Bits and pieces…

I have some interesting photos to share.

Carrie has asked me to stop calling Brando stupid, so we are now referring to him as simple…hahah.. I keep taking these photos of him where he looks less than intelligent.  He has become a really sweet dog though, and I was beginning to think he would never be one.   This is Brando and RD through the screen door.

Carrie transplanted her garden to Possum Manor West.  I just wondered how much would continue to grow and thrive. The answer is…..all of it. It is amazing.  The beans are growing up their trellises and the cukes are growing faster than anyone can eat.

See???

I was hoping the okra would die, but no such luck.

The next photo is of the future site of the chicken coop. YES, I said chicken coop. We are going to have seven chickens.  The babies will arrive at Possum Manor West this week, and they will be kept in the utility room for about a month. Then they will be big enough for the coop, which will be built by then. They should be laying eggs by next spring, and we will use what we need and give the rest away. I get to name them and make them pets. So far I have: Julia, Suzanne, Charlene, Mary Jo and Bernice (Designing Women). When they are too old to lay, they will be in retirement. They will NOT be eaten.

The coop will be to the left of the shed, on the raised platform that has the dog house. Then they will have the grass to the left.  We have to fully cover even the grassy area because we have a coyote problem in the area.  Can you imagine me with chickens????????

This is my first attempt at audio blogging. Click on the little audio thingie.

We saw the movie “Mamma Mia” yesterday….what fun it was! I saw the stage production in London and loved it, but I thought the movie was even better (Donna disagrees with me.). I left with my checks hurting from smiling for an hour and a half. The scenery is beautiful, as it was filmed in Greece, so why should it anything by beautiful! I remember when I saw it on stage that was so tickled when ever they were able to fit an ABBA song into the script. I was prepared for it on film, so I really got into the fun of it. Go see it….twice, three times. I will buy it when it is available.

I swear I have had the best company this summer. The latest was Joan and Adrienne, who left on Saturday morning. It was great. I had not known Adrienne before, as Joan dragged her 600 miles to the home of a stranger. Well, we aren’t strangers any more. I feel as if I have known Adrienne a long time. She is so comfortable to be around. They are both “pajama company.” For those of you who have had the nerve not to have read my blog before, pajama company is company that is so comfortable to be with that you can sit around in your pajamas and drink coffee in the morning. In this care we ate cantaloupe too. Know the loaves and fishes story? Well this is the cantaloupe story. I cut up this huge melon on Monday, and we were still eating it on Saturday morning. Honest. It was huge and wonderful and I should have saved the seeds to grow my own and sell them. I would have been rich. The never ending melon.

Anyway, they saw so much of the area, and have promised to come back and see more.They got eaten up by no seeums too. I think those almost invisible bugs go after tourists only. We ended our week with an outing to the Fiddlin’ Pig. Joan refers to this as the Pig and the Thistle or the Pig and the Fiddle, but it is all the same place.

The first photo is of our before dinner drinks. You can see that this place was a classy establishment by Adrienne’s plastic wine glass. Joan had one of her new addictions, Highland Gaelic Ale, and I had diet coke, being the designated driver.

Did I mention this was a barbecue place? Well, it is a restaurant and bluegrass venue all rolled into one. I had never been there, but I really enjoyed it. The food was good too.

My pulled chicken dinner…

Adrienne was clever. She got a mini of each of the offered barbecue sandwiches.

Left to right: chicken, brisket, and pork. She liked the pork best. Notice the metal bucket in front of the plate? It held a roll of paper towel.

Joan had the pulled pork….doesn’t her manicure look nice?

This was the night’s band. There is a different band most nights and Sunday has a gospel brunch. Nothing better than good, foot stompin’ bluegrass music. Even a Motown girl like me can be seen tapping her foot!

They had a clogging group there, too. The group would bring up eaters to square dance, but also preformed. Who knew I would get into corny stuff like this? And I was only drinking diet coke!!!

