We have been away to the beach for a last taste of summer. Autumn greeted us upon our return! I have photos and thoughts to sift through from the trip. For now, I will share a photo that Steve took at a bar where we had lunch. The sun was shining on us from the window. I am beginning to feel the history behind those lines and wrinkles.
The Autumn Song by Sarah Sparks
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| A view of the North Carolina mountains taken in the highlands when our daughter lived in Boone, NC. |
We were spared the bulk of the wrath of Helene last Friday. She dumped unimaginable amounts of rain here and caused a couple of local tornadoes and many power outages. However, our neighbors to the southwest, in western North Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and Georgia fared so much worse.
It rained for a week prior to the arrival of Helene in our southern states. I can't recall so many days of rain like we had. We were thankful for the water after a summer of drought. But the hurricane was too much, too fast onto ground that was already saturated. If you have ever visited Asheville, Blowing Rock, or any of the western North Carolina/West Virginia/Tennessee mountain areas you can see by the geography why such flooding occurred. The mountains are tall and close and the hollows and valleys are deep. It is a beautifully rugged landscape, very lush and green. The contrast of mountains to hollows is its beauty.
Our neighbor's suffering is very much on our minds. Many local organizations and businesses are collecting supplies and funds to rush into those hard hit areas. There are many opportunities to give support and I appreciate all the ways these organizations make it easy for people like us to chip in and help out. Food Lion supermarkets are matching all donations up to one million dollars. I feel certain they will make that goal and have two million dollars to send for disaster relief. Every day my Facebook feed is filled with missing persons photos from families looking for loved ones who have not yet been found. It is truly heartbreaking and so we pray.
Post Script: I stopped in our local Food Lion supermarket today and asked the cashier about making a donation for hurricane victims. She said she did not know anything about the fund drive. She mentioned that another customer asked the same question. I rechecked Food Lion's Facebook page and the announcement is still there. I don't think it is spam. It may be only Food Lions in a particular area are having the fund drive? I don't know.
It has rained so much and so steadily these past six days that I
can only get as far as the screened porch to be outside for any amount of time. The
rains couldn't come soon enough after the drought this summer. We
lost a couple of established shrubs, a few perennials, and a tree from
the drought. For this reason, I am happy to sit on the porch, listen to
the rain, and watch everything turn green again.
In spite of the humid, tropical rain, the calendar says it is autumn. It's confounding because we have the air conditioner running again in order to keep the humidity down. The cool, fall weather we experienced two weeks ago is only a memory. I have learned that in the south, the delineation of summer and fall are not crisp and clear like the change up north. Summer and fall commingle for a long time here.
My wall planter still looks happy and healthy. I don't have the heart to toss it on the compost pile in order to replace it with a fall plant. I decided to let it be and use some other pots for fall plantings. Some pots will sing, "Summer!" while others sing, "Fall!". My friend mixes artificial fall mums with other live grasses in her outdoor planters for fall. She has trouble with deer pulling up her mums and she said this solution works well. I have seen her arrangements on her front porch and they always look very nice. Driving by, one would never guess that they were artificial flowers. I was shopping with her recently at Hobby Lobby and she convinced me to give the artificial mums a try. They were forty percent off and they were nice looking. When I got home I decided to use them to replace the geraniums that had become leggy out on the screened porch. This porch is right off the kitchen and I see it every day, walking past the door. I must say, I like the splash of color the artificial flowers add there for fall! It makes me happy that the blooms will not fade before Halloween and I can even leave them out until Thanksgiving if I want. I will add some pumpkins to the display and the grandchildren can carve them next month.
There is much yard work to be done before we can say the gardens are put away for winter. This is the season we should be out there getting it all done. For now, it will have to wait for the rain to pass which, according to the forecast, is still days away. I feel better about the delay by making a list of all the work that needs to be done. This helps me feel a little more in control of it all...even though it's really Mother Nature steering this ship. But one thing is for sure; she does not have control over my screened porch mums!
