Winter of "yore"

Montreat in the snow, 2011 winter - I was hoping to replace this with a more recent one, but this year has been pretty sparse on snow in Black Mountain and Montreat.  Up on higher peaks, it has fallen a few times though!

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.  Aesop

Ice storm

Looking out the studio window Feb 26 at 8 am.

I posted more photos over at Alchemy of Clay here.

Honeycut Street

Fire Station and Police Station are located at these signs and framed by the Seven Sisters mountains in Black Mountain. Dec. 2013

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."    Donna Roberts

Sahara Peace Choir concert (w/addendums)

Betsy Murray and Barb Rogers at White Horse, Black Mountain, NC

 
Just to let my friends here in blogland know how very happy I am to have been part of this concert...which just finished a few minutes ago.

Stephanie Heildelman, soloist

I'm home now, coming down from the high of performance.  You should have seen me at intermission...I was flying high.  I don't need drugs!

Rehearsal discussions and some great women working together

The women who put this together were fabulous...and the owners and managers of White Horse in Black Mountain did a good job of running around doing lighting and mike and so on.

Betsy Murray, soloist

Anyway, love of the goddess was put into music, poetry and dance, as led and performed and written by Annelinde Metzner. 

Annelinde leading the choir while Stephanie sings with us

Flute by Cathy, guitar by Deb

M.C. by Nels Arnold

Deb and our very own "crone" Antiga (to whom that term is a complement)

Annelinde and Helen discuss the dancing

I'm so proud to have been part of this group praising all the aspects of goddesses, from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Celtic, African and Sumerian roots.

I hope to receive pics of the concert itself from others soon.


 

A friend in the audience who studied music and sang in operas said this was all new to him.  I just reminded him of how many musical compositions were made in praise of the sacred.

Annelinde Metzner

Promise of things to come

Spring blossoms Lake Tomahawk, 2012

It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.  Wendell Berry. Collected Poems

Dawn's early light

Sunrise from my front porch, winter 2012

Love, yes, love your calling, for this holy and generous love will impart strength to you so as to enable you to surmount all obstacles. 
 St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Embrace the World

Sorry about not posting on Washington's birthday, I think that must have some cosmic reason, of which I can't possibly fathom.  But I'm back!

Chimney Rock outlook

Walking from the concessions area to Chimney Rock outlook - a great summertime place to visit.

This is included in Friday Fences for this week.  I'm actually getting it posted on Friday, rather than the following Wed.  Do I get a gold star?  Come over to see some other great fences!

May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being.

Apache Blessing

Center for the Arts

Center for the Arts across street behind tree on right, (Harwood Funeral Home sign and flag in front to left) Black Mountain, Fall 2012

A good book

Library in Black Mountain, wintertime

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone."  Audrey Hepburn

I'm sending this to Fri. Fences!  (Come on over to see some other great inspirations) That red railing surely shows the spirit of the season when I took this.  And that's also the most snow we've seen this winter in Black Mountain ...at least here in town.

Off Montreat Rd

Fall colors along Beech Street, Black Mountain

"We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond."

Gwendolyn Brooks

Ms. Brooks speaks very poetically, but what does "magnitude and bond" mean?  For me it tends to say we make the other bigger, but also hold them back, or set limits.  What do you think?

Sahara Peace Choir to sing 2.24.13

The Sahara Peace Choir, with Annelinde Metzner standing middle in black top. (I'm in front with shawl wrapped around my shoulders) Linda is our leader, and for our next concert has written all the songs we will be singing.

In Black Mountain on Sunday, February 24 at 7:30 pm this women's choir will present

 "Lady of Ten Thousand Names" 

at The White Horse, a concert venue with refreshments.  

Poetry, two lovely dancers, and a solo performance by Stephanie Heidemann will round out the program.  

Sahara is a name chosen to blend the names of two matriarchs of ancient religious, Sarah and Hagar, who gave birth to Abraham's two sons.  This choir sings several times a year to raise funds for women's non-profits.

