Rainy Day Peace

We arrived at the Cottage late today. That old rain-on-a-tin-roof lullaby made for a sound night's sleep on the Mountain, and after feeding the cats their breakfast, Rhodes and I both were lulled back to sleep. Our days have been long and sometimes hectic during this time when we are going back and forth between houses, and once or twice a week our bodies make it clear that they require some catch-up sleep. Three more weekends (including this one) before the movers carry our furniture to our new home, and I will be content when we spend our first night here.

The weather has been mostly rainy for the last few days, with a few thunder boomers thrown in for good measure. The gray sky with its various cloud formations is to me as comforting as a warm quilt, and I sometimes close my eyes and pull the sky around my shoulders to wrap myself in peace. 

When we leave the Mountain we will be leaving behind a place that kept us sheltered and isolated during a time when that was what we needed. We are going from living part way up Fork Mountain, where we were surrounded by the forest, to a life in the Swannanoa River Valley, where we have clear views of the mountains all around us. Eventually we will learn their names, but for now I am just enjoying the views and the comfort of their presence. I love the way they look with clouds settling down around them, sometimes just wispy fingers and other times covering them fully.

The rains mean I haven't had to water the gardens, but I am still checking on the plants. There are two Yucca plants near the edge of the driveway, and they have come into full bloom in the past couple of days. I have seen them along the highways in WNC, but never smelled the flowers until today. The volunteer pumpkin in the rock garden has one little baby growing already, so it is a step ahead of the giant Connecticut pumpkin plants growing in the raised bed garden. I found this odd spiky plant in the backyard, perhaps some kind of geranium? If I can identify it I'll move some of it before Rhodes starts building the deck. 

Peace out, peeps.

~sb