Visitor #8000 Was---Myself!

I got all excited this evening to see that the 8000th visitor had been to this blog....and then I realized when I looked at SiteMeter that it was me, on my iPad!. I have the counting software set to ignore the IP address of this computer, so my visits to read the site or to post something don't count. But apparently the iPad, although it is accessing the web through my home wireless setup, has a different IP address than the computer. Anyway, now I will need to take into account the views of the blog I make remotely when I'm marking viewing milestones. So, #8001, you will be the special one today. (Unless you are the GoogleBot...) Hmmm...I know what the problem is, I'm using a different browser (Safari) on the iPad than the one I use (Firefox) on this computer. I think hiding Safari from this IP can be fixed if I can remember how I managed to get it to ignore Firefox....Technology can get complicated. I think I'll devote most of today (Saturday) to quilting instead--it's Scrap Quilt Club meeting day: 6 hours of sewing with about 20 dear friends. Wheeeee!

I Have Joined the iPad Revolution!

A few days ago, Norm said, let's get that iPad you have been talking about for our anniversary! So this afternoon we went to the Apple store at the Galleria and had quite an experience learning how to use it. Then we went to Cheese-ology in the Loop for Norm's birthday dinner. Now we are home and I am trying to type on this strange little touch pad. At this point I know I can enter text for my blog using a trick that the Apple Genius named Andrew figured out to bypass an issue Blogger seems to have with the iPad version of Safari. Once I upload some photos from my camera to this, I'll see if I can post them as well!

Rembering Will Rogers

The Tulsa World newspaper today has a wonderful package of photos, videos, stories and quotes online in memory of Will Rogers, the entertainer, humorist, world traveler and journalist who died in a plane crash at Point Barrow, Alaska, 75 years ago yesterday. As a native Tulsan, growing up I knew his story well, having visited the Will Rogers Memorial at Claremore and being fortunate enough to attend the high school named for him, Will Rogers High School, which was built as a WPA project in the Great Depression and opened in 1939. The opening page of the coverage can be found by clicking here: Will Rogers Remembered. I was thinking of writing my own tribute but the World has a plethora of material.

One of the thoughts that has kept coming back to me over the past few years is "Where is Will Rogers When We Need Him?" By this I mean that public discourse and disagreement has gotten so nasty that we could use a dose of his humor, his gentle jabbing at all parties, to perhaps cool the rhetoric and help reframe the argument. At least I hope we aren't too far gone as a nation to appreciate quotes like these, all from his writing prior to his untimely death in 1935:

• The truth can hurt you worse in an election than about anything that could happen to you.
• Republicans want a man that can lend dignity to the office. Democrats want a man that will lend some money.
• When a party can't think of anything else they always fall back on lower taxes. It has a magic sound to a voter, just like fairyland is spoken of and dreamed of by children.
• It's a great country, but you can't live in it for nothing.
• Wars will never be a success until you have a referee and until they announce before they start just what it's for.
• When ignorance gets started, it knows no bounds.
• There is nothing that keeps poor people poor as much as paying doctor bills.
• I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.
• As bad as we sometimes think our country is run, it is the best run I ever saw.

And then there is the all-time favorite Will Rogers quote:

• "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't like."

Visitor #7900 Hello, Tulsa!

Cousins Debi and Mike in Tulsa are visitor #7900. Debi, I know you are busy with the first week of school and I hope you have a great year. You are my closest relatives, and you look at the blog almost every day. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything new this week; thought I would but it turned busier than I had expected after I found out two guys from Florida were coming for dinner tonight. Plus, I think the FB addiction is cutting into my blogging time. More soon, I promise. Love you both!

