Butterflies, Bees, and Lizards (near) Trees

When my sister-in-law was in town last week, we decided to go to Saluda, North Carolina.  Tucked into the mountainside, it's a tiny one-stoplight town that was at one time the steepest railway grade in the United States.

We shopped and visited the museum, which had some very dramatic trail-derailment dioramas.

A short drive away, we hiked over smooth stone paths...

...to see a beautiful 90-foot waterfall, Pearson's Falls.

Another day, we drove to Asheville, North Carolina to stand in author Thomas Wolfe's shoe prints...

...and see the interesting architecture.  Dog gargoyles!  :)

The Blue Hills are undeniably beautiful.

However, it's not too shabby around our house right now.  80s or not, FALL IS HERE.

We are having a bumper crop of acorns this year.  They crunch under your feet wherever you walk.

This is the front driveway, right before blowing.  A day after blowing, it looks exactly the same!

Our big camellias aren't quite ready to pop yet...

But some of our other ones feel differently!

This unseasonably warm weather has kept our marigolds and zinnias blooming, joined with fall asters and chrysanthemums.

And the vinca just doesn't stop!

I picked a nice bouquet to bring a little of that outside beauty indoors.

We still have butterflies, bees, and lizards in trees!  Well, on downspouts, anyway.

It's a great time to be outside.

Have a great week!

Festivals, Hikes, & Temperatures I Like

Road trip weekend!  Of course, I continue to be a terrible traveler.  Carsick?  Absolutely (thankfully, no picture exists of me hunched over Todd's rain jacket in lieu of a plastic vomit bag).  Insomnia?  Check.  General queasiness?  Absolutely.  But we still managed to have a good time. 

We went to North Carolina to visit family, hike, and attend the John Campbell Folk School annual festival.  Wow, what a crowd!

Over 200 vendors were selling pottery, fiber goods, plants, food, metal ware, wooden furniture (and lots of birdhouses!), and many other things.  I loved the intricate work in the coin carving booth...

...loved seeing all the cool things created out of wood and metal...

...and all the fiber arts exhibits - knitting, weaving, and quilting.

Live music, too!

I love this image.  It is scarcely different from what we would've seen 150 years ago - a woman bent over a roasting chicken, a quilt over the vehicle entrance to keep the dust out.  Replace the old pick-up with a covered wagon and it's suddenly 1860!

North Carolina is beautiful.

And, might I add, much cooler than where we live.  Nighttime temperatures were in the mid-40s (!!!!) and we had amazing 55 degree weather while we hiked.  The perfect hiking temperature, I think! 

Borga was raring to go.

She slept in my lap the whole way home!

Here in SC, we're finally experiencing cool mornings and nights, although days are still in the mid-80s and expected to reach 86 again by the weekend.  But there are more signs of impending cooler weather.  Our turkeys are back! 

I've seen them several times, and I hear them gobbling noisily every morning. 

Our window screens are covered by shield bugs, just like every autumn. 

They're harmless, but they're trying to get inside so they can over-winter in our walls.  We see them inside sometimes, especially in the spring when the warmer weather wakes them from their winter stupor. 

Meanwhile, the cats are just taking it easy, regardless of the temperature.

Have a great week!

This Takes the {Cookie} Cake

Todd and I drove to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina this weekend to visit family and enjoy a little hiking.  In South Carolina the leaves are just beginning to turn, but that transformation is well underway just a bit north.

We hiked on beautiful paths...

...and through lovely valleys in the shadow of the mountains.

We saw lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and waterfalls.

Huge trees - virgin hardwoods!

Smaller ones, too.

We enjoyed the sights...

...while staying clear of some less-than-friendly locals!

Todd's dog Borga came with us.  She can be a real pain to take on trips, because she's high-strung to the extreme.  She always cries en route to our destinations and then once there, too,  if kept in the crate.  However, she usually calms down after a nice walk, and she always like to pose in our pictures.

We had clear days and beautiful nights. 

It was a great trip!

We've been really, really busy lately, and I've only had time for one Halloween baked item:  a cookie cake baked in a 9" cake pan.  Now, if you grew up in the midwest, or at least in central Indiana, you knew the Original Cookie Co. in the Greenwood Park Mall. The OCC always had these amazing gigantic cookie cakes that I'd salivate over.  I never bought one, but had slices at the occasional birthday party.  With ice cream or without, the giant cookie cake never failed to satisfy.  The center was soft.  The outside edge was crisp.  The frosting was tooth-achingly sweet.  What's not to love?  Learning that I could make my own at home was proof that knowledge in the wrong hands can be very dangerous indeed! 

Not very spooky?  Perhaps you didn't notice the terrifying Halloween funfetti sprinkles I used!

It was so easy to make.  I used this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, just changing up the sprinkles. 

I piped buttercream frosting around the edge and in the center. 

It was really, really good - soft in the middle, crispy on the outside edge, just like the OCC, but fresher and, dare I say, tastier?  I recently made a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and learned that they, too, have a giant cookie cake version.  I think I know what my next post-holiday baking project is going to be! 

Have a great week!