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. 

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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 

The trees are not there

 

This is the photo that shows with the rental information. Love the trees. Love the lawns.

Sure it's not all that private, but thinking how great that shade would feel.

It's a senior apartment complex.

Google Earth views as of 2003. Not very shady. Cute little fences for privacy. No shade.

It doesn't even look as if they've planted any new trees. It must have been quite a big venture taking out all those old trees. Makes me sad.

Well, with drought conditions, I guess this makes sense. The trees in the background? There's a RV park on the next property...so they can camp beneath trees still. 

These are the apartments where I'll probably be moving. The homes across the street do have trees, so I can take early morning walks and enjoy their neighborhood. That's the plan! It's located within walking distance of a grocery store, and various restaurants only a long block away.

I have been spoiled by living in a virtual forest in North Carolina. I will take lots of photos before I move! But having dry air to breathe means I will most willingly give up the humidity of these trees.

Last Monday we drove to Pisgah Mountain for lunch. Here are the beginnings of that trip to enjoy the trees and acclimate myself to higher elevations, my new home will be more than a mile high at 6191 Feet! 

Leaving Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway you can stop and see the French Broad River.

I will probably use my shot of the river as a header photo later on.

Before even arriving at the restaurant I was glad to have brought the portable oxygen generator (concentrator? whatever it's called!) I was coughing up a storm, and really out of breath at the restaurant, which they say is at 5000 feet. But Pisgah Mountain, right up the hill, is supposed to be 5721 feet, and it didn't look that much taller. who knows! Maybe that wasn't the actual mountain top...

More about lunch in a bit...

When a tree isn't a tree

 

...it's a cell tower.

I may hate these strange looking things. But I do love having cellular communication available 24/7. When I moved here (2007) I couldn't get service for my phone in my bedroom. The mountains were not friendly for cell service. Now when my son calls while driving between his home and Durango, there's a known "dead spot." We just wait till he passes through that area. His newer car than mine has built-in wi-fi. I just have a speaker button on my phone.

This is just a small portion of the cemetery at Gashes Creek Baptist Church, which is on the way to my new primary doctor's office in Asheville. The tower is also on that road.

They have 1595 memorial records there (according to "Find a Grave"). But I don't know if all those people are buried on this hill. And I don't know how old the church is...trying to see if there's a quick answer to that. Not really.

The back cover of my recently purchased book "Traversal" by Maria Popova, editor of "The Marginalian" newsletter. I'm so very interested in seeing what and how she weaves thoughts from diverse literature into this tome of 570+ pages. I like especially that there will be some mentions of my recently revived interest in plate tectonics, i.e. continental drift theory. Here's a page of the bibliography. It will take a while before I get to the pages that are indexed which mention this synchronicity.

When I was about to get back in the car across from my local bookstore, I noticed these...and had to pause to capture their beauty.

I've noticed by the photos that we get this garish pinkish red.  They just don't look right to me.

I took this photo several weeks earlier near my home. Same problem. Having had my cataracts removed several years ago, I'm really aware of colors. In real life they may have the same hue, but the leave are just as bright, so the roses don't look so artificial as they seem to do here.

Choosing to have joy is not naively thinking everything will be easy. It is courageously believing that there is still hope, even when things get hard.

MORGAN HARPER NICHOLS

Saturday fun with animals

 This week I have few encounters with critters.

Last week I met a friend's trial new dog, Champ. I haven't seen him this week, so he may not have worked out for her.

He was a rather slow moving older beagle. The interesting part of his  story was that his owner had recently died. And she had died the same day that my friend had lost her own dog suddenly. She was trying out living with Champ for a few weeks, I believe. 

Another blogger recently posted some art by an artist who was also recently deceased, Leoma Lovejoy. Blogger is Southwest Daily Photos. 

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From a Gallery Show by the Red House artists, in 2021 a selection.

My contribution was a ceramic open sculpture of trees (which sold!!)

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Today's quotes:

Every student needs someone who says, simply, "You mean something. You count."  -Tony Kushner, playwright (b. 16 Jul 1956) Be part of the discussion on climate change as we move our society to a critical mass of people who can change the way we live, govern, support, communicate, and save the earth. ---------------- Today's goddess: Amazing goddess figurine from Balzi Rossi (red rocks), who is apparently depicted giving birth. Dated ca 26,000-20,000 BC Gravettian period, it was found in Balzi Rossi caves (archaeological site), Grimaldi di Ventimiglia, Italy on the border with France. Musée des Antiquites Nationales of Saint Germain-en-Laye, France SOURCE: The Mother Goddess site on FaceBook And over at my other blog, Alchemy of Clay, see E. J. Taylor's wonderful dolls!

Just saying...

 

What is this? I just found it saved in my iCloud photos...and I didn't take it! How could someone else's photo get saved there? Well, that's my Monday morning dilemma, while drinking my coffee and reading a few blogs and emails. I'm getting ready to go to the dermatologist this morning for my yearly exam. Whoopee!

The neighborhood slowly awakens to dawn. 41 degrees F. Due to be sunny today.

Yesterday my maples treated me to swinging in the breeze...as I awoke these long limbs just swayed every which way with the gusts of wind. It was estimated by Weather Channel at 17 mph...but these were surprising gusts coming through. What a symphony of movement.

And from the internet...

Adding another list just to include peruse, which AC mentioned in his comment:

Today over on my other blog: Open Yesterday's Pages - Louis Daguerre