Two down, two to go

 

The cleared lots on Walker St. have just sat empty for the last couple of months. However 2 new homes with grey siding and white trim were finished on the other side of the ranch home that shows through the trees. (Or is it bamboo?) Tee hee, they'll find out if it is.

But suddenly the piles of concrete blocks and lumber were transformed into this new home.

There are 2 permits given to the Tanner company.

But nothing is happening for the 4th house yet.

Today's quote:

I look at the world and I notice it's turning / While my guitar gently weeps / With every mistake we must surely be learning / Still my guitar gently weeps. 

-George Harrison, singer-songwriter (1943-2001)

Old photos day

 It's Saturday, so time to look for old photos for Sepia Saturday....

And people staring at the photographer!

Let's start off with teacher Tantie Huckabee with her one room (palmetto) school house, Okeechobee, FL 1890. You may note that it has children of several racial backgrounds.

In 1927 the great Model T Ford needed new inner tubes (or patched old ones), when you had a flat tire, and you could actually pump it back up yourself.

Robert Hall. I saw this on FaceBook in Traces of Texas...a wonderful source of historic information.

"One of the all-time great Texas characters, Robert Hall. Robert, who was an early Texas settler, soldier, and Texas Ranger, was born in South Carolina in 1814 and was taken as a child to Tennessee, where his family built the first house in Memphis. He moved to Texas, probably as a member of the crew of the side-wheeler George Washington, in 1835 and apparently served on the Yellow Stone during the Texas Revolution. He enlisted in the Texas army on June 1, 1836, and remained with the forces until November 7. Later he joined the Texas Rangers under Benjamin McCulloch.

In 1838 Robert and three other rangers secured land and laid out the town of Seguin. Hall married Polly King, one of the daughters of a Colonel King of Gonzales, and in 1841 was issued a second-class certificate for a league and a labor of land for having arrived in Gonzales County after the Texas Declaration of Independence and before August 1836. Hall served for three years with the Confederacy. After that he was among other things, a hunting guide. I've got another phenomenal photo of him as a hunting guide that I'll post later. As an old man, Robert lived with one of his thirteen children at Cotulla, where he died in 1899 and was buried."

Austin McLain in front of his home at Chico Rancheria in Butte County, California - Mechoopda - circa 1895 (From Native North American Indian - Old Photos)

Nov. 1960, Sheriff Ray Noland captures the biggest still ever (750 gallons) in the Jones Cove Tennessee Community.

Three men enjoying a tall wet one in 1895 in Fredericksburg, Texas (Not sure if it had any chill to it)

Deadwood South Dakota, 1877, after the Black Hills Gold Rush started the year before.

Leyat Helica, French automobile manufactured between 1919-1925. I'm guessing steering was from those back wheels. Just think of how the world looked through that huge propeller!

1929, First Class Sleeping Car.

1959, Dalai Lama in India, after escaping Chinese soldiers.

Today's quote:

Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly.

GEORGE MACDONALD

In it for the Long Game

Sometimes I add a post 

...and forget to change the dates of one of them...so here it is again, in case you missed it yesterday!
Simple Pleasures and the Long Game!

Thanks for those who commented yesterday, when I reposted, I lost what you said. Sorry.

The last red leaves still holding on

The view from my bedroom window, when sun first hits the highest peak on the ridge.

 Today's quote:

Thanks to Hecatedemeter's blog post...sharing again. What I'm Here For

My father's birthday was yesterday...and

 

☞The photograph depicts the bearded & bespectacled visage of Gail Borden Jr. in an undated engraving.

On November 9, 1801, famous American inventor, publisher, surveyor, & founder of the Borden Company, Gail Borden Jr, (1801-1874), was born at the town of Norwich in Chenango County, New York.

☞Borden came to Texas in 1829 & became a surveyor for Austin’s Colony in 1830. From 1835 to 1837 the ubiquitous Borden published the second permanent newspaper in Texas, the “Telegraph & Texas Register,” prepared the first topographical map of Texas, & helped to lay out the site of town of Houston.

☞In the mid-1840s, Borden began inventing. He experimented with large-scale refrigeration as a means of preventing yellow fever. He also experimented with what he called a “terraqueous machine” -- a sort of prairie schooner that would go on land or water.

☞In 1849, he perfected a meat biscuit that was made of dehydrated meat compounded with wheat flour.

☞In 1853, he sought a patent for his most famous invention, a process for condensing milk in vacuum. After several unsuccessful attempts, he opened a condensed milk factory in Connecticut in 1858. When the War Between the States brought intensified demand for condensed milk, sales grew to the point that Borden’s success was assured. Along with Underwood’s Deviled Ham & Van Camp’s Pork & Beans, Borden’s Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk is one of the very few well-known canned food products of the 19th Century that have remained in continuous production to this very day.

☞After the War, Borden returned to Texas & founded the town of Borden in Colorado County, where he established a meat-packing plant. He died at the age of 72 in the town of Borden on January 11, 1874.

George Rogers was my father, born in 1914 in Galveston Texas. I've blogged about him before, but I do want to honor this man who was such a gentleman, and a flirt, and a respected member of the community.

My father in the rear, his father on left, George Sr., me as a 3 year old, and Dad's mother on right. No date. The senior Rogers lived in San Antonio and drove all the way to Dallas TX where we lived. Wearing summer garb, perhaps my birthday in August 1945.

