Summertime fun

 

The pool is open, and a lot of families' cars use the same parking places the seniors are used to using. Sometimes a whole busload of children from a camp nearby will come and let out all those children to swim. I don't know if there's a limit to how many people are allowed in the pool!

Early morning I am able to get a parking place, but not if I arrive at noon. The hot weather brings a lot of families to the pool.

Today's quote:

The answer to control is practicing surrender.

Some old cars

For Sepia Saturday this week,  I remember going to races...mainly cars, and even a few horses. But never got to sit in a car to observe a horse race, as the photo depicted shows.

So I'll share a few car photos from my "Sepia album" but none racing!

1909 22-year-old Alice Ramsey was the first woman to drive across the USA.

A car that didn't stop at the edge of the Galveston Seawall around 1920s.

 Car and homemade trailer on U.S. 101 near King City, California. By Dorothea Lange after 1936.  Middle aged man and wife, from Wisconsin said: 'You don't know how many people are in trailers until you get to Florida'

Today's quote:

 

To know someone’s pain is to share in it. And to share in it is to relieve some of it.

NNEDI OKORAFOR

Hot and blooming

 

The coleus is bolting...so I've put this planter in a shadier spot. 

My over-wintered geraniums are still giving slightly feeble looking flowers, but they make up for it by being abundant.

The apartment grounds are full of many varieties of day lilies.

My apple mint is needing to be harvested. But since a nice spider was living on it for weeks, I've been hesitant. Soon...

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos 

Today's quote:

When we are willing to be intimate with what actually is here now, to look directly at all of our experience, we might recognize that this is our life, however different from our thoughts and ideas about it.

ROSHI PAT ENKYO O'HARA

The eyes have it - plus some news about alcohol consumption

 

Last Friday I went to optometrist for annual eye exam. But the day before the appointment, they called to say my insurance had dropped them from covered list...so did I want to private pay? I agreed, for this time, and intend to call my insurance and complain. The optometrist office said that small outfits aren't being kept on the provider lists from insurance often now. I think I'll find a new one, though this one has been close to my home so I've used it for years. 

See, even the camera can't read the bottom line! My prescription for far sightedness and astigmatism hadn't changed, so I didn't need new lenses. She said the right eye can't be corrected any more than 20-25, whatever that means. 

After all the tests she found two interesting things.

I already knew I was dealing with dry eyes. But she also saw some mucous so said I needed to do antihistamine drops daily as well as the ones that help with dry eye. Now if I can just remember to do so!

The other interesting thing about my right eye is that she found wrinkles in it. I didn't get clarification as to where, but she said that contributed to not being able to correct it to 20-20. I'm quite satisfied that the worst I have to deal with is wrinkles, since I have them all over my body by now anyway.

However, it does limit my binocular vision, of being able to tell the distance things are away from me, which usually means I reach and come up short to touch them. But sometimes it can end up with me bumping into things. That I really don't need.

So the upshot of my eye exam was incredible gratitude to have the miracle of eyesight at all...where light hits those cones and rods, and turns them into electric messages to go through nerves to my brain and give me the information that I am seeing a lake, a sky, a bird, and colors of blue and green all around me. 

Yes, I'm visually oriented in the world. 

And last night I saw that Black Mountain, my quiet little town where all stores close at 5 pm, and just a few night clubs and restaurants are open the rest of the evening, now will have liquor available for special events on sidewalks and streets! Wow. The first one will be the Blues Festival in 2 weeks, I assume, since the promoters of it are also those who promoted the Social Event Ordinance which allows vendors to apply for ABC licenses for the events. Not sure what that means. Here's the article in the Citizen Times, which I couldn't share on FB, but it has a link HERE.

I don't feel good about this. Maybe I've just seen too many negative experiences with people drinking to excess. But it is akin to the New Orleans Mardi Gras experience to my mind. Not the town I want to live in at this point in my life.

Today's quote:

In 1917 Herbert B. Swope of the New York World won the first Pulitzer prize for journalism, and when he picked up his award, said: “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula of failure — which is try to please everybody.”

A frog he would a wooing go...

Some illustrations probably for Wind in the Willows. I didn't keep the artist's name but I'm leaning toward Beatrix Potter. Though she may never have illustrated for other authors...

The most fun  is the anthropomorphizing of these frogs, to the extent that the final one doesn't flick out his tongue to eat the dragon fly!

And an adorable rendition of Frog he would a Wooing Go.

And speaking of Beatrix Potter, I've just started watching the film "Miss Potter" about her life. I've read a biography before, but it looks enjoyable with Renee Zellwiger and Ewan McGregor!

Today's quote:

To reach the depth we wish to access, we must dive below layers to the deepest parts of ourselves.

The Lake Tomahawk dam in June

 

Hopefully soon the orange fencing will come down.

