The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Everyone knows and loves the famous Christmas song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", and I have been amongst that group, however, I have discovered that it is not entirely true.  I am here to nominate Autumn to share that designation.

Blasphemous you say! 

So be it.

Even though this Fall has not been nearly as vibrant, or so say the locals, it is hard to not be overwhelmed with the beauty that is Autumn in the mountains. Everywhere that green leaves become a kaleidoscope of color in October is beautiful, but when you add mountains into the equation, well it is just glorious and that's a fact!! 

In the past week I have taken hundreds of photographs of the glory that has surrounded us from Hayesville to Murphy to Andrews and Nantahala Lake, which is what you are seeing above. And since I began writing this two days ago, I went somewhere else that is glorious!

These two fellows took me to Gibbs Gardens in Georgia, and to say that it was beautiful is a serious understatement. So beautiful in fact that it is going to require some serious blog attention on another day.

Writing this post is going to be tricky indeed because there are so many beautiful things I want to show you and so little space.

Tuesday I had my Medicare wellness check up  at Dr. Lohf's office in Hayesville. I am happy to report that it was uneventful. When asked to remember three things for a short period of time, I was a star student answering chair, table and pencil correctly. When Laura learned we were in Hayesville she suggested that we continue driving east on Hwy 64 towards Franklin to see the color that was in peak last week. Duh, that was a no brainer!

Shoulder to shoulder the trees were lined up in their Fall best atop the rocks. But first, it was a bit hard to get there because of the thick fog we encountered, along with blinding light from the rising sun. 

On our way back from the overlook, this scene unfolded before us.

I absolutely squeal with delight seeing the beautiful sights as a few folks have come to experience while in my presence! 

We stopped back in Hayesville to go to Molly & Me, an antique shop that was closed when were there a couple hours earlier following my doctor's visit. What a winner! Great furniture in pristine condition, along with assorted other goodies including glassware. How is it possible not to love this stuff?

Slightly more modern take below. That clock! I wonder if I even noticed it  when we were there because I was enamored of the dish display?

In excellent news another accomplishment while in Hayesville was a stop at a local department store where Bruce was able to buy some new Levis, a flannel shirt and a jacket. All very much needed.

One morning, and now I can't remember which one, but definitely not a MWF as those are typically pickleball days,  anyway, once I noticed the heavy fog outside our windows, and after finishing my Bible reading, I quickly dressed and headed out with my cameras. 

Sandy's tree across the street looked like this:

Before I go further, in my library, this is the photo next to it, taken the previous afternoon.

That would be the playground adjacent to the courts. Those trees!!!

While living in Vancouver, fog was quite common as well and I loved going out in it to take photographs, once even losing my way because it was so thick. There are some awesome photos in this post, written on December 7, 2017. Anyway, while not nearly as thick here, it was pretty darn great.

Not too many folks out at this time of the morning, however, I did run into the daughter-in-law of Mr. Vespasian and I thanked her once again for the part she played in making this home available for sale. 

And this person was on the path.

Really, seeing loads of spider webs in all shapes and sizes was so great and fun to photograph.

Here comes a bunch. I could not stop myself!

Another.

And a tree full of them!

Walking along the primitive path, by now waiting for the fog to lift, I was beginning to glimpse color appear along the river. By the way, the road behind those trees is the one we took over and over again to get to our beautiful cottage. It took me far too long to realize that!

In this area of the walk, wildflowers cover the ground and I believe you can just make them out in the fog. Of course you can....you are not blind!

All this while I was chatting with our son David on the phone when lo and behold, Laura appeared out of the fog on her morning run!! I often say that I don't go many places without running into someone and along this path was no exception. We had a good chat about how beautiful it looked that morning,

and how pleased I was to not be in the harsh light of the sun. Seriously folks it has been so blue, that is until today. which is another story altogether. 

Woo hoo, here it is, still soft and beautiful with just a hint of fog overhead.

After taking far more photographs than is wise, I turned around to head home. As you are well aware, I am a very slow walker ,so by now I was about two hours in, a journey that for most folks would have taken in about 45 minutes, if that. 

