An Increase in Elevation

At the beginning of the week I managed to snag some time between feeding the turtles and keeping up with the laundry and warped a rigid heddle loom for a pickup sampler. But the outdoors called.

 

 

We drove up to Mt. Pisgah for a brief vacation of hiking (strolling, in my case) and enjoying the early spring vegetation. It's such a pleasure to see the bare trees and sky without the power lines! My companion insists that Photoshop takes care of power lines, but I am not convinced.

 

This is the beginning of the trail from the Pisgah Inn to Mt. Pisgah. The wonderful thing about spring hiking is that you can see the contours of the land and the shapes of the trees. When the leaves come in the experience is totally different.

 

Here's the view from our porch at the Inn. Now can you see why they call this area the Smokies? This was taken on a totally sunny afternoon!

 

Looking from our porch in the other direction:

 

Then on a whim we stopped at the Biltmore Estate on the way home. Only the totally deranged would choose to drop in at the Biltmore during spring break. The size of the crowds was enormous, but the Biltmore staff is very good at keeping things rational, and it was worth the minor inconvenience in order to see the incredible tulip display at its peak. Here's a distance view of the tulip beds from the mansion with the conservatory in the background:

 

And here's a small portion of the display closer up:

 

And closer still. Unfortunately the daffodils are turning their backs on me. Didn't notice that at the time.