Weeding and Planting...With Lots of Rain

 This past week has held lots of weather patterns. Storms to light rain, warm to very cool temps, lots of sun and lots of darkened skies. As I watched the weather patterns from the front bedroom, I was entertained then scared by watching the clouds. This is the first time I have seen a weather system move into our area from the west but the clouds in the sky moved rapidly east. When those skies opened with heavy rain, my goodness, in the nine years of living here, seeing beyond the middle of the front yard proved difficult. Just a silver sheet of precip. 

Yesterday, we planned a quick stop in Weaverville, then head over to Burnsville. A giant oak tree had other plans for those of us hitting the roads. Around 5:30 am, this oak toppled over near the Alexander bridge making access to the bridge harder. Power lines also went down with the oak. Around 8:45 am someone posted an all clear...but it wasn't. We made a quality decision to tack the first part of the trip to the end. We headed over to the road taking us in the scenic back way into Madison County. We were not disappointed by our decision. Yes, it added time but I hadn't been this way in years. Of course more homes being built and we saw one home with a driveway that pretty much went straight up to the house. Bet winter is fun and bet all your vehicles are 4 wheel drive. Once we hit town, a train stopped progress, well for us. It was kind of fun to grab some pics. We got to Pig and Grits a few minutes before they began serving lunch, but we were able to sit at a booth with a menu and try to narrow down all the delicious choices. We ended lunch with banana pudding...so good...and went over to Christy's Crafts. Great visit and brought home some wonderful things. Then quick stop at TJs for more zinnias. All in all a fun day and the road home was oak free, as far as the road is concerned. The Boys and The Feral Fam were all happy to see us or rather see us for the ability of food being provided. 

We got a lot of work done in the front. We planted zinnias and marigolds. Then we prepared the bed where we put wildflowers and such. The official start gardening is after Mother's Day but we cheated a bit and put in a few things before Mother's Day. 

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Good Monday morning. Taking the opportunity to ease into the day because the end of the week holds early morning wake-ups. Roy is going over his to do list, not from me, but his own. He is motivated that way. I kind of keep my list to myself and only I know if I got things done or not. 

Think the plane landed in yesterday's lesson. I am at a frustrating point right now. My usual notes up to the present consisted of three main words with an arrow onto the next point. That's when I had a great memory now, being so easily distracted, I over write notes. Yesterday, I stuck pretty much to going through the verses and talking about the importance or what can be learned. So when I looked down at my notes, I had covered several pages. With the tendency to sometimes go on a bunny trail, it is important to me to cover several wonderful things I found in the week of study. We got through to Joseph loosing his boss suit and being sold into slavery by his brothers. That family had a whole lot of hatred bubbling up and now to the boiling point of acting on that hate. Joseph must have been lonely with way older brothers and a baby brother. The brother's lives changed upon the arrival of Joseph, moved away from Laban, Joseph and Rachel kept to the back of the family groups in the anticipation of meeting an angry Esau, and now the tunic that placed Joseph as the boss in his father's favoritism. 

A week or so ago Fido had a problem with one of his back legs. Looked like maybe a sticker or something but it was a slight bit of a wound. Had some meds and got them into him. An afternoon of rest and he was good to go. Spot's wound is looking better and he is letting Roy get closer to him. 

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I so enjoyed seeing Mother's Day pictures of friends who attend various churches, mainly back in Houston. The family pictures or at least moms with kids pictures, standing in front of various backgrounds that the churches provided are so special. Not so much the new idea anymore, but on one Sunday morning there is joy. Joy in taking the time to go to church with mom or the joy of celebrating her. Flowers given out, prayers for mom, grandmothers, aunts or women who have invested in lives etc...  Taking care of feral cats is not the same as motherhood but we feel a sense of doing what the Lord would ask. Early on I read that if the Lord brings them your way, do your best to help them and if they move on or don't survive, you did the good thing of taking care of them. Even with the Feral Fam and The Boys, Roy has them on a schedule. As much as we can, we try to keep to the schedule cause it is helpful for outdoor survival and indoor survival, mainly for us. Mr Mo, GMoey and Willie know when bedtime is and they hang around us waiting for the call of snacking that is the reward of going to bed. 

