Into the woods by car

 Since I couldn't walk in Montreat, I drove up one of the pretty dead-end roads.

Added to Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for April.

Quote to consider:

When Death Comes
By Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence

and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom; taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder 
if I have made of my life something particular, and real. 
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, 
or full of argument. 

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world."

Redbud tree and...

 A lovely spring tree, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Black Mountain, UUCSV.

 The memorial garden and gazebo at UUCSV.

 A couple of fruit trees at the end of the parking lot. I wonder what kind they are...

I love these blossoms...huge clumps of pink.  But I can't think of what the name of this tree is...it's not a cherry, at least by looking at the trunk.

Quote to consider:

It’s like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
full of moonlight.
Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story. 

Mary Oliver

Happy Easter to my Christian friends and family

I baked.

 A loaf of Easter bread-cake.

And as soon as it was cool enough to touch, I hacked off a piece to try. MMMM!

A crumbly recipe, which wasn't clear as to how it got enough flour to knead it...so I was kneading and adding flour till the cows came home. It's actually light and very crumbly. That's from the 2 eggs. And I didn't make ropes and wind them into a pretty circle.  I couldn't get it to rise very much either. Maybe because the jar of yeast was old. Like the date to "use by" on the lid says 2014. Oops.  But it was almost gone, so I just wanted to see if I could get it to rise at all, and this is pretty darn good for refrigerated old yeasties, I'd say.

The lack of much sugar, just enough to get those yeasties hopping, made the taste like a bread. But the texture is all crumbly, so it needs to be cut thick. It doesn't have bread flour, so it can't be pulled apart the way round breads often can. Only 3 tablespoons of butter, but enough to give it that wonderful color. It's a bastardized Easter bread-cake. I used what I had.  And now I'll eat what I made. Half went into the freezer for later.

Toasted lightly, just enough to melt more butter into the bread-cake. Yum! (Mug by friend Marsha Cozart, plate by me.)

Quote for today:

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for
the sound of the genuine in yourself.  It is the only true guide
you will ever have.  And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your
life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

Howard Thurman

No Flat Creek Walk

 I don't go on the trail that leads up up up to a lookout. I just walk a nice level (mostly) one along the creek usually. But not now!

So I decided to wander around in my car. Much less exercise. But I could see the pretty trees in bloom. And I may have worn my mask, mainly to avoid the pollen!

Quote to consider:
The inescapable suggestion is that reality has both local and nonlocal aspects; that there exists a more fundamental level than our macroscopic world, which corresponds to Heisenberg’s potentia, Bohm’s implicate order, Seth’s Framework 2, and the world of light outside Plato’s cave.

All of these denote the timeless level of reality, the world of the wave function before collapse – the level from which, through the act of observation, our three-dimensional world is created. 
—Norman Friedman The Hidden Dimension

Not Social Distancing at all

People piling on cars!

Seven Women on an old car (with a crank handle).
This is part of my ex-husband's collection of photos, and I am pretty sure one of these women was my mother-in-law in her youth, living on a farm in Michigan.

Here is the link to the Sepia Saturday suggestion this week!

Who knew that our chummy togetherness would be forbidden during a pandemic.


A quote to consider:
The difference between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
—Albert Einstein

Lake Susan into Flat Creek

Lake Susan is damed up and has a nice little flow into Flat Creek, which as it tumbles down the mountains is not ever a bit flat.

Ten Thousand Villages shop is on the upper floor of the building by the dam. About this time every year, The Sahara Women's Choir has sung to raise funds to support a local women's program, and the store has offered a percentage of sales to it as well. With the closures, no concerts, and no store sales, I wonder how the non-profits are also doing.

My friend, musician and poet, Annelinde Metzner, wrote a great poem...The Egg. Check out her blog!

