The Checker

I just had to share one of the most magic moments of being in the mountains. This morning we awoke “in the clouds”. At 4000+ feet in elevation, we often find our view of Satulah Mountain is totally immersed in the clouds. This morning, however, the clouds were on top of us! It is really rather dream-like to be driving in to town and being able only to see about 30 feet in front of you. It caused everyone to take it a little slower and be aware of another of the myriad of faces of Mother Nature. For some reason, it just seemed quieter and more serene than usual, as well. When we visited one of the churches here this past Sunday, the pastor mentioned the blessing of living in this beautiful place. This morning seemed to me a perfect example of the awesome beauty of our new home town. Amen, indeed.

One of the pleasures of living in the mountains is the abundance of wildlife – primarily for us it is the feathered variety. We enjoy a multitude of birds who visit regularly year-round, with hummingbirds being a favorite summer visitor. However this summer, we have had another visitor – of the furry variety. Though we have not personally made the acquaintance of the Flat Mountain Bear, as he/she is affectionately known, we do have an autograph of sorts. Apparently unbeknown to us, at 3:15pm on a recent weekday, our bear friend decided to take our trash container off the side deck and investigate its contents about 100 yards away. When our next door neighbor called to tell us that she had actually seen the bear, we realized our container was missing. When we found it, the top contained both teeth and claw marks from our nosy visitor. Apparently we had nothing of interest. Our neighbor said she had found the bear on her back deck and he was HUGE. She started banging pots and pans and making lots of noise so the bear ambled off back into the nearby woods. Needless to say, we have lots of respect for our wildlife friends – and welcome sharing the woods with them. (However, we are now keeping our new trash container indoors – and our souvenir lid has a place of honor in our basement!) What fun – new adventures for us city folks, for sure.