away the other big square planter, but plan to take this with me when I move...as well as these happy Kalanchoes.

My Spirit House to invite good vibes to visit!

These succulents are getting more sun. I should take the others outside to the porch railing too.

Unfold your own myth.

Rumi

Very strange, this Kalanchoe is not doing well, and then I just stuck a flower from the other one into the pot, and it's still blooming after 2 weeks. I think this is one of the pots which got the fungus in it a couple of years ago.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

Being present lets us experience each moment in our lives in a way that cannot be fully lived through memory or fantasy.

Relief and working

 It's like the drain which has been stuck has finally been released.

The manager emailed that I can move in on the date we wanted to (last week of July) and she said that I can sign the lease on that day and pay the rent starting that day! So Durango it is!

Whoo hoo!

I notified all my family and friends (and now you!) that I'm moving to Durango!

I'm so relieved that they figured things out so well! (Finally!)

And now I've got a zillion boxes half full, trying to figure out how books and silverware and dishes and clothes and pottery will all go together to be stacked in a little U-Haul truck in a bit over a month.

And having a real address to forward mail and so forth, I can actually give my notice here at the present apartment...a bit more than 30 days. But I know someone will move into this place quickly. The present management also won't charge me for the remaining month on my lease, because of the demand. I waited a year to get this apartment, and just the same for the one in Durango. Having some housing for low-income seniors is a premium need everywhere.

Hey real-estate people who've been building MacMansions teetering on the highest slopes of the mountains...there are a zillion people turning 70 and 80 who need a place to live. We survived lots and saved and paid our social security, and now there's not much money left to match the life left (with or without medical needs!)

And I'm working again...moving throughout the apartment with different tasks about half completed. There's a packed tupperware tub on the bed, ready to be put on the floor in the dining area. But first I need to vacuum that carpet. I just moved the table out to the middle of the floor so I can start stacking boxes and tubs over at the wall in the dining area. And the passthrough needs to be cleared off, with all that stuff to pack, then clean the passthrough well. It's not been touched for quite a while. So it should be the first thing to do.

But I've also only packed some books that remain...there are pottery books to give to the studio where I used to work. And some for the library, and perhaps some for a "little library." So it's time to get going back to work!

So what has gone down the drain (which was plugged up?) My anxiety while waiting for this manager and all her "rules." There's about a handful of anxiety still left, since I haven't signed a lease yet...and we do have over 1700 miles to drive pulling the car behind the truck and stay overnight in motels. Tai will fly here and has a couple of friends who will help load the truck. 

Also I feel the relief across my shoulders and neck...things are going to work out. Right now the google mail app keeps telling me its "update failed." So I will copy and paste this again if need be...hope that works!

Signing off for today. Will post some words and images probably from the internet every day if I don't do my usual coffee and blog reading! Who am I kidding. Coffee and blogs get my blood going in the morning!

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

Celebrate life

 
Yes, my son Russ and his family will be attending several World Cup matches, in Atlanta and Philadelphia in the next month.

Today's the birthday of my beautiful daughter-in-law, Michelle. She and my son, Russ recently went to NY city and attended a play "The Lost Boys."

I love Michelle's efforts for gun control and to elect better representatives in Ohio. And she has been mother to three wonderful young women, my granddaughters. 

Happy Birthday Michelle!

'The Circle' by Tanya Mikaela

Such a sense of joy on the face of my daughter-in-law, Barbara! Caught in the background of another person in a photo!

Some veggies aka volunteers (and employees) of Bounty and Soul food distribution in the Asheville area.

What? I've posted this before? Well, that's what resistance is all about, resist, repeat, resist.

Sunrise - not my photo.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

Big wonderful old trees!

 Well, the best laid plans, and all that...

Yesterday an interesting offer came my way. Did I mention before that I had applications in for several apartments near my son, not just one? Well, the first one had been offered, and I showed you photos of it Wednesday. And I had all intentions of moving there.

Until!

Another apartment came available, and it's in Durango. And it's my very first choice in Durango. And so I said yes yes yes!

I have to be approved again, so that process which took so long with this first apartment in Cortez has prepared me to do everything possible the right way. I will spend hours and hours as my own administrative assistant (a job I held many times in my working life!) And hopefully things will come together, with the same move in date, just a few miles closer to where I now live. And unfortunately a few miles further from my son in Cortez.

But it's right downtown in Durango! A block away from the main street...and the railroad. That will make me feel like home, since the railroad ran a block away here in NC. (Though it seldom does now!)

How do you like those trees? Better, eh? I don't think my apartment will face this direction, but rather out over the town, and probably a view of the mountains beyond. 

--------------

Now back to my prepared post!

Almost a goodbye luncheon...

Puff pastry topped my chicken pot pie...so good!

And who says you can't have a side of mashed potatoes with brown onion gravy? I certainly had it!

Teresa had the garlic white wine pasta dish with veggies and parmesan. She had a side of green beans.

I can't believe I didn't take photos of our deserts! The main thing I go to the Pisgah Inn for is their French Silk Pie. 

We spent a long time trying to connect these mountains indicated in the chart with what we were seeing.

Our conclusion was that the chart wasn't to scale. We would finally just count the peeks from one that was recognizable. 

Probably the pointed one is funnel top.

This was probably my last time to visit the Pisgah Inn. But Teresa and Helen and I have another day trip planned at the end of the month, including another fun restaurant to enjoy!

Sharing with Thankful Thursday