The Egg

The egg, elliptical, luminous, whole,
separate, indivisible, complete,
nexus of life, invisible, unspoken,
unnamable ancestral pearl of power,
chosen one: you are my pride, my treasure.
I nurture and guard you with all my life,
a green dragon whose jewel lies hidden
in the humming recesses of her dark-red cave.
I share you with the mammals, and the fish too,
the birds, amphibians, insects, snakes:
our common inheritance, our common being.
All of us, whether we fly or swim,
trot, slither or leap beyond our height,
we all love you the same, and commend you
with lifetimes of attention and lavished care.
There are others, too, ferns and firs,
and maybe fruits, too, our cousins
guarded within the muscled trunks
of our rooted green sisters who grow in the Earth.
There they pull from the black nutrition
the crystals of power, the amino molecules,
fuel from which you radiate light
in fruit, in flower, in ovule, in shell.
I feel you well, with every moon,
through thirteen moons in every year.
You arise and make yourself plain,
crown jewel in the parade of our homeland,
flowering, intoxicating, odoriferous, fecund,
temple priestess of life everlasting
in burgundy velvet, concealing and beckoning.
It is easy, and not easy, to court you, egg,
and find you whole, enthroned in all life,
at once at the center and imminent in all things.
It is easy, and yet to properly seek you,
one must have peace, and presence, and life,
abundant life, and love without question
that leaps into the future, many times ones own height.
I bought a dozen of you today,
to boil you and color you, an essence, a symbol,
a ritual item more real than words
and you’re everywhere, among baskets and bunnies,
colored and white, foam and fluff,
and children’s hands under the bushes.
It is Eostar, your long-ago day
when Russian mothers baked you into bread,
and Czech mothers painted you for hours,
and my own ancestors walked for miles
to gather you one by one from afar,
all of us looking to the reborn world,
the flyers, the creepers, the unfathomable sea-swimmers.
These eggs are ours, our hours, our years,
the perfect pearls of our lives.

Annelinde Metzner
March 19. 1989

       "My German family had many deep memories of gathering and dying eggs at Easter.  In the Slavic countries there is an ancient tradition of Pysanka, engraving eggs with wax as protective charms for the house.  Read some fascinating history of pysanka here.

Annelinde Metzner

My lovely youngest granddaughter

Becoming a teenager this year!

This month I'm celebrating the birthday of my youngest granddaughter, here shown ready to enjoy a feast last November.

Two at the same time...an earlier version on the wall behind her!

Step back in time to when she was just a wee lassie.

Looking friendly or fierce, the field hockey team...my granddaughter is front row, second from right.  I'm so proud of her achievements! What a lovely young woman!

Lake Susan & Cherry Blossoms

Montreat College and conference center, is nestled up the valley where Flat Creek flows from mountain slopes...into first Lake Susan, then eventually into the Swannanoa river.

A Pancake Breakfast

I ran out of raisin bread to make into toast today. And I haven't gotten energized enough to make real yeast bread yet. So a quick pop of stuff into the blender, then onto the good old big iron skillet...and voila, a baker's dozen of these golden goodies. Of course topped with real butter and Vermont maple syrup...yum yum. I don't even use a recipe any more...since I've got so many short cuts from recipes that I've followed. I used to use Bisquick to make pancakes, or biscuits.  Now I do it from scratch, with far less oil in the batter, so I don't feel guilty about letting butter melt all over them.

I was going to make Snickerdoodles this afternoon, but sometime or another I took out my recipe card from the little book, where sleeves of lots of my old recipes are filed. And no Snickerdoodle card was in there.  That's a recipe I would need the card to follow. When I took it out, I was talking about how my recipe includes using orange extract. And now I can't find it anywhere.

I froze the rest of the pancakes, which makes them easy to nuke or toast up when I feel like having them again.

Now to something sweet. I've got the brownie recipe from Fannie Farmer...but I don't want that much chocolate to eat. I think I'd prefer the old "vanilla cookies," or maybe "refrigerator cookies." The peanut butter ones would be nice too, but I don't know that I want to give a half cup of my precious peanut butter to a batch.  See how we think in times of watching what staples are on hand and likely to be replenished? Well, I do anyway.

I'm also wanting to make up a nice batch of soup. Don't have too many veggies, but a few that will be nice when added to the stock that I've got in the cupboard.

