I decided yesterday that I'm not going to cry anymore about all the crazy things that have been happening to us.  Mike made the difficult decision to leave his job.  I'm not mad, though this will present some challenges.  Instead, we're trying to look at all that has happened as opportunities to live our lives more deliberately and locally.  This means no more long commute to Wytheville and lower gas costs (none, for now!). 

I've said for some time now that Mike and I have the perfect life together.  We had jobs in the same town, just blocks from each other.  We were able to eat lunch together every single day.  We had settled into our stereotypical adult lives and found a good time to have a baby.  After that, things started going a little funny.  If anything could have gone wrong at work for the both of us, it did.  We've been tested in this department for a year or more, but things have recently come to a breaking point.  Each of us had to stand up for ourselves and give all we could.  In both cases, that meant accepting the fate of moving on.

I've talked about moving forward, and really, we're still doing that.  It's all we can do these days.  We pay the bills, tend the garden, take all the fresh produce offered to us, and settle into lives that will never be the same.  I've come to have zero expectations and only minimal survival-based plans.  We'll make it through these changes financially, though times will be very tight.  Thank goodness for the kind people at the Virginia Employment Commission and for the help of my parents.  Sometimes, it feels as though they're the people keeping us going.

This, too, shall pass.  And after it is over, there will be chuckles of "remember the time I was pregnant and we both were out of work and trying to plan for a new baby during a recession?"  I've learned two big things so far that I work to remind myself of each day, when I start to get a little nervous.  First, I have had a perfect pregnancy.  Nothing could have gone more smoothly and I am thankful for each day of wiggles in my tummy and dozens of bathroom trips.  Second, sometimes God blesses us in ways that are so amazing we cannot understand them when they happen.  I prayed for God to send Mike a new job and I should have known He'd be counterculture about it. ;-)

July,
she will fly
And give no warning to her flight. . .

One of the excuses I was given for losing my job, apart from budget cuts, was that I was not forward thinking.  Clearly, some people are not traveling the same sort of forward as me.  Today, my forward gained new momentum.  I've embarked on a journey whose path I do not know, only having the knowledge that I can't go over, around or under.  I've got to go through.  My forward is not to bigger-and-better and more and getting.  It is to less and simpler and quality-over-quantity. 

I never believed that "not forward thinking" bit anyway.

It's hard to say what's in store, though I may end up in a part-time position back at my old workplace.  After all, on unemployment benefits, you must take any job offered to you or lose your benefits.  We'll see what the mail fairy brings over these next couple of weeks.  Suffice it to say, just when I thought pigs couldn't fly, some went flapping by the window as I packed up my worldly goods from my desk.  Sometimes I feel the insanity never stops.

But there is always home.  It is the one place where Mike and I can find peace, no matter what the outside world throws at us.  Our pace here is set by us, not by a society driven by greed and rushed by desperation.  Our vegetables do not shout vain commands and the berries grow sweetly in the grass.  Indeed, my forward is the blessing of time on my terms, infinitely many bathroom breaks, and the first cloth diapers drying on the rack.

Give me my forward any day. :-)

This past week has been BIG--big berries, big surprises, big cooking, big concert choir reunion, big photo show. . .



BIG batch of Tammy's Cinnamon Crunch Granola--this will last us about 2-3 weeks.  I'm a cereal glutton and when I'm pregnant--watch out!!



BIG batch of cupcakes for Mike's reception--5 dozen.  In some sort of kitchen miracle I got these done very quickly (a mix doesn't hurt). ;-)  Mike's show was a big hit and he's got pictures over here.



BIG 50th concert choir reunion.  I've never been to church with this many people.  Ours has about 25-30 a week.  The Emory UMC had about 190 nostalgic choir members and I'm guessing 300 or so attendees for this extra special service.  Mike had a great time and I sat in the back because I have supersonic ears and they had a BIG sound.

The last two weeks of May are proving to be a real doozy here at the Blackberry Bungalow.  We're busy with setting up Mike's first photography show and I'll be baking dozens of cupcakes for the reception.  I've sold a LOT of napkins over at the Fiber Frolic and plan to whip up several dozen more really soon, maybe this weekend while Mike is at the E&H Concert Choir Reunion.  I'm REALLY thankful for all the readers and etsy folks who have liked my goodies and made purchases--it's really brightening my days right now.

