There’s just something about the mountains ~
I can’t explain it, but they call
and John Muir knew the same pull
They’re calling. We must go.
So I pack my bags,
set GPS
fill the tank
and set
out
Mountain Fascination
Moon Worlds in a Tea Cup
Lately, I’ve been sorting through memories of childhood as I digitize old family photos, and besides all the old Childcraft volumes and vacations and vintage Barbie dolls, another thing that brings great joy is teacups and saucers. One year around 1970, I picked a tea set from the Sears Catalog, and I’ve since passed that set to my granddaughter for her to play with, with its real porcelain-painted pink roses. It was a set to behold!
Today, though, I enjoy the relaxed pace of retirement in my mother’s cups and saucers that I saved. I couldn’t save them all, of course, but I saved enough to give as gifts to each of my Kindred Spirits sisters last Christmas and for me to use on days when I needed to feel close to Mom. I like to go look in the door of the antique secretariat, the oldest piece of furniture I remember all the way back when we lived in Kentucky when I was and infant and toddler age, and choose from it a cup and saucer. I boil water in my electric tea kettle and pour a cup. Just a teaspoon of Monkfruit sweetener and a few minutes in the tiny cup brings all those memories of childhood tea parties back.
Clink with me today! Tea cheers!
Dive In or Climb Up!
In June of 20206, I spent a week in the Pacific Northwest with a group of writers, and what a stunning place of natural beauty! A dear friend and her husband, Glenda and Ken Funk of Idaho, took me to waterfalls and a scenic vista where I could see for miles in every direction and take in the rugged terrain and all its wild peace. Every few months, I get the urge to travel beyond the state of Georgia, and the fever is striking again. It’s predictable, really. I’ve learned to book getaways in sync with when I’ll be climbing the walls to travel.
I leave Monday for a week in North Carolina with my sister in law and travel partner, who is also an avid reader and writer. While next week’s trip won’t be one quite as mountainous and far away as Oregon with a bookstore as big as Powell’s City of Books, there will be Blue Ridge mountains and Malaprops. I’ll climb some mountains to find some waterfalls and we’ll dive right into some books.
We’ve also managed to find two groups for playing Mahjong. One is in a mansion in Brevard, and the other is in a velvet-draped room in Asheville called The Velvet Wind. I’d also like to invite you to DIVE IN and learn to play Mahjong. A friend and I have created a Facebook page, where we will be posting invitations and learning sites. Come join us at Tiles and Smiles on Facebook!
And may all the mountains you climb today, and all the lakes you dive into be blessings!
A New Tea!
Stretches of time to sit and write were as rare as hens’ teeth when I worked full time, but now that I’ve retired, they are frequent and savored like a warm croissant drizzled with cinnamon honey butter. I’ve recently completed my late father’s unfinished novel with a fellow writer, a family friend more considered friendly family. Writing groups, monthly challenges and yearly challenges are springing up everywhere. Even though the official site closed down last year, November is still Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), and alternative sites and resources are in full swing, Poetry Outdoors is happening, and one of my favorite Substackers, Tammy Evans, has a Flash Fiction challenge going on as well. Writing opportunities are everywhere! The Audrey Gidman prompts for November are always inspiring, and I could spend all day at home in the drizzling rain just writing.
First things first, though.
The countdown to Christmas is on now that Halloween is over, and I’ve found the perfect tea I couldn’t wait to share. It’s the mint hot cocoa of tea, and I found it in The Fresh Market in Peachtree City earlier this week when my sister in law and I went shopping for Mahjong sales in Heirloom Market next door. On a whim, we walked over to take a stroll and see what trouble we could find in The Fresh Market. I’m making the switch back to decaf, and I needed tea and coffee.
This tea is the perfect writer’s tea. I think the minty taste and aroma might actually wake up my brain more in the wee hours when I rise to write, before the dogs get stirred up and I help get my husband out the door to go to work. If you’re in the market for a new fireside drink with a zing of mint to awaken the senses but you can’t decide between hot chocolate and tea, here’s your answer!
You’re welcome.
Tea Nonet
Peppermint Bark Cool Winter Herb Tea ~
How I wish you were here to sip
a freshly-steeped cup with me!
I’d bring out the dainty
bone cups and saucers
with fresh mint sprigs
just for us
to sit,
sip
I’m Pondering Shells Today
What, really, is a shell? Is it a nest-wing of comfort? Is it a book of wise lessons and sage advice? Is it a warm blanket? A home? A roof that doesn’t leak? A hole in the base of a tree? A fence? Is it a place of solace like a fort or barricade? Does it keep something safely in or keep something out? Is it self-serving or sharing?
