Brevard, N.C. Part 1

I am back home after a two week trip to Brevard, N.C., which included the brass festival at Brevard College, visits to waterfalls, and being with my twin, Don.  This will take quite a few blogs, but I will try to do just a few days at a time.  But the trip was as enjoyable, and satisfying, as it could have been possible. 

I, of course, drove up immediately to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and drove to the Pounding Mill overlook, where Mom and Dad's ashes were scattered.   Looking Glass Rock is there in all it's majesty.  A sense of peace, of letting go of all the stress of modern living, and remembering what it feels like to be in this timeless landscape.

And here is one of Brevard's white squirrels (Brevard even has a "White Squirrel Festival").  This one was in Don and Mary's front yard in the Brevard Home.

We are at Don's house in the DuPont Forest, and a young lady is here to try to save some of Don's Hemlocks.  There is an algid that has attacked all of the Hemlocks of the Carolinas, a great ecological disaster, and she inoculated about 15 of Don's biggest.

This is a Trout Lilly, one oft the earliest wildflowers.  They appear only briefly.

This is looking down on "Mary's Falls", and one of Don's Hemlocks that has been treated.  The falls are the sound you hear on Don's deck as you have your first cup of coffee, and listen to the Black-throated Green Warbler that has taken up residence overhead.
It is such a gift to stay hear, and it excites me tremendously to think of coming back in August with my two boys and their families for our first family vacation together.  Imagine showing my grandchildren all of the waterfalls I grew up with.