There's also a portion of my life that hangs in the balance as other people decide my fate.  I can't say much more for now, but it could mean a big change for me.  I'll keep you posted.  Keep us and the little pumpkin in your prayers.  That little pumpkin, by the way, is wiggling stronger everyday and I could have sworn that he or she was knocking on my tummy trying to get out yesterday to help us celebrate our anniversary.

And Monday starts on Sunday when your husband reaches critical grease mass on Kentucky Fried Chicken.  That's all I'm going to say.  I needed a laugh and somehow found this.  You will laugh.  LOTS.

I needed that.

Though posts may be meager, I'm still here.  Still thinking about the blog and what I want to blog about.  Mike even renewed my paid account.  Some ideas in the works:

• Lessons on Simple Living from the Little House books
• Better Off: Life After Cable with a Cruddy Set of Rabbit Ears
• More of The Forgotten Virginia
• The exciting announcement that my etsy shop will finally be open (soon)

So, see?  I'm still chugging along, I just happen to feel like I'm on a train that's climbing a very steep hill.  Sort of like the ye olde Virginia Creeper.

This past weekend Mike's sister Mandy came to visit.  We drove around desolate places in Wythe County, visited with some of my most friendly coworkers (who are also men), went to a wonderful sunrise service at church, and had lots of eggs and bacon in various forms.  I felt energetic and made Tammy's Whole Wheat Strawberry Shortcake.  Something about heart-shaped cakes just makes me feel all happy inside.  Heart-shaped pizzas, too.

We visited with neighbors on Sunday afternoon after Mandy left and just had the best time.  Our neighbors Debbie and Benny are thrilled to become "grand-neighbors" in six months.  They told us lots of funny stories from their youth and early marriage.  Benny told us about his pastime of jumping trains and riding them.  Once, he rode the train from Tazewell all the way to Bluefield!  He had counted on it slowing down at the top of the mountain, but when the time came, the train was going sixty!  Had to hitchhike all the way home.  Debbie and I concluded that we were much more dull.  There's a lot of pleasure to be had from visiting one's neighbors.  Maybe I'll start something like the Homebody Liberation Front, that forces people outdoors and across the yard.  I'm guessing that wetkneefarm won't be one of my charter members, though. ;-)

Yesterday there was an icing-on-the-cake snow, but today there is sunshine galore.  The maple syrup festival is this weekend and Mike and I are super excited.  Any takers?  Anna? Mark? Rebecca?  Plenty o' pancakes for all!

Here's a parting shot from Miller's Creek, Northeast Wythe County.   Mallard on the pond of one eccentric, friendly guy, Joe Hale.  Yeah, there's a lot to be said for meeting your neighbors. :-)

Okay, I'll admit it.  Among other things, I've got the February Funk.  It's a brooding time of year and I've been doing rather a lot of that.  Brooding about the etsy shop, brooding about walking enough, taking lots of walks, brooding about being frugal, brooding about guests coming next month, brooding about being cold, brooding about it not being cold. . . You get the message.

I've finally come full circle.  I need Spring.  For years, years, I've hated Spring.  The longer days made me depressed and the absence of Winter made me anxious for Fall.  Don't even get me started on Summer.  Yuck!  Now I'm sitting here looking out the tiny windows by the fireplace and watching it rain.  And being grey.  I've shut the shades on the normal windows to pretend it's night time.

I need Spring.  I need sun and blooming flowers and seedlings growing on the back porch.  Oh, my.  I can't believe it's come to this.

On an upbeat: check out Rhonda Jean's post on Simplicity.  This short list is a great place for folks to start when they want to live more deliberately and don't know how to begin.

Good night.  Cream of Wheat for supper.

Times marches on at the Nichols' Homestead.  It's been a week of a little snow, a little cold and a lot of conversations.  We're preparing for the garden and it won't be but a few more days until I start my onion seeds.  Next week the berry bushes will come and then it will be March!

Spring catalogs have already started arriving and while we don't get many, one really rather tempts me.  I'm no longer a child and I don't have any yet, but I love Magic Cabin.  There's always beautiful drawings of their items and children playing with them.  There are plenty of toys for creative play and lots of woodsy woolly things.  It's one of the few catalogs that makes me want to shop.  Their partnership with the Virginia Department of Forestry does make a difference. . .

