Remember me? We've been traveling!

 

It sure felt great to load the Jeep and travel to the mountains of North Carolina.

And we had lots of fun on the way!

A trip through Georgia deserves a stop at the Piggly Wiggly!

It's a Southern thing! Taking a detour because of a train on the tracks is common too! 

And we saw fields of sunflowers in full bloom.

Doesn't hurt to stop for a few photos, does it?

It was nice to have the cooler temps in the mountains and lower humidity!

And then there are the Blue Ridge Mountains!

We never get tired of seeing those!

Lots of photos to share and I can't wait to start visitin' again! Can you believe I didn't even take my computer on this trip? (I took an IPAD but didn't spend much time on it!)

What have I missed? What's new with you? Tell me in the comments what's happening where you live! I'm anxious to hear from all of my blog buddies!

Enjoy your day! I love the mountains but I'm also thankful to be back in Florida!

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays and

I like Thursdays HERE too!

Can I come back now?

I feel like I’ve been gone for months! We had a wonderful trip to North Carolina but I MISSED YOU ALL! I knew I would! It’s the first break from blogging I’ve ever taken and I hope I don’t have to do it ever again. I missed all of my girlfriends. I can’t wait to visit everyone and try to catch up. If I’ve missed anything really important, please tell me in your comment.

 

When we planned to be gone for a month, I knew I would miss sewing but I didn’t know I would have trouble with the internet. I even broke my camera on the trip. (but hubby has been sweet to order me a new ‘refurbished’ one)

So I can’t wait to get back to sharing happy times and hard times with my blog buddies. What a difference your friendships make!

I’m joining Beautiful Sunday. Thank you Diane for the beautiful postcard you sent me! You are a wonderful penpal and sweet friend!

And Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.

The Mountains of NC!

It’s a beautiful time of the year to spend in the mountains of North Carolina. The air is dry and cool and the mountains are majestic.

(photo straight out of the camera!)

These were all taken from our balcony. One of the first things I did when we got here is clean the balcony furniture and load the glider with throws and pillows. I’ll spend a lot of time on the balcony with my camera close by. (we both sat out there and read our Miss Marple mysteries yesterday afternoon)

I’m joining Beautiful Sunday and

Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.

(zooming in on Mt. Pisgah)

I hope you have a beautiful weekend! We’ll be out and about enjoying our time here. I’ll be on the computer a little less but I’m anxious to keep up with your news too.

So how are you?

What’s new with you?

Take a walk with me for ‘Good Fences’

We have a beautiful path all the way around our condo complex so we’ll take a nature walk.

And when we are through, we’ll check to see who has juicy blackberry fingers!

Let me check your fingers now!

Stick out your tongue! teehee!

I’m joining Tex for the Good Fences party!

I better get busy!

I need to get busy working on some of the photos I’ve taken since we’ve been here. (I found a few that were good enough to share right out of the camera! WHEW!)

It seems like we go somewhere every day and I take a bunch more photos!

(a walk on Main Street in downtown Hendersonville)

I’ll have enough photos for the rest of the year at this rate.

When I stay home…I like to putter.

I used to have pottery in my china cabinet here but now I have odds and ends.

Mostly vintage things I’ve found at thrift stores or that I’ve kept over the years.

I love little stacks of plates and sweet angels.

Maybe I’ll try to keep my posts simple…

saying less and sharing more photos.

Imagine if we had to have our film developed like in the olden days.

I would be in the poor house for sure! How about you?

This is where I live!

I know it’s confusing sometimes….it is to me, too.

It looks like a big mansion in this photo. Not quite!

We live in 2 different places. 2 VERY different parts of the country.

To enjoy the gorgeous weather of the mountains of NC, we are spending some time in our condo this summer.

That’s ‘me’ coming out onto the balcony. Our condo is 3 bedrooms on the second floor of a small complex that looks out over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Mt. Pisgah. (our living room has the balcony, 1 bedroom and bath to the right of that with one window, 2 bedrooms and bath on the other side with 2 windows on the front and 1 on the side of one of the bedrooms…lots of light)

A couple of the living room while it was tidied up! lol

And I have a kitchen and even a laundry room.

It’s much smaller than our home in Florida so it’s easier to take care of and simplifies our life while we’re here. And it’s a chance to visit with some of our family and enjoy the mountains we both love.

Hopefully we’ll get in some long hikes (to work off the meals at our favorite restaurants).

It’s a blessing to have 2 homes and I’m thankful for my life.

(the mailbox kiosk that we walk to in the evenings to pick up our mail)

It’s FUN and challenging and different!

I decided to include Jane’s comment here.

“It looks so very beautiful,Diane.
Do you spend any time in the winter there? How different is the weather from Florida?” Jane x

We lived in this area year round for many years before we bought a house in Florida and retired. We don’t usually come here in the winter months now though. It gets very cold here in the mountains and the average snowfall is 15 inches. We have nice mild weather in the winter months in Florida. (and no snow! lol) 

Have you ever visited the mountains of Western North Carolina?

Mosaic Monday Textures?

I had so much fun this weekend with the photo challenge HERE that I thought I would create a mosaic without using textures!

It might look like a texture but it’s actually a leaf caught on the screen outside one of the windows of our condo here in Western NC.

(when I look back at these photos, I realize I used a paint effect in the top left photo in my mosaic…the sky wasn’t blue enough! lol)

I’m joining Beautiful Sunday,

Seasonal Sundays,

Sundays in my City,

Mosaic Monday,

and Amaze me Monday!

The leaves are flying off the trees this week!

Do you have any pretty Fall color

left in your trees?

My Condo ‘Happy List’

We love spending time in our condo in the mountains of NC and there’s no better time to visit than Fall.

I took this photo of Mt. Pisgah this morning from our balcony.

I love my Pumpkin girl!

She was made by Pat at All is Bright.

I thought I would share some photos of my Fall décor here in the condo.

I always called these mountain colors…

which are the colors of Autumn.

And there’s an abundance of bittersweet at the park and along the roadways this year.

It grows wild in a tangled vine.

(Close up)

Being here makes me happy so I’m joining Ricki Jill HERE with my happy list!

Are you enjoying a happy week, too?

We’re HERE!

We’ve made the trip North again and arrived in the mountains of NC in time for a shot of cold mountain air. It’s about 30 degrees cooler here! lol That’s a bit of a shock to the system but we love it!

There’s a WELCOME in there somewhere!

This is the entrance to our condo.

 

Everything is so green and beautiful.

We’re going to relax and enjoy some time on the balcony with these beautiful views!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Do you have big plans?