Gardens

detail of friends' garden--lovely pond in the backyard

Sunny Point Cafe, Asheville, North Carolina--kitchen garden detail

A young boy dreams in beautiful Krutch Park, Knoxville, Tennessee.  Whimsy, a sculpture by Pamela Reithmeier is on the right.

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny is so much fun!  This week our assignment is letter "G."  Come see others' submissions HERE and join in the fun!




photos by me © 2013 and 2014

photographs

random photographs from this summer... 

Because my hubby and I were attending our niece's wedding in July in San Diego, we decided to visit Death Valley on the way--yep--in the middle of Summer! Here we are having fun with shadows on the western edge of the park looking out to the Panamint Mountains. 

The wedding was so wonderful!  The ceremony and the reception were held outside.  Banners and lights were strung in several courtyard areas.  

The day after the wedding, the bride and groom escorted 13 of us into Baja California, Mexico for wine tastings.  First up--tacos and paletas.  Then we had all the energy necessary to visit 4 wineries!  At one of them, there was a grape tasting garden.  I wish I remembered what variety these are.

back home again to a waiting kitty!

and a mini garden harvest

My 9 year old twin goddaughters came over to play for an evening.  We had lots of fun!  Oliver (kitty) enjoyed man little girl-handling, we made fun food, and played flashlight tag.  This ice cream lady was inspired by Samantha Lee's amazing food art.  ("Lola" was made of 2 kinds of ice cream, strawberry lips and cheeks, chocolate sauce eyebrows, hair of oreo-type cookie surrounded by chocolate sauce.  A tree was made of cantaloupe branches and pieces of fruit for leaves and blossoms.) 

2 trips to Asheville, NC to visit my daughter and SIL.  We always work on a house project.  Sometimes we explore the town or the mountains.  We always have awesome food --and wine.  (My daughter's a wine rep!)  Recently, we were working on converting a carport into a greenhouse.  Alas, we didn't finish.

Yesterday, I was playing around with my iPhone taking photos of my flowers.  The asters have just begun to bloom.  It must be Fall.  See the beetle?

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is  "P."  Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun!  


 
photos by me  © 2014   all rights reserved     

abstract

design on a business garage door in Asheville, North Carolina

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week we begin the alphabet once more--with the letter  "A" of course! Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 


 
 photos by me  © 2013   all rights reserved

xenial Sunny Point garden

Come on in!  Enter the delightful organic garden of Sunny Point Cafe in West Asheville, North Carolina!

"We celebrate the relationship between the kitchen and the garden…where food grows from a tiny seed and meets the knives of creative chefs, all within an acre…from spade to spoon."


 Nestled within the garden are tables for gathering and play areas for kids.  In the foreground grows tall dinosaur kale.

Raised beds are full of herbs and vegetables.  There are even planters on the fences.

Situated in a residential area, neighborhood houses surround the gardens and cafe.

spoon and fork sculptures growing within the dandelion bed!

aah...so xenial!

 













Therefore,

and 

Do you know what xenial means now?! *

LINKS:
⃟  Sunny Point Cafe --Be sure to peruse this site. interesting information as well as recipes
⃟  (short) POST about Sunny Point kitchen garden by Lauri Newman who designed it

PS:  Beautiful flowers grow here, too!  See a gorgeous passion flower on my blog HERE.  

 * hospitable

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "X." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 




photos by me © 2013   all rights reserved

seeming to undulate

This stunning passion flower is growing in the gardens of Sunny Point Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina.  The restaurant grows much of the vegetables and herbs served in its own extensive gardens.  Scattered among the gardens are tables and chairs, children's play areas, and gorgeous flowers.

un . du . late --to move with a smooth wavelike motion; having a wavy surface or edge

LINKS:  
interesting information about medicinal usages from the University of Maryland (my alma mater!)
description  of passion flower (of which there are 400 species!)
cultivation --Royal Horticultural Society  

THANK YOU, Judie, for identifying this plant!
 

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "U." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 


PS:  I have been on vacation and then catching up with myriad things.  I apologize for the length of time it's taken to visit you.  But visit you, I will!
 
photo by me © 2013   all rights reserved

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

For Thanksgiving, my family got together at my daughter's house in Asheville, North Carolina.  We cooked, ate, played games, laughed, played with kitties.

waiting 

Tigra is earnestly expectant when dinnertime approaches!

foliage 

candid 

Thanksgiving festivities at my daughter's included the raking of leaves.

knife, fork, or spoon

Thanksgiving food prep with glasses of wine!

rule of thirds

"drive by shooting" on the way home  (yes, I was the passenger, not the driver!)

I'm having so much fun participating in this challenging, inspiring, and fun meme.  Come on over to Scavenger Hunt Sunday on Ashley Sisk's blog and see some wonderful, creative entries.  Link up, too!

photos by me © 2011

more Asheville...hike part 2

some closeup views from our hike along Graveyards Fields Trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina...

blueberries (above)

water striders (above) found in a pool of water below the waterfall

rhododendron (above) were blooming everywhere.

A gnatcatcher (above) entertained us during lunch.

photos by me © 2009

more Asheville...hike part 1

We hiked to both falls. As you can see the day is somewhat overcast.













Here my daughter, the professional photographer, is capturing a bee with pollen baskets.
We feasted on the picnic lunch we brought.


"America's favorite drive," winds 469 miles through mountain meadows and amazing vistas. Building of the Parkway was authorized in the 1930s as a Depression-era public works project. Difficult in the extreme, building through the mountainous terrain took over 50 years. It was the nation's first, and ultimately longest, rural parkway, connecting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.
more about
Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway map near Asheville
Blue Ridge Parkway guide, Asheville area with photos, a video, mile by mile guide, and more
a photo of the mountains in the Spring (first photo)
Graveyard Fields Trail photos with gorgeous Fall colors, emphasize gorgeous!
photos by me © 2009