Let's see this week--hmmmm. . . went with krusig on Sunday to a ladies' spa day at Mary Alice Hardin's Nature's Powers Center.  Mary Alice is a budding herbalist and environmental educator and always has the best activities planned.  This time we made all natural spa treatments: miracle grains facial scrub and mask, lavender toner, homemade lotion and bath salts.   We also soaked our feet and did reflexology with lavender salve.

We had planned to go hiking Sunday, but the winds were so violent that staying seemed much better.  While out at Nature's Powers (in the country near the old Davis Homeplace) we got to see Mary Alice's solar and wind-powered home.  It was a yurt style with all the normal things we have in our homes--big fridge, washer, dryer, hot water, TV.  However, everything was powered by a big windmill and a giant solar panel.  Being on the top of a small ridge, the house gets plenty of wind power.  The day we were there gusts were up to 60 mph!  The house is heated using a masonry stove.  A wood fire heats the stones, which are designed to circulate the hot air, keeping the house warm for 24 hours or more.  It also had an oven perfect for making pizzas. :-)

The rest of the week has been quiet so far.  I've been knitting on a second pair of socks for Mike and anticipating a three-day weekend.  That, and fighting off the urge to order a flower press from Magic Cabin. ;-)

Oh, yeah--Happy Valentine's Day!!  Spread love any way you can! :-D

I've been a little, um, silent lately.  Foggy-headed, too.  Lots on my mind over here in the Forgotten Virginia.  I'm still on my decluttering journey and these pictures are proof.  I took these in the late summer of 2006 around the Blue Ridge Parkway, my parents' cabin and at the Apple Festival in Chilhowie.  Took the film out of my dad's Elph camera Winter Solstice 2007, developed them, lost them, found them this past weekend and gave dad his camera back.



Prize-winning canned goods at the Apple Festival.



Fir Branches on what I think was the trail up to Devil's Courthouse on the Parkway.
 


Jack O Lantern Mushroom on the road to Comer's Rock.
Maybe.



Isn't it funny how sometimes pictures just work?
I don't even remember taking this one.
Must have been at the cabin, lots of tall weeds up there.



Destroying Angel Mushrooms, location unknown.



Blueberries, oh, blueberries.  It has me almost wishing for summer.



Hawthorn Berries at the Cabin.

Maybe now I'll get back in the groove.

Anyone else out there glad to check January off their list?  I know I am. 

I've been out of work all week except for five hours yesterday.  Nasty, nasty cold.  I'm sitting at about 85% right now and so, so very glad.  I've couched and bedded and chaired and done all manner of sedentary things.  I've watched somewhere around ten movies and a good portion of them twice and all of that extra stuff they put on DVD's to make you buy them.  I even went for broke and watched all FIVE HOURS of the Colin Firth version of Pride & Prejudice.  What a week!

I knitted until I could knit no more, on a project I gave up on afterward.  I crocheted about a dozen granny squares for a couple afghans (trying to use up the stash and get ready for Christmas--only 11 months, you know).  I've been reading about haints and corn shucking and candy pulls in the second Foxfire book and picking mushrooms (which is not very exhausting). 

Oh, and I made a gnome.  My first bona fide Magic Wool friend.  He's got a wire frame with loads of woolly bits piled on top and a tiny pointed felt hat.  He's also got eyes that make you think he's rather grumpy.  It can't be helped.  He was my companion through most of the nose blowings and cold medicine delerium and infinite beverage consumption and cough drop slurping.  He's bound to be grumpy after keeping company with me all week.

His name is Aspen, and though he doesn't show it, he is very pleased to make your acquaintance.  Much like Mr. Darcy.

In a couple of hours, we'll be headed back up north to home and supper made by wetkneefarm.  This is the longest Mike and I have been away from the Blackberry Bungalow.  The weather's been cool here, which has been nice since Atlanta's usually so warm. 

