When a tree isn't a tree

 

...it's a cell tower.

I may hate these strange looking things. But I do love having cellular communication available 24/7. When I moved here (2007) I couldn't get service for my phone in my bedroom. The mountains were not friendly for cell service. Now when my son calls while driving between his home and Durango, there's a known "dead spot." We just wait till he passes through that area. His newer car than mine has built-in wi-fi. I just have a speaker button on my phone.

This is just a small portion of the cemetery at Gashes Creek Baptist Church, which is on the way to my new primary doctor's office in Asheville. The tower is also on that road.

They have 1595 memorial records there (according to "Find a Grave"). But I don't know if all those people are buried on this hill. And I don't know how old the church is...trying to see if there's a quick answer to that. Not really.

The back cover of my recently purchased book "Traversal" by Maria Popova, editor of "The Marginalian" newsletter. I'm so very interested in seeing what and how she weaves thoughts from diverse literature into this tome of 570+ pages. I like especially that there will be some mentions of my recently revived interest in plate tectonics, i.e. continental drift theory. Here's a page of the bibliography. It will take a while before I get to the pages that are indexed which mention this synchronicity.

When I was about to get back in the car across from my local bookstore, I noticed these...and had to pause to capture their beauty.

I've noticed by the photos that we get this garish pinkish red.  They just don't look right to me.

I took this photo several weeks earlier near my home. Same problem. Having had my cataracts removed several years ago, I'm really aware of colors. In real life they may have the same hue, but the leave are just as bright, so the roses don't look so artificial as they seem to do here.

Choosing to have joy is not naively thinking everything will be easy. It is courageously believing that there is still hope, even when things get hard.

MORGAN HARPER NICHOLS

Sweet miniature roses

 Another birthday present.

Why, you might wonder, is that black welcome mat up against the wall? Well, I noticed it was shedding when I wiped my feet on it, and bits of black were coming in the house. Enough said.

I'm enjoying finding more ancestors on my tree. This week I discovered another mother of a great grandmother times seven, or 7 x great grandmother. And they were still in New England, though one of the fathers had been on the Mayflower. Will have to share that with my grandkids, so they can say so in case that comes up in conversation. Right!

Linking to Floral Fridays!

Today's Quote:

"You make your choices and then your choices make you."

- Darren Hardy

Roses are red...

 

Darn the digital revolution which makes a pure red (think of fire engine red) into a slightly pinkish red. But they are still bright to look at.

Today's quote:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

. -Dwight D. Eisenhower, US general and 34th president (14 Oct 1890-1969)

Peonies that come and go

 

Almost open. The last one disappeared, I do hope these will be allowed to be shared by all!

She tore off another bloom!

But we have some others to enjoy! However this also disappeared when I wasn't looking.

Wait, what are all these red beauties doing? More on roses tomorrow.

Today's quote:

That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. 

-Doris Lessing, novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel laureate (22 Oct 1919-201)3

By any other name...

 

At a drive-through. since nobody was behind me, I took a moment to get where I could stop and smell the roses. Also known as take a photo or two with the phone.

But these modern roses never have any scent, anyway. They are sweet anyway.

Today's quotes:

President Obama said, "Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11."

When we dumb ourselves down, we sell ourselves short and lose an opportunity to shed light where it is needed.

Red

 I'm sorry the new blogger doesn't let me change the color of my blog title...I've tried in "advanced" which is so limited and doesn't even have a button to "Save changes" at this time...so I'll be kind of anonymous!

No the traffic wasn't backed up from a train (the tracks are just before US 70 and that Ingles semi truck. The traffic was because I-40 is having construction on one lane of traffic all weekend long, so the cars and semi's get off and come through town...backing up at each light.

I think geranium red may show more exactness than rose red.

The phone camera does fine with most shots...but the reds just have a lot of trouble with gradations.

If you know anything about the Tarot cards, the one called Justice usually just has the woman who's blindfolded holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. This last week we've all missed the wisdom of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. This clever card has a red background.

Neighbors over on Walker Rd.

The whole bush of roses which we've enjoyed all summer.

They were actually planted by my former neighbor, who moved away suddenly a few years ago.

Another time I took a photo close up of the beautiful red rose...which turned pink in my camera.

And no pinks appear on the geranium. I scratch my head.

There are a lot of people around my town/state, who have signs and stickers like this. We are currently a swing state.

My favorite bowl (which I made) holding some Thai peanut sauce. spinach noodles, and tofu mixed with whatever veggies were in the fridge.

I'll give you more Red photos as I take them...

Today's quote: (which incidentally I totally believe!)

A rose is a rose

I am trolling through older photos. Just found this one (which I may have already posted) and wanted to share it with you.

My dear friend, Ann was having a pacemaker installed today (Monday) at the same hospital in which I recently was a patient. Ann is about 12 years senior to me, and was from Denmark many years ago. I was happy to have a phone conversation with her Sunday evening, while she just was lying around waiting for her procedure. I met her at my little church here in Black Mountain NC. She's been very active all her life, and the one interesting thing I want to share about her is about her interest in the sport of fencing. She had actually learned a bit about it before her immigration to the US.

She loves to tell her stories. When she first arrived in the US as a young woman, she took a fencing class, where she met a young man that she became "smitten with."  They went out a few times, and then he moved from Washington DC to California (for work I think.) Ann decided that she would also go to CA, and proceeded to try to find the young man. That was quite an adventure, and she eventually did. They were married and have raised their children. Ann lost Jerry to heart disease several years ago. She now has 14 great grand children, with the latest having been born last week. She herself trained as a respiratory therapist, and knows quite a bit about medical terminology.

I hope she has a good recovery from this procedure.

When we again can return to our little church community, I'll be looking forward to one of her loving hugs...and to give it back to her as well.

Today's Quote:
When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.

-Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author (b. 1978)

Exciting times

I think whatever is going to happen in the next few months will indeed show the better side of humanity. And possibly the worst side as well.  After all, the Yin/Yang, Tai Chi symbol shows how right in the heart of the biggest area of light is the tiny beginning of darkness, and in the heart of darkness is the little glimmer of light.

 Yes, I brought home a new geranium...with lots of buds on it. Flowers are for sale at our nursery in Black Mountain, NC. And I bought some potting soil too.

 These little coleus (colei?) will need to be transplanted in the next week!

 I can barely say the name of this new hanging plant... a lot of different colors.

And just look what's happening on the rose bushes! These weren't trimmed back in the winter, but it doesn't seem to bother them at all.

I don't like the way red (and yellow also) just blasts away in digital photos.

Today's Quote:

1. “The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

2. “Cruelty is easy, cheap and rampant.”

quotes from Casandra Brene' Brown, I'll bring some more soon.