9/10/2012 West Virginia Watching the fog lift off the road leading to our cabin. As the sun hits it it rises like clouds of smoke. The whole morning process of the sun coming up over the ridge, about 8:30 this time of year. The sky is light at 6:30 or so, but it's slow to come over the ridge. The birds very happy that time of day. Cardinals, jays, a pair of hummingbirds, woodpeckers, don't know the other species, magpies of some kind, crows. No raptures today- we do have a hawk who likes to hunt here and a flock of buzzards that love the thermals- so beautiful in flight and so nasty up close! The owls at night. Suki is holding her own for now. She has her routine around meals and forays in the yard around the cabin. She loves to go over the hill and down to sniff at the little swamp where the frogs and willows are. She stumbled into that yesterday and I was afraid she was stuck and would have to crawl down into the brush, but she finally found a spot to turn around without continuing to go downward. And she loves the walk to Honeysuckle Pond. Last year Tom set up a chair there and I spent some time everyday meditating there. She would wait with me, sniffing around. This year it was overgrown and I ended up getting covered in chigger bites so I've not had the inclination to linger. Dan and Tom did clear it for me, but I guess I'm leery. I do still walk down there every day with Suki though she has a bit of trouble getting back up the hill. She just takes her time. This is the first year that walking the road out to the mailbox is too much for her. Sweet old dog, sad to watch her growing so old. The Vet's Best pills I found seem to be helping- White Willow Bark and Glucosmine and not the terrible side effects of the Ibruprofen.

9/8/2012 aft WV Comfy on top of the bed with my laptop. I feel like Meg, who writes the Princess Diaries, who told me she likes to write in bed , did she say in her PJ's? Maybe. Dan has managed to clear the valve on my air mattress and it seems to be holding air, though not to the max firm amount that I prefer. So, we've switched mattresses. He's happy, loves a squishy bed, and I'm happy, like a firm bed. Just as well as I couldn't find a replacement mattress in Spencer, my closest shopping town. Perhaps in Parkersburg, but who needs to run around town looking for a mattress. Do have to keep an eye out for Ozark Air double high though, these air mattresses only last so long. We've three years for these 2 so that seems like a good run. Good day for making soup. My bag of veggie ends in the freezer was full and the stock from that with a tin of tomatoes and whatever few veggies I have on hand seems to be adding up to a yummy smell coming from the stove. I do get into cooking here. Well, I've the time and really there's no alternative, unless you plan on sandwhiches and cereal, which isn't awful. I've gotten into my WV routine now that I've been back over a week. Make my coffee and read or do a crossword puzzle in the mornings. All the NY Sunday times ones that I didn't have time for that I ripped out and brought up in an envelop. Lately I've been feeling so decadent and having toast with jam as well. Then I dress and tidy up get organized for whatever the day holds. Try to practice the harp a bit. Then a light breakfast, yogurt lately. More practice, then reading, maybe work on a song. Then a mid aftenoon break, this week I've a basket of apples from Dan Brindo's house. He must have 10 different trees. I've been enjoying Irish cheddar and a Brindo apple every day. I take my shower around 4, it's still light and warm and we don't have company, which when you have an outdoor shower does make it simpler. Then I start dinner. Have to start the coals for my “oven” ( a 29.99 charcoal burner from Walmart that is holding up a way too surprisingly long time-- oh when do I get my Weber? ) Mostly I use the grill and the few gas burners. Occasionally, I use the crockpot ( makes a delicious tomato sauce with spicy sausage and bell peppers ) I've become quite the gourmet on my cheap little grill. Last night it was meatloaf, with homefried potatoes, steamed cauliflower and broccoli and coleslaw. We were celebrating the finishing of the floor laying up at Dan Brindo's. Tom and my Dan have been up there all week working on it. I've been making dinner for all of us. This week was grilled chicken , smashed potates and salad, beef stew ( love the mix of Hungarian and Spanish paprikas that I brought up and is sitting in my old wooden Coke crate spice rack ), burritos made with revamped version of my chicken with brown rice and veg- added black beans , fresh cilantro, lime and jalapenos and made a yummy fresh salsa. One night Tom donated some incredible sirloin steaks and Tammy also joined us for steak and salad and potatoes. Super good meat up here, both at Foodland, where they will grind it for you and Dick's Market which is always very, very fresh and fresh cut and ground as well. Met a woman named Pat ( O Boyle Boyd? ) at Dick's yesterday. We were at the meat counter and she was looking throught some little bottles of fancy mustard there. Cranberry, honey mustard, now what would you do with that? ( I love a challenge! ) hmm maybe as a glaze on ham? Awful small bottle, and $1.50 have to be single I guess. Well, everyone is always bringing a ham so I guess it's cool to have new ideas for one. She: Would you use it? Me: Probably not- if I wanted cranberries on something I'd probably just buy cranberries. She laughed. Well she says you grow up hard here, and you know a lot about deer. ( but I guess not much about cranberries ) Later at the counter she caught me spacing out and said probably dreaming of ways to use that mustard. I laughed. Then she started to tell me the recipe for cranberry relish that's in her family. It had cups of sugar and crushed pineapple and she couldn't remember the rest. Said she would write it down and leave it at Dick's for me. I must be the only one the peole who work at Dick's doesn't know in this area, so the cashier looked at me kinda strange, but I just smiled and said thanks. I'm not in there too often, mostly go to Elizabeth to drop off the recycling and use the internet at the library so maybe every other week or so and then we're only here a few months at best every summer. Most everyone who lives in Elizabeth is from there or close by and they all know each other. Well as Pat says you grow up hard here, and you know a lot about deer. And you all know and look out for each other . Got a message in my mailbox that I missed the delivery of my boots. Must of been the other postal person, the woman I met a few weeks back came back in here with my medicine. Course I signed the little card asking for it to be re delivered, so maybe that's what I need to do. That or go down to the Palestine Post Office on Monday. Too bad, I could have used those boots today! Our mailbox is too small for parcels, maybe Tom is right and we need a bigger one.

