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Objects Of Beauty | Lovingly Curated Treasures
Objects Of Beauty | Lovingly Curated Treasures
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  • Blogs 
    • Tequila & Mezcal ~ The Healthier Spirits & Andrea's Magical Journey
    • Andrea's Healing Journey & TEPACHE' RECIPE
    • Andrea's Adventures 
      • Andrea's North Carolina Explorations May 31st 2020
      • Journey to the Land of Water; Andrea's Trek
      • Glitter in the Blue Ridge Mountains
      • South Carolina Ventures Looking Northward
    • Skyler White's Corner 
      • Skyler White; Facing Survival In Style
      • Skyler; Coping Amidst Chaos and Holly's Taste for Liquid Metal
      • Skyler; The Clueless Accountant
      • Skyler's Bracelets; International Stars
    • Caring for your Jewelry and other Tidbits 
      • Opening and Closing your Liquid Metal Earrings
    • Explore and Learn! 
      • Exploring Damascus Hunting Knives for the Horseman, Outdoorsman, Wild Forager and Knife Lover
      • Where the Bison and Buffalo Play
    • Perry Eury ~ A National Treasure
  • Come visit us!
  • Home
  • Collections 
    • All Collections
    • What's New???
    • Specials
    • All SG Liquid Metal Jewelry 
      • Skyler White's Liquid Metal Jewelry Collection
      • SG Liquid Metal Bracelets
      • SG Liquid Metal Necklaces
      • SG Liquid Metal Earrings
      • SG Liquid Metal Rings
      • SG Liquid Metal Mesh Bags
    • Turquoise Heaven
    • Andrea Record Fine Art
    • Horse Collection
    • Spirit Animal Collection
    • Yellowstone Spirit Southwestern Collection
    • Fine Knives
    • Handbags and Totes
    • Sertodo Copper
    • Andrea Record & Friends Music MP3
    • All Rapt In Maille Chain Mail Jewelry
  • Our Story 
    • Welcome!
    • Our History
    • Our Philosophy
    • Jonathan Beall
    • Sergio Gutierrez
    • Care and Cleaning for Liquid Metal Jewelry
  • Ordering & Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Blogs 
    • Tequila & Mezcal ~ The Healthier Spirits & Andrea's Magical Journey
    • Andrea's Healing Journey & TEPACHE' RECIPE
    • Andrea's Adventures 
      • Andrea's North Carolina Explorations May 31st 2020
      • Journey to the Land of Water; Andrea's Trek
      • Glitter in the Blue Ridge Mountains
      • South Carolina Ventures Looking Northward
    • Skyler White's Corner 
      • Skyler White; Facing Survival In Style
      • Skyler; Coping Amidst Chaos and Holly's Taste for Liquid Metal
      • Skyler; The Clueless Accountant
      • Skyler's Bracelets; International Stars
    • Caring for your Jewelry and other Tidbits 
      • Opening and Closing your Liquid Metal Earrings
    • Explore and Learn! 
      • Exploring Damascus Hunting Knives for the Horseman, Outdoorsman, Wild Forager and Knife Lover
      • Where the Bison and Buffalo Play
    • Perry Eury ~ A National Treasure
  • Come visit us!

Andrea's Adventures

Journey to the Land of Water; Andrea's Trek

September 17, 2022

It was a nervous trek; one where the unknown, hope and tremendous relief were my constant companions...one that continually took every bit of courage I could muster from beginning to end. 

Mortana (my horse), Nino and Tigawiss (my cats) crawled our way across the United States of America leaving 4 years of fires, smoke, evacuations and power outages behind...trading them for a land of water. Would I regret leaving the waves, the landscape that always reflected the heaven's mood, the salted air?  I thought I'd be leaving water behind, but boy did I get that one wrong!

Have you ever sweat like you worked out harder than you've ever done in your life, only by stepping out of your house?  I was shocked to experience the interior drenching that began when we hit Oklahoma City. By Little Rock Arkansas, my clothes were freshly washed from the inside out every time I got out of the truck or trailer. Did they need to be washed again, or would a hanger do the trick?   A week later  we were met by a hurricane's tail, which translates to tropical storm in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  I'd barely opened my car door when I was soaked by Dylan's 'Buckets of rain...buckets of tears...got all them buckets comin' out of my ears...'.  Flash floods turned the street I'd just parked on into a river. The heat called for sandals, but the river called for Muck Boots!

