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| Ursula is the Queen of all she Surveys |
YESTERDAY WE TOOK A SUNDAY DRIVE—ALL THE WAY TO VIRGINIA. We picked up Ellis early early in the morning.
Our youngest slipped out of his house and into the car. Ursula lay
quiet in the way back, her tail thumping when she saw her boy descend
his front steps, carrying his bags to the car. We drove across the
flatlands of Illinois and Indiana and on to the hills of Ohio. We
turned south at Dayton and continued on to the mountains. If only
we'd left earlier, we would have seen some lovely scenery. But the
sun set on us and we drove through a dark rain up and down winding
roads. I learned how to use the braking gear. At home I forget that
it's even there, but it came in handy as I was driving down the
mountain roads. The fog descended and we made it to the last little
town before our road home to visit Michael's folks. My in-laws live
in a cozy hunting lodge on a mountain, and that last road was
treacherous in the dark and the wet, but we made it.
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| A Clear Blue Day |
This morning I woke to a clear blue
day, but the wind blew in some weather from Charlotte and we were
treated to changing skies, but finally settling on a clear
sunny day with an occasional breeze. The whole family piled into two
or three cars and drove into Floyd, where we walked up and down the
main drag, going into the artful shops to look around and soak up the
mountain culture. In the hardware store we found some lovely cutting
boards, strips of warm wood making rosy stripes. The knitting store
was unfortunately closed, but we will try again on Friday, when we go
to the Friday Night Jamboree at the General Store. They have a cute
lunch counter and barrels of old fashioned candy, and lots of kitchen
gadgets. Last time I visited I came home with a pie bird. Now my
covered pies are vented with a ceramic blackbird, reminiscent of the
nursery rhyme.
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| Candy at the Country Store |
On Fridays they have live music with clogging and
country dancing. I can't wait to go back in a few days to see the
show.
We came home to walk around the
mountain and see what projects Babs and Jack have worked on over the
past year, building projects and landscaping projects and excavation
projects involving a little backhoe that has Michael drooling. We
walked up a path and found the stone chimney—all that is left from
a long ago homestead. A tall chimney rises several yards in the air,
a rustic arch frames the firebox below. A hearth of tan-colored
stones sticks out in front. I got to hear again the story of how
Michael's family spent the afternoon clearing away brush and ash from
the old fireplace, building a patio of flat stones carted up from the
stream below. When they finally finished they built a fire and no
sooner did the smoke rise up the chimney, but the poor snakes who
lived there decided to flee. Everyone was lined up for a picture with
their backs to the fireplace, and the designated photographer cried
in alarm. Everyone turned around to see a large family of snakes
slithering from all the cracks and chinks of the chimney. To hear it
told, the snakes were as big around as my wrist and taller than me,
but there were baby snakes too.
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| Ellis in the 7 Sisters |
The stone patio was covered with a
layer of leaves and Ellis grabbed a stick and used it to rake the
leaves off of the patio. We all joined in, and Michael's sister,
Kelly found some logs and tossed them into the fireplace. We are all
ready for our woodland picnic.
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| Ursula Climbs the Mountain |
We followed the trail down to the
stream and meandered with the rushing water back up to the house.
Ellis throws a stick into the stream and Ursula dives in after it,
her legs paddling. She grabs the stick and scrambles back up the
bank. They do this over and over again, as if there were nothing else
important in the world, and I guess there isn't. The sun sets early
in the mountains in November, and we are gathered in the warm
kitchen. I sit a little off to the side, typing into my little
computer. I look over at my family, gathered around a came of cards.
Danielle is beating her uncle Mikey, and several conversations are
tossed around the table. I'm thankful for my mountain family.
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| Climb in Beauty; Rise in Peace; Blessed Be. |
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