This is what the line looked like on the radar:
This is what it looked like from the ground below:
But, this post is not just about stormy weather or weather chasing it's about life and writing and the Synchronicity and Serendipity of living in the moment and trying to record what you see...what you feel...what you think as a writer while waiting for the perfect weather shot to appear.. sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't but while waiting you learn about more than weather... you learn about life around you.
Erik Larsen, the author of Issac's Storm, once told me that serendipity is a writer's real muse. It caught my attention as I have often be caught in the odd position of being a muse when I am really a writer ...and so I wonder...where is my muse if I am the muse?
I suppose weather is my muse and serendipity and being caught in the flow of life and the wind.
Sometimes you have to go where life takes you and sometimes you have to take a walk on a windy day and see what blows your way.
The weather was warm, flirting with the 80s and an outflow boundary was racing towards this part of the Carolinas. I'm here another day before going home to the warm, tropical colors of my real home. I'll be back to watching waves breaking on Hollywood Beach and having a late night snack at the Waterways in Aventura, but today I am still here watching Autumn and Indian Summer like weather that are coloring my palette with yellow leaves falling in the wind. I had a need to feel the warm sun on my face and feel the wind while watching the outflow boundary descend.
Serendipity is finding a beautifully scented spice store that just opened in a nearby outdoor shopping area still under construction. I passed it the other day on the street and made a mental note to go over and check it out. And, I only had an hour or so to enjoy a walk before the rain would fall and I'd have to straighten my hair again :( Women weather chasers have so many problems guys just don't have . . .
http://savoryspiceshop.com/aboutus/raleigh.html
After days of what seems to me to be frigid cold weather it was warm again, not Miami warm but warm. The new shops that are being built have a French Village theme and it was just perfect for my mood. I walked into the spice store and oh my goodness... the scent of various spices and herbs wafting in the air.... conjuring up far away places with exotic geographic names. A friendly man met me at the door, explained how their new shop works... suggesting I should try a few of the different spices and leaving me to be lost in the scents of Ireland, Provence and Catalonia. Cinnamon from the Orient... Amazing little store. An amazingly nice couple who run it as well and without taking a walk and needing to kill some time before the line came through ..I wouldn't have met them or had a chance to think on interesting conversation mixed in with recipes and suggestions on what to put on the spaghetti squash I am making for dinner. We came up with a mix of spices that one might ordinarily put on ham..which I don't eat or pumpkin and squash which I do eat. Smells good...
When I entered the store the sky was blue and if you blinked you could open your eyes and think you were in a French Village somewhere. Twists and turns of fate took this couple to a place where they needed to re-evaluate their goals and what they wanted to do with their life. Good advice for anyone our age... revisit your passions, figure out what you enjoy doing the most and figure out what opportunities there are out there. Mind you... many in their position might have gone about life trying to bang their head against the wall and tried to continue doing what they were doing but with wisdom they stopped, took a deep breath and found the scent of rich spices in the scented wind and opened up a Savory Spice Shop. I wish them well... it's a store that works well with North Carolina's passion for fresh cooked local foods and produce that are cooked with natural spices blending the old with the new and creating a new Southern Cuisine that is more natural with the emphasis on something other than deep fried main dishes though imagine some of those spices would work well on a BBQ rub.
http://savoryspiceshop.com/aboutus/raleigh.html
I was at a place recently that is really nice but did not really speak to me as I am not much into farms, it's called Fearrington Village. I went to an event there where a speaker was speaking. I didn't think much of it as I'm more into the Deep South than I am into Colonial Country South, but I had a long talk with a chef who gave me a walk around the grounds. He took me into the Greenhouse where they grow their own herbs and even their own fruits and vegetables to be used in their highly rated restaurant. The chef went on and on about the importance of the use of freshly ground herbs in their unique dishes and nothing else really made an impression on me ... A nice building, I've seen columns before and I'm from Florida where cattle ranches is not unusual and I was raised on Southern Cooking so... that didn't impress me but the fact that they grew their own herbs, their own greens... that impressed me. It is a very big part of the food movement here in this part of the New South.
http://www.fearrington.com/?gclid=CNvKpaDn7qQCFcXD7QodiAET1Q
So, I wish the nice people at the Savory Spice Shop well and if you are anywhere in the Triangle area... take a ride and check them out. But, I warn you ... you will walk away wondering on recipes and wishing you could travel to Madagascar or Jamaica or Scotland and you will go home with cute little packages or jars of your favorite muse of a spice that sang to you..
While inside I looked outside and noticed the frontal boundary was moving in.. I ran outside, took a few pics and it was wonderful.
One minute the sky was summer blue, Carolina Blue and the next minute a dark, violent looking line was covering half the sky trailing cloud debris and a wicked wind began to blow :)
look at that sky... 30 minutes after the sky was Carolina Blue...
Just goes to show you ...where ever you live, where ever you travel to you can always find interesting people, wonderful weather and inspiration.
The weather will be wicked today in the mid section of the country and if my son is reading this there are weather warnings up for the people on the Plains in Iowa and Illinois. Been told that the winds on the Great Lakes might be as strong as the winds that blew the Edmund Fitzgerald down back in 1975. That was one strong wind and one great song.
In the tropics Richard is trying to keep his head about him during a rather fast crossing of the Yucatan but he is still over land and we will soon see what he has left of him when he emerges into the Gulf of Mexico tonight.
Shari seems to be a possibility as I said in an earlier post.
And, here in the Carolinas the sun has gone and has hidden again, gray skies and cold air fill my life again. But, the scent of the spices is now mixed with the scent of my bedroom and the spaghetti squash is baking in the oven and I am going to try the blend of maple, black pepper, coriander, turmeric, ginger and nutmeg to name a few.
Trying to save some space in my diet for a pastelitos on Thursday :)
Writing and weather.... if you can't write... take a walk, stand on a cliff near the water and watch the waves, inhale the scent of the wind and the ocean and listen to the story that is whispering to you in the wind. And, if you really enjoy forests (like someone I know..) go find a shack in the woods and sit there until serendipity speaks to you...
May you have sweet smelling tropical dreams.. Bobbi
