Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Day trippers

Today we made the trip to Atlanta and back for Emory appointments:  uneventful, and Jimmy's preliminary blood tests look stable.  Our friend Jane Youmans came to the house in the early afternoon to let Andy out, so we weren't in a panic to get back, worrying about him.

Often there is a volunteer pianist playing in the lobby of the Winship Cancer Center

Jimmy waiting for our car to be brought around
We stopped in Clayton so I could go to the Walmart there, while Jimmy waited in the car.  As I was trudging out, pushing my cart, a man to my right started encroaching on my personal space.  I slowed down to let him pass, and he slowed down.  I picked up speed, and he stayed right with me.

It seemed a little early in the day for a mugging, and I started wondering if I was about to be propositioned by some lonely old geezer with a penchant for older women.  I wheeled around to confront him, but it was just George, King of the Zip Line, come down from his mountain to load up on provisions.



Monday, July 29, 2013

Looking at life from both sides now...

Last night they turned off the eagle cam - nesting season is over, and eaglets Peace and Harmony are thriving.  I, and thousands of other nature lovers, watched, enthralled, as the pair of bald eagles, apex predators, built their nest, laid and incubated the two eggs, and nurtured their young.  We watchers fretted when we thought the babies might be hungry, and cheered when the parents brought home fish or small animals or ducks or goslings.

Peace and Harmony, back at the nest for a visit
For the last five or six weeks, I often go check on the family of swans on the golf course.  There are always other people there, taking pictures, feeding them bread, or just admiring.



This afternoon, I was heartsick to learn that the mother swan and two of her babies were killed last night, dinner for a creature farther up the food chain.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Cousins





My father only had one sibling, my Aunt Sara, and she had three sons then a daughter, Susie.  I'm almost eleven years older than Susie, and with her family living so far away in Hendersonville, NC, we've never been close.  We'd see each other at large family events every few years but that was about it.

Not too long ago we became Facebook friends, and I started seeing pictures of her and her family and things going on in her life, and we started communicating back and forth a little bit. When she messaged me last week, asking if she could drive over for the day for a visit, I was thrilled.  Her home in Lake Lure NC is only a few hours from Highlands, and I had entertained the same thoughts.

She got here in time for us to go to lunch, and I had persuaded her to stay and spend the night, so we have had an absolutely lovely time.  It has been a revelation.  She is so much like her mother, whom I adored, and she is such a kindred spirit that I feel like I have known her forever.

Daddy and Aunt Sara  ("Bubba' and "Sister") loved each other dearly, and I know they're smiling down from Heaven, saying, "What on Earth took them so long?"

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Full fledged


For the last week, the Minnesota eaglets Peace and Harmony have been venturing onto the branches surrounding their nest, and Monday they disappeared, not to be seen all day.  Since then, they have come back to the nest, and the parents are continuing to bring them prey to eat.  But they have fledged: they have learned to fly, and now their parents are teaching them to hunt and other skills they need to survive.

They'll come back to the nest less and less, and the time will come when we won't see them anymore.  It's bittersweet, but it has been such an enriching experience, and I hate for it to end.

They look more like a couple of buzzards than eagles.  They won't get the distinct white heads of adult eagles for  about four more years

Sometimes I think they ought to be called Heckle and Jekyl instead of Peace and Harmony

They've gotten so big so fast, now weighing about twelve pounds, with a wingspan over six feet

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Strange bedfellows

Sometimes, if there is bad weather, Mary's cat, Kitten, will cuddle up to her friend, Charlie, the dog, for comfort and protection, and go right to sleep.


Andy, on the other hand, is tightly swaddled in a Thunder-Shirt, and has been given a tranquilizer, but is still panting and shivering every time the thunder booms around us.


Friday, July 5, 2013

Mary









Satullah Falls



Monday, July 1, 2013

Rainy mountain evening