Day Datin' Episode Two: Highlands NC

So good news. I've talked hubs into 52 dates in 52 weeks. More or less. Probably less but we're going to try. I'm going to try. I'm not sure I actually told him the exact number, but whatever...he'll go along with it because that's what you do when you're married a long time. You zig and he zigs with you. Something like that. 

Also he loves together time while I'm a person who craves space. 

See? Zigging and zagging. 

Let's define the word 'date'. We're retired so we naturally spend a lot of time together. We dine out at some point every week and I guess technically you'd call those 'dates'. Except we don't. We just call it grabbing lunch or dinner. I'm going to use the word date here in a more intentional way. As in, we're going to put a literal date on the calendar. We're going to plan ahead. 

Well probably I'll be the one planning but that's okay. I told him we'll snap a picture every week too, because it you don't snap a picture did it really happen? 

Not in 2025. Plus how do I make a 'date book' if we neglect to photograph it in some way? 

Date number 2...

We like to drive into our favorite nearby mountain town every fall and last Wednesday was the day. You might have thought I was kidding when I said we were going to write these dates on the calendar, but we had this one written on our calendars. 

There was a little bit of rain in the forecast but we woke to sunny skies, and ended up having lovely weather the whole day. We wound our way up the mountain to the charming town of Highlands NC for lunch and shopping, and we thought maybe a stop at the waterfall. Construction was ongoing there so we didn't get to hike. Western N. Carolina is still recovering from Helene in so many ways.

We remembered to snap a picture this time. 

That's  Old Edwards Inn behind us, a very well known beautiful hotel, spa, fab restaurant. We arrived close to lunchtime but visited a couple of shops before heading to our lunch spot. Which was not Old Edwards, but still is one of our favorites-Wild Thyme Gourmet. The cuisine is American with an Asian flair. 

We shared an order of their spring rolls to start, then we both had their crab cake sandwich. 

I've said before we're crab cake snobs and these were excellent. All crab, no filler. We didn't have dessert because a pastry shop that's on the way out of town was on my agenda. 

We spent a leisurely afternoon browsing shops, holding hands, designing our mountain house (kidding!) and enjoying the beautiful day. 

We left the town square and started for home around three, but first! pastry. 

I want to come back here when that hydrangea hedge is in full bloom. 

The pastries here are works of art and after we got home I googled the shop and learned the pastry chef, Oksana Shchelgachova, is on the current season of Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship. 

I haven't been watching but will tune in now.  

I'll vouch for her too because her pastries are delicious!

We finally made our selections and took our dessert and coffee out to the big front porch. They serve their coffee in real cups and get bonus points for that. 

Hubs had the key lime tart...

 and I had the pavlova. 

We brought the pumpkin home to have the next day.

On the ride back down the mountain we stopped for the requisite photo of the lake. Never fails to make you exhale and be grateful you live in a place with so much beauty all around....

...and your favorite date to share it with. 

Linking today with Joanne for her Talking About It Tuesdays blog hop. 

Bucket List Check Up Check In

If you're here looking for the Hodgepodge questions you'll find them one post back. 

Just before my mid-September birthday I made a fall-ish bucket list. I gave myself an end date of November 21st so it's time to check in and see what I did and didn't do. 

1. I was a teensy bit ambitious thinking I'd host an actual party in the new space. I forgot we didn't have furniture, but oh well. I did host some of my family for a BBQ-regular burgers as opposed to smashburgers, but there was some Cornhole played so calling it a win. We set up a folding table and made do, and that's fun too. 

2. Decorate for fall. I didn't go all out but there were pumpkins on the porch, fall colors on the mantles, and autumn spice candles burned throughout so yes. Done.

3. Vote. Yep. 

4. Visit a state new to me. We spent a long weekend in Minnesota for a friend's daughter's wedding, which was my first time in the North Star State. We were in Minneapolis and had a great time. Check. 

