mountain sunrises

Hi everyone!

Our favorite wake up activity is checking out the sunrise on sunny days, which there are many of here in the western North Carolina Mountains. There are almost as many sunny days a year in the High Country of North Carolina as there are on the Low County of South Carolina and Georgia. Hard to believe but true. The sun combined with a large amount of rainfall that comes down in buckets (it rarely sprinkles) creates a temperate rainforest that allows all the rhododendron and laurels to flourish.

this morning's sunrise

We are loving sunny winter days as there were so few of them in Northeast Ohio where me moved from. Lake effect weather from Lake Erie makes winters dreary there, of course the temperate summers and warm colorful autumns are wonderful, but the winter is very longggggggggg.  

The mirror on the porch, seen though the French doors of our bedroom, reflects the mountain view and the sunrise as it appears over Whiteside Mountain. 

Here are a few (iPhone quality) recent sunrises....

A few days ago we were greeted with this beautiful sky!

Every sunrise is beautiful and it is interesting to see the sun's position as it moves through the seasons.

Hope you are enjoying sunrises or sunsets in your neighborhood this winter!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

After the storm

We are still here! 

After 2 days of dense fog and one day of high winds and 14" inches of rain. Yes, 14" of rain, we have emerged!

To sunshine!

We were greeted with a sunny dry porch this morning when we opened the curtains,

thanks to the vinyl roll curtains that are so commonly used here. They snap shut and have heavy wood rods to weigh them down on the bottom. They kept everything dry during the driving winds and buckets of rain all day yesterday.

There are leaves and branches everywhere, lots of clean up to do this morning.

Husband gets to put his beloved blower to use. 

We are trying to bring back the damaged holly next to the house, it was hurt during the Polar Vortex of last winter, the coldest temperatures this area of the South has had in many years.

 I spotted a funky pair of mushrooms as I was inspecting the yard, I think they are Russula mushrooms with damaged edges.

Are you cleaning up from the storm in your neck of the woods? 

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

our cottage kitchen dining area

Hi everyone!

I posted pics of the kitchen in the mountain cottage we recently moved into yesterday.  Here is the adjacent dining area. A dining bench and pillows finally arrived this week. 

The table is an antique from Dovetail Antiques in Cashiers, NC. I will visit one day and take photos to share on the blog, a great shop. A woodworker is going to raise the legs next week to accomodate the chairs and allow for more legroom.

The arrangement is a group of mountain galax leaves formed into rosettes, available at Vivienne Metzger Antiques, also in Cashiers. Another post worthy destination, I love her shop too.

The pillows are Kravet's Kashmira in Mineral.

The interiors of the cottage will be hard to photograph because of weird light. The skylight is over this area. The wall color is not yellow, but a creamy light beige. The photo below reveals the real color.

There is another dining area in the corner of the living room, our kitchen table from the old house, so we can accommodate a larger group when needed and also use it as a work area. The lamps on the buffet have matching bulbs and shades, why are they looking wonky in the photo?

The buffet is waiting for a mirror that I have yet to discover. Hope I can find something rustic and modern. Also need to style the tabletop, this area is the next project.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

our cottage kitchen

Hi everyone!

I thought I would share our little kitchen today. 

We really like the size of it. Plenty of cabinetry for a small kitchen. I even have one empty drawer which is crazy because our last house had a kitchen that was three times the size of this one. 

There is a small freezer-on-top fridge. We miss our old Sub Zero fridges but they would never fit in this kitchen. The opening allows only a 30" width. This one came with the house, it is a nice KitchenAid, we would prefer a freezer-on-bottom model, not found one yet that would suit the space and I am too practical to swap out an almost new fridge in perfect condition.

There is no natural gas in the mountains. Gas cooktops can only be installed after burying a propane tank in the yard to provide gas. This house does not have a tank, so there is an electric cooktop that we surprisingly love! It heats up quickly, boils water much faster than our Wolf gas cooktop at the old house did and allows pan handles to stay cool. The other thing that we were concerned about is the lack of a vent hood. The little circle on the ceiling is the vent. It is very quiet but extremely efficient. I have no idea how it does it, I was assuming the house would smell for days after we cooked something stinky. Not one bit and we broil fish often when the weather does not allow for grilling.

The kitchen was remodeled ten years ago and has the popular granite from that time. Fine for now. Nice to keep herbs from the garden in a vase ready for cooking. Thai basil and parsley have done well in the mountains for us this summer,  sweet basil not as much, needs more warmth. The walls of the kitchen are covered in an attractive vinyl grasscloth that wipes clean, a great product.

I would like a set of sconces on either side of the window. The sellers had a nice antique wood piece over the window that we forgot to request to purchase during the negotiations. This house relies on lots of can lights because it is rather dark, being in the canopy of the mountains. The ceilings of the cottage are low with the exception of the vaulted living room adjacent to the kitchen. 

We love the pantry doors with reclaimed wood that compliment the wood used over the mantle and fireplace. I found extra vinyl grasscloth in the basement, will have it applied inside the pantry. You can see the skylight over the dining area which provides nice light and has an attractive metal grill attached.

