About That Plantain Salve ...

... Or as I call it, "Green Goo."

I posted about making it here, a couple of weeks ago. Click over and read about it, if you missed it.
My friend used it on her poison ivy, and it eradicated the poison ivy overnight - amazing! She's a farmer. I gave her a little bottle of the stuff, in honor of its success and to thank her for being my guinea pig. Then I took it on my vacation trip. It works well topically because it immediately relieves pain and itch -- seriously. On mosquito bites and stings, it simply makes your skin feel better so that you don't scratch it. And it doesn't become an open wound that you scratch over and over.
Then while I was at Fairhaven I accidentally touched my hand to the heating element in the oven when it was red hot -- on broil. Ouch! The skin turned white. Thankfully I remembered my Green Goo, ran upstairs and applied it on the burn about 30 seconds later. It felt better immediately -- no pain. No burn sensitivity. I kept applying it all that day faithfully. It was rather a bad burn, as you can imagine.

I took this photo the next day.  You can see that the skin never did blister, as burns do. It looks more like a birth mark. The burn area never hurt at all, which is a blessing, and the skin on it never felt like it would fall off. It was secure. Also, the burn did not hurt when I put it under warm water, so I could shower and wash dishes without discomfort. The burn spot remained like in the photo above, for about 6 days. I applied the salve each day a few times. Eventually the brown skin began to dry and itch slightly, as skin does when it's healing and separating from the layers underneath. It was healing well.

Yesterday I got impatient with the dry skin and began picking at it, but still putting on the salve to keep it moisturized. The pink area is where I picked (shame on me!), but you can see that around it is skin that has healed nicely.

I love this salve. I plan to use it on burns and rashes, and on bites as necessary. Think of making your own batch, if you can, or if you desperately want some and don't care to mess with making it, I will sell you a 1/2 cup tin for $5.00, plus whatever the postage is. I need to make a new batch because I've already sold 3 of the 4 tins I made the first time! Let's hear it for Green Goo!!

A Tour of Friends

I hardly know how to begin describing the past week. Right now, it's Saturday evening and I'm back home in Oriental. After leaving West Virginia and all that family fun, I traveled south. First I stopped to meet a good friend, a fellow blogger, Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm. (You must click over, if to see the header photo alone! What a stunner!) We'd never seen each other face-to-face before.

I've seen some beautiful places in my time: my brother's blueberry farm, the Berkshires, the Alps, Venice, and Oriental, of course. But I think perhaps Sandra lives in the most beautiful spot on earth. Her valley in Virginia swept our hearts away.

She treated us to lemonade, a fabulous lemonade made without short-cuts, of good ole lemons and sugar. Go check out her recipe that uses a blender, a hat, and a syrup.

And that short bread delicacy there was very nice. It involved butter, brown sugar, flour and vanilla and I'm not sure what else. Yummy.
We met her doggies. Look at that sweet face. She was longing for my short bread, but I held her off! Sadie is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Isn't that utterly cool!?

And then there's this fellow, Sam Spade. I fell in love with his sweet face. Oh my, how could anyone resist?

{{{Sigh}}}

Sandra's historic home and farm are for sale. I say this because it's such a treasure, and we want the right person to own it, someone whose heart will skip a beat when they walk in the front entrance and smell that Old House Smell that clearly indicates pre-1850 :) Someone whose eyes will water with delight when they gaze each day over the valley. Someone whose soul longs for peace and beauty. Sandra probably mostly wants someone who will just BUY it :)

 We met her curly horses and said hello with carrots.

I was sad to leave, but we had "miles to go before we sleep," as Mr. Frost once said. Good-bye, valley!

I wasn't sure how far I had to drive, exactly. We dashed down through rural Virginia into rural Tennessee, following rather vague directions to a place I'd never been. I was meeting a college friend I'd not seen in 29 years, Ruth.

Ruth is one of those wonderful girls with a cheerful, fun personality, stable inside herself, who hasn't really changed much in all these years. We stayed three nights at Fairhaven Ministries, a quiet place in the deep woods of eastern Tennessee. No cell service. No internet, at all. It was lovely! Julia and I arrived before Ruth, in the dark on Sunday night. We hunted for the road I thought it was on, slowing down on the winding mountain turns, peering at signs. I won't explain the near miracle that occurred in order for us to find our destination. We turned onto a narrow very-winding path, uphill, into deeper darkness. At last, twinkles of lights appears among the trees. A sign for Fairhaven appeared on the left, and Julia and I went on a hunt for any information that could tell us where to find our cottage in the total darkness. We met no people, but at last we found a map with our Ruth's name on it. We found our little home among the forest. Ruth and I stayed up late into the night talking and reminiscing, laughing and chortling, digging into our fuzzy brains, completing each other's memory gaps. I must say, I really like this idea of reconnecting with old friends!

Our cottage sleeps six people and has a loft.

Plenty of relaxing seating on the broad porch

 The main lodge:

We left the peace of Fairhaven on Wednesday morning and drove to Chattanooga to see Philip. He made pizza for lunch.

 We strolled around Chattanooga, an activity Julia never wearies of. She adores an urban life.

I include this photo of the house he rents with his old college friends, because we'll want to remember it twenty years from now.

