Update: May - October 2026

May-- 34th Anniversary Weekend at Pisgah Inn, on Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville:

Every room has a balcony.  This was our view.

Another view from our balcony

Knee Surgery Recovery:

A lot of my time was taken up with PT three times a week, as I recovered from total knee replacement.  This is what incision looked like in July.  It took me six months of intensive therapy to hit the goal range of motion in early August. Incision is now completely healed, and I am now continuing to do exercises at home to build up my stamina.

Deer hits car:

In August, we went to a great dark sky location at Mayland Community College Dark Sky Park in nearby Burnsville, NC. They have a wonderful facility at the top of a mountain.  The entire roof rolls back, and you can look through telescopes to see the night sky. More info if you are interested: 

 https://www.mayland.edu/foundation/foundation-projects/earth-to-sky-park/

On the way home at about 11 pm, a deer ran into the side of our car.  Alan actually saw the deer head through his window right before it hit.  Alan was very calm about it.  All he said when we heard the huge thud was, "Well, that's not good.  We just hit a deer." We were unhurt, and the car was drivable after Alan tore off a piece of trim that was dangling.  The deer didn't fare so well.  Alan drug it off the road, so no one else would hit it.

We had recently changed to Erie Insurance, and we were extremely happy with how the claim was handled.  I loved dealing with a local insurance agent.  I highly recommend Erie if you are thinking of changing, also.

Van trips:

Watauga Dam Campground near Elizabethton, TN: We did a short shake-down trip to see how Stormi would deal with being in a halter and on a leash as we drove, as well as generally how she would do in the confined space of the van.  We had some minor issues related to keeping her in the halter, but for the most part, the trip was a success, and we were ready to take her on a longer trip.

She loves looking out all the windows in the van.

Alan came up with an ingenious way to deal with her litter box.
He noticed that there was a cat-sized opening next to the
drawers in the bathroom.  Through that opening she could access
 a storage area that you get to by opening the back doors. 
 So he set it all up, put a row of treats from the opening in the bathroom
to the litter box, and she was in business.  No issues at all.

View from back with doors open
The wooden floor is in the bathroom.

You open the back door to empty the litter bos.

DeSoto State Park, near Mentone, Alabama:

At the beginning of October, we spent a week at DeSoto State Park, which is south of Chattanooga on the top of Lookout Mountain.  Alan's sisters and their spouses joined us for the weekend, so we could celebrate Ed's birthday together. (They stayed in cabins.)  We had a lot of fun with them, making s'mores around a campfire at our site, going out to dinner, and celebrating Ed's birthday with German chocolate cupcakes that Susie made.  (Sorry that I didn't take any people pictures.)

Stormi loved sunning herself on the dashboard.
The only problem is that her route to the dashboard
often went over the driver's side armrest, where there
is a button to lock all the doors.  She hit it repeatedly,
which could have been bad.  But I had been warned
about it on a "Travatos with Cats" Facebook group, 
so one of us always had the keys when we both left the van.

Really nice site:  #83

She liked Alan's Kindle.

Flowers and Yard:

The yard is winding down to just a few things blooming now.  The sneezeweed and zinnias were beautiful all summer.

At home activities:

We continue to do our normal fun things with our friends:  Game night once a month, movie night every other week, pit sits around the propane and regular fire pits, going to listen to jazz, attending garden club meetings, seeing movies at the ETSU Bud Frank Theater.  We still love living in Johnson City and having a space for people to stay in our home if they come to visit us.  Next weekend, our dear friend John will be here visiting from Knoxville.  You are welcome, also.

Passing of Wendell Berry:  One of my favorite authors died recently.  I love this poem, and often use its wisdom to escape the overwhelming problems of this world.

The Peace of Wild Things

By Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

—from The Peace of Wild Things and Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)

January - May, 2026 Update

 I haven't done a blog all this year, so I will do an update on what we have been up to:

We have really missed our sweet kitty Shelby, so in January, we found a delightful, young rescue cat and adopted her.  Her name is Stormi.  The rescue people named her Stormi because she was found all bedraggled-looking in the middle of a storm. She is lively to say the least, always wanting to play.  She has very interesting-looking markings. Like our former cat, she loves being in the sun room, watching the birds and squirrels.

