Attachments to Places

 

I suspect most everyone reading this knows precisely what I'm talking about. Our emotional attachment to specific places can be as deeply rooted as our attachments to certain people; indeed, our most deeply felt feelings about people are usually associated with specific places. George Ellison

Nature Journal

I saw this quote from an article in the newspaper and quickly got it saved to access. Some of our driving conversations this weekend centered in on just this thought. As we drove further east, away from the mountains, we would comment on the scenery. Hmmm....this looks like east Texas or Alabama between Birmingham and Gadsden. We saw a swampish looking area and of course we thought of southern Louisiana. Roy and I talked about our travels with and with others through those areas as we saw them. By the Costco, it was all Houston thoughts. Traffic, abundance of shops and restaurants. Driving into Winston Salem, felt like approaching Houston as the freeway widens and street lights run the whole way throughout the freeway. Happy thoughts of time, place and people but it is when we begin to head back toward the mountains, my emotional attachment comes alive. Roy says the countenance of my face changes. With the mountains the attachment to friends is right there as well. We say to each other at least once a week, best decision we made in deciding to move and retire here. It keeps us mentally sharp because there is always something new to learn here and I might add always something to do or take care of.  

A humorous situation has developed in the garage with the Feral Fam. It seems that Sweetie has decided to take over mothering the three kittens. As Cutie is spending more time away from them, Sweetie is the ever watchful eye. They have been exploring outside, playing under the pallets and under the skinny fir trees, can't remember what they are called. She will pick them up by the knap of the neck and drag them back into the garage, places them in a safe spot and as soon as she goes out to get another one, the carried one escapes. They fight her tooth and nail but she is constant in her care of being the watchkeeper of those young ones. 

For the first time ever we are thinking about a long day trip to Mt Airy, Andy Griffiths home town. I usually don't like to go to places like that but several people have written in a Carolina Day Trip group I belong to about their foray into nostalgia. During the pandemic, The Andy Griffith Show became background noise for me. Familiar and quick recognition of episodes I don't care for is what got my attention. Last summer I had so much trouble with my attention span, more than the usual, and having that familiar whistle in the background was comforting. I told Roy last year when I was getting upset over how much everyone enabled Barney, too much. Also it seems that they just rewrote episodes each season cause there are major themes that occur. 

Zillow and Realtor.com emails still come through and I do look at them from time to time. Accidently I came across a house that we see from a distance each time we head into TN. It is on the market with a recent reduction in price.  Eight bedrooms, two kitchens and an in ground swimming pool. Not interested but it was interesting to see the inside of the house. 

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Check up and cleaning at the dentist office yesterday morning. Nearly a good report except for one troublesome spot. I'll be back next week. After the appointment I decided to do the spring drive though the Biltmore Gardens. A few tulips were holding on but I came for the azaleas. I was not disappointed. I took a walk through Antler Hill Village and bought cheese straws and rosemary crackers at the winery. I drove through the gardens twice trying to get good pictures of the azaleas on the right side of the car. First time through had a car trailing me and that was also true for the second time around. I felt so disappointed and turned into a little pull off to debate walking back to get the pic. I looked up and there was this scene. 

What a gift from the Lord. I wasn't feeling all that bad about missing those right side of the road azaleas. Came home, picked up Roy and off to the Publix. He was out of apron meals and I was running low on the goat cheese with cherry port topping I love. They only had one left but we scored two taco meals. One of which we will have for lunch today. 

This morning the news brings a brush fire near the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway and yesterday the news of the fire at the Ocoee White Water Rafting Center, home of Olympic and Olympic training center for rafting completely destroyed the building. We usually passed up a stop but one year when Dena and I were on our way to the Biltmore, we stopped. As we took pics and guy there told us we were getting a rare treat with the gates opened and the white water was flowing. They didn't do that too much. We also got great pictures of the signage over the bridge and was dismantled several years later. 

This morning off to get strawberries and look for Zinnias. Sounds like a fun day.