He took us on a tour of his workplace, Southtree. It's a cool business in an old-brick building with younger-than-thirty employees. Very creative.

There's a lot to love about Chattanooga. Philip seems very happy there, and he's found a good niche for himself.

That evening we enjoyed dinner with some precious old friends. I failed to mention that Ruth was a fellow music major in college. So was this dear girl, Gretchen.

 Julia and I stayed overnight with her parents because Gretchen's house is being renovated. Her daddy was our voice teacher and chorale director, mentor, friend, fellow-conspirator-on-choir-tour, and general all-around fabulous human. When you're a musician, there is almost no greater joy than making music with your musical friends. When you do it every day, for years, without the pressure of making money but just because you love it ... well, it doesn't get much better. We had so much fun.

 We all owe him such a debt of gratitude, but he'd tell you he enjoyed every minute. And his adorable wife played the piano that evening while Gretchen and I sang together again. Oh! To go back and enjoy those days again! Well, to do it with the wisdom we now have. That would be perfect.

 The next day Julia and I had breakfast with Philip. We visited the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and rode the trolley for the first time.

 She was delighted to find a new pair of mile-high shoes on sale for $6. She's taller than me now.

Chattanooga has some wonderful downtown delights. Julia liked this quote and asked for its picture.

 The domed ceiling of the Choo-Choo hotel lobby is worth seeing also, and their ballroom-sized bathrooms.

Many quirky oddities dot the urban landscape on both sides of the river in Chattanooga. We enjoyed these brick adornments on the sidewalks.

Julia found a boat, of course.

We hurried on to North Carolina and found more friends at Ridgehaven, and stayed the night there also with our friends, Tom and Judy, but I forgot to get their photo, I'm sorry to say. By that time I was like a horse headed for the barn at dinnertime, and eager to drive the long road home. When we entered North Carolina on hwy. 64 from Tennessee, a little sign greeted us. "Manteo, 563 miles." Yes, that's how long our state is.
Home again -- what lovely words! What a perfect trip! Visiting friends old and new, staying in a series of strange beds, meeting deadlines and hunting unfamiliar places -- all these things are unpleasant to Adam, and he doesn't do these kinds of long trips. But I enjoyed it and would do it again! Many thanks to all my friends who helped make this a journey to remember.

A New Home

For those dear friends who'd like to see more of my parents' new-to-them home, here's a sneak peek.

It's an 1890's farmhouse. It needs some work, but it has a lovely rural charm already.
A friendly creaking screen door welcomes you in.

My mother's living room furniture fits nicely in this new living room. They'll buy another gas stove to go inside that mantle before winter.

The living room looks straight into the kitchen. They've put their kitchen table there. No dining room in this house -- they are doing the "down-sizing" thing that is so advisable and practical at their age.

The stairs go straight up from the front door.

They have quite  a few of these charming old windows in the house.

I love this upstairs hallway with its grey-blue paint and old worn floorboards.

A large cedar tree presides in the front yard and shades the porch.

This pump provided water in years gone by. The house used to be the local Methodist parsonage.

Those of you who know my mother will not be surprised at this:

My farmer brother quickly put in a pretty garden for them. Mother and Daddy are not up to gardening on this scale, but my other brother's family come and tend to the garden and share the produce with my parents. It works well, and it's a good spot with good soil.

Beautiful farmland, pasture land, and wooded mountains surround them on all sides.

I noticed the healthy crop of plantain she has by her front steps.

There are nice sheds out back.

Mother acquired two playful kittens with the house. She's enticing them with regular meals and will win them over fully in the end. She's been doing that with humans for decades.

Dotted across the fields of the Greenbrier valley are farmsteads just like this, some on the roads and some tucked far back against the hills. So lovely.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour!

Further Up the Mountain ...

... Is another brother's home.

 About a half-mile of gravel drive eventually leads you to their house. That's rural! It's such a lovely, high spot. I wish I'd gotten a better photo of the house; I snapped this one as we drove away. But we spent most of the day here:

 Wouldn't you?  What a relaxing, pleasant time we had! A curtain of tall trees surround the knoll where the pool sits. The water was crystal clear and beautifully warm. Up here in the mountains, even in July, you really need a heated pool. You can't expect to have 95º days to heat your pool for you.

 My adorable nephew loves to swim.

 Julia didn't plan to swim, but she changed her mind when she saw the pool, and borrowed a suit from her kind aunt.

 I loved lolling in the water and peeking through the fence at the breath-taking mountain views all around.

 My sister-in-law told me the name of this pretty vining plant, but I've forgotten (of course -- Aging Brain Syndrome). So pretty, with yellow/golden centers.

 Mother got in a swim suit and enjoyed a swim and sitting in front of the jets in the little "swim-out," a semi-circular alcove of warm water. No climbing out and dashing to a hot tub :)

 My brother -- he went down the slide the most!

 We had a delicious lunch inside, but then enjoyed our supper outside on the pool deck -- fresh corn, fish, squash, and the remains of a fabulous grape salad that we'd enjoyed at lunch. I shared the recipe in the previous post.

 And my sister-in-law is so sweet! She remembered that Julia's birthday is later this month and made a cake for her. It had a raspberry topping which was perfect for a summer cake.

 Happy birthday, Julia!

We had such a grand visit with them. I hope we can come again soon.