Asheville, NC

We have another one-night stop in Asheville, NC. The drive from Charleston is fairly uneventful but as we approach,  mountains appear in the distance adding some interest to the view. 

After stopping at our hotel and dropping off bags, Travis takes us on a quick tour of the main town offering some suggestions for lunch spots. Asheville has some great Art Deco architecture that has remained intact from the 1920s and a lot of great artists live here. 

We had lunch at the Woolworth Walk soda counter, which also currently holds selections of independent artists' works. After a club sandwich, Fiona and I strolled a bit through the booths, picking up a blank card from one artist's shop, in lieu of bringing back actual art. 

We have plans to meet back with Travis so he can drive us to Biltmore Estate. The property is massive and as we enter the first gate, we are immediately impressed with the forested grounds. We later learned that all of this property was over-worked farm land that had to be rehabilitated and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The mansion itself was designed by Richard Morris Hunt. There was a wonderful audio guide describing various rooms and highlighting key pieces of art. The tour covers the main floor, family bedroom wings, guest areas, pool, bowling alley and gym, and servants quarters. We lucked out in timing our visit as the staff were decorating for Christmas and many of the rooms already had trees, mantel decorations and other festive touches.

Upon exiting the house, the stable, carriage house and repair shop are all converted into dining & shops. 

We had just enough time to do a quick stroll of the closer garden areas including the Italian garden, walled garden and conservatory. Each new section was more beautiful and impressive than the next. 

As we returned to the main driveway, we saw Travis and the van and our drive back to the hotel took us past some of the farm areas so we got a full loop of the estate. 

The day concluded with a delicious BBQ dinner of pulled pork, corn pudding and baked beans at Buxton Hall BBQ. 

Tomorrow, another early departure will take us to Nashville and we leave Rita behind to return home from here.

Upcountry

On our last full day on Maui, Mei, the kids and I headed upcountry to Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm. We didn't know quite what to expect but figured an excursion away from the beach on our last full day wouldn't be all bad. 

As we headed up the slopes of Haleakala, the temperature drops and the skies turn grey as we get closer to the permanent cloud that sits on the mountain. It starts to remind us of Scotland or Ireland as it's greener up here too. 

The view up here is spectacular. This is the northern coast of Maui. The lavender field itself is unimpressive and quite small. However there is a flower garden with some unusual and gorgeous plants. A meandering path takes you down the hill past ferns, jacaranda trees, bromeliads and so many different proteas. 

We picked up some lavender souvenirs and a couple of lavender scones on our way out. 

Down the road a bit from the lavender farm is the historic town of Makawao. We stopped on their main shopping street for a look-see. This is a rustic street with a slightly hippy vibe. The stores tend to be local artists or mom-and-pops. There are chickens everywhere including on top of cars.

I bought a t-shirt from a watercolour artist and we snacked from a food truck in between meandering through the various unusual stores. I quite enjoyed seeing this different side of Maui.

After a brief rest, Mei, Stephen and I headed to Whaler's Village to hunt down a dinner reservation. We lucked out at Leilani's. Their calamari appetizer and parmesan crusted mahi mahi were quite good. We didn't partake of a third hula pie since we were saving up for one last shave ice.

And one last sunset.

Pandemic silver linings

Here's my latest Bucket of Blooms project. 

First the bucket:

You can see the colours and different shapes and textures. The florist's skill is in putting the flowers together.

The florist used a wider shorter ceramic vessel whereas I used a taller skinnier one so I adapted the lesson to my vase's different shape.

I love the contrast with the silver of the vase and the asymmetry of the arrangement. I love this new thing I'm learning.

My neighbours stumbled on a fire pit for our back area and it's perfect! Several of us hung out on Friday enjoying the warmth of the fire in the slight evening chill of an LA autumn. 

California burning

The west coast is on fire. From Washington state down to Southern California. A few days ago the ash was so bad in the Bay area that the skies turned red during the day. 

It wasn't as bad here although the sky was very overcast but with a sepia tone to it. It felt very ominous.

On a brighter note, the Bucket of Blooms for the month was a lesson in zhuzhing an orchid plant. It really made such a difference to a simple store bought orchid to put it in a nice pot with some succulents, change out the plain plastic clips and add some moss.

End of summer

Hard to believe that Labour Day is approaching already. As with much of time passing during this pandemic, it seems equally that summer went by so quickly and also dragged on forever. 

This past week was my first Bucket of Blooms monthly delivery after the event that was organized by my vendor friend. This one turned out to be gorgeous with roses, thistle, dahlia, clematis and campanula. 

