Studio Tour

In case you never look at my other blog, Alchemy of Clay (here) you may not know that I'm part of a Studio Tour this weekend, Sat. and Sun. all day.

So in hopes of letting people find my home easily, there will of course be big blue and white signs posted about (Blue to Black.)  But I have a bit more permanent feature.

The Hummingbird is a bit hard to see as you turn in Beech St, from Montreat Rd, but the brown clay sign Rogers, might be more visible.

Critters abound

Where's the squirrel?  And are there really 6 doves around the birdbath?

Wordless Wednesday

Night windows

Stained glass windows look lovely from inside with sunlight streaming through them.

But at night they hold a special place, illuminating scenes which are usually black, grey, and shades of white lights.

Taken from a distance, this caught my eye, so I turned around and came back and stood outside.

My camera phone doesn't have a "night setting" which I learned other smart phones do have.

Thanks to Black Mountain's United Methodist Church for brightening up the night!

Town square developing

Slowly but surely we are having a Town Square that will be beautiful.

Stones, dirt and a tree trunk will be part of one garden area, shown here looking north toward the fire station..

There's a water feature as part of this "fabricated hill" which has some benches next to it. looking south from same position as previous photo.

 Walking around the hillock, now looking east, can you find the water yet?  Me neither.

Yes, there it is in the center (just ignore the photographer's shadow in the foreground, as well as the remaining piles of dirt scattered about!)

There we go, a great view of several levels of cascades, which will probably be well lit at night.

Colorful still in places

Spots of brilliant color still are around, though there's not a blade of grass in my yard without a brown leaf cuddled up next to it.

The view from the Black Mountain Library looking over Asheville Savings Bank toward Rt. 9.  (the blue van is travelling west on State St, or US 70)

Stop the water running downhill

The natural slope goes downhill pretty gradually.

My downhill neighbor built a fence to keep draining water from sitting on his concrete pad next to his garage.  So there's a foot and a half or more of 4x4's stacked, with gravel in the ditch on my side, and that construction cloth stuff next to the wood...then a fence built on top of it.

Neighbor's lot has been graded until it's almost flat, with a steep ditch next to the road on his own downhill side.

 

The new fence has lots of stair steps, but didn't end up being totally opaque, thank heavens.

Where he needed a privacy fence, he really didn't succeed, because my house is over 6 feet higher than his, thus all my windows look over his fence to where his back door is on the side.  And the rest of the fence is a screen for a blank wall of his garage.  But as for water barrier, my vote is like the native in Out of Africa who told Isaac Denisen that "this water belongs in Mozambique," or wherever it was, and when the floods came, the water took out the dam.  I do hope this won't happen for my neighbor after all this effort.

Of course this effort does deserve to be in Friday Fences HERE!

Tunnel Road

Charlotte Street is the cross street for Tunnel Road in Asheville, heading east.

Head up a hill and curve to the right...

And there's the mouth of the tunnel itself.

In Asheville, US 70 goes through a mountain.  When the interstate 40 people were working on a bypass, named 240, they kind of went over the same mountain...but the cut is sheer and still pretty deep.

 I can't ever take pictures while driving it, so it will be some time probably before I can show you those rocky faces.  It took my breath away when I first saw it, and it's stupendous after a snow and the south facing rocks have icy drips everywhere.  So that's one of my goals for this winter...to pull off to the side and take pictures before a police car comes along.

At my feet

Wordless Wednesday