Mountain Neighbors

Dog Trot House

One of the two rooms

Notice the funny " duck" over the door to one of the rooms

Garden Shed

The Mountain Neighbors had several buildings that they had moved to their land.  One was a dog trot house.  It even had period time furniture in it.   The porch had a beautiful view of the mountains.  It all made for a fun walk up the mountain.

Mountain Garden

Beautiful flowers lining the garden

Sun flowers inside the garden

yes, that's a beet!!!!

The prettiest Dahlias I've ever seen. 

The first evening that we were at Dottie/Gary's we walked up to the neighbors.  The last house on the road on top of the mountain.  They don't live there year round.  They live in Atlanta.  There is a care taker named Hayes who over looks the land, houses and garden.  It was all amazing.  Especially the garden!  I must have been wonderful this summer before it was all harvested.  There still were potatoes, spaghetti squash, beets, beans, peppers and the prettiest dahlias I have ever seen.  They lined the wooden slatted fence around the whole garden.  There were also a couple of grape arbors, full of grapes.  Hayes stopped by the house a couple of times with his arms loaded with veggies and a huge bunch of fresh basil, for us.  He would open the gate in front of the house in the mornings and would close and lock it back up before dark .It made it nice that we didn't have to make sure the gate was closed and locked at night.   Melanie would hang her mail she wrote to her kids and grand kids on the gate, in a plastic bag and Hayes would take it down the mountain and drop it off at the post office for her. There is no mail service on the mountain.  We ended up only going down the mountain three times in the two weeks.  We took lots of projects to keep us busy.

The Mountains

Beautiful Mountains!!!!!

Where are we????

We Made It!!!!!!

The cute 1800's house

One side of the porch

The front porch

I know!  I have been gone FOREVER!  I was invited to spend two weeks in the mountains of Cashiers, N.C. with Lady Melanie.  She was going to house sit for her cousins while they went to France.  Melanie came up on Monday evening to spend the night at Brambly Pines so we could get an early start the next morning.  That we did.  Melanie and I had never been on a road trip by ourselves before.  It was going to be an adventure for sure.  We had printed off directions and we were doing ok until we came to some construction on the road and there were no signs that the directions were telling us.  After a few U-turns, we figured it out.  When we stopped for lunch, we didn't even know what state we were in...ha.  We went from Alabama to Tennessee to Georgia, back to Tennessee.  ( yes we were suppose to do that)  As we were ordering our lunch we asked the lady behind the counter "what state we were in".  The look on her face made us laugh.  We were still in Tennessee.  We ended up in the middle of the mountains on very windy roads and the car very close to the edge of the highest cliffs ever.  Melanie put on the sound track CD to " Out of Africa" and it was the perfect music to listen to while winding around the mountains.It was like we were in a movie.   We did finally make it to Dotty and Gary's cute little house after driving 7 more miles up the mountain. "High Five".....we did it!!!! We were sure glad to get there!

Miss Annabelle Lee

Our little Annabelle Lee kitty who lived at least 12 lives in the past 18 years is now in the Brambly Pines kitty cemetery along with Marmalade and Oscar. She had a good long life.  Longer than any of our other kitties.  She died of old age.  Even though it was time for her to go, my heart still hurts and I miss her dearly.  The house just isn't the same without her.  We are now down to just one cat....George.  I'm sure glad he showed up on the land while we were building the house or I think we would be making a trip to the pound to adopt a new kitty.  I can't imagine the house without one.  One is enough.....not three.

Getting a Peek

Michelle and Miss Vivienne Pieper

Michelle invited us to come up to Nashville to go to her monthly Dr. appointment.  This month was the special one....it was ultra sound time!  Craig, Chuck and I all crowded in the little room and watched little Miss Vivienne moving around inside of Michelle.  It was a " first" for Chuck and I since we didn't get to experience an ultra sound with our two babies.  It confirmed that it was " a girl" that we all knew from the blood tests that Michelle had already had.  After the Dr appointment, we all walked around Centennial Park before going out for a late breakfast.  Then it was time for everyone to go back to work and home.  Everyone can't wait until we can hold little Miss Vivienne in our arms.  .....it will be here before we know it!

Rattlesnake Vist

Table/chairs under the canyon

Lookin for rattlesnakes!

One of the stops on the way home for the day was at the Rattlesnake Saloon.  It was a fun place that we found when Fred/Elaine were up one time.  It had been written up in Southern Living magazine and I had always wanted to go see it in person.  It's really impressive with all the table/chairs and a stage under this hug canyon.  It's suppose to be a very busy place come the weekends.  It would be a great place to have a wedding if ya wanted to wear your cowboy boots. There is even a place to " park" your horse.... ..ha

A Walk in the Park

Chuck and Cousin Terri

Man made waterfall

Many geese and ducks live in the pond

Petrified tree trunk  

After our visit at Helen Keller's we went for a nice walk around Spring Park.  Another place we  thought Cousin Terri might enjoy.  Next stop.....Rattlesnake Saloon!