Have you ever been to North Carolina?  Do you live here?  It is one of the most beautiful states we have visited.  I say that about almost every state I have ever been in, but NC is right at the top of my list for beautiful states.  It has mountains, rivers, the ocean, palm trees, Spanish moss and some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.

David and I are spending some time here with family and visiting some pretty sights. Before we got to Wilmington, we passed through some charming southern towns one of them being Blowing Rock.  Have you read the Mitford books by Jan Karon?   Jan based her books on this little town in the Northwest corner of the state smack dab in the most beautiful mountains you would ever want to see.

 

Blowing Rock is enchanting, quaint, friendly, entrancing and just plain enjoyable.  We spent a long morning there looking in all the shops.

 

Eating some of the best ice cream we have ever eaten.  David got Traverse City Cherry and I got Butter Pecan and Dominacara chocolate.  Yum. (We found this same ice cream shop in Wilmington today.)

 

The town was all dressed up for Autumn with mums and these gigantic pumpkins all over town.

Have you read the Mitford books by Jan Karon?  The town of Mitford she wrote about is said to have been based on Blowing Rock and it is easy to see why.   You can almost see Father Tim walking down the streets of the town.  Esther Bolick carrying her special cakes to someone.  Miss Sadie driving her car upon to the sidewalk. Cynthia walking down the street with one hair roller hanging in her hair.

We saw the Episcopal church Jan Karon based her Father Tim’s church upon.

 

I could just see Father Tim coming out the door of this church.  It was so charming.

 

A nice lady asked us if we wanted her to take our picture and we said, “Sure.”  Behind us are some of the gardens surrounding the church.  It was just so pretty and I felt like I was in the pages of a book.

 

David found a friend to share a park bench with.

 

Hydrangeas grew all over the town and were at their peak.

 

They were the biggest hydrangeas I have seen.

 

David saw this cute empty little house on main street and said it would make a great quilt shop.   I said, “Let’s sell our house and move here and open a shop.”  Nice dreaming, but I think we will stay where we have been planted.

 

We walked down some side streets and found this little garden lady standing among the flowers.

Everywhere you looked there were Autumn vignettes.  I could have stayed all day and looked and looked and looked, but we had to move on.

 

We wanted to see the place which gave the town its name.

 

This is Blowing Rock.  David decided to climb it.  I was  taking pictures and hoping he would not fall over the top when he got up there. Legend has it that an Indian brave jumped off this rock and his lover waited here day after day until one day he was blown back up onto the rock by the winds.  Snow is said to blow backward here.  Still watching David and praying the wind won’t blow him over!

 

He made it!  I would have tried to climb it, but I didn’t have the right kind of shoes on, so I lived vicariously through David.  It was harder to come down than to go up.

It was just beautiful up here.  I could have stayed all day, but there were other places to go and other things to see.

Here’s to the beautiful state of North Carolina.  I’m in love.  Bye.