Small Town Saturday

Photo taken outside of The Last Straw, Blowing Rock, NC

So far today it's been alternating between Raining and POURING.

But, I'm not complaining as we really need the rain.

It makes the flowers grow BIG. 

The ones in the photo above were just sprouts yesterday ;-).

Photo taken at The Last Straw, Blowing Rock, NC

I hope you had a nice weekend and a Happy Mother's Day.

Brett & I took a little day trip on Saturday to Blowing Rock, NC.

I had not intended to do a post about it, but I did take a few pictures while there ... and since it's too dark today for picture taking  ... I'll toss in a few from our trip.  Blowing Rock is a charming little town about 2 hours from us.  If you'd like to know more about it, feel free to click the link above.  Had I been planning a post when I went there I would have taken photos that would make the Chamber of Commerce proud, but instead I'll share a glimpse of our day.

The main street is lined with unique shops, restaurants, quaint churches, a library, etc.  If you have read the Mitford series of books by Jan Karon, you'd think you just stepped into one of them as you walk down the street.  You can read more about this here.

The main street also has a Kilwin's ice cream shoppe.  We stopped in there, got an ice cream cone and ate it while sitting on the bench you see in the above photo.  Behind us was a park filled with kids, parents and grandparents all enjoying the swings and slides and ice cream cones!  From our bench we could people watch (my favorite past time :).  I suppose I should mention that between the park and the sidewalk were beautiful plants and flowers lining the street.  The rhododendrons and lupines were gorgeous.  Sorry, no pictures.  (what was I thinking?)

The bleeding hearts were blooming too and I did manage to take one photo of them.

Our main reason for visiting Blowing Rock was to attend the Art in the Park event.  There were many talented artists selling their unique pieces of artwork. This pottery was so pretty to me.  The artist's name is Laurey-Faye Long.  She calls it purposefully pretty work and says this about her work:

Each pot is a quiet poem to the Southern Appalachians.

The designs reflect the mountains' plants, animals and landscapes.  The inspiration for these pots is from Mark Trail Comics, Palissy the French potter of the 1500s , the American Art pottery Rookwood and our beautiful mountains.

I like the colors she uses and the way she incorporates bits of nature into each piece.  We couldn't resist bringing home a couple of pieces as a lasting reminder of an enjoyable day spent in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.