Where the Birdies at?

Today we worked in the 'We proudly serve' Starbucks coffee shop at the main building of the Blue Ridge Assembly YMCA.  Ila and I got there early to practice making tall drinks for staff members. There is a little book with the recipes so in no time at all I felt pretty comfortable whipping up Caramel Machiotos & the ilk. I was whipping up a tall 'skinny' Vanilla Latte, when one of the Y's business women, came to our window, and spying me, asked, "You're wearing a men's shirt?"

That was rather a point of shame for me, as they don't have women's shirts that aren't tight enough to qualify me for a wet T-shirt contest, so I had to settle for a men's shirt; it fits, but it hangs half way down my thighs. I nodded & the lady chilled her stare down about 30 more degrees Fahrenheit. 

"Then you will need to tuck your shirt in."

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

Does anything strike more fear in my little heart than wearing a shirt tucked in? Tucking in makes my stomach look like a Gernsey cow's and my butt look as broad as Brazil. I had two choices - I could aquess, tuck in my shirt and suffer 2 weeks of shame, or...I sucked up my courage and announced with as much conviction as I could,

"No M'am. I will not tuck in my shirt."

The lady's eyebrows rose sharply.

"I just can't do that, and I won't do that."

Claire, who prefers going
'untucked', no reference to Ru Paul

The lady's face clouded over, as if a storm were brewing more at a pace more rapid than the espresso machine.

I blurted out, "I'll just tuck the shirt under so it doesn't hang as long."

She glowered a second, then - nodded in agreement.

Oh, thank heavens!  When the [censored] left the shop, the other ladies in the shop congratulated me on my bold act of civil disobedience. They could relate to the horror of a tucked in shirt. I don't often stand up for myself, but when I do, it's 'me tuck? No, tuck you!'



Enough talk of our volunteer work at the Y. Back over to our cabin, how about dem birdies? I have been tickled with the bird activity at the new bird feeder I bought and hung on the porch of our cabin. No soon was the feeder hung, then the local birdies came zooming in to nick goodies.

Right off the bat, Chickadees (Black-capped? Carolinas?) and Tufted Titmouse flew in for food

Nice look at a Tufted Titmouse, the southern cousin of the Oak Titmouses in my California back yard

I kept my ears peeled for anything other than the near constant whistling and "Peter, Peter, Peter!" call of the Titmouse and soon I was rewarded. I heard a call that is reminiscent of someone asking and answering their own questions - an up and down sort of rhythmic song. "Where am I? Here I am! Where am I? Here I am!" I knew I was hearing a vireo, though I didn't know which one until I spotted a skulking Blue-headed Vireo. They look like they are wearing a pair of white spectacles. 

Hurrah! A pretty little Blue-headed Vireo

UP, UP, and Away!

The photos above are only so-so and I'm hoping I not only get better photos, but I'm hoping more species show up through the cabin's giant picture windows as the weeks progress. Wish me luck!

Home Sweet Temporary Home in Black Mountain, North Carolina

Home for 2 weeks, the Rondette Cabin

Home Sweet Home, for now at least, in Black Mountain North Carolina.  Ila and I arrived late yesterday afternoon, and busied ourselves moving in and taking in our surroundings.

The cabin we are in is a moss covered old beaut. It's suspended over the sloping ground by posts and it has a porch that wraps around the front half of the cabin. It has a bedroom for each of us, and between the two is a full 'Jack n' Jill' bathroom.

I was a bit shell shocked by the cabin at first, because in its photos on line it looked pristine & new, but those photos probably date back to the 1960s - that's just my guess. The curtains in room I picked were a wreck so I just pulled them down - the better to view wildlife I guess. The cabin sits on slope, across from another cabin, and it is backed by a mountain full of trees, still leafless & in winter mode. Still - it is rather enchanting to find yourself in a cabin in unfamiliar eastern woods.

Today we were ready to take in the local color. We found out we our first full day at the YMCA is a day off. Before we headed out, we met with the YMCA Conference Center's Director Owen Lovejoy. He seems quite a nice guy and we felt quite welcomed by him. He gave us our uniform blue polo shirts and an idea of what we'll be doing during our 2 weeks - 30 hrs/week - we are volunteering at the Center.

Oh yeah - why are we doing this? Ila, who like me is retired, wants to move from Sacramento. She's puzzling over possibly relocating to Asheville, NC. She thought volunteering at the Y here would give her time to look over the region. She asked if I'd come along, and what the heck, I said yes. I am interested in Eastern birds though, not in living in North Carolina. There! At last you're caught up. 

A bit of the Blue Ridge Assembly YMCA buildings

View of teeny bit of Asheville

Where was I? Right! Today Ila & I drove on into on into the 'little town of Asheville'; to see what we could see. We were told - each on our own - about Asheville from various friends who live there. Somehow, independently of each other, both of us formed the same opinion, thinking of Asheville as a small, quaint college town. We were both shocked to find Asheville is neither tiny, nor quaint and is in fact, a large city - emphasis on city.  Mind, it is a beautiful city, but we though it would be maybe ten blocks of quaint, not 34 square miles of modern urban habitat. I mean wow.