But I was enjoying myself too much to rush. 

The foggy photograph with the slender tree sticking out of the ground above was taken in this area an hour earlier.

Don't you just love it??

Exiting the river walk, I took the road out of the neighborhood into ours, but much to your surprise, I saw a few things along the way that caught my attention.

It is hard to say which color I love the most, the yellow above, the absolutely crazy intense red,

or maybe the combo is best? 

And in case you did not know, should you be new to this blog, no photoshop is used so the intense color is just that intense.

Gosh, was I ever glad to have gone on that walk! Once home I spent time in the kitchen because we were having John and Tammy over before they returned to Florida for the winter. I made a gingerbread cake, successfully I might add (!!!), mac and cheese and fried chicken using the BonTon recipe. As well, I still had a few home grown tomatoes that I used to make a cucumber and tomato salad. It all worked, the food, the timing, and the friendship. Yippee! I think using peanut oil is the trick when you make it in a cast iron skillet. Seriously, it was not only tasty, but looked darn good. Before you go thinking that I am a braggart, you have read about many a cooking fail in this space, so when something works, I am most definitely going to celebrate!

And then along came Friday. Hike day. At least for me but Mr. Peck went to do some volunteer work in the Asheville area and Mrs. Peck foolishly agreed to go on a hike, unsuited for someone of her limited experience. Yet, I am here to tell about it. At times I wondered, but the truth is, that all of the folks were great with one young woman (61) holding my hand at times to pull me along!

Cobby and Diane are kind enough to put these activities together for the rest of us.

I rode in Anita's truck and all of the ladies in that vehicle were laughing at how excited I became when seeing all of the beautiful colors.

We hiked up a narrow, root-filled path to the top of a waterfall, which Bruce and I did last summer, albeit with difficulty, however, on this occasion we just kept going up and up and up. My photo taking had to take a back seat as I was terrified, and I am only slightly exaggerating, a good deal of the way. Everyone else was A-ok because either they are stronger than I am, or more experienced. Take your pick. Cary, pictured below, had only returned from a two week African vacation two days prior. The things she did there were darn scary, so this was tame stuff.

Hey friends, fall leaves!

By golly I made it!!

Bless Nancy's heart, when faced with a choice on which path to take going down, she was kind enough to join me on the path of least resistance. We were at Fire's Creek in the Nantahala Forest.

While still in the forest, it was a steep gravel road that felt far safer to this chicken! Lunch was served underneath the trees.

And then along came Saturday. As if I had not had my fill, after getting the laundry going and other house chores done, Bruce took me for a Saturday drive with less enthusiasm as his wife, but as he is willing to do most anything that will make me happy, we took off for Junaluska Road in Andrews. 

And perhaps that is a good place to stop? That said let's look at those amazing trees again. Located so close to home, when I walked to the pharmacy to pick up a regular prescription, my heart sang seeing such amazing color. It is totally rivaling the famed "Taco Bell" tree and it is but a block from home!

Note the tiny bit of brick on the right edge and that is a house on our street! Just a few days before we popped in under the leaves and look at these two lovebirds!

I am seeing yellow, how about you? 

Finally, it was so long ago but if you are still with me, remind yourself of Sandy's gorgeous tree in the fog as seen near the beginning of this post. Well, it looks pretty darn stunning in the afternoon light doesn't it?

So, what do you think? Do I have a few votes for Autumn?

your friend, 

Gail

Stay Tuned

Once again, I am struggling with my photo library which means several things. The program runs super slow, and oftentimes not very well causing me endless frustration. If not for the fact that Bruce is having dental work, I would probably just get another computer and start over, however, for now, let me celebrate the gifts that this has brought, including this gem that showed up.

Back when it all started!! Dressed up and ready to go to maybe homecoming in Melbourne? That sounds weird to me because I knew like one person at that high school, and other than this photo, I have no memory of the night whatsoever!! 