9/8/2012 West Virginia The rain is soft, softens the colors, the sounds of everything. No, it doesn't rain all the time, not at all. It's been sunny and gloriously beautiful and very warm all week. Perfect for hanging clothes on the line and reading on the porch in my nightgown. But today the rain has come. Straight down and quiet, almost have to think oh, is it raining? Till I look up and see the leaves dancing. That sort of invisible misting rain, that reminds me so much of England. Not like the torrential pouring rains with all it's drama smashing down on the tin roofs and bending palm trees of the Keys. Making every street a river instantly, then drying in the sun . No this is like a mist that comes to life, occasionally to crescendo then back to the living mist. Having said that it starts to Really crescendo, with the wind picking up and blowing rain sideways over the porch and everything on it. The temperature drops a good 5-10 degrees as well, making me wish for socks. Trouble is the socks get wet when I slip on these little Crocs to go to the bathhouse. I looked for boots but only found big heavy rubber boots made for mucking out stalls. A bit much for just walking out to the loo. Our friend Saffra left me a cozy lined perfect pair last summer, but they had a leak that we tried but couldn't fix. I decided to go modern and last time on the internet at MacDonalds ( where I had my first meal, a sugary sweet yogurt parfait ) ordered a pair of lime green lined perfect boots from Amazon.com. They'll be here on Monday. So cold feet today, but it's still fairly warm , just a reminder that it turns cold in the morn and eves quickly. One day it's 50 , the next 80. This time of year is totally shizophrenic that way.

9/5/2012 West Virginia Sitting on the porch staring at the ridge of poplars, willows, the fog hanging heavy today in between the rain. Reading Breece D'J Pancake stories. Recognizing some of the people in these stories as those I see going about my business here in WV. Those older folk sitting on the porches we passed riding the jeep yesterday with Tammy,, down the dirt roads, up the ridges through the hollows. People I see and empathize with but whose lives I don't really know. Catch a glimpse of them in stories people tell or lying in the pitch black in the damp nights in this valley. Walking around with the stars to go pee at night. But I have a flush toilet in my bathhouse and an umbrella for the rain. Feel their stories but my body betrays me. Always be a city girl. Blow up with chigger bites, hair won't lay down for bangs or grow that long ponytail. Frizzes up with the genes of Eastern Europe and the mediterranean, the warmth that I'm so used to now from living in Key West, and which suits me. Never could take the winters well, my hands would get too cold, couldn't play the piano or much else. Even now, in the damp nights my hands cramp up. Our heritage singing in our blood no matter where we go. Is that what Pancake was saying? He paints such a vivid picture of these hills and these lives, you can taste the dust, smell the woods. Feel this whole life dying. The folk growing older whose clans settled here and whose roads carry their names and their lives. McCutcheon Run, Munday Ridge, Frog Hollow. The young torn between being from here and needing to leave here. Not so many options , maybe college or sports open up a few more. Otherwise it's the military, or driving a truck or workin somewhere in town, a garage a small diner. Or it's less romantic, Walmart and Welfare. Driving through the dirt roads, almost all the homes have ramps- so many older folk. A 97 year old woman lived there, was still climbing up on the roof to clean out the gutters. She died a few winters back and the house is falling into the earth. Family still owns it, but no one to live in it, love it every day. Still, it's the last little bit of the family farm that hasn't been divided up, sold. Even if you can't live here, or even want to, you still love this earth, this smell, the simple making do .