The canisters house the tea, cardamom, fennel and spices for the morning chai my husband makes. The framed orange tree is an English Ehrman Tapestry needlepoint I made years ago. I made Ina Garten's white bean soup with rosemary on Saturday when I took this pic, that is the open cookbook page. It is yummy. The striped pitcher is French art pottery. The enamel bowls in the cabinet are vintage Kaj Franck from Finland. I have loved them since I was a teenager and have four of them, I have bought them for our kids apartments too.

So that is all from the little cottage in the mountains today. The sun is shining and I need to get out and enjoy it with some exercise and gardening!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

Cashiers Designer Showhouse 2014

Can you imagine sitting on your porch with your morning cup of coffee or tea and enjoying this view?  The setting of the Cashiers Historical Society Showhouse 2014 is just spectacular!

The porches and outside living areas were my favorite parts of the house. I loved the delicate window box plantings on the front porch.

The front porch faces the wooded front yard and a perennial bed with a rock sculpture wearing a hat. 

A side entry on the porch led to a flower arranging space/mudroom. Love the moss covered planter with ferns placed on an antique bench. 

Cashiers blogger Lissy Parker featured this shot of the area on her blog....

Brown and chartreuse fabrics and lots of ferns looked great.

The long bench on the right is a South Carolina joggling board. I was surprised to see it used here as they are more common in the coastal Low Country of South Carolina.

The backyard views are just gorgeous and stunning!

 The first floor master bedroom has a beautiful view and private porch with a rustic twig fence that is so commonly used here. Sorry the light was not better.

The main porch was decorated to be pretty and feminine. Designer Lynn Monday used blue & white chinoiserie  as her inspiration. She has recently authored a beautiful book on southern mountain style, you can purchase it here.

The faux bois tableware looks perfect in the mountains. I think it is by Ross Sveback, I have seen it in local  stores.

And finally on the way out, the pond with wooden canoe and great stone dining table. These  two photos also by Lissy Parker.

To get tickets, visit the Cashiers Historical Society site here.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

the garden this morning and other stuff

Hi everyone! 

I am still absent in the blogging world. 

Moving into a house and making it a home are much more time consuming than I would have thought. Even if it is a cottage! I finally have finished unpacking all the boxes and making many trips to local consignment and thrift stores to purge unneeded items. 

It has been an effort considering I did the same thing before leaving Ohio but on a much larger scale. I am still amazed at how much we all accumulate over the years and I am not even a collector or habitual shopper. I thought I was a minimalist, uh, no, definitely not. I am enjoying the "less is more freedom" philosophy but it does take effort to get rid of things in a thoughtful way.

Spending time in the yard has been a nice break when needed.

Coreopsis in the front yard that we planted a few weeks ago are happy. The dead tree in the background is one of the many sad Hemlocks that died from the Hemlock Blight in the last few years. The trees are vulnerable to aphids once they weaken.  We have several that will need to be removed.

Summer mornings on the porch are lovely.

Hydrangea tree in bloom, planted tightly between the rocks.

We added a few perennials to the yard here and there and transplanted day lilies and irises that were in the shade in need of sunlight. Also a large arborvitae tree that we needed help with.

Also enjoying the local scenery, which there is a whole lot of! 

We hiked to Sunset Rock one evening. It is an easily accessed trail in downtown Highlands.

View from Sunset Rock.

Next to us as we waited for the sunset was an Andy look-a-like. 

Surreal and sad for us. We are suffering from empty nest syndrome for sure. No more adored children and dog in the house. We miss our Ohio gardens and ponds.We miss our kids and we miss Andy. We are trying to not get a puppy right now as we have more freedom to move around and explore but it is getting tough to resist! We have had goldens for years and are used to their mellow adoring personalities. We are worried about little dogs barking but a small dog would be best when we are ready.

Making our adjustment easier is the fact that we live in such a naturally beautiful area. These  sights are all within a few miles of our house...

Dry Falls a few days ago, a few miles from town.

 Lake Sequoyah

Cullasaja River along Rt. 64

Rt 64 Whiteside Mountain looking east

and we see this view  every time we run errands to Cashiers. So we are blessed to have found such a special place. Highlands and Cashiers are charming and easy. And there is much more to see. I have saved lots of places on my Pinterest boards.

Back to the garden, we arrived back into town last week after visiting friends at Lake Chautauqua in western NY with a nice show of wildflowers on our driveway bed to greet us. 

We do not know what they are, does anyone know? They are blooming everywhere right now, a lot on the roadsides.

* figured it out, it is Helianthus divaricatus or woodland sunflowers

The background is the neighborhood park across the street. Our neighborhood features rustic split rail fences. 

Rhododendren are plentiful, always easy for a quick bouquet. 

That's it for now, hope I can blog more often soon. 

We are waiting for several things to be done in the house. Wallpaper installation, carpenter, furniture delivery, carpet installed on our basement steps. The summer is so busy around here and requires patience for service people. Once all that is accomplished, I will share some photos of our cottage.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy