Neighborhood looks

 One day I actually made it puff puff puffing up the hill of our parking lot, and found the apartments in the building at the top of the hill had pretty decorations. Stopping to take a pic also helped me catch my breath!

Now there's a lady with a green thumb! I love seeing everything growing up and up all over her entryway.

A promise of fall color from those mums. I was surprised to see a hummingbird feeder at ground level. I thought we could only hang them on balconies, where hopefully hungry bears couldn't reach them. Mmm.

And her next door neighbor also has a hummer feeder...along with some seasonal colors.

I feel very fortunate to be able to walk anywhere, compared to some neighbors who are wheelchair bound. At the vascular center I noticed a man with only one leg in a wheel chair. It made me feel so grateful to still have two. Simple things.

Han Chingli, Inner Mongolian Child.

Today's quote:

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.

DAKOTA PROVERB

A wee bit early

 Early rising for me yesterday...before the sun rose. I suddenly thought as I came out of complete lack of thought, "Bird does fly"...and then next I realized "Mouth is dry." So with that rhyme motivating me, I turned off the C-Pap and did the next things one does.

Then I had a busy day, walking at the lake, meeting friends for lunch, taking my friend who lives up on a mountain with her own broken wing to the doctor and back home. She dislocated her shoulder a week ago, and this may have been her first outing after the ER and the Orthopedic visit. 

I came home and took a nap. 

It's not even October yet...and our management of Blue Ridge Apartments is putting Thanksgiving signs out. Hey, what about Halloween y'all?

Today's quote:

If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won. -Louisa May Alcott, writer and reformist (1832-1888)

Oh yes, the flags were out on Monday

We're having a downtown block party tonight in Black Mountain NC, with food trucks and music and dancing (and a huge parking problem) and of course a great fireworks show.

And I posted a week ago wondering when the decorations would be out.  So then I kept looking and carting around my iPhone (it's really got an umbilical cord to me by now!

Monday the flags were there.  The photos were taken, and then I worked on my pottery, and other things I do, and I forgot to show you here! (Head bowed in embarrassment...a pose I'm very familiar with.)  And I forget more and more things...like last night I forgot to go to the studio completely.  Oh dear, maybe this is how my life will be from now on.  I did remember at 9:30 pm that I had a free coupon for $8 to use at the local drug store. I wondered if it was still open, since the "free bucks" expired yesterday.  So I quickly drove the 1/4 mile to it and purchased cashews and chocolate, a treat thanks to my being a good customer (and getting all those prescriptions filled there!) I also discovered it's been ages since I've driven at night! Partly because the sun doesn't go down very early these days.

I wonder when they decorate the town

 It's exactly one week from Wed (when I wrote this)
The Fourth of July.

 Looking down State Street to the east, there are no flags attached to light poles yet.

But Harwood Funeral Home has it's sign out for the free hot dogs which it provides every fourth.  And that's why I walked outside from the Museum (where I sit all afternoon looking at this view)to check for more decorations...they are the first at this point.

I will have to follow up with when they do decorate, now won't I?

Sunday from one end to another

 I started out the day brewing coffee for the church people to drink after the service. I like splitting up the duties in which I do prep work, and a friend does cleanup.

 Then in the evening, I went to a Yule ritual in Asheville.  It was fun seeing decorations there.

 Even plastic greenery looks pretty when the light hits it.

 Their love and peace tree was pretty too.

This was before the Yule ritual, where the Holly and the Ivy met with the Oak king and the Sun returned...very nicely dramatized, and included some participation by those who attended.

Quote for today:

As a human being living on earth, it is important to learn to ground yourself in relation to your earth mother.

Island life

The lake around which I walk has an island, which used to be covered by bushes.  Ducks and geese, and perhaps the Canada Geese as well, would lay their eggs in the spring.  They attracted some of the next part of the food chain as well, mainly raccoons.  So often the baby waterfowl would disappear over night.

Then a few years ago, about the time the signs saying don't feed the waterfowl went up, the island was cleared of brush.

Doesn't keep the ducks from going out there.

And when I walked the circumfrence after the holidays, I noticed some other critters were parked there as well.

 

I'm happy to see a crane, as well as various other waterfowl, along with the silly fake igloo, etc, which light up at night.  The park closes at sunset, so I haven't gone at night to see them, and they have probably been dismantled by now anyway.  I did notice the lake didn't have it's customary Christmas Tree of lights out in the water this year.  Times change.

Today's Quote:

"Like a shadow that does not permit us to jump over it, but moves with us to maintain its proper distance, pollution is nature's answer to culture. When we have learned to recycle pollution into potent information, we will have passed over completely into the new cultural ecology."

William Irwin Thompson