Woodworking results

Norris took a gift to his mother this weekend - a step he constructed of pressure treated wood to go outside her back door.


It may need a height adjustment but otherwise fits the requirement.

Norris almost returned with two additions to our household - a tortie

and her blue-eyed, big-eared companion.


Both kittens are temporarily with niece Sheri who can't keep them. Norris might have brought one home, but Sheri wouldn't separate them and he couldn't decide which one he preferred. But Moki is capable of unpredictable moods that result in scabs on Lu's nose. Lu is bigger than Moki and knows to avoid her - and we can intervene with cat pheromones that calm her down. The cats will be left in the care of their sitter for a couple of days coming up - it wouldn't be right to leave her in charge of protecting new kittens from a Mad Moki. Anyone want a pair of playful bundles of fur?

Fiber on the Hoof

We're not talking about dietary fiber this time. Norris went to visit family, so Cheryl went out on her own for National Alpaca Farm Days. One of her knitting group members is co-owner of Last Penny Alpaca Farm just on the other side of Weaverville from us.

These are the males -



Here are some of the females, Moms and Babies included -


This little one was most comfortable on the far side of the adults -


The alpacas were very quiet - their two-toed feet seemed noiseless on the concrete and they made no sounds while they munched on the hay. There were a lot of human visitors - some fiber artists and interested knitters, but mostly children and their mothers.

Cheryl learned a little about Alpacas, and got to see and touch a variety of products from hand spun to machine processed yarns. Shown are all natural colors: Other colors can be made by dying.


There were also a variety of useful things made from the fiber on sale.


This next photo shows some of the processed fiber (in the basket), rugs and a wastebasket cleverly made of a combination of alpaca fiber and cotton fabric.


Here's a glimpse at the pasture areas - if you would call it that. The photo seems to flatten it out. The reality was this land would be almost impossible for a two-legged mammal to walk on.


There were a couple of other four-leggers in the barn - two miniature donkeys, just for the fun of it.

And just down the road, these colorful chickens were hunting bugs.

American Beautyberry at last

Our American Beautyberry (Callicarpa) was planted last spring.



We actually got several - this one is right next to the driveway at the sidewalk. It is a native plant to the south eastern United States, and was originally selected for its fall color by our landscape designer. Something went wrong with the nursery stock, and some other plant was installed in this prominent location instead.

We've been enjoying watching the color of the berry clusters change from the bottom to the top of the stems -



Supposedly, you can make a jelly from the berries, but we'll leave them on the plant for the birds.



We didn't know to expect so many berries the first year, especially after waiting three years while the original plant never had any color.

Signs of Fall

Cheryl took a picture of our front walkway this morning. Conditions this spring may not have produced good late-summer food sources for the bears, but they seemed to help our landscape. Notice how Chester Bear is now well-hidden behind the growth.



Some of Cheryl's quilting friends were recently looking at a slideshow of Asheville's thriving art scene. Weaverville's annual Art in Autumn features local artists in a one-day juried exhibit on Main street. For fun, here are some photos of wares that caught our attention -

Ceramics -

Glass -


Mosaic depictions of wildlife made from torn magazine pages -
Lampshades decorated with leaves -


Beautiful wood - here Norris is examining cutting boards.


Rustic wooden vases

But we did not stop with photos - here Norris concludes a transaction with a forger. We added some new handcrafted skewers to our collection.

We really admired the oak tree in this next photo, thinking it would be perfect on the big wall in our great room. The price tag would take a little getting used to.



We settled on a smaller model that replaces some faded leaves Cheryl had framed for our dining area. The frame upper left has captured a reflection of our windows - it holds leaves as well, but we'll find something else for that spot some day.




Cheryl was captivated by this tiny leaf bowl so it came home with us. It's about 3 inches across.


While we're talking local art, we never posted photo of these two ceramic pieces we bought at last year's Art in Autumn. With today's cloud cover, we finally captured the metallic without glare. The artist uses real leaves to create these - one on the right is a hemlock. Our hemlocks are threatened by the wooly ageldid - but this plaque serves to remind us of its place in our landscape.

Labor Day trip for Cheryl

Cheryl is off on a trip to our old stomping grounds in the Washington DC area and has a few photos to share with family and friends.

Last night, Cheryl, Carl and Beth went to the Bacchus of Lebanon in Bethesda for a treat for Cheryl - Middle Eastern is not one of the cuisines Asheville has built its reputation for fabulous restaurants on -

Here's a shot of Brother Carl at dinner - dinner was on the outdoor patio on a rare pleasant evening in late summer in this part of the world. Unfortunately, Carl and Beth did not wind up in focus with their eyes open in the same shots - but we like this one of Brother Carl -


Today was Labor Day in the U.S. and so at Dorry's house, the plan was for a holiday grilled dinner. Dinner was moved indoors due to the rain we've had off and on all afternoon. The role of Executive Chef sometimes shifted between Mother and Son (Dorry and Geoff) but we enjoyed a fine meal and laughter -


Dorry's remark at this next photo was how interesting it is that for some photographs, the perspective is from a much higher vantage point than usual -

Pastry Chef Rhonda took over for the dessert course. Note the pleased expression on Dorry's face - she already has her serving of Trifle, but she had not yet tasted that layer of ladyfingers.


But don't worry - there is serious work being done on the main project of the week - here's Dorry working on a central feature of a quilt Cheryl will be working on after returning home in a few days.



Cheryl is in Virginia until this final element is complete - more photos will be forthcoming.

Finally, there are two photos just for Norris the Fire Fighter - This the Manassas Town Hall building - note the interesting partial ring lower right:

Click on the photo to read the story of this unique object:

Transformation of a jungle

Each summer, our wildflower meadow has been growing more and more lush and out of control with tall and shrubby plants -


Recently, we had to beat back some multiflora rose and flowering plants so we could continue to use our new stairs.


This year we finally took matters out of our own hands, and hired our landscapers to cut it all down.


An hour or so later, all that was left was mopping up the debris. They loaded the piles onto big tarps and hauled it away. That took longer than the chopping.

(this is the same view as the first picture from a slightly different angle on the deck. The first one was taken on Wednesday at around noon, compared to this one, taken around 9:00 am today.)

We left the area around the raised vegetable garden un-mowed. Because that soil had been disturbed when they installed the terracing walls, it did not have last year's crop of weeds sprouting in it. This gives an idea of the flowers that we should have been seeing in the meadow.


We keep trying to come up with more manageable solutions to this part of the landscape, including making the meadow smaller with other improvements. Much of it, however, is the septic field, limiting the choices. Some of our neighbors have traditional turf grass, but we really don't want to have to mow this slope!