Weeping Pear Blossoms

Living in Black Mountain NC - photographs of the beauty of Western North Carolina

They are among our first big blossoms.  Then they go quickly if it's warm for long.  I used to think this was a Bradford Pear, but looking at it's configuration with long weeping branches, I'm leaning toward that species.

...here is the beauty across the street from me.

My cottage behind the pear blossoms, you can barely see my car in the driveway.  This tree seems to weep and never gains any height.

An ornamental tree which never bears pears.  (I couldn't resist.)

These pictures were taken as it blossomed last week, before we had several nights of frost.  It was about 10 days later blooming than it did last year, however.

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 Conamara Blues

PS: A recent lovely walk to Pearson Falls with many wildflower pictures will be edited and posted here SOON.  Just saying, I have a few other things coming up first which I've already put in line for sooner, but after they have done their thing, there will be wildflowers!  And waterfalls!  

 

Monday book club

Pamela Duncan had me loving her characters within the first page.
I noticed the vernacular language of the Appalachians, though it was a bit different than what I'm familiar with...but I'm no expert.

And the 3 women that interact in this novel are so believable...I enjoyed seeing how they moved through the pages and their lives.

But I cried at the end.  Can I help it?  These days apparently a good ending does that to me.  Just saying...

And I went to the library to find another of Pamela Duncan's books, so I'll be reading it soon. 

I also have another Anita Diamant book. I was amazed and touched by the second Diamant book I read, "Day after Night."  I'd read her "The Red Tent" once years ago, and recently again, and loved it again.  Now I got to read a novel about the Jews who first settled the area that was to become Israel, and how they were treated by people who should have been helping them.  Very powerful and eye-opening.

What powerful women authors! 

And I found a Deborah Crombie murder mystery which I hadn't yet read.  This is a great life.

I over-heard the librarians saying that one of the local University Libraries in Asheville was no longer going to hold physical books, everything would be e-books.

I'm glad I've now got a program for e-books, but it's not that easy to read them here at my desk and I'm not about to purchase a "tablet" to read them on.  Remember when a tablet had yellow paper with lines?

there are some nights like this

Wednesday night I had a fair to poor evening.
Tried reading a book on the computer [not on line, but downloaded via a new app (er, they used to be called programs) from NC Digital Library called OverDrive...and I remember that being one of the gears that cars had, past third I believe....]  I don't have one of those tablets, so had the laptop on my lap.
Ugh, it gets heavy.  Back to the desk.
Then just quit and read another book that's the regular paper kind...ah.

But then I made a phone call, and started coughing.
It was about my usual bedtime, and the cough might start in the evening, and especially when lying down, for which I take Musinex...but this time it didn't seem to help.  I'm missed some window of treatment that works.

I didn't have any more of the "Breathe Easy" tea which usually works.  Remind self to go buy some more.

I tried the rescue inhaler, since I was having real pain in my lungs.  It helped a while...had to use the inhaler about 3 times though.

Everything I did didn't work, so I was sitting up reading or playing solitaire on the Idiot-phone till the wee hours (you know, not double digits) had come around.

So when I finally got to sleep, I didn't rest as long as I usually do until the cats said it was dawn.  There's actually a bird in the bush by the window that thinks dawn is around 5 am...which cues the cats.   I fed cats and crawled back into bed for another hour of dreams....

Panther

About cats.  And a new mall with little antique booths, and how I was going to rent the tiny one furthest in the back to sell pottery, and hopefully get another potter to share it with me...and then the cats were in my arms (both of them hate each other) and I was trying to get them through hallways, and then I noticed I had the wrong cat, this wasn't mine...so I was going all the way back through the walkways to find my right other cat, and about then the space for my booth in the back had doubled in size...and I thankfully woke up.

Muffin

Today dawned eventually and I'm looking forward to it, but have to acknowledge that my body didn't get enough rest (I usually have 9 hours) and will need a nap.  So I called a friend (Pat, thank you so much) to help with my volunteer work at the BMCA studio.

If you've read my blog through the years, even sporadically, this coughing is chronic and persistent, recurring and not anything that I can do to absolutely stop it.

For now, I'm not coughing.  I was saying that it could be asthma, according to one doc visit.  So I should take the inhaler regularly, rather than just when coughing.  That doesn't make sense to me.  So far I haven't done it.  But so far I have more bad nights than good ones.  When I have a good one I can actually spend the next day doing pretty much what most people do.  Otherwise I feel like a wet dishrag, just dragging around with little interest in anything.

I've almost finished the Physical Therapy for my shoulder, and feel so wonderful when I do the exercises he gave me...my whole body is flexible again.  Until you're sedentary like I've been lately, you don't know how great I feel to move most of the muscles in my trunk...hips, shoulders, twist, bend, turn...oh it's glorious.

Moving and breathing.  I'm so grateful when I'm able to do both.

Getting my groove back

A tiny wine red pitcher.  For cream or some small nice condiment, I think.  Holds 1/2 cup, microwavable!

This is Little Loafer's clay.  Inside is satin white glaze, out is Raspberry, shop glazes at BMCA clay studio.


Quote for today:

Keep inviolate an area of light and peace within you.

Corazon Aquino

Farm life early 20th Century

Tractors for Sepia Saturday this week.  Go to this site to see what others have come up with!

I immediately remembered seeing something similar in the Heym photo album, my ex-husband's family which farmed in Michigan at the turn of the 20th Century.  These are my sons' ancestors.

If anyone knows what that machine does, I'll be happy to learn!

Horse drawn wagon and carriage...perhaps the same horse?

Livestock....plus farmer and wife and a child behind the pigs.  The child was to become my sons' grandmother, Mary Heym.

Pete the dog and unknown ancestor of my husband (who reminds me of him)

A portion of the page layout...fun!

Today's Quote:

Energy cannot be destroyed, but it can be transformed or transferred from one person, thing, or source to another. Though energy is formless, it does take form and shape in the way it flows and resides within all things: a grain of sand, a bird, a stone, and an ocean wave.
Madyson Taylor