Beautiful flowers from Paige, my dear niece

I don't expect to get flowers on Valentine's Day now that my valentine is gone, but this year, on February 14, Paige brought this large beautiful bouquet of flowers to me. Sadly, I was asleep when she came and did not hear her at my door. But she left them anyway with a sweet card.  

Having no children of my own, I am always touched when my nieces and nephews remember me on special days like Valentine's Day. I wish I had been as thoughtful with my dear Aunt Judy who had no children. I loved her and loved being with her, but never thought to send her a card or write her a note on special days. 

If you are a niece or nephew with an aunt or uncle you love, it would please them so, so much to be remembered with flowers or a card showing your love.

City Girl? Country Girl?

I think I am officially a part-time resident of Roswell, Georgia. 

I now have a primary care physician here and I like him. Already he has made a difference in my health. Today I began a four-week schedule of physical therapy. I have joined a gym and I go there once a week to walk in the water at the pool. 

Tonight I realized I am truly learning to live as a city person. I called and ordered dinner for myself, drove over in the dark of night, and picked it up. I don't like to drive at night, and driving in the city at night is a little scary with all the traffic and bright lights in my eyes. But I made it and did not get lost.

If you live in a city or have lived in a city, you probably smile at my being concerned about going out at night and bringing home my dinner. But I have always lived a rural life and I love it. I can drive all over Clay County NC day or night with no qualms. And when we complain about the traffic it is because the summer people have arrived for a few months. I might have to wait a few minutes before I can drive out on Highway 64 and head to Hayesville five miles down the road. I admit, I don't drive at night much anymore even in North Carolina, because my vision is not so good. Here in Roswell, I ride with my sister or her husband driving. My car sits in the yard covered with pollen most of the time. 

But this week I decided to get out and do some things on my own. The exciting part of that is I have begun my deck garden here like the one I have at home. The shocker is how expensive everything is in the city. But I forgot that as I potted plants and got my hands really dirty again.

Got my hummingbird feeder up but so far no one has visited

I saw these cute little birds that hang on my pots and love the owl and the cardinal.

As you can see, a lovely little lake lies beyond my deck. Today the ducks were loud and flapping away.

Lexie loves our deck and is very happy to be outside when I am working with the plants.

In the big blue pot is an azalea with some creeping jenny at the base of it. It will be pretty. 
The yellow flower claims to be a pollinator and will entice birds, bees, and butterflies.

Although I plan to go back to Hayesville for most of the summer months, I will come back here often to visit, see my doctor and spend time in my comfortable apartment. I am so fortunate! Gay has a housekeeper come every couple of weeks and she cleans my place as well. In Hayesville, it has become very hard for me to find help. Wish I could do all my housework as I once did, but sadly I have to depend on others for the hard stuff.

Her is another of my poems for you. 

Gardening Then and Now, July 2015

                 By Glenda Council Beall 

Once tall azaleas sprawled
across my ground, pinks, whites
and lavenders. Outside my door,
blue hydrangeas bloomed.

Gardenias’ fragrance filled
my yard space, sent me back
in time to bell-shaped skirts,
verandahs in a fantasy southland.

Today I water red geraniums,
pink petunias in pots stacked
and spread across my porch perched
above tree limbs decorated with yellow
finches, Carolina wrens, and blue buntings.

I watch tomato vines, squash blossoms,
a spineless melon plant climb up wire cages.
No longer do I wipe sweat, kneel on hard soil,
bend to dig in dirt, and pray the deer don’t eat

my seedlings. From my easy chair, I observe
my favorite things in my container garden—hovering
hummingbirds, butterflies, and squirrels. I smile
as a doe and two young fawns pass by below.

FAVORITE PLACES

This lovely vine has bloomed all summer and thrived. I don't know the name of it, but that doesn't matter to me. It makes me smile when I see those happy flowers outside my window.

My little Lexie claims the chaise lounge as her own. On sunny days she asks to go out on the deck where she escapes the air-conditioned house. 

She falls asleep quickly but her ears are always tuned to every sound, especially the movement of the deer that roam around on the mountain and in my yard.

This summer, being isolated at home due to COVID, I have enjoyed many different colorful flowers and plants that light up my deck and bring the birds and butterflies. 

Autumn is slowly approaching the southwestern region of North Carolina. Tourists will soon arrive to see the leaves turn red, orange, yellow, and gold.

The dogwoods around my house are beginning to change to fall colors. I have about 25 dogwood trees on my property. They are filled with white blossoms in the spring, filled with green leaves in the summer, and become brightly colored in fall. 

Fall is a happy time in these mountains. Fall festivals draw crowds every weekend. The John C. Campbell Fall Festival has always been one of my favorites. The Punkin Chunkin festival here in Clay County brings in visitors from far and wide. The highways between here and Atlanta, GA are crammed with traffic.

