Cheyenne being illegal on the couch upstairs at Jacob's house in Asheville. Mason led the way so it wasn't her fault.
Jacob and Bevin have built themselves a modern passive solar house in this city designed as an almost off the grid home benefiting from the heat of the sun stored by day in the massive concrete foundation and returned to the house by night. last winter, the coldest on record cost them $20 a month in heating bills... And one day they plan to to incorporate expensive solar panels to reduce their daily living costs even further as they raise their children here.
All of which has absolutely nothing to do with the pictures I have lined up of stuff I saw growing in the woods around Asheville. I have found over the years that there is a stereotype of mountain people in these parts that has as it's source that exciting and 1972 movie Deliverance. It told the story of a camping trip gone wrong where the city slickers upset some locals and pay a horrible price for their invasion of their secretive Georgia backwoods. The "squeal like a pig" rape scene shocked audiences at a time when such a thing as shock was possible in a theater and the image of country people as violent inbred freaks has persisted. It is a great shame because the few people I have come across on my rambles in these mountains are shy, kind, cheerful and generous in inverse proportion to their poverty. My in laws who have made these mountains their home for 35 years know far more than I do and their experiences have been uniformly positive. Such is the power of Hollywood and advertising.
I grew up in a part of Italy where truffles and fungus are a way of eating and I rate a plate of mushrooms fried in garlic and olive oil as a worthwhile meal any day of the week. I am no picker of mushrooms but I find them fascinating and beautiful in their colorful resilience and I was delighted to see them sprouting in the leafy piles along the mountain trails.
Oops, there goes my dog getting in the way as usual. 
Proper mushroom chasing gear is of the essence for any successful expedition. 
Rhododendrons aren't technically mushrooms but they can be lovely too. 
Aha, here we have tracked down elusive fungus. 
Cheyenne nearly kicked this one into eternity. They were everywhere. 
Battered but alive. 
I have mentioned previously that in the interest of safety all roads have to be labeled nowadays. 
the beauty of the change was that residents got to name their own streets. Geeta and Bob are the only residents of this lane so they got to call it thusly. Bob had proposed "Dappled Dharma" whose alliteration appealed to me but apparently common sense prevailed. Very tedious is common sense sometimes.
Jacob and Bevin have built themselves a modern passive solar house in this city designed as an almost off the grid home benefiting from the heat of the sun stored by day in the massive concrete foundation and returned to the house by night. last winter, the coldest on record cost them $20 a month in heating bills... And one day they plan to to incorporate expensive solar panels to reduce their daily living costs even further as they raise their children here.All of which has absolutely nothing to do with the pictures I have lined up of stuff I saw growing in the woods around Asheville. I have found over the years that there is a stereotype of mountain people in these parts that has as it's source that exciting and 1972 movie Deliverance. It told the story of a camping trip gone wrong where the city slickers upset some locals and pay a horrible price for their invasion of their secretive Georgia backwoods. The "squeal like a pig" rape scene shocked audiences at a time when such a thing as shock was possible in a theater and the image of country people as violent inbred freaks has persisted. It is a great shame because the few people I have come across on my rambles in these mountains are shy, kind, cheerful and generous in inverse proportion to their poverty. My in laws who have made these mountains their home for 35 years know far more than I do and their experiences have been uniformly positive. Such is the power of Hollywood and advertising.I grew up in a part of Italy where truffles and fungus are a way of eating and I rate a plate of mushrooms fried in garlic and olive oil as a worthwhile meal any day of the week. I am no picker of mushrooms but I find them fascinating and beautiful in their colorful resilience and I was delighted to see them sprouting in the leafy piles along the mountain trails.
Oops, there goes my dog getting in the way as usual. 
Proper mushroom chasing gear is of the essence for any successful expedition. 
Rhododendrons aren't technically mushrooms but they can be lovely too. 
Aha, here we have tracked down elusive fungus. 
