Asheville Proper

Today's installment will be covering a lot of territory with loads of photographs so don't say that I did not warn you in advance should you become weary!! Or bored. :)

You may recall that Matt arrived via Lyft to the condo in the River Arts District about 8:30 on Friday night. Following some big hugs so and perhaps a Hallmark movie, we did little else aside from going to bed somewhat early. On our drive to Asheville we stopped at the Publix in Waynesville and I will say that it felt good to be in a Publix. Don't get me wrong, Ingles is very nice but once you have Publix in your blood it is hard to replace! Anyway, with breakfast fixings in the house, peering out the windows, we  wondered what in the world we could do on such a rainy morning. As you learned from my last post, we went to the Asheville mall which is doing some better than other malls in the country. At least at Christmas it was. We shopped in the Belks which of course brought memories rushing back about when my mother worked in the shoes/handbag department at the Belks in Colonial Plaza. A few weeks ago, December 7 to be exact, I had this feeling and looked at the date, something I do with increasing infrequency. It was the 20th anniversary of our Mom's funeral, as well as the day Bruce's dad died. Yes, you read that right. It was a very dark time to say the least. 

Following our mall excursion, Matt gave Bruce directions to downtown. If you have not been to Asheville I am here to report that it is fairly compact and at least from my seat, pretty easy to navigate. It was fun to be in a city setting again amongst the hustle and bustle, such as it is.

As is the case when we are with Matthew, he leads and we follow. Funny how it comes to that when you get old. Not so may years before it was us who was leading him around! Here's a view down the street to the City Hall and Buncombe County building.

I read a fascinating story about their construction history, a little bit is included here. From what I read somewhere else, it was quite the local story at the time. You might note the word art on the city bus and it is there for a good reason because one can find A LOT of local art in Asheville, so much so, one wonders how there is enough business to go around. 

The Grove Arcade was beautiful!! Finished in 1929, Wow! Stock market crash anyone? 

Walking back to the car, we came across this group ready to serenade the passing crowds. 

Don't you just love this sort of thing? In contrast to the fancy Grove Arcade, a music mecca below.

As the parking meter was running low we decided to head back to the car and return to The Radical, the hotel restaurant located across the river from the condo. Because it was so close, Bruce and I ate there the previous evening making for an easy walk home. As is our custom, we sat at the bar of The Golden Hour, thus the gold chains?

We were delighted with our meal, so much so that we wanted Matt to experience it as well. We began with the bread service followed by an array of vegetable dishes in keeping with Matt being a vegan. So good.

Pickled vegetables, focaccia and compound butters...oh my! The hotel is funky to say the least.

Sunday dawned chilly and rainy and although it was interesting, maybe it was not my best choice when I suggested we visit the Tobacco Barn antiques. Unheated, it was indeed a huge barn, to the tune of 77, 000 square feet!

Mostly overwhelming with so much to see I took only a few shots including the one below highlighting penmanship, something I wish I had a better grasp of these days. Should I be graded on such, as in our long ago elementary school days, I would probably receive a "C" grade. Maybe even a "D". I cannot remember the last time I formed the letter Q in that fashion. How about you?

There was more we wanted to peruse downtown so with free parking on Sunday, off we went. I wanted to the visit Mast General Store. 

Remember what I said about cold weather clothes being expensive?  You can find them there should you want to! You can also find fun things like this little candy mecca.

Maybe I am getting the days mixed up, who knows and for that matter, who cares? That said, one of the days we visited two floors of mostly local art housed in a former Woolworth, complete with an old fashioned soda fountain. Naturally the quilts attracted my attention! 

We saw photographer after photographer all pretty much with the same subject matter. Don't get me wrong, because there were some beautiful landscapes, but it seems to me should I actually care to sell anything here in Murphy, it needs to be out of the ordinary stuff. Time will tell, but those are my thoughts here to date.

It will only set you back a cool $60K to purchase these neat wooden motorcycle.

More exciting happenings including a flat tire, fixed with expediency I might add, as well as a trip to Jo Anne fabrics for me!! Nancy sent me some fabric for Christmas and I needed just a few things to make something happen. Next post for that.

By now the weather was even more dismal, but after a trip to the REI store in Biltmore Village, Bruce steeled his nerves and we headed to the airport in the pouring rain on an interstate undergoing construction. Sounds fun, right?

Not to mention we were saying goodbye to our son for who knows how long! He arrived with plenty of time for his flight, but somewhere along the way, he missed his connection to New York from Charlotte. God was good however, and there was still another flight that night to London. All of this is a distant memory to him as he and Tom have now embarked on a two week vacation beginning in Okinawa and ending in South Korea where the temperature there is predicted to be minus every day of that portion of their journey!! 

