A bird, a sheep, and clouds

I told my grandson and his girlfriend taht on their cruise in the Caribbean I'd be a seagull watching them.  The joke was that they couldn't tell which gull was really me. He took this photo of the bird, and sent it to me. Who knows what she (the gull) saw, it wasn't me that time!

The Black Mountain Yarn Shop shows a sheep, and there's a possibility one might be confused and think it was a black sheep...

A solar heart in the sky...

The wonderful intersection of the street I was stopped on, US 70 (State St) and crossing of NC 9 (Montreat Rd) gave a view of the Town Hardware on the far corner. And a few clouds up high or in the distance at the edge of the mountains.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

Sharing with Skywatch Friday!

Today's quote:

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. 

-Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918)
 

At the Senior Center at Lake Tomahawk

 

Our lunches include a carton of milk.

This little message is on each one.

"About 85% of this carton is paper. Paper is renewable and we have more trees in the US now than we did 50 years ago."

Now doesn't that just make you feel...what? Confused? I was. Trees being planted since 1974 (50 years ago) may have some bearing on how many are going to paper pulp in making cartons of milk. But hey, why aren't they just using recycled paper instead of new paper to make these silly cartons?

Or is it because someone thinks it would sound unsanitary to have reused paper in the making of milk cartons? And how about recycling the cartons themselves? Is that even possible?

And on Wed. before lunch Carol takes us through sit and be fit...which ends up standing and marching! Whew!

These interesting patterns show the cover over the swimming pool, right outside the door of our "dining room" where we meet for lunches M-F. It's only open during summer months, and often has ice on top of the cover where rain accumulates.

While February offers some sunny days (like this one) there are also free books in the "Little Free Library" at Lake Tomahawk.

And right next to it is a little Free Library for Children! Food for the soul!

From snow and ice on a drained lake to...

muddy water from spring rains. Wonder when the dam construction will begin!

Today's quote:

There will always be factors and people that we cannot control; how we respond can determine the quality of our lives.

Today's quote:

Come, live in my heart and pay no rent. -Samuel Lover, songwriter, composer, novelist, and artist (1797-1868)

For the birds, and others

 

Another great gift from the recent holidays...a hummingbird feeder with pretty glass reservoir.

It will hang outside above my balcony, but I seldom can sit at an angle to watch hummers come. Perhaps I will move my chair!

Sharing with Wordless Wednesday

Today's quote:

 “Most readers think that a novel is, first of all, a story. Well, it really isn’t … A novel is an evolution of life. Its story is merely a means to an end.” educator and writer Mary Ellen Chase

Some views around town in February

 

This is one of the most "unfavorite" shops in Black Mountain. Why? Not just because their products are deadly for adults...and they push them on young people trying to grow into "savvy adults," but because this building is located right across the street from the Primary School. That's young children's educational site. They may learn to read, and just look what they can see out the bus windows or from the playground during recess!

Driving further toward town on State St (Hwy 70), I can see a local savings bank (Black Mountain Savings) across from me.

The old Depot and part of the red caboose. Photo by Fred McCormick 2020

Next to the red caboose...

Turning a few times on First Street, and there's this little building going up. Is it a tiny home? Or perhaps a bit bigger? I would wonder...there are roof trusses already laid down.  But it's really squeezed in between its neighbors.

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Today's quote:

Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something. 

-Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, and playwright (3 Feb 1874-1946)

Murals near the clay studio

 People who drive down this hill probably get a glimpse of the mural...Doughtery St. goes steeply down from State St.

But it also goes around the corner...

where we meet our local black bear (they really do come into town and get into people's trash)

and the mural continues over the retention pond...

and then you see the Clay Studio with it's art-tile murals! (more later)

This wall is behind an enclosed dumpster, as well as the retention pond, where clay sludge is filtered before going into the aquifer.

There are apparently a sunset and a moonrise pictured on the wall.

Sharing with Monday Murals

Today's quote:

Living gratefully offers a merciful path for walking through life with our eyes and hearts wide open."

Kristi Nelson

Sort of out of my neighborhood...

 Amazing cities of the Amazon jungle...

Kunguints site, Upano Valley, Ecuador. Dug streets cross the urban area where they are bordered by complexes of rectangular platforms arranged around low squares. The site is framed by two rivers.

Complex of rectangular earth platforms of the Nijiamanch site along the cliff edge of the Upano riverbed, Ecuador. Image by S. Rostain.

I'm quite excited to see another civilization which existed!

If someone were to ask you what you know about the history of the Amazon, what would you say? Archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, who knows a thing or two about the region, insists in a recent profile that the answer is “nothing, because the history that we think we know is wrong.” In a study recently published in Science, Rostain chronicles a 30-year research project and the astonishing discovery of a 2,500-year-old metropolis in the Ecuadorian rainforest, a “lost valley of cities.”

While previous expeditions to the area have documented large mounds and monuments throughout the area, the enormity and complexity of this find exceeded expectations with the discovery of thousands of houses, complex roads, plazas, ceremonial sites, and drainage canals. More than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, which were likely homes and communal buildings, are connected by a vast and sophisticated road network connecting 15 urban centers, surrounded by terraced agricultural fields.

