Flannel, Boots and Happiness

 Our view from the Veranda whilst sipping libations and supping on artisan cheese and fruit and then pizza.

 I think this is a sunrise or it could be a sunset...either way, it is beautiful.

 We had many beautiful moon lit nights

 I love how the sun through the clouds cause a golden hue and I love the shadows on the mountains divided by the patches of sun.

The sky was so vivid this trip, constantly changing and I didn't want to miss anything

 This looks like a curtain from the room but it is the heavy cloud cover with the brief glimpse of light between the sky and the mountains.

This looks to be a sunrise but it isn't.  It was just a break in the clouds creating the illusion...no matter it was simply gorgeous!  

My love affair with North Carolina began as a child.  Many of the books I checked out from the library took place in the area.  First there were the stories along the beaches but the stories soon changed to the mountain of Western North Carolina.  I fell in love with a place I had never been to and kept that tucked away in my heart.  When I first began reading Southern fiction, Ann Rivers Siddons and Lee Smith described the Outer Banks and the stories of the mountain.  Kaye Gibbons did as well.  I discovered Louis Rubin and the Voices of the South series published by LSU Press.  I subscribed to Literary Press Journals many from the North Carolina area.  I loved the stories.  Then in 1999 I finally got to NC and it was with Peggy.  I took in the scenery and the Biltmore but in reality those took second and third place with my attention.  I was distracted by our Chattanooga experience and knowing that there were huge problems at our townhouse at home and Roy making decisions he didn't like making alone, I couldn't quite focus on the here and now but what we needed to do about the townhouse and where to find the money to fix everything. 

Fast forward to 2002 when I went back to NC on a trip with Dena.  That love for a place I had never been to which had been tucked away for so many years, was reclaimed and dusted off on that trip.The mountains and the trees...their beauty drew me in.  From that year forward I found myself at first once a year, then twice a year and beginning last year three times returning to the area.  Yesterday, I wrote about reading Liz Curtis Higgs book, The Women of Christmas and how the voice of Mary made the baby leap for joy in Elizabeth's womb and that is precisely how I would describe what my heart and spirit did way back in 2002.  Roy and I even ventured into looking in the Maggie Valley area  to buy maybe in 2005 or 2006 but I decided at that time, I liked the Biltmore experience more than the owning something experience.  

This year through a series of events and choices, we found ourselves actually considering the purchase of a home around the WNC area.  We started where we had stopped years ago, Maggie Valley but we rethought purchasing a vacation home and began our pursuit of a home to live in and eventually retire to.  Today is the official moving day of the seller of our home and with all the appointments and deliveries scheduled in the coming weeks, we are beginning to feel rather excited to be at our home in the coming weeks ready to put our mark on the country jewel farmhouse in the rolling, rural valley.  

I am feeling good about all the plaid flannel shirts I own now.  I have always been a winter time clothes girl living in a summer less summer world out here on the prairie.  This also seems to be a big boot year for me...well truthfully, every year is a big boot year because I have large feet that need big boots.  No, I have a few more pairs of boots I picked up for a good price at the end of last year.  I am breaking out the red boots today.  Red boots, black plaid shirt=happy.