Summer 2005

All Decked Out - Flower Gardens abound on the Carolina Meadows Campus
   A stone slab in Natalie Tennent’s flower bed reads: An hour in the garden puts life’s problems in perspective.

   “For me, it’s true,” Tennent said. “Digging in my garden is what I need. It’s cheaper than a therapist.”

   Carolina Meadows offers many opportunities for gardeners to get their hands dirty. The quarter-acre lots of the villas provide ample room for flower beds alongside the houses or edging the back yards. A resident may tend as many as three of the 44 raised-bed plots measuring 4 feet by 16 feet clustered in what Tennent calls “the farm.” (Two of the plots are wheelchair accessible.) Gardens in the main courtyard and the pool area are kept up by residents. The green-thumbed can garden to their heart’s content – and never have to mow the grass.

   A lawn service keeps the yards and hedges neat, freeing grounds supervisor David Henry and his crew of four to design and maintain the landscaping, tending trees, shrubs and smaller plants, and solving systemic puzzles of, say, drainage problems on terrain deliberately flattened to minimize the number of stairs. He turns the gardens over to the nurture and creativity of the residents.

   “The best part of my job is working with the residents,” said Henry, a licensed landscape architect. “Gardeners are happy people, and I enjoy interacting with them on their projects.”

   And their projects blossom spectacularly, as one might expect from lifelong gardeners who finally have time to devote to their craft. Dick Ballard, who claims the distinction of being the first male member of the New Haven Garden Club prior to moving south after retirement, said of his neighbors’ gardens in Carolina Meadows, “You can’t drive by some of them without slamming on the brakes.”

   Ballard started his three-tiered garden with 1,000 daffodil bulbs and added other perennials to have something blooming year-round. Clematis, yarrow, dish hibiscus, roses; a fern garden, hosta bed and hellebore trail. He went for a color scheme dominated in blue, pink and white, except for a splash of orange from 200 daylilies creeping into the woods out back. A former marathon runner, he channels his energy into perfecting his landscape and organizing an annual garden tour.

   “Gardening is magnificent exercise,” he said. “It’s great to get outside and move plants around to change the colors.”

   Residents who choose apartment living still have opportunities to get soil under their fingernails. A group of more than 30 volunteers take responsibility for the public gardens, planting, pruning, weeding, deadheading and inspecting for insects. The Meadow Garden, near the health center, has a water feature and inviting places to sit. The garden is rich in perennials – lilies, roses, flowering shrubs – and the deer and rabbits that feast on them.

   David Henry is game to try out suggested recipes to discourage the fauna, including grape Kool-Aid.

   “We mixed it up and sprayed it on, and it worked for a week or two,” Henry said. “Then the deer and rabbits developed a taste for it. Animals are adaptable.”

   The garden around the indoor pool evolved as residents donated porch plants that had grown too large to bring inside their homes over the winter. The flourishing flora were brought poolside to what folks assumed would be a tropical atmosphere. Even Henry was surprised to see that the plants that did best there were desert plants, due to the pool house’s effective system for removing excessive humidity.

   “My job is not just planting flowers and trees,” Henry said, “it’s maintaining and expanding.”

   The grounds staff built the 44 raised beds and help by tilling plots and repairing hoses. But the rest of the farming work is up to the residents.

   The yield in Chuck Tennent’s vegetable garden has expanded as his gardening experience in North Carolina’s lush Zone 7 climate has taught him he can often get two crop seasons a year. That never happened in the gardens he tended in Syracuse, Detroit and rural Pennsylvania. Nearly every day during the long growing season, his vegetable garden behind the maintenance shop at Carolina Meadows requires some attention. In the two plots he reserved, he plants beans, rhubarb, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes and onions. He gathered one harvest of string beans in June. In July, he’ll plant another crop.

   His wife, Natalie, washes the produce and bags much of the largesse to give away to neighbors.

   “I should put a stand out front,” she said.

   Natalie Tennent is in charge of the flower beds around their house. She prefers to plant annuals, which are extra work, admittedly, but wonderful exercise, she said, and satisfying to watch grow.