Thursday's Child Writes Again

Once again I'm trying out some ideas on Thursday's Child, my other blog that gets an occasional post. I'm a little more opinionated over there....so be forewarned. Here's the link:

The Myth of Self-Reliance

A Cool Trip to the Farmers Market

Today was the end of our two-day cool spell. Yesterday and today Norm and I sat on the front porch at mid-day and enjoyed a cool breeze while we drank blueberry-peach smoothies for lunch. Probably will be hugging the AC for the coming week! This morning I went to the Ferguson Farmers Market; above is some of my loot: Calhoun (IL) County peaches from Kamp's Orchard, a humongous cantaloupe from Hahn's organic farm, plus tomatoes, a (hidden) cucumber and interesting summer squash from various other small organic farms. Not pictured: the delicious blonde brownies, dog biscuits (for Ava's visit this week) and cranberry-orange scone from Cosi Dolce, nor the basil/garlic linguine and the sweet potato linguine from Pappardelle's Pasta. We hope to fix the basil/garlic for a company dinner soon. The guy from Kamp's expects to have peaches for at least another month. Looking forward to next Saturday! The freezer will be groaning.

When last week's triple digit temps arrived, the lovely stand of surprise lilies went crispy before I could even take their picture. The native phlox that the previous owner planted, however, appears to like it hot. This grows under our maple tree and the late afternoon sun spotlighted it. Yesterday I trimmed a beloved rubber tree that was almost as tall as I was...very ungainly for a house plant that spends 8 months of the year upstairs in the sewing room, the only room with enough light for it. I repotted it too...I think the jury is still out whether the rubber plant is happy with its new look. While I was at it I neatened the other house plants on the porch and trimmed the geraniums; then I swept up a lot of debris that blew in from earlier storms. The outside front of the house actually looks decent and welcoming now. Until the next round of storms, we can enjoy it.

Norm spent part of the day cleaning our guest room (we might have guests, you never know) while I tackled 4 loads of laundry. Tonight we uncovered an occasional table between our recliners that was buried in 4 months worth of magazines, half-solved sudoku puzzles, and notes. It's amazing what you can find that you thought was lost, like an invitation to a birthday party that happened back in July....oops.

Tomorrow I'm going to present a video from the Quadrennial for our Sunday School class, and I hope it goes over OK. It's hard to believe that happened 6 weeks ago!

Ava in Pink Walking Attire

Ava, the golden doodle next door, has a new harness for walks, and also a new short haircut after a visit to the groomer today. Training Ava not to pull on her leash while being walked around the block has been a challenge, and both Barb and Norm have worked persistently on this. But Barb says that by the second day, Ava had stopped pulling and just prances along now on their daily tour of our block. We'll get to try it out next week when Ava comes to our house for a short visit. Ava posed for this photo and showed off her new accomplishment: sit and stay without her leash....in the safety of our back yard! (Actually that look of concentration is really straining to see if there is going to be a treat involved, I think.)

CONASPEH UPDATE August 5, 2010 from the Bentrotts

Kim and Patrick Bentrott have published the latest update on CONASPEH in Haiti on their blog, Adventures in Life. The update comes from Global Ministries. You can read it here: http://kimandpatrick.blogspot.com/2010/08/conaspeh-update.html

If you scroll down past this post, you'll find two more recent ones from Kim about their relocation to Evergreen, Colorado, and her mixed feelings as she interviews for a job as a physician with a local clinic. The kids are fine and she has great photos of them, too.

Visitor 7800 Came All the Way from Texas!

Visitor # 7800 is.....my sister-in-law Maxine, in Texas. Maxine, I know you love bird houses, so I'm posting this photo of the one we bought at this year's Gypsy Caravan just for you. It graces our back yard perennial border. I wish you and Roy could come to visit us when everything is growing, so we could trade notes on gardening and cooking. Glad you stopped by tonight!

Today was cooler--high 80s--we went to the store, and Norm barbecued hamburgers and chicken tonight so we have some meals in the freezer now. Yesterday I worked on charity quilts with some guild friends--we have 16 more quilts sandwiched and ready to tie or machine quilt. It was a productive day. Tonight I made some brownies for church coffee hour tomorrow. They will go with the melons we got at the store. It is August tomorrow. If I were still teaching at the university, I would feel like summer is over. I still get those pangs sometimes. We have only one more week of water exercise, and then we are off until after Labor Day. This week I've hit the specials on school supplies because we are collecting donations for our church's local mission, Isaiah 58 ministries. I'm looking at all the plants I still haven't taken outside for the summer, or repotted, and shaking my head. But the truth is, the weather forecast for Tuesday is 99 degrees, so we still have some summer left. I'm going to do my best to enjoy it.