So far I have not been sick for the last week...after my 5 day fever that never got worse. My blood pressure is somewhat high, so I am going to call the doc Monday to see if there's another option for treating it. You don't need the details.

Twilight - or not really

I've changed my routine a little bit. More things to do inside the house.

I would rather giggle at some of the silly facebook postings...whether cats or dogs or kids, and today it's even owls. That what makes life interesting these days.

The trees are beginning to green up. Dogwoods have started to bloom too. Redbuds may be at their last few days. This is springtime.

Last night I ate a small pizza and salad which I picked up outside my favorite restaurant. I carefully handled everything, then put it in my own dishes, then washed my hands. It was a delightful dinner.

I got a kick out of the waitress bringing my bagged food out to the car wearing plastic gloves, and then taking my money with them on. Well, when I worked food service, I learned you wear the gloves to handle the food, and take them off to handle the dirty money. I hope she's doing the opposite, rather than wearing the same gloves to cut lettuce for salads! Ugh.

 Riding around last week, here's a cherry tree in bloom

A sunset some trees are brightly lit.  I don't really ever see dawn or sunset from inside my cozy apartment. Mmm, maybe I should do a walk at one of those times and see what it's like!

Sunny days

Yep, that's my morning. I can't believe that orchid is still blooming. I first blogged about its blossoms on Feb 7, 2020. And there they are.

Here's a breath strengthening series of Qi-gong exercises that I found, and have been practicing (after my nebulizer treatment to clear out my lungs...) I enjoy them. YouTubeQi-gongBreathing

The little pump house

Without cars this springtime blocking the view, the flowers are just out there for their own pleasure.
I sure do miss the tourists!

Black Mountain Beautification group does a great job clearing out the beds for flowers to bloom. I don't know that this is a pump house...it has that strange looking vat outside the door. I wonder what is really inside. Ha, there's even a window that a brave enough soul could peak inside! Not I.

Thanks to my friend, Tim, for picking up some groceries as he was driving right past a nearby store and left them on my porch. You never know how much you want a fresh piece of fruit, and now I've got one!  The bananas have all been frozen, and I had a great smoothie for supper last night.

And for the musical folks...adding a bit of Playing for Change this morning to a post that's already gone out. Honkey Tonk Woman.  YES!

Second of April, 2020

Nice to just have had a friend and a son who "text message" to check in on me.

I got the newsletter (for church) finished and scheduled to publish on time Tues. night. Then decided I wanted to see the final version and sent a preview to myself. Oops, it sent the version from the day before, without any of the final changes. So I canceled the 'send schedule', and opened it up again to re-do final changes. Nope, there they were, so I saved it again. Sent myself another preview copy, and it had the changes this time. So I scheduled it to send at midnight. But when I got it on my phone this morning, the formatting had been screwed around. Argh!

Then that night, since that had woken me up pretty much, I decided to go ahead and do the census. Seems they were more interested in my race and national heritage, than anything else. I had to say which kind of white people I was. American wasn't good enough. I said English, though about a tenth is German, maybe a eighth is French, some Irish, Scotts, etc. We came from colonists in New England and Virginia, and a great grandfather who probably was a stow-away from Germany.

Weather is on the cold side again, high 40s for daytime. Last night was cooler, but my one plant outside on the porch looks hardy enough, and there probably wasn't a frost. It even rained a bit this morning.

By the weekend it's due to be back in the 70s again and sunny! I will definitely get out to do a walk.

Tuesday I bit the bullet and carried a load of wash over to our laundromat, the one in the apartment complex. It meant sterilizing myself 3 times ...putting wash in, moving wash to drier, then picking up the dried laundry. Three times of exposing myself to any Covid-19 particles on doors, knobs on machines, common things everyone touches. So I scrubbed the hands, as well as my own door knobs each time. Well, I forgot my door knobs one of the times. I use a 10% bleach solution on paper towels. But at least I had clean sheets on my bed last night. That was nice.