With the cool temps yesterday morning, we got some work done out front. Weed pulling, trimming up the shrubs, and planting some miniature roses. Things grow quickly here and that includes weeds. By the end of the summer the shrubs that were trimmed will be back to the size they were. The peach tree is loaded and the apple trees aren't too far behind. The blackberries also have lots of blooms and the tomato plants are growing nicely. Two days after Mother's Day, the official planting time. I have already written that info but it is good to remember when the official planting season begins. 

Near Hit But It Was a Miss

Exciting times around here as we dodge storms in the area. Well, we didn't exactly dodge them but around us no hail or wind damage. Mars Hill and Barnardsville got hit and I saw a picture of the freeway between Mars Hill and Weaverville during the storm and the road looked like winter had hit with so much hail, large hail. The first storm of the day had intense rain and the sky got dark rather quickly. The wind picked up and we had a couple of thunder bunders. Then the late afternoon, sun came out and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider...oops. Last night we got Fido, Beanie and Coco in for the night. They weren't happy but I bet around midnight they were happy to be high and dry. So the middle of the night storm was intense lightning and thunder. It woke me up and knowing going back to sleep would be difficult, I got up and worked on my lesson and checked radar every few minutes. Even after the storm had mostly moved on, we had quite a bit of rolling thunder but soon everything settled back down. 

 This has been a social weekend, well more so than usual. We had our first meeting since forever for Women's Ministry. Had breakfast together and had a great time. Then today, since Roy is taking pics for VBS, we went to the lunch and training after church. Visited with friends and once the regular meeting was over, Roy and I were free to leave. 

With two days of rain everything has greened up even more, if that is really even possible. This next week I'll be out in the garden dead heading roses. They are blooming gangbusters this year. Also need to get the supplies for Japanese beetles because they will be showing their unwanted selves soon. 

Don't feel like I landed the plane on the lesson. We circled a bit about the first few verses and I threw myself off when I had trouble pronouncing a word because in my haste of writing out notes I misspelled a descriptive word. Even though writing out notes helps me remember, I do need spell check. Since childhood I thought spelling is just the ability to memorize letters not a skill set. Once that got deciphered we moved on. We've slowed down and are a little behind what Lifeway has scheduled. We will get into Genesis later since that is next on the docket, but our pastor is still going through the book of Acts. Kind of like the same time frame that Brother John used in preaching through Revelation. Reference for long time members of HFBC. We will wrap up the last part of Chapter 35 and then move onto Joseph. 

We added a trip to Sam's for our regular routine. Cat litter on sale and Fancy Feast restocked. Roy got vitamins and our all important snack, cashews and we were on our way. Although we had another reminder that I can't throw anything like I used to. Roy didn't think the salad mix should go in the cooler...uh, yes it should... and I admit to being frustrated but as I aimed to throw the bag into the cart, it slipped in my hand and hit Roy on the chin. He was not happy and I was telling him, I was aiming for the cart, not you...I am throwing like a girl. We both busted out laughing cause he knew I don't do things like that and my recent history of throwing things to him or out in the yard has been abysmal.  Ugh! First stop of the grocery stores was Ingles cause they have Pepsi Zero and Zero Sugar Sunkist on sale. Roy went in and took care of that. Then we went to Publix. I had an interesting near encounter. We pulled into a parking spot next to a hoarder car. The backseat was filled to the top of the car with stuff. The older lady got in her car just as we pulled in. She started the car and then sat there...another older type woman was honking her horn to get the lady to backout to no avail. We began our trek into the store when at that time hoarder lady started backing up. If I hadn't glanced down for a split second she would have run me over, but I saw her backup and brake lights light up and I used my hand on her trunk to move and jump out of the way. In the distance I can hear a woman cry out thinking I'm about to get run over. I made it out of the way and the woman just kept backing up as another car on the row behind us is backing up as well and the driver makes a maneuver to dodge her car. At the time I thought wow, that was interesting but Roy told me last night he thought she would run over me and it scared him. I remember at the time thinking I should hit her trunk with my fist to warn her but something or shall I saw Someone encouraged me not to. Most people would stop their motion but I think she would have sped up. Other than that, the shopping trip was uneventful. Our Wednesday reward, BBQ from 6 Pigs BBQ across from the post office. Delicious!   