More Blue Ridge: Moses Cone Park

One of the attractions we enjoyed in our time on the Blue Ridge in June was the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, just outside the town of Blowing Rock. An intact 3500 acres that was the mountain home of one of North Carolina's textile industry founders (Cone Mills may be familiar if you ever bought fabric or paid attention to hang tags on clothing in the 1960s or earlier) it preserves a beautiful chunk of land along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The veranda of the 20-room Flat Top mansion where Cone and his wife lived and entertained is an inviting, shady spot on a summer afternoon.

Moses Cone made his fortune in Greens- boro, and in his life time he donated a lot of money to charities there; a hospital is named for him. He supported education in Blowing Rock by offering a challenge of $4 for every $1 the locals could raise for schools. Cone died in 1908 and his wife, Bertha, kept the estate going until her death in 1947. The entire estate was willed to the hospital and the hospital transferred it to the United States Government to be used for the pleasure of the public.

The side approach to the manor from the parking lot gives little hint of the expanse of the place. But this view illustrates the tall trees, many benches, and laid back aura of the place. The manor's upstairs is open for tours on weekends. The lower floor houses several rooms of crafts produced by members of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild. We looked at wonderful weavings, pottery, baskets, stained glass, jewelry....like Thoreau, we owned everything we saw, but since we were going to be flying home, we weren't able to purchase what we admired. Norm said it was a treat just to see so much art in one place...photos were not allowed in the galleries, unfortunately.

This retaining wall, probably built or perhaps re-built in the 1950s, caught our eye. It is made of the typical gray rocks of the region, and stacked without mortar. The manor is built into a south-facing hillside and terraces and retaining walls like this abound on the grounds. The whole thing was anchored by a huge boulder at the right that eluded the picture.

The view from the veranda includes this one of a lake, one of three that Cone built on the property and stocked with bass or trout. This is Bass Lake, and it can also be accessed from a street on the edge of the town of Blowing Rock, which is down there somewhere in all those trees. One reason Cone moved to the mountains and left his brother in Greensboro to run the business was his fragile health. He built 25 miles of carriage roads on this property, and a 20-minute loop walking trail. He was 40 when he began acquiring the land, and he was 51 when he died.

One writer notes that Cone allowed the 30 or so small farmers whose land he purchased to stay on, and he hired them as tenants to help run the estate. This rail fence is an outstanding example of the rail fences used throughout this region. Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a two-lane highway that is also a national park, is marked along its right-of-way with fences just like this.

These roses blooming on the terrace below the manor are a remnant of the vast plantings that Cone estab- lished. One writer on this web site notes:

"An avid orchardist, he supervised the planting of apple varieties that matured from June through November. He replaced any tree that was cut. He obtained the help and advice of his friend Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania and a noted conservationist, in planting extensive white pine forests and hemlock hedges. His tenants grazed his sheep and took care of his nearly 20 milk cows.... Rose gardens, vegetable plots, boulders, mosses, and ferns surrounded Flat Top Mance. Miles of carriage roads, smoothed out to a point of flawlessness, invited the pleasures of an early morning walk or an afternoon ride. Within a short time, 10,000 apple trees produced 40,000 bushels of fruit in a favorable season."

This carriage house is a short walk from the manor. Today it houses some farm implements and carriages, as well as the public restrooms for visitors. The trails are used by equestrians...we sat in the shade of some trees nearby and noticed the evidence of recent horse travel.




Here the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses the Moses Cone Park on the north side, and a carriage trail goes under it. These stone arches are a signature of the Parkway--instantly recognizable wherever the Parkway crosses another road or thoroughfare. The arches really are works of architectural art, built painstakingly by workers in the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps programs that provided life-saving employment for thousands of Americans in the 1930s.


As we left the park and headed back to Blowing Rock, we paused to take a photo of this bicyclist who was studying the signs and consulting with someone on his cell phone. People ride bicycles up and down the parkway and the climb seems grueling enough to help one train for the Tour de France!