Earlier John suggested that we stay another day because of the less than ideal weather, so because we are foot loose and fancy free, we decided to do just that. Woo hoo, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. Well I was anyway because Bruce is not nearly as keen as I am to step outside in nightclothes!

Baby it was cold outside with steam from the New Belgium brewery across the street filling the air.

The long shadows of winter and plenty of frost on the ground.

Would you like to see tiny bits of frost? Of course you would? Am I crazy?

Don't they look neat? I walked down the street, crossing the bridge over the French Broad river, in an attempt to figure out where the entrance to the river walk was. Finally I found not only it but some brave souls using it as well.

I was feeling excited with all that I'd seen and then on my walk it got even better! Because it was so chilly I only brought my regular zoom camera, not the one with the very long lens which I regretted the moment I watched a flock of birds fly into the top of a tree in front of me. Of course I am freaking out just to witness it but the thought that I would not be able to identify said birds hurt too.

No amount of enlarging on my computer helps. Such is life, right?I sound like an ingrate is what I sound like. The experience should totally be enough. Or, should it?

During the rest of the morning we visited Harris Teater and the adjacent Trader Joes. The former because I wanted to see what it is like, the later because I wanted to pick up some goodies to take home in our cooler. Oh yeah, and we tried to visit Hole Donuts but they were closed. Apparently a trip to Asheville is incomplete without a visit there.

Oh yeah, another thing we did was drive through a very large area covered in street art. The best of the bunch to me was the Clint Eastwood.

As you can see it turned out to be a bright, sunny and gorgeous day. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect!

We ate lunch at a cool neighborhood restaurant called WALK for West Asheville Lounge and Kitchen.

Next up the Asheville Botanical Gardens which although mostly bare trees there were some birds on a very cool feeder.

Winter has it's own beauty.

I'm going to stop right here even though I've more to show you. I know that I have a habit of talking to much and writing too much so maybe it is a good time to quit while I am ahead. That said, one more thing that happened on Saturday that I cannot wait to show my bird loving friends!

I was just coming around the corner in a part of the river walk I don't take advantage of enough and lo and behold I about freaked out! It is a wonder that any of the photos came out I was so excited! That is a male and female Eastern Bluebird. So cute!!

This afternoon, in the middle of writing this I went for my walk and for the first time I saw nothing. Perhaps it is because it is not only crazy windy but the temperature is dropping and is predicted to be 24 degrees tonight!! And to think winter is still days away. 

your friend,

Gail

An Asheville Rendezvous

Good grief it has been far too long since last we met; it was not intentional, but when a son says he wants to meet up before Christmas, but of course that takes precedent over all else! For some time now, Matthew has been flying to New York for work which made him think, "I am on the same continent and all, why not visit with Mom and Dad?" Or something to that effect anyway.

As fate would have it, our neighbors also own a condo in beautiful Asheville, NC and had been encouraging us to use it to see the city. The plan was hatched and our rendezvous began last Friday night after he was kind enough to take a Lyft from the airport as it was well past our preferred driving time. What a joy it was to see him even though it has only been a few months since our anniversary trip. Thinking back to Covid,  we didn't get to see him and Tom for nearly two years! Those were some crazy times as I think we can all agree. Sadly it rained, most of Saturday and Sunday, but we are all first class shoppers so to the mall we went, taking this photo in front of the tree there.

One super cool thing that happened while we were eating in the food court is this group from the Asheville Choral Society performing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Memory flashback to a time many years ago, almost 30 I think, that came to me. Matthew was but 17 in his first year at FSU and had a red VW Beetle that was old. At the time, I was maybe a little too nervous for my own good, but anyway, Matt was driving home for Christmas and because I was so nervous I corralled Jonathan and his friend Kyle and went to see HM at the old Bob Carr auditorium to distract me from worrying about the drive. Since that time, he has traveled the world in safety and I no longer worry. Well, maybe just a wee bit here and there. :)

There is more to report about Asheville but I would be negligent if I failed to report the time leading up to it, beginning with Fallon sending us an air fryer! In passing I mentioned that I did not bring ours this time, (the one she gave me when my home oven was not working) and she picked right up on that and sent one here. If anyone is counting, this is the third oven she has gifted us, the two air fryers, AND the awesome camping oven which turned out to be miracle worker. Those are some potatoes in the bowl and boy were they good.