She has particularly bonded with Alan because I had my right knee replaced on March 18, and I had to spend a long time being somewhat isolated from her.  I went to a surgeon in Knoxville because he does the robotic-assisted surgery, and I knew someone who was happy with the results done by that surgeon.  Making that decision put a lot more stress on Alan because he had to drive me back and forth to West Knoxville (about 3 hours away) for all the pre- and post appointments, as well as the surgery.  It was same-day surgery, so I was discharged to go home late in the day.  

I was warned that Stormi could not touch the leg that had the incision or sleep with me, due to the chance she could infect the incision. No paws that touched cat litter could touch my leg.  I also needed a way to elevate my leg several times a day to reduce the swelling.  As a consequence, we bought a small bed with a motorized platform that you can raise the top and/or foot, and we put it in Alan's office.  We got a gate that the cat couldn't go over, but people could go through a door on the gate.  So I had my own little isolation area with bathroom. The gate stayed up until the incision healed at the two-month mark.  

I have had PTthree times a week and done exercises at home ever since then.  Alan has been wonderfully patient, driving me to all of the appointments, seeing about shopping and food, and helping me with everything I couldn't do for myself. I was on pain meds for almost two months, but now the pain is not bad, manageable with Tylenol.  I still have a lot of trouble sleeping, though.  I started driving again this week, much to Alan's relief.  I expect to continue to need PT for several weeks yet, as I do not have the degree of mobility they would like for me to have to be discharged.  I am making good, slow progress though.  I go back to see the surgeon on May 19 for the three-month follow-up appointment.

While I've been recovering, I've been working on publicity for a garden tour that the Shady Oaks Garden Club is having on May 23.  (If you are local and want a ticket, let me know.) Luckily, all the work has been on the computer or with zoom meetings.

In the meantime, our yard has continued to grow and flourish.  I am so lucky that I have a wonderful yard guy I have been able to hire to keep things in line. He is an international student from Zimbabwe.

I have lots of flower pix.  These are just a sampling:

We had a really bad frost right as the daffodils were blooming.
 I couldn't get into the yard to pick them,
so Alan picked this lovely bouquet for me.

On our 73/83 birthday on April 23, we went out to a nice restaurant and came home to German chocolate cake, Alan's favorite.

For our 34th anniversary on May 29, we have reservations at the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville.  It is a lovely place I've wanted to go to for years.

So after two and a half months of relative seclusion, we are getting back to normal.  We sat outside next to the gas firepit looking at the full moon with our friends Phyllis and Rolla a few days ago.  We've done movie nights with our dear movie group again.  A highlight was going to our friends Kevin and Angela's wedding last weekend in a beautiful outdoor setting next to a creek.  What a joyful day it was!

Our next project will be to try to acclimate Stormi to traveling in and being in the van, so we can take her with us with us on trips. We shall see how that goes!

Hope that you are well and enjoying life.  

2025 Christmas "Letter"

 Alan and I hope that you have a wonderful holiday, full of joy and health.  We will be in Huntsville with the Gamble clan for Christmas, as we have done since Alan's dad died.  We look forward to spending time with the extended Gamble/Spear relatives.  Even though we will be gone at Christmas, we still get in the spirit of the season by decorating here at home.

This will probably be the last year for our 9' Christmas tree.  When we got it out last week, some of the lights wouldn't work.  Plus, climbing on a ladder to put the decorations on the top is now scary business.  We both decided that it was no longer safe at our ages, so next year, we will get a smaller tree. So we have a sort of Charlie Brown tree this year, but that is fine.  It has many ornaments of sentimental value on it:  Each place we go in our travels, we pick up an ornament.  Others have given us beautiful/fun things that we cherish and love bringing out to enjoy each year.

From our trip to Acadia National Park

We have many beautiful bird ornaments.

We have our stockings on the fireplace.  Alan's is extra special because it is the one his mother made when he was a little boy.  It is probably over 70 years old. 

We did put the cute trailer decoration (nephew) Brian and Amy gave us on the fence and garland around the top of the fence.

On the island, I put up the lovely candelabra from Ethiopia that we got from (brother) Loren and Edith many, many years ago. I put greenery from the yard around it.

The German cart we got from Charlotte and Harry when they were stationed in Germany now has a great poinsettia that was a gift from a friend.

We leave our decorations up until Epiphany in the Lutheran tradition of my family, so we will continue to enjoy them after Christmas.

On to other events of this year:

We continue to love traveling in our new-for-us van.  We didn't go far, but we did do several fun trips.  The biggest was the trip to PA to visit my sister, which I told about in an earlier blog.