The Wednesday Wrap Up on Thursday

 It has been a little bit since we have had dense patchy fog and this morning the fog is slowly lifting. After a mostly rainy day, fog comes along and covers the land. The sky was so beautiful last night with the rain gone and the bright white clouds rolling along. The setting sun cast a brightness atop the mountains in the distance. It was as if we were experiencing three spheres of weather and treated too verdant greens and crystal blues. This afternoon, I will get some sunflower seeds planted as well as some seeds for wildflowers. The roses this year are budding out something spectacular. Vivid pinks, sunny yellows and bright red roses. Sometimes it is too much to take in, but I take it in. So thankful for our Creator who has given us these colors painting the landscape. 

At the beginning of the year as I started blogging, I tried to capture some memories of the long ago. I felt rather strongly about this and blogged a bit more than I have in the recent past. Now that we are in spring, I give the growth and weather updates. There is a mention or two of lessons involving research and study, usually. When I first began blogging I took up topics that I felt strongly about and I sometimes still do that. But now, it is a more settled time and more of time for me doing something that I love. There are topics I would cover now but wisdom dictates that wouldn't be prudent. Ah SNL...back in the day reference. 

Roy is finally in Genesis on Sundays. My class is slowing down a bit as we round the turn into studying Joseph. We are at Bethel with Jacob right now as he is in the last lap of becoming the next patriarch after his father. Jacob has been dragging his feet as of late, taking his time to arrive where he has been called to live. This morning Roy and I were talking about Lot, cause that is where he is at and then chapter 35 where we are. The difference we noticed was in the road trip. Lot couldn't wait to divide off and live his own life with all this stuff and the nostalgia for his time in Egypt. Jacob's road trip is full of moving on and then sputtering. Being a devote of Michael Card's teaching using our imaginations to see the scene we are reading in its entirety. Moving those tents back then did not include pop up tents or campers. We were remembering some of the trips that we took here before living here. The journey was never too much. Roy and I would make that first day of driving, the hardest one and we got in the habit of going to Chattanooga because our niece was in college there. The next morning we took the back way to Asheville with a slower pace, then vacation really began. Now, that we live here and even with several trips back throughout the years, that journey doesn't hold the same alure it once did. The world has changed and we have changed. 

I behaved at Publix and didn't see or run into the rude couple. We actually shopped like we were adults and our cart didn't look like we eat the same as college students. On the way home we did our Wednesday lunch stop picking up 6 Pigs BBQ across from the post office on the river road. Delicious! They will also be at the Madison Market next weekend. After eating lunch we headed to Ducketts. They just got a new shipment in of plants and we wanted to check out what they had. Year before last I bought plants from them and was thrilled with the price and the outcome. Best $20 spent yesterday was a tray of zinnias and the flat includes 36 plants. That that was a great deal. Also picked up another hanging plant for the front. On the way to and back from Clyde, we saw a large panel truck that had ran off the road as you are going up the mountain from Clyde. Looked like a back broken axel. Must have been the theme of the week cause several rigs have slid off the road and into a culvert. 

While we planted zinnias, the Feral Fam had a wonderful time chasing one another in the tall grass. It looked as if we had planted kitty cats. It was hard not to tear up because Cha Nay-Nay would have been out there with the others chasing each other and then the hose as Roy moved over the yard to water the new flowers just planted. 

Woke up at 3:00 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Got up and worked on the outline for Sunday. It is one of those lessons where you could go point to point to point or mainly focus on two highpoints. Think I am going highpoints.