Looking Glass Falls - a short drive!

Here's renter, Alex, at Looking Glass Falls who sent me this picture. You take a 45 minute delightful tour south on the Blue Ridge Parkway (entrance just 8 miles from Cloud 9 through the Pisgah National Forest to this exit to U.S. 276 near Brevard.

Looking Glass Falls is one of the most popular falls in Western North Carolina. The name "Looking Glass" comes from Looking Glass Rock, where water freezes on its sides in the winter and then glistens in the sunlight like a mirror or looking glass. It's right off the road. Take a picnic.

Still in Bloom -the Precious Lady's Slippers

Walk the mountain trails on Cloud 9 properties and hunt for the rare Lady's Slippers. This is my favorite time of year to find these gems in the shaded woods!

Bluerry Patch-Ready for Inspection

Dear Dad,
I haven't seen you in a while so I thought I'd take a photo of how great the blueberry patch looks...all weeded, newly mulched plants in their prime loaded with green berries this May, newly planted 2 year old plants on the upper rows, everything mowed...just the way you'd like it. I love working outside just as you did for something to do in retirement. I will admit it is a little more work than I anticipated but rewarding. It sure gives you a lot of time to think when you're out there with nature and the few cars that pass by on this country road. I hope to restore the patch to its glory days of the mid 1970s when you and Mom were known by everyone around as the place to pick blueberries.
Thinking of you,
Janet
NOTE: Dad died in 2001 at the age of 93. He didn't turn it over to my care until he was 88 and the thorns and trees that had grown up in the patch have taken me 12 years to tame. I think I've finally done it and wanted to tell him as the blueberry patch was and is a favorite place on the farm.

Festival of Flowers-Save the Date '09

Plan ahead and save these dates for next year;
April 4–May 17, 2009

Biltmore's gardens, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, are alive with color as spring arrives. Enjoy special events and the beauty of tulips, azaleas, and countless other flowers during Festival of Flowers. Every vacation renter that stayed at Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway Cabin spent the day at the Biltmore Estate to see the gardens in '08 and were so glad they did.

The Motorcycles are Here!

An internet group of well-behaved Maximum Suzuki motorcyclers meet here every year. The outside workshop, known as the garage, becomes a smorgasboard of colorful helmets, gear and motorcycles in all colors. This year they gifted a waterproof map of their favorite trails which include the Deal’s Gap Tail of the Dragon (318 turns in 11 miles of scenic and twisty US 129 over the mountains of Tennessee into North Carolina which makes for a 300 mile day ) and over Hickory Nut Gap to Lake Lure for a before breakfast breather. Then they talk motorcycles into the night around the campfire pit here at Cloud 9.

Yay! The Tulip Poplar Blooms

It’s pretty exciting to be a bee keeper in WNC this time of year. The beautiful yellow, orange and green bloom of the tulip (yellow) poplar tree drips with nectar (don’t park your car under one in May) and is the major nectar source for honey here along with the locust (tree not cicada insects) and the blackberry blooms. The honey bees zoom industriously back and forth out of their hive to every bloom in a 2 mile radius doing the waggle dance inside the hive to tell the others exactly where the best nectar is. Last year, the freeze devastated the blooms and the year before a terrific wind storm knocked them off in their prime so for now, bee keepers like me say…Yay! The tulip poplar blooms!

PS The beehives are a little over a half mile away from Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway cabin so have no fear if you don’t like honey bees. They are not aggressive unless you’re a bear. Upon renter request, I’ll take you in the hives, with full protective gear, of course.

Come Kick a Rock

Dirt roads, almost as rare as hen's teeth in Fairview, NC as developers demand ameneties for prospective buyers. My favorite winding backroad to town got paved a few years ago. Sure, less dust and easier on the car but it was the road I always took out-of-town guests on the way back from the airport. "We live way back in the hills," I would boast as they gripped the dashboard around the hairpin turns. The next day, they would find out we are really just 4/10 mile from the paved road that leads to town just 15 minutes away. Tee-hee!

But Cloud 9 properties stretch on both sides of this country road. Cows on one side, pasture and woods on the other and follow the gravel drive to the top of the hill where you have the view (and no dust).

Come, kick a rock, take a walk, stop and see images in the clouds, watch the cows grazing, go back in time to simpler ways ...all here.

Giant Black Widow

Asheville has lots of fun places to explore. One of them is the Arboretum off the Blue Ridge Parkway. This traveling exhibit is called Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders and since I had never seen a real live glow-in-the-dark scorpion or been in an artrium filled with hatching monarchs, I went. Here I am almost being eaten by the giant pvc pipe, paper mache black widow!

Caffeine

For those of you that are addicted, let me introduce you to Drinking Beans Coffee Shop otherwise known as Drinkin' Beans or DN BZ as the closest place to get snap-you-awake java. My former 4th grade student, Zach, (pictured here) created this space a year ago. I'm so proud of him. It's a relaxing place, half way to Asheville, full of great artwork and newspapers to read with outside seating, too, looking at the mountains. For the coffee connoisseur, Zach has freshly roasted coffee from the main coffee growing regions just an 7 minute drive away. You might not get the hug I got from him, but DN BZ will welcome you!

That Darned Old Tree

All fall and winter I curse that crab apple tree in the pasture. It's prickly limbs that fall off or have to be trimmed give injuries even to my gloved hands everytime. But now...in the spring...full glorious blossoms (double blossoms this year to make up for the freeze of '07) in pinkish white that make the valley come alive with happy honeybees and happy cows that like the shade and use those prickly low hanging branches to scratch that itch! I sing praises now to that "darned old tree."