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May 2006: Back to VA We Go ...
31 May 2006: Thunder rolls! Let's hope that the thunder brings some rain to this area. My sister's trees, my Dad's garden, and my Mom's flowers need a long drink of water. The wildflowers, fields, forests, creeks, and rivers need rain, too. Tom and I went to the public landromat today to avoid using the well water. We did 10 loads of laundry! On Friday, we're heading up to Morgantown WV to visit some of Tom's family. On Saturday, we'll attend the Celtic Highlands Festival in MD with his parents. I am looking forward to the sheepdog demonstrations. Hope they don't have Border Collie puppies for sale because I'll want one. Border Collies have been the best dogs that I have shared my life with. Wilhe was more human than dog. He was a caretaker always on the lookout for those in need. Some animals have more heart than some humans, and Wilhe had heart. I still miss him after all these years ...
29 May 2006: We headed to the Shenandoah Valley to visit my sister Candy and her husband Phil over this Memorial Day Weekend. There were many wild roses and other yet unidentified wildflowers blooming on her property. Visit my Wildflowers of VA gallery to see photos of some of them. This area needs rain. We're hoping for showers on Tuesday and Thursday. My Dad is watering his garden plants by hand from barrels of rain water and I'm watering my Mom's flowers. Gardening and farming are tough jobs when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate. 26 May 2006: The clouds have been spitting at us a few times today, but they were just teasing us until now when they decided to open-up and let go. I was just about to help my Dad water his garden from the rain barrels when the rain started to pour. Tomorrow, we'll take a short overnight trip to visit my sister on her farm-orchard in the Shenandoah Valley. I received one of my wildflower resource book and was able to identiy the red wildlfowers as "wild pink." I identified a few others as well using Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains by Gupton and Swope. 25 May 2006: It was a beautiful spring day to search for wildflowers, so I did and I had good luck. Visit my new gallery, Wildflowers of VA. I have ordered some identification resources, and I do need help identifying them. As for American Idol, some of the better singers were voted off too soon, like Chris. Go Soul Patrol and Taylor Hicks! Enjoy Broadway, Kat. Mandisa and Paris should go that way, too. I hope that some advertiser gives Kellie Pickler a commercial for her best line: "When all else fails, you gotta have great shoes." 19 May 2006: We ordered DSL and Tom connected it yesterday. It's great to have a fast internet connection again! I'm finished with The Southwest Gallery, for real. I'll be photographing some birds this weekend. Dad has another medical appointment today so once again I'm the chauffeur. Both of my parents seem to be doing as well as can be expected given their medical conditions. Sure wish the temperature would rise; it's still in the 40's at night and only in the low 60's during the day. I hate A/C, but I love being warm to my bones. Later, 15 May 2006: And, oh, by the way, I am one of thousands who were floored when Chris Daughtry was voted off of American Idol last week. No way did he get the least number of votes. The voting system was in error, or he had better options and wanted out. I hope it's the latter, but I also would like the show to be honest. Guess that's too much to ask of Show Biz. The dogwoods and azaleas are fading, but the irises, rhododendrons, and peonies are blooming. Fields of red poppies line the highways as well as something that looks like mustard grass, but my Dad says it's "field cress," a leaf that can be eaten before it flowers. I'll continue to research that. And, I'm still looking for the name of the tree that blooms upside down wisteria flowers then bears a dark purple or black fruit. Help, please. The weather is still cloudy with showers and too cool for mid-May, but the flies are buzzing and the mosquitos are biting already! I would add links to some of these flowers, but our satellite connection is too slow. We'll be getting DSL hooked-up later in the week and I'll edit this section then. 15 May 2006: We've settled into our RV-pad in my folks' yard. All of the hook-ups are working fine. Mom & Dad seem to be glad we're here. Both of them have medical appointments this week. The weather has been rainy and cool. I planted some flowers in the flower bed in the front of the house and some Texas wildflowers in one corner of Dad's garden. Tom and I are quite happy to just sit-a-spell after towing over 4,000 miles across country. The Southwest Gallery is complete. Now, I'm working on windows and doors ... When I lived in Germany and traveled, I was always fascinated with windows and doors, but I was not taking photos then, couldn't afford the film. When the weather warms up, Tom and I will hike in search of wildflowers and birds. Mother's Day is a sad holiday for me because I was never a Mom, but Happy Mother's Day to those of you who were lucky enough to have children if you wanted them. "Should have's" don't count for much, but I should have adopted. Some decisions cannot be undone or remade. The choices we make dictate the lives we lead ... Harry Cat is unhappy with us because we won't let him run free here. Dad saw him out on the road so it's just too dangerous. We'd miss him if he lost the race across the road with a fast speeding vehicle. He wants to go back to that park where he was the campground cat and had full freedom. Sorry, Harry. 