What a gorgeous weekend!

It was a glorious weekend in the mountains...spring has sprung - even up there. The daffodils are blooming, and the forsythia is ready to pop out any day now. And the deer are definitely on the move. We had 2 groups visit Friday night - 10 from the South and 5 from the North
Here are some of those northern girls....they got pretty close to the house

And here are some of the Southern girls....

And here are all 15....a little fuzzy, but you can still see them.

Jet fireworks!

The sky was so blue today, that the jet contrails looked like fireworks coming across Catherine Knob! Despite the beautiful blue sky, it is still cold and windy....not a day for being outside. We just finished watching a terrible movie "2012" - don't bother....Lee and Danny will be coming up for dinner tonight, and Tom is going to grill some chicken - YUM!

Back again!

Well, I've been pretty lax and missed most of the posting for the winter. But I'm back....



We went up last weekend, and the snow from Thursday was still around....deep enough that I had trouble getting up the driveway, and Tom had to actually stay inside and "relax".






And check out these great new wineglasses that Lynne gave us for Christmas!

Spring...maybe????

OK...maybe, just maybe, spring is right around the corner! We finally got back up to the Roost for the first time since just after Christmas. The pipes made it through the winter, and everything else survived!

The weather was so beautiful....I had daffodils that I had dug up at home that needed to be planted....so I planted,

and planted....

and planted 120 bulbs!
(Can you tell how thrilled I am to be photographed!)

The Parkway Foundation got some new glasses, so we took a pair up to the Roost and christened them

And we finally brought our NC map back up and hung it in the twin room.

Suzie is having a really hard time settling in up there.

No really....

Can't you tell how distraught she is?

Snow, snow and more snow!

We finally got back up to the Roost last weekend. There was still LOTS of snow in the pastures!Our wonderful neighbor, Donald, plowed our driveway so we could get up and check things athe house.

We still had some trouble - as you can see the snow was still pretty deep!

Icicles were growing from the roof...

But once inside, the views were breathtaking!

The snow on the deck was at least 2 feet deep!

We weren't brave enough to turn the water on and see if the pipes held up - maybe next time!

Christmas weekend

We headed up the weekend after Christmas, and here is what our driveway looked like... It was fairytale beautiful...

We had several visitors during the weekend...

We had a monster snowdrift on our deck from the snow that melted off the roof - we couldn't open the screen door!

So we stayed inside most of the weekend, and did some redecorating. We rearranged the twin room and hung some pictures...

We also hung some pictures in the queen room...

And I had to add this picture of the old house that my cousin sent me...who knew what happened when snow started sliding off the tin roof!

FIRE!!! and spring????

We had big excitement last weekend - a small forest fire up on Catherine's knob! We watched the fire for a while, thinking that someone was just burning leaves. I had just said that it was starting to look a little scary, when the sirens started. The Laurel Springs fire department and another one, probably Piney Creek or Sparta, were up on the hill most of the day getting the fire put out. We were really lucky that the wind was blowing very lightly, or it would have gotten out of hand quickly.
On another note, the weather's been so warm, that my plants think it's spring. Imagine - a geranium blooming in November in the mountains...

and my irises are already sprouting up!

Quick trip

We took a quick trip up on Friday to get the yard mowed before the rains started. And, guess what? We have the first signs of fall!

And sometime during the past week, we've had a mystery visitor on our deck...probably a possum or raccoon!

The girls will be happy.....

Well, the girls will be really happy when we go up this weekend.....they now have a dog lot and won't have to be chained anymore!

We came up last Friday just for the day to mow and take some things back and forth. As we drove up - lo and behold - our neighbors (Donald and John) were installing the hook and chain on the gate. John says we'll have the happiest dogs in the neighborhood - they have their own yard, their own porch and their own deck! And a beautiful view to boot!

The lot comes off the side porch, so we can let them in and out the den door. And they'll have plenty of shelter below the stairs and porch. or on the porch if we don't put up a gate. Boy do we love our dogs!!!!!

And just for fun - here's a beautiful rainbow outside our "real house"....I guess there are some reasons to like all the rain besides having plenty of water to drink!

Happy New Year!

We spent the holiday at the Roost....It was an interesting weekend, weather-wise. We planned to go up on New Year's Eve, but they were having gusts up to 70 mph, so we stayed home until New Year's Day. That day turned out to be sunny and beautiful. Rilla came up that day for her complimentary weekend for winning the "what's Tom doing?" contest.

Our neighbors, Donald and Brenda, came by to see the house and bring us a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a housewarming gift. That night, we all went down the hill to the old house, and Lee and Danny had the traditional New Year's meal - ham, collard greens and blackeyed peas for health, wealth and happiness during the new year.

We woke Friday morning to a beautiful snow... It was all gone by the afternoon, but it was beautiful while it was coming down!

We're still fighting the mice, but there's really only one stubborn one that loves the area under the kitchen sink. Tom will be meeting the exterminator up there this week, so hopefully the problem will go away soon......I'm tired of storing all my pots, pans and cutlery on the kitchen counter!

Tom cut down some straggly trees, and I finished ironing the drapes. That's about all we accomplished this weekend. My cleaning service in Winston gave us a beautiful apple pie candle that looks amazingly real for Christmas, and we brought it up to the Roost. It looks perfect in the kitchen!

Mouse wars.....

No pictures this weekend - too busy waging war on the mice! We have them under control, I think, except for one little guy living behind the kitchen cabinets. He is a brave little soul. Saturday afternoon, we would periodically check the bait under the sink, and it would had been moved every time, so he was busy eating during the day!

Sunday morning, I got up, let the dogs out, and then started inspecting the cabinets to see if he had run around that night. I opened the dishwasher and pulled out the bottom rack to see if he had managed to find his way in again, and there he was! I screamed, and slammed the dishwasher shut. He scared the @(#*@ out of me, and I'm sure I scared the #(#*@ out of him! We still can't figure out how he got in a latched dishwasher......

The good news was that there weren't any in the bedroom closet or anywhere else in the house. And this one ate enough bait that he shouldn't be around the next time we come. So, hopefully, the mouse wars are over for now.....

On a happier note, we actually saw some snow flurries Sunday after lunch as we were coming out of The Pines!

Snow, snow, snow!!!!

Yes, we actually woke up to snow on Sunday morning! Not a lot, but we had a good solid snow shower at 7:30, then off and on tiny flurries for the rest of the morning. But it was so windy that you couldn't get outside to enjoy it - the wind was howling at 20-30 miles an hour.

We took the dogs this weekend for the first time. Sister settle right in, but Suzie was terrified of the linoleum and laminate floors. Here she is cowering on the mat by the door where she stayed for almost a half an hour. We finally coaxed her into the den into her bed, but she wouldn't budge from there. We had to use a treat to get her back out the door to pee. By the end of the weekend, she was walking across the floor without a problem, but she still didn't like it!!!!