Explore. Dream. Discover.

Twenty years from now  you will

   be disappointed by the thing

     you did not do than by the

       ones you did.  

 So throw off the bow lines.  

   Sail away from the safe harbor.

     Catch the trade winds in 

        your sails.  

 Explore.        

   Dream.        

     Discover.

Author unknown

Home Sweet Home

From Mt. Pisgah, Blue Ridge Parkway

Triple Falls, Dupont State Forest

We are back from vacation in North Carolina.  We were blessed with beautiful weather.   Our week on Lake Lure was just wonderful.  I could have spent every day sitting on the screen porch that overlooked the lake.  But as nice as it was, it's always good to come home.   It would be even better if I could postpone going back to work <wink>.   I have not downloaded all the pictures yet so I can only share a few. 

It was absolutely beautiful in the mountains.  They just roll on forever.   From a painter's perspective, it was interesting to observe the change in color from the green of the trees in front of you to the blue mountains in the distance, almost darker than the color of the sky.  And speaking of green, the kudzu plant/vine is a scary green thing in the south.  Yikes!  I don't think the word invasive quite describes it. Translyvania County (yes, you read the correctly) was a 45 minute drive from where we stayed and the literature stated that the county has 250 waterfalls.  Transylvania County is in the Pisgah National Forest.   We only saw 4 waterfalls and they were lovely.  Surprisingly, all had a quite a bit of water coming over.   We would like to go back and stay nearer to the waterfall area to visit more of the waterfalls.  But there are lots of things we would like to do :)  

Friday night we had dinner, on a recommendation from a couple we met on the trail earlier in the day, at the Mt. Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway, at the Peak of the Parkway as they call it at the Inn.  We were at 5,000 feet with an absolutely amazing view of the mountains and we had a fabulous dinner too.   If I begin to describe it I'll droll all over my keyboard.  It started with pumpkin bisque soup and ended with silk pie and everything in between was so so good.   And then there was the view.  Oh, and the monarch butterflies were migrating thru so we saw one or two every 30 seconds.  

We left Lake Lure Saturday morning and  headed to Abingdon, Virginia for my cousin's wedding Saturday afternoon.  We moved on from Abingdon early evening and drove 4 hours north so we would not have a long drive home on Sunday.   The wedding was on my cousin's uncle's farm and it was a beautiful ceremony and reception (camera battery died).   My counsin's Aunt and family did all the cooking and it was yet another yummy meal!.  Everyone had fun and it was good to see family we don't get to see too often.  I left the wedding with a mason jar filled with starter for sour dough bread.   An entirely new experience for me, but I think I can handle it!  I like to bake!  I'll keep you posted!  I have to email Ann to let her know how it goes.  That's what I'll be doing this weekend!   I figured waiting for bread to rise and knitting fit nicely in around the spaces of waiting for water color paints to dry.   It stops me from rushing on to the next step.  This is all working out quite to my liking.  And yes, I did paint on vacation, just not as much as I had wanted to because I spent too much time doing absolutely nothing on the screen porch, or knitting :).  But I have a lovely bowl of tomatoes "growing".

Duck, Duck, Pig

Yesterday was the second annual Duck, Duck Pig community event at the Titusville Presbyterian Church and WOW, what a beautiful day it was.  Thanks to all that made it possible.  What is Duck Duck Pig?  It starts Friday evening about 10 pm when our pastor begins cooking about 80 lbs of pork (with help to keep him awake thru the night) to serve up yummy pulled pork sandwiches the next day to all who come to get a rubber duck to race in the canal.   I should mention here that the Delaware and Raritan canal flows behind our church and the Delaware River in front.  It's truly a beautiful setting.  Duck Duck Pig is the Church's fall kick off community event (followed by a breakfast the following morning to start sunday school ). The event is a duck race and a pig roast with lots of food and fun for all.   You pick your favorite duck or if you have a special number you can pick the duck with that number, if you come early enough!  While you wait for the ducks to be "launched" into the canal at a set time from the bridge at Church Road you can enjoy your pulled pork sandwich and lots of delicous church speciality dishes.  The kids play games and can have a pig or a duck "tattoo" painted on their face or anything they can think of.  I saw a few butterflies.  There was also a quoits tournament.   Once the race started, their were over 100 little rubber ducks racing down the canal to win their owners one of the many prizes that were donated by many local businesses.   Thank you to all for the generous donations. 

Fanning the Fire . . . thanks Chris

Chef /Pastor Will Shurley (center) and Sous Chefs Bill Yost (left) Andrew Long (right)

Rubber Ducks waiting to be claimed to go Racing!

And they're off . . launched from bridge in center left of picture

Half way down the Canal

Crowd anxiously waiting for their duck along with the duck rescue kayaks

Technology is frustrating

Buddy's Lookout

I have to be careful what I say because technology is what allows me to reach out to everyone, and do some of the fun things with my artwork, like the fabric that arrived last week that I could not write about because my computer was not working.  Truth be told, the computer is really the only thing I find to be frustrating.   Could be in part because there are things I don't understand about it's workings and I will leave it as a mystery!  The fabric.  Wow, it is really great.  Colors are excellent, fabric texture is very nice to the touch and my little mind is whirling with all the things I can do.  It will take me a while to get it all figured out and that means it will be a while before anything appears on Etsy.   It has to make it out of my head and thru my fingertips.  But, it will!  It's way too beautiful not to share.  

So my computer is working again.   I'll spare you the details except that when I got everything working again my mouse gave up the ghost.   Timing is everything!   I figured I could survive another day without a computer so I spent some time outside.   Now that it's September, the weather is beautiful, but still no rain. 

I've also been to the Vet twice with Buddy, our 90lb yellow lab mix.   When we return from a short walk he has a bit of a limp in his front left leg and I could not see anything wrong with his foot or leg.   The vet wanted to see if he had elbow dysplasia and while he was at it he wanted to look at his hips.   Turns our my 5 years Buddy has arthritis in both hips and the elbow.   He is on 1 aspirin a day which helps alot and that can be increased but it can also upset his stomach.  I'm looking into magnet therapy as that is supposed to work for dogs as well as humans.   But he can still get up in that chair.  It's such a hoot to see him in the chair.   Like he belongs!