On the Porch
Onisha Ellis
As usual, I am blown away by how quickly days and weeks fly by. My last blog was written in early April when we returned to the North Carolina mountains for the summer.
For years we rented a duplex cabin owned by our Florida neighbor. We usually were the first renters of the season and my husband would mow a path from the car to the house for us to unload. While our home doesn’t require mowing to unload the car, mowing the grass first thing has become my husband’s ritual. This year several days of rain delayed him and the yard was sporting the shaggy look.
Aside from de-winterizing the house we began the carousel of doctor visits, round and round from one doctor to another.
Just as we were finishing the doctor rounds, our daughter arrived for a week’s visit. On her last trip to the mountains, we celebrated her birthday with a day trip to Dahlonega, Georgia. It’s claim to fame is the site of the first major US Gold Rush. People to this day go there to pan for gold. I think it might be more of a lark than real expectations.
On her birthday trip, the weather alternated between mist and rain. We enjoyed a meal at Smith House, but chose not to slog through rain to check out the rest of the town.
She was eager to visit Dahlonega again to explore the town and its quaint shops. Her dad didn’t feel up to the amount of walking that exploring would require, so we declared it a mother/daughter adventure.
As we were looking at the map app to decide on the best route for a two hour drive, we were delighted to realize that Helen, Georgia, was in the same area. We added it to our trip.
It has been years since we spent time there. Then the town was styled as a small Alpine village.The small village has grown tremendously. The original area is still there but now it has sprouted, with hotels everywhere. Unfortunately it didn’t expand public parking. We drove slowly looking for a parking place, and finally found several spaces at the Helen General Store.
I’m so glad we ended up at the general store. It had everything one could want except clothes including an impressive grocery section, a butcher case, a mini kitchen that serves breakfast and lunch sandwiches. Their selection of cake slices and muffins was enticing. We chose to share a Hummingbird cupcake and one of their enormous peanut butter cookies. The cookie was the perfect texture for dunking into the excellent self serve one dollar a cup coffee.
When we went to the front check out counter to pay for our purchases, I was fascinated with this wheel of cheese sitting on a cutting board.
I’ve run out of time to write about our time in Dahlonega. Until next time….
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I’m a general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books
My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.
Old Things R New 