A NEW SKYLINE

The sunset tonight.

September 4th we could only see a forest of trees.

September 5th after the tornado, we have a completely new skyline.

We can see the beautiful sunsets of Fall again.

The birds are finding new homes in the poplars that are left.

I even saw our pileated woodpecker again.

I love the colors of Fall and I love

our new skyline.

CUTE BABY SOCK PATTERN

Just finished the pink pair of baby socks

for my niece who is having

TWINS!!

I love this squishy yarn.  It's a washable wool and so comfy and soft.  These will probably fit a one year old with little chubby feet.  Can't wait for baby time!  If you want to try this pattern I found it at this site.  It's a basic sock pattern but only takes about 2 hours to knit up this size.

ARTISTS' WEEKEND AT LAKE CHATUGE

My friend Susan invited me for an artists' weekend at her cabin in the north Georgia mountains last weekend.  Both of our husbands were out of town and we decided to drive up and paint a little.  When I walked out onto their back porch this is the view that greeted me..................

Every square inch of her house looks like it stepped out of Country Living Magazine.  All I had to do was point and shoot!

The butterfly bush even has a beautiful view!

We pulled out a table and our watercolors and started painting Lake Chatuge.  It was originally dammed up after WWII to make electricity to power the nearby aluminum plants which were needed to make more airplanes.

Susan has the most gorgeous view of the lake!  They are situated at the perfect angle to miss the unattractive buildings and lights of the gas stations, etc.  The only building you can see is a quaint little church with a white steeple breaking through the treetops.

This sign welcomed me on my arrival!

The next morning we woke to beautiful spiderwebs sprinkled with droplets of dew.

I was hoping to see a REAL bear.

But only saw this little wooden guy outside of the guest bathroom window.

The haze quickly burned off into the most beautiful blue skies.

Don't you just love her red painted porch and matching adirondack chairs?

Vintage sign at the top of the stairs.  Notice the yellow heart pine floors!

A Caribou head her husband hunted on one of his trips to Canada.

One of the many stained glass windows hanging in the upstairs hallway window.  She found about 20 of them for $25. each in an antique store near Young Harris.

We took a break from painting and visited a few shops in Hiawassee.  This is the 5 & 10 cent store.  Now where else can you find bolo paddles next to quilting supplies and teaberry gum?

I should have picked up a couple of these aluminum ice trays.......the good old fashioned kind!

....and corn cob pipes......

hat pins.......

and laying behind the counter was this high school yearbook from Hiawassee High School.  Priceless!  They were having a reunion and looking up friends!

Look at this beautiful cash register!  I asked if I could take a photo and the owner said "Come on around back and pull the arm."  So I did and out pops the cash drawer.  Only in a little town!  This is a vintage National Cash Register circa 1891!  She said the National Cash Register company has been hounding them to buy it back, but they keep refusing!  This store had everything you could possibly need!

Next we travelled up to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia.  This is the view from the top lookout point looking down on Lake Chatuge and the surrounding areas.

On the way back down the mountain we stopped at a fresh vegetable stand.  This table of honey was just glowing in the sunshine!

We bought fresh vegetables for dinner and I had to buy some of these peaches to take home with me.
They taste as good as they look!!!

While in Hiawassee we stopped at the cutest Cupcake Shop with the most delicious cupcakes EVER!

Another view of Lake Chatuge from Susan's deck.

This is the Harvest Moon near Chatuge Dam.

Pink skies at night.........

The sunrise early the next morning.......notice the cloud cover just under the outline of the mountains.

This is a straight out of the camera photo of their back porch.

A pillow Susan made ......

Her collection of cameras......

Vintage jars........

Colorful caps......

and the perfect ending to a beautiful weekend.....

LAKE CHATUGE notecard # 2

Lake Chatuge notecard

Last weekend my friend invited 

me to her lake "cabin"

on Lake Chatuge

to paint. 

(More photos

to follow)

It is such a beautiful place

quiet, 

peaceful,

 beautiful!

I did a quick watercolor

today to thank her for

sharing her

little piece

of Heaven

with

 me!

LABOR DAY TORNADO

I woke up this morning to the sun rising in a

pink sky, 

the birds were singing

the first time in three days,

and very thankful that our family

is safe and sound.

This Labor Day 2011 turned into a REAL Labor Day of laboring with a chain saw!

An F1 tornado blew through our neighborhood in Woodstock, followed Noonday Creek and skipped up to Canton and damaged over 600 homes which will cost in the millions.

My husband and I were in the CAR in a TORNADO!   We were on our way back home from JoAnn's and when we turned onto our street the tornado swooped down across our street and our car.  I have never been so terrified, we were in a complete white out, trash cans flying through the air, trees bending down to the street, snapping and blinding rain.  We pulled into our driveway and my husband said "Watch out for our tree"  I said "It's already on the ground".

Fifteen minutes later, we were walking around observing that things were hanging upside down

and at odd angles instead of their usual upright positions.  There were large open spaces of sky, where there used to be green leaves.

It looks like we are growing a telephone pole farm instead of a lush grove of trees.

Looking up, our tallest trees are missing something...............they had been sheared off in a matter of minutes.

Our beautiful chestnut tree twisted and bent with such a force.  Just Sunday I watched the squirrels running up and down grabbing nuts to hide.

 
Such a force of nature........a tornado........to pull a tree apart.

After the tornado all of our neighbors gathered into the street, checking on each other, walking around in shock looking at the damage.  I heard some kids say "It's like the snowstorm".  During the winter the whole street gathered to slide down our frozen snow covered hill.  Monday we all gathered outside again.

We are very grateful that our lives and house were spared.  The line of trees taken out by the tornado were within 20 feet of our deck.  We have a completely new view now.  But as I was walking around taking photos this morning I heard the birds had returned and were singing.  The sun was shining in different areas in our back yard but it is a beautiful day.  There is a lot of clean up, cutting down, throwing out, moving around but I'm glad to be able to do it!