Blue Ridge Parkway

Art supplies were running low, so I made a trip over to Cheap Joe's near Boone yesterday!  My good friend Anne lives just beyond the Blue Ridge Parkway, so not only did I have the thrill of  purchasing canvas and new paint, but Anne and I made a day of the opportunity to convene with nature and each other.  We had lunch in Blowing Rock then picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Anne and I share a love of the mountains, the vistas, the meadows and the absolute serenity it provides.  The Parkway is like a living cathedral filling you with the certainty of something greater than ourselves.  We stopped off at the Moses Cone summer estate, Flat Top Manor, built in the mid 1890's.  These folks were "naturalists" before the term became popular!  Flat Top Manor now houses the Parkway Craft Center and we discovered unique and beautiful crafts. . .not to mention the silk paintings of Roberta Nosti!  It was a day full to the brim and I arrived back home just at dark, knowing that there is very little to take the place of love for friends and nature.  Grateful is an understatement.