Busman’s Holiday

We had a pleasant day with grandson David. I shopped at the supermarket while David and John got haircuts. They came back for me in time to go through the checkout and chat with Laura, our favorite cashier. Late in the afternoon, we ate barbecue sandwiches on the way to Asheville, and a number of people will be glad I didn’t stalk the family with my camera. There was one picture-worthy moment, sadly unrecorded. David filled our cones with free soft ice cream, swirling the ice cream to make it three times taller than the little cone. The last time I tried that, I had to catch the top with my fingers.

We don’t find Asheville to be a user-friendly city, so we went quite early to get a parking place. The reward was a free spot in the church parking lot. We were at the Basilica of St. Lawrence to hear the touring choir of Valparaiso University. David was eager to hear them, because he has been in the tour choir of his college. For him, this was a busman’s holiday. Having nothing more to do, the camera took David’s image at point blank range for a rather lethal shot.

030618 David at Basilica of St Lawrence.JPG

The acoustics of the basilica were amazing. The round building, lined with tile, magnified sounds. The first piece was from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. It was surround-sound, with the singers standing all around us. The loud, sustained chords were enough to make our senses reel. As the choir moved about the building, I noticed the students were wearing soft shoes. There were no clicks or taps on the floor, only a low hum as they walked. I was surprised that the footsteps filled the space with an undefined musical sound.

The choir was fantastic. All the music was done from memory, aside from one piece sung from the balcony. I took one quick photo, and only one, so as not to embarrass my men. As the applause began after the last piece, David was about the third person to stand up. We gave that choir a standing ovation that lasted until they filed out.

030618 Valparaiso University Chorale in Asheville.JPG

I loved David’s enthusiasm. We talked about the concert all the way home. The fellows mentioned individual singers that I hadn’t even noticed. We felt the choir was superior with dynamics, diction, animation, and precision. What a winner! David longed to hear the choir again in South Carolina. He compromised by playing YouTube videos for hours after we got home. (Search for Valparaiso University Chorale on YouTube)

A Day of Waterfalls

Grandson David expressed interest in seeing waterfalls during his Spring break. He and John looked through a waterfall book to find some that would be easily accessible. Shunkawauken Falls, near Columbus NC, was the first. Oddly enough, it started at the top of a mountain before going under the road.

030518 (1) D at Shunkawauken Falls.JPG

David and I were looking only at the falls as we walked up the steep road. The spectacular view was behind us. We walked across the road to see where the stream flowed and saw the vista below.

030518 (4) Shunkawauken Falls vista.JPG

We ate lunch at a small restaurant in the town. The waitress said the fish was excellent, so John and I ordered catfish. We were not disappointed.

030518 (5) David John in Columbus NC.JPG

Key Falls was on private property behind a bed and breakfast place. Its sound was as sweet and gentle as a lullaby.

Looking Glass Falls is beside the highway and probably the easiest one to see in the area. John and I have seen it numerous times. I stayed at the top, while David went down the steps to the base of the falls. His blue jacket is easy to spot.

030518 (10) David on steps to Looking Glass Falls.JPG

We stopped for falling water that had no formal name. Ice had formed on leaves to the left of the falls, and icicles dripped from a rock. David estimated it to be about 8 feet tall. After looking at it for a minute, David exclaimed, “This is where Uncle John and I filled our water bottles the time we went camping!”

030518 (12) Falls without a name.JPG

From a distance we saw Bubbling Spring Branch Cascades. David wants to hike to it some day.

030518 (13) Bubbling Spring Branch Cascades.JPG

Our tour ended at my favorite, Sunburst Falls. It’s the closest impressive one to our house. I liked the photo with David out on the rocks, showing how tall the falls are.

030518 (15) David at Sunburst Falls.JPG

A video of the top of Shunkawauken Falls:

Head Hugs

I have the most marvelous hat. Friend Karen, an expert knitter, made it for me and brought it when she and Al came for their 62-hour visit. I didn’t tell her that I looked for one for two years after we moved here. I settled for one, which was better than nothing. John and I walk in rather cold weather (this season once at 0 F or -17.7 C). I have plenty of hair, but not enough to keep scalp and ears warm. I clapped this gift on my head to model it for her. If rain had not been pouring down two mornings, she would have gone walking with us to the creek on those days. I would have proudly worn this precious hat. After those rainy days and a morning of heavy wind, I finally wore it for real. First, though, came a photo with Nathaniel’s lowered mirror to show the back.