07 May 2006: Cool temperatures and rain showers made for a very lazy day for us. We watched three episodes of House and liked them. All of the hook-ups are ready, so we'll tow the RV to my parents' place on Tuesday. We'll be ready to "sit a spell" once we get there! I've been editing and uploading some of the photos that I took in The Southwest to a new gallery. I'm having fun using the new PhotoFrames software to enhance the photos. One of the neighbors feeds the wild birds, so I'll be taking some photos of them with my telephoto lens and I'll put out my hummingbird feeder and try to "shoot" some of those fast flitting critters. There are many places to go to find wildflowers here in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests and in the state parks. Warm weather and energy permitting, I'll be a busy "shutterbug." 03 May 2006: The buttercups were glowing this morning as we started our last long day of towing for awhile. We traveled from Bristol TN to Lexington VA. Bristol claims to be the real birthplace of country music where fiddle tunes and song styles came over from the British Isles in the 1700's. Rolling green hills with cattle and barns bordered I-81 N which is a major truck route making for much traffic. This section of I-81 from the TN border to the Shenandoah Valley where my sister has a farm-orchard is also called the Blue Ridge Parkway and it offers peaceful scenery of farms, colonial houses, and historic sites. Along the median some red poppies and white daisies were blooming. Tom pointed out some Mayapple plants on the hillsides. Mayapples usually grow in groups and the shiny, slightly unusual leaf color makes them very distinctive and easy to spot. The flowers, on the other hand, hang below the leaves and must be looked for. Lore: The fruit is edible when ripe but all other parts of the plant are toxic. The Native Americans may have used a powdered root preparation as an insecticide on their crops and soaked seeds in a decoction to protect them from pests. Warning: All parts of the plant except the ripe fruit are extremly toxic. The root, which is easily powered, is a powerful eye irritant. Medical Uses: Although too poisonous to use in home remedies this plant has many medical uses. Native Americans used the root as a strong laxative, to treat worms and for numerous other things. The root is currently used in cancer medications and may have commercial potential as a cultivated plant. There are accounts of the Indians use of the root to commit suicide with death occurring in just hours. The size of the lethal dose is unclear. And, there was more honeysuckle! White blooming dogwoods nestled amidst the other forest trees. Tent caterpillars were doing their damage to many trees, but the mountain laurel is shiny and green. We passed Hungry Mother State Park; what a name for a park! Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed several settlements on the New River south of the park, Molly Marley and her small child were among the survivors taken to the raiders’ base north of the park. They eventually escaped, wandering through the wilderness eating berries. Molly finally collapsed, and her child wandered down a creek until the child found help. The only words the child could utter were "Hungry Mother." The search party arrived at the foot of the mountain where Molly collapsed to find the child's mother dead. Today that mountain is Molly’s Knob, and the stream is Hungry Mother Creek. Someone in the campground has a fire burning, the birds are chirping, and the air is cool. We're back in the country. 02 May 2006: After a couple of days of rest and chores, we hit the road again in green, green Tennessee. The morning brought clouds, rain, and a little thunder. Tom enjoyed the fog on the Great Smoky Mountains. We drove through Knoxville on I-40 E then headed N or I-81. Somewhere along the way, we passed a nuclear power plant, a mineral mine, and Frozen Head State Park. The name "Frozen Head" derives from the peaks that are often capped in a shroud of snow or ice in winter. We saw signs to Oak Ridge where the country band the Oak Ridge Boys began performing country and gospel music in 1943, and where parts of the atomic bomb were developed. Billboards invited us to visit Dollywood and Pigeon Forge, the Biltmore Estate, home of Davy Crockett, and Jonesborough, the oldest town in TN. "Ober Gatlinburg" is a ski resort in Eastern TN and while the name suggests some German-Swiss ancestry here, the attractions promote Scottish heritage. By mid-day, the sky was blue with a few fair weather clouds, then we had a minimal rain shower this evening. I saw two herons in a river, some red-winged blackbirds, and more crows. Tomorrow, we reach our destination, almost, Lexington, VA, just an hour from my parents' place. We'll camp at the Natural Bridge/Lexington KOA until our water and electric hook-ups are ready. |
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