Everyone said, 'What a great adventure...you're going to have so much fun!'  In time it came, but I can't say the long haul across our great country was joyous.  The night before our departure, I watched as the lighting stricken land, ever so close to my home town Jenner blazed the entire coast.  It was closer than a half mile from that charming village with 26 years and half my life's history, and more importantly friend's homes that looked on the verge of being torched. Thankfully, the winds were blowing north-east. I felt the sense of being a horse, whose instinct is flight.  All I could think was, "Get me outta here!" Stuart came to help me wrap 'The Ranch', which my dear friend Shirley had so generously and lovingly welcomed Mortana and I to nest in for 4 years.  I'll forever be indebted to her, and will pass the sweet support that she and Stuart so often lent me to someone in need, somewhere down the road.

I awoke to ashes covering my trailer, truck, the house and ground.  Burnt leaves were everywhere...trees whose time was up and whose souls now drifted south along the coast.
My heart was overwhelmed by the emotion of leaving this place, my nervous system rattled by the proximity of the flames, which were the perfect metaphor for leaving that life behind. And yet I was excited.

The cats, Mortana and I buckled up and excitedly began our journey, only to scrape the corner of the house within 30 seconds of rolling, and bashing the side of my shiny new trailer.  When I backed up to make the turn wider, the goose-neck nose of my trailer smashed the rear window out of my truck.  Horrified is the best word I can find to express how I felt.  We rounded the rest of the house, clearing the trees which had worried me.  I said to the cats, "This is not going to stop us!"  So many things had stopped this trip from happening for an entire year, I was determined to put a stop to all obstacles that met us.

Smoke filled the truck the entire length of California.  Broken glass spilled into the truck every time we went over a bump.  The cats were in their cages, but free to wander, and I worried it would hit them. I spent that first leg of the trip locating a rear window, thank goodness to blue-tooth, and finally secured one in Flagstaff, AZ.  Our first stop was Bakersfield however, and I sure wished I'd done better research before selecting that stay-over horse campground.  It was filthy, ugly and just plain bad.  When the owner showed me the left-over manure filled stalls I asked if she had a clean one, to which she replied, "I'm too old to clean stalls."  Needless to say, it was a joy leaving that place!  

That morning as we approached the edge of California, temperatures were approaching 115.  When they hit 108, the cats began meowing because without the rear window, the air conditioner could no longer keep us cool. My sister Gina and I were on the phone and she said, "Just go! Don't stop...just Go!"  I agreed that we wouldn't stop at the border.  Five minutes after that agreement, a warning sign came on indicating, "Trailer is disconnected from Truck"  I couldn't believe it, but had no choice...I had to stop alongside the freeway, IN CALIFORNIA!  It was now 119 and I was most worried about Mortana in that hot box without air circulation, and believing that the trailer was physically disconnected. A week before we left, I discovered that the locking mechanism on the trailer was so rusty after sitting for a year in the salt air on the coast. My friend Brian wire-wheel brushed it to free the plate that swings back and forth when attaching or dis-attaching it from the truck. Still, the rod that keyed that plate into place would only go half way down and would require complete machine shop dismantling to correct.  When I went to mount the trailer to the truck hitch, I jammed it in as far as it would go. It was being held in by rust so tightly I figured it wasn't going anywhere. Now the warning hinted at my worst nightmare.  We parked along the freeway with semis hissing by, which is never fun.  I discovered that the temperature was so hot, the trailer's rubber electrical plug had turned to what looked like soft black licorice and it was literally falling out of the socket inside of the truck bed.  Fortunately, I plugged into the alternative socket in the truck's bumper, and that fixed the problem.  We sailed into Arizona, still nervous about what might happen next, and about keeping the trailer centered with our Ford F150; a small truck to be pulling such a big rig. It takes tremendous concentration keeping a rig centered in the road.  I discovered that concentration doesn't lend itself to 'fun', though wonders would still embrace me as I left that dry, smoke-filled land, literally in the dust.