Rostain and his colleagues used aerial Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, to scan an ancient network of cities extending across 115 square miles in the Amazon. Built around 500 B.C.E. and occupied for hundreds of years until the population began to migrate away between 300 and 600 C.E., the Upper Amazon site’s immense scale places it in league with comparable Maya urban systems recently found in Mexico and Guatemala.

You may also enjoy exploring Vinicius Peripato and Luiz Aragão’s recent survey of earthworks in Brazil that suggest thousands still hidden in the forest. (via Kottke)

Source: Colossal In the World's Largest Rainforest... 

My guess is that the roads were worn down by feet, animals and human. There's no evidence of wheeled vehicles, beyond some toys, in the "new world" before Europeans came there. But it isn't logical to me that roadways would be built lower than houses...though maybe they were shallow canals. There are many more questions than answers!

Today's quote: 

The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war between princes. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

Close to home

 Black Mountain Inn

Postcard: This divided back era postcard shows a lightly colored depiction of the Black Mountain Inn. The postmark on the back of the postcard is not entirely legible, but we believe it to read "July of 1910." Nestled within a tree preserve dating back to the 1700s, the Black Mountain Inn has nearly 200 years of history in Black Mountain. The building itself is three stories and almost 5,000 square feet with eight bedrooms and eight baths sitting on five acres. The Inn was originally built as a stagecoach stop by John Stepp around 1830 and was renovated and expanded in 1940. At its peak, the Inn had would host as many as 16-20 people for breakfast that were staying in the eight available rooms. Today, the Black Mountain Inn is still in operation off of Old US Highway 70.

Source: Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center facebook page

My post from 2020 follows:

It's set back from the road, up on a tall hill, overlooking both Old US 70, and the newer US 70, and the railroad running from east to west and back. Many trees are on the slope up to the old building, but they were cleared out a bit a few years ago, so you can now see the building from the road. For many years it was wild looking land, and only some brave folks would go up the gravel road to see it.

This sign shows a favorite gathering place, the Dynamite Coffee Shop with its red roof. It lies very close to the junction of the 2 US 70 highways. I live in the other direction a couple hundred feet also off Old US 70. This was the first time I drove up the steep driveway to take some photos.

Here's the link to their own internet site.

And I wanted to find out a bit of the history of the building, so I'm quoting from their web-page.

Originally designed as a stagecoach stop, the inn was built circa 1830 and for more than 100 years it underwent several transformations. At the turn of the 20th century it operated for several years as the Franklin Humanitarian Home (a TB sanatorium).

Notably, in 1940, as the famed Black Mountain College approached its zenith, the property was purchased by Mary Aleshire and Daisey Erb. Mrs. Aleshire was the manager of the Norton Art Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida. She artfully restored and updated the historic property. In 1942, the house was opened as the Oak Knoll Art Studio, which served primarily as a summer artist's retreat for Mrs. Aleshire and her many famous guest; Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Norman Rockwell, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan and Joan Sutherland among them.

In 1965, wishing to preserve the house, and prevent commercial development the Aleshires sold the house to their caretaker Jim Reid.

The house was purchased again in 1989 and lovingly restored by its current owners, who transformed it into the Black Mountain Inn. Since then, we have been privileged to return this wonderful inn to the tradition of welcoming guests to the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains.

I think when they say "prevent commercial development" they were referring to something besides a B&B...maybe?

The following photos are all from their web site.

Linking to Sepia Saturday. The visitors to the mountains have always had ways to have fun, but not like the women in the ocean pictured here!

Moods in the sky

 

 Sharing with Skywatch Friday

Today's quote:

In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper in the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.

HOWARD THURMAN

Otter otter

 

Why not say Otter Otter for the first of things to wish good luck?

Or as my friend (FB) Nan Zito says, one of these things is not like the other.

Amazing sculpture: 

'The Rising Tide', has been installed near the bankside of Vauxhall bridge by its artist Jason deCaires Taylor, a British artist known for creating the world’s first underwater museum!

Today's quote:

"Fight for the things you care about,

but do it in a way that will lead

others to join you."

~Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Smoke and

Mirrors? 

Slept through, though sirens did wake me a bit, early morning fire behind a nearby motel...Tues. morning around 8 am. There were some long-term units right behind the motel.

A distant shot across the town of Black Mountain picked up the smoke from the fire as the sun rises across the face of the mountains. I live somewhere behind the plume of smoke.

Drove by after lunch, and there was a puddle of water on the parking lot...all that was left to see from this big smoke. 

I heard from FB that engines came from Swannanoa (next community west on US 70) as well as both Black Mountain stations. I'm glad there didn't seem to be any structural damage. The end of that building (in the back) has a double garage door. There's a big dumpster right about where the fire looks like it happened. Maybe they're taking whatever burned and putting it in the dumpster. Anyway, it looks like there wasn't much happening.

Lunch today I skipped eating the Sweedish meatballs, had just the sticky brown rice, mushy chopped  broccoli, a dinner roll with butter, and the canned peaches. I came home and ate some Havarti cheese and crackers to get my protein for that meal!

No further errands or exercise today. Got winded easily so slowed to the turtle crawl which lets me at least get where I'm going without being out of breath.

Stopped in the library and picked up "Killers of the Flower Moon." Some cheerful reading to look forward to. But my friend said the book was much better than the movie.

 Today's quote:

To this day I believe we are here on Earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

ROSA PARKS