030318 Hat by Karen.JPG

The creek is a mile away, and the temperature was 26 degrees (-3.3 C). My face wasn’t pinched with cold, even though I stopped to talk to neighbor Marla.

030318 New hat by the stream.JPG

Wearing a hat made for me with loving hands is like having head hugs. This experience is like nothing else, AND it will last a long time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Karen.

Jonathan Creek wanted to strut his stuff, so here is his photo showing high water after the rains.

030318 Jonathan creek after rain.JPG — My shadow is there, with the head just touching the bank.

Unwelcome Visitor and Reading Blogs

As you might guess, my unwelcome visitor was not a human being. It was our harbinger of Spring, Mr. Robin. We’ve seen many robins the last few days, and I accepted them peacefully at first. From another room I heard thumping and checked the front door to see if a neighbor was there. No one was on the porch. The next series of thumps led me to the sliding glass doors. A filthy robin was hurling itself against the glass, leaving watery poop oozing down. I did NOT take a photo, but I did wash the doors immediately when it was one degree below freezing. There are eleven splatters of poop below the glass, so I’ll be taking a giant step forward when I go outside. I’d love to flash that bird with a huge picture of an owl, or whatever else would frighten him. Nasty bird!

I have a new system for catching up on blog-reading. My choice is always to be with living people over recorded messages. Blogs will wait patiently until I am alone. I chose to spend every possible moment with our friends Karen and Al, who were here only 62 hours. John delivered them to their home after a sleepless 13 hours of driving. It’s good that John didn’t sleep, but they stayed awake through the night, too.

It would have been discouraging to count the posts, so I scrolled down to the last one I read. My new system is to read five posts each time I change activities. I needed a plan to keep track of those read. For the record, I can still count to five, but I can’t remember which number I’m on if I wait three minutes between numbers. This sounds like the beginning of a dratted story-problem, doesn’t it? Relax, it isn’t. Scattered about my messy desk were five items. I put them to the left of the keyboard, moving one to the right each time I finished reading a post.

030118 Memento counters.JPG

It has been fun to use these little dust-catchers mementos. The train and rabbit came from our trip to Colorado. I bought the polished stone in Dillsboro NC and picked up the free toy army figure at a pottery in Tennessee. The fighter is to remind me to pray for our military people. The marble belonged to my dad. I have no idea how it landed here, but it can’t be contained easily – just like him when he was alive.

One Full Day

I told people we had one day to visit with our friends Karen and Al. They traveled with John on his ferrying missions between visits of grandsons Nathaniel and David. They arrived in the wee hours, relaxed the next day, and headed back to New York mid-afternoon of the third day. What a whirlwind! Our one full day began at the breakfast table.

02218 Karen Al JC breakfast.JPG — Red slices on the plates are blood oranges.

They had angel biscuits the last time they visited, but this time the bread was made with White Lily flour. I doubt I’ve ever made lighter or fluffier biscuits. Perhaps the real test would have been comparing regular biscuits the day before with the yeast biscuits this day.

022818 Angel biscuits.JPG

Knowing Karen knits all the time, I pushed a trip to the nearest yarn shop. When other alternatives were presented, her eyes lit up at the mention of a thrift shop. I was eager to share the one Nathaniel and I went to. We left John at his computer and Al smoking a cigar on the porch. On the way to town, Karen mentioned that she would look for a sewing machine. It sounded impossible, but that was one thing she would like to have for repairing things at home. We poked through all the displays of dishes, glasses, candle holders, small appliances, plumbing supplies, cookbooks, speakers, bake ware, and jewelry. I learned my lesson the last time, to not argue with myself about buying something that caught my eye. I loved two cordial glasses with angels on them and didn’t buy them. The next day Nathaniel went back with me to get them – a steal at $1 apiece! This time I picked up a cut glass cruet, a small mug with red hearts on it, and a 100-piece jigsaw for Logan.

Karen asked the wonderful volunteer behind the counter if they might possibly have a sewing machine.

“Oh, yes!” she said. “One came in yesterday, and its a really good one. Come with me.”

The woman picked up something I thought looked like a toaster. She put the tiny Elna sewing machine on the counter with a flourish, saying she knew it ran. Karen’s mind worked like lightning. It cost less than anything brand new she had seen on sale, and she would not drive down from New York if she didn’t buy it and changed her mind. The volunteer was shocked to be asked to pose with Karen in the shop. She said, “That’s a first!”