Anyway, I browsed while he checked out the tape decks. I spotted the beautiful graphics on the box above in a kitchen display. I have seen these cookie presses before but never this deluxe version. All the attachments were there including the original manual and recipe booklet! It was priced at only $8.00 so I bought it.
I bake cookies a lot. I have some tried and true favorites like chocolate chip, oatmeal, molasses, New York Black and Whites, and pizzelles. Outside of those, it is fun to try new recipes. We noticed that the recipe booklet in this set spells cookie with a 'y', 'cooky'. These little butter cookie gems are popular in Italian bakery cookie trays. I cannot wait to test it! If they turn out well I will take them to my rug hooking group next Tuesday. : )
This year my daughter took each of her three children on their own, personal getaways. Her eldest came with us on our girls' Vermont ice skating holiday in February. Then she took her middle son to New York City for a fun-filled visit. Lastly, her youngest son chose to have a beach holiday. They asked if anyone else in the family would like to go along and I raised my hand.
We booked rooms at First Colony Inn in Nags Head, NC. The inn was built in 1932 and is a registered historic landmark. I drove down to our daughter's home in North Carolina on Sunday morning and from there, we drove together to Nags Head. We had adjoining rooms on the first floor. We enjoyed everything this historic inn had to offer. The architecture, the gardens, the sparkling in-ground pool, the easy beach access, the friendly staff, and the breakfasts and social hour were all wonderful. The inn also provides beach chairs and an umbrella. We spent two glorious days relaxing at the ocean's edge. We built sand castles, played in the waves, swam in the pool, and ate dinners out. We also played miniature golf one evening at a really fun course called "Mutiny Bay", which is right across the road. The only thing that we didn't like at the inn was the musty smell in my bedroom and bath. As long as I kept the A/C turned up, it wasn't too bad in the room. But it was hard not to notice the damp smell in the bathroom. Given the age of the structure and the level of humidity in this climate, I understood the reason. This would not prevent me from staying here again. Although I might try a second floor room the next time. There are too many plusses about the inn that outweigh this one negative.
We prefer to avoid the southern beaches in the high heat of summer. September and October are my favorite months to visit the beach down here. For this trip, we had daytime temperatures in the mid to upper seventies and the ocean water was refreshing but not frigid. The water felt about the same temperature as the air.
It is a rare opportunity for me to have one-on-one time with any of our daughters these days. I cherished every moment of our time away. I loved digging in the sand with my grandson. My own inner child was at play when I knelt in the sand and ran in the waves. It was so easy to forget the problems of day-to-day life in this environment. Wednesday rolled around too soon and it was time to drive home. There are many things to do on the Outer Banks and we decided that another visit will be in order one day.
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| The inn holds a social hour every afternoon with a snack buffet and wine. Guests are welcome to mingle in the dining room or take plates out onto the deck or to their rooms. |
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| Mutiny Bay Miniature Golf was a lot of fun. The eighteen hole course takes you up onto the deck of a pirate ship, up and down water features, and around perfectly landscaped greens. They even had water explosions as invisible cannonballs hit the water. |
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| I don't think my grandson minded being doted on. It was his special getaway, so doting was a given! |
Summer lingers long in the mountains of Virginia. Yes, fall knocks at the door with cool nights and lovely days but our garden keeps producing tomatoes and peppers. The peppers, in particular, grow like gangbusters in September. Steve loves his hot peppers and preserving them is his delight.
Recently, our neighbor gave us a dehydrator he wasn't using. It was a new toy for which we were very grateful! We got to work right away by dehydrating cherry tomatoes and Steve's peppers. The dried tomatoes will come in handy on focaccia or pizzas this winter. As for the peppers, Steve grinds the dehydrated peppers into powders. He sprinkles them on pretty much all of his food. He also loves to give them away to hot-pepper-loving friends.
