Greetings from Fern & Monroe
From up on the Blue Ridge Parkway in October at Devil's Courthouse
Every year we say we are going up to Craggy
Gardens on the Parkway in June when the rhododendron's are in bloom.
THIS year we actually did it and it was glorious. Picture on left
is with Monroe's sister Betsy, re-enacting a photo we took 15 years ago!
We hosted Yiping Huang his first week in the Swannanoa Valley.
He is the new Mandarin teacher at Owen HS this year. And can he cook! He cooked the
evening meal every night he was here. Delicious. And he enjoyed meeting our friend Gay Fox, 93
who grew up in China and speaks fluent Mandarin.
Our family got involved in the NC NAACP's Moral Monday protests in Raleigh
and in Asheville during the summer. Monroe was arrested along with over 900 others in an
act of non-violent civil disobedience. He says:
"I was arrested with a large number of faith leaders from around
the state. As we sat with our hands handcuffed behind us, the minister next to me
nodded toward a police officer and said, "I baptized his son."
A short time later, that officer came over, told the minister his wife was going to have
their second child in four months, and asked him if he would do the baptism again.
Humanized the whole afternoon."
There were more bears visiting us this year
than ever before, in the yard, on the deck, in the compost pit, along the road.
Thus, it felt appropos that our new shower curtain honor our wild neighbors. Some of our
other wild friends showed their approval(or were they taking a shower?)
including, Carol from AZ, Bharat & Fatima from Zimbabwe.
And bears weren't the only critters hanging around the yard!
(bottom left is a Pileated Woodpecker,
about a foot long;
and bottom right, a southern flying squirrel..really cute
We had a beautiful autumn up here on Wallace Mountain,
and we share it
with you as we leave you and wish you a "wild and precious" 2014!
Thank you for being part of our lives.
And with this flashmob-tribute from the Soweto Gospel Choir in a Woolworths
in South Africa, we also remember and thank several justice-worker greats who died this
year and meant much to us in Lesotho and
in our lives here
-- Joe Haun, Phyllis Naidoo, Fred Simms, and Nelson Mandela:
Madiba Tribute
(With thanks for sending it to Phillip Miloane,
one of Fern's former students in H'ntsi)
Like these at Craggy Gardens, their roots go far and go deep,
stimulating growth all around them.
We hosted Yiping Huang his first week in the Swannanoa Valley. He is the new Mandarin teacher at Owen HS this year. And can he cook! He cooked the evening meal every night he was here. Delicious. And he enjoyed meeting our friend Gay Fox, 93 who grew up in China and speaks fluent Mandarin.
Our family got involved in the NC NAACP's Moral Monday protests in Raleigh and in Asheville during the summer. Monroe was arrested along with over 900 others in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. He says: "I was arrested with a large number of faith leaders from around the state. As we sat with our hands handcuffed behind us, the minister next to me nodded toward a police officer and said, "I baptized his son." A short time later, that officer came over, told the minister his wife was going to have their second child in four months, and asked him if he would do the baptism again. Humanized the whole afternoon."
There were more bears visiting us this year than ever before, in the yard, on the deck, in the compost pit, along the road. Thus, it felt appropos that our new shower curtain honor our wild neighbors. Some of our other wild friends showed their approval(or were they taking a shower?) including, Carol from AZ, Bharat & Fatima from Zimbabwe.
And bears weren't the only critters hanging around the yard!
(bottom left is a Pileated Woodpecker,
about a foot long;
and bottom right, a southern flying squirrel..really cute
We had a beautiful autumn up here on Wallace Mountain,
and we share it
with you as we leave you and wish you a "wild and precious" 2014!
Thank you for being part of our lives.
(With thanks for sending it to Phillip Miloane,
one of Fern's former students in H'ntsi)
Like these at Craggy Gardens, their roots go far and go deep,
stimulating growth all around them.