I have only one more schedule visitor this summer. My friend Sal is coming in August, and he has not been here in three years. My family is hopefully coming in the fall. Someday we will even paint the guest room. But honestly, if we make it too comfortable guests might never leave!!!!!!

We took a Segway tour of downtown Asheville yesterday. It was quite an experience.   Those things are built on gyroscopes, and you maneuver it by just leaning.  By the end of the three hours it had become part of me and I did not even think about what I was doing.  BUT, I was so tense on it that my feet kept falling asleep.  My toes would go numb, and I would have to stop and give my feet a chance to recover.  I think I might be more relaxed next time. All of us have sore lower legs today.   We have a photo, but I have to warn you that I am truly more intelligent than I look in this photo. ( I am almost embarrassed to post it.)

I took Joan and Adrienne to see O’Henry’s grave…certainly one of the highlights of their trip! It had pennies on the stone, which we did not understand. So, when we got back to the house, we looked it up. People often put $1.87, sixty cents of which is in pennies, because that is the opening of his story, “The Gift of the Magi.”  Makes me want to take some money over there.

We came home to soak in the hot tub. Brando made Joan feel at home by not discriminating and chewing her flip flops too. What a nice dog he is, trying to make guests feel as if they are one of the family!

I took a photo of one corner of our deck. It looks so nice. We have had so much rain lately that everything is lush. (The cardinal is not real…just in case you thought it was.)

We have had lots of company this summer, and it has all been great.  Everyone is welcome. I cannot wait to see how beautiful it is in the fall!

Roseanna and Dianna left this morning, and I am missing them already. I had forgotten how we clicked, and it was a wonderful visit. The weather was really strange but cooperated fully. It would pour rain (and I mean pour) until we had to get out of the car or out of a building. Then the sky would clear up.

The first day we did not leave. We sat around and laughed and remembered funny times. One funny time was the time I invented putting milk in hot tea, or at least I thought I had invented it! We played cards, and Ann made her famous southern chicken dinner.

Wednesday we took the LaZoom tour of Asheville. I recommend it fully. It is a comedy tour of the city, and it was a hoot! I will post a few of the photos.

I would hate to ruin the jokes of the tour, so I will not even explain the photos, but I will say, “GO on the tour!”

On Thursday we went into Cheroke to visit the Oconaluftee Indian Village. It is an outdoor museum that shows the way of life of the Cherokee people prior to the Trail of Tears. I alway find it interesting, and it is different each time depending on the guide. This summer they are reenacting “Time of War.” It was amazing. We were lucky as it is not preformed every day. It was so realistic that I had the urge to throw a stone at one of the soldiers!

This is Roseanna and Dianna as they were about to leave.

This is my harvest so far. We cut them up and had them with dinner the other night. What a farmer I am!!!

Roseanna and Dianna arrived last night after a twelve hour drive. We had dinner and laughed and laughed and sat in the hot tub until the wee hours of the morn.  The Smiths were my second family…still are. We have not been together for seven year, except for one dinner in South Carolina a few years ago, but it is as if we had never parted.  It is really wonderful.I wanted to post a couple of photos from the weekend; we will do a Smith blog later.  I do have to mention that all sixty pounds of Brando slept with them all night.

Roxanne the fourteen year old cat refused to come upstairs. She would scream at the bottom of the stairs, and sometimes she would venture part way up. Last week she made it to the top of the stairs for a good scratching.  Well, Sunday evening she decided she would see what was up there. She got to the top and looked in all directions. She walked into the bedroom and looked at me as if to say, “When did you get this floor?” She checked out the bathroom, she walked though all corners of the closet, and she tested out the bed. She has not left. She has been up there almost the entire time since Sunday night. I woke up at one point and saw she was sleeping with Xena.

