Old days in Asheville

 The circus came to town. Early 1900s.

Crowd gathered in Pack Square to hear President Teddy Roosevelt...1902

End of WW I welcoming soldiers home. at Vance Memorial.

 Buncombe County Court House, 1800's

 Court House 1930s.

 Pack Square, 1897

Looking down Patton Ave from Court House, 1881

Weather rules

Though there have been a couple of days of sunshine, there's rain in the forecast at the end of the week. Take a deep breath.  Do you get the petrichor? I hope so.  It's better than the artificially dried and warmed air of our homes these days...though I do hope you are keeping warm and dry in your shelter... I think there's a variation of petrichor that happens on concrete...like sidewalks.  What do you think?

Night of Christmas

 Yes, this family has a pickle hung on the tree, which there's some kind of prize for the child who finds it, though it usually is an adult.  Nobody knows why they do it either!

 Black Mountain Town Square has a brilliant tree.

 The visitor center has even bedecked their huge rocking chair out front.

 Driving slow on Blue Ridge Rd, I could see a few of the decorated yards.

But a moving car tends to blur everything.

Blue Ridge mountains

 There's a dead end street, with just a couple of houses on it, by Lake Tomahawk.

When I saw this beautiful view of the white mountain tops...well, I had to zip by and capture what I could.

 Walking closer and closer, and then with my phone camera doing a zoom...

There had been rain the day before but on the tops of mountains it was snow.  And it is still cold, though the sun did come out.  There's also hoarfrost.


Today's quote:

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people? -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, author, and lecturer (1884-1962)

Some night scenes

I seldom end up being out at night. Something to do with a fairly early bedtime, I imagine.

 But the other night after a dinner party, I thought I'd take a bit of a ride around downtown Black Mountain.  I know there are more beautifully decorated homes...but this is the grouping I saw.

 The Red Rocker Inn has a restaurant which was full of guests.

 The camera blurred the pretty star on this front porch.

 Unfortunately I didn't get a red light, so just slowed down and took this blurry one of Town Square.  It certainly deserves better, so I'll go back again !

 Looking down Cherry St. from State Street, by 7:15 this town usually pulls up the sidewalks.  There are a few pubs open still, which do host into later hours.

 The Trail Head Restaurant had some damage to it's roof from the snow last week, so they are closed for now.  Too bad as this is a busy shopping and eating out season.

 Mellie Mack's very busy, with plants, trees wreathes, and perhaps still the wine bar!

The Monte Vista had outside lights that invite you in to see the Christmas Tree contest.  I need to go see it soon too.

Rosemary for remembrance

 Today's quote: by Madisyn Taylor, Trusting one's gut...

 Part of being an intuitive person is becoming in-tune with, and trusting, your power center.

Trains cause traffic jams sometimes

 What's up? The funny looking police cars conversational pose...but one car has the window closed, so I'd say he didn't really want to talk to the other one!  There is storage of various campers in the lot behind them, then the railroad tracks.

I was about 10th in a line of cars waiting for this westbound freight train with empty cars to slowly go by (I sat for about 10 minutes).

There was another train on a siding (behind the police cars you can see it) waiting for the brown coal cars to go by...and did the crossing arms go up after the first train had passed? I didn't wait to see beyond about 3 minutes, but turned around (after the police had left the empty parking lot) and drove all the way back to Black Mountain and crossed the tracks there.  The eastbound train hadn't made it yet coming into town.  But as I finally got back to the crossing (just blocks from home) I saw that cars were going through it.  Yay, the crossing arms finally had come up.  But before I parked in the apartment parking lot, I heard the eastbound train's whistle as it headed out...again making traffic wait for it to pass.

Sunday from one end to another

 I started out the day brewing coffee for the church people to drink after the service. I like splitting up the duties in which I do prep work, and a friend does cleanup.

 Then in the evening, I went to a Yule ritual in Asheville.  It was fun seeing decorations there.

 Even plastic greenery looks pretty when the light hits it.

 Their love and peace tree was pretty too.

This was before the Yule ritual, where the Holly and the Ivy met with the Oak king and the Sun returned...very nicely dramatized, and included some participation by those who attended.

Quote for today:

As a human being living on earth, it is important to learn to ground yourself in relation to your earth mother.

Black Mountain Center for the Arts pottery show

Regina's Trois Poissons with a bit of live plant growing also

Pat Levi's Three vase shapes

 Pat Levi's bird apartments

 Susan has a tree of honor...

Some student's works are for sale in the hallway.  All sales have 50% of proceeds supporting the Center for the Arts.