158: Narrows and Wind Rock

This is the sight that greets you as you drive north into Pearisburg on Route 100. "Small Town, Good People" Everything about this town is so quaint. 

We traveled past Pearisburg this morning on our way to Narrows, Virginia to check out a cool park on Wolf Creek. I noticed this colorful laundry glowing in the morning sun while we were fumbling around town, trying to find the park.

In the afternoon, we headed up to Mountain Lake Conservancy, where the resort scenes of Dirty Dancing were filmed. We followed this old hot rod and a beer truck up the final leg of a long, narrow, twisty mountain road.

The hiking at Mountain Lake proved a bust, so we continued on the gravel road that led into the wilderness region in search of the trailhead to Wind Rock on the Appalachain Trail. The trail is described as "moderately easy" for adults, but it was a fairly tough climb for my preschooler. We took our time, with frequent stops to rest and look around and give some encouragement. The view at the end of the trail was well worth the effort, and the return hike down the mountain was much quicker.

157: Dismal Falls

This morning the kids and I visited Dismal Falls on the Appalachian Trail, such a perfect spot for a hot, muggy day. After driving a mile up a gravel road, we stopped at a pull-over just a few hundred feet up the trail from the falls. I miss the days when I would have started further up the trail, but this extremely short hike ending in a natural pool was perfect for two young children. They spent a wonderful morning splashing in the water, and we enjoyed meeting three AT through-hikers, for whom this spot was a unique chance to cool off and wash away the sweat of weeks of travel. I was disappointed but not entirely surprised by the amount of litter and food waste at this lovely spot. 

We returned to the farm to find that my husband and his apprentice had completed the installation of the two small handrails portion of the project.

156: Farmhouse

Today my family and I headed to Pearisburg, Virginia, a tiny little town west of Blacksburg in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My husband and his apprentice were scheduled to install a custom railing they had created for an amazing new home built by a couple that raises Merino sheep. We stayed in an old farmhouse on the property for the duration of the installation. After driving about five hours to get there, we spent the rest of the day settling in to our temporary home.

155: Testing, Testing

Preparing to grout the rough test piece I made this weekend for the backsplash project.

Grouted test piece. I'm so excited to get to work on the real thing, and so glad I did this test piece to work out some of the details.

154: A La Fresca

153: Take Two

Another window sill discovery. These two pieces of wooden fruit need to be rinsed off, and they wound up here to dry, reminding me of an earlier shot of this little turtle and another orange.

I stopped at this park a few weeks ago to try to capture an image of the city skyline. The bright, early evening sun and a family playing on the only blue structure meant I didn't get the shot I had in mind, and I've been wanting to return for another try.

Now that I see all the images together, I think I might prefer the shot in the previous post. I like the spontaneity of the first shot, while these are more careful, controlled and less risky shots.

152: Backyard Blackberries