Category Archives: Travel

Biltmore Flowers

Posted on by

As promised, yet slightly delayed, are some pictures of the beautiful flowers we found in the Biltmore gardens on our vacation. I would love to see some of these varieties blooming in our yard next summer or maybe two summers from now. This winter we need to have 5-7 of our trees cut down due to the emerald ash borer infesting our neighborhood.  I am sad to see these trees go but I am excited for the gardening potential since more sunshine will have access to our yard.

Ferns and Foliage – possibly for the yard?

These would definitely add color and texture to our yard. I am hopeful some of these species may be friendly to shade? Since our yard is pretty high on shade and low on sun.

DSC_4006.jpg

DSC_3982.jpg

DSC_3983.jpg

DSC_3906.jpg

These three seem to be three varieties of the same plant. A plant which I think I used to have but may have finally killed after three years. I have faith that if I had this plant again I could help it survive. :)

DSC_4001.jpg

DSC_4000.jpg

DSC_3971.jpg

Flowers – inside or outside? Sun or Shade?

DSC_3905.jpg

DSC_3898.jpg

DSC_3994.jpg

DSC_4005.jpg

DSC_3989.jpg

DSC_3902.jpg

DSC_3990.jpg

DSC_3992.jpg

Everyone is aware of how much I love this shade of orange, right? :)

DSC_3941.jpg

I kind of love everything about this flower. The round petals and the color.

DSC_3975.jpg

A sweet looking flower that may choose to grow wild in my yard?

DSC_4002.jpg

I love how this guy looks like he could be right out of a Dr Seuss book! :)

DSC_3900.jpg

For the unidentified flowers and ferns (which is basically all of these) does anyone know the variety?

Anniversary Vacation

Posted on by

The boy and I took a lovely vacation to celebrate our first anniversary. We drove down to North Carolina to visit my brother for a couple of days. Then we drove to Asheville to check out the Biltmore Estate. The first day we were there it was rainy and overcast so we didn’t take any pictures outside of the estate. We did manage some pictures inside the greenhouse though. I highly recommend taking the audio tour, as there are so many rooms to see one could easily get overwhelmed without at least some guidance as to what is cool to check out in each room.

We had a great time hanging out at the winery in the village after touring the house. We toured the production area which was very interesting. Then we headed over to talk to the Smithy. On the way we may have taken a short detour to check out some of the mohair fleece they have for processing demonstrations. We spent a good while talking to the apprentice blacksmith who actually happened to be from Ohio. So many cool tools to check out that have barely changed since they were invented. You know what they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” :)

The next morning there was a break in the weather so we headed back to the Biltmore to get some pictures outside of the house and a few more in the gardens in the daylight.
1st Anniversary

I found several flowers that I would love to see if I can grow somewhere in my house or yard. I do however need to get some better gardening skills before I can invest in a ton of flowers. Heh.

DSC_3987.jpg

After we left the Biltmore we drove over to Tennessee to take a drive on the infamous Tail of the Dragon. It’s an 11-mile stretch of highway with 318 curves in the road. It’s quite popular with the motorcycle crowd and the touring crowd. The locals aren’t always too thrilled to have to drive up and down the road though when they’re in a hurry. :P

Tail of the Dragon!

We had a good time and did three passes before heading up to Maryville, where we stayed on a mountaintop. Driving up and down the mountain was an adventure in itself and the boy definitely got his fill of driving super windy roads. It was a bit nice to finally get onto straight roads when we drove back to Ohio the next day. This place is a new bed & breakfast and the owners are wonderful hosts. We had a great time relaxing up there and are hoping to get back again some time.
DSC_4126.jpg

One of the best parts about finally getting home after a long and very rainy drive was a phone call telling us to go out and get the big stick off our shed. After some prompting the boy went to check it out and we found that his parents had left us a super comfortable swing for our lanai. (I had to wait until the next day to get pictures.)
Swing!