5. Attend a football game. Sadly no. We wanted to go to a big game and were invited to two different Clemson games by some neighbors, but neither date worked with our travel schedule. We like to get to at least one VOL game each season, but that didn't happen this year either. We watched and sweated and paced and wrung our hands and cheered a lot via the TV, but no in person games this fall. 

6. Make a new fall recipe from a cookbook I own. Question-what constitutes a fall recipe? I'm going to put a checkmark beside this one because I did pull out several cookbooks and ended up making. a recipe I hadn't tried before. 

It's from Amy Hannon's Love, Welcome, Serve: Recipes That Gather And Give cookbook, and I made her chili and brown sugar pork chops with pan gravy. I don't have a picture because it wasn't exactly picture worthy, but hubs and I both agreed it was delicious. This kind of comfort food says fall to me. 

7. Pay for a soldier or veterans meal. I didn't get to do this, but am still on the lookout for the opportunity. I did thank several veterans we encountered as we waited in line to vote, and I try to always do that when I see the hat or jacket on someone. 

8. Shop for outdoor furniture. Yes times ten. We shopped and we bought and we're excited to see it all in place, probably sometime in February. 

9. Leaf peep and lunch in the nearby mountain town. Hubs and I drove up to the nearby mountain town of Highlands NC in late October on a beautiful Friday afternoon. We enjoyed the autumn colors, browsing the shops, and lunch at Wild Thyme Gourmet.  

10. Make a Christmas list and buy at least four gifts. Check. Actually check check because I managed to purchase more than four. 

11. Hike a trail new to me. Hmmm...we did quite a few 'walks' that were new to us when we were in the UK. I wouldn't call them hikes, but we were out in the countryside so I guess it might count? 

We haven't hiked any new to us trails at home. Helene made hiking a bit of a challenge in our area this fall, with many trails blocked or deemed unsafe due to fallen/falling trees and water hazards. We'll get back to it though. 

12. Attend a fall fair. Does Oktoberfest count? I'm going to say yes, because it was a fair, it was fall, and vendors were present. 

13. Memorize a Bible Verse- "The Lord Almighty has sworn, "Surely as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen." Isaiah 14:24 

I wanted a verse to remind me during the contentious election cycle that God knows the end from the beginning. 

14. Sort out the guest room windows. I found what I want but haven't pulled the trigger yet. We've been consumed by the outdoor project this fall and this little project won't be super cheap so it's on hold until the new year. My response whenever hubs says he wants to buy something...anything...could be a new toothbrush or could be a new car is 'we got a waterfall'. 

15. Book a summer beach house. Not yet. My daughter asked me about it recently and we agreed to chat about dates when we're together for Thanksgiving. 

16. S'mores in the firepit. Nope. We intended to do this one weekend then got busy doing other things. We might still make this happen sometime before year's end. 

17. Write ten gratitude cards to people I'm grateful for. Check. I bought a package of Thanksgiving cards and sent them with a handwritten note to ten different friends/family members. It felt good to put into words what they mean to me. 

18. Visit a pumpkin patch. I bought pumpkins from the big bin at the grocery store but we never made it to an actual pumpkin patch. There's always next year. 

This was fun. I managed to complete 11/18 tasks and I'm okay with that. I probably should have revisited the list more often than I did to refresh my memory about what I'd written, and will do that next time. I'm going to make some sort of winter list to start after the calendar flips to the new year. Who's with me? 

linking this post today with Talking About It Tuesdays

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Good Monday morning. We had a nice low key weekend here, and I hope yours was the same. I'm linking with Holly and Sarah today for their regular Monday morning weekend blog hop. Here's how ours looked-

Thursday evening we had friends here for dinner. I made the crispy baked Boursin appetizer which is always a hit, and if you haven't tried it I recommend. It's easy and delicious and I make my own hot honey. Here's the recipe I use-

Crispy Baked Boursin With Hot Honey 

I'm a slacker in the picture taking department, but my excuse is my phone is an older model with a so-so camera and my Canon needs a major repair which may not be worth doing. Also, I'm usually just enjoying the moment and don't remember to snap a pic, so there's that too. 

