Everyday Images on a July Monday

Trying something a little different today and linking with Kym (A Fresh Cup of Coffee) and her Everyday Images blog hop. She posts a list of photo prompts every two weeks and leaves the party open until the next link rolls around. 

I'm also joining Holly and Sarah for their Hello Monday hop since today's photos are a reflection of my weekend activity. 

I want to take more pictures...better pictures. I have a crummy phone camera, and think I want a 'real' camera for my birthday this year. About fifteen years ago my hubs bought me a nice Canon. He bought it from our local camera shop and the owner of the shop gave me several lessons in how to use it. So helpful. The Canon needs a repair that is costly so buying a new camera makes more sense. My birthday isn't until September, so for now a phone camera it is. 

I looked at the most recent prompts Kym posted, and tried this weekend to snap some pictures when one of the words came to mind. Here are the most recent prompts-

doorway • on my plate • on the road • glowing • hills • community 

Doorway-

Hubs and I made a drive to pick peaches at a country orchard on Saturday morning.

Besides the fruit trees there's also a cute shop...

...a cafe with patio seating, a distillery, wedding reception space, and a view that literally takes your breath away-

The doorway pictured above takes you to the covered patio dining space. When you cross the patio you'll see the orchard which is where these beauties can be found-

on my plate: After the peach picking we drove a couple of miles up the road to a well known, but very much off the beaten path, pizza restaurant. It's a hot spot for hikers and kayakers coming off the nearby trails and river. We arrived close to noon and it wasn't busy, but I know it gets really busy as the day goes on. 

Hubs and I shared what they call their Chattooga White Pizza which is named for the river, and is made with a pesto base, spinach, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and feta. Hubs is normally not a big fan of feta, but the guy behind the counter said it was his favorite pizza so that's what we ordered. The feta was not overwhelming at all and the pizza was delicious and perfectly cooked. Hubs loved it too. 

In keeping with the prompt we went next door and walked through this bright yellow entrance for ice cream... 

We sat outside and shared one scoop of peach and one of banana, both were yummy. 

on the road: my favorite summertime drive-

glowing: Sunday morning sunshine sets the lake aglow-

hills-technically they're mountains but close enough. More specifically The Blue Ridge and the farm we visited on Saturday offers you a 270-degree view. Didn't measure it myself but I trust their website. 

community: we went to church Sunday morning which is community of the best kind, but no photo. After church we changed clothes and took the boat to meet up with friends for a float in a nearby cove. It was a scorcher of a day so the water felt wonderful. I didn't capture the whole group, but I was trying not to break my other ankle lol. 

Lake people are also our people. 

This little photo challenge was fun. The prompts helped make me mindful of what I was seeing all around me and that's one reason I love blogging. If you'd like to participate visit Kym's blog (A Fresh Cup of Coffee) for the prompts, which are updated every two weeks. 

And if you want to chat about your weekend visit Holly and Sarah and add your recap there. Happy Monday everyone! 

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? 

Helene

I began this post thinking I'd wrap up our UK trip with a few stray thoughts still lingering, but then I started writing and ended up here. 

Hurricane Helene. 

Many of you have reached out to ask how we fared and I thank you for that. Honestly being out of town during a very major hurricane is both a good thing and a bad thing. We were literally an ocean away from it all, which meant whatever was happening was completely out of our control. 

Honestly we're never in control of the weather are we? 

Or many things we tell ourselves we can control, but especially the weather. 

We have wonderful neighbors who kept us in the loop, who checked on the house and the property, and who let us know we had no big trees down and no obvious damage. Our yard was covered in tree debris and we were without power for a few days, but it was restored by the time we arrived home Wednesday. Many in our area are not so lucky. The girl bagging my groceries today said they won't have power until Tuesday, fingers crossed. The storm happened September 26th. More than a week ago. 

I'm in South Carolina, in what is called the Upstate (so not the coast). We're just a hop, skip, and a jump from the beautiful NC mountains and we love the natural beauty and the many charming towns that dot the landscape there. 

Some of those towns are literally gone. Washed away. There one day and just completely gone the next. 

I don't feel like the media is adequately portraying the devastation, the tremendous loss of life, work, home, and nature that have happened here. It's hard to understand how a hurricane hits the highest point east of the Mississippi, but that particular geography complicates rescue efforts and help getting to people in need. 

This is turning out to be larger than Katrina in terms of scope and the death toll will rise as areas yet to be accessed are finally reached. Eight days in and people are still unaccounted for. 

One of my favorite things about America is the way her citizens rally in times of trouble and we are for sure seeing that here. Individuals, businesses, fire departments, and the like are collecting much needed items and pick up trucks are finding a way to get supplies over the mountain. Churches here have partnered with churches in the hardest hit areas to meet specific needs, volunteers are flying helicopters and small planes to both rescue the stranded and also drop essentials into remote areas. I saw a video of a woman getting her insulin via a drone drop which seems crazy but that's where we are. 

Many parts of Asheville and the surrounding small towns have no water and it's going to be that way for quite some time. Major highways are washed away and the rebuild for the interstate is expected to take more than one year. The major highway running from our area through NC and into Tennessee is going to be shut down for at least a year. 

And yet, in the midst of something hard to comprehend people are kind. They're generous. Their hearts are hurting and broken for people they don't know and this is the America I love. People doing practical things like making meals for the linemen and first responders, donating diapers and formula and get this-benadryl-because apparently the bees are really angry and out in force in some places. 

There are organizations on the ground like Samaritans Purse, the World Central Kitchen, and Operation Airdrop that all need donations to do what they do. If you can help in that way know it matters. The cost of recovery after Helene is estimated to be something like 34 billion dollars. 

It's easy to feel helpless in a situation such as this, but we are not helpless. And we are not alone. 

