Not all is grey

Monday Mural

Linking to Monday Murals

A well decorated retailing wall, with gravel on the slope above the mural, and kudzu (probably) growing across it and hanging down over the mural.  It faces a parking lot in Spruce Pine NC, where we recently visited. This community is a mining town, where much of the feldspar and the finest silica (for use in all technological devices) is mined still.

Changes along S. Blue Ridge Rd.

 You can turn off South Blue Ridge Rd. onto Lakey Gap Road, and still see the horses on one side.

 You might notice that the earth has been sprayed with something green next to the road, up to a barrier fence.  I wonder if it includes grass seed.

But the sign informs us that Sweet Birch Commons is being built in the other horse pasture.  A series of condominiums.  I cringe to think of the added traffic! Blue Ridge is a 2 lane residential road.

Today's Quote:

Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don’t expect it to be easy or even noticed.

ADYASHANTI

Day trip for pottery lovers

Spruce-Pine North Carolina has one of the best pottery shows.  A smallish venue, and finding parking included shimmeying my car into a non-spot which was right here, across from the entrance to the warehouse.  

This is in the heart of Western North Carolina pottery country. And the potters that displayed here included some of the best of this particular genre.  They are focused on their work. They have their own styles which I've seen change through the 11 years I've been looking at them.  Though it's the next day now, a rainy Sunday morning, the show will continue today 10-4 there in Spruce-Pine.

I'll show more of the pots over on my pottery blog HERE as the week goes on. But today I just wanted to share how wonderful it is to go somewhere on a beautiful day with friends. It sure makes the driving more interesting!

After wandering through all (and I mean all) the displays, the afternoon sunlight on the beautiful floors showed the crowd had diminished by 3:30, almost time for the tired potters to go home.

One potter just fell asleep from exhaustion, and I don't know who she was.  But I don't blame her.

I've got more photos of us tourists. Show you more later

Michael, the hurricane here

While we watched on TV (when the elec was still on) with our mouths hanging open, the damage this Category 4 hurricane made in the Florida panhandle yesterday (having come ashore Wed. around 1:30 pm)...his waters finally gave out on Thurs here in the afternoon.

Black Mountain had received over 7 inches of rain in that 24 hours.  Old Fort had even more.  And Marion even more than that.  So no wonder there were flash flood warnings!  Mountains give up the rain pretty fast, and yet...the good news was that it didn't rain so badly over toward the coast where the last hurricane Florence had flooded the low lands with continued rivers overrunning everything.

So I just wanted to add this weather to my history page...here.

If I drive down my street, Blue Ridge Road, down the hill, across US 70 at the bottom of the hill, across the tracks, then about a block, there's the Swannanoa River, usually just a creek hereabouts.  That guard rail shows the usual length of it, and it's usually running perpendicular a few feet under the road (South Blue Ridge Road here).  But yesterday around 10 am, a Black Mountain News photographer captured it as it flooded to the pavement.  It has gone higher in the past, but this of course closed the road.

The same publication on Facebook gave this photo of my favorite walking area. Lake Tomahawk is a very shallow lake, and is in a bowl of valley between lots of steep hills, and one creek that feeds it. I don't even know if it has a name, maybe one of the North Forks.  Around here there's even a North Fork Right Fork.  I've never seen the Left Fork...but this one probably isn't it.  I'll ask some folks who live below the lake on the creek that flows into the Swannanoa just a few blocks beyond their house.

I'm glad the BM News photographer took this, because that's my path, over there on the left, and the post is the corner of the Lakeview Center building.  The bench and tree are usually on a spit of land with Lake Tomahawk on either side...and you can walk out to it.  A friend who lives overlooking the lake said it had gone back down in a few hours!  I was glad, thinking of that earthen dam that protects all those houses along the creek below the lake.

I wish I had a photo of the one of the most amazing devastations from the storm near Panama City FL.  It was on the weather channel yesterday, of a train that had been blown over...off the tracks all along the length of it...empty cars, no engine.  There were some cars that had been blown right off the wheel trolleys.

I know the personal devastation for homes was also bad, and there are many photos of how awful that looks...just lumber and a few slabs of concrete where homes were.  I hope the occupants were in shelters...and that they are able to return to their lives without too much trauma.

It was hard to read of my friend on Facebook in Tallahassee when she lost power and then was sitting in her closet with her cat listening to the roar of the wind.  I'm glad that she wrote the next day that she survived the storm without damage to her home, but was still without electricity on Thursday. The damage to property and especially trees from so much wind is staggering.

But we didn't suffer from wind.  And I only wanted to post because I wanted to save these photos for my own history.

Cloudy walk

 A cloudy but dry day to walk on Mon Oct 8, 2018.

 I may not encounter wildlife, but there were dogs and owners all along the path...perhaps that's why ducks and geese weren't there!

 The green grass at the far side of the lake, is all that grows on the earthen dam of Lake Tomahawk now.

 Yes, along the walk on the dam was fluttering a Monarch butterfly.  So I fluttered with my phone camera in hopes of capturing it too.

 There were obviously a few misses!

And surprisingly enough, I caught some mallards as they came in for a landing on the lake.  They also make a bunch of noise as they fly...perhaps saying to each other, "yes, there's good eating on the bottom of this shallow lake!"

Kayak surprise

Padding stranger on the lake the other morning.  The mallards took offense however.

Where do they go in the winter?

 I stopped my walk yesterday to hear the approach of geese.  These Canada geese were honking as they went.

 They must have just formed up into a line, because they weren't an organized "V" yet.

And standing alone near me was this guy, who definitely heard them going by also.  But made no effort to join in.

The question I've been asking, Where do the go in the winter?  Down south is everywhere from South Carolina, to Georgia, to Florida.  I imagine there are lots of wetlands.  I just haven't ever heard of the main area they might like.

An unnamed mountain still there!

 Drat, a flash of sunshine blasted my attempt at photographing this plaque.

Sorry it's in 3 pieces, but that sunshine made the camera's aperture keep going dark so you couldn't read it at all! This plaque (or one similar) used to be by Lake Tomahawk where you can look up and see this view.  I think it was vandalized.  So now this one is in the Swannanoa Valley History Museum.

What do you think that unnamed mountain should be named?  I've got some interesting ideas...

What colors are around me

I think that spotted leaf is poison ivy.  Wasn't touching it out of my usual caution.

Some nice yellow fungi were tucked in with the foliage under a tree.

My hanging basket of Wandering Jew is doing well, and I'm thinking of how I'll cut it back to bring it inside for the winter.  Not for another month though.

For some reason this coleus has giant leaves with great color.  I may try to keep it alive in the winter...after all my windowsills face south and get plenty of sun once the leaves fall off the trees.

The deep red leaved coleus hasn't done well at all, and will be let to die over wintertime.  My little dragonfly sitting on a kitty aways brings a smile.  The other green plant is a little vinca vine which I'll also overwinter inside.

Once again, dogwood's berries seem to be the most colorful part of the tree...which usually has a vibrant red leaf before they fall.  Maybe in a few weeks.  The berries must not be of interest to the birds, because they remain there on the branches.

TODAY'S QUOTE:

Being aware of our connection to our presence regenerates our personal power.