There are many better known and advertised attractions in the Blue Ridge, but we enjoyed this gem of a park that provides a window into how the rich lived in the latter half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th, while at the same time conserving and preserving part of the natural and cultural heritage of the region.

The Reunion Quilt is in the Frame!

Yesterday the family reunion quilt was put into the quilting frame by the group that is quilting it--and letting me quilt with them. Today I worked for two hours and finished one block--some of the quilting on it is visible near the bottom of the picture. The others have been working on quilting the border and wanted me to finish a block so it could be the example--saves having to mark the whole quilt ahead of time. From this angle, no way can I get the whole quilt in the photo. The finished size will be 97 inches square! I hope we can be finished before snow is on the ground---meanwhile, as of today, 1 block down, 63 to go!

More Flora of North Carolina

Before our North Carolina trip fades into the recesses of memory, I thought I'd post more photos. This set is about wild flowers and domestic crops we encountered. The next set will look at the marvelous garden plants we found in Blowing Rock. Everywhere we went, the roads and lanes were lined with mountain laurel and rhododendrons. I'm not an expert at telling them apart, but I think this may be the rosebay or "great" rhododendron. Or maybe not. But they are all spectacular.

This little composite, maybe some kind of black-eyed susan, was growing literally out of a rocky side of a mountain. The Blue Ridge is comprised of granite--not the reddish granite we know in Oklahoma or even in Colorado, but a slate gray granite that lurks beneath the very thin soils in these mountains.

At one scenic overlook masses of these cheerful yellow flowers were growing next to a thicket of blackberries. They appear to be St. John's Wort, which is an herb some people use for depression, so no wonder they looked cheery.


At another overlook on the Blue Ridge parkway we found these giant specimens of common milkweed. No butterflies yet, though.

As we moved into Yadkin County farm country in search of ancestral places, I saw my first field of tobacco growing. At first I though they were tall, skinny cabbages but then I looked at the big leaves and decided it had to be tobacco. What we noted was the sheer number of small tobacco fields in this area as farmers made the most use of the clearings in the forest--clearings that undoubtedly go back to the original settlers of the Carolinas in the 1700s.


Another common crop in this area was field corn, and we also saw many small wheat fields and even some alfalfa as well as lots of pasture. But we also saw a lot of this, which we think is some kind of cane, either molasses or sugar.

There were many fields like these, too. We aren't sure what this crop is. It grows low and is leafy like soybeans, but it doesn't quite look like soybeans. Since North Carolina is a major peanut growing state, we wondered if this was a peanut field. Still another crop we noted was Christmas trees. There were a lot of Christmas tree farms in the mountains and even in the Brushy Mountain area of Yadkin County. But all of the photos I tried to take of them are just a blur.
As we left the Yadkin area (then known as Surry County) where the McElyeas lived from 1787-1793 or so, as well as some of the Boones and Linvilles, we stopped at Belews Creek, now a lake, or a series of lakes, betweeb Stokes and Rockingham counties. Linville genealogy states that Thomas Linville, an ancestor of Norm's family, settled on Belews Creek for a time. We were able to find a boat ramp area to pull off and enjoy the shade and the sparkling water. This tree had littered the ground with these little black fruits. I think it is a wild black cherry.
After leaving Belews Creek, we ventured on into Caswell County, where the McElyeas acquired land grants as early as 1779. I'll elaborate on that more when I write another post.

New Post from Kim & Patrick From Colorado!

If you have been following the story of Kim and Patrick Bentrott, missionaries in Haiti who survived the earthquake, the latest blog by Kim has finally shown up in the feed although she wrote it a few days ago. The Bentrotts have resigned from Global Missions because they could not get the appropriate paperwork from our government to let them and their adopted children travel back and forth between the U.S. and Haiti as would be necessary if they were to continue their service there. They are looking for jobs in Colorado, and a place to live. Prayers for them as they seek a new, domestic mission, are welcome. Here's the link to her post: it is also on my blog roll at the right of this page.

