Does your family members each have their own seat? Like at my house-The Deer Hunter always sits in his recliner; I always sit in the same corner of the couch; Chitter almost always takes the love seat-and Chatter takes the other end of my couch.
From my spot I can look straight ahead through our living room picture window-the photo above is my view. I’ve never counted how many times a day I look out that window, but its safe to say I look out it fairly often.
Even though I look out that window all year long. It’s the view from this time of the year that somehow manages to sneak up on me.
Its like one day I look and see the least little leaves, only a smudge of green telling me Spring is almost here. Then BAM the next day I look and the green wall is back.
Every year I tell myself I’m going to make sure I notice the exact moment all those leaves unfurl to morph into my wall of green, but so far they’re way too fast for me to catch them in the act.
When the mountains put on their fresh new garments each Spring you can see why Appalachia is known for its breathtaking natural beauty.
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
I love the change in each season. The older I get I can’t tolerate cold and I can’t tolerate heat. This has been a colder Spring and a very mild ending. Not long till Summer. I get up as soon as daylight start my weed eating. Looks like no garden at moment. I would like a tomato garden. I had a real good one lasy year. My favorite is Tommy toes, yellow pears tomatoes, Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. Last year was the first time for them. They got 6 ft. tall. They had a sweet taste. I love Roma tomatoes good for canning.
I don’t do much gardening like my Mamaw did. Like you guys!
You was talking about looking out your window. I have a place in corner of my couch I love watching the breeze blow our Walnut Tree. My Father in law planted it there. We knock the walnuts down in the driveway to be run over. The tires peels them and they dry out we pick them up to get ready to crack them. The leaves on the tree turns yellow just before cool spell and Fall season. Then they fall off it is one of the trees that goes bare before fall.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love to watch the changes. It’s a way to remind myself that a lot of things in life doesn’t stay the same. That is why God is so good to help us get ready for changes in our lives. Don’t never change your ways Tipper, I love you and your family. And Granny & Miss Cindy is still in our prayers. As all of you are!
I don’t think I will ever find a place more beautiful with Appalachia!
Good luck next year with your quest for the moment!!!
I sit in a small lady’s wing back (cause I have short legs), Tom sits on the loveseat and the cat has the whole 3-seater couch to herself unless we have company. The only thing we have a view of, I’m sorry to say, is the tv.
The last house we lived in had more and bigger windows with better views. There was a bay window in the eating area of the kitchen that I loved to have my morning tea and toast at so I could watch the birds at the bird feeders and the hummers at the hummer feeders, but sadly, this little cottage has no such window – only small ones.
God bless.
RB
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Tipper, I have a daily early morning ritual. My “heart failure nurse” requires me to take my vital signs first thing, then perform the bathroom ablutions as soon as I arise, including a double hand-full of pills for heart, COPD, etc.
Then I feed the two Queens, Cocoa and Quizzy, pour my first cup of coffee, and
finally, I go to the front door, retrieve my digital camera, and step out on the front porch. As I go through the door, I instantly spy Peter Young Mountain. Peter is my Weather reporter and my Forcaster all wrapped up in one.
I first take a foto looking west, then south of the entirety of the north face of Peter young, then east of the garage and mini garden, where I have grapes and onions, just the beginning of my planting.
I have fotos of the face of Old Peter almost every day for the last two and one half years. What a story those pix tell!
A neck of Lake Nottley comes into the valley near the north base, and many, many years, mist completely covers the long meadow between Peter and my hill.
In just the last week he has donned his summer green shirt, earlier than usual, but he tried to pull it on two weeks ago, and his green took on a tinge of burnt leaf-tips.
Each year I promise myself to post the pix of the clothing changes Peter does each year; there are hundreds of them. maybe someday I’ll get ’em put up on my blog
This ritual is just one of the blessings of life in Paradise, and it inspires me as I write. Thanks for your many reminders.
Great view!
Here in OK we’re enjoying the green–esp. after the dry, dead vegetation last summer and fall from our drought.
what a view! I’m heading NC way in early May and am so hoping I’ll still some lovely blooms. One thing I miss in FL is the season change — I think our bodies and especially our minds need it. Seeing your view I’d probably do more sitting that working if I had that to look at every day. 🙂
Oh Tipper, you are blessed to have such a beautiful view!
