The last of March, a holy day for many

 Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

This does not include the many people on this earth of non-Christian beliefs. For them, there are other springtime celebrations.

And an early Easter on the last day of March must have some meaning. Did you know the Christians still choose the date for Easter each year based on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Very pagan, I'd say. 

And I'm rolling in joy with all the blossoms blooming around me.! Trees are pollinating (achoo!) and cars are suffering.

I begin with two side-shots...looking away from the banks of Flat Creek. Uphill behind the bamboo, stands a shed, which I believe once belonged to some potters who have since moved. Fun memory.

Walking down into a more flat area, we looked across the creek to see steps leading down to it. There were no buildings on that property, but it made us pause to think that at one time someone wanted to have access to the creek regularly...living perhaps in a house that is now gone. Creek water is nice to drink coming down from the mountains...though now days there might be fertilizer coming into it from a few homes upstream.

As Flat Creek passes by Ole's Guacamole Restaurant, there's a tree with a label.

There are many other treasured trees from a map that I saw at Lake Tomahawk in the bulletin board. I want to find more.

The Bistro restaurant is to the right (on State St,) while the welcome center is just beyond it.

I was stopped at the light in the center of town, and gazing around, noticed this fire hydrant had been decked out with a scarf, probably lost at some time by a visitor, who won't know where it is!

Not sure how this got in here! Makes sense...

The building in the back is Four Sisters Bakery - which has lots of goodies!

This is the Red Rocker Inn, a B&B, which has a dining room behind the many windows to the right.

Another town has a UU church with this outdoor gathering circle of benches.

Have fun, whether dying eggs and hiding them and having little ones find them, or feasting with loved ones! All our rituals do bring us together to enjoy life.

Today is:

Easter Sunday, 

National Prom Day, 

Crayon Day, 

Tater Day

Today's quote:

Novelist and poet Ben Okri, born in Minna, Nigeria (1959), lived mainly in England until he was seven years old, when his family moved back to Nigeria. Okri said: "Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. ... The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens' characters are Nigerians. ... Literature may come from a specific place, but it always lives in its own unique kingdom."

I think that I shall never see

 ...a poem as lovely as a tree.

Thanks to Joyce Kilmer's poem.

Today I focus on the trees by Flat Creek.

Not sure if these are sister trees, or the small one is just a secondary  trunk.

There are so many wonderful textures on trees.

Way above the creek bed, and the power lines, are houses along the top of this ridge.

While below is a short driveway and several hiking trails going in different directions in Montreat NC.

Most of the greenery in February in these woods comes from rhododendrons. But there are also some evergreen trees.

Today's quote:

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life...”

Herman Hesse

A nature soak

 Flat Creek - warm day with sunshine led me on a short walk.

Sharing with 

Wordless Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Thankful Thursday

Today's quote:

Take your good fortune and lift your life to its highest calling. Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.

OPRAH WINFREY

Flat Creek

 Somebody sure got that name wrong.

A summertime shot in Montreat (up-stream from Black Mountain)

But if anywhere it might look flat, before flowing into the Swananoa River in another 2-300 yards, on the other side of US 70 in East Black Mountain...here it is.

The view from Ole's Guacamole Restaurant parking lot, with a Super 8 motel over there.

Some old trees have seen it all...

A prop from the restaurant which has seen better days.

Just a wee bit of fall color still to be seen.

While most of the leaves are already in the water.

Today's quote:

Gratefulness allows us to nurture a keener eye that no longer rushes past the small everyday moments that make up the larger part of our lives.

GURI MEHTA

More from latest water visit

 You knew I did more than just listen while sitting by Flat Creek last Sunday... I did swivel my head, trying to discern which voices of the creek came from which direction. But then I looked more closely and had to capture some of the designs that nature offered.

This strange marble boulder was golden in comparison to the rest of the rocks.

Below the bridge is a nice pool which is always washed away during the next rain...see the rocks going across the water?

Today's quote:

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.

RUMI

Enjoying listening rather than looking

 It was a strange exercise for me. To listen to the creek as it flowed gently over a few rocks. I wanted to keep clicking my camera. I wanted to swing my head up down and around to see everything.

 But I was on a listening adventure. Rather neat to hear two creek voices - one downstream where water hit rocks in a shallows, and upstream where it tumbled down over small cascades from above my head's height.

Where I sat...just a quiet place beside the stream.

Moss growing along the bank.

Looking down to where I put my chair on the right behind the slanting tree, from the bridge.

Some clarification of directions to trails for newcomers. I felt quite alone while sitting there before churches were out on Sunday. But the parking lot was full when I left. Glad to move through town easily and back home again.

Today's quote:

By harnessing the power of your imagination, you can realize your dreams.

Sunday at another place on Flat Creek

 After church last Sunday I drove up to Montreat (on Hwy 9, it's only road in and out of town.) 

I wanted to see a different area of the creek which forms the backbone (being the lowest part) of this valley. Here's a poor panorama shot showing the back of the tennis courts on far right, the creek itself, and a bridge between the parking area and the 2 lane Hwy 9.

I did not find peace and quiet in which to "recharge my psychic energies" this time. There were little people and their families all over the running water and the rocks.

I think it's great that these young people are exploring nature and finding what they can do climbing the rocks.

Since this is a cool shady valley, rhododendrons were still in bloom everywhere.

I had to wait my turn to get on the bridge to take photos.

I was pleased enough just to find this spot, which was new to me. It's great to know my little favorite creek still has new surprises for me to discover.

Today's quote:

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. -Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel laureate (1885-1962)

Those physists! If you know what he was talking about, another profound truth, please let me know!