From a few days in the mountains...

I harvested some onions..

A crazy big squash plant..

Jewelweed and Steve's gate..

Weeds..
My favorite weed.. Joe Pye Weed.

Even in July this water will turn your feet

beet red and burning,

then blue.

It will take your breath if you are foolish enough to immerse yourself..

Weekend Back Home..

I spent the weekend
back home in the mountains
of Western North Carolina.
And it was glorious.
The nights were cool and the days
were kissed with a cool breeze
though the sun was high
and the skies blue.
There were some showers
in the evenings and first thing
in the morning,
but that is the way
it should be.


Before the cloud..
Cloud is coming on...

In the cloud...

And the hanging mist

that gives the Smokey Mountains

their name..

While I was there I set a garden

for my relatives and harvested

some of the produce

that was ready to go.

Nothing, and I mean nothing,

beats rhubarb for sheer perfection.

I have a freezer full

and didn't make a dent in the

rhubarb patch.

And the blackberries are in full
and glorious bloom.
Come August that there will be some good eating.

Way off topic...Decoration Day

Most of you are familiar with Memorial Day
and the placing of flowers on the graves
of fallen soldiers, but the tradition started
long before and far away.
In America, Decoration Day can be traced
to the mountains of Western North Carolina
and Virginia and the ceremony was taken
by the government after the Civil War and the date changed in 1971.

In Western North Carolina the tradition of Decoration Day
is still going strong. In the late spring families
and communities meet at the burying ground to
clean the graves and place flowers at the graves...
lots and lots of flowers. The graveyards look like this all year
round and I find them to be beautiful.

I am the keeper of all of the old, old family

pictures and have many photos taken on Decoration Day.

The family all lined up against a hill every year and had their photo taken.

I can see year by year how the children that would be my Great Grandparents

and Grandparents and my Great Aunts grew from childhood.

They would bring baskets of food and socialize all the day

and a good time was had by all.

It was the precursor to a family reunion, I believe.

I plan to attend the Decoration Day ceremonies at

Sawmill Hill this year and to bring my son. He is fascinated

by the family burying ground and the generations he can see

listed before him on the tombstones

and I think he would find the laying of the flowers

to be 'awesome!' I think I should reconnect with

the traditions that my family held dear for

so many hundreds of years too. I find myself too

far removed from my family and the rich history

of the struggles of the first settlers

in these rugged mountains.

It would do my soul good.

And no stone is left untended.

Even the ones that are so ancient as to be but

simple creekstone markers to show that a life was lived.

How long ago did this person laugh
and plant and harvest?
How many snows and springs went by?
Whom did they love?

Yep. I am going to Decoration Day this year
and a good time will be had by all.

Longing...

I went HOME
and I am longing,
aching
to return again.
Mornings of sweet sorghum dripping down cornbread
and evenings of a table fitted elbow tight
and brimming over with laughter.
Deep nights in an ancient four post under quilts.
My being warm against the bitter cold.

My family has lived in the hollers
and coves of western North Carolina
for nearly 300 years.
Cool spring water fills my veins
and my heart sings the wind in high ridge trees.


It has been a bountiful year
with the trees bending with plenty.


So much bounty that folks just can't haul off, store or eat anymore.

And yet there is more still to fall.

Ancient tree

to bear so much.

The moss is green, but don't be fooled.

It is 12 degrees at 9am.

Steve's gate.

May God rest his soul.

And little wisps caught

dancing in the morning light.