Wonderful view! You are lucky to live in the country with beautiful nature and not in a big city. There are only grey houses when you look out of the windows.
Spring does a heart good!
That’s such a beautiful wall; so much better than a city street! I love to see how perfect the tiny new leaves on a tree are each spring.
I love looking out every window in my house & I look out often. My front window sees oak, Bradford pear, redbud & Japanese maple. the shades of green & red are just breath taking & so relaxing. I even love the view in the winter with no leaves. Each tree as a distinct shape to it’s branches against the sky that I love.
My wall of green has not filled in yet but I know one day I will look out my kitchen window and say Wow, all the leaves came out today! Every year it amazes me that it seems to happen overnight.
Beautiful view you have there..we have our own little perch as well.. funny how that happens..Things are shooting out this year, our potatoes are ready to be hilled up after this rain..
I’ve got a little notebook where I write down nature things. Usually, one entry each year is “can’t see into the woods anymore.”
Around here I sit wherever they let me. Still, if I had my druthers, I have this fantasy as to what I would do and where I would sit. First of all, there would be this cabin atop one of the highest mountains in The Smokies, there would be a long gravel road up to it. There would be a porch facing west so my wife and I could sit in a cane bottom, red oak rocking chair and watch those beautiful sunsets at evening. The cabin would have a tin roof so we could be sung to sleep with the sound of the rain when it did rain. I would have a radio that would pick up WSM Nashville. I also would have a Blue tick hound with a baying voice that could be heard plum down to the valley to sit and help my wife and I watch those sunsets. I would plant the old rose bush my Momma gave me beside the porch so I could also watch it. Finally, I would have a large grocery cart full of those caramel Coconut Samoa Girl Scout cookies. Oh yes, I almost forgot, I would have a humming bird feeder at every corner of the cabin and I would watch those little guys whenever they were there. That’s where I would sit!!!
Great! You were recommended by Sassy Genealogist! My birth family was straight out of NC, so I already feel like we’re friends! Am enjoying the music, photos, and wonderful mountain stories. Will be back soon!
The greens are breathtaking — I’ve been taking pictures right along — amazing how it just bursts out after a warm rain.
I say the same thing about kids..I tried to catch the exact minute they grew up…they were 4 and now suddenly 21 and 15. Maybe I will be able to catch that moment with my seven year old. 🙂
I think the blooming of trees and flowers has been more beautiful this year. I think its this way as sort of a gift to us in answer to the horrible weather we have just came off of this last year! My poor dogwoods (the ones that did not die from last Aprils storm) are broken, bent and twisted..but the limbs which are visibly broken almost completely in half, bloomed so pretty this year, the most beautiful they have ever been. They will probably die after this year, but they certainly put on one great last show!
Tipper,
Once everything starts to turn
green, seems like it just happens
overnight. I’m thankful for all
the rain we got recently, my garden will come alive now and the
real work of keepin’ up will start. I love all the different
seasons cause just when you get
tired of one, a change is coming.
…Ken
I hadn’t noticed this same thing until I sat in my rocking chair by the window this morning (my usual seat inside the cabin), and after reading your blog looked out and by George there is a wall of green developing where I only remember seeing the mini sprouts of spring! Today, the green seems even somehow more dramatic with the grey of rain and clouds as a backdrop!
Tipper said, “When the mountains put on their fresh new garments each Spring-you can see why Appalachia is known for its breathtaking natural beauty.”
AMEN
That’s a nice view, Tipper! I like to watch springtime climb the mountains. The green line goes higher each day, and if you forget to look for a day or so it’s green all the way to the top when you remember.
Tipper,
Yes, we all have our on place to park in the house…He has a recliner as do I…LOL
The green wall surround us as well…I couldn’t believe how quick the spring blooming flowers on the trees were hid with the green leaves…Those nasty webworms got some leaves on the Crab apples…but I think the couple of nights with the dip in temperature killed a few…what a blessing..
