On the Porch
Onisha Ellis
We are almost a week into a new year. December is a pleasant blur. We celebrated the holidays in the North Carolina mountains. Our daughter drove up from warm and sunny Florida just in time to experience very unusual cold temperature.
Shortly after she arrived, the temperatures sank as far as 0 degrees Fahrenheit or -17 degrees celsius. She enjoyed the frigid weather, I did too in between praying that our water pipes would not freeze.
In recent years we have adopted a traditional Christmas afternoon drive.This year it was too cold and the roads were still icy so we delayed our drive for a day. We stayed cozy in our PJs, drank homemade eggnog and watched Christmas movies.
We live close to several waterfalls and people on Facebook were sharing pictures of them being frozen. This is not an every year occurrence and I was excited on the 26th to to see them.
We were unable to visit our favorite Dry Falls. The parking lot was full and traffic was backed up into the highway. Even so, it was a fun and memorable day. All too soon, the day arrived for our daughter to return to Florida.
She left at 7:30 am and at 9:00 am were on our way to celebrate Christmas with cousins near Boone, NC. We had reserved an adorable small cottage not far from our cousins house. To our amazement and delight, the modern furnishings were accented with an assortment of antiques. I had never seen a fan like this one.
There was also an assortment of vintage Tonka trucks and a lot of pewter pieces.
2023 arrived with no fanfare or loud fireworks and after a pleasant but tiring day with my cousins, we slept peacefully in the cozy cottage. A nice way to enter a new year. We only spent two nights at the cottage but I hope we can return and stay longer.
On January 3rd we had an unexpected visitor. My husband opened the front door and the visitor flew past my husband and made itself at home.
Not going. No way no how.
It had been a long day and we were tired but my husband tried to be gentle with our visitor. It gave us quite a bit of exercise trying to convince it to depart. After almost an hour, it finally decided to fly through the open door to the garage. We shut it quickly and decided to help it make its way out of the garage the next day. We didn’t see the little bird after that. We think it flew out when we raised the garage door.
Severe thunder storms were predicted for overnight and man, they were not wrong.. Booms, crashing and vivid lightning seemed to go on and on. Thunder in the mountains creates a serous echo! The next morning I checked my new rain gauge.
Soon, we will close up our mountain house to spend winter and part of spring in Florida with our daughter. We are truly blessed to be able to enjoy both the cool temperatures of the mountains and the sunshine and color of a Florida winter. We will catch up with precious friends, worship at our home church and maybe even throw in a trip to Disney World. A big plus…fast internet! Our mountain internet is awful and drives me to distraction
2023 is here and I will rejoice and be glad. In the blink of the eye, 2024 will be here.
Old Things R New 
It all sounds so lovely, apart from the cold.
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Thanks for stopping by Danny. I think I may be ready for some Florida sunshine.
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I saw the beauty in my mind’s eye, but blocked the feeling of so much cold. We are looking forward to seeing you in Florida.
Love Bill and DiVoran
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Looking forward to seeing you both as well.
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