I have Matthew to thank for finding this other library that contained so many of my early photos and plenty of goodies from when I was selling photographs, including this one I took using our swimming pool for the background.

And finally, as far as oldies but goodies goes, my #1 selling photograph...taken in Deland, FL.

I honestly thought these were lost so to have found them is a big thrill for this blogger.

Let us talk about the here and now, shall we? 

Oops, not so fast Gail. One more that I had already transferred to the desktop for this post.

Bruce with the sledgehammer while working on the Orlando International Airport in the late 70's. 

Well that is a lot to digest; perhaps I should quit while I am ahead?

Shoot, you know me better than that! 

A wonderful time was had by all on our little hiking excursion with some church friends, some of whom you have met along this journey we are on together. 

From the left, Bruce, Cobby, Mary Beth and Mark. We were on a trail related to the Nottely Dam and it was just right for me because the elevations were not horrible, and there were mushrooms to boot.

But first we had to get there and that meant about a 12 mile drive into Georgia and some serious fog.

Fog is ever present most mornings this time of year. 

But it is not everywhere! Here is Diane (married to Cobby), and their very sweet granddaughter Brook doing some exploring lakeside.

Turning the other direction, thanks to Mary Beth who was holding my walking sticks,

it looked like this!

What I especially like is when the steam rises from the lake.

Not only am I well known for being somewhat of a talker, I am slow in my walking and eating too. Not related I realize, but just so you know. Some folks are interested in the end of the journey while others were kind enough to enjoy the sights along the way. The forest floor is so full of interesting things I find it difficult to rush past.

To my interests, that is pincushion moss. I don't actually have a pincushion with me but I am very familiar with them. This morning while playing pickleball I was thinking how it might have been better if I had stayed behind my sewing machine instead of on the courts getting beat in most games! 

Before leaving the area for lunch at a nearby barbecue place, with no restroom I might add, but they do have a fabric store and quilting studio, so there's that,

We walked over to what they were calling the cliffs, 

and this beautiful view.

Stay tuned in the title refers to the changing leaves which are happening NOW! Countless times I have mentioned how dry it has been causing the leaves to not be nearly as supple as they might, but they are most definitely changing and beautiful in spite of the drought.

That blue sky is for real. Yesterday afternoon while Bruce was busy I took a walk along the main road through town. The park is now very familiar to you all and this is what it looked like yesterday about four in the afternoon.

The trouble is that the bright sunshine is making the colors look a little less vibrant in the photo,s but you can see things are heading in the right direction. The mountain is showing signs here, but where we really saw it today was behind Walmart; oh my goodness it is looking beautiful. As fate would have it, my cameras were at home because we went straight from the courts. This week I will document the changes and guess who gets to come along for the ride? YOU do.

I took the photo below of our neighbor across the street about four days ago,

and today it looks like this:

Perhaps you spot our house on the right? If not here is what our tree looks like today.

The top part is all burnt orange at the moment, but I'm thinking it might turn red? The inside is still mostly pale green.

Finally!! A cardinal photo!! Plus I spotted this White Breasted Nuthatch the other day. Note the hydrangeas.

How long they will last is anyone's guess, but I do have several new blooms and buds on the bushes.

This time of year there are festivals galore in the neighboring towns. We skipped the "Punkin Chunkin" in Brasstown, instead heading over to Blairsville for the Sorghum Festival. What is sorghum you ask? Sort of like molasses and from the smell of them cooking it, probably not all that tasty.

We arrived late in the afternoon, so hopefully they had more folks earlier in the day.

Held in Meeks Park, the setting is just lovely. Plus they have moonshine! 

Tasted by neither of us btw.

There were pony rides, a jumpy thing for kids, and if you were strong enough, climbing a pole was a thing.

Impressively, she made it all the way to the top, cheered on by the crowd.

The setting, what a park it is! 

Look at me! Getting my post done on Monday afternoon! Yippee! I meant that literally and figuratively btw.

My business used to be called Out & About Photography and while I no longer have that business per se, I am still out and about having fun taking photos! I am most definitely staying tuned.

your friend,

Gail