Our guests brought the cutest hostess gift. Hey look! A picture-

I'm going to bake some pumpkin bread in this as soon as hubs works his way through all the Reeses.  Which will be any minute now. 

Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day. Really the past couple of weeks have been perfect weather wise and we've spent a lot of time outdoors. We did our civic duty and voted on Friday morning.

Hubs says he looks annoyed in this picture and that's because he was lol. We have not mastered the selfie, but still we try. Normally we vote on Election Day, but not taking any chances we can't get there for whatever reason this year, so we voted early. There was a long line but it moved quickly. 

It was too pretty not to do something fun and fallish, so hubs and I drove into the nearby mountains to one of our absolute favorite towns for lunch-Highlands. 

We've been curious to see how the road going over looks since Helene wreaked havoc and cleanup and recovery are still ongoing. The news cycle and our attention span for it is short, but know there are many people and many businesses struggling and grieving still. 

The scenery on the road up was a bit messier than usual, as there were a lot of trees down in the woods. There were also quite a few leaners and many that hit the road during the storm, but have now been cut and moved to the side to allow traffic to pass.  

\

Still the color was pretty and we didn't run into any issues. 

I live in SC, but very near the NC border and we absolutely love the little town of Highlands (NC). It was bustling on Friday which was good to see. We lucked into a parking spot just off Main and walked to Wild Thyme Gourmet for lunch. 

There are so many wonderful places to eat in this town you really can't go wrong. Hubs ordered their special, a grilled Mahi sandwich and I had their crab cake sandwich which was superb. We're crab cake snobs (blame it on nine years spent living in Annapolis), and I can say these are the real deal. Hubs ordered a cup of their chicken chili soup too, and it was delicious. 

After lunch we wandered through town, browsed the shops, and soaked up the sunshine. Look at that sky! 

This town is so cute. If you've never been and love a mountain town, Highlands is a good one. It's walkable, filled with great shops and restaurants, beautiful views, lots of fabulous nearby hiking and plenty of Airbnbs. Or you can splurge on The Old Edwards Inn and Spa which is an institution here. 

We stopped in Kilwins as we were getting ready to leave.  I wanted an iced coffee for the ride home, but their coffee machine died just as they were making mine so no coffee. 

As a result I had a nap in the car on the way home. We stopped at our usual overlook to snap a picture and it was gorgeous as always. This is the lake just above ours and she's a beauty too-

We came home and regrouped before heading to a local Mexican place where our friends were playing. They play a lot of what I guess you'd call 70's soft rock, a little bit of country, that sort of thing which I like. Music and margaritas make for a fun Friday night, and we saw a lot of our neighbors there (one of the musicians lives in our neighborhood) so that was fun too. 

Saturday I had to make a return which involved boxing up the item myself and taking it to UPS and also paying for it. I dislike when companies make returns a bother. This was a grill cover we'd ordered that was supposed to be domed to fit The Green Egg, but was flat so didn't fit. 

We had to log in, email a request for a return which was met with a 'we'll get back to you soon' reply, then a couple days later another email saying 'yes you can return it and we'll email you a shipping label 'soon', then a couple more days go by and we finally get the label. 

Amazon has us spoiled. 

I needed a few groceries so made a stop there before heading home. At this point it was after noon and 82 degrees felt more like summer than fall. I changed in to shorts, packed a light lunch in the cooler, then hubs and I motored out for a boat ride. The lake is always pretty, but I especially love a boat ride this time of year when the leaves are turning and the water is mostly quiet. 

We found ourselves in a couple of coves we've never been in before and that's always fun. We like leaf peeping and also house peeping. We love to see what people are building and also what sort of landscaping projects are happening. 

