More Blue Ridge and Altamont Apple Orchard

A duplicate of post (that was planned for When I was 69 today...but will come again tomorrow), 

Though the majority of the trees are still green, we loved spotting the beautiful colors of fall shining in spots.

Our ears had popped a long time ago...since Black Mountain's elevation is around 2400 feet. The Parkway winds its way through the mountains, going up and down and around a lot!

That break in the vegetation didn't look wide enough to be a fire break...so maybe it's just a fire road.  Or something else?

After juggling around in another crowded parking lot...we went inside at the Altamont Apple Store.

We stood in line so I could buy a piece of home made apple pie.  It's so much better than any I can buy or make!!

It's fun to sit out on the balcony and look over the orchard.

There was a cute diorama, as well as explanations of which kinds of apples were grown where at the orchard. 

Today's quote:

​Creativity -- like human life itself -- begins in darkness. We need to acknowledge this. All too often, we think only in terms of light: "And then the lightbulb went on and I got it!" It is true that insights may come to us as flashes. It is true that some of these flashes may be blinding. It is, however, also true that such bright ideas are preceded by a gestation period that is interior, murky, and completely necessary. -Julia Cameron, artist, author, teacher, filmmaker, composer, and journalist (b. 4 Mar 1948) 

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)

The Blue Ridge

Mr. Vandervilt (who built the Biltmore Estate) definitely had some good architects and landscape planners...including Olmstead who also did Central park in NY.

 On the south side of the Biltmore mansion,a great view could be had from the vine covered patio, of his property which stretched for miles, all the way to Mount Pisgah.  I'm going to show you the distant views first, then maybe we can figure out which one is Pisgah, which has a tower on top of it.

I'm thinking the high one on the left side is probably it.  So let's do some cropping of the original photos and see what we get.

It's a bit cloudy and we had rain by 5 pm, but this was the best that I was able to capture.