In February, we went back to Hunting Island State Park, SC.  It is a favorite place near Beaufort, a lovely, historic city that we enjoy exploring.

We got our favorite site.

The beach is beautiful, very close to the campground.

The "Boneyard" of dead trees is really interesting.

In early April, we spent a chilly, rainy week at Roan Mountain State Park.

The effects of hurricane Helene were still evident.
The road to the upper campground washed out.

We did have a nice site next to the river.

In June, we went to Walnut Hills Campground in Staunton, VA.  We toured Staunton, went to see a comedian Alan likes at a comedy club, and revisited nearby Ft. Defiance, where Gamble ancestors immigrated to from Londonderry, Ireland in 1736.  They were Scots-Irish Presbyterians.

Alan enjoyed reading outside next to the lake at night.

The graveyard of the Old Stone Church held Gamble
ancestors from the 1700's to about the Civil War.

In October, we went to New River State Park, NC for a lazy, but fun few days.

We love how easy it is to come and go, and especially to back up. 
 No trouble leaving the site to prowl around and look at things.

We took a couple of nice hikes next to the river.

Fall colors seen from our campsite

I spent a lot of time this year working on various committees and projects for the Shady Oaks Garden Club. I was chair of a committee that rewrote their by-laws, which was an almost year-long project.  I was delighted to receive the Iris Award for service to the club.

This was Flower Show year.  Every member was required to enter both horticulture and a design for the show.  My native hay-scented fern won blue in the fern category, and my design got second in the petite linear design category.  (I'll admit, one of the other members helped me a lot on the design, but I did do it.)

Speaking of flowers, the yard was lovely this year.  I am very grateful for Privilege, my wonderful yard guy.  He is a graduate student from Zimbabwe, who does yard work to support his family back in Africa.  I wouldn't be able to continue to garden on this steep lot without his help.

Weeping cherry tree and tulips

Candytuft

New Guinea impatiens flourished in front of house.

Many daffodils

Crocus

Speaking of the yard, we had a couple of bear visitations.  One night, I woke up in the middle of the night to a huge ruckus at the garbage cans.  I looked out the window and saw a bear heading up the hill next to the house with a bag of garbage in its paw.  Alan ran out and scared it off by banging on a pan.  After that, we kept our garbage cans in the garage.  It did come back to neighbors' houses though.  Here are prints it left on their driveway:

We also saw some bears on the Blue Ridge Parkway when we were in Black Mountain, NC for Thanksgiving with nephew Paul, wife Marta, daughter Ellie, and friend Phil from DC. We saw a young bear afraid to cross the road.  Its mother patiently waited for it on the opposite ridge until it got the courage to cross.  These pictures taken by Paul with his telephoto lens.  We stayed well away from them.

Junior was really scared.  Made a sad, mewing cry for its mother.

Mom waited up on the ridge so she could be seen.

I don't have pictures, but we have had several most enjoyable visits with Paul and Marta this year.  They live in Columbia, SC, where we stopped for a few days with our van on our way back from Hunting Island. For many years now, we have gotten a cabin with them for a long weekend each fall.  This year, we were at Weaverville, NC.  We have celebrated Thanksgiving with them at various places starting when Emma was a baby, 25 years ago. Paul has agreed to be the executor of our estate when both of us are gone.  Thank you, Paul!!

At Cabin Creekwood when Emma was a baby

I can't talk about the year without mentioning how saddened and disturbed we are about the Trump administration and its illegal, inhumane, and unethical activities.  We participated in two No Kings rallies, and have attended a training on non-violent resistance.  There is a very active Indivisible group that we have been working with.

Physically, we are in fairly good shape, all things considered.  I am scheduled for right knee replacement February 18.  I've found a well-regarded surgeon in Knoxville who does the robotic surgery, which is much less invasive, with a shorter recovery time.  If all goes well, I will probably get the left one done soon after that.  I really want to be able to walk and hike without pain again, if possible.

We continue to love living in Johnson City.  We have movie nights and game nights with friends, attend concerts and recitals at ETSU, go see jazz on a regular basis, and love spending time with our wide circle of friends and acquaintances.  Life is good.

Alan and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary this year with a dinner at a lovely restaurant and vineyard.  What an incredible journey this has been with my sweet, wonderful husband.

Anniversary flowers Alan gave me