SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - PHOTOGRAPHS

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

PHOTOGRAPHS

Zen garden outside our window

Farm eggs and vegetables from farmers' market = omelet

Outside view of cabin porch

Inside view of cabin

Sculpture garden on the roof of the Asheville Art Museum

Vertiginous view from museum window 

Look carefully and you can see the crow and squirrel eating seeds on the railing

Bye

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - HOME

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

HOME

 We are getting ready to say goodbye to the mountains. As much as I love them, I don't know if I could live among them all the time. The ups and downs (literal) would be a bit much if I had to navigate them all the time. Our new hometown has enough hills to satisfy, but not so steep as to be impediments to getting around. 

Weather radar
Storms predicted all the way home

We had gorgeous weather the entire week, despite a  10-day forecast that it would rain almost every day. It looks a bit cloudy this morning, but we've only had one two-minute shower the entire time we've been here. We have had some overcast afternoons, but that keeps it cool and breezy. NC can be rainy in the summer, but we have always encountered lovely weather while here over the years. I remember one year it had rained monsoons the week before our vacation, but our vacation was perfect.

Today, we confront our nine-hour trip home. The radar map on the left corresponds with our path.

 

As we were packing, we noticed a deer in the meadow outside our window. Lucy had told us that a doe had recently given birth. We don't know if this is the new mother or not. This week we saw a bear, a bobcat and a deer without leaving our cabin. We also saw hundreds of birds and butterflies in this idyllic spot in the mountains.

Drumstick Alliums on June 19

Fortunately and miraculously, we never encountered heavy rains on our drive home. There was a heavy drizzle during the morning, but then it cleared up. We made it home by 6 p.m. after nine hours on the road.As predicted, our bulldog Gellie was beside herself with joy and halleleujahs. It's nice to be missed. It's also nice to be home.

O Joy!!

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - PARKWAY

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

PARKWAY

This was our last day in the mountains, so we started out at the Folk Art Center off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. We've been visiting this beautiful facility for close to forty years. Upstairs is a mountain crafts museum and downstairs is a shop where you can buy top-quality Appalachian crafts--glass, pottery, baskets, quilts, jewelry, weavings, carvings, artwork, etc. etc. etc. I saw an array of Blenko glass water carafes like one my daughter bought me decades ago. It's something I still cherish (and now costs four times as much).

We proceeded north on the parkway and made stops along the way at lookouts. My mobility is still a bit limited, so we did not do any hikes. We drove the steep road to Mount Mitchell State Park and had a lovely picnic of mortadella sandwiches and Asheville Farmer's Market tomatoes. We then took NC SR 80 south to US 70 to Black Mountain. We enjoyed draft beers at the Lookout Brewery where we encountered our friends again--the ones from SC who are the human companions of Hope. We had a nice conversation and then trekked back up to our Airbnb where we'll have a light dinner and pack for our trip home tomorrow.

Views from the Blue Ridge Parkway

We've had a great, relaxing week, but we will both be happy to return home and see our dear dog Gellie again. We know she'll go crazy when she sees us. Reports are that she's been depressed.

Drumstick Alliums on June 18

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - FRIENDS

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

FRIENDS

Lake view from our friends' home in Hickory

Today we had a big excursion to Hickory which is about a hour east of here, mostly on I-40. Some of our oldest and dearest friends moved there several years ago, and we finally made it to North Carolina to see them. They ended up in Hickory by happenstance. They were looking all over western Carolina, but the stars aligned on Hickory. It is quite a picturesque town that seems to have a strong sense of itself. They really love it and have gotten involved in the community. They bought a beautiful townhouse up on a hill overlooking a body of water--not sure if it's a lake or river. 

Spectacular garden 

We caught up on each others' news for a few hours then went out to an early dinner at a small cafe downtown, Crescent Moon. I had a delicious flatbread with pesto, cheese, spinach and mushrooms which I really enjoyed. My husband had a version of muffuletta, his favorite sandwich. It didn't compare to the one at Central Grocery in New Orleans, but it was good. I can't remember the exact circumstances, but one year our Thanksgiving dinner was sharing a Central Grocery muffuletta at an interstate rest stop somewhere in the Florida panhandle.

Now we're back at the cabin for the evening. My husband is homesick--actually dog sick. He misses our dog and even broached the idea of leaving tomorrow, instead of Monday. I'm not in favor of that idea. I miss our Gellie too, but not enough to leave the mountains before we must.

Drumstick Alliums on June 17

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - PEACHES!

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

PEACHES!

