Fern detail from a window in the old Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Highlands, NC. The new church is pretty darn impressive (as in why can't Catholics build God nice things like this?) ---
--- but the windows in the small original church are full of natural imagery from the surrounding mountains.
This particular window had been made by a monk from the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Conyers, GA, sometime in the early 1970s. I couldn't stop looking at it.
Marly and I also spent some time walking at the nature center in Highlands, where we saw many late wildflowers ---
Swamp sunflowers and asters, for example ---
plus this lovely whose name Marly told me, but I've forgotten:
We also had a brief encounter with a medium-sized black bear while we were eating a snack on a bench in the garden. We looked up and there he was, ten feet away, waiting politely for us to offer him some trail mix.
"Bear," said Marly "We have to get out of here."
So we left our snacks on the bench and walked calmly but briskly in the other direction, then had to figure out how to circle back around to the entrance without running into the bear again. This we did, with a note to ourselves to maybe eat in the car next time, not in the garden.
We then went to the thrift store in Highlands, which is not your average thrift store. I should probably stop right here and say that as 2022 wears on, this no-buy thing is starting to sound like the classic seafood diet. "I see food, and I eat it." In my case, it's more like I'm having a year when I know I'm buying things. And in this particular case, I bought ONE thing, out of any number of items that tempted me, and the one thing is an aqua-blue peruvian alpaca cardigan, and I'm wearing it right now with enjoyment and am not sorry I bought it.
I could say that Marly urged it on me --- she did, in fact --- but that's a little like saying, "The woman whom you gave to me gave me the fruit and I ate of it."
Anyway, at first I put it back on the rack, but then I knew that it was one of those things I'd still be thinking about a month later and wishing I had, so I got it. I'm thinking now that what I'm going to do for a wool dress for my birthday is an ocean teal Rowena, because that would look amazing with this cardigan and also with my new friend-made merino-blend shawl.
I'm also really not sorry I went ahead and got the boots I'd been eyeing. I'm really REALLY not sorry they arrived Saturday afternoon, in time for me to pack them.
It's pretty chilly up here, and I wore them today with my Camellia dress and the first leggings of the season --- and oh, my goodness, I love these boots. I love my royal-blue dress with these fun leggings, but the boots are everything I'd hoped they'd be: lightweight, soft, extremely comfortable to walk in and easy to wear. Absolutely what I wanted and needed in the way of footwear for the winter. I can already tell that they'll be my most-worn shoes, every day with everything, from the real onset of colder weather until sandal time comes around again.
So I guess I'm going to keep calling this a no-buy year, in the same way that I'd stick to calling my diet a diet even after eating ice cream.
Otherwise . . .
I'm staying with Marly in her mother's house, her mother having moved to assisted living. It's basically a mountain paradise.
The balcony above the door there is my bedroom balcony, which is pretty sweet. I'm sitting on another balcony on the opposite side of the house right now, off the living room, looking toward the mountains.
It would be nice to stay here all week and not go to Memphis or Texas at all, but I guess duty will call me away.
Oh, also, what I wore yesterday, for Mass and beyond:
I was still feeling pretty peaky, though somehow driving through the mountains in the late afternoon perked me up a lot. Today I'm still coughing a good bit, but the mountain air is rejuvenating. Marly has gone to visit her mother for the afternoon, and I'm just enjoying the sun and breeze on this porch while I bang out a little essay action and ponder some other writing. I guess this isn't much of a writer's retreat if you're the owner's daughter trying to take care of everything, but if you're just a random guest who's dropped in with no responsibilities, it's kind of perfect.