It was a great decision to do this, it gave me an hour to create and learn, and will provide a few days of beautiful display and scent of roses. I'll continue to do this while our outer lives are so limited.

Over the weekend we all learned that Chadwick Boseman had passed away from colon cancer. In addition to the sadness from losing a talent so young, we learned he was battling the disease while producing amazing work. Such strength. 

On a cheerier note, my neighbour's older daughter celebrated her birthday. Her dad made chocolate souffles for her and did a few extras for some of us. 

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday night in our back patio area, talking and enjoying our desserts as the night cooled.

And to end the weekend, I finally got my act together to try a pita recipe that I'd found. The one I used is a whole wheat version. I used my pizza pan instead of direct on the grill grates (which just seems like a bad idea). It turned out to be pretty easy but relatively labour intensive since the bake times are short, meaning you stand by a hot oven making each one of the pitas individually. The place still smells like pita this morning. I'll try one later and see if the pockets formed. 

The neverending, time altering summer goes on

I haven't updated in a couple of weeks because, well, I was feeling out of sorts. A typical July 4th weekend pre-pandemic would be just another long weekend for me, but there's usually the opportunity to invite people over to watch the fireworks from our roof. Not only could I not do that, but the official shows were all cancelled. That didn't stop every yahoo in the area from picking up some illegal ones. They've been popping off way earlier and more extensively than previous years (as the Nextdoor folks will attest) and the actual night of the 4th was INSANE! There were full on rockets going up within a block of us and apparently the entire Southern California landscape was covered with them. 

Normally I love a good fireworks show but this year, I felt like it was just representing people being selfish for their own enjoyment, f* other people, and this year we can little afford that attitude (as currently skyrocketing COVID rates will attest). 

The one good thing that came out of that weekend was that I got my first Hello Fresh delivery. I'd been pondering starting a meal kit service just because my ability to conjure up interesting and varied meals has been pushed to its limits. I was getting so BORED with trying to figure out what to eat for 3 meals a day and I'm not one to love repeats. I enjoy a good leftover but there's gotta be a variety. The first 3 meals turned out really good! I had 2 chicken dishes and 1 vegetarian pasta and since they all come with 2 servings that's 6 meals for me. I did realize I need to cook them up quickly as the veggies start getting limp but they were all quite tasty and didn't involve trying to find stuff in the grocery store that I only need a tiny bit of. I could also control spice levels for those dishes that included them. I didn't mind the chopping and prep work, I think it's not a bad thing to practice. 

After the first delivery, I realized I wanted to switch my day to Friday so I had weekend nights to cook. That meant a long break to my next delivery. Well while the first one went without a hitch the second one was problematic. The delivery was delayed although the customer service staff had no way of knowing what was going on so I had no idea if I'd need to shop for food for the week or not. It took 4 calls and 24 hrs to get my delivery. After firing off some strongly worded emails, I did make the first recipe of pork burgers which turned out to be delish! I left the second serving unassembled for another day. If despite the delivery snafu, you're still interested here's a discount code to try it out: HS-4X55DOOFB.

Last weekend I got a boost out of a brunch with a couple of my dance friends. We went to class first and then went to The Rose Venice to celebrate Kelly's birthday. It was the first time at The Rose since this whole thing started and we had a nice secluded outdoor table that felt very safe. Our meals were delicious, service was great, and I ran into a vendor I hadn't seen in ages which made the whole thing feel very LA. 

These days it doesn't take much to add some joy to our routine.

This past week I was invited to a vendor event that involved getting a bucket of flowers delivered along with supplies, and joining an online group to learn how to arrange them! The florist walked us through using oasis, how each flower should be treated (when to peel off leaves or petals, which stems were fragile or tough, where to cut, etc) and we all ended up with gorgeous arrangements that looked like a million bucks! When I posted a pic of my masterpiece on FB, I must've gotten more likes and comments than possibly any post ever! I think people are really feeling our restricted lives, and flowers are one thing that makes people happy. Every time I walk by my arrangement the scent of the roses and the beautiful colours still makes me happy. I'm thinking of joining the florist's Bucket of Blooms service. For not a lot of money, it means learning flower arranging and having a splash of beauty every few weeks. 

This weekend was also when comet Neowise was visiting our solar system. It was bright enough to try and spot even from my urban light polluted roof. On Friday, my neighbours told me that the ISS was also flying by. It turned out to be doing its pass at about the same time and in roughly the same place as the comet. We managed to spot the fast moving space station, and with binoculars could clearly see the comet as well sitting just under the Big Dipper. (Neighbour teens could see it with bare eyes. Darn youth.) It won't be back for almost 7000 years. It really does put our small lives in perspective.