I’m pondering shells today. I recently rescued a six year old miniature schnauzer whose owner surrendered him when her boys left for college. She wanted to travel. My new dog’s former shell crumbled, but I took him into mine. As I hold him and stroke his soft fur and feel his playful nose-nudges, I have to wonder: will the boys and their mother feel the empty shell syndrome when they come home for holidays and realize that there’s a lot of love missing? Will they rearrange the furniture as they put up the Christmas tree and realize when they discover a forgotten toy that he was part of a family he’d loved and now he isn’t there to chase the ball anymore and nestle in their blankets as they kick back and watch a movie?
Have their hearts hardened, or will their shells soften when they realize the grief impact of their mother’s decision to teach her sons that love is a one-way street just for when it’s convenient?
I’m pondering shells and hearts today.
Welcome Wildlife
I’ve been reviving my bird garden for the coming winter months, for when the insects aren’t as plentiful and the shrubs all die down in the cold. We’re those people who toss handfuls of birdseed onto the blanket of pristine white snow, knowing the birds will make the seeds disappear faster than bags of bread when a hurricane nears. When the last of the hummingbirds have flown south, that’s the time I stock up on different seeds and fill the suet feeders with berry-laden block cakes.
And the salt licks, too, are fully replenished, sitting on the tree stumps the deer use like an office water cooler to gather and gossip about news of coyote sightings and Great Horned Owl conversations heard between the northwest and southwest corner trees. The foxes and bobcats haven’t been spotted lately, but we know they’re back in the thick trees on the dirt road side of the farm. The possums are welcome, keeping the lawn free of ticks that would travel inside on the legs of our dogs, but those armadillos are party crashers, showing up without an invitation, eyeing our new air conditioning unit like it’s a football player needing tackling. They succeeded, indirectly, in taking down the last one. And I don’t like them now for a new reason: they traipse across Fitz’s grave, and I just know if he could raise his little head up out of the ground, he’d take them down hard.
And so it’s time for the talk with Jay. I’m going to have Ollie, our dog who actually gets it, try to explain that back here in the woods on the farm, we welcome creatures and critters and yes, even the Slytherins. The Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws must appreciate the dark art types if we are to fully embrace the wild things of the farm. We live by Aldo Leopold’s iconic line from A Sand County Almanac: There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.
We are those who cannot.
What Jay Doesn’t Realize
curled up at my feet
on the living room rug
Jay watches small movements
at the bird feeder
outside the kitchen window
thirty feet away
huff-barking at the finches
he hasn’t yet realized
belong here too
he’s warned the herd of deer
to move along
because he doesn’t yet
understand
he’s no longer a city dog
and all creatures
great and small
just like him
belong here
deep in the country
on this Funny Farm
Halloween Shenanigans
Halloween held all the fun with friends human and furry – and even one with feathers. I attended a Mahjoween gathering at the home of a friend on Friday, and she had rescued an injured duck from the highway on the way home from a birthday dinner in town the night before. She brought the hen to the sanctuary of her fenced back yard to protect it from predators before she released it back into a nearby lake, and this little lady took a liking to her oasis. Have you ever played Mahjong poolside where there was a duck quacking and paddling, happy to be alive in a saltwater swimming pool? Because let me tell you: it’s a little surreal. Someone yells “Mahjong!” and there is a congratulatory quack chorus happening like a drunk uncle’s loud holiday party laugh in the midst of all the cheers.
My husband and I spent quieter time at home with our three dogs on Saturday. Since we, too, live deep in the country and don’t get trick-or-treaters down our two/tenths-of-a-mile driveway, we still always prepare for the evening with a small bag of just-in-case candy and spend extra time playing in the yard with the dogs for exercise on a night when they won’t get to go back out again until much later – – just to be on the safe side. We secretly wonder how long the cupboard candy will last, between the two of us sneaking Snickers here and there.
This year’s tricks included Zoomies with the newbie, Jay, who is catching on quickly about what it means to have brothers and what it means to play. He’s had two main people play with him in his six years, then a couple of foster dogs including a Husky he detested (he does not like big breeds, according to the lady who was fostering him, which she discovered at the dog park where he’d lunged with terroristic threats at the fence dividing the big dogs and the little dogs). And now here he is, learning what it means to belong and have fun, zipping around in Funny Farm-style figure 8s.
What a treat to share life and admire the antics of the people and the dogs and the wildlife we love!
sprinting right, then left
Halloween shenanigans
zoomies through the yard
Looking for a Spooky Snack Idea and I Found it on the Crown of a Goose
witch hats on porch geese
inspired chocolate covered
Bugles on cookies…..
Something about Halloween in a Mahjong group has us scrambling for spooky snacks like we’re back in the days of making party treats for our children. What is it about the childlike fun of playing a game that makes us feel so excited again? The assignment: Bring a Spooky Snack to Mahjoween on Friday.
