Tour Diary 33 – Tues 7th Junes - North Carolina – The Deer Whisperers find the deer - more comes to light about Rest-rooms…. The battle of Annie and Paisley
I know you think I am making these things up… or I suspect you might think so, but today I had a witness to my restroom stories.
My friend Paulette and I went into the restroom of a really wonderful shop in North Carolina, which is both a fantastic food store and an amazing kitchen utensil shop.
After a delightful shared lunch we went for a ‘potty break’
(Steve loves that term and uses it for the break in his talk)
I walked in and just couldn’t stop laughing because there was a garden bench sited opposite the disabled toilet!!
It was a three-seater and I am still trying to work out its purpose. If it was to watch the sun go down after a hard day at the office.. well, fair enough but there wasn’t a window.
Paulette caught my eye and we both laughed and I said, ‘I am so glad that you are my witness to this, because this has to now be the most bizarre and when I write about it I don’t think anyone will believe me’. The Foot-stool and the Curtains have been moved on down to second and third place.
On our way home to the wonderful mini town of Fearrington North Carolina, we looked out for the wild deer which just roam all around the grounds. I said we were the Deer Hunters, but Paulette preferred the Deer Whisperers. We found a few, one of which was a pregnant female who did not run away in fright but just stood her ground watching us. Her little baby deer could be seen having its own game of football in her big tummy. There are also cows here and miniature goats both of which are black with a white stripe across the middle of their bodies…
They are all so cute. Plus turtles in the pond and a herd of sheep, but they are stay put because they are made of concrete.
I love it here as it is sooooooo quiet and immaculate and all the grounds everywhere are so exquisitely beautiful. But the best thing is the Bookshop. It is probably the best I have seen in the world. Borders might have the cup of coffee and the sofa, (although so sadly they are on the way out now), and the Strand in NYC might have 8 miles of books… but in this bookshop there is an open fire and wonderful comfy chairs by the side of it. What I particularly like is that the people who work in this bookstore write their own personal reviews of the books they have read and tuck them into the books.
McIntyre's Books is an independent bookstore just outside Chapel Hill, NC ...
www.fearrington.com/village/mcintyres.asp
They also have the most amazing list of people come to give talks there among them people like Jimmy Carter and Senators etc and the programme has about one speaker every few days. There is also a huge barn-type building which hosts great seminars and talks and weddings and the settings for these are just wonderful.
I was thinking today about why I love it here so much and I came to the conclusion that it is like a very loosely based commune. Everyone knows everyone else and they look out for each other. They have guidelines and accepted parameters to be able to live here, which are for the benefit of all.
Leisure times and pastimes are all geared to utilize every part of your brain with an enormous emphasis on books, poetry, crafts and arts for all. I love it.
We don’t have gated communities in England and I am not sure why.
My hosts have two amazing little Yorkies called Porsche and Paisley. Paisley has fallen in love with me as I have her and she has ears that are quite extraordinary. I believe that Paulette has inserted a wire in them to make them stick out like two little flags. I couldn’t think what they reminded me of until this morning I realized that it is the guys who wave their flags around to guide out the planes. So I said to Paulette this morning if we see a Jumbo Jet coming down the road we will blame Paisley. Last night she decided we couldn’t be parted and so made her way into my bedroom. As I am the only occupant at the moment, my other half being in his little box in Monroe, I let her stay in with me and of course she got up onto the bed. I hate the thought of animals on beds.. Yuk!.. but she was soooo cuddly and so much fitted into my hand that I thought ..’Just for a little while’ and then we both fell asleep. The two little dogs are so tiny but have such huge personalities. Paisley has decided that she wants to eat the beads off my favourite flip-flops so I have to hide them as they are becoming bead-less. I put them inside a bag in the corner of the room. So she took a stance just by the bag and fixed me with her eye with her ear-flags waving all sorts of morse code at me and her brain sending me the message..’Well, we both know they are in there, and you know and I know that eventually I will get to them and complete their de-beading, so why don’t you save yourself the stress and just hand them over?’
(I hate the fact that I can hear animals thoughts). I beamed back ‘Not on your Nelly’ To which she replied… ‘If I could understand English.. Colloquial English at that, I might know what my Nelly was, but all you need to know is that I can outstare you and these flip-flops Will…. Be… Mine….’
I’m wrapping them up in Bubble wrap, tying them with duck tape, sticking them inside the fridge which lives outside in the locked garage and let’s see who is the most powerful person in this little duo-dialogue now!! She has now gone to bed back with her ma and pa to consider her new strategy…. However, I am up for the challenge.
Two deer walked past the window whilst we were at dinner tonight my hosts feed them and they become quite tame and now I heard a really loud knocking at the window and I thought it might be the deer but it is huge moths trying to get in to the light.
Today I have also been watching the tiny little hummingbirds and the vibrant red cardinals and Gary said that a little while ago they had 3 baby raccoons sitting on the bird feeder! Not sure how they got up the pole and up and around the bird feeder tray but they are very resourceful.
The Turkey buzzard, which was so huge it bent the tree down almost to the ground was apparently after a baby fox which had died. That was very sad, but it was quite something to see these birds up close as I have been watching them in the sky for the past two months. I have to say that up in the sky they look exquisite but they are so ugly when you see their heads… Sorry Buzzard, but it is TRUE!!
I have a couple of more days here with dear Mary from South Carolina coming to join us for a visit and then I am back up to Monroe to pick up Steve, Anne and Karen after their weeks sojourn and we are back on the road again with Steve giving talks.
We also are going to see if we can see the famous Brown Mountain Lights.
UFO’s.. Ghosts of Native Americans… Earth anomolies?… Who knows what they are but I hope we can capture them on our camera…
You Tube
Brown Mountain Lights
I was surprised at how tired I was too, I don’t think I could have slept for 4 days like Steve but I am certainly enjoying an enforced rest and the opportunity to stay in a place for more than 2 days at a time. It is also wonderful to not have to keep packing up clothes in a suitcase, probably the worst aspect of a Road Tour.
Lots of love
Annie
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