Black Mountain in the clouds

It's Friday, so Asheville it is! We hung around the cabin a bit this morning, but the wildlife was quiet. It's only thirty minutes to the center of Asheville and we decided to go to the Asheville Art Museum. The building was spectacular, but I think we were a bit underwhelmed by the collections, especially considering the $25 pp admission fee. It would have been a bit less, but we opted for the Buckminster Fuller special exhibit. We amazingly scored a parking spot in front of the entrance; however, the parking meter would not take our credit cards--we tried three--so we had to scrounge for quarters. That perhaps diminished our enjoyment of the art.

Inside of museum elevator   

I am a map nerd

Buckminster Fuller's map projection that removes distortions found in flat maps

The Lineup by Roger Shimomura depicted his early memory of lining up for the men's restroom at the internment camp he and his Japanese-American family was sent to in World War II.

Dragon, an abstract expressionist painting by Hale Aspacio Woodruff

Autumn Scene by Marguerite Zorach

There was an entire gallery of food art

These are some views on the roof of the museum.

Next we drove to the Montford, "Ashville's Most Historic Neighborhood." The neighborhood centers on a beautiful park and the streets are filled with late 19th and early 20th century houses and the streets are lined with trees and flowers galore. 

By the time we crossed Montford off our list (done!), we were hungry. We decided to head to the River Arts District, because we felt it would be a good place to find vittles. The district is a huge area of old warehouses that have been converted into artist's studios and shops with some restaurants here and there for the tourists. We decided on 12 Bones Smokehouse, 'cause you can't come to the Carolinas without eatin' some sow. We did some quick research, saw it had good reviews, and thought, since it was almost 2 p.m., we could walk right in. Well...no. There was a line out the door, but we decided to endure it and were rewarded (in about thirty minutes) with some delicious barbeque. As good as the meat was, the smokey potato salad and slaw were equally good. I must get the recipe for the potato salad. Some of the potatoes were mashed, not a lot of dressing, and some subtle heat. It was outstanding. Must search for recipe.

12 Bones Smokehouse
It tastes better than it looks

BREAKING NEWS!  I found the recipe in their cookbook which I accessed online through hoopla. The hard part is smoking the partially-cooked potatoes. It also has lots of cilantro and garlic which I didn't pick up on. In any case, it was among the best potato salads I've ever had. 

Our final stop was the WNC Farmer's Market in west Asheville. I was on a mission to buy peaches. I succeeded, but they were $40 for a half bushel. Ouch. I wanted some to take home for us and the kids. I remember the first time we drove to NC for vacation and bought a whole bushel of peaches ($20?) in South Carolina. The kids would not eat them, because they thought peaches were yuck. They clearly had never had good peaches in south Florida. Finally, after a day to two I persuaded them to try one, and they devoured an entire bushel (with our help) in a couple of days.

Now we're back at the cabin, drinking a bottle of Spanish rioja (redundant). The sun is setting over the mountain, the wind is blowing through our cabin and all is right with the world.

Drumstick Alliums on June 16

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - BOBCAT

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA

BOBCAT

Bobcat was hiding in the near bushes

We just enjoyed another good day in the mountains. Today started out with my husband seeing a bobcat out our window. He (or she) was hiding in a large cluster of wildflowers for several mintutes, then darted out and somehow emerged from another stand of bushes with a small gray mammal in its maws. It did not appear to be a squirrel, perhaps a small bunny? The prey looked dead as the bobcat trotted into the undergrowth with his breakfast.

We decided to drive down to town for breakfast at Louise's Kitchen in a house built in 1904 and located in downtown Black Mountain. They had a tempting menu, but we decided to go for the "Classic"--two eggs, sausage or bacon, grits or home fries, and a choice of breads. Despite ordering the same thing, our breakfasts were entirely different (poached v. over easy, sausage v. bacon, grits v. potatoes, and biscuit v. whole wheat toast), and both were delicious. 

After breakfast, we took a short drive to Montreat to check it out (10 out of 10), then we went back to the cabin to regroup. Midday we struck out for Black Mountain again--this time the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center. As museums go, it is a small one, but it was interesting and we enjoyed it. We than stopped by the local library and then hit a really great thrift store. By this time, we were getting thirsty, so we stopped in at the Lookout Brewing Company for some great beer. We met a lovely couple and their dog Hope who were visiting from Columbia, South Carolina. We seemed to have a lot in common and had a great conversation. 

We returned to our cabin around 4:30, then had a light dinner (breakfast had held us all day) of a tomato sandwich, a mortadella sandwich and some chips.

Later we found out from our host Lucy that the unfortunate animal who was captured by the bobcat was a vole. She said that last year there had been hundreds of them in the meadow.

Drumstick Alliums on June 15

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA - MOUNTAINS

SPRING 2023 - NORTH CAROLINA 

MOUNTAINS

The purple drumstick alliums located by our porch
showed more and more color each day

We are on the third day of a week-long driving trip to the North Carolina mountains, and I had a great idea! Create a blog! Not just of this trip, but future trips. The blog will function as a digital scrapbook--heaven knows I don't need any more paper and leather scrapbooks in my house. So, here goes.

