Scenes from a NC Mountain House

Lordy-mercy, are ya’ll about to die from this heat wave we’ve got going on?  We are sweltering and if this isn’t dog days of summer, I don’t know what is.

No yardsales for me this weekend, but don’t worry, we’ll still have the party!

How’s your mamernem? 🙂  Mine’s just fine, thank you. 🙂  Did you interpret that one?

We spent the last 4 days up in Murphy, NC, where my parents have a 2nd home.  I’ve shared this with you before here and here, but it’s always worth talking about again.   If you’ve been with me on this journey before, you will know that we eat ourselves silly when we’re all together up in the mountains.  All those fresh veggies and just ripe blueberries are such a treat.  My sweet mama, at 82, still cooks up a storm and we all benefit from her cooking prowess, as you will see.

I am one blessed woman to have grown up with the parents I have.  They truly are one of a kind, precious parents and I’m so glad we still have them.  What a blessing they are to us! I took lots of pics this time, so I hope you don’t mind.  It was fun documenting our few days and playing around with my camera. I’ve got so many pics, I’ll have to do another post.  As much as I love decorating and DIY projects, I’m really glad that when I started this blog, I decided to add family, recipes, travel, etc. to the mix, because all of that is a big part of who I am too.

My parents have had this house for about 25 years and it’s been a fun retreat for our family.  We literally eat, sleep and relax on the porch when we’re here, with an occasional walk for good measure.  This year, the heat was the worst we can all remember and the house is not air conditioned, so it was a bit brutal.  But, it was fun once again to be together.

It’s certainly not a fancy place, but it’s homey and well loved. And I had fun playing camera bug, shooting lots of pretty scenery, so thank you for indulging me. 🙂 Stairs going across the creek go up to the house. And this pretty creek runs through the frontyard.  I love the rocks in this creek.  The mountain laurel have already bloomed or this might be a wild rhododendrun, not sure. They have both.  The veggies are plentiful.  My parents always grow an abundance of tomatoes and we bring home plenty.  This year it was Better Boys and big fat Romas. There will be salsa in our immediate future.
Sitting on the porch is a favorite past-time for my dad.  This swing is his favorite spot. I love the wild ferns growing on their bank behind the house. Pretty delicate lacy ferns.

Back down the stairs to the lower part of their property.  Crossing the tinkling creek again.  These huge blueberry bushes sit out in the sun in the open field. Soaking up the sun and rain and yielding plenty of blueberries this time of year.  We picked about 2 gallons to bring home, so I will be making use of that blueberry cookbook real soon. Dad had to add fencing around his garden a few years ago when the deer population got so huge.  They were eating him out of his garden, so that wouldn’t do.  This fence seems to do the trick. Dad and mom have raised a garden for as long as I can remember.  My sister and I took it for granted for so long, but we sure do enjoy the bounty.  And bounty it is.  It’s about 1/2 an acre here in NC and they have another smaller garden back home in Georgia too.  How they do it, I don’t know! The corn is just coming in and they will be putting up corn in August.  Back from picking some ears of corn for our supper. And while we’re at it, take a look at the crop of Roma tomatoes. They are beautiful and large, clustered on the vines.  Corn looking up to the blue sky. The silk says it’s ready to pick. My dad’s tractor equipment sitting in the field. And the tractor that makes that garden possible. At 83, my dad still loves his garden and I truly believe it keeps him and my mom young and in shape.  They are such hard workers, I could not keep up with them if I tried. Our 4 ears of Silver King corn ready for cooking. Along with fried okra.

Just for fun, I did a little 30 sec. video with my mama cooking okra, so you can get a good look at it.  For some reason, it is turned sideways, but you can still see what’s going on.  We were talking about corn on the cob when I turned on the camera and then you can see the fried okra. WE love fried okra!

She found a new recipe in Southern Living (June, I think) and tried it out.  She left out a couple of ingredients, but it was simple:  Cut up the okra and pour buttermilk over it.  Put out some cornmeal (with a little salt)  in a bowl and roll the okra in the cornmeal and fry it up in canola oil.  That’s it!  It was simple and delish and the buttermilk seemed to make it crispier.

Cooking in the Mountains from Rhoda on Vimeo.

My mother could have opened a restaurant.  Everyone loves her cooking!

Big fat Better Boy tomatoes ready for slicing. Here’s what mom does with the extras. Here’s our supper for the evening!  I know, you’re probably getting hungry about now. That’s what happens to us when we visit the mountains.  Eat, eat, eat.  All the time.  My gosh, how can you pass up food like this:  corn on the cobb, black eyed peas, fried okra, tomatoes, squash, and a little bit of meat.

This was my plate.   And no, I don’t eat like this all the time, just when I visit my mama and daddy.  Just can’t help myself, when the food is this good, you have to eat it.  We even had room for blueberry pie after all that.  Are you dying yet?  🙂

My mom has this pic hanging in the hallway.  Circa somewhere around 1988, my sister (back when she was still a brunette), niece (who’s about to turn 28 in Aug.), and me.  Back when big-hair ruled.  I didn’t have any problem pulling that one off.  If it comes back again, I’ll be in business. And since this is a yardsale party, I’ll share this little treasure from my family.  My dad’s dad, my grandpa, added the cowhide seat to this chair and my dad has 2 of them.  He said the squirrels got to this one, but he has another one just like it back at their Georgia house.  And he said I could have them both!  Now, where to put them? That’s the question.  I told him how popular this color is again right now and he just laughed.  They were probably painted this color back in the 1920’s, that’s how old they are.  The original cane seat wore out and his daddy added on the cowhide in the 30’s.  Now where in the world will I put 2 chairs like this??

Added to Sweet Shot Tuesdays with Darcy.

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The Berry Bible giveaway winner is lucky #5 Gabi with and Eye.  Congrats, Gabi, I’ll send you an email on your win.

Attn:  Angela Corts in Alabama!  I got your email, but every time I reply, I get a failure notice, so I can’t get back to you.  If you see this, please leave another email address so that I can contact you.

Now it’s YOUR turn!  What have YOU found lately? Add your link to the Linky list and remember our guidelines for the party:

1. Add your permalink to the link list, which is the actual post that you did for this party, NOT your general blog url. To get the actual post, after you publish the post, just click on the title and THAT will be your party post url.  PLEASE try to get the correct url in the first time! 🙂
2. Please add my button to your post or blog OR at least link back to this post in your post. That’s all I ask. It’s common courtesy to link back to the person having the party, so that all of your readers can find it too.
3. Please do NOT link to an Etsy shop or something similar (even if you think it’s a fabulous deal) or I will delete the link. This party is for sharing thrifty finds from yardsales, thriftstores, or something along those lines. If I see that your post is not really on track with this theme AND you don’t link back, I’ll delete your link. Sorry, but I’d like to keep the party consistent! IF YOU SEE THAT YOUR LINK HAS BEEN DELETED, IT IS PROBABLY BECAUSE IT IS NOT IN LINE WITH THIS PARTY THEME.