In the hood

 

At the base of these ancient maples are a wonderful patch of lilies of the valley (the closest group is blooming.) Behind it is a small azalea white azalea bush.

The closer maples haven't fully fluffed with leaves quite yet This is from my balcony on the south facing side of the apartment. 

When I look out my north  facing front door, I can see the balconies (yes very small!) on the next building. My apartment is also on the upper level of my building. A clever design for these steep slopes.

Again from my front door, looking down the walkway between the buildings.

My brain continues to lag - there are two pieces of something I need to put together for breathing treatment...I pick up the wrong one, don't go so far as to try to connect it, but notice that there wasn't any selective thought ahead of the action, and complete it.

It's like the internet Sunday morning. Slow as molasses. Sometimes I select my choices, key in my own desires, and wait about 4-6 seconds to see if it will happen.

For my brain, it's not a matter of too many users, but this one has reverted to maybe 8 years old. Or earlier.

I am enjoying some rather abstract ideas, so I'm not back totally to concrete operational thinking. Like today I realized that God is a metaphor much as we anthropomorphize so many things around us...the animals with names, plants, and in my case, even my car.

But do I trust myself to drive that car?

Maybe later. But I'm quickly running out of toilet tissue. Needs must.

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What if I stopped now? Usually this is where I’d share some wise sayings, or editorial comments. But I can let things go…just watch me!

Looking for spring beauty

 

On a grey day this dogwood showed signs of buds about to bloom. This was the day before 84 degree temperatures...perhaps that pushed them open!

Last week several nights were below freezing, but the Bradford Pear survived, and is moving toward having green leaves now.

Nobody I know, just wanted to show the fireplace!

The Cornerstone Restaurant in Asheville offers breakfast all day long.

I'm helping spring along. Some grocery store flowers sit on my table next to the machine which has a vest to vibrate my lungs to help me breathe.

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Sharing with Tom's Tuesday Treasures and Wordless Wednesday.

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Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

Black Mountain's Beautification Committee does a great job of putting some blooms in the corners people go by.

Redbuds and the lake

 

The ever so tiny redbud blooms look ethereal in sunshine.

Terrible shot, but I think this is dogwood blooming by the Fifth Third bank in Black Mountain.

I picked up my lunch around noon, and saw few people that day.

But it was warm enough for runners in shorts going around the lake. I see another redbud waay over on the other shore. I should go greet it and take a few photos, shouldn't I!

Maybe tomorrow...

Today's quote:

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

Chris Woodman

A quick trip to Asheville

 It was a quick in-an-out trip down the mountain.

I didn't even go to my favorite grocery (Aldy's) or stop for lunch anywhere (and there are soooo many wonderful places to eat!)

I just went to the doctor, came on home. Perhaps feeling under the weather, as they say.

And as I walked into the Asheville Pulmonary offices, this greeted me. I pulled out the handy dandy phone to capture this luxurious dogwood.

Since Asheville is a couple hundred feet lower in elevation, they actually are a few days advanced from Black Mountain's spring blooms.

And stopped at a light I had the opportunity to capture these wonderful tile roofs of The Cathedral of All Souls. One of these day's I'll try looking inside these unique buildings.

My pulmonologist visit was a normal 6 month check in about COPD and bronchiectasis. I've been doing fine using the two machines that help...one to help me cough up stuff using a saline nebulizer treatment, and a C-PAP to help me breathe from sleep apnea. I did say I was feeling really lethargic, taking more naps, and just feeling low energy. Dr. Stashinko listened to my lungs and heard congestion, so is trying me on an antibiotic for 10 days. I've sure taken a lot of them in the last few years, and wish that I hadn't needed them so often. But I do have a bit more energy now after the first few days!

I've been in Physical Therapy to hope to improve or at least retain posture where my head is not bent so far forward (the good old sign of aging, or something to do with vertebrae.) So far I've improved my range of motion of my arms, which still do not go straight over my head. But yesterday I was on that huge ball sitting and doing some motion from my hips. I'd already done some sit/squats to the chair. But when I got up from the ball I felt like I had sea legs...seriously, remember when you get off a boat and dry land seems to heave around you? I clumped into the chair nearby and that was the end of that session. Even resting didn't cure it though. I kind of loose-jointed-walked to elevator, car, then home. Eating a banana and sitting with a cup of coffee did help.