Now I've explained why we were shocked, I'll explain why we were elated; what a pretty city!

Fantastic bronze sculptures

I was so tickled with these bronze statues of swine & turkeys I must have taken a dozen photos of each.

The pigs face where the Market was 'back in the day'. I imagine the turkey tom & hen are also obediently headed for the market place.

 

The bronze statues are part of Asheville's 'Urban Trail' which you can read all about if you wish.









The statues are in a little plaza with a sky scraping obelisk, dedicated to a Civil War era  North Carolinian governor. The pigs and turkeys march along at the base of the white stone tower.

The swine & turkeys are just out of sight, at the obelisk base.

Directly across the street from the obelisk is the Art Museum

I have no idea why 'grapes' hanging by the Art Museum are basketballs

Little bronze girl drinking from horse head fountain

We also visited an area of Asheville that I think was more what we expected the entire town to look like. There we hit a pretty little knitting shop, located in one of the beautiful old homes that were revamped into quaint little retail stores. We went there so Ila could get a new project for down time at the cabin.

Nice view of the pretty houses where the yarn store is.

For myself, I got carried away and bought a couple of knitting projects that hopefully I will complete prior to the turn of the next century. Stay tuned for updates on my scarf, hat and fingerless gloves projects - don't hold your breath.

We spent a fair amount of time driving around Asheville, checking out the sights of this large southern city. Then we headed back to 'the cabin' where I hung a little bird feeder. I bought the feeder with high hopes of attracting and seeing what bird life there is around the cabin. Wish me luck on that one!

Easter Sunday in Charleston, South Carolina

Early today we drove into Charleston. After a short 'drive around & look-see' tour, we parked and walked through the Slave Market. The Market's name is derived from slaves who ran it & sold goods there, but not because slaves were sold there. I mean, Farmer's Markets don't sell Farmers, right?  Glad we straightened that out. 

View of the Slave Market in Charleston

View inside Charleston's Slave Market

It's a long walk down the center of the Slave Market - a FUN walk

The sign to the left is why I felt at home... no wait a sec, that was a sign at a butcher's located in the market.














After some light shopping at the Slave Market, we were ready for a lovely draft horse drawn cart tour of old Charleston. The cart tours were all lined up across the street from the Slave Market.

Loading up the cart for our tour - Ila on the far right

I loved the tour. Our scraggly bearded guide was a Civil War history buff with loads of opinion and interesting stories about the war, and its effect on the city of Charleston. If you took a tour with this guide as we did and remembered all the details he gave you could probably challenge and earn a BA in Civil War history at a college. However, if you have no more memory that I do, you would pick up lots of odds and ends of information, enough to boggle your mind as you slip in and out of a state of attention to what he said.

Of all the homes that predated the Civil War, this was my favorite

My favorite tidbit our guide told us of, was about a slave, whose sea faring skills were so finely honed, he was well paid to guide ships along the coast. The local whites used to say, "Tarnation if' in he don't look just like a captain' (i.e., a white captain). That gave the slave an idea. The first time he found himself guiding a ship with an all black crew, he ran the ship up to the Union army, surrendering it. That earned him a golden ticket to meet with Pres. Lincoln. The ex-slave agreed to help the north navagate the waters off Charleston, making it easier for the north to bomb the crap out of Charleston. Post-war the ex-slave bought the very house he was born in - remember, he was born a slave, so this meant he bought his old master's home. That master was dead and his wife was empoverished and 'shell-shocked'. So, the ex-slave moved his family into the house, and let his former mistress stay on to live with them all. How shocking must that have been back then? There ought to be a movie made of that - I can imagine Denzel in the lead - though I imagine no one would probably believe it.

View of a 'Gentleman's' Garden

The beautiful garden above was called a Gentleman's garden. There were also 'Lady's' gardens, but those were hidden so you couldn't see them from the street. Heavens forbid in those days if a lady were to be seen 'laboring' - quite the scandal in those days, quite enough to give anyone the vapors.

A few folk who remembered today is Easter Sunday

Another highly impressing Antebellum home

The spooky bit of the tour was looking at the staid old homes and viewing the slave quarters off in the rear. Slave quarters! I mean, there was one home where the guide told us 7 folks in a white family lived,  with slave quarters in the rear that looked like nice old fashioned cottages, & held 75 slaves. Gulp. Owning someone in the manner of a cow or spaniel. A bizarre concept, although it still happens on this strange planet of ours.

In the Civil War era Charleston was bombed like crazy, withstanding 2 major hurricanes and an earthquake and yet the old Antebellum buildings still stand. There is a downtown Charleston church that was regularly bombed during the war. In more recent times when working on the church restoration, they left the cannon balls encased in the walls alone, least the walls lose integrity & collapse. Yeah, old Charleston took a lickin' and kept on ticking.

For no good reason at all, here's a quickie look at the Horse drawn cart tour we took. Not the most exciting of videos, but it'd go well with a cup of coffee or maybe a mint julep.


Following our Charleston tour, we hit the road, driving to Black Mountain, North Carolina. There, we found the Blue Ridge Assembly YMCA, and went on to figure out the location of our cabin. We are now there, at long last. More on our Black Mountain adventures tomorrow.