Staying inside today 2.17.15

Dusting of snow last night, then sleet, left everything covered with ice.

Quote for today:

It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Berry
Collected Poems

Art in Bloom memories - 9

Yes, tomatoes in a container!

 Catch a drip or two of the fountain.

 A lovely stone wall, which looks pretty old, holds up a patch of garden outside the fenced area for dogs.

Thank heavens for a zoom.  I saw these Magnolia blossoms on a tree across the street in the shade.  I was surprised to capture them this well.

More construction shots

First the old house was rennovated...

Then the father's house was laid out with a slab...taking the space that used to be grass and woods

I wish I had a penny for all the trucks and workers that have been across the street from me in the last year. As well as all those who just stop by to use the Porta-potty (green in the corner right outside my living room windows)

Some days it was kind of interesting to watch what workmen were doing, as I sat at my keyboard looking from the front of my house.

Roof is on, a plumbing truck was delivering fixtures last week, and windows and some doors are in.

In my opinion this is a monstrous building which looms over all the other houses in the neighborhood.

Geese return

Hello from one little duck by the lake.

My first sighting this year of Canada Geese...(remember I haven't been out much in the last month, so they could have been here a while).  I was looking at the dam where trees have been felled in order to (supposedly) dig out their roots and re-build a safer dam...over the next several months.

I wonder how the flocks of them will adapt when the lake is drained for work on the dam...but it's happened before, so I dare say they will figure out a way to nest and feed...those who have raised their families here before.



Today's Quote:

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.

Abigail Adams

Be the river...

Flat Creek, Montreat, NC

Quote for today:

I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.   John O'Donohue, "Fluent" from Connemara Blues

Trees off the dam

Looking toward the dam at Lake Tomahawk yesterday, there's an openness which used to have trees.

Approximately 50 trees are being removed, including their roots.  The lake will be drained in order to do this.

I wonder if these in the foreground will be spared, or just hadn't been felled yet.

Apparently this is such a big event it's been covered in our local TVnews, just click here.
Here's the text of the TV clip...

LAKE TOMAHAWK, N.C. -- A major change to the landscape of one Black Mountain neighborhood has many people upset.

Viewers wanted to know why the town of Black Mountain was cutting down dozens of historic trees on Lake Tomahawk.

Crews have been working since last week to take them down after orders came from the Dam Safety Division in Raleigh.

Engineers are concerned these 80-year-old trees have such large roots, that if they died, it would open up issues in the dam and lead to a breach.

Now crews will be working through April to remove the stumps and roots, a project that will cost about $40,000.

"This looks like devastation, like Hurricane Katrina came through and knocked it all down," Black Mountain Mayor Michael Sobol said. "We do have a plan."

"Well it's almost like an operation," Ann Whisenant of Black Mountain said. "It's not very pleasant but it's something that has to be done."

Black Mountain's Beautification Committee is planning on transforming this site once the tree work is done, they'll be confined to mostly plants and flowers to avoid large roots

There was some concern that removing these roots, which have helped keep this land together for more than half a century, would compromise the dam.  

Mayor Sobol says the crews will be removing one at a time to prevent any problems."

I'm  glad I read about it in our weekly newspaper, The Black Mountain News, a few weeks ago.


Today's Quote:

All the way to heaven is heaven.

Catherine of Siena