And sitting here I just checked, yes, I can walk around now a bit more securely. Perhaps a bit of low blood-sugar also I'm thinking. Isn't it fun being old and thinking about all this? About 50 years ago, I was more concerned about the clothes I wore and my hair and makeup!

Today's quote:

Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. 

-Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (1759-1797)

Here they come: the first dogwood and then...

 

 

Down the street (Old US 70) at Dogwood Apartments, stands the first full blooming dogwood. It doesn't appear damaged by the snows and sleet of the day before I took this shot. Sorry about reflection from taking it through car window.

By the time I publish this, many dogwoods will be flowering out in the woods also!

The greening of the mountains is beginning behind my neighbor's dogwood.

After many days of clouds, the late sun broke out and left nice shadows.

At Lake Tomahawk on April 15, 2022...dogwood blossoms against an older trunk of another tree.

I'll share more dogwood beauty in a few more posts.

Today's quote:

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

 -Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher (27 Aug 1770-1831)

Tree colors

A sunny view of a dogwood.

A bright bunch of fluttering white flowers denotes a dogwood off in the brambles by Blue Ridge Rd.

Maples that are just starting have those reddish things first, then they show the little green pinwheel seed helicopters...then real leaves. The red things and of course the helicopters fall first! What fun to park under them!

 

Same view on a cloudy evening.

The hot days have meant dogwood blooms have been fast and fallen as leaves take over.

The pale green tree near the far building is a dogwood.

Today's quote:

Like birds flying in a "V," when we feel the presence of others moving along side of us, there is little we cannot accomplish.

Old Photos - again

 

Isn't that a great satellite image of Europe at night?

I wonder what time it was taken...not too late I'm thinking. England looks lively, doesn't it?

It reminds me that I'd like to visit there.

I have visited here! It's where my daughter-in-law lives. I was happy to have seen her just 2 years ago...their second anniversary is next month!

And I''m scheduled to visit here this weekend, as hostess at the front desk.. The show is something different than was up in this photo! The Red House Gallery is only open Fri-Sun. at this point, and still asking everyone to be masked, and limiting the number of visitors at one time. I stopped by to put some new pottery sculptures in last weekend, and was happily surprised to see a couple of old friends visiting. Then a couple came in with 2 very large dogs. I petted them, and I guess the owner decided to go back outside. But I also left pretty soon too. I want people to see the art work, and maybe purchase something.

 

And a reminder of the beauty that will be coming everywhere (here) in a month or so. Red Dogwood outside my apartment, looking very brilliant with rain falling!

Today's quote:

Our loving intentions can easily transform the space in which we live.

Daily Om

 

PS. Blogger has lost 2 posts that I scheduled. It now says it can't download what I'm trying to post.  I don't have any idea what's going on! 

After one rain, waiting for the next

 That pink dogwood is looking pretty lame about now (Sat. April 25) Petals look like snow on the ground.

I can no longer see the interstate, and in a week I'll loose my view of the mountains...to wait another 5 months till leaves fall off the maples.

Today's Quote:

Re-examine all you have been told.
Dismiss what insults your soul...

Walt Whitman

Trees in the apartment complex

 There's a disease affecting all dogwoods, slowly. This red blossomed one has lost a portion of it's limbs.

and Thursday with some sunshine...

 Parking under trees in springtime means lots of pollen dust on cars, and the little seedpods too.

The red dogwood is valiantly trying to produce blooms.

And later in the month...

I'm still getting benefit from these simple Qi Gong exercises.  Just thought I'd share them again. I just need to remember that my old muscles take time learning new movements, or I have really sore back and ribs the next day! But that shows it's working!

And a quote for you:

This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter.
Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway...
Be bold.  Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you
home.

St. Teresa of Avila