New Mountains

The Dog Days Have Arrived

Nothing but hot, hot, hot and dry weather is in the forecast for at least the next week. It is pure July in St. Louis and it feels like what used to be called the "dog days," supposedly because the Dog Star (Sirius, to us amateur astronomers) was at the highest point in the daytime sky. (Please don't ask me how people know where a star is in the daytime. It involves mathematics, something I was not ever good at.)

Anyway, we are having our own Dog Days celebration as Miss Ava came across the driveway for the rest of the week to keep us company and help guard our place against baby bunnies and feral kittens. She looks much too solemn in this photo, but then, she doesn't like to pose for pictures, either. Before I could snap another one, she became a blur heading for the kitchen to see if it was time for supper yet.

North Carolina Sampler

Some quick highlights of our last week...hopefully there will be more to come soon. I thought about titling this photo, they don't call it the Blue Ridge for nothing! This view is from one of the many dramatic overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, where we stayed.

Grandfather Mountain is the biggest attraction in these parts, next to Linville Falls. We didn't go to the top and try the mile high swinging suspension foot bridge. We are brave, but not that brave.


One place we did visit at length was the Moses Cone estate just out of Blowing Rock. A textile magnate, Cone donated over 3000 acres to the state to preserve its 19th century character. There is a Southern Highlands Craft Guild gallery on this site, as well as miles of trails and wonderful views. Very peaceful.

This inn, which is NOT the one where we stayed, was the garden showplace of Blowing Rock. The Inn at Ragged Gardens, it is called. When I have time to sort them, I will post an album of all the gorgeous flowers that were in bloom on these grounds.

The time came for us to leave the Blue Ridge and head for the Piedmont, which is the central part of the state where both our families have 18th century roots. I took a quick photo from the moving car of this creek, which I think is the south fork of Deep Creek in Surry County, where both Laughlin McElyea and later his son Hugh McElyea owned property between 1787 and 1809. When I get all of my family history story sorted out, I'm going to post it with pictures on Thursday's Child, my other blog.

This trek was also involved in tracing Linvilles. Part of Norm's family settled on Belews Creek in the Stokes/Forsyth County area in the 18th century. The creek has been dammed to create electricity and recreation, and this lovely lake on the middle arm could be near that original family site.

Toward the end of our long day on Thursday, we arrived in Caswell county, where Laughlin McElyea brought his family from Pennsylvania around 1777. He first filed for a land grant in 1779. At the commons in Yanceyville, the county seat, this preserved log cabin is one example of the square log structures that dot the entire county. They look old enough to have been built by these early pioneers.

Our last stop was at the grounds of the historic Griers Presby -terian Church, established in 1753 a mile or so from the present site. It is located on North Hyco Creek, the site of Laughlin's land grant. I can never know where on the many branches his land actually lay, since the deeds talk about measuring from one black oak to a hickory bush to somebody's line, to a pine, etc. But we stopped at the church and walked around, savoring the peace of the graveyard behind it. Suddenly there was a loud squawk and Norm discovered he had nearly stepped on this kildeer who was guarding her clutch of 4 speckled eggs. She didn't move a feather while I took the photo with my zoom lens.

This view from the church shows how much of the land was cleared by early settlers and has remained farmland. The crops include tobacco, cane, corn, alfalfa and soybeans. Much of the land in this part of the state is pasture and we saw a couple of large cattle operations. Not many hogs, which surprised me. While we were here a woman who was raised at the farm across the road and her husband stopped by the church yard. They are in their 70s. She could tell us a little bit about the area but didn't know the past history that well. We still enjoyed talking with her.

After meandering across 6 or 7 counties on Thursday, we arrived hungry at our hotel in Raleigh and settled in for our trip to the State Archives on Friday. That trip was fruitful, too, and we'll post more about it later. For now, these photos will have to stand as a teasing sampler of the whole story we have to tell.

Linville Falls, NC

Monday, June 28, 2010--Yes, we made it to Linville Falls! We started out from Blowing Rock on NC 221...our first miscalculation. We thought it would be a wider, straighter road than the Blue Ridge Parkway. NOT! It took almost an hour to go 25 miles at a maximum speed of 35 mph, even less on the 90-degree turns around the base of Grandfather Mountain. But we did arrive at the Visitor's Center (which is on the Blue Ridge Parkway, after all) about straight up noon. It was a little warm...unseasonable, the ranger said.