Cheyenne nearly kicked this one into eternity. They were everywhere. 
Battered but alive. 
I have mentioned previously that in the interest of safety all roads have to be labeled nowadays. 
the beauty of the change was that residents got to name their own streets. Geeta and Bob are the only residents of this lane so they got to call it thusly. Bob had proposed "Dappled Dharma" whose alliteration appealed to me but apparently common sense prevailed. Very tedious is common sense sometimes.
We blew through the town of Boone in our motorized exploration of the mountains north of Asheville. Boone is home to the Appalachian State University -never heard of it- a fact supported by the sudden appearance of young people slouching along the sidewalks in a manner reminiscent of students the world over.
Boone itself looked unremarkable enough, a variety of cute restaurant names, pubs and gathering places for the young and supposedly studious, but my sister in law had planted a seed in her sister's head and we were bound through this town elsewhere. Scooters are everywhere, at least when the sun is shining. Whether or not this rider has health insurance he is wearing the state's requirement on his head. One more reason to prefer Florida's flat roads.
My wife's role as chief financial officer never ends and she had some papers to copy and fax or something so I resumed my important family role of chief dog entertainer, which meant she and I climbed the retaining wall behind Staples to get a better view across the valley. 
The dining room closed at 2pm so I was ready to call it off but my wife is made of sterner stuff and the young woman in the dining room ushered us to a table saying "It's one fifty eight so we must still be open." We need to come back to this place this winter. 
Beer and fried green tomatoes go well together. My wife thinks this might be a version she wants to replicate, beans and a vinegar based dressing that she had never before tasted.
I was ready to eat a sandwich and move on to Linville Gorge but we ended up with a two beer sit down lunch. Duck salad for her and fried scallop sandwich for me. I had never had such a thing and never expected it in this mountain fastness but I expect I just need to get out more.
It was profoundly warm in the sun outside especially out of the breeze but the garden looked magnificent through the screen. It is perhaps another measure of my ignorance but Blowing Rock claims to be high on lists of desirable places to be among travel writers and "professionals" of that trade. It also claims to be well liked by Southern Living magazine. I like it too well enough for a lunch stop now.
Our friendly young waitress told us Boone with it's box stores is the center of commerce but Blowing Rock, her home town, is the laid back place to be in these valleys. She did mention her impending move from home to China, and as she didn't elaborate we were left to speculate that she was either going to trade credit derivatives or to save souls. She was so sweet I don't think Goldman Sachs or the Honkers and Shankers Bank would want her ilk. Soul saving it is, I think and I expect they will enjoy having her around as much as we did.
This town should really be sickly sweet and cloying but there is something fresh and innocent and charming about western North Carolina that breaks down the skeptic in you. Even this lot didn't look like a movie set,they looked just..happy? I need to take a leaf out of their book. 
Women yes; dogs no. Grrr.
Ice cream anyone? We were stuffed already thanks and the heat index was getting close to explosive.
Cheyenne's eye view of a 90 degree sidewalk. 
Cheyenne was selflessly helping to keep North Carolina's prettiest little town looking it's best.
I had been hunting for a photo blog of the area around Celo when I came across this website some years ago and well worth a read: 
It turns out that this Vale has more in common with the Keys than you'd think, namely a solitary main road winding through the place. And unlike the Overseas Highway there aren't any turn outs here to stop and take in the views. Mobile photography is the order of the day.
The floppy hat brigade was out in force.
And these are day lilies my Brother in Law tells me. They are called that because that is probably what they are, though not being a botanist he could have been pulling my leg. I am left to wonder what night lilies look like.
eager to hunt down the secrets of this mysterious place we got in the car and took our lives in our hands, checking out the farming life.
Local pick up trucks are extremely busy it turns out and drive like the hounds of hell are on their tails. There is a total absence of No Trespassing signs around here, which is very disturbing to someone from the Florida Keys which ugly signs abound like mosquitoes after a rainstorm.
