I’m back home in Charleston, but still basking in the residual beauty of western North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here are a couple more images from my wanderings in the area; mountains, waterfalls, and country scenes.
A friend and I are spending a week in Brevard, discovering life as a local here. It’s the best little town, just big enough to offer everything you need, yet small enough that the traffic is manageable and parking spaces can be found downtown, with no meters! Not that we park downtown much because we walk everywhere, for groceries, coffee, dinner, general shopping. We walked to a local church on Sunday. Monday nights at the Oskar Blues Brewery are a treat. Local musicians of all skill levels show up with their instruments and jam together for their enjoyment and free beer. A great time is had by all; kids, dogs, the old and young. Definitely a highlight of my stay here.
And now for something completely different from the marshes of the low country. I am in England for a couple of weeks, and staying in a beautiful little stone cottage in a village called Stanton. Here are some of the images that I captured yesterday while exploring the town. There is only one pub, no other restaurant facility, the nearest grocery store is an “express” (fruit, sandwiches, other basics) and is located a few miles away in the next village. The village is surrounded by soft green hills abounding with sheep, cows, and horses. It’s raining today but hopefully the weather will allow some further wanderings in the area.
After spending some days in the Brevard area of North Carolina, I wandered back over the state line into upstate South Carolina where I stayed at a wonderful B&B in Salem called Sunrise Farm. Such fun to walk out of the door before sunrise and capture the light as it rakes across the pastures and signals the dawn of another day. Of course many farm people wouldn’t understand why this would be a big deal, but for a city girl, it’s a treat. Here are a few images from early this morning. These last few days of fall in the mountains have been amazing, but tomorrow it’s back to Charleston and the low country, home.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say there was a “nip” in the air yet, but it is getting cooler and the humidity is dropping. The mornings are glorious and some trees are beginning to drop their leaves. Just another couple of weeks and nature will start to amaze with her explosion of color in the higher elevations of North and South Carolina. I was looking back through some photos I took in the fall of 2016, a particularly good year for color. Hopefully 2021 will not disappoint.
A group of us girlfriends headed out on a road trip to upstate Georgia in the Appalachian Mountains. We rented a cabin for the last three nights and spent time exploring the area. These photos include views from Bell Mountain overlooking the Chatuge Lake and town of Hiawassee, a barn along a rural road, as well as images from a visit to Anna Ruby Falls in the Chattahoochee National Forest. Tomorrow we move on to Townsend, Tennessee. Most of the colorful leaves were blown away courtesy of Hurricane Zeta as it blasted up the Tennessee Valley a few days ago. Hoping to find some color lingering in the next few days.
Well, not really mountains, but the foothills in Tryon, North Carolina. After so long feeling constrained by the threat of COVID19, it was with joy that I hit the road this weekend with two girlfriends to spend two nights in a country creekside cabin. The area had had a lot of rain over the preceding few days, so the creeks were torrents, and waterfalls cascaded exuberantly over the rocks, sending drenching spray into the spring air. What a refreshing for the soul, and what a blessing.
Every couple of years I like to take a road trip up to the Ridge Spring, Johnston, Monetta areas of South Carolina – huge peach growing country. As with crops everywhere, farmers hold their collective breaths as winter transitions into Spring, praying that a late frost won’t blast all the tender new buds and ruin the new crop. The best orchards are to be found in the backroads. The trees are not particularly attractive, but the blossoms are a sight to behold, and every so often a city girl has to inhale some country air.
A friend has a family cabin in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, deep in a hollow, alongside Naked Creek, encircled by woods and mountains. We made a girls weekend of it and traveled the 8+ hours there and back to spend some time completely unplugged. No TV, no internet, no cell service. It made me realize how much of our waking time is consumed with these technologies, and it was refreshing just to get away from it all – for real!
