Sunday, June 14, 2009

Memorial Weekend

The grand hoorah before my parents left to go back to California was to go to the mountains for the weekend. We stayed in Black Mountain, NC and then spent time between Black Mountain, Asheville and Hendersonville. Hendersonville was having a garden festival for the whole weekend and we had a blast walking around downtown checking out all the vendor boothes displaying garden goodies like birdhouses, chainsaw-carved bears (see below) and unusual carnivorous plants (see below).

Paul couldn't resist coming home with a bear carved by Mountain Dan


And, I myself, was drawn into the mysterious trumpet plants that lure insects in to trap and devour. Thanks to Mum for my beautiful birthday presents!

I don't know if everyone thought they were so beautiful by the end of the day, what with them having to sit on our table for lunch....and on Paul's lap for the ride to our B&B. The car ride was quite crowded with the bear, the plants, Dad's pruning shears and other trinkets.
Plus, we were sitting here in the car for awhile because I didn't print out directions to get to our B&B. And what's worse? I forgot the name of the place! Luckily I had my computer and we found a wireless zone in downtown Hendersonville, so we sat in the parking stall surfing my email for the confirmation email to then get an address to then search google maps.... Mom meanwhile checked out her map and dad has his GPS unit on his phone ready for action.
We finally found the place, Black Mountain Inn, and first order of business was to get the Triffids, as Paul dubbed them, comfy in the wash basin in our room. They need to be in water at all times because they are bog plants.
The next day we visited an abandoned junk yard and had fun searching around at the discarded antiques.

I found some lovely future planters...

...and mom and dad checked out the dishes and golf clubs, respectively.

We hit the shops of Black Mountain pretty hard.

Dad had found a fly shop in this small town, hard to believe, but sadly it was closed for the whole weekend! He came by to double check each time we walked by just in case they decided to open.

After a hard days work shopping around Black Mountain, we headed back to our frequented coffee shop, The Dripolator in downtown Black Mountain.


On monday we went to Asheville and had some fun looking in shops there, and then came home Monday night.
Triffids in place on the deck.



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