Blooms Not of the Imagination

"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination."

 

It used to be that we could only imagine the scent of lilacs and lavender in the month of November. Not so this year. The entire lilac bush is covered in blooms on top. We also have fresh dill and the peppers keep ripening like gangbusters. It is all very odd. I post it here just so I can look back and remember it one day in the future. The Willy Wonka song is in my head when I go out to smell the lilacs and lavender. 

"Reach out, touch what was once just in your imagination."

 

 

Family Visit 2024

 

I am still coming down from the high of our children's annual visit. Even though it was a big, loud, messy, noisy, endless-food-eating week, I miss everyone. Steve went out of town the day after the children left. His absence magnified the emptiness in the house. I found purpose in getting the rooms back in order, washing the floors, doing laundry, and having an occasional nap. 

The shoes lined up at the back door have disappeared. The wind has blown the big leaf pile across the field and the trees are suddenly bare. While I knock about the empty house I recollect their voices: the grandchildren calling my name, daughters discussing plans, a child asking for a drink, a snack, or a baggie to hold nature finds. The fullness of that week carries us happily back into our busy routines.

The trees and leaves provided a week of endless play.

Little guy's homemade owl costume

Trick-or-Treating in town

Mummy game at Aunt Tess's Halloween party

We always have a bonfire.

Ready to walk to the vineyard with daughters #3, 2, 1, and 4.

Autum's Grand Finale...How to Keep Up

 

It has arrived! Seemingly overnight, golden leaves paint the landscape. The grandchildren rake them up and jump into the piles while Dewey-the-dog runs circles around them. The dog pounces into the pile and disappears under the leaves. The adults sit in chairs and laugh at their antics while we catch up with one another. 

It has been a little over a year since our family was all together. Daughter #2, from New Hampshire, chose this week to bring her family for their annual visit to Virginia. Her annual visit is usually the impetus for the Daughters #1, 3 and 4 to find a way be here as well. It is always a joy to have our girls visit all at the same time. These gatherings are so rare nowadays. This year we are all together for Halloween. The beautiful autumn weather is the icing on the cake. 

My role during our family gatherings hasn't changed much over forty years. I dote on the grandchildren and I feed everyone.  One thing that has changed over the years is that Steve and I are getting older. We move a little slower and tire a little easier. I like to keep up with the children's activities but it movement and energy have diminished over time.

Yesterday, the kids planned a hike. I was going to stay behind and relax. At the last minute, I decided to go. My daughter said she chose an easy hike that was suitable for the kids. Several years ago I learned the hard way that an "easy" hike for one person may not be "easy" hike for me. However, I was familiar with where this hike was and I figured I could do it. I thought I heard her saying the hike was one point two miles and I thought that would be easy for me to do. Once we arrived and began hiking, I learned that it was actually a four mile hike with an elevation gain. I tried not to worry ahead and I just put one foot in front of the other. It was a clear trail and the path was easy to follow. I got into the groove and I lost track of the physical work of it.

My daughter chatted away. Every once in a while she would exclaim how beautiful the Virginia woods were and how excited she was to be out here. I listened to her three boys sing and talk along the way. They gathered nature finds and carried leaves, pine cones, and acorns in their hands. We studied leaves and trees, exclaimed over seeing squirrels and a deer, explored a little cave, and enjoyed a snack at the summit. It was a glorious hike, full of color and dappled sunshine. At some point I became aware that I was acing this hike! I took quick stock and realized nothing felt sore and I was not out of breath. I had been careful stepping over rocks and leaves in order to avoid a twisted ankle or a fall but otherwise everything was grand.

Two years ago, this hike would have felt uncomfortable to me. It was this moment of realization that I knew my ability to do this hike and enjoy this time with my family today was because I have been going to the gym for the last year and a half. My muscles and lungs are in better shape. This simple truth amazes me.