The day after

 Whether I stayed up late on Tuesday, yesterday, or not...there's always tomorrow. And here it is.

Winter sun comes streaming in my windows...heating the house, and the houseplants. I love seeing the ridgetop across the valley for the next 5 months. It may be grey on many a rainy day, but oh, the sun!

Both of the suviving orchids are pushing up their stalks which will soon bloom.

Whatever politics may hold for our lives, I do wish I could go back into my youth before I cared about any of it. A ten year old Barbara had outgrown dolls, and maybe I had begun to love horses. I certainly was reading every book I could get my hands on...watch out Nancy Drew!

I still read, about half of it is fiction, and the other half is about the reality of our lives. Climate change, governance with compassion, commentaries by people more knowledgeable than me, models that include giving back to both the land and each other...etc. 

Sometimes I read about how we move our bodies, and I am still learning how that works. I take part in almost daily Feldenkrais exercises.  Though I first heard of Feldenkrais back in the 80s, (when in college for the second or third time,)  I hadn't stayed interested enough to continue. (Actually there were a few dozen other interesting body work-techniques out there.) 

A recent seminar really piqued my interest again, and I even bought the first explanatory book by Moshe Feldenkrais, "Awareness through Movement." The seminar series is called "Move Better, Feel Better Summit." I chose some of the lectures, and was more interested in the actual exercises...especially those sitting in a chair. But after purchasing the summit, I have begun to do the floor exercises on my bed...which is more comfortable for me.

And a bonus seminar with my purchase of the prior one with four tracts of exercises, is this new seminar, "Discovering Your Learning Body's Superpower: The 7 Secret Keys."

This second seminar also includes exercises led by different Feldenkrais professionals. The second one was led by a woman from Greece.

Did I mention these are very slow, minmial movements, always with paying attention to how it feels to move just a bit. Then a rest period which is actually an important part of training your brain to know how your nerves and muscles can move just a bit. I come away from each lesson feeling much lighter, able to move not only the part of my body I focused on but able to just go about my day's tasks in a more relaxed and calm way.

OK, I'll get off my soap box. What with all the people on soap boxes today, it sure gets crowded!

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

 

I'm currently reading a novel, with lots of breaks, about some of the Germans in Berlin or on the front lines during WW II. It's particularly hard to read the treatment of Jews and Russians. And the mind-numbing party-line that was indoctrinated in the leaders who then offered favors to those who did the dirty work. Much as any political machine, unfortunately, but here millions died. 

I hope by the end of today I won't be crying as I consider living under a fascist governance.

Oops.

 Please read one of the posts from yesterday. One of them was supposed to be on Monday. Oops.

Greenway by Flat Creek

 Flat Creek Greenway

The glass blowing center in Black Mountain

 Wow: Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority this morning agreed to give $330,000 to the NC Glass Center for a new state-of-the-art public glass studio and school to be built in downtown Black Mountain. (Credit to Jason Sandford, Ashvegas) Oct. 25 on Facebook, and also on the evening news.

Building renovations lead to having a beautiful mural on the building at this time. See my post about it HERE.

It's part of a grant coming to the River Arts District of Asheville, NC...the glassblowers there will share the grant. But Black Mountain has all this new space, with a school even!

NCGC is expanding!  North Carolina Glass Center)

"Our second location is in the heart of Black Mountain and equipped with state-of-the-art glassblowing equipment. It will include a hot shop, flame shop and gallery. Our current location in the River Arts District will continue to serve glass artists, students and shoppers. By expanding within Buncombe county, we will be able to grow our roster of artists and teach a wide range of classes.

"Today it was announced that we had been awarded a $330,000 grant from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority for this project.

"We are excited to share more information with you as we renovate and outfit our new space on State Street.

(From a FaceBook post)

Keeping up appearances, etc.

 

All the fire engines are out of their garage.

The entire approach to the fire house has been torn out and new concrete will be poured soon...but it rained mid-day on Halloween (day before I took these shots.) So the base level where there's lots of reinforced steel going both ways, is waiting to be dry. The police station is located behind where the fire trucks are currently parked.

Nov. 2, drive by, with some spats of rain.

The workers on Nov 2.

One guy was on the other side of the yellow machine, adjusting the slide from the cement mixer. Then as I left, they guy in the cement mixer had it turning really fast, and he ran it's discharge. Sorry, I couldn't stop to take more pics.

This little dry cleaners is the only one in town. It has an ATM kiosk out to the side of it, which is handy for the tourists. And then there's the new Pure Restaurant, then the Glass Blower, then the Yarn Shop and then Tyson's Furniture...all going along State St. toward Broadway/Montreat Rd.

What it looked like when they were first starting on renovations. 

What it looked like last week. (cropped from photo below)

Woops, that snuck into this post, but belonged on the Halloween decorations!

No editing, but that's the new restaurant, The Grange...lots of picnic tables, a food truck, and the old Dobra Tee building has a bar inside, and maybe also sells food. I haven't checked it out yet! But if you can enlarge the photo, directly in the center standing over the rock wall is a bull!

I seldom get out to my car before the frost melts in the sunshine. So I got to see how it looked the other day.

Simple things please me, sometimes. Sharing with Sepia Saturday.