Autumn in North Carolina

It was an absolutely glorious weekend in North Carolina, the color was almost peak & we so enjoyed all the beautiful fall leaves & scenery up in that area. My parents have a house in NC, about 2 hours from where they live in GA. They love to spend time up there & they have a huge garden that they still tend to year after year. It's a country house on the side of a mountain, with a stream running through the frontyard. I'll tell you about it later. This little shop is in the little area of Murphy, NC called Brasstown, which is where my parent's house is. There are some cute antique stores all lined up. I've been in there before, but didn't have time this trip to browse. The weather could not have been more perfect for a Fall getaway. Me & Peter really enjoyed ourselves, eating & looking at the pretty mountains. We took off on Saturday and spent about 6 hours making a tour of the mountains & just enjoying the scenery. Wow, was it pretty!

Here is my parent's house. They built this house 20 years ago after our family spent many years in NC, vacationing & sightseeing. We have such fond memories of NC & really had a lot of fun family time there during the years that my sister & I were growing up. This house is fun to visit. My mom cooks SO good, a typical country cook & we have eaten many a meal in this house. In the summer, the vegetables are plentiful & we eat & eat, until we can't eat anymore. This weekend was no exception. I took so many pics this weekend that I had to put most of them in a collage, so that you wouldn't be here all day looking at the pretty pics. I tried to capture as best I could all the gorgeous Fall leaf color that we experienced. The sky was extra blue & the leaves were extra colorful. God is the best painter there is, don't you agree?
This is a fern outside my parents house.
And this is a pretty kitty that I made friends with. She lives next door & comes over to eat the scraps that my mom throws out in the woods. She never would let me pet her, but she did eat out of my hand finally & actually sat there for awhile with me. I think if I had a couple more days, she would be sitting in my lap.
My family's love for NC started many years ago, back in the mid-60's when my mom's extended family all bought lots on a mountainside in Franklin, NC & they all built cabins up there. My mom is from Florida, as is my dad. Our family settled in the Atlanta area back in 1963, when I was 6 years old & my dad became the Pastor of a church in Marietta, where he stayed for 27 years. Anyway, my mom's dad & all of his brothers & sisters decided to build cabins up in NC, to get away from the heat of Florida (I think there were 7 in all). They all took to the mountains immediately & loved it up there. We went for a nice long drive on Saturday & decided to stop in the old homeplace & take a peek at the cabins. Most of the cabins are still owned by family members, but we don't have any immediate family that still goes there, although some of the 2nd & 3rd cousins still do. I have many fond memories of going up to this mountain, with all the cabins being full of relatives. All of us cousins would roam around on the mountain, hiking, swinging on the big swing that was tied to the top of a big oak tree (until one day we all broke it!). Oh, what great memories there were. The mountain was abuzz with all the activity of each family in those cabins & we loved every minute of it. This went on for at least 20 years, with my family going up many weeks in the summer months & spending time up there. We would find out through the grapevine who was coming up when & make sure we hit it when lots of our kinfolk from FL would be up there. We would picnic, go & look at waterfalls, slide down the Sliding Rock....oh, the adventures we had. It was great! And just spending time together around a campfire, roasting weinies were some of the best times of all. Lots of stories told. The above collage is of several of the cabins. It was so much fun to go back & reminesce about those wonderful times. My granddaddy died in 1985, so it's been a long time since we were at his place. Now a distant cousin owns the house. But, it sure was fun to go back & see it all. You can tell that it was a wonderful place to be just by looking at the pictures.
Oh, the food we ate this weekend. My mom is a fabulous Southern cook. If I ate like this all the time, I would be in bad shape. This is meatloaf, potatoes, carrots, fried eggplant, field peas, creamed corn, sweet potatoes & fresh tomatoes. All of this but the carrots came from their garden. You can understand why I love it up there.
For breakfast on Sat., mom made homemade biscuits & gravy. This is what is called sawmill gravy (for you Yankee girls who know nothing about this stuff!), made from bacon or sausage grease, milk & flour. Boy, is it good! A side of eggs & bacon & it's heaven.
Here's mama & daddy in front of my granddaddy's old cabin in Franklin.
Me & Peter out in the sunshine.

I wanted you to see how pretty everything was, so here are some leaf shots. Wasn't that sky beautiful?
The mountain streams up there are just wonderful. And cold!
More color.
Mountains & color.
This is a little church that my parents attended for several years. The congregation has since moved down the road & built another larger church. I went with them to this church many times over the years & always thought it was so charming.

This is my parent's house. I just wanted to show you all around. They have several acres up there & the flat area you see is my dad's garden. He grows all sorts of vegetables & has blueberry bushes too that are just loaded every year. This year the frost got them though. See that pretty creek in the frontyard. And the porch is such a nice place to take a nap. I have so many fond memories here in this house too. My dad built that bridge that you see in the middle & did a lot of the work on the house himself. That lounge chair is a great place for a nap! My parents were remembering back when they decided they wanted to build a house up in NC. They had passed through this valley many times going back & forth from GA to NC to my granddaddy's place in Franklin & decided to stop & talk to a realtor 20 years ago & the rest is history. I think the Lord was looking out for them, as they got the land at a really good price, cause they couldn't have afforded it otherwise.
And these are all Fall pics I wanted to share with you all. Enjoy the color!


Some of these pics are from the Nantahala River. I've rafted down this river at least a 1/2 dozen times, as well as the Ocoee River (only once!). Boy, is that fun to do!

There's hardly a prettier place anywhere than North Carolina. I'm sure many of you will agree who have visited this fine state or those of you who are fortunate enough to live there. Mountains, streams....they have it all. We sure enjoyed our weekend there this year! Hope you are all getting some Fall color too.

I'm so happy y'all enjoyed seeing the junk store too while I was gone. Wasn't that fun? I really will have to go back & dig through there sometime.