Two local businesses

 Sitting by Flat Creek at Ole's Guacamole Sunday for lunch.

The soothing calm waters were interrupted by visiting begging Mallards...and some folks were throwing them pieces of chips. I was adamant that they didn't get any from us.

I even tried growling and saying firm NO to the ducks, while my friend said sweet things to him. Geese, Do Not Feed Wild Animals people food! The very first tenant learned in relating to natural animals!

 Why do so many people in Black Mountain have trouble with black bears getting in their garbage? The cans are available, sitting all over town, and the bears can get in at least half of them. So the bears have a good taste for people food. They grow well, have more cubs as a result, and the next year, they teach the cubs where rich food is available. Poor bears.

I had a lovely Pechuga Fundida - probably spelled wrong. The chicken had been grilled to a tough stage, but the spinach and mushroom sauce was just lovely on the rice. I asked for no onions to be added and so I was able to really enjoy it, and take half home for another meal.

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On Saturday I stopped to see the Grand Opening action of our local hardware store which opened a branch in Swannanoa, the next town down the highways.

It has a completely different flavor from the old building in Black Mountain, where actually 3 stores are linked together with their wood floors. In BM they sell lots of touristy needs...toys and gifts, kitchen things, everything to the kitchen sink I bet. Here the focus is on hardware!

Great parking, and now I want to go back and see what the ghost sign says on the wall.

And I gladly accepted the treat of a rootbeer float with which to go home.

Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894)

 Sharing with Tom's Tuesday Treasures

They all have wings

 

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

[Image: Reluctant Dragon oil painting by American Golden Age artist and illustrator Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966).]

Poetry, Tea and Me on BFB

(OK this one doesn't have wings!)

Geese and Hoar-frost - watercolor on paper...Charles Tunnicliffe.

Ospreys build nests from sticks in the tops of trees or on utility poles.

by Michael Boeckmann

Sharing with Eileen's Saturday Critters

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Today is Santa Lucia Day

"Lucia at Last"
by Lisa Aisato.

UUCSV Solstice 2007 - welcoming the returning of the light.

8 more days till the Winter Solstice

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I'm supporting (and recommending) "The Marginalian," an e-zine, or newsletter which comes to my email twice a week about art, poetry, people, love, humanity, animals...just life. I loved reading this children's book several years ago, which is included in this article by Maria Popova. 

The Snail with the Right Heart: A True Story

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And if you like science fiction, here's a tribute to Judy-Lynn del Rey - just ask Lukas. Open Yesterday's Pages.

Springtime views

 How about a bit more beauty today?

Springtime light just before sunset catches the tops of the trees, taken in Asheville NC May 5.

For Skywatch Friday - the pool in Black Mountain has sat with water and all kinds of debris since last summer. Here it was last week as they cleaned it out in preparation for opening, probably for Memorial Day weekend.

Ready for refill a few days later!

A few weeks earlier this year a couple of Mallards liked the water in the pool, while the nearby lake was drained. The poles and tarps in the background are remains from the tents and a shower following the storm last fall.

Pool the day of the storm, flood waters from Lake Tomahawk didn't go that high! September 27, 2024, but the mud in the gutter of the road shows how everything was coated with mud from the rain.

People actually came with buckets to get water from the pool when Hurricane Helene meant they couldn't even flush their toilets...and the water was only good for that. Then the town set up a free shower on the pavement next to the pool changing building. It was just cold water somehow (clean I hope) inside a round shower curtained stall, outdoors. And in front of the building there was free drinking water in bottles, and some hot meals brought in from someplace that had gas stoves, as well as stable supplies like paper products and diapers. I had evacuated on the 4th day to my cousin's home during that time, so I wasn't there to see things personally.

Fast forward as the ducks watch the pool being filled with clean water on May 13, 2025

The Black Mountain Golf Course is still closed but gives a great view of the Black Mountains over which the Blue Ridge Parkway runs.

And just 6 days ago we felt an earthquake here in Black Mountain, centered in east TN, a 4.1 magnitude. I was lying in bed, and the noise of something shaking on a shelf, and myself kind of shaking in relation to the bed was all I felt. Many didn't feel it at all.

It's rhododendron season in Black Mountain. Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos!

Just read a wonderful human nature story...about human nature, not nature. I recommend this article on "The Beauty we Love." It's by Naomi Shihab Nye

Today's quote:

A vase with four elements, water, air, earth and fire, depicted on it's four sides.

Saturday Critters

Saturday's critters:

Fox, by Jackie Morris

 

Lake Tomahawk was beginning to have water in it again as of last week.

  The black duck seems to be a hybrid of white and some other colored parent (perhaps mallards as they are frequent visitors here)

The photos above were last week, and now I'll let you see what happened yesterday. I picked up my lunch  at the Lakeview site, and planned to sit and eat it out by the lake in the warm sunshine.

As soon as I came near an empty picnic table by the Gazebo, these same three ducks appeared and accosted me. They were very interested in my bag with the clamshell full of my lunch.

As you can see, there was no sitting on that bench...and they started snapping at me, as well as vocalizing. So I gave the vocal NO No No back, in my own barking kind of way, stomping my feet (I didn't want to kick them, but neither did I want to be pecked.)

The gazebo floor made great sounds as I stomped up its ramp, and the ducks seemed to understand this was to be my territory...then they went around the other side, hoping maybe I'd feel sorry for them. Right.

When I went walking after eating, still carrying my bag, these three followed me. Again I stomped and barked, and they finally went elsewhere. Whew!

And the funny thing is the food I had would have probably been ok for them, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, but not the chicken or wrap of course!

I kind of took a few photos and came home to eat the rest of my chicken taco salad.

Oh, and the lake is almost full again!

Sharing with Eileen's Saturday's Critters

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Today's good news:

Volunteer archivists recreate the Centers for Disease Control website exactly as it appeared prior to meddling by the current administration.  -Americans of Conscience Checklist, Mar 14, 2025

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Asheville SHOWED UP to our town hall meeting March 13, over 2 THOUSAND community members told our MAGA representative (Chuck Edwards) how a lot of us feel about what he and the Trump administration are doing.

Photos by Neil Jacobs above

Screenshot of Chuck Edwards, allowing applause and boos, and trying to hear questions which were very critical of his Republican views (Asheville is mainly Democratic, but is snug within a gerrymandered Republican district).

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Women's History Month honor: Open Yesterday's Pages, Toshee Seeger, Pete's wife.

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Today's quote:

In the morning, send yourself love for the entire day and be sure to collect that love along the way.

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Family album:

Grandson Michael and his girlfriend, Amanda.  2024

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Today's art:

Art Critic by Norman Rockwell (1955)

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For anyone who wishes to be my friend on Blue Sky, 

I'm at BlackMtn.Barb@blkmtnbarb.bsky.social