Banner Mountain Girl # 69

From my journal: “It is raining very hard. The sky is dark and heavy with clouds full of water. It is a day in which I am usually lonely, but today my heart is filled with joy that is lasting over into this dark and rainy day.”

I am a writer and I must write. Often, I wonder what is new to write? Even if, like Hemingway, I should begin with one true sentence, how would I complete a work that I haven’t even thought about? It’s amazing how sometimes my words and phrases tumble over each other to crowd the page, and other times, the page remains blank because a long, dry spell has control of my sub-conscious. Writer’s block is for real from time to time in a writer’s life. And it’s to be expected. As far as I can tell, there’s no quick cure for it.

Journal entry: “I have no creative thoughts but I feel compelled to write something. Drove out to Banner Mountain. Enjoyed the peacefulness of the woods. I always like to go back there.”

Going back to Banner Mountain is like going back home–the place I left at the age of barely nineteen. On an autumn day following our wedding and honeymoon, my husband and I loaded our wedding gifts into the car he had borrowed from an Air Force buddy and we began our journey in life together. A couple of days later, we arrived at Smoky Hill Air Force Base out on the Kansas plains–the countryside so different from my beloved Banner Mountain, with its woodlands, its songbirds, and its kind and gentle people. I would meet other wonderful people as we followed my husband’s military career. I would live in other states in the United States and in one foreign country before my husband retired. After his retirement we moved back to Arkansas, back to the Ozarks to live not very far from Banner Mountain.  © Freeda Baker Nichols

 

NaBloPoMo #18 Road Trip

Fire Truck blocks the road

Sometimes, road trips are not what they seem.  They are not always smooth and uneventful. Even the fast lane is sometimes slow. My husband and I found that out recently when we took a short day trip. We were cruising along a highway when we met a truck and the driver flashed his lights. Was there a state trooper up ahead? Or was there an emergency somewhere along the road? Soon we learned the reason for the motorist’s warning. We came upon an unusual-looking fire truck parked in the middle of the highway on a hill.  Two firemen were hosing down a grass fire on the road shoulder, near a housing area. After a while, one of the firemen motioned for us to go on. We continued our drive, looked up at the sky to see the contrails of a plane already out of sight. Flying would definitely be the fastest way to travel. But then we would have missed seeing all the sights that make my lovely home state of Arkansas so dear to my heart. Some days, it’s good when things in the road slow you down. 🙂  —Freeda Baker Nichols

Firemen hose down grass fire .

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Clouds hide the airplane

School bus stopped for kids to exit

A leaning tree in autumn.

On the side of the road

Some of us have to work.

Traffic stopped. Blue lights up ahead.