Nina Gilfert | From the Porch Steps: Living on a Tennessee mountain
When you live on the side of a mountain in Tennessee, life can be interesting.
I have a window in my room that looks out on our parking area. Above this area is a grassy hill with a low wall below it. I have been told that a bear makes regular foraging stops in this area looking for food in the early morning hours. I was intrigued and wanted to see this bear when it came to visit, so I have been waking early and watching out my window hoping to catch a glimpse of him if he comes around.
I was about to give up when very early this morning my vigilance was rewarded. Just before sunrise I saw a dark shadow on the grass and as I watched it, I soon discovered that that dark shadow was my bear as he arose in all his glory and magnificence and walked across the hill and back into the woods.
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He is beautiful, although very large and scary. Now that I know his time of arrival I hope to see more of him from my secret observing place.
In case you are wondering, I now live in the home of my oldest son and his wife on a mountain side in the state park. The view is terrific. In the winter when the trees are bare I can sit on the porch and see away off in the distance to another mountain range. Now that it is spring time and the many trees surrounding our yard have leafed out, the view is limited to the fenced in garden and a small plot of grass we call the lawn, and the patch of blue sky overhead.
My daughter-in-law Linda keeps track of all the different birds that come to the bird feeder she keeps filled for them in the yard. She and my son Tom have identified many of them by their foliage.
The list is quite long: Indigo Bunting, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Thrasher, Wrens, Sparrows, Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Carolina Chickadee, Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Junko, Yellow Finch, Cow Bird and Mourning Dove.
We also have hummingbirds that feed off the sugar water, Linda places in a feeder on the porch just for them. They are belligerent little birds in spite of their tiny size and fight over the feeder even when there are plenty of stations to accommodate them. One of these days we will see signs of nesting and some small birds learning to fly.
Tom and Linda are avid gardeners. Tom has constructed an enclosure with cement blocks and wire to protect the plants from animals that sometime stray from the forest, although the yard is fenced.
At present we have tomatoes, lettuce, peas and a couple of other things I can't name.
There are still many plants thriving under grow lights in the garage waiting for the right time to plant them. Linda and I wanted flowers, so we have a patch of wild flowers, two large rose bushes and a number of others in pots and in the ground. She also has an herb garden.
Of course Tom has his smoker and grill that he fires up every evening for a delight of outdoor cooking. Two of their sons sometimes come over in the evening and join us. I can't wait for the garden to start producing, since I added my limited efforts to its planting.
I was born in a small town in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, so mountains are not unfamiliar to me. This part of Tennessee, however, is more like eastern Pennsylvania, where the mountains are higher like the Poconos.
Another daughter came up from Florida with her husband to visit last week and bring me some of my stuff. My stuff is now languishing in the sitting room waiting for me to find space for it in my small bedroom.
Growing old is not fun but if you have accommodating children it is much less painful. I am thankful for a loving family and relatively good health, although each day brings painful reminders that this old body and time have not altogether a loving relationship.
I will keep you posted about my bear sightings. I have never seen a bear close up before or in the wild. I just don't relish one morning looking out my window to find him looking back at me.
Since this is a preserve I am sure I will see other wild animals bounding through the woods – not too close up, though, I hope.
Nina Gilfert can be reached at ngporch@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Nina Gilfert: Life in Tennessee means mountains, bears, and insights