022818 Karen at thrift shop with volunteer.JPG

We came back home crowing about our finds. The machine worked, and Karen easily found the instruction manual on line.

Has anyone else had trouble finding good decaf coffee? Ingles discontinued Karen’s and my favorite chocolate-raspberry flavor. The fellows went with us to Smoky Mountain Coffee Roasters. I knew neighbor Connie bought decaf there, so we went with high hopes of finding something for them to take home. There were only two choices, and Karen took the Organic Peruvian Blend. My fingers are crossed that she will enjoy it.

Karen loves barbecue as much as I do, and the men were amenable to lunch at Haywood Smoke House. The restaurant has a rustic décor, although décor is too fancy a word to use in this context. When Al’s wine came in a jelly jar, I asked the men to pose while making a toast. A jelly jar, of all things!!! The food was solidly good, as always.

022818 Al John toast.JPG

John asked if we wanted to go anywhere else, and Karen seconded my suggestion that we go up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The rain clouds were low, but you never know if something beautiful will present itself. I hadn’t been up there since the beginning of December. We jumped out and took a photo of a distant waterfall. We could even hear its roar! Unfortunately, that was the ONLY view we had. The rest of that section was fog-bound. Every time something was not to our liking, we kept telling them they had to come back.

022818 Stream from Blue Ridge Parkway.JPG

The last half day of their visit was low-key. Rain kept us from walking, so we talked instead. We ate chocolate chip-pecan coffeecake made with Angel biscuit dough for breakfast. Karen asked about the air fryer on the counter. When I found out she and Al would eat okra, I threw some frozen breaded okra in it to go with our left-overs for lunch. It was overcooked, but we ate it all, anyway. The acorn squash filled with apple was our vegetable/fruit/dessert. They needed to eat lightly, since they were soon going to have BBQ at the Due South restaurant in Christiansburg, VA.

Pushing back his chair, John said, “We’d better get going.”

“I don’t like those words,” I said.

Al suggested, “Come with us on that long ride.” He bounced up and down in his chair as if riding on a bus.

I applied the same response, “I don’t like those words.”

I hated to see them go, but we had a joyful visit, creating lots of lovely memories.

Visit of Dear Friends

John’s aim was to get grandson Nathaniel back to Long Island in plenty of time to go to school Monday. He dropped him off at 3 in the morning. I wondered if Nate went to bed for two more hours or if he stayed awake and unpacked.

John slept a few hours before having breakfast with his sister Barbara and Thom. By noon he picked up our friends Karen and Al and began the long trek back to North Carolina. About 2 am Tuesday the three of them tiptoed in our house and went to bed without waking me. Despite the short night, Karen was already up and dressed when I came out to walk. John quickly put himself together, and we three went to the creek. The new camera is learning the drill, that the first walk of a visit should be recorded beside the stream.

022718 Karen Anne at creek.JPG — Karen and Anne at the creek

Our activity of the day was walking Main Street in Waynesville. The fellows sat on a bench in the sun while we ducked into a cooking store, looking for a French butter tub. Theirs were expensive. Al spotted a sign for a bookstore in the next street, one we had never noticed before. The shop was crammed with books, nooks, and chairs. Al bought an item or so. Going back to Main Street, we looked in windows until we were almost back to our car. The men again sat outside while we went in Mast General. That store is a favorite of mine, and it was an instant hit with Karen. The wooden floors creaked with every step. We passed the clothing area and went straight downstairs for the butter tub. There were two styles, both less expensive than those in the kitchen store. That was an easy sale. On the way home, we pushed Al to go into a cigar store.

When we lived on Long Island, we celebrated Christmas with Karen and Al several days after the 25^th. They always kindly said they liked our left-over menu. The food was fresh, but the menu repeated. We had that meal for old time’s sake. Chicken and stuffing was the main dish, with beans and a frozen cranberry salad on the side. The finale was a flamed Christmas pudding with brandy butter. What a delight it was to talk with them all day long!

Logan Blows up a Balloon

I had almost finished cleaning the house when neighbor Logan (7) knocked on the door. We discussed things to do without coming to a meeting of the minds. His favorite game is checkers. I fell back on the slogan of my youth, “Just say no.” The saying applied to drugs back in the day, but I apply it to games of strategy. My brain never did work that way, and age did not improve it. We watched a TV show together for half an hour and came back to the old question of what to do next. He spied the balloon left in the living room a few days ago. We played with it until it landed on the plants. As Logan put his hands on it, the balloon blew up in his face, startling both of us.

