Into the Misty Mountains

(Written sometime last week ...)

 I'm in West Virginia. It was a sprinkly drive up here.

 Aren't the mountains gorgeous?

I stopped at Chick-fil-A for an iced coffee along the way.

 I believe it was a flash of utter brilliance that a restaurant selling chicken should choose a cow as its spokes-animal. Seriously -- if you go to Chick-fil-A dressed up so they'll give you a free chicken sandwich, what do you dress up as? A cow! What's with that? I do wonder who came up with that idea, but it was genius.

This Chick-fil-A store was very pretty. A long wooden table was front and center in the eating area. This plaque was on it:

"Love, compassion, and grace are powerful tools." They have more than just the world's tastiest chicken sandwich in that store.
(As I write this post now on Sunday, I'm struck by the fact that this table plaque is in Charlottesville, Va., a city rocked by violence, unrest, hatred, and conflict. "Love, compassion, and grace are powerful tools." I believe they are more powerful than hate and violence.)
I stopped at that same store on Friday, the day of the violence and death, and redeemed my coupon for a free sandwich, not knowing what was happening so close by.

 

But -- more about my visit with my family. I have rather random photos and didn't do a good job of photographing everyone. Here are a few:

Katie and Anne

me, Marshall, Mother

Marshall

Abraham and Grandmother

 This is my parents' front porch. It is prettier each summer. They sit here in the evenings together.

 My sister-in-law, DeVona, has this sign by her kitchen door. Her house, however, has been immaculately clean and beautiful every time I've been there :)

 The hydrangeas by her porch:

 The delicious salad she prepared for us for lunch.

 The wedding shower centerpieces she made by hand for a friend.

 

These flowers were not purchased at Michael's. They were made entirely from scratch by hand -- cutting the pedals, gluing on the tiny black beads. Everything DeVona makes with her hands (and she is gifted and makes many things) is perfect, beautiful, a treasure.

 

White Oak Farm, Max and Anne's home:

 Part of one blueberry field.

 The selling shed on their barn. The picking season is over for this year.

 

Max and I picked two 5-gallon buckets of Wolf River apples for me to take home.

 

I'll post more later on how I turned just one bucket of them into over 7 quarts of beautiful applesauce.
The cows were jealous.

 This is the view from my parents' porch. It is unparalleled, in my opinion. The mystical beauty of those mountains lures me back every time I go.

 Max and Anne's garden.

 

My brother Mark continues to soldier on with his life in spite of crushing hurt and pain from his wife, who has taken his children from him and used the family court to do so. It's horrific to watch, but it has become, in his sorrow, a time of enormous spiritual growth for him. Life as God's child is often that way.

When his house burned down, he began building this "tiny house" (less than 100 squ. ft.!) as a temporary shelter. It is mobile. Another post on that later also.
That's all for now! I'm home safe and glad to be so. I love my West Virginia family so, and each trip there I ponder how I am still a child and a daughter and a sister in those mountains.

What We Did on Our Anniversary

On our anniversary last weekend, Adam and I went to Little Washington. That's what North Carolinians call Washington, NC ... to prevent confusion with that other Washington further north.
We took the Aurora ferry.

I loved the gray clouds and wind. That's my kind of weather. Perhaps I should go live on an island off the coast of Scotland. I could take ferries everywhere!

Adam would hate that weather ... so, no.
This was the prettiest house we saw in Washington.

There's some attractive architecture. It looked like these upper floors were being lived in. I've always wondered about these 80 year old buildings with four floors. What did they hope to DO with all that square footage? Storage? Offices? Apartments?

Scarlet O'Hara? Reminds me of the picnic at the Wilkeses' home.

They've a beautiful boardwalk along the Pamlico River. In checking on this river on Google Maps, I find it ends right there in Washington, a little finger of water. But the main body of water that continues under the big bridge is then called the Tar River. I tracked it nearly to the Virginia line, north of Durham.

Aren't the lamps pretty?
Big grassy spaces with gazebos and swings.

Down town is only a block from the water. Alleys like these divide many of the buildings and lead to the water.

I have a thing for old buildings.

A quirky artist's studio nestles in one alley.

On the main street side, this building is just called "The Little Shoppes." But on the water side:

Pretty hairy!
We ate lunch at Grub Brothers Eatery.

 Oyster Po-boy for Adam with fried pickles --

 Chicken tacos for me --

 Later we stopped for ice cream at Scoops:

 

Mine, in the cone, was called Cappuccino Crunch. It is perhaps the best ice cream I've ever had. Adam, bless his heart, is on a new diet (which I shall update you on later) and saved up his calories all week for this date :)

It was a lovely time. Although we've been to Beaufort for many dates and enjoyed their boardwalk and restaurants, we'd never visited Little Washington at all, so it was time. Happy anniversary to us!