My husband and I left our home in north Florida on Monday (June 12) and made the nine-hour trip to Black Mountain, North Carolina, where we had reserved an airbnb right outside of town. The place is absolutely lovely and exceeded all our expectations. The "cabin" was designed as guest quarters in a wing of a house with a private porch and entrance, efficiency kitchen and a bath. The building is new with large windows all around that open to a flowering meadow then surrounded by a thick forest. We are on a ridge, and the view is such that sometimes you just sit in a rocker on the screened porch and stare. 

The house and cabin were surrounded by a meadow that attracted all sorts of wildlife. Beyond the meadow were the trees, then the mountains

One of the first things we noticed was the quiet. It's as if all the noise was sucked out of the Earth, and the only thing added back was the chirping and cooing of birds. The second thing we noticed was the cool mountain air which is one of the reasons we started coming to NC in the summer to escape the Florida heat almost forty years ago.

Monday we drove nine hours and unpacked. Tuesday we drove the four-mile, ten-minute drive down to the town of Black Mountain. It is a lovely town with a large historic center of small shops, restaurants, breweries and art galleries. We learned that many of the European artisans who spent decades building the Biltmore in Asheville settled in the area and brought their skills and sensibilities with them. These craftsmen are all dead, but their legacy lives. We arrived in town in early morning before the vacation crowds descended on the downtown, and we had the run of the town. After visiting several shops, we drove to Lake Tomahawk to walk the loop around the lake. I was using a cane until recently, so I'm just now getting my sea legs. 

Lake Tomahawk near the
town of Black Mountain

Baby birds in the eaves at Lake Tomahawk

We returned to the cabin for lunch (some Spanish bean soup I'd brought from home), rested, then returned to town. We bought some very pricey farmer-made mortadella ($16/lb.) at a village butcher shop for our picnicking. We visited one of the many, many, many breweries and then had an early dinner at Berliner Kindl . I had veal schnitzel and my husband had sausages, we both had the German potato salad and saurkraut. All was excellent.

This guy was fifteen feet from our porch

The highlight of the day, however, wasn't our exploration of Black Mountain, it was the marauding bear outside our cabin in the morning. Our host Lucy told us he was a naughty teenager who was quite resourceful. He was quite beautiful and scurried away when Lucy sounded the air horn. The bear was surprisingly handsome and seemed nice enough.

Today, Wednesday, we drove into Asheville. It was closer than I thought--less than a half hour mostly on I-40. We have been there so many times, we have our routine down--park at the garage behind the library, take the elevator to level 5 (which is street level), walk through the arcade to Haywood Street. It's hard to explain, but the library is five stories above Rankin Avenue where you enter the parking garage. Anyway, then we head to Malaprops, our favorite bookstore. I bought a book for my grandson and some other little items and we browsed. Then we sauntered over the Grove Arcade. It is a really lovely centerpiece for Asheville, although I think it's seen better days. It used to be filled with shops and restaurants, and there are still some, but there are also apartments and office spaces. The Grove is reminiscent of a scaled-down, less fancy version of the Galleria in Milan.

Inside the Grove Arcade

The Grove Arcade

, 

Community garden in the middle of downtown Asheville

Asheville retains its history

The funky interior of Chai Pani

We had read some articles about the food scene in Asheville and Chai Pani got our attention. It was within walking distance, so we dropped by. We were a little taken aback by the sign that said, "The line starts here," but we persevered. We gave them our name, found a pub down the street, had some local beer, then walked back just in time to be seated. Let's just say Chai Pani did not disappoint. My husband is a life-long hater of okra (and lines), but he loved their matchstick okra fries! Me too! In addition I ordered the aloo tiki chaat (Indian potato fritters on top of garbanzo bean stew). My husband, the carnivore, ordered chicken pakoras. We shared and all was absolutely delicious.

 Aloo tiki chaat, chicken pakoras and okra chips

After lunch we returned to the library which has a terrific used book shop and I bought Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook by Olney for $3 and a 1932 issue of The Atlantic. We then returned to our retreat near Black Mountain before heading back into town to attend a Celtic music "jam session" at the White Horse. We only stayed long enough for one drink, but it was really fun. It's a group of amateur local musicians who make Celtic music together. There was a young girl step dancing and having a great time. As I left, I told her that her dancing was fantastic, and it was.

The White Horse Black Mountain Celtic hootenanny

We're back home for the evening. We haven't quite formulated our plan for tomorrow--we're on vacation from retirement--but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Drumstick alliums on June 14