The crazy thing is, by the time I purchased the spice jars with sprinkle lids to put the pepper powder into, and replace the tape in the label maker, and buy a new grinder (the old one died), we probably could have purchased all the hot pepper powder in town. However, this way was much more fun. Hobbies can be expensive! 
My contribution to expenses in the hobby realm was to rent an Airbnb with two friends for three days. We try to do this once or twice a year in order to concentrate on hooking, sewing, or whatever with no interruptions. It is also a lot of fun.
For this trip, we only drove an hour and a half away to Baseye, VA. It is a resort area for skiers and golfers, of which we do neither. But the area has Airbnb's available for not a huge cost. When split three ways, the cost is actually minimal.
I brought three projects with me to work on. All three have been on my "to do" list for several months. I purchased the poison ivy applique kit last year from Susan Gonzales at a gathering in Maryland. At the time, my arms were broken out in poison ivy and her design made me smile when I saw it. She calls it, "Itchin' To Stitch". The other embroidery was also purchased in Maryland, but at this year's gathering. It is a design by Teresa Miller of Teresa's Primitive Treasures from her and Robin Leuschen's book called "Primitive and Folk Art Fancies". I was able to complete these first two pieces at our getaway. I also begin my third project which is a cross stitched winter scene. It is still on the hoop while I finish it up at home now. It felt really good to be in a creative zone for three days, especially with friends. We talk and laugh, go out for a meal, eat ice cream, and appreciate how blessed we are to have this time away.
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| I tacked the 8"x8" poison ivy applique onto a lidded basket from Amazon. I placed this on a table in the bathroom. It is a good place to hide the wipes. ; ) |
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| The pumpkin flower embroidery is installed on a sliding lid box, also sold at Teresa's Primitive Treasures on Etsy. |
The hum of the air conditioner is finally silent. The house has been closed up tight all summer to keep out the heat. Finally, we can open the windows and let the cool air flow through the rooms. This is what I call good sleeping weather. Summer is winding down.
The lines in this beautiful field caught my eye when I was driving down our road. Gathering in the last cutting of hay is another reminder that summer is ending. It is a bittersweet time. I rejoice with the cooler air but I am also melancholy. The shorter daylight is noticeable. We begin turning inward, into our homes earlier in the evening, closer toward a source of warmth that no longer comes from the sun. We light the lamps earlier and we add an extra blanket onto the bed.
Like the golden light that arrives in September; Steve and I are entering our golden years. Our working years are winding down, our children are raised, and the "building up" of our life is almost done. We are talking about what retirement might look like for Steve and how we can achieve it. Our focus is changing toward preserving the harvest that has been our life's work and preparing for winter. It is bittersweet.
Last night he and I sat in a classroom together along with a bunch of other folks. We were there to learn more about Social Security and retirement. The classroom setting reminded me of another time we sat in a class together, forty years ago. Steve was in his sixth and final year of college and I was working to support us. I was very pregnant with our first daughter and it had been a tough week for me at work. I decided to take the next day off to decompress. I must have been very emotional from the pregnancy because my eyes were red and puffy from crying the night before. Rather than leave me home alone, Steve invited me to go to class with him. He made it sound like it would be fun. It was not. I felt so out of place in that Power Engineering class among all those engineering students. I looked a wreck. I was so big and pregnant and the fluorescent lights hurt my red and puffy eyes. The math was way over my head and it took all my willpower to look as though I had a clue. I seem to recall feeling physically uncomfortable with the pregnancy, either from my bladder or maybe it was gas. Oh Lord. But we were young and so in love! A new beginning was just around the corner for us and we felt like the world was ours for the taking.
Can it already be forty years gone by? Are we really now sitting in a retirement class? It is a sobering thought and it gives me pause to stop and assess my life.
So far, September has been lovely. Summer is leaving us in a kind and gentle fashion. I can still wear sandals and the sun still puts color on my skin. I pray this season of life will also be kind to us. For some reason, this Bible verse from Psalm 121:1-2 comes to mind as well as the song following.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