These are my rubber boots, a necessity here. I finally got my butt out to pick up all the construction scraps that made their way into the backyard.  I have mentioned that the crazy many who had a single wide trailer here before we bought the land was a hoarder. He was eventually condemned and the county used dump trucks to remove the junk from the property. Well, they did not do a very good job. We have twice paid people to remove tires, shoes, counter top, and sixteen thousand Bic lighters. Yesterday I found an oven rack.  Actually, I was happy to find it because I needed something to support the seat on one of the back deck rockers.  It was perfect.   Anyway, I put on my boots, got a garbage bag, and spent an hour filling it.  I found a jar, lots of pieces of dog toys, and many other things.  Ahh, I am glad that is done.

Why is there so much dog hair in our house?  Carrie combed RD the other night. Actually, she only combed one side of him because he was in such a happy state, he would not roll over. She will do the other side later. Here it is. It looks like some man’s toupee.

So many topics to cover….

Possum Manor West

Orbs

Smoky Mountains

Homer

Ann’s friend has moved into Possum Manor West. She comes complete with dog and cat. I have a picture of Usti ( Cherokee for small), but the kitty is still in hiding. All the dogs got a long until Brando the Moose decided to get food aggressive. Poor Usti, he had not realized he was living with the the canine version of Sybil. Cesar the dog whisperer guy says it should get better. We shall hope.

Usti is a Blue Heeler who broke his little leg in the growth bone while he was a little pup (He is not even a year old yet.). He runs and hops and runs on his little crooked leg. We like him a lot.

Look at Brando….he does not have the face or expression of a smart dog, does he?

These are two of the types of lily we have in the backyard. They really are beautiful, and I think those are two pretty good photographs if I do say so myself.

Ok, I have said I have seen things at the Possum Manor West house. I took this photograph outside at the end of a storm. These could be refection of rain drops, but why are there not more of them? They could be orbs. Who knows. I think it is something to think about.

Why do they call this area the Smoky Mountains? This is why.

Carrie says it is the forefathers smoking their pipes.

Today I went to visit Homer and Melisse. Melisse is a friend from work; Homer is her horse. He is huge; he is beautiful; he is friendly; he is loving. He has a buddy at the stable who gave me a kiss. I thought maybe he was trying to chew my cheek off, but Melisse explained I had just been honored with a kiss. How sweet.

The first time I saw one of those hoods on a horse I was horrified. I thought they were trying to blind the poor thing. I then learned that they keep the flies and gnats out of their eyes and ears. They don’t mind them at all.

Here at Possum Manor West there is virtually no internet access available except dial up.  There is satellite , but that is really, really expensive. The dial up is not as slow as dial up use to be, but it sure is not fast.  It is best very early in the morning…..which is now.

I am going to steal the dot idea from Robin; I cannot think in paragraphs this early in the morning.

• We are thinking about a security system for Possum Manor. Since we will be gone most weekends, our down the hill neighbors have been arrested for many things, I dread my kitchen being turned into a weekend meth lab or worse, and I just worry…a security system is the thing to do.  ADT is coming out Wednesday.
• There are spirits in this house. Xena sees them and Brando barks at them.
• Ann’s friend, Carrie, is moving in. It will be good to have someone here when we are not. We have had people park cars in the driveway, just to make it look as if someone was home. This will be a good thing, and it will help with expenses.
• I am having a bit of oral surgery on Tuesday.  Ugh.
• I am looking forward to visitors who are coming the 7th and then the 14th.
• Where does the time go?
• I am thinking of joining this blogging group, but they are doing a blog every day in July thingie and I do not think I would do it.
• I am a electronic gadget junkie

I woke today only to see Brando (who we now sometimes call Lennie, in reference to Of Mice and Men) guarding a dark object in the living room. It was a mole. UGH..and a dead mole no less. I guess the cats go out and hunt and he is the keeper of the carnage. Being the brave soul I am, I covered it with a paper towel, and later a small table, until Ann would get up and take care of it. Years back, when Maudie was a young cat, she single handedly (or is that pawedly) rid West Asheville of its mole population. She use to line them up on the porch, and I would pay the nine year old next door a dollar a body to rid the porch of all that mess. He made a fortune one summer. Anyway, I went upstairs only to find another dead mole. I covered that with paper towel and then watched as Brando picked up the dead thing and took it into another room. By now I am shrieking. I covered it again, placed a tool box on each side of the paper towel, careful not to smoosh the poor lifeless thing, and then I wake Ann, who gets up and removes the evidence that our cats are killers.