October is a favorite month to vacation in the mountains.

I remember how excited I was when Barry and I would drive up here from southwest Georgia many years ago to vacation. We often rented a cabin on the lake. Gay and Stu joined us and our friends the Clarkes often visited while we were here. 

Carefree and glad to leave behind responsibilities at home we spent hours on a pontoon boat laughing and talking, exploring the coves and waterways of Lake Chatuge. We drove the back roads admiring the mountain ranges and soaking up the rural countryside. 

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Blue Ridge Parkway in Autumn

Since the spring of 2020, life has been far different than it was in those days when we escaped reality here in the quiet of this region of the United States. Like many over the past months, I found myself wondering where I should be. I have no family here and am cut off from my friends due to this horrible pandemic. I have gone through periods of depression, anxiety and frustration with the entire world. I know I am not alone with those feelings because I talk with others who have felt the same way. 

Still, my favorite place is right here where my best memories reside. 

My close friends are here and I am fortunate to meet and make new friends through my classes. I think about what I am grateful for every day. I am grateful for kind and generous people who reach out to me and offer their help if I need it. 

I have been sick the past week with an upper respiratory infection. Because my symptoms are similar to COVID, my doctor's office wanted me to take a test. I had to wait until the next day to get results and was so thankful the test was negative. Although I had only been to the grocery store and a doctor's office, I knew I could have been exposed to a stranger who didn't know he was ill and was not wearing a mask.

After taking an antibiotic the last two days, I feel much, much better. Tomorrow will be a good day and I look forward to watching the leaves change, driving along country roads, and taking Lexie for a walk. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead wherever you live and that you find kindness and love all around you. 

Spring in the mountains

In 1975 we built our dream house on the farm in Dougherty County Georgia. In 1995, we moved to North Carolina and left our beautiful home. We bought a small vacation house as an interim place to live until we sold our house in Georgia. We didn't expect to still be in the vacation house twenty years later. Although we did some remodeling, the little place here in the mountains is not nearly as comfortable and nice as the house we built down south. But we both loved the location and decided not to buy another bigger, nicer house. We decided the deck on this house was worth the price we paid for it.

Today I am sharing some photos of spring at my place. The first one is taken from my upper deck looking west.

From my upper deck looking west. This is side yard. Many dogwood trees reside in my yard.

Part of my container garden. See my front yard behind the banister.

 One corner of my deck is for my container garden. Pansies have done really well in this cool weather.

 I fill my spaces with geraniums each spring and summer. They are easy to grow and make me smile.

These red azaleas are the first thing you see when you enter my driveway. They have outdone themselves this year.

Looking down on my front yard from my upper deck. My driveway circles a heart shaped area. My heart is open to you when you come up to my house, to my studio, Writers Circle around the Table.  I hope to see you here one day.Red Azaleals; from the upper deck

Summer's Beauty in the Mountains

Summer is filled with beauty in nature. Trees surround my house and line the roads as I travel here in the mountains of western North Carolina. Wild flowers abound on the sides of highways or trails. But I lose my mind when I go to any place with flowering plants in pots. Just yesterday I stopped in at Lowe’s and came home with several colors of flowers. I can’t get out in the yard and dig in the dirt anymore, but I make a beautiful garden of color on my upstairs deck. 

                      I’ll share some of the color in my life today.

I'll pot these tomorrow or one day soon

Some people dig up and throw away the daylilies that grow so easily beside the roads, but I think they are very pretty. 

Roadside daylilies

Wild ferns grow all around the edges of my yard.

The Canadian Geese are a nuisance to some, but I love to watch them. They hang out mostly near the lake - like on the golf course - and they leave a mess behind.

I am so blessed to live near this lake surrounded by mountains. I sit and drink in the awe of it all.

Just a walk around my house or a short drive in my car brings sights and sounds of nature, beauty that I never take for granted.                 Another thing to list in my gratitude journal. 

ON A DARK NOVEMBER DAY, SEEKING SUN AND FLOWERS

Any of several popular cultivated violets (genus Viola). Pansies have been grown for so long under such diverse conditions with such striking variations in colour and form that their origin is uncertain.

Pansies with perfect little faces peep from the shadows.

Are you love-in-idleness, Johnny jump-ups or heartsease?

Your family roots reach deep, beyond recorded time,

certainly before the Mayflower parked at Plymouth Rock.

__________________________
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For all my Florida friends and cousins. On a cold, rainy day in the mountains, I think about your warm sunny weather. I love the beach in winter, want to go there before long. Once upon a time I baked myself in the summer sun on snow white sand, and tanned dark as mahogany. That was before we knew better.
I close my eyes and smell the water, feel the wind, and hear the gulls. Watching the ocean, like gazing into a blazing fire, settles the nerves, sooths the mind, and sends me anywhere I want to go.