We came home and spent the rest of the day watching college football. Our team (the Vols) and our hometown team (Clemson) were both off on Saturday so we could relax. I'd made twice baked potatoes for our company and we had a couple left over so hubs chopped and fried them and scrambled us eggs for dinner. It was so good. 

Sunday we were lazy. There's really no better word for it. We synched our calendars through December and we have a lot going on. A lot. We've learned when there's a down day to embrace it, refill our sleep tank, and just generally recharge. 

So we did. It was gray and cool (for SC) and we watched football, played a game of chess, and I made a big pot of chili for dinner. I've been craving chili but when it's 82 degrees chili doesn't feel right. It was 57 on Sunday and we'll take it. 

I don't really use a recipe. I sort of follow Robert McIlhenny's recipe from my Tabasco cookbook, but I make a few changes. His calls for cubed beef and I usually just use ground beef which is fine. While I'll eat chili any way you want to make it we like beans in ours so I add both kidney and black beans, along with a can of diced tomatoes. 

I always make my cornbread in my cast iron skillet, and this recipe is foolproof-Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

So were you lazy, productive,  or a little bit of both this weekend? 

It's Mom Time

Not that mom time since we are still waiting on baby boy to join the party here. I'm talking about my own momma today. She and my younger sister flew to SC for Daughter2's baby shower several weeks ago, and while my sister went back home my mom has been here ever since. My older sister lives about an hour from me and we've been sharing time with her.

She was at my house for nine days early on in the visit, and we took a big little road trip to Tennessee so she could see where her granddaughters live, spend time with her great-grandsons, and visit two of her old and very dear friends who live less than an hour from Daughter1. 

It seemed simple, three hours to Daughter2 and spend the night. Then three more hours to Daughter1 and spend three nights, plus the side trip to the friends, then three hours back to Daughter2 and spend another night, then home. In a blinding rainstorm through Atlanta which was as delightful as it sounds. Plus in the first hour of the trip I made a wrong turn (too much gabbing) and drove about thirty minutes the wrong way before I realized it. Oops. Hey it's not an adventure if everything is smooth sailing, right? 

This little road trip was a lot of schlepping for someone in their ninth decade of life. Also a lot of schlepping for someone  in their sixth decade, but if she can do it I can do it and we did and it was wonderful. Did I take a single picture of the momma-to-be with her grandmother? No I did not. Boo. I meant to, but we were busy talking and dining out and playing cards and time got away from me. Here we are at the shower though, so that's something-

And I did manage a couple of snaps with Daughter1 and her boys while we were in her part of the state. We went to a highly entertaining T-ball game on a warm Friday evening and that needed to be documented. 

Love the batter who ran to first base then sat down for a little rest until it was time to run to second lol. That's our star first baseman beside her-

And I did get a picture of my mom with friends she and my dad made when these friends were newly married with young children. They have been so wonderful to keep in contact with my mom all these many years and we had a lovely lunch in their home. Such a treat for my mom to see them in person-

We went to church with Daughter1 and her family, then out to lunch the Sunday we were there. For the record, picture taking with busy little boys is not for the faint of heart. 

After we got back to SC mom was at my house a few more days before moving over to my sisters to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend and my niece's birthday. Then back to me for another nine days, then back to my sister for another nine days. Whew! She's a trooper! 

We did a lot of card playing, porch sitting, bird watching, and jigsaw puzzle working while she was here. On Monday hubs drove us up into the mountains to the charming town of Highlands North Carolina. We stopped on the way up for the not-to-be missed view of our lake and the lake just above ours, then had a nice lunch in town. 

On the way home we made a quick visit to Bridal Veil Falls which are accessible from a pull-off in the road. It was such a beautiful day, and mom enjoyed walking behind the falls. Not Niagara, but pretty nonetheless. 

What a gift this time has been. To set aside all my to-do's and just enjoy time spent with with my momma. Such tender precious memories made.