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging..." Psalm 46:1-3

Weekend In The Mountains

It's been a sunshiny day here in the Upstate which feels appropriate for the first day of May. The temperature hasn't quite gotten the message yet, but I'll take the sunshine. We've had so much rain this spring and today's blue sky feels like a real gift. 

Hubs and I drove through what felt like a monsoon Thursday morning, but managed to make it safely to our weekend destination-the North Georgia mountains. Specifically the little town of Ellijay, where we'd rented a house with three other couples we've known since college. 

Which was a decade or four ago, but whatever. 

These boys were all fraternity brothers and we've remained close now for let's just say a long long time. 

We're all married, we all have grandchildren, we all have various aches and pains related to the fact that we're not 20 anymore, except when we're together we kind of still feel 20. 

That's the beauty of old friends. The ones who knew you when you were still trying to figure out exactly who you wanted to be. 

You can be bare faced and bare souled and real and hilarious and honest and grateful. 

We had dinner down the mountain on Thursday night, then stayed up late (not late for 20 year old us, but late for 60+ year old us) talking, laughing, and playing Mexican Train Dominoes at the big kitchen table. 

The skies cleared mid-morning Friday and we loaded up the cars to make a short hop one town over, to the little town of Blue Ridge. I'd never been before, and it's a popular tourist and retirement destination both, so I was glad to see what the buzz was all about. 

Blue Ridge is cute with lots of great little shops and restaurants and you can park your car and walk at your leisure. The sidewalks were busy, but not overly so, and we were glad we opted for a Friday visit as we discovered there was some kind of fish festival happening in town Saturday. We stopped in a little wine bar early afternoon for a light lunch and beverage then headed back up the mountain to relax and have a later dinner at home. 

We had a view y'all. 

We spent a lot of time sitting on the covered deck and everyone brought their own steak for grilling that evening so it was simple, delicious, and low key. We had also been assigned 'parts' in a murder mystery and everyone had some little bit of costume they'd brought from home, and it was a hoot. Took a little bit of time to really get into, but once in we were all in.

 
I was not the murderer in case you're wondering. 

Saturday was a gorgeous day, with warmer temps and bright blue cloudless skies. We trekked back down the mountain to visit a couple of the wineries on the other side of Ellijay. When I say trekked up and down the mountain it sounds like a million miles, but it wasn't. It was a somewhat steep, winding road getting to and from the house, that we all agreed would be tricky in the winter months. 

Our first stop was Chateau Meichtry which is in a very pretty location. We had a tasting there before moving a couple of miles down the road to Buckley, also very pretty and the wines were more to our liking. 

This is us-

This is also us-

We're still us. 

We headed back up the mountain late afternoon so we'd be there when our chef arrived. We'd hired a chef to cook dinner at the house, and it was so much fun. 

We selected the menu based on what she suggested and had a lovely charcuterie board as a starter, then it was a green salad with paella made in a huge paella pan on the deck. She put noodles in her paella instead of rice and we all agreed we liked that better.

Hubs will own one of these set ups before summer is over. Just sayin'. 

Dessert was a seriously scrumptious tres leches cake, and our chef cooked, served, and cleaned up, so easy peasy.  

We headed home on Sunday and all agreed we should do this more often. The thing about old friends is it matters not how long ago you were together because in your head you are always together. In your heart too. 

Still it is really fun to actually be together.

Monday Miscellaney

It started out a gray Monday here today and we made a wasted trip to the DMV which is a little snapshot of how it's going so far. Who knew you could make an appointment at the DMV? I think it's a grand idea and will put that in the plus column when sorting Corona fallout, but of course knowing it's a thing would have been even better.  

I try to take care of all DMV business online, but this task requires an in person visit so hubs masked up and went in, paperwork in hand, and they told him without an appointment it would be an hour and forty-five minute wait. An hour and forty five minutes!! And oh yeah, don't leave the parking lot. 

So we left the parking lot and ate Mexican food instead. Much better. 

Let's talk about last week when Daughter2 was in the house and the weather was glorious and we enjoyed a  leisurely fall boat ride in our own backyard. We accidentally took the dog which does put a little kink in your level of relaxation, but nobody wanted to tell him he wasn't going and he was all in. 

He is always all in. When he's wearing his life jacket he thinks he's going for a swim and he was not going for a swim. 

Which took some convincing. 

Hubs and I have not had a 'day out date ' in a while so we made plans Friday to drive over to a nearby mountain town for lunch, browsing the shops, and leaf peeping. It sprinkled a little but was still a gorgeous ride up and over, and the color was lovely. 

fyi-we were not the only ones who thought a day out was a good idea. The place was hoppin'! 

Highlands is a charming little burg with loads of fantastic eateries, beautiful homes, and plenty of shops all plunked down in the middle of a scenic mountain landscape. I don't think I'd want to live here because it's a destination and has destination-like traffic but it is a great day out, and a trip to the mountains helps clear my head. 

Daughter2 had a little bridesmaid weekend with her girls, minus her favorite sister, and she brought me back a fun little mug as a gift. There are many things that make my girls think of me, but tops on the list are London and hedgehogs. Not related in any way shape or form except to say my run in with the hedgehog occurred while we lived near London. 

Also, run-in might be overstating things. More like an encounter but I shrieked a lot so maybe my girls will say run-in is accurate.  

I know, I know it's too early for Christmas mugs, and I'm someone who doesn't like to rush the holidays, but I'm going to rush it for a quick minute. I had a cup of coffee in it last night, snapped a picture in front of the candy corn so as not to confuse anyone about which holiday is happening now (aren't we all confused about the day-time-month-season???) then put it back in the cabinet until Thanksgiving has come and gone. 

Happy Monday and Merry Halloween everyone!