In no particular order, let's see what I saw....

My Florida friends cannot relate, but gosh, I hope the occasion arises where these sleds become necessary. Not for me, mind you but I can watch!  It has been super foggy some mornings,

and frosty most, with the lowest temperature to date of 23 degrees!!

So far it has been fine by me, but we shall see as the days march on. 

In my last post I showed this same spot but with a taller pile of stones.

That same post was filled with foggy photos of the river walk that I often take in the park, very atmospheric and some might say gloomy. As such, let's see how pretty it is when the sun is shining!

So many of these types of shots I take to record what things look like at different times of the year. 

Forgive me if I have mentioned it before, a real problem for us seniors, but when we got here in the summer, the water was high and John called it a lake. Okay, not like any lake we've ever seen, but who are we to argue? Another thing we both thought was it did not look very inviting because it was brownish and I am here to explain why that is the case. Duh, the bottom of the river bed is BROWN and the water is so clear, well, you can put two and two together I have no doubt! Whatever color, it has been such a blessing to me.

Speaking of blessings, Bruce won this super cool vase by Harry Hearne a pickleballer and local celebrated potter. You can find his work here. 

The little bird was already perched on the shelf albeit with a broken tail but Mr. Peck took care of that. There was a charity drawing and my husband entered and lo and behold, he won! You may recall the photos from the folk school festival of Harry and his lovely wife Julie in costume as Morris dancers. Oh what the heck, here's the link to that post. 

Charity also comes in the form of toys and what we have learned since being here is the Valley River Picklers, led by Cobby Barfield and Nancy Frahmann are keen to participate. Turns out I had my camera that day and I took a few shots, one of which was published in this week's Cherokee Scout, Uncredited which was a shame because it would have been fun to see my name in the Scout! 

At the same time, the group gathered for a "pickleball family" shot.

Fully half, or maybe more, have Florida connections! I have been nursing my side injury and finally I may have turned the corner. Talking with our son David, he reminded me of the time he had what seems like a very similar injury diagnosed as an intercostal strain. While I have not been to the doctor, I am certain I am suffering from the same. Our friend Ann, took a tumble some months ago and did the very same thing. The three of us all agreed it is far more painful than you can imagine without having one yourself. Trust me, you do not want it. Healing takes anywhere from a few days to several months!! I know Matt was alarmed at his parents, what with my rib and Bruce's knee suffering from arthritis, made worse by the cold and rain, but he need not have worried. Seemingly we bounce back just fine, just takes a little longer when you are in your eighth decade. Well, technically I am not there just yet, but what is 16 days amongst friends? 

Bucee's fans will get a kick out of this photo taken at a crazy house across the street from the gym.

From the looks of things, the owner has a variety of interests.

Another look at a few of our wonderful ornaments! What story would they tell if they could speak? Why did someone give them away? So many questions with no answers.

Deer caught in the headlights.

An earlier post I talked about seeing Dark Eyed Junco, but had little photographic evidence to support my claim. Now I have.

Grey with an almost pink little beak. The good thing about winter is the birds are easy to spot amongst the leafless branches. Below is the Eastern Towhee. Or at least the back of it! 

While we were gone the birds cleaned out the feeder so upon our return we quickly filled them up as the birds have been very much appreciating the seed. The Carolina Chickadees are plentiful and oh so cute.

Do you notice how puffed up it appears? It seems to me it has something to do with it being very cold!

Robins, I see them regularly, but each encounter is a joy and a privilege.

As Christmas draws near we are of course missing our friends and family, but at the same time, we are so enjoying a change of scenery. Yes, it is cold but that's what coats, boots, gloves and hats are for. We Floridians sometimes don't realize how good we have it only having, basically, one wardrobe. All the cold weather gear is very expensive. 

Perhaps I should leave you for now with this photo I took a few weeks ago at Wal Mart. Can you imagine?

Seemingly there are a lot of ugly sweater competitions going on in these parts! By golly, I just realized I didn't talk about the Christmas parade that we watched from this perch at the First Methodist church.

Unfortunately most of the photos were trash, including this one, but here it is anyway. Clamoring for candy is what is happening.

We thoroughly enjoyed every moment and are grateful we are seeing life, for now anyway, with new eyes. In this post from 2017 we enjoyed the Vancouver Christmas parade.  Being able to relive experiences is one of the things I most love about having blogged now since 2007!!!  

Our Asheville rendezvous with Matthew while short and sweet, was a Christmas blessing. 

May you all have your own Christmas blessings this very week. 

your friend,

Gail