Sunday, September 19, 2021

Slight delay, but here's some words and photos, two weeks and a day since the last time...

    I have been out and about -- Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.   I've seen beautiful flowers, and some hillsides covered with kudsu:



      There were mountains to cross, fabulous back roads, people to answer my questions along the way, an outdoors memorial gathering to celebrate a life well lived and loved, in addition to visits with good friends -- in SW Virginia and SE Kentucky, where I am this day. I continue on to Lexington tomorrow and home I HOPE tomorrow night.  This trip required wearing many masks, and giving reduced hugs, if any, and using safe protocols all along.  Still it reaffirmed that conversations are even more valued than ever, and I sure hope no more unnecessary deaths happen when those who can get a vaccine don't bother to do it.  PLEASE DO IT.

    One special geography event happened while driving through Tennesee -- I crossed over the French Broad [River] six times! I wasn't able to take photos, except when I discovered a no longer used "Boat ramp".

    


I will finish this later tonight - I am about to go for a ride on a KAWASAKI MULE through damp and beautiful Kentucky trails through the forest where I am on this wet weather day.    Be safe everyone. 

the morning room in the Inn where several of us stayed in North Carolina -- warmed coffee cups!


WHAT I AM SEEING WHILE WORKING ON THIS POST.... "Don't even think of using this chair! "

Sunday, September 5, 2021

September! 2021! The world is being tested! Me, too!

    There has been one thing for sure -- a lot has been going on.  And there are strong feelings about everything.  

    Just for the record, I am distressed about many things, like school starting and there's not yet a vaccine for young children and yet some schools have faculty and staff who are not required to have gotten the vaccine! What are they thinking!  We wouldn't even be here on this earth if we hadn't taken the multitude of vaccines developed over the years. I'm old enough to remember not being allowed to swim in pools in order to avoid polio and an iron lung -- until the vaccine came along.  I was tested for our current virus this week, just to be sure about an incident, and all was well. It took 3 minutes.

    In many countries, many people have helped Americans do the jobs they were sent to do. Now many of them need a safe haven here in the USA. We are about to have our country enriched by what Afghans will contribute to our national life.  It must be wrenching to have to leave one's native land, leaving every familiiar thing behind.

     I don't understand why there is so much angst about a woman making choices about her own body.  Men do it all the time. It's very suspicious that it is mostly men who push for policies that don't apply to them.  Also, speaking broadly, I don't see much action or even concern about providing care for kids once they are born.  

    Then we have been reminded about storms that are increasingly fierce, and vast areas that are confronting drought and fires, all over the world, not just in the USA, while waters are rising from one shining sea and many others.

    Anyone who reads this probably knows every bit of what I have mentioned, but these past weeks many issues seem to have felt more loaded and interconnected.

    Enough of the tricky stuff of great magnitude, for tonight anyway.  I do have a few photos to share.  Doing this blog every other week now gives it a different rhythm, and it is takiing me awhile to adjust, after doing it weekly for the past 11 years. In any case, after this "big picture" stuff, I have a few simple details from daily life.

Cloud of the Week


Wildflowers (weeds) of the Week

Talk about a SPECIAL DELIVERY!


Olive Hill, Kentucky
    Recently, TOM T. HALL, a well know country singer and teller of stories in his songs, died in August. He came from Olive Hill, near where I live. It's not a fancy place, but there still some tributes to him in the downtown area. Our family has had some favorites by him over the years, mine being "Sneaky Snake".  I had made a quick visit to the Post Office and saw this then.  Next I went to the Mexican Restaurant, while I was in the "big city!"

 

    I also saw some cattails in a border planting near by.  Looks more like a hot dog to me than a cat tail, however, but what do I know!!  

    Then, at home, there was the repair project on the steps the previous owner of my house had made. Rumor has it that he loved working with the stones.  My friend Carolyn took on this task, since 1) she is kind, 2) she is very resourceful and grew up on a working ranch in Kansas, and 3) she likes to try new things.  The picture of her shows which step needed to be worked on.


 

 
I actually did this part, but not until the sun had gone way down..... We had 12 hours of rain ahead of us, so it seemed better not to drown the still wet cement on its first night out....


OK, now for a short video, during one of my evening walks on my deserted road at that time of day/night.  As always, I never feel confident it is going to work but it usually does.