Still not winter in Tennessee

I have been walking most mornings with my 80 year old neighbour, Ersie, her Mom called her.  We take turns driving and go the short 10 minutes to a Baptist church in Vonore.  They have a brand new gymnasium with an indoor walking track.  With each lap we look out over the lake and often there will be a boat with a fisherman.  Most times the mist and fog hangs over the water until we leave around 9:00am.

The drive back home takes us past a drive-thru post office, over the bridge and past the barge loading dock, onto the secondary highway past the church I attend from time to time and under trees that meet in the middle of the road.  One pasture is a favourite spot for wild turkeys to feast.  Another pasture has 4 donkeys grazing with the cattle.  The road is very windy (long i) and the speed limit is mostly 45 mph.  Then we turn onto the small road.

We drive past simple homes, single and double wides, brick homes, tobacco barns and more pastures.  Residents decorate their post boxes and lanes for the season.  It will be fun to see what comes with Christmas.

When I reach the lane with 3 mailboxes, I turn onto a yet smaller road.  It is rutted and barely gravelled with barbed wire fences on both sides holding in small herds of Black Angus cattle.  I soon make a right turn into my housesit.  Even with the fallen leaves, the house is quite secluded.  I can now see two neighbours' houses from my yard and the neighbour farther down the lane can hear if my car pulls into my driveway over the gravelled road.

The cardinal still comes to feed.  Maybe it stays all winter, I have no idea.  There are lots of blue jays and wrens and other little birds.  And I still see yellow butterflies.

The garden is going into hibernation but there are a few plants that look like crocuses and irises that seem to be awakening.  This is all very strange to me.  Why would something begin to grow now?

So we sit here, Sugar and I, blogging, relaxing, cooking and doing a bit of work around the house.  And make the odd day trip, like to Dollywood.  Can't complain, can we!