This natural pump may be to a deeper well than just the water in the lake. I wasn't aware that it was there before the renovation of the dam. (Though previous photos do include it!)

The grass has taken root on most of the dam, which now has concrete reinforcement under it all!

 People are not being encouraged to walk up or down the dam on this slope.

Here are some shots of the iron reinforcement being placed back in April. It looks like they scraped the ground then gave it a gravel bed with this blue screen over it. 

Photo by Bob Nagan on FB

Photo from FB

From the Recreation Center

From the Recreation Center by me

I thought I'd published photos from May of the concrete being poured into concrete blocks laid on the dam with reinforcing iron holding them in place. So here are some of those photos...

The amazing red crane is actually an arm of a power hose which delivers wet concrete wherever the crew indicates.

At the top is a trough of concrete, and going down the slope you can see the various concrete blocks.

Later, more dirt put on top, then grass cloth to start grass growing (I wonder if that cloth disolves over time.

Sharing with Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday, and Tuesday Treasures and Random-osity.

Today's quote:

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Remembering Saturday's market

 

Several of those pots are now gone...either sold or removed to make room for others that I wish to sell.

These are the last of Cathy's pottery, until she has recuperated enough to make something new and brilliant. Many friends stopped by to ask after her, and sent messages!

Another missing Mud Buddy is Bette Potter Jones, who used to sit in her chair and give the dogs treats. Several folks asked how she's doing. (She has decided not to come every Sat. and rather enjoy being at home at 90 years old!)

Friend Ellen had to go say hi to this pup. The owners said they had Golden Retrievers that missed seeing Bette (and her treats!)

The following photos are of our competition at the market.

Just 3 booths down from ours was a "day booth" set up by Cariku, the new pottery studio/school in Black Mountain. They had a mix of students and teacher's works for sale, and did a brisk business,  definitely selling to our usual customers. Grrrr!

Before the market  even opened, painters were at work on the new build across the street.

Today's Quote:

There are few uglier traits than this tendency -- witnessed in men no worse than their neighbors -- to grow cruel, merely because they possessed the power of inflicting harm. -Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (4 Jul 1804-1864)

Day trip to Cooler Climes - Part 2 of 2

 Since the restaurant was closed in Little Switzerland (where we'd planned without checking to eat lunch) we researched a restaurant about 10 miles away in Spruce-Pine, which was open and served us lovely sandwiches. 

I was distracted just a bit when we parked and I saw this - a real cutie!

It was great having made-to-order sandwiches. And the air conditioned dining room was also welcome. But I now want to take a bit of a detour from our main goals, and show you something I discovered (which I think is neat). (I'm easily diverted!)

When looking down the various long hallways to the Ladies Room, 

I discovered this...

And upon looking up, I saw the bottom of the dumb waiter! You don't run into one of these (which apparently is in working order) every day going to the Ladies!

We drove around downtown Spruce Pine, but didn't see any stores that caught our attention. This is rare with my two friends...they love to browse in gift shops. But anything of that nature was carefully hidden behind sad old looking maybe empty storefronts. I knew there was a gallery somewhere, because once I'd brought some mugs to display there. But I couldn't find it.

So then we decided to come home all the way on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That's a long drive! But even though it's just 2 lanes, there are only a few overlooks to stop at. The worst problem was caused by bicyclers, who of course had right of way, and there never ever were any passing places. The whole road is twists and turns. But our fearless driver, Teresa, was able to see far enough around the bikers to pass them safely each time.

The temperature outside our car was 69 F at one point!

We did see an accident...where we suddenly came around a curve and saw a huge wrecker on the other side of the road, with a crane cable going over the side of the mountain to pull up a car...which we couldn't even see. There hadn't been any warning coming our direction (south), but a policeman had stopped the traffic going up the Parkway...until we passed by. I saw a few brake skids on the road going off the side towards the drop-off. It wasn't mentioned on the evening news 3 hours later so hopefully everyone was alright. This was the first Parkway accident I have encountered through the years.

At one overlook we saw bare slopes where trees had been  harvested , and where probably some Christmas trees had been planted on the bare slope. Other areas just looked scalped of all vegetation, and I thought immediately of the erosion that would happen with the next hard rain.

The Black Mountains are known as the oldest mountains in America, showing as a "J" on the map of the Appalachians. Of course all the mountains in the western US are much younger, geologically speaking.

 

We drove on, and from the Craggy Garden's overlook (not at the bald at the top) we saw the Burnett Reservoir and the dam, which provides Asheville's water. A few miles later we passed the Folk Art Center. And soon we were home...talking about all our interests the whole day long. Teresa's granddaughter Madison was well behaved the whole time. 

Burnett Reservoir in the distance, with a bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway showing through the greenery.

Today's quote:

Blaise Pascal mathematician, visionary, said, “Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.”