Flagstaff greeted us with a monsoon, and roadwork that left very little margin of error if one wished to avoid hitting the guard rails or neighboring vehicles. The massive semis boxed us in, splashing so much water onto us I could barely see ahead, let alone behind as I nervously glanced back at the trailer with Mortana hanging on, or rather being tossed to and fro like a ship at sea.  But oh, Flagstaff is beautiful.  Red earth formations with layer upon layer of the earth's history, laid back pine trees, inviting mountains, voluminous clouds and pristine air were welcomed sensations.  We decided it was time to regroup.  My dear friend Adam was a Godsend that night on the phone. I needed to release the emotions, the terror of what I'd just been through, the feeling I was leaving a great segment of my life behind, and the worry that the trip would continue along the route we'd just come through.  Adam told me I was an incredible woman.  He said, "YOU'VE GOT THIS!" "YOU CAN DO THIS!"  He told me that the trip had begun on a very bad note, and that bad energy needed to be shifted.  He wondered if I might find a Native American to smudge me with sage to move through it.  I remembered where my sage was, but it wasn't in this trailer...it was in my other one, with all my other belongings.  I envisioned it and recalled the smell, visualizing a new reality where my animals and I are blessed, protected by the Universe and my Angel.  That night I turned the page, deciding that I Could do this!  The critters and I decided to stay an extra night in Flagstaff.  The massive charcoal and lily-white clouds continued all the next day, holding the temps back as we sat parked in a lovely ranch, called Summer Sage Stables. It has a gorgeous barn with paddocks off of each stall. We were the sole campers, though Mortana was surrounded by a handful of other horses with whom she had a little conversation.  Still, she was a bit jittery in this ranch, perhaps because she didn't have the freedom of a pasture. I always think she desires the companionship of other equine, but I felt she was perfectly happy to move on down the road. Chalk it up to chemistry I suppose. The guys who replaced the glass in the truck were awesome.  I won't forget Diamond Auto Glass! They delivered me to a sweet diner in the charming downtown Flagstaff so I could enjoy breakfast while they did their work, and picked me up when they were finished.  It had been years since I had French toast, bacon and eggs and it was the perfect comfort food! I continued to revel at what a gift it is to breathe clean air again. 

I've observed since Mortana came into my life that she loves adventure. I didn't realize what a trooper she is.  She loaded up and unloaded so sweetly the entire journey. Thank You Annika, our trainer who helped correct that important detail.

The next night we pulled into an old Thoroughbred ranch in Edgewood NM called Hacienda Caballo where Mortana had an acre or two to run in, with horses on either side to visit.  She thought she'd died and gone to heaven.  When she turned out into that pasture, she bolted and continued romping until dinner was served. The owner Joe lent me his jeep so I could leave my truck hitched to the trailer and drum up a pizza in town.  I've always loved the southwest.  This ranch was in the foothills and very quiet. The cocktail of the week was Pina-Colada, with fresh pineapple, coconut milk and Patron Silver Tequila and a splash of maple syrup.

We skipped through the Texas panhandle and shot straight to Oklahoma City.  I always thought my native ancestors had been dumped in a dust pit, and was quite surprised that everything was green.  The freeways were suddenly grass lined. The softly rolling hills lulled us, though the humidity was the first I'd experienced thus far.  We were met by a sweet gentleman who tucked Mortana into a large arena where she could run.  The only other choices were green pastures and green paddocks.  Mortana has a tendency toward Hypo-Metabolism, which is like horse diabetes. The sugars in that green grass are a no-no for her, though we've had to modify that idea since we arrived in NC.  The first thing she did in Oklahoma was lay down. I panicked, thinking the stress of the trip had made her colic, but it turned out that the wretched freeway and resulting hard ride had finally overwhelmed her and she was simply exhausted. I went to fetch her a bucket of water, but by the time I got to the other side of the arena she was already standing.  What a Relief!  Or as Billy would say, What a We WEEF!

The next day brought us to another Thoroughbred ranch near Little Rock Arkansas.  This one was a working ranch though, with a track where people ran their horses.  Oh, how I wished Mortana's saddle wasn't in the other trailer...she loves to run!  Here I learned what 'sweltering' meant.  I mean this place was seriously hot...like you were stuck in a 3 x 3 box in a POW camp!  Step out of the trailer and you're wet from head to toe. I simply had to find some cooler clothes to wear.  The cotton leggings and my Goat Rock freezing all the time gear was simply not going to work!  