I noticed that increased strength and stamina sneaks up in small, almost imperceptible, accumulating amounts over time.  For sixteen months I have done forty minutes of weight resistance exercises, followed by forty-five minutes of aerobic exercise, three times a week. When I began this journey to feel better I was limping from hip pain. I had continual back issues, sciatica, and very low energy. My trainer started me on ten to fifteen pounds of weight resistance, which is about the minimum. Over the year and a half, I have worked up to between forty to eighty-five pounds of resistance, depending on the machine. The goal was never weight loss. (I wouldn't mind losing weight, it just hasn't happened.) I just wanted to keep doing all the things I enjoyed. Above all, I wanted to be able to walk without pain. I put no time limit on achieving it.  

The entire challenge has been mind-over-matter for me. I hate gyms, I have never liked going to gyms, and I hate to sweat. I hate routines that make me get up and go out to exercise at the gym in the morning. I hate missing another cup of coffee in my pajamas because I need to go to the gym. I hate changing into a bathing suit and getting into water on a cold winter day to do aerobics. I honestly hate the process of it all. But I did it anyway. That Nike commercial holds a lot of truth when it says, "Just Do It."

 In the end, it has paid off. The physical and mental reward of accomplishing activities like hiking, ice skating, and paddling are empowering. I marvel at the fact that simply moving ones body on a regular basis results in this amount of strength. It requires no prescriptions, no special diet. Aches and pains still come and go but they are not debilitating. My husband began going to the gym last month. He saw what was happening to me and he wanted to feel better too.

I hiked with my grand kids today and the view was magnificent! 

 

 

Holden Beach, NC

 

For the second year in a row, our friends and we have rented a house on Holden Beach, NC. Until last year we had never been to this beach before. Our friends have been going there for over forty years and introduced us to the area. We went during the first week in October these past two years and both times the weather was perfect. It was warm enough to sun and swim during the day and cool enough to don a sweatshirt in the evening. There was low humidity, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, no crowds, and plenty of relaxation.

Holden Beach is a strip of island accessible by a bridge with a waterway between it and the mainland. It is one, straight road lined on both sides by houses. There are no hotels or high rises there. You will see a few beachy type business before the access bridge, but otherwise it is a quiet place. Myrtle beach is to the south and Wilmington is to the north. Overall, we like the quietness of Holden Beach for relaxing. The beachfront houses are only yards away from the sand so there is not a long walk to the beach. Almost all of the houses have large, covered decks where you can sit and watch the water under beautifully painted skies. Each morning we spotted dolphins and many fishing birds making nosedives into the water for food. Holden beach is also the only place where you can find fossilized sea biscuits. (You can read about them here) We found some beautiful, intact biscuits last year during a rain storm. We only found a couple more this year but I am always excited to find one. Shell collecting was minimal because most shells were broken to pieces by the waves. The beach is long enough that you can walk miles. Last year Steve and I walked three miles up to the pier and back. 

We drove to Shallotte, Southport, and Calabash for a little shopping and dinners out. Another day we drove to Wilmington for some antiquing and lunch. We found a very nice little antique shop in Shallotte called Miss Minnie's antiques. She had things displayed beautifully and it was fun to browse. There are a couple of ice cream shops and a Food Lion nearby. We also had a pizza delivered one evening which we ate on the deck. Shallotte is only twenty minutes or so away from the beach and there are stores like Hobby Lobby and Walmart if desired.

Our friend Dan fished every day. He threw back all but one fish. The one he kept was a flounder. He filleted and broiled it for dinner and all six of us had a small piece. it was the best flounder I have ever tasted. Flounder are interesting, flat shaped fish with a white underside and a sand colored upper side. Their eyes are both on the top side which makes their face look a little goofy. It reminds me of how a child might draw a fish's face.  

It was a good vacation, especially for Steve, to relax and do nothing much. My favorite part was our evening walks on the beach where we watched the sun set. Each evening it lowered slowly until it finally touched the horizon in a fiery red ball.

There is a man who comes each year and builds sand pyramids. Steve took this photo just as the sun was setting behind them.

The Autumn Song

 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

Weathering the Storms

 

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.

 

The Commingling of Summer and Fall

 

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!