I'm sharing this with Sepia Saturday (here) because it's 1) a posed photograph and 2) a company of strangers who have come together (here for singing).  Check out other photographs (mostly vintage) and great stories at that meme.

And come hear the concert if you're in town!

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” ~Mark Twain

 

Mountain greenery

From Mt. Mitchell State Park, 2010

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else"

Emily Dickinson

North Fork Left Fork

Peaceful valley with some cows, near Black Mountain, NC along a road called North Fork, Left Fork.  I don't know if anyone knows what the forks were originally of, usually it's the left fork of something creek or river. 

If you drive up Right Fork of North Fork (heaven help the postal delivery) you get to the deadend near the reservoir for Asheville watershed.  You can't see it, unfortunately.  Except when the Blue Ridge Parkway is open and you go to the lookout at Craggy Gardens Visitors Center, and there it is about 10 miles away.

All of the creeks in Black Mountain end up in the Swannanoa River, and then the French Broad River, which flows west to the Tennessee River.

This posting is being submitted to http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/
as something that has been around for a long time, and I'm just thinking about the mountains and creeks.

Stream bed stones

Water seeking it's lowest level, flowing between stream bed stones and branches.  Flat Creek in Montreat, NC

"Not only must the most privileged feel they are brothers and sisters of the most destitute, but the most destitute must feel as well that something within them makes them equal to the greatest sages and geniuses."  Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

As soon as the site is open, this will be shared at Weekend Reflections.

Cycle of green

The month of February in North Carolina is confusing to plants...

Or maybe I meant humans...perhaps nature knows just what she is doing.

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life."  John Burroughs

Black Mountain porch

Great porch on which to eat or drink during warmer weather, with parking lot as view.  Better to look above it at the mountains in which Black Mountain nestles.

Take a Walk

a half mile walk that's easy to take around Lake Tomahawk, Black Mountain (here in summer lush)

Color to remember

Fall color has passed, but we can still remember its glory, especially in grey winter

Cherry Street welcomes you

Several stores on Cherry Street, downtown Black Mountain.

A great little store for those of us who like hand crafted pottery.  

This post is being submitted to Friday My Town Shoot Outs.
Come over to see what else is happening! 

White Sunday blossoms

Spring 2010

This is the very pruned pear tree across the street.  It has a short but early season.  I'm ready!

Old trout farm

A friend owns this retired trout farm, rows of ponds made of concrete which now leak.  The folks who put it up added classical touches of the flower urns on each level.  And I don't know if they are the same people who put the water wheel up above.  The stream still flows, as seen leaking through the wall of the pond which now has some aquatic plants rather than fish as inhabitants. 

This is my contribution to Weekend Reflections, since it is aquatic...though not particularly reflective.  But looking upon it does inspire reflecting thinking.

Where you can buy ANYTHING!

The General Store and Town Hardware, Black Mountain

Seniors treated well

Geese and ducks in foreground with Lakeview  Senior Center behind.  Here a hot lunch is served M-F for seniors by the Council on Aging.

Black Mountain shopping

Notice some of those signs

The one I like to remind newcomers about it the "state law, yield to pedestrians in crosswalk" (depicted on left under the I-40 sign).
Yes, there are 4-5 crosswalks in downtown Black Mountain, where cars are encouraged to stop for pedestrians.  I try to do it, but it takes some peripheral vision that sometimes I'm not tuned in to do.

And if you ever have a desire to revel in gorgeous yarns, come to our Yarn Shop!

Seven Sisters

Montreat Rd. on a winter day, one of the Seven Sisters mountains in the distance

Cloudy day

Often clouds drop into the valley from the mountains above, here looking south on Rte. 9 toward I-40 in downtown Black Mountain

Winter sunrise promise

Sunrise on winter morning, by Barbara Rogers

Trains and crafts meet here

The Train Depot no longer has any stopping trains, though there are a half dozen or so which go past daily.  So this is now the site of a crafts store for the tourists that arrive by car.