Sundays are for Hiking!

Leaves are just starting to turn on the Blue Ridge.

Mountain Ash

Down below trees were still pretty green.  The higher we climbed, the more color appeared.  

Tunnel to Craggy Pinacle.

Craggy Pinacle.

Lots of hikers with their dogs.

Craggy Gardens is just a bald at the top of the mountain a mile high.  It is a destination to see rhodos in the spring.

Of course, Bob has to do a meet and greet with each dog.  This husky's name is Sky from Florida with some friends from Brazil, so we got to talk about our trip to Brazil many years ago. 

Bernese Mountain Dog

This guy is 14 years old, going blind and deaf and is a sharpei beagle mix according to a DNA test.  Can't remember his name. 

Next weekend Table Rock in SC, the opposite direction.

Demolition at the Lake

Pulled up to the boathouse today to find my neighbor taking down the retaining wall to his boathouse.  I was meeting my friend Ziggy to get some goat's milk and show him the place, wasn't nice and peaceful as it usually is, and this huge semi was parked in my space. 

Fingers crossed our rock retaining wall is still standing tomorrow when I meet another friend there, but just in case, I took a lot of photos and videos.

It was no surprise, our neighbor talked to us last weekend when at the boathouse and showed us all of his plans for his place.  He actually owns two boathouses together.

He showed us the nice stone that will replace the ugly cinderblock and he will also be working on the boathouse and dock attached to ours.  His girlfriend wants to paint it salmon, which I think will be very pretty and complimentary to our place, but Dave did not seem to like the color choice.  We'll see who wins!

Once he's finished, I will take photos of the new wall and boathouse color and also show you the beautiful waterfall he placed between the two boathouses that run into the lake.  He had a lot of boardwalks to link up the two, something Bob and I had already talked about doing to make it safer for renters and company.

Can't imagine what this is costing him.  He had to hire engineers.

This is the view of the ugly cinderblock wall from our boathouse.  I can't wait to see the rock, it will really add to the view from our boathouse.  Dave loves my garden and wants me to plant pitcher plants.  Just another thing on my agenda, to make a bog garden once the boardwalk is in.

Right now this is what you have to traverse to get from the stairs to the dock.  The boardwalk will go here, giving a better view of my water garden.  Photos to come.  George and Patti will be very happy to see their new boathouse come spring!

Chocolate and Verdigris

The outside painting is moving along . . . slowly, but there is enough done in the courtyard to get a good feel of how the house will look in the end, and I love the deep rich chocolate color.

This color brings out the tones in the old brick and the surrounding greenery.   Eventually the windows will be re-puttied and painted the same color. 

The verdigris copper gutters even look better next to this color.  Verdigris is going to be my accent color for all outdoor adornment.  So far there are the verdigris gutters, weathervanes, and I now how some lighting for the front of the garage (soon to be Bob's man cave/office).

I had a few possibilities for lighting from Blue Moon, the antique lighting store in town, but nothing was perfect, until I saw these lights on Ebay from Virginia, a set of four with the copper that matched my gutters and simple enough for this 1940s bungalow. 

When I saw these, I knew I had to have them, and there was only one other bidder, and I won!  They will look fantastic on the front wall with new casement windows and Carolina siding.  We found a contractor that just moved here from York, PA, and we hit it off from the start.  He knew the look I was trying to get, and will start soon on replacing the front of the garage and finishing off the inside so that Bob has an office to work from home.  Stay tuned!

This week's rescue is Johnny from the LA floods who ended up in the shelter in Mobile, AL.  He, along with Raven and Copper needed rescue.  I worked with my friend Leigh Stonecypher to get these three rescues and get transports set up.  I had Raven for a few days and drove him to Columbia, SC on Saturday to go to my friend Stephanie in CT.  Copper went to my friend Alisha in GA, and I have John until Friday when I place him on transport to NY to my friend Toni with Heart Rescue.  A full couple of weeks to pull this off, so taking a much needed break to get back to painting.

Raven

Copper.  Three very lucky dogs!

Labor Day

 Goodbye summer and all the noisy people on the lake! 
Seventy percent of the people on the lake leave, and fall is the best time of  the year!  Back to kayaks!!

Bedroom Hallway

Just another ugly, gloomy hallway, but a smaller one, off the bedroom and into the bathroom.  This has been my project for the past week.

Lots of scraping and sanding, my favorite thing to do, before painting.

When we looked at the house initially, this bathroom had a leak in the shower which caused so much mold in that room it had to be entirely ripped out and re-built.  The moisture from the leak peeled the paint on the plaster walls in both this hallway and the bedroom.

I decided to use Gray Owl, the trim paint color from the bedroom, for this hallway instead of all white like the main hallway, hoping it would not be too dark.  It really turned out nice with the white trim, and still-to-be-painted white ceiling.  I finally found a place for one of my watercolors I bought at a marketplace many years ago on a trip to Peru.

Looking from the bathroom into the hallway into the bedroom.

Looking from the bedroom into the hallway into the bathroom.

Up close view of floral watercolor done by a local artist in Peru.

These were also purchased in Peru, but I still need to find a place to hang them. 

Different things blooming in the garden signifying fall is approaching.

Lots of interesting shrooms, too!

On the rescue front, this is sweet senior Pixie in Indiana.  She is blind.  Pixie's owners have let her roam the town where she has stopped traffic and been picked up by AC many times and brought to the shelter and was returned to her owners.  This time the shelter reached out to chow rescue to get her in a safe home.  Here, poor Pixie fell into a window well of an apartment, and it rained on her all night.  I cannot believe she was not injured.

I had two adopters for Pixie, one in TX and one in PA, whichever I could set a transport up for first would win her.  Then a friend in MI chow rescue asked my permission to adopt Pixie, and it was decided that would be the best home for her.

This little guy reminded me so much of Daddy.  I worked on him all week.  I finally got a rescue in GA to take him and I was going to get him this weekend, but today a local rescue pulled him from the shelter.  I was very sad that I would not get to meet him because I had put so much time and effort into trying to save him.  Tomorrow will be a piece of cake going to work compared to the hours and headaches spent on trying to place this guy.

And this right here is a jar of Grapefruit Mojitos to reward myself for the long, hard week I had trying to save dogs.  Recipe found on Pinterest!