No I'm not paranoid (well maybe a little bit) but I did wear a mask, even though I didn't see anyone else around. There's a sign on the laundry room that says to not stay there, but to come back when doing your wash, so as not to have contact with others. Of the 70 some apartments, only one or two other people had laundry going in one of the four washers and four driers while I did mine.  It is hard for me to use these machines, though they are closer to home, because there is no hot water available, so everything is a cold water wash. I threw some bleach into my whites. I'll go to the larger laundromat down the street later this week, where I know they sterilize the machines several times a day. There I can wear my mask, and just clean up (sterilize) myself once when done. I figure my hands, feet, purse, even phone, will get covered in those little one-micron size particles.

Phones can be cleaned also...mine has been wiped with soapy towels, as well as high alcohol hand sanitizer. I'm sure it is happy. One bit of trivia I learned early on...the size of a Covid-19 viral particle is one micron. It is compared to a cross section of a piece of hair where the width of a piece of hair is equal to the length of a football field, and one micron would be four inches wide.

And a final bit of information - which as far as I know is factual.

Excellent info from John Hopkins University:

🦠 The virus is not a living organism, but a protein molecule (DNA) covered by a protective layer of lipid (fat), which,when absorbed by the cells of the ocular, nasal or buccal mucosa, changes their genetic code. (mutation) and convert them into aggressor and multiplier cells.

🦠 Since the virus is not a living organism but a protein molecule, it is not killed, but decays on its own. The disintegration time depends on the temperature, humidity and type of material where it lies.

🦠 The virus is very fragile; the only thing that protects it is a thin outer layer of fat. That is why any soap or detergent is the best remedy, because the foam CUTS the FAT (that is why you have to rub so much: for 20 seconds or more, to make a lot of foam). By dissolving the fat layer, the protein molecule disperses and breaks down on its own.

🦠 HEAT melts fat; this is why it is so good to use water above 25 degrees Celsius for washing hands, clothes and everything. In addition, hot water makes more foam and that makes it even more useful.

🦠 Alcohol or any mixture with alcohol over 65% DISSOLVES ANY FAT, especially the external lipid layer of the virus.

🦠 Any mix with 1 part bleach and 5 parts water directly dissolves the protein, breaks it down from the inside.

🦠 Oxygenated water helps long after soap, alcohol and chlorine, because peroxide dissolves the virus protein, but you have to use it pure and it hurts your skin.

🦠 NO BACTERICIDE OR ANTIBIOTIC SERVES. The virus is not a living organism like bacteria; antibodies cannot kill what is not alive.

🦠 NEVER shake used or unused clothing, sheets or cloth. While it is glued to a porous surface, it is very inert and disintegrates only
- between 3 hours (fabric and porous),
- 4 hours (copper and wood)
- 24 hours (cardboard),
- 42 hours (metal) and
- 72 hours (plastic).
But if you shake it or use a feather duster, the virus molecules float in the air for up to 3 hours, and can lodge in your nose.

🦠 The virus molecules remain very stable in external cold, or artificial as air conditioners in houses and cars. They also need moisture to stay stable, and especially darkness. Therefore, dehumidified, dry, warm and bright environments will degrade it faster.

🦠 UV LIGHT on any object that may contain it breaks down the virus protein. For example, to disinfect and reuse a mask is perfect. Be careful, it also breaks down collagen (which is protein) in the skin.

🦠 The virus CANNOT go through healthy skin.

🦠 Vinegar is NOT useful because it does not break down the protective layer of fat.

🦠 NO SPIRITS, NOR VODKA, serve. The strongest vodka is 40% alcohol, and you need 65%.

🦠 LISTERINE IF IT SERVES! It is 65% alcohol.

🦠 The more confined the space, the more concentration of the virus there can be. The more open or naturally ventilated, the less.

🦠 You have to wash your hands before and after touching mucosa, food, locks, knobs, switches, remote control, cell phone, watches, computers, desks, TV, etc. And when using the bathroom.

🦠 You have to HUMIDIFY HANDS DRY from so much washing them, because the molecules can hide in the microcracks. The thicker the moisturizer, the better.

🦠 Also keep your NAILS SHORT so that the virus does not hide there.

— JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL