Born to Be Wild

"Road Trip" Just whisper those words and hubby has bags packed and the car out of the garage in seconds. Since his retirement he is so into filling his days with activity. I, on the other hand, even though I know I am going to die for sure some day, fill my days with sitting and reading and being perfectly happy. We are a good match as opposites. He gets me out of the house and I keep him from spending all our retirement money on gasoline.

We had been wanting for years to explore the Cranberry Glades of West Virginia. This is about a 6 hour drive from where we live. We reserved a reasonable room in Marlinton (there no longer are cheap rooms in this world) and packed our stuff and headed out on the highway (shades of Steppehwolf). Marlinton, West Virginia, does not appear to have a web page. When we reached a Visitors Center near Hot Springs in Virginia, no one there could tell us about the town or how to get there even though we had our heads close over Virginia road maps. These are people who live in the region! Finally we found it when we pulled out the WEST Virginia map. The town is just a wide spot on the road just below a major ski area. It appears to be barely surviving on the tourist industry. Our motel still uses metal keys for their doors. The 5 or so restaurants all have exactly the same menu. If you order spinach it will come from a can. If you order gravy it will be thick and white. Applesauce is served with everything. The waitresses, country girls, are friendly and actually can "talk your leg off." Chatty Kathy, from our motel restaurant, told us her life story over breakfast, which started 20 minutes late because she was late to work.

We took a walk down the main street after one evening's dinner at another restaurant and the exotic culture of this town was like a foreign country to me. There was a fire and brimstone tent meeting at one end of town with a heavy-set black preacher shoutin' and singin' for all to hear. He had quite a few devoted followers chiming in with 'Yes, Lord.' while they sat on metal folding chairs in the lawn under a large open tent. At the other end of town, only three blocks away, was a street fair with a reasonably good country band providing mountain music between the vendors selling cotton candy, hotdogs, popcorn and lemonade. A skinny and angular young man with a mouth full of buck teeth was standing in the middle of the street in front of the band and kept shouting "Yee Haw" to the music as he jerked along to the rhythm. For a minute I thought I was in a Dolly Parton movie. I am not making this up!

We were barely able to book our room in this area as the ski resort a few minutes away was holding lots of activities each weekend during the summer, most certainly to keep the economy moving. SnowShoe Mountain Ski Resort (their website gives a real flavor of the place) is a mass of diverse architecture covering the top of the Snowshoe Mountain. "Also known as Forever Wild, Snowshoe is a year-round adventure located in Pocahontas County." The only things 'wild' about this resort are the mountain bikers who keep the trails muddy and the jeep wranglers who up the ante even more with their off road contests. The architecture is described as 'Swiss village' and I describe it as interesting and little frightening for such a lovely mountain area. The footprint is huge. This particular coming weekend was a Jeep Jamboree and a major Chile Cookoff. We ate at the ski resort one night in search of healthier food and asked the host of the restaurant if he was planning on being busy the coming Saturday.

"We are going to get our butts kicked big time," he smiled. And then he went on to explain that this event was such a big deal even CNN was covering it. That explained the camera crew that was setting up just out side the restaurant when we entered. "Butts kicked big time"...I don't think I have ever heard a host say those words to me in a nice restaurant.

If you want my take on the beauty of this area which we saw on our daily hikes through the meadows, over the waterfalls, and between rocky caverns, along with a sad wildlife story...that, of course, gets posted on 'my other blog.'

Because You Asked

I received some lovely comments on my prior post as it touched a chord in some readers. The reason it touched a chord is that we are all on the same boat...some going first class and some going steerage and some hanging on the edge of the stern for dear life. And we all get to shift places on this boat, usually without being asked.

In answer to some questions about the creation of the post, it did not take me long to write it. It really did just flow from the heart. I have traveled a lot and have seen some of this in my travels. I did research by looking up traditional names starting with T from various countries via the Internet. I did research by perusing some world headlines to stimulate thought.

I have been on travel, a second road trip, this time to the enticing mountains of West Virginia on a hiking adventure which included viewing mountain meadows, rocky crags and waterfalls like that above. I will reminisce briefly on that trip once I get the photos all processed. I will also attempt to catch up on reading blogs. It seems that it is very easy to get far behind as my blog list keeps growing.

My World on Wednesday #1 --- Looking at the Moon

Tabor decides to eat the leftover pancakes and remaining strawberries with honey for breakfast.
(Tushar has only a dollar for food today so he is skipping breakfast.)
Tabor kisses her husband goodbye at the gate in the beautiful early morning.
(TalAyeh kisses the air that still smells of rose water from the funeral of her husband.)
Tabor polishes the oak end table that was purchased when her children were first born.
(Talia goes through the ashes of the fire and finds the brass drawer pull from her best end table.)
Tabor turns on her fancy computer to check her email correspondence from one and all.
(Tanya unfolds a yellowed and creased letter from the priest who had abused her so many years ago and then touches a corner to the flame.)
Tabor decides to walk in the flower garden before the day gets too warm.
(On an abandoned hillside in Berlin, Tabbert find his community garden destroyed by the land owner.)
Tabor washes the garden dirt from her hands in the lovely patterned sink of the powder room.
(Tu bin washes the blood from her hands at edge of the river reflected in the glow of an explosion.)
Tabor decides it is time for tea and reading her new bestselling book.
(Tierra pushes aside the layout for the morning edition and flees from her newspaper office as the soldiers break down the door.)
Tabor answers the phone and is overjoyed to find the call is from her laughing grandson.
(Tamira answers the phone and is overjoyed to find the call is from her father fighting in Iraq.)
Tabor decides not to cook dinner and persuades her husband to try that new restaurant in town.
(Tae-Hyun quietly closes the metal gate to his tiny restaurant and locks it tight as he puts out all the lights.)
Tabor slips between the fresh clean sheets and snuggles into her bed with pleasure at the ending day.
(Tawson shifts carefully in the hospital bed trying not to pull out the intravenous tubes or increase his pain.)

Tabor reviews her day and is thankful for its abundance.
(The nameless gray-haired woman in the homeless shelter reviews her day and is thankful for its abundance.)

Mums on Acid

Am I the only one who wonders about wildlife like this when the 4th of July comes around? The very first explosion sent two geese (this photo above is of ducks) high into the air and away from the river. We watched, for the very first time, from our boat, the small town fireworks. It was preceded by some very nice smaller fireworks shows on the lawns of several mansions at the mouth of the river. The boats were anchored in comfortabe space along the mouth before the entry to the bay and while the water carried the banter of celebratory boaters, the dusk and darkness provided a blanket of privacy. Since it was just hubby and I we could freely neck as the nightflowers exploded against the black sky. Other things I noticed in the glass half full side was that the weather was a breezy 72 degrees and the normally sweltering sun was hidden behind a high gray sky that threatened rain which never happened. This is the coolest 4th of July I have experienced in a long time. For a while the wakes of the boats prevented me from reading while waiting for the dark, but eventually the surface of the ocean calmed down.

The glass half empty side was that the almost full moon was hidden and could not light our way home at the end of the show. The glass half full was that all 99% of the boaters were intelligent and polite and actually followed the Rules of the Road and wending our slow way home watching the red and green bow lights on the motor and sailboats along the 5 miles up river was actually quite nice.

I know that it is impossible to take a photo of fireworks when sitting on a rocking boat, but the photos below were fun to process anyway. They look like mums on acid.

We almost didn't take this holiday challenge as our neighbors had said the boating was crazy on the 4th, but since we had been alone all day we needed to do something. We were pleasantly surprised and now feel perhaps we can take our grandchildren out on this holiday.

Sheesh, Is there no Zen here?

I am heading out to dinner at the 'summer' house of the head of a unit that I worked with in a prior life and for whom I had a miserable "TEAM" working experience. I am only going because my husband's project requires could use this fellow's input and support. I am going to see his summer cabin and praise its lovely location and praise his wife's marvelous cooking and watch his beautiful children play at the water's edge ( if they are there) and then come home, and hopefully, not throw up. I can rise above this.

Tomorrow Saturday is our Independence day in America. It really is an important day and unfortunately we sometimes convert it to BBQ and too much drinking and forget the real reason we have to celebrate. We had invited my son and his friends but my son never responded told my husband he would let us know and so the few other people we invited at the last minute had also made other plans. I hate empty holidays but looking at the glass as half full, this means I do not have to put on fresh sheets in the bedrooms and plan any meals! (My daughter and family are visiting friends for this day.)

I spent this morning chasing Mr. Rabbit in circles around the flower garden and then around the vegetable garden....REALLY!! My husband thought this was very funny. He has a very immature sense of humor. I also had to move the little box turtle from my sad sunflowers as he seemed to be lost in the sparse jungle of stems. Why oh why do I think I can fool Mother Nature?