All in all it was a great anniversary trip. I think we’ll try to do something each year for our anniversary from here on out. :D

Labour Day Recap

Posted on by

Over the labour day weekend the boy and I got hitched as well as celebrated 6 years together! :D There’s been a fair bit of radio silence here as we were planning our wedding, executing it and then honeymooning in Hawaii. We’ve been home a little over a week now and have gotten a few of the gifts put away (or into temporary homes while we get things sorted). Today I was finally able to see the floor in two rooms where I haven’t seen it in awhile!

As proof of my exploits I give you one of my favorite pictures from our sneak peek photos.

Enjoying our hobbies in our finery.

These are the photos our photographers put into a slideshow during our reception. The rest of the pictures won’t be available for another 1-3 weeks.

The boy purchased a fancy Nikon D5000 as my wedding gift so in theory you should see a lot more pictures around here. Lord knows I took enough on the honeymoon. It may just depend on whether I get too hung up on processing and sorting to get around to posting. :)

Jet travel

Posted on by

I woke up at oh-dark-hundred this morning and managed to roll myself into the boy’s truck. From there he drove me to the airport where I had the pleasure of being randomly frisked. Good morning, you’re half awake, let me pat you down. I was in a foul mood for the next 15 min or so until I got over myself. :P I did however have the pleasure of a direct flight that lasted somewhere around 2.5 hrs. Which meant I also had the pleasure of an in flight movie. Today’s movie was Julie + Julia. I rather liked it and can I say that I love Meryl Streep? She does an excellent interpretation of Julia Child. I have also seen her exhibit at the Smithsonian, it’s very cool. If you have the chance, get over there and check it out. Watching the movie really makes me want to get into the kitchen and cook up something fun. The boy and I will have to discuss this in more depth once I return home. :)

The jet travel also lent some great knitting time. I am on row 6 of Chart D of my Ishbel shawl. 3 more rows and then the bind off. Maybe if I got off this silly computer I could get it finished during this trip. :P Once I landed in Denver I hung out for a bit waiting on my colleagues to arrive then we were off to work. I am looking forward to working on this project again and it’s always nice to get out of the house periodically and see my colleagues in person. Alright off to work on Ishbel a bit before I fall asleep. G’night.

Road trip

Posted on by

The boy and I drove to VA this weekend. We were off to visit his uncle who is in the hospital, rehabilitating from an aneurysm and a minor stroke. It was great to see him and he’s doing amazingly well all things considered. We also got to hang out with his cousins for a little while. I even let them talk me into going off roading. Holy cow. It’s a bit unnerving when the whole vehicle kind of rocks and you’re near a little cliff and it can’t get a good “footing”. Fortunately, we made it out alive so all is well. :)

After hanging with his cousins we drove closer in to DC to visit my friend who is working up there on a TDY from her TDY. Ahh government jobs, they always keep ya on your toes. ;) We had a good visit and she took us out to eat to celebrate our engagement. The boy spent a lot of time playing with her cat by getting the cat to chase a laser around the hotel room. It was rather fun to watch. Sunday we moseyed into town and I finally got to go see the wonder that is G Street Fabrics. For those of you local to the c-bus, it’s a fabric shop that is probably bigger than the old Lazarus basement. I was a bit stunned at all the selection. I wish we had such a shop closer to home. Alas, the only project I knew the exact quantities of fabric I needed, they did not have the fabric I needed so I left without buying anything. But I did take a picture.

365.9

G Street Fabrics - View down 2/3 of the store

Then we headed into Alexandria where I went to Knit Happens and snatched up some Yarn Love – Charlotte Bronte Worsted. I have been wanting to try their yarns for awhile and I finally had a chance to see them in person before buying. I also snatched up a lovely little shawl pin to use with the shawl I was working on during the road trip. (More on the shawl later) All in all it was a good visit and I was happy to make it home and fold myself into bed.