Tennessee was where the real beauty of the south began to enter my bloodstream. A lovely man named Paul hosted us in an awesome ranch called 'A River Runs Through It', in the gorgeous countryside near Franklin.  The first thing that Paul did was to mow the round-pen down so that Mortana wouldn't get too much green grass that night.  He joined me for a long chat where we realized how aligned we are politically and in lifestyle.  He toured me through the very cool barn/B&B that owner Valerie had appointed in classic western styling, all the way down to a portable claw footed bathtub which Paul rolled to the edge of the barn!  He slide open the massive doors, hitched the hose up to an on-demand water heater and left me to the silhouette of distant trees and fireflies, the site of which I hadn't seen since I was a child in Massachusetts.  This was Andrea HEAVEN!  I was enchanted by the whole scene and felt that Paul would make a great land partner, somewhere down the line.  We rested well before the last leg of our journey into North Carolina.

I've never been one who follows GPS unless I don't have a map.  That contraption always feels like someone behind it is into practical jokes, sending anyone stupid enough to rely on it into crazy, round about routes that end up taking three times longer to arrive. The route it decided upon from southern Tennessee was no exception, though I wasn't complaining because it took me not along I40 into Asheville, but up through Tennessee's Smokey Mountains which I was quite curious about.  Did they meet up to the Blue Ridge Mountains?  I wasn't sure.  It seemed we took at least 20 turns onto little roads that went through tiny mountain towns, all of which were called highways and had numbers.  Left 5 miles, right 2 miles, 10 miles down and left again, 15 miles to the right and 2 miles to the right...and on and on.  I felt like I was entering the mountains that had been calling me for the last year through the side door, or armpit, though it wasn't smelly.  My only concern was that this had been such a long trip for Mortana.  Every turn and bump is felt by a horse traveling in the back of a trailer. It's a major workout for horses steadying themselves for these trips we take them on.  She is a real trooper though...and adjusted beautifully to every change I dragged her through.  This lovely GPS route ended up bringing us from southern Tennessee into Leatherwood Mountains from the north, which meant down an enchanting gravel road I'd taken when I visited 2 months earlier.  4.9 miles from our destination, a tree had come down into the road. It was a big one and although I knew I could make it with my truck, I wasn't sure if my trailer would clear it.  The opposite side was a very soggy drop off into a creek!  I laughed!  Of course there was no cell signal.  I thought, 'After what we've been through, this tree is CERTAINLY not going to stop us.  I got out and accessed the situation and decided to inch my way up to it.  We cleared it by about 2 inches and landed in Leatherwood just before dark.  

There is a man here named Wayne who is about the kindest, salt of the earth character you could possibly meet.  Wayne not only took the time to set us up in a prime spot on the creek, one that is higher than most of the others (important when the flash floods risk floating everything you own down the road), but he's been here to make me feel comfortable and welcomed.  He brought about 30 tractor loads of dirt to fill Mortana's shelter, which the last flood had stolen and left with a lake in the middle.  He raised my small trailer off it's axle, and is setting me up with help I need for the stress the load has imposed on it.  He's funny and kind and a very nice friend.

It's taken me a month to begin this blog, though I've started it at least 25 times in my head.  So many details are missed here, but there's live music a-callin and I've really got to run!
More as the story unfolds in the green green Blue Ridge Mountains!

To see exactly where we've landed, go to LeatherwoodMountains.com

And now to find a home!
Andrea

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A Solstice to Dream By: My Favorite Day of the Year

December 21, 2020

For many years, I've thought so fondly of the Winter's Solstice, that I deemed it 'My favorite day of the year'.

It means 'hope' to me, because although December 21st, in the USA anyway, is the longest day of the year, it's the darkest.

And that means that come midnight, the light will grow, bringing us longer and longer days...which gives me such joy!  Just the thought of that coming light, and how it feels having the sun's rays seeping back into the earth around us, filling the shadows with light beings, turning grays into blues, and browns into reds and oranges.  And then there's the heat; I feel so at peace when I'm not struggling to stay warm.
 