On Thursday, I scoured the aisles of the grocery store. Cranberry Crackdragons were out of the realm of possibility, since there were no fresh cranberries to put powdered sugar on and pop in the oven to create a burst of tart sweetness with every bite. A candy corn shaped cheeseball was a consideration, and that shifted to a cheese puff- crumbed cheeseball in a pumpkin shape, but I was not in the mood to cut cheese. I toyed with the idea of cream cheese-filled mushroom eyeballs with pitted black olive pupils and sun dried tomato veins. But honestly, I’m just not all that creative when it comes to food. I’d threatened to bring Halloween Oreos or BOO-nana bread, but even I rolled my eyes at the thought of that kind of laziness.
That was when it hit me. A certain little seven inch porch goose the host and I bought as a gift for our Sensei (Mahjong instructor) as a gift got me thinking about the little witch hat and the way I could try to replicate those same size snack hats using Bugles, mini Nilla wafers, and melted chocolate chips with a peanut butter chip as a hat buckle. I rounded up the ingredients, satisfied I’d made the right choice.
First, I opened the bag and found the best-shaped Bugles that had a rounded opening at the bottom so they would stand on the cookies until the chocolate hardened. I did the math and planned for three dozen, and then laid out some extra cookies to put chocolate on. I made one prototype so I could see if it would work, and lo and behold, it did! I surprised myself. Even the Reese’s peanut butter chip stuck once I coated the top of the cookie, coated the Bugle and stuck it on, and affixed the chip onto the base of the Bugle.
Our teacher from Augusta is coming to be with us. We call her Sensei Susan, and she is coming even as one of her dachshunds is recovering from back surgery last week (and an abscess after that) and she’s had to cancel her tennis games. We’re so blessed that she is willing to travel two and a half hours to be with us and spend time helping us refine our strategies and skills.
We got her a small porch goose all dressed for Halloween that is perfect for her kitchen counter, to remind her how much we enjoy spending time with her. We’ll sew on some Mahjong beads and give it to her as we play the day away and make plans for a Thanksmahj and Christmahj. And we’ll add some festive Mahjong outfits each time we get together.
We’ve already been shopping for the fabric and the rick rack and hem trims. Get ready to see a gaggle of gregariously dressed game-ready geese! I’m hopping from the kitchen to the sewing room now……
Have I mentioned lately how much I love being retired?
Smiling in the October Sunshine
chicken jerky time
says to a dog: you belong
and he understands
October afternoons here in middle Georgia on the farm have been nothing short of sheer perfection as Mother Nature blows gentle cool breezes across the sun’s warmth. I have pulled out the camp chairs just to sit outdoors rereading Gladys Taber books while the dogs run and play in the fresh air. As we were listening to the Ella Langley station on Pandora today, I happened to look up and see Jay wallowing in the joy of the sunshine, basking in the love of a forever home.
It’s true what they say: give dogs the 3/3/3 timeframe. Three days to adjust to their new surroundings, three weeks to learn the routines and expectations, and three months to accept that this is their new home and family. We are only at the three week mark, but somehow I think he is beginning to feel part of the family already.
Part of it may be because of “chicken time.” My brother and sister-in-law have chicken time every night in their house. Their dogs get a strip of chicken jerky, and it’s such a hit there that we brought that nightly treat here using the Member’s Mark chicken jerky strips in the blue bag I get at Sam’s Wholesale Club. It’s the dog equivalent of having a place at the family dinner table; they know they belong when they get these treats.
Oh, to be able to express this happiness of love and sunshine with such exuberance! Blessed are we.
Cascadia Postcard Poetry Sharing….and….Dumping
We are home from a weekend of camping, and what a joy to spend it with my husband and dogs at one of our favorite places! We left Friday evening with no trip to the grocery store, just our pajamas and toothbrushes and a change of clothes. We only took food we had on hand in the fridge and pantry.
That’s a big change from the first way we camped. We used to go all out with hanging string lights and decorating and doing all the camping things like making s’mores and having a thousand snacks. Now, we’ve learned that the more we put up, the more we have to take down. The more we prepare, the more we feel we must do. So now, we resist all temptation to put out more than our postside name sign that tells other campers who we are and where we’re from. We keep it simple, from the food to the decor to the clothes.
Over the weekend, I added another thing to my list of 100 Things to Do in Retirement. A necessary thing, but I would definitely not call it a favorite. It will go at the bottom of the list among the least favorite, and is there only because to do a fun thing, I have to do a not-so-fun thing.
I’ve helped do this task for years, but until this weekend I’ve not completed the whole chore of dumping the Wayfarer on my own. And it was a natural step in the process. I can drive it, back it into the campsite, and hook up the water and the electric. I can put out the slide and level the RV (okay, it’s self-leveling, but I’ll take it). And now, as of today, I can dump the gray and blank tanks all by myself.
I knew that I could venture out alone for boondocking with the generator, but now I feel good about setting up and staying somewhere for a few days if I get the urge to go on a solo camping trip or join the Girl Campers at a meet-up and make some new friends.
Anyone up for an adventure?
I did it myself~
purged the Wayfarer’s bowels
I did the duty