(In case you need a break from my ranting: The recipe for parsley dressing is here for one of the salad dressings. The other I made up using balsamic vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, salt, garlic, parsley, red wine and olive oil..maybe some other things, but I sort of was working with the cooking muse and working on using up leftover stuff. All was whipped in the food processor.)

The transmission, clutch(?) something went out on my 10-year-0ld Mazda last night and after it was towed from my front yard this morning to the mechanics garage he said it would cost $500 just to go in and look at the problem!. This is after a tree fell on the deer fence last week which will cost $300 to repair. There is a glass half full here...it is cloudy with scum floating on top...but at least the car stalled in the yard instead of in the Virginia mountains where we were a few days ago and at least I have free towing with my insurance.

I hope all of you have a Happy 4th...even if you don't live in the beautiful if somewhat crazy U.S.A.

Sharing the Munchies

I found these hungry caterpillars munching on the parsley in the garden the other day and asked hubby about them. He said he had decided to leave them alone because they make butterflies eventually. What about the parsley, I asked. He said that we had way too much of it anyway.

I thought about this for a minute and realized that we had so much parsley because I was never harvesting it and using it. I had been focusing on other stuff from the garden. I have not been a big parsley user in my cooking in the past, and therefore, since we had so much success this year with the lovely green lace, I decided to search the Internet for some parsley recipes.

I harvested a bunch of leaves (two different types) and proceeded to wash and dry them allowing spiders and caterpillar poo to float away.

An hour later and with the kitchen smelling strongly of garlic and with spilled olive oil across the counter and with green stuff everywhere, I finished two recipes of parsley dressing. One pungent with Parmesan and garlic and one sweet with gentle spices and balsamic vinegar and red wine. Guess we will be eating a bunch of salad this week. All this green has got to be healthy, right?

Abundance

A number of years ago Oprah was promoting the use of a personal journal in which we recorded all the things in our life that made our lives rich and full. Clearly we all lived lives of abundance, but just needed to make that more concrete by recording it daily. I actually kept an 'abundance journal' for a short while, but like many New Year's resolutions it fell by the wayside years ago.

This house is for sale. It is actually a three-house compound on an island in the river near where I live. If you know someone who has a few million to spare, let them know about this abundant opportunity.

This sailboat belongs to one of my neighbors. It was brand new when purchased almost a year ago. To my knowledge, it has never been released from the dock and used except to sit on the back deck while at dock and watch the sunset on rare evenings! My husband would love to own a sailboat, but that is an abundance we will never have.

For the next few months I do not have to buy cut flowers from anyone else. My yard is providing me with so much abundant beauty.

Balance

In dealing with Mother Nature I have learned that it is all about balance. Having been both a wife and mother I think I understand about balance. The most important balance one must have is in expectations and in how one deals with the willingness to fail once in a while. Whether gardening or raising children or solving a marital issue it is pretty much dependant upon the biology of the moment.

I have always been partial to hybrid tea roses. These plants are very temperamental and cannot be grown organically unless in a hermetically sealed greenhouse. I, therefore, knowing the challenges, had reasonable expectations in the failure and success of the new roses I planted in this yard. Of the five, one looked so bad this second year that I dug it up and tossed it. I did not expect my Olympiad rose to grow so well and so easily. The flowers are perfect in shape, last for days and make excellent cut flowers in arrangements and the plant has thus far been resistant to both bugs and fungus!

I had planted cosmos from seed and they have been somewhat slow to start, but flowers are now beginning to form. This was a surprise as the cosmos I see that is growing with little encouragement in the road medians seems to be very robust. I anticipate my plants will be robust in re-seeding and I will have to watch them closely next year so that I keep them in their place.

My sunflowers, on the other hand, have been so very sad. Several were eaten by rabbits until I sprayed pepper spray on them and also deer repellent around them. But even so, they are struggling to grow in this wet non-California climate. While this photo above was taken days ago and the plants are now over two feet, I must admit that sunflowers are not going to be something I try again.

The vegetable garden has rewarded us with spring crops and now we are harvesting our first tomatoes, cucumbers and raspberries. I find the most wonderful pleasure in getting all kinds of herbs from my herb garden that sits just outside the front door. This was something I dreamed about when I was living in the apartment in the city. These garden tomatoes above (our first harvest for this year) are garnished with basil and fennel...they look almost like a Christmas decoration.