As you may or may not have heard, this 2020 Solstice will bring the near alignment of our two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn.  Jupiter will float in front of the ringed planet, and form what either looks like a super star, or a snowman, depending on who you ask. One lady said, “It’s a very elegant phenomenon.", which of course I just loved!  laughing...  For all of us observing celestial bodies, interpreting their whirling dances, and chance alignments, which from our teensy perspective create eclipses and upon which we place such value, is simply beautiful. From the scientific to the psychic, historically speaking or spiritually believing, these events stir our human condition...and that in itself is elegant! 

And so it is with this 'Special Solstice'.  It only seems right that we should pray, visualize, intend, chant and create ritual around such beauty. This particular alignment, the first of it's kind in 800 years simply must exude a magical influence that will magnify any dreams we cast into play!

New Dreams - New Beginnings

I'm already aligning my intention with this great celestial celebration.  It's time for new dreams, new beginnings...and as you know, there's no time like the present to see, feel, smell and create them!

Still working on my construction plans for the house...

    
"My new home, high on a mountain overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains is coming into being. The soil is awaiting the seeds I'll plant, the cats are sunning themselves in the upper barn as they look down upon a very happy horse (Mortana). A rich bone soup is brewing, an experimental pineapple probiotic is growing in a large glass jar, fruits and berries fill gorgeous bowls on our large country table. Flowers abound from every window, with Daisies, Blue Bells, Roses, every kind of Lobelia, and an abundance of Borage and Poppies! Fig trees, Pomegranate, Persimmon, Pink Apple, Meyer Lemon, Kumquat and Nectarine flourish, and the scent of Orange Blossom and Jasmine wafts through the windows and French doorways.  For some reason flies don't come into this house!  laughing...  A yummy man is gentling Mortana's new companion horse/s.  Soon they'll be romping together, racing around the property, tails swishing, and watching over our land from the top of the hill!

The kind, sweet, smart and hysterically funny man's flannel lined jacket is hanging in the mudroom.  Our boots are leaning into one another.  He's just finished plans for Mom's cabin and is finishing his mysterious book. Mom is walking the dogs to our mailbox down the Cypress lined, meandering lane.  I can see them happily exploring the flowers along the way. Her cabin is surrounded by Dogwood trees, and her boyfriend is tinkering with the tractor, preparing to sow the pasture.


Melanie is in her conservatory up through the forest. We've just finished her tiny floating house.
At it's center is a beautiful meditation parlor, filled with a labyrinth of crystals and light. Her path comes into the garden where she's working alongside the chickens, sowing greens and building climbing tomato string walls. She and Mom will make Goat Cheese this weekend!


Tomorrow, friends will arrive with their horses. The barn is ready with fresh shavings, and turns out to the 5 acre pasture on the backside.  A Maple, White Pine, Fraser, Oak and Balsam Fir forest with beautifully flowing trails, stone walls and creeks surround the property and butt up to National forests with thousands of miles of trails and wilderness. 

A large campfire is laid for the evening's entertainment, with cozy wicker armchairs, carved logs and swings surrounding it. Colorful Alpaca blankets are nestled in a trunk in case of a cool breeze.



The covered entertainment area is for rainy nights and hot days. 


The bar is equipped with every copper contraption known to the Mixologist's world. (Hint...click to see what's inside!)

I'm warming up my voice to sing.. and of course I've been preparing Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Meringue pies, Oxtail soup, pizza dough for the wood stoked brick oven, an array of vegetables to roast, and have planned the most beautiful salad you've ever seen.  Italian tiles create rich backdrops, both in the kitchen and in the outdoor dining area.  I hear there's going to be banjo, mandolin and guitarist coming, and some voices that'll invite every bird for miles to join in!  The spirits of the Sun and Moon, the Worms and Hawk, the Coyote, Wolf, Cougar and Bear are combining to collectively build this dream now and in the coming year!  Obviously, we'll go down in history for this collaboration!

A Special Alignment

This Monday, the 21st of December, 2020, a unique Solstice alignment will be visible right around, or just after sunset, between 7 and 8 PM, on the Southwestern sky low on the horizon. 

I've been watching these beautiful beasts of late.  They're quite enchanting to observe in foreplay! There are video broadcasts all over the world if you wish to tune in that way. Say there's cloud cover or something blocking your view?