   “It’s almost like children,” she said. “Some of them grow well and some of them don’t.”

   The Tennents’ back yard adjoins Jean Waterbury’s. Every year, Waterbury and the Tennents host a picnic.

   Waterbury’s concession to aging is to favor perennials over annuals. The evening primrose, coral bells, cone flowers, butterfly bush, peonies, irises and lilacs that grace her yard attract birds that refresh themselves at her birdbath. She is well-known for planting tomatoes from seed, then giving young tomato plants to all who want them. And she still has a more than abundant harvest herself.

   “I bring a bowl of tomatoes with me to the reception desk for anyone who wants to help themselves,” she said.

   She and Natalie Tennent trade plants from one another’s garden, adding to the variety of blooms on display. Passersby stop to comment on the beauty of the adjacent gardens.

   “You’re giving other people pleasure, along with yourself,” Natalie Tennent said of working in the garden. “Chuck feels that way too, giving away vegetables. When we’re invited to somebody’s house, we either take vegetables or flowers. Our friends in the apartments are especially grateful for a little bag of beans or a fresh tomato. It makes you feel good.”

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Got Game? - Residents Choose from a Plethora of Outdoor Activities
   Dick Ballard and some of his buddies at Carolina Meadows practice jump shots – not on a basketball court, but on a state-of-the-art croquet court in morning and afternoon sessions three days a week. At the beginning of summer, Ballard arranged for an internationally ranked croquet pro who lives nearby to lead a workshop on croquet shots, including the jump shot that sends one’s ball leaping over any opponent’s ball that dares to block passage through the wicket.

   “You have to slam it just so to get it up and through the five-inch clearance between the top of the ball and the cast-iron wicket,” Ballard said. “It was the high point of the seminar.”

   Croquet is one of many sports that entice active seniors outdoors, even in the summer months.

   The thwock of tennis balls, golf balls, bocce balls and croquet balls launched into motion can be heard year-round by power-walkers and more leisurely strollers who take to the paths that lace the 170 acres of grounds at Carolina Meadows, past the nine-hole, par-three golf course, two tennis courts and the bocce and croquet courts. Twice a year, on the Fourth of July and Labor Day, residents organize a sports day of tournaments that adds darts and shuffleboard, along with some indoor games, to the roster. Staff members organize other activities throughout the year that make keeping fit fun.

   One of the biggest draws for genteel athletes is the nine-hole, par-three golf course on the grounds. Roy Ayers, chair of the men’s golf league, had his fill of dawn tee times and advance reservations for a spot on courses before he moved to Carolina Meadows. He appreciates the flexibility of being able to play anytime on any hole at Carolina Meadows.

   “You can play your own game,” said Ayers, who has played golf for about 70 years. The holes range from about 50 to 125 yards, and the course has traps and roughs. The course is open to residents of Carolina Meadows, and their family and friends.

   Janet Welanetz organizes a regular Monday morning women’s league that attracts 20 or more golfers who play almost every month of the year. She adjusts the starting time to mesh with the weather; on hot days, golfers are on the course by 8:30 a.m. to finish by midmorning. On Saturdays, the women join with the men to compete in a mixed tournament, almost doubling the number of participants.

   “Physical activity is important to me, because I’ve always been active,” Welanetz said. “Golf is one way to keep going. It’s great camaraderie and good conversation.”

   Jim Pope took up tennis at the urging of his wife when his career took the avid sailor to land-locked locales. The tennis courts factored in to their move to Carolina Meadows. When the courts began to show wear and tear, Pope was among the group of tennis players who researched surfaces and priced construction of new tennis courts reoriented and built from the ground up last year. The committee members play-tested various courts in the area and agreed on a forgiving surface that was easy on the joints.

   Tennis is a year-round sport at Carolina Meadows, even when the temperatures drop in the winter. The roster has about 20 regular players who get together for group play three times a week, and matches whenever anyone organizes them. At other times, players meet off-court to watch televised professional competitions. Players skills range from beginner to those with tournament experience.

