Look at the yards signs in Mountain City. Many yards (like ours) have both red and blue.
Former Mountain City Mayor Beth Smith (blue) has an opponent for the position Justice of the Peace. Judge Smith sponsored this week’s National Night Out, as she has every year for 35 years. (That’s a lot of feet on her yard.) She has provided the grand prize for each and every Loving Mountain City competition. She’s present and actively participating at local fundraisers. This is in addition to performing her job and continuing her education.
I’ve seen that she’s glued to her cell phone during non-office hours, in case she’s called out on official duty.
It’s no wonder she’s so popular.
County Commissioner, Mark Jones (red) has an opponent in this election. Mark walked Mountain City, door to door, when he campaigned 8 years ago. Mark serves tirelessly. He loves serving, even to the point of operating the traffic signals at 1626 and 2770. (He’s surely telling the truth when he says he doesn’t do a darned thing at home.) He generously donates to local causes, including the provision of many of the LED Christmas lights on the Big Oak Tree at City Hall.
To make matters more confusing, Will Conley, running for County Judge, is a Republican with blue signs that coordinate with his family business signs.
Early voting runs Oct. 22 – Nov. 2. To vote for the candidates of your choice, take time to go through the entire ballot.
Mountain City yards are green with over 11 inches of September rain. Dutchman’s pipevine has exploded up a trunk of our Wildlife Tree. (It’s the skeleton of a dead oak, preserved for wildlife. It works! For instance, this summer Eastern Bluebirds nested in a nesting hole excavated last summer by woodpeckers.) Native morning glories on vines that barely went above the ground in late August now pink out across the green pipevine canvas.
Large lime green caterpillars adorn the cowitch vine that stretches the length of our kitchen. Butterfly guides did not show this species. That’s because these are sphinx moths, the ones sometimes confused with a hummingbird as they hover at flowers.
RonTom marveled at a hummingbird lingering on lantana blossoms on Sunday.
It’s past Oct. 1 now, and it is not time to take down hummingbird feeders. We still have some summer hummers. And, we will surely have some wintering hummers, on their way to us from the Pacific Northwest. They don’t put on a summer-like show. But, they do need food.
Ron added a species to our yard list on Sept. 29, a Wilson’s Warbler. In a Travis Audubon warbler id course, Cliff Shackelford said over and over, “Mr. Wilson has a black cap.” When Ron shared his sighting with James Polk, James recalled once seeing a little yellow bird with that description at their bird bath.
Look for tidbits in and around Mountain City, please. Send to [email protected] (subject: tidbit.) Thanks! Love to you, Pauline