The cats really enjoy living in the mountains. Only Roxanne, who is old and lives in a bed on the corner of the table, has not learned how to come and go via the dog door. Even Maudie, who is as old as Roxanne (and the champion mole killer) goes in and out. I see them laying in the driveway or on the top of the car. When I go out in the morning they are usually asleep in chairs on the front porch. We had to buy washable covers for those chairs because they became so laden with cat hair that even we would not sit in them.

Roxanne moved with me from New Jersey, but she has become Ann’s cat. We most often eat in the living room (the whole downstairs is one big room, but we still label parts of it) (and wouldn’t you eat in the living room if you had a cat living in a bed on your table?), and Rox will sit on the chair behind Ann’s head. As Ann eats, she will move down to her shoulder and begin to tap Ann’s face. I have seen her reach for the fork. Ann shares with her every time.

Donna left on Monday, as she had to get back for an appointment. Brando and Jack went after each other, but I think most of it was show. Jack never did realize that he was about forty-five pounds lighter than the knucklehead Brando. He held his own.

He is a very loving dog, even though he has not got the pooping outside thing mastered.

When Donna and I get together we play cards, Hand and Foot to be exact. We play day and night. It is something we have been doing for a long time. I never beat her. I NEVER beat her. I held my own this visit, and at one point led her in games, but things did not end the way I wanted. We kept the score on the frig.

We always enjoy Donna’s visits. She is what we call “pajama company.” That means we are so relaxed when she visits, we can sit around in our pajamas and drink coffee.

We are heading to Possum Manor West this weekend. There are major changes to life out there, and I will blog that when we come back.

Oh, I have started my canning. I did a batch of lemon jelly, which is so tart that I am still puckered from tasting it three days ago. I had to reheat it and add pectin, because it did not set the first time. l was told lemon would set without pectin because it has so much in it naturally. It did not set. I think altitude is a problem. My oatmeal cookies fails too, and never has that happened. I did two batches of raspberry/blackberry jam, one regular and one no sugar freezer jam. When you think of it, you can buy jam in the store a whole lot cheaper than you can can it. I just hope mine is better.

It seems so long ago that we were on vacation. Oh how wonderful Ocracoke was. I could talk about it forever, but I will not.

Our friend Donna is here with her little Miniature Doberman, Jack. He is a cutie and holds his own with the big dogs. He likes to sit up high, as you can see in this photo.

Donna and I went raspberry picking at an organic farm, but they were not ready so we only got two cups. We went to the local farmers’ market instead. I am really looking forward to canning this summer. I feel so accomplished when I do it. I end up giving most of it away, but that is ok too. On the way back from picking those two cups of raspberries, we came upon the only kind of traffic jam you see in this area:

We had a visitor the other day. The dogs were going nuts barking, which is not an uncommon thing. Brando especially was barking frantically at the ground, and lo and behold, there was a good size turtle. Certainly it was big enough for any respectable 60 pound dog to be afraid of.

I carried out side the fence, under a plant, but it came right back to the dogs. Dumb turtle. Dumber dogs because they had no idea what to do with it. I did, however, and I took it to our neighbor’s pond. I expect to see it some day come right back into the yard.

Boogie likes Donna’s car.

Two of the other cats are getting along better. Either that or they were playing chicken to see who would fall the seven feet to the ground first.

I am enjoying my summer so far. I hope to read a lot too. I have just begun Isabel Allende’s, one of my favorite writers, latest book. Next I hope to read Germaine Greer’s new book, Shakespeare’s Wife, the fictionalized biography of Anne Hathaway. In July, the wonder Ron McLarty has a new book coming out. Memory of Running is certainly one of my favorites, so I look forward to this one!