   “We like to play; it’s our exercise,” Pope said. “When people move in who are attracted to tennis, we get them on the court. You really can’t play tennis by yourself; you need an opponent. We do however have an outside backboard and ball machine for solo practice and warm-ups.”

   Michelle Davis, the wellness coordinator, agrees that socialization is one of the benefits of outdoor activities.

   “Socializing pays a huge benefit in your overall well-being,” she said. “We have great people here who support each other quite well.”

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Birds and Birders at Carolina Meadows
   Birdwatching, or simply birding [from the newly coined verb "to bird"] is an activity which can be enjoyed by young and old, for it can be as strenuous, and require as much bird knowledge as one can manage, or it can be a laid-back lovely pastime of merely watching the antics of our feathered friends.

   Here at Carolina Meadows Maury Graves organizes both a winter and spring bird count in our area and surrounding property. Those who wish to walk perhaps a mile or so are assigned sections of the area to count on foot or perhaps by car, in cold, rain, or shine. The winter count is the Carolina Meadows contribution to the annual National Audubon count, which has taken place since 1900. Approximately 40-50,000 birders count in 15-mile diameter circles allover the USA and Canada, and more recently in Latin America and the Caribbean as well. The count at Carolina Meadows is a small section of the Chapel Hill Count, which is centered in downtown Chapel Hill near Franklin and Columbia Streets.

   This year birders encountered a new species never before seen at Carolina Meadows. Eleanor and Fred Kilgour, expert birders who now count from their large picture window, had set out a hummingbird feeder with the hope of finding a winter hummingbird, a rare event. Lo and behold, one arrived on Count day! (Actually it had been seen for the previous few days.) Winter hummingbirds are not easy to identify. Most of them are young, and not in breeding plumage. The Kilgours called Susan Campbell, a hummingbird expert. Fortunately the bird came and Susan caught it with a trap. She placed a tiny band on its leg and measured various feathers to aid in identification. The bird proved to be a Rufous Hummingbird, normally found in the far west. However, in recent years, several of the western hummingbirds have been identified in winter in the east. Our only summer species is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

   During the spring count, conducted at peak migration time, 64 species were identified, including 13 kinds of warblers, 2 hawk and 2 owl species. Residents really enjoy encountering Purple Martins on campus~ 18 were spotted that day. There are 4 martin apartments on campus for them.

   Numerous bird feeders can be seen on campus, not only around villas, but also at apartments, on windowsills or on windows, attached with suction cups. Volunteers have also placed feeders around the health center and assisted living, which are thoroughly enjoyed by the individuals who reside there.

   Many Carolina Meadows residents have spent a large part of their life as active birdwatchers. Joe Fisher, formerly with the CIA, is a resident who has achieved national acclaim as a birder with well over 700 species of birds identified in the USA and Canada. His wife, Parkie, is probably not far behind, since she has usually accompanied him on his trips. Joe has been known to jump on a plane to Florida, for example, when he hears of a rare bird on the hot line, and actually find it. He has covered Alaska as far as Attu out on the Bering straits to find new birds, as well as most habitats of our other states. All this has been accomplished with the handicap of a severe hearing loss dating from WWII as an antiaircraft officer, where the decibels destroyed his eardrums. The ability to recognize birds by their song is a pronounced asset in birding.

   Professor Nelson Hairston, formerly of UNC- Biology, but for many years at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is an expert who can readily identify bird song, and also enjoy nature trips with his wife Patty. Last fall they accompanied Barbara Roth to Churchill, Manitoba, to see Polar Bears and Arctic Foxes, but also Willow Ptarmigans in snow-white winter plumage, Snowy Owls, a remarkable snow-white Gyrfalcon, Eider Ducks, and thousands of Snow Buntings.

   The Carolina Meadows Bird Club has monthly meetings, which may include an outside speaker, a film or slide show related to birding or other nature topic, and discussions on recent bird sightings. Currently about 130 residents are on the membership list. Tons and tons of birdseed are sold each year throughout the country. People just like to look at and admire these beautiful little "people", and compare their actions with our own. For seniors with time on their hands, this is a very joyous activity.

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