We went downtown and survived another trip to Ikea (I've got a lingonberry addiction to feed).  We also found elk-shaped pasta and wrapping paper with gnomes on it--all necessities.  I didn't participate in Buy Nothing Day, but it's more of a challenge here since there's less to do in the way of staying at home or going on hikes.  It's funny to say that about a city--nothing to do, well, I guess it's all in your point of view.   It's funny to be in a place where you can't drive five minutes and be in the middle of nowhere.  It's also funny to be in a place where the houses are so big and the yards are made of sod.  The grass is all springy and brown.  The drought has been hard on people here and folks are saving bath water to do any extracurricular watering.  I wondered why it was all green when we came in September--sprinklers running amuck.

We went to the massive Hindu temple yesterday to see what it was all about.  We'd watched it being built for two years now, about two minutes from Mike's parents' house.  Everything was made out of stone, mostly by volunteers with chisels.  There were still some working away when we visited.  You had to take off your shoes and wash your hands before going in.  It was a strange experience--we stuck out a lot.  It was very grandiose and there were lots of signs thanking you for not touching things and being silent.  There were gold shrines and loads of Hindu statues.  And loads of ways to give money.  I've never been in a religious building quite like it.

Well, better start packing. . .

Photo from the NPR story "Gleaming Hindu Temple to Open in Atlanta Suburb."  See link above.  (No photos were allowed, either.)

Bright and early, or dim and early, Mike and I are headed to the big city of Lilburn today.  I'll leave my county of 33,000 and head to one of nearly 760, 000.  I'm not abandoning the blog on this trip--there's loads of spare time in Lilburn, even if it is so crowded. 

I've still got the cold.  Mom and dad drove to Wytheville to pick me up (since Mike and I carpool) and take me home yesterday when I started to run a fever.  I'm wondering if it wasn't a bit of divine intervention that I had one, since I was normal all the rest of the day. . . Could have been the cold medicine.  My patience had worn out and so I took some Sudafed.  BAD idea.  Made me feel all funny--light and heavy at the same time.  Mom and dad gave me a poinsettia to put with my wintergreen plant.  So, until I decorate for Christmas, at least the mantel is festive.

Mom looked in the Apiary and saw the lace scarf on the bed.  "Oh, I just LOVE that pink yarn.  That is just the most wonderful color!"  Good thing, because it's her birthday present.  Dad and I exchanged knowing glances while she went on and on about the yarn.

Well, 41 minutes until estimated departure time--guess I'd better get the pie out of the freezer.  Bon voyage! 

I guess making bread, roasting a pumpkin and baking three pies was too much for me yesterday.  I feel worse and have decided to keep my coughing and nose-blowing to myself here at home.  Luckily, our guest Catrina was recovering from a cold, so no additional bad germs were spread.  Still have a cold, still attached to the couch, still working on my WIP's.  At least colds don't affect crafting.  No mucus on the knitting, I promise. 

This morning, in my daily readings of Appalachian Autumn, I learned about squirrels and nest building.  I've often asked Mike if I could be a squirrel when I grow up, but he says "no."  I tell him that I love to scurry around and that I'm very industrious, but he says that I have to be a human.  Drat!

If I can't be a squirrel, I suppose I can at least build my nest to keep me warm and cozy for the Winter.  It's 6-ish and I'm already in my flannel nightgown.  I'm sipping on triple-strength elderberry tea to fight off a cold that's been flirting with me all day.  I'm ready to set to work on lots knitting and pondering on Christmas.  My afghan is properly positioned, Mike is out in search of soup (no cooking for me tonight) and I'm debating whether to choose White Christmas or A Christmas Story. 

I chose a picture from our days at the Bohemian flat because I feel a little like the crocheted snow woman--bundled up and ready to face the cold, be it weather or respiratory.  I'm armed with a long list of items to knit and a handful of herbal remedies to test out.  It's a good time for reflection--on the wonders of the Christmas Gift and the transition to Winter.

Good night. 

Autumn is evading me. I just want everyone to know this. It's hiding, and if you've seen it, give it a stern talking-to and send it to see me. I feel like Olivia Spencer in Earl Hamner's The Homecoming.

It did not feel like Christmas. That moment which had always come in other years, that mingled feeling of excitement, which she called The Christmas Sprit, had evaded her. . .

