Pisgah Inn visit

 Fun display in the gift shop...after we'd eaten, then we felt leisurely enough to "window shop."
(Window shop just means "not buying anything.")

 Rather high quality post cards and other local art work...including some nice pottery!

 Here's the limitation of phone cameras...either too dark if you want to see the light naturally...

 Or too light if you want to see the foreground.  Oh well. Just looking.

 Fun book selection. I imagine sitting in a room in the nearby motel and reading something (especially on a rainy day, of which we've had plenty!)

 Or how about one liner signs to send to friends?

 Since the Inn and restaurant just opened April 1, there wasn't a big crowd like there will be in the summertime.

 The new viewing deck was almost for ourselves alone!

 I couldn't resist getting a multiple image through the window, to the other side of the gift shop, including yours truly reflected! The bright half of my face is of the little stained glass items on the other window with trees outside it.

Some of the structure of the viewing platform, which is handicap accessible.

More to come...of our journey before going through 9 tunnels on the way home on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

On a good day, drive in the mountains

This was a spur of the moment day trip...just go to lunch up in the mountains with a friend!

 

The roadside waterfall called to us. Looking Glass Falls is over there, and there are all those steps we could go down, and back up again. Nah, not this time!

 I'm fine with the zoom on the phone capturing this much.  After all, it's only to share on a blog. Not going to put it in any photo contest!

Marshall, Madison County, NC

The pottery will be shared over at Alchemy of Clay blog (of course).

But these are photos of the environment in which we sauntered on Saturday morning.  I was good this year and didn't bring home more pottery!  Missed one of my favorites potters who wasn't showing this year.  He apparently had a show in Greensboro, NC.

 Downtown Marshall is still the scene of economic depression.

My friend Helen, told me that we've been doing these day trips since 2013.  What fun.  Maybe a couple of times a year we take off for parts unknown, or return to favorite places that are only a couple of hours at most away from Black Mountain, NC. And several other friends join in when they can.  It's a great thing to do when we can set a day aside to be "frivolous" or "decadent."

Someone has taken care of this antebellum house. There's a new tin roof, and fresh paint in appropriate colors.

Tulips are growing in the front bed along the old foundations.

 But we crossed the bridge to the island where art studios take up most of an old school building.

 And the large room (lunch room?) displays pottery, and has some snacks as well.

 At 11 am on Saturday (it's only a one day show) there was a good crowd.  Pottery lovers know to come early to get the best wares.

 These tulips and anemones didn't make it into displays, so were sitting out on a patio area where folks were lunching.

 The potters in studio 109 were selling stew, salads and deserts.

My friend took home a couple of their salads!

But our lunch came from this food truck, very spicy Thai food.  Yummy!

 Before leaving Marshall, we had to visit the co-op art gallery, FLOW.  Lots of beautiful things were on display!

 I was struck by this beautiful quilt...but found it was quite thin, has practically no batting at all!

The geese don't ever have any heads. And I had seen their white wings as sailboats first! One of those figure/ground things.

 And it was nice to see the artist also on display, as one of the members.

Red Dogwood

Finally a dogwood - and a gloomy day at the lake

There's one blooming across the parking lot from the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. (more below)

I was willing to walk around the lake, and had the time, but some tightness in my chest said no, not today. (I have no heart problems, but at my age, I'm careful.) So after lunch I took this photo, with the early green buds highlighted by the purple mountains.

 Yesterday was sunny, so I walked closer to the dogwood by the parking lot.

It is much more abundant than the ones around my apartment.

White Trilium

A posey for enjoyment

Contours in mountains

 Late afternoon sun the other day showed all these ridges coming down from the mountain in more clarity.

 But a phone through window or screen left a lot to be desired...sorry about that.

 I was struck by the curve of bare rock/or perhaps a fire-break coming down from the peak. But it was already hard to see with the twigs and beginnings of leaves on the trees.

Full magnification on an iPhone camera is very impressionistic.

Working and playing at Lake Tomahawk

 If you dye your hair brilliant blue and cut it in a Mohawk, you should catch fish better, right?
Well, he caught a hose, which is part of the aeration system to keep the lake healthy.  I wonder if he threw it back, (as I didn't stop once we saw he had a hose on the line.)

 Nearby a man with serious gardening activities was hoeing away at the ground. His mother (I always see him as her caregiver) sat nearby in her wheelchair, enjoying the sunny afternoon.  I wonder what he'll plant there by the water...

And Saturday is a great day for the kids and families to visit the playground!