Violet flowers

OK, this time of year, you can live in Alaska and see pretty flowers.  And I wish I could see more of theirs...which are quick to grow and bloom, as they have to be.

But here are some more from the Richmond Hill Inn property, which is now the Oshun Mountain (OM) Sanctuary.

What a beautiful garden!

I think this lovely lady had a scent which drew me to her.

Blue what?

At first I noticed these strange pods along a walk.

How can those spindly leaves and stems produce such large globular seed pods?

Then there were these blue beauties blooming right on the same stems...so I'm a bit closer to knowing what they are... do you?

White flowers

It's been raining for 2 days and about to start again...thanks to a tropical storm Andrea, the first of our season.  So this lovely white rose may smell good, but the wilted flowers haven't fallen away as they should if they were dry.

The Japanese Dogwood is blooming profusely, much later than our local wild dogwoods.

A good landscaping design lets the OM Sanctuary of Asheville have a beautiful garden which was beautifully designed and is being refurbished.  I've mentioned it before in my posts about the Choir singing there for the ribbon cutting.

Pearson Mansion

A nice easy climb up a meandering walk to the former site of the Pearson Mansion.  There used to be a stream with water features along the path to the right.  The rock beds are still there, but slightly overgrown.

This is the site of the former mansion.  It had been an Inn before an arsonist set fire to it.  I met a man looking at this swale of grass, and he said the bricks on the far side were the original back wall, this was where the front entrance was, and he had worked here when it was the Richmond Hill Inn when he was much younger.

So much of the grounds and other buildings have been renovated, creating a beautiful place for retreats at OM Sanctuary, a not-for-profit Healthy Life Style center. (See their web page at www.OMSanctuary.org.

 

Historic view of Richmond Hill House
Photo courtesy of North Carolina Collection, 

Pack Memorial Public Library,

 Asheville, North Carolina

For more information about the changes of the Richmond Hill Inn and plans for OM Sanctuary you can read a 2011 article here.