We Have Traveled And We Have Come Home

Here's another thing the south has plenty of- churches. We passed possibly fifty of them today and they ranged from tiny to huge, from humble to impressive as hell. There were churches built of wood like the one above and churches built of brick. There were churches built of vinyl siding, or so they looked. We passed one Presbyterian church that was everything you'd want in a storybook version of a church. White, made of wood, like the one above, with a high, high steeple reaching up to heaven and a bell tower with a bell in it. I have no idea its age but it's been sitting there quite awhile. 
When I talked the other day about the durability of southern homes, I did not mean just the palatial ones. There are very small houses, built no doubt by farmers or store-owners for their families that are still as straight and true now as they were a hundred years or more ago. They have been "kept up" as we say. 
Here's one that isn't humble but isn't huge either and it's a pretty thing.

It does suffer a lack of flora though, doesn't it? Could definitely use some landscaping help. Many of the old houses are shaded so elegantly by giant oaks that were probably giant oaks when the houses were built. 

I suppose you can tell that we are home. It was not a bad drive at all today. We still took mostly the backroads which by now we have become somewhat familiar with. 

We stopped at one convenience store to use the restroom and walk around a little and I had to take a picture of the entrance. 

How much do we love those urns of plastic flowers? And then, when I asked for directions to the restroom, I discovered that we had stopped at the very same place last year because I definitely remembered the bathroom which was through some double doors that led to a restaurant and bar which shared the restrooms with the store. 

And I cannot tell you how many convenience stores there are between Black Mountain and Lloyd.

Nice, clean bathrooms, too. 

Yesterday, I finally finished reading "Crazy in Alabama" to Glen. We started that book years ago. It is not a bad book at all. We enjoyed it and the storyline was good enough that we could remember where we'd left off many months before. If you've never read it, I recommend it. So today we started one of the books I bought at the library in Black Mountain.

For those of you who have read any of Fuller's books, you know why I picked up and bought this, even though I had never heard of this title. And it is amazing. And yes, she was accused of appropriation when it came out because it is a book about the residents of a reservation for the Lakota but I don't care. Fuller grew up in Africa when there were wars about the appropriation of land by white people from the native people there and I think she has a right to write this story. Considered from any level, her writing is gorgeous and I probably read out loud for at least six hours today, reveling in her words every moment. 

I think that Mr. Moon enjoyed it too. 

So here we are, back home. When we pulled in I was so happy. My phlox are brilliant and glorious, and as soon as I got out of the car I called my cats and believe it or not, Maurice came running up, meowing, which is not her usual behavior when we return from a trip. She generally refuses to show her poor old scarred-up face until she feels that we have suffered enough. 

As we unloaded the car and set things down in the kitchen, she hung out in a sunny spot in the library and watched us. When I went back to unpack things in my bedroom, she followed me. 
And of course Jack is here and demanding treats as if he has not been fed since we left over a week ago although Mark left them three bowls of food. 

Y'all- it is so fucking hot here. It was 101 degrees on the kitchen porch when we got in. And of course, as soon as we had everything unloaded, we went out to the garden because that's how it works. Mark has made sure that everything has gotten watered while we were gone from porch plants to tomatoes. Bless that man. 
We took a few moments to walk around and check out what was going on and everything looks pretty good. The cherry tomatoes are going crazy, we had two lovely ripe Cherokee Purples, the eggplant is coming along, I found two more acorn squash and the volunteer butternut squash looks to be about ready to pick. 

And how about the green beans, you may ask? 

We picked a tiny bit and I am going to make a salad for us here in a moment with some of that. 

Yes. It is good to be home, despite the heat. I will be so glad to lay down in our own bed tonight. I tell you what, though, I'd give a whole lot of money to be sitting in that little North Carolina creek right now, up to my bosoms in that cold, moving water with my sweetheart who makes me laugh so much, sitting right beside me, skipping rocks and roiling the already roiling water with his walking stick. 

I may be visiting the Wacissa sooner rather than later. 

Let's all have sweet dreams tonight, okay?

Love...Ms. Moon