Jupiter (brightest), Saturn (to the left), and the Milky Way over the Saskatchewan River - Image by Alan Dyer

Saturnalia was a pagan festival celebrated on the December Solstice, and was meant to be reminiscent of the Golden Age; a time where there was peace on Earth and Saturn was our Sun. The December Solstice was chosen for this day as it was said to signify a “return to the light.” You can read more on the festival of Saturnalia and why Saturn was considered the Sun during the Golden Age here. 
Whatever you do, I see you all laughing, probably because you're staying away from the news!
Sending you my Love, and dreams that you'll dream big, beginning now.
May your heart's desire become realized this Solstice!

Andrea

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Glitter in the Blue Ridge Mountains

December 14, 2020

As I walked along the creek, with horse pastures flagging my other side, frost, so thick it looked like snow blanketed the world. Tall, bladed grasses, moss tufts, the frozen mud road with hay cart and hoof prints, pebbles, river rocks and boulders, trunks of Walnut, Poplar, Maple, and White Pine, the short needles of Hemlock, and longer hairs of Fraser Fir were en-robed with a fine-glittered frosting.

Snowy Stage Leatherwood Mountains

Finding Glitter in the Land

Hoarfrost In the Blue Ridge Mountains Leatherwood Mountains
Glitter in the Land
When I was a little girl, it wasn't so much the windows of the advent calendars that tickled me, it was that fine glitter. Thankfully the horrors of adulthood and getting here have failed to kill that joy. Along the creek-side though, inside the frost's glitter and infiltrating all this land is mica, another fine, silver-sparkling glitter.  Can you imagine dual sparkles everywhere? They're literally glittering inside glitter! I do believe sometimes I've died and gone to heaven.

So many people here dread the Winter, but it's as magical as the other two seasons I've experienced in these Blue Ridge Mountains...and I know I've only seen and felt the tip of the glitter.  I had a tequila cocktail the other day called a Sparkling Pony, which had tequila, cranberry juice, lime and edible glitter. How could I resist, being a lover of horses, tequila and glitter!

I'm also intrigued to explore the sliver of the Blue Ridge that Tennessee claims, which incorporates the Smoky Mountains, the Chilhowee Mountains, and the Snowbird Mountains. The average elevation of the Blue Ridge area is 5,000 feet above sea level; all a part of the Appalachian Range for those of you who don't know.  I continue to meet people I resonate with who hail from Tennessee, though I can't imagine leaving my new friends here in North Carolina.

Learning About Appalachia



I watched every DVD I could get my hands on from the library about Appalachian history; the people, wars, music, etc..  It's given me a wonderful perspective on the attitudes of my friends here, many, as well as my own whose Scot-Irish ancestors fled persecution and repression in Europe in the early 18th Century.  These peoples fought to retain their newly found freedoms in these remarkable mountains, and the homes they'd forged through hard sweat and tears.  Moonshine wasn't just a way to lubricate their pain, it was quite the lucrative business for many of them.  Prior to the American Revolution, when the British taxed them, they complied. When the British became greedy and imposed higher taxes, the mountain people stood up to their soldiers.  With a vast understanding of the nooks and crannies, the hollers, ridges and caves, the mountain people were at the advantage and either drove the British out, or massacred these invaders. When Prohibition came along, they began souping up their cars to out-run the police, hence the birth of Stock Car Racing, which eventually became NASCAR.  The first of these raceways is now defunct, but only a few miles east of where I'm living.  I've come to realize that these attitudes live inside me, and they're raging most acutely with the repression our own government is currently imposing upon us. I believe it's a cellular memory bucking the repression, and I'd imagine it has a lot to do with my draw to horse-gentling, as opposed to the aggressive tactics historically employed by horsemen to get a horse under saddle. 

As with all my monologues, I learn as I write.  How do you like this! "I looked into the origin of "souped up", and it turns out that the origin of the term has nothing to do with the automobile and largely predates hot-rod culture, with it first popping up in the dictionary back in 1911 in reference to a "narcotic injected into horses to make them run faster." In that sense, "soup" was slang for the narcotic involved; you gave the horse "soup," and thus it was said to be "souped up." Of course, its slang usage probably was spinning around the American lexicon before it was recorded by Webster." (From an article in Auto-Trader "The Origin of the Term “Souped Up” Isn’t What You Think" 2017.).

Breakfast Stout
Along the subject of cocktails, or rather beer in this case, I found an amazing stout the other day that is crazy delicious.  It's called Breakfast Stout, and has double chocolate, coffee and oatmeal.  So yummy!