Truly, as eighty degree days plow onward, it does not feel like Fall to me. Maybe tomorrow at the Fall Festival it will come. Or maybe it's just PMS. I feel rather grumpy today and I've been told I have to "redistribute office space" at work. Arrrgh! I need my solitude so I can be friendly. I haven't written too much lately that's been personal, but my hormones and global warming have taken over!

Peace. Peace.

A funny aside, which I'm dwelling on so I can feel cheery, is that I am in Wikipedia. Enter stage left about how Wikipedia is unreliable: bla, bla, bla. I'm in it! I was looking for the quote above, as part of a research paper I had written in high school, and found a Wikipedia article on Earl Hamner that someone had linked to my paper. Which is quite reliable, don't you know. And features an unattractive picture of me taken in my parents' living room. Such humor. I've hit the big time.

I think today is just the day to have a big head. Yes, I like me better than anybody I know.*

*Thanks, Dad.

Remember my list from the Spring of what I want from this Summer?  Well, here's my progress.

1. Easter with mom and dad
2. Jello beans and eggs (even if it's not vegetarian)
3. Scott's strawberries turned into jam
4. My own strawberries
5. And blackberries and raspberries
6. And blueberries, please?--see below
   
7. Berrypicking and overnight camping at the Scales--planned for next weekend
   
8. Backpacking with Mike--blasted mystery illness!
   
9. Potluck meals with friends
10. No construction near Hungry Mother State Park--none, yet
    
11. Time at the cabin with mom and dad
12. My very own self-knitted socks--still working on that
13. Breezy skirts
    
14. New curtains for the back bedroom made by me and mom
15. A finished crazy quilt
16. Time in the water at Backbone Rock
17. The Whitetop Ramp Festival
18. A trip to Mount Pisgah Inn
19. A peaceful easy feeling
20. Less flab than last summer
21. Less mulching
22. More time on the front porch in the rocking chairs
23. Cardinal flowers (I hope I remembered to order the seeds)--have to plant them way ahead
    
24. Marigolds to protect my tomatoes
    
25. An appreciation for it all

Stop the bus
I wanna be lonely
When seconds pass slowly
And years go flying by
You gotta stop the bus
I'll get off here
Enough's enough
I'm leaving this factory*


It's been a whirlwind past two weeks ever since Mike came home sick, we went to Young Harris, and now my recent trip to Richmond with my parents.  I'm worn out and up to my ears in chores and crafts and cookies.

Without much narration or elaboration, here's what I've been up to:

• Wednesday-Friday: Trip to Richmond and the Other Virginia with Mom and Dad.  MAJOR HEAT.
  
• Saturday:  APEC Vigil, VA Highlands Festival with Maggie,  swimming at Hungry Mother with Mike and krusig and having unflattering photos made.  (First time being buried in the sand.  Now the house is buried in sand.)
• Sunday: Church, yardening, grocering, baking, sewing, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, laundering

More to come, if I don't collapse.
* Good old Ben Folds Five.  Quite possibly one of my favorite bands, ever.

Summer has made me into a teenager.

I've been feeling really rather wistful lately, at every turn a reason for contemplation.  And yet another reason for procrastination.  If only I could be paid to read books about Appalachian culture and bake things.

Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard have me stupified.  That, and the heat.  I feel I must be on the cusp of some sort of creative season.  Oh, yeah--Fall.

If you want to view paradise,
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it

Let's start with the APEC peace vigil on Saturday.

This weekend would have been the perfect weekend for backpacking.  Instead, it has become the perfect weekend for knitting.  The nurse practitioner has told Mike to rest lots and drink plenty of water, so we're grounded from our trip to the summit of Mount Rogers.  Never mind, though.  The Friends of Mount Rogers are counting on me to help cover the heads of chilly hikers and bikers along the Virginia Creeper Trail.  I've got lots of hats to knit and only ten more weeks.

The weather outside is oddly late-summer feeling.  There is a cool breeze, but the sky tells me summer is still holding strong.  I've been watching the oaks for acorns and they're there--sure enough.  The lumina  pumpkins are really getting some size on them and the neighbors tomatoes are starting to turn.  I have to hold on to summer, reluctantly, for just a bit longer.

So, I'll settle in tonight with my happy-go-lucky circular needles and Clorox Anywhere Spray (a brief necessity) for a quiet evening of When Harry Met Sally and checking on Mike.