“I’ll pick up the pieces. Do you want to get another balloon?” I asked. He ran to the closet, picking another blue one. It took me about ten times longer to tie a knot in it than the amount of time Logan spent blowing it up. I used to be able to do that easily. It could have something to do with the amount of saliva on it. Does anyone have a good suggestion for sealing a slobbery balloon? The answer is not to do the blowing myself, because Logan loves to do it.

022618 Logan blows up a balloon.JPG

We batted the balloon back and forth, trying to keep it from landing on the floor. When Logan tired of that, we just sat and talked. I have never understood more than half of what he said, so this time I explained that I didn’t hear well. I said I needed for him to face me so I could see his lips, and I needed him to speak louder. It worked like a charm!!! He wanted to communicate enough to make it work. I loved hearing him talk about this past weekend, especially the indoor water park.

With wide arm movements, he said, “I was on the TORNADO slide!!”

He also enjoyed arcade games and watching cartoons with other children in the group. When Bob came to get him, he told me a bit more about the activities. It seems it was a terrific weekend for all.

A Status Symbol

Neighbor cat Jasmine wandered into our yard while we were sitting on the front porch. We had walked her dog sisters (a description not approved by the cat) and sat down to enjoy the last bit of sunlight. Grandson Nathaniel is good with dogs, but he simply can’t resist a pretty cat. He went out to talk to her, sitting beside the tree to keep her company. I might have found it poignant, but he will be with his own cat in a matter of hours. His winter break lasted nine days, which felt more like 48 hours to me.

022418 Nathaniel with Jasmine.jpg

Sunday was different. We went to the early service so that John and Nathaniel could get an early start on the trip to Long Island. There was no Sunday School, so we went to the Buttered Biscuit for brunch. I’m not sure how the photo will look to you, but on my screen the table appears to be bent in the middle. Nathaniel is holding his plate, and maybe John is, too. If it had really been tilted, there would be no photographic evidence. I would have held onto my meal with one hand and wielded a fork with the other.

022518 N JC at Buttered Biscuit.JPG

Nathaniel performed the ritual of the mirror just before he left. A flag flies over the palace when the Queen is in residence, and Nathaniel has a mirror on his level while he is here. I don’t have a status symbol like that. Do you? If you do, please send it ahead (with instructions) before you visit.

Watch the Red Shirt

When I looked at the photos I took today, I noticed how Nathaniel’s shirt stole the show. He and I ran an errand in town, then walked along Richland Creek which runs through Waynesville. He jumped on the rocks near a tributary stream, stood beside a shallow area where it would be easy to wade, and agreed to pose at the overlook.

022318 (1) Richland Creek in Waynesville

We had an exciting first for lunch. We went to a restaurant the very day it opened! Willie Brooks BBQ had been under construction for three months. It replaced a Mexican restaurant that son John $ and I went to once. Enough said. There had been a lot of activity the last few days, so John pulled in yesterday. A tiny sign said it would open the next day. The place was crawling with employees, all smiling and asking how we liked our food.

022318 (6) Inside Willie Brooks BBQ.JPG

022318 (5) JC N eat BBQ.JPG

The afternoon’s activity was burning the Christmas tree, which had been lying in the burn pit. There is no ritual for this winter chore yet. Both Grandpa and grandson like to tend fires, so I called them pyromaniacs. They had smoky grins.

022318 (7) The pyromaniacs.JPG

The Cake

Grandson Nathaniel usually makes a cake when he visits. Last summer he made an Eclipse Cake for us the day we saw the total eclipse of the sun. He baked a Black Forest Cake at Christmas over a year ago, knowing it was one of John’s favorites.. I suspect he was guided in the same direction, because Grandpa told him he’d bought several jars of cherries. 24 hours after his arrival, he baked the three layers of chocolate cake. The following day he soaked the cake with cherry liqueur, and the third day he assembled the dessert.

The photos show the progress, starting with layers and whipped cream filling. He took breaks between each step, letting the cake chill. We were the lucky ones, getting to lick the bowls as he finished with them.

When the cake was finished, Nathaniel added a pink candle, announcing the cake was for us in honor of Valentine’s Day. It was absolutely delicious. Just so you know, we are eating it slowly, but it cannot be mailed.