Mortana Morning

Do I digress? Welcome to a morning with Andrea, as I watch Mortana rolling after her breakfast, as birds chirp above me.  BTW, I finally saw my first Red Cardinal the other day!  What a site he was to behold!

Happy December my Friends!

Andrea

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Andrea's North Carolina Explorations

September 30, 2020

Hello my friends!

I'm sitting in a very different environment for me...in the woods high in the mountains with millions of birds singing and carrying on, rather than hovering over my ocean bluff.  That's right, I'm in NC!  Staying with my sweet friend Linda in the upstairs suite of her gorgeous log style home here:: LeatherwoodMountains.com 

I'm seriously thinking this could be the spot, though I'm generally not keen on manicured, homeowner association properties. It's lovely driving up paved roads instead of pot-holed roads for a change, and the people are so nice!  Trails into the Appalachians abound, creeks running for miles along meadows with forested backdrops.  

I checked out the campsites within this horse community yesterday and quite loved the one on the far side of the creek, or is it a river?  It's more remote and quiet, but a flash flood came through for the first time in 40 something years last year, taking out the corral fencing and a fair amount of topsoil with it.  But still, what are the chances???  

I'm now an official NC resident, and will fly back to CA with plates, tags and my NC license!  Of course I carry some degree of trepidation, having lived the bulk of my life in the beautiful Golden State.  I've spent almost half of it in Goat Rock State Park!  

Change is good, adventure is good, and right now I'm enjoying each moment. Despite the unrest and fear plaguing our country, I sit with hoards of birds twittering about and rainstorms sweeping through in a verdant reality wondering the names of the trees, birds, and flora. There are five sweet dogs, one a Havanese puppy, Katie Boo who entertains us around the clock.  I also began catching up with the last season of Outlander, which as some of you may know is responsible for steering me to this region. 

The people I've encountered are extremely sweet.  The shops lack sophistication and the food is often saturated with fats which I'm not used to. But the Whole Foods in Charlotte had most of what I eat at home, though I believe that part of the reason for traveling is to break from your routine, right?  We've had a lot of fun eating out...had fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese and 'Pig Candy' for the first time in my life that was quite the sensation.  (Ask me for the recipe...I snagged it from the restaurant owner!) We ooohed and ahhed and I took 3 bites instead of the more graceful one of my friend's dish.  I wondered if she wondered when I was going to stop! I had a beautifully cooked, crispy topped salmon on a bed of greens with walnut encrusted Goat cheese balls that was very nice. Had I not an allergy to mango, I bet the dressing that was intended would have been great. 

The day before yesterday, we trekked up to Blowing Rock and ate at a nice restaurant called Bistro Roca. Hamburger was delish, the fries hyper-saturated in fat, but had an interesting twisted shape.  What was stellar there were the warm figs with Manchego, drizzled with honey and sweet balsamic.  Super yummy!

I'll enjoy a jacuzzi bath this morning, wash and style my hair, and drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway where I plan to walk off more fat than I've ever carried!  My body is so disgusting right now.  It's ok for others to be fat, but I just don't feel like me anymore and it's tiring carrying the added Covid-bulk around.   
Tomorrow,  we'll go see Linda's Gypsy Vanners featured in my last 2 newsletters.  She's buying one of those beauties named Sugar but won't bring her home until she's foaled in the next few weeks.  She plans to continue building her new horse art project, and I'll be assisting her with some website basics. 

Well, the bath is calling...some siren song...

Writing now, since returning to California:
Just before leaving, I toured several houses that were for sale with the fabulous Trevor, of LeatherwoodMountains.com.  Needless to say, one of those is haunting me something terrible!  It has an amazing stone and wood house, a stairway off the screened back porch leading to an observatory platform overlooking its own tiered waterfall and looking down the canyon.  This spot is perfection, and likely a quarter or less what I'd have to pay for it in CA.  Further down the drive is a very good-sized pasture, nice and sunny that could double as a garden, with a lovely horse shelter and 2.5 car garage with tack and hay rooms.  Beyond the pasture is a trail into the woods.  I can hike or ride from this property to the many trails in this 5000 acre gated community!  WANT!!!

Love you all Honey Bunnies!
Andrea 

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