Last night or this morning 4:30 AM, a weird noise came drifting thru the open window…I panicked as we have two pullets and 4 Old English bamtams in cages on the porch a’waitin’ their new house..
I just knew it was a coyote or raccoon trying to grab them thru the cages…I opened the door and it or them took off through the green wall still making that horrible sounding noise….I woke the better half, we checked, the new babies were fine…I’ve heard many a wrestling baby raccoons and yelps of the coyotes…but this was different and to run off still making that scary sound…
I will be watching my green wall for the varmit…
Great Post Tipper,
Made a similar comment to my wife yesterday…about how the mountains in the distance must have had someone turn on the green filter.
When I looked out this morning the world was so green, it glowed. Amazing how it just sneeks up on you. Casper and I have our favorite spots to sit. we have company this week and are spaces have changed. Unsettling?? Or just too set in our ways. LOL
wonderful view, and yes, bob and I have our seats and the dogs there seats, BUT the dogs try to take over ours and we have to make them move. when i had a family at home, we all sat in the same place. just like at church we sit in the same place and i park my car in the same spot at walmart.
Not only does my husband and I both have certain places where we sit, even our two cats and dogs have their regular seats! I am constantly looking out of windows too. I’m not sure what I expect to be different, except that we do have lots of wild critters in the woods around our home and I keep on expecting to see a bear!
Mother remarked last week that she could not remember things ever getting so green so fast. It seemed just overnight that the trees were barely opening their buds and then they were fully leafed out.
Gorgeous, Tipper. Green is my favorite color in nature…what a beautiul view.
While I understand the sudden change that you see, Tipper, viewed from a greater distance and especially where you can get a see across a range of elevations, the transition is a lot slower.
From the house here in Bryson City, I can look across town to the north face of the Alarka Mountains. From this vantage, I get the annual pleasure of watching the leaves take their march up the mountainside.
It’s sort of like they’re an occupying force. First they get a good solid foothold down in the lower flanks – in protected hollers. From there, it’s a slow march upward. On a good clear day, you can see the white blooms of sarvis trees way up the mountain ahead of the leaves, leading the charge. At the highest elevations, those sarvis may be close to two months behind their lower elevation brethren.
Another thing about the annual leaf march that is fascinating to me the leaf colors. You may see red leaves on young maples in spring as well as in the fall. And the leaves that most varieties of trees put out early are such a light green shade. The lighter the color, the more light is being reflected (and less absorbed). It’s almost as if they’ve got Someone applying a suntan lotion to keep from getting a burn until they’re more more mature.
Come summer, they’ll be a much darker hue, working efficiently to capture and use the sun’s energy.
This year the woods turned green so fast! One day bare branches, the next green so thick you can hardly see through!
I know Tipper, I look out my kitchen window into the trees and suddenly one day everything is green. There will be another “oh!” day in 6 weeks or so. If we have enough rain one day I’ll look out the same window and everything will look lush and full like a jungle.
Nature at her best surprises us on every turn.
Happy Spring!
Glad you mentioned the “wall of green” for I, too, was amazed at how quickly everything became greent his spring. As to “places to sit”: Yes when my family numbered four at home (instead of only I, as now with two children long married and away and my dear husband deceased), we did have our usual places to sit. Now the whole choice is mine–but what do I do, sit at that one spot on the sofa where I can look out through my picture window! I guess this proves we are creatures of habit.
To heck with the couch and the recliner. I’d love to be sitting on the porch rocked back in an old straight backed chair with a cane seat and my feet up on that rail. And have Mommy come up and say “set that chair down on the floor it ain’t no rocker!”
That’s quite a lovely view from your living room window. All that green looks so peaceful!
Yes indeed, here at the log cabin we each have our favorite place to sit and relax as well and the way the room is set up one can always view the outside thru a great big large window,added in the 60’s and will keep the cabin off the registery but on the bright side we can always see the nature goings on at all times of the year—-looking out into the yard and then view what is still left of the wooded area.
Beautiful view Tipper I love the green of spring but not so much the green and hot of summer as I get older.
Oh yes, I agree, I live on the deck when we are lucky enough to be there in the spring.