Thursday, June 18, 2015

It Goes Without Saying...The Food

This morning I posted the blog entry I had written yesterday and because I got involved with projects, I didn't come back to the blog till this morning.  I had ordered several pictures for the bedrooms upstairs and I had brought from Katy several pieces I had hanging at the house.  The picture for the mantel barely fits but it looks good.  I also put up another piece over the couch and then I started rearranging and adding different elements to the wall.  I might just complete this today as I have given myself an evening to think through rearranging pictures from a wall upstairs.  This project is turning out much better than I expected.  I was successful getting Lowe's coming as an e bill but not successful for Charter.  No matter what info I put in, even the account number, nothing happened. The bill comes to the house address and thus upon returning home, it was soaked from rain showers.  It is the only bill that comes here.  If I have learned anything from watching Roy deal with Comcast I know that this is going to take a phone call and frankly, I'm not into giving it that much time.  I also got suitcases unpacked and put away.

In hindsight, I wish I had read or paid attention more to Elisabeth Elliott.  Of course I knew of her and an influential Sunday School teacher when I was in high school tried to get me to read some of her books, but I found her style of writing, of course I was so mature in high school, difficult and gave up after a few chapters but I liked reading quotes attributed to her.  This is not unlike now, I love Ann Voskamp quotes but her style of writing makes it difficult to read her book.  Every once in a while I would listen to her on the radio and I liked her forthright, no nonsense style of tackling subjects and how we should live our life in Christ.  But I had this one thing that bothered me more than style of writing, it was this...she believed that women should wear dresses all the time.  This was difficult for a teenager like myself in the 70's to like because so many had fought so hard for the right and or privilege...depending how you looked at it, to wear pants...nee, pantsuits. Years later while on staff at church I worked with one of her well known protegees who was holding a support rally in the church fellowship center.  I had on pants...but when I returned for her event that evening to work at church, I wore a dress and she was much more friendly toward me.  The past few days as I have read her obituaries and tributes by others on the effect she had on their lives, I wonder...would I like reading her books now?  If I had ever met her in person, I probably would have really liked her and I might give it a go after all the hoopla is done with and people go back to life as it was when they didn't think about Elisabeth Elliot for years at a time.

It is now Thursday morning and it happens to be a very foggy morning.  We had a good rain shower last evening and I could tell from the fog forming last night that the day would begin shrouded in moisture.

After spending Tuesday around the house I decided to get out and about on Wednesday and a return trip to the Amish store near The Farmer's Daughter felt like a good idea since the store would be less crowded.  Farmer's Daughter is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The drive is gorgeous.  I used the trip up as prayer time and praying while driving through God's country as a back drop is wonderful.  There weren't many cars on the road either which is a blessing with 6% grades and run away truck ramps.  Neither did I observe any falling rock, so all in all the drive was good.  When I  to the store I walked around up and down every aisle.  Then I came back for a basket and began shopping.  I had thought ahead and brought a cooler with ice, thus coming home with some delicious things.  There are a lot of produce stands on this road but only two were open.  The rest open in July.  I stopped at both and will definitely return to one and probably won't go back to the other.  When I got back to Jonesborough  it seemed right to take a little tour of downtown.  It will be a go back on the list.  Old drugstore and quaint downtown with a few interesting shops.

I had the good fortune of being invited over to Bill and Vivian's for supper.  They had leftovers from Aunt Mary's soiree that afternoon.  Several of Aunt Mary's friends from her church in Morristown came to see her.  Everything was delicious and the meal was topped off with homemade strawberry ice cream...that was sooooo good!  We sat on the back porch and watched the rain.  So relaxing...then Vivian had the best idea to drive through her pasture to go to the open pasture on the far side of the farm.  She told me the view from there was totally different and she was right.  Oh my, first of all it was fun to drive through the pasture and second of all, it was so beautiful.  We saw the first of many bunnies for the evening.  The sunset was spectacular after the rain so we took a drive up on a road that has fantastic views.  Vivian told me stories of who had owned the land or who had lived there or the relative that built some of the houses.  Oh my, it is so interesting.  As we stopped to view a home that I have always loved, a car came up behind us and clearly they needed to get somewhere and didn't want to be behind a tourist from Texas.  So Vivian told me to turn left on a road because chances were good, they weren't going down that particular road and she was right.  This road truly is the road less traveled because most of the farms in that area were bought up by TVA and they planned to turn the area into a lake.  They have never developed the lake so the land is filled and overgrown with nature.  Vivian told me never to drive that road by myself and I will do as she has said.  The few cars that were on the road were kind of surprised to see us and had to move back to their side of the road.  We stopped and looked where an inn had been long ago, built for the hot springs that are in the area.  The road ended into a very familiar road, one I hadn't been down but recognized the churches we passed.  It was the road with the list of Baptist churches complete with miles apart information.

I loved yesterday all the way around.  The beauty, the friendship, the history and of course you know it goes without saying...the food.





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