Blue Ridge

I love the Blue Ridge Parkway. There's something about mountains that soothes my soul. An hour on the Parkway and I feel drugged with beauty.

This trip, I'm driving the southern section, from Cherokee north to Asheville. I'll have to come back again, of course, since I'll only be staying in Asheville for a night, so I won't be seeing much of the town.

This is a beautiful time to drive -- but, of course, when isn't a beautiful time? What I like right now are the sharp changes between elevations. Off the mountain, the world is spring heading into summer. On the mountain, the spring is just beginning.

At lower elevations, it's that "surprise!" green of trees that are just leafing out.

Higher, it's early spring wildflowers.






 All beautiful, but there's something about the change as the road rises and falls that is especially captivating.


Wild rhododendron are everywhere on the mountain. None of them are in bloom yet, and at higher elevations, I don't see any buds. Off the mountain they're blossoming everywhere, but up here, you have to wait longer. June, I'm told. One day I'll come back for that.

This stretch of the Parkway has high elevations and sharp curves -- and lots of sheer rock along the road. It shines wet in the sun. I can't tell whether there is actually a tiny spring somewhere or the rock is wet from the heavy mists that covered the road earlier in the morning. Lichen and mosses are growing happily in the crevices.




I could stay on this mountain a long, long time. Oh, if only I could!

in the neighborhood

Gayle's neighborhood has the most interesting mix of residents!  This pair of sandhill cranes brings their chicks to the door to say hello. They come really close, too!

They're taller than they look at a distance -- the biggest one is almost as tall as I am. It came right up and made the most beautiful, soft, liquid cluck right at me. Pretty sure it was suggesting Rice Chex (we're told those are safe for the cranes to eat).

They didn't stay long, but I sure enjoyed the visit!

old bus

When I was about 10, I read a newspaper article about a guy who fitted out an old bus and followed autumn every year, from Canada down to the Gulf.

That sounded like the best plan I'd ever heard. I wanted one so bad!  Drew out floor plans to scale and everything.

At one point, I needed to know the dimensions of a twin bed and asked all the grownups in the house at the moment. My favorite aunt laughed and fetched the Sears Roebuck catalog, and we looked up the measurements. Later she said to my mother, "The things you have to know to keep up with this kid!"

Well, I may not have a bus . . . but I have Kit, and I'll head for the Southwest this winter.

switching tracks

I slept a lot today -- big nap! Woke up feeling dismal but actually made myself stop it. Don't quite know how I did that, but I'd better figure it out. Fine now.

It felt like -- when I woke up, my brain was running on old circuits, and somehow I switched them to the newer path. I remember thinking, "I'm just NOT going to think like that," and I got up and took Wm out and drank some leftover coffee, and pretty soon I felt fine. Could it really be that easy, if the newer path has been established?

That would be something like, "All that agonizingly hard work paid off in the end."

we shall ride

Or at least, I shall ride. The William doesn't ride horseback, and even if he did, I can't imagine the stable would want a strange dog near their horses. He will have to content himself with admiring them from a distance. So, I guess that's the 'royal we' in the title. How appropriate. The thought of riding soon makes me feel quite regal.

I knew there was a large state-owned recreation area not far from here, one that covered almost 5,000 acres. I'd heard that it had trails and an equestrian campground. I never knew that it also had a riding stable! As you'd expect, I'm thrilled.

No, of course riding a stable horse isn't like riding your own horse. How could it be? You're strangers; there's no bond of trust and understanding between you. Also, stable horses are accustomed to inexperienced riders, so they've learned to ignore the shifts in position that would be signals from a knowledgeable rider. I expect they'd go mad if they didn't!

It doesn't matter. I haven't owned a horse in decades, and it's unlikely that I ever will again. I'll take my pleasure as I find it, and enjoy an hour in the woods and fields on a rented mount.

It may be sooner than you'd think! This has been a surprisingly warm winter, and the weather is softening already. I expect that four weeks from now, I'll be quite ready to hitch up the trailer and head for the campground. And ride while I'm there, too.

Roll on, spring!

first snowflake sphere

Since I was feeling too ragged to travel, I decided to do a little quilling. I've been wanting to make something three-dimensional with quilled snowflakes. I ended up making my first snowflake sphere!


It isn't perfect, but I'm really excited about it. I shaped the pieces on a foam mold as I made them, so that each one would have the necessary curve. Then I assembled the larger pieces, and made sure the glue had at least 8 hours to set. Actually, the thing that makes this an experiment rather than a completed sphere is that I underestimated how much reinforcement a nine-inch sphere needed as I was building, so this sphere is a bit too flexible. If I hung it, I think it would sag over time. The next one will be completely rigid.

And now that I have that figured out . . . oh, my, more possibilities! I'm thinking of quilled dragon wings . . .

William's dilemma

My sister saved a big soup bone for William yesterday. We knew he would love it. He prefers his bones cooked; I've even seen him walk away from a raw bone. Fussy, fussy!

We were right! He wouldn’t let it out of his mouth, even to go outdoors. Every night shortly after dark, he goes out; when he comes in, he gets his very yummy supplement. He had a really hard time leaving the bone behind when he went out, and grabbed it again as he walked through the door.

There was no supplement waiting for him! I thought I'd wait until he was done enjoying the bone. He was shocked! What a dilemma! He walked around holding the bone and crying, wanting both at once.   

Life is hard when you’re a dog!