This mile marker was close to the end of our journey to the upper falls overlook. We had hoped to climb on to the next overlook so we could see the famous view of the entire falls coming out of the gorge...but heat, lack of water and recent medication wore us down. We did head down hill to the overlook that was a mere 500 feet away--the whole walk was one mile round trip.


But to start at the beginning. From the visitor's center, a bridge takes you across the Linville River, which is fairly wide at this point.


It is also very muddy here. Norm said he was expecting a sparkling mountain stream, but high meadows must produce muddy runoff during those afternoon showers!


A little farther along, some rapids appear and the forest crowds right to the edge of the water. It is so impene- trable, we wondered how the early explorers, hunters, and trappers (like the William Linville who was killed near here by Indians in 1766 according to legend) ever made it through the brush.

We were thankful for a cool and mostly shaded trail through the woods. It went up hill and then down...we saw lots of rhododendron and mountain laurel along the way, some still in bloom. I'll include those in a separate post about the flowers we have seen in North Carolina. There was poison ivy here, too, but mostly it was trimmed back.

I have gotten a little out of order, but here we are, sitting on a wall above the rapids as the river enters the gorge to head for the lower falls (the ones in most of the postcard pictures.)

This abyss is what was behind us in the picture. The gray granite is worn in amazing patterns here and the water, once wide, is now constricted in this narrow gorge, where it flows with very rapid force.

This photo should have come along a little earlier...it is the path leading to the overlook. It is right beside the signposts that I posted near the top. It was full of roots and small boulders... we told ourselves to be careful because the ace bandage I had in my bag probably wasn't enough to treat a sprained ankle and neither of us could have been easily carried out! Amazingly, we met a lot of people with dogs on leash during this hike. Some had as many as three. The dogs seemed to be enjoying it.

On our return trip I realized this view from the trail was toward the overlook. If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see tiny people in the distance. So this is what the "back side" of the upper falls (the first photo at the top of this post) looks like.

We rested, got water, and then drove back toward Blowing Rock on the Parkway, stopping at almost every overlook to take more photos of the Blue Ridge mountains. I'll put those up next time.

Hello, Blue Ridge

Well, the Quad- rennial, which I haven't yet blogged about, ended today and Norm and I set out on the next leg of our vacation. As we drove west on Highway 421, a very pleasant parkway, we came to a brand new visitor's center with this sign.

Some of the ground were planted in native wildflowers. I think this is a type of bergamont...saw something like it at Indian Creek Camp Park in St. Charles last year. The wildflower plot is just getting established as the center has been open less than a year.

These look like a relative of black-eyed susans but I didn't bring my flower book with me (trying to keep from lugging so much weight through the airport) so I can't be sure. Maybe the picture will help with identification when we are home.

After about 2 hours out of Greensboro we arrived at the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a national park in itself, and it's 75 years old this year. Several overlooks give drivers a chance to stop and admire the scenery. If I'm not mistaken, this elevation is about the same as the elevation in Colby, where we were a week ago.

This was the view toward the east from the above over look. All the vegetation was very green and the distant hills were, well, blue. The forest comes right up to the road, and there are signs of a pretty bad ice storm in recent years...lots of broken branches and downed trees all along it.

This overlook faced west, not east, so the smoky effect is even stronger. I guess there is a reason they call this the Blue Ridge. We enjoyed lots of views like this, including high meadows with baled hay. Private property comes right up to the road right of way so there are lots of farms and other buildings, and sometimes a state highway runs parallel to the parkway for a while.

We arrived at our inn in Blowing Rock and enjoyed a cheese and cracker snack in the breakfast room. Then we went to dinner at a nice restaurant just across the street. We started out dining on the patio, but after thunder and lightning got uncomfortably close, moved inside. Soon there was a shower...we walked back to the inn after the rain stopped and sat on the porch in rocking chairs..and this rainbow appeared. Good omen for our trip, we hope!