The Mirror Lake ladies were at it again as we decided to take a hike to explore two new waterfalls (new to our group anyways). Christmas is less than a week away so we called this our Christmas hike. And a Christmas hike must have hiking Santas, right? So here’s our traditional beginning of the hike selfie... We drove down the Dillard Road until we arrived at the Scaly Mountain Community. We turned left on Hale Ridge Road which eventually takes a sharp left turn. Be sure to take note of this sign so you don’t wind up driving all over the area looking for the trail head! Yep, that was us. We talked to a few hunters along the way and I was glad we had on lots of red though I secretly worried that the white Pom-Pom on the end of our Santa hats might look like a deer tail to some eager hunter in the woods. After turning around and driving back the way we’d come, we found the trail head. We started down the trail and, as always, we loved seeing the beauty of nature surrounding us. Mountain views peeked through the trees. We talked... we laughed... we were just joyful to be in the woods enjoying each other’s company. What a lovely hike this was shaping up to be! There were a few places where we had to go under limbs, but that’s just part of the hike. We crossed a very small footbridge... We walked under a few trees... Steep slopes covered in wet leaves were no problem for Kelly... And suddenly we were at our first waterfall destination— Holcomb Creek Falls. We enjoyed the beauty of the falls from a bridge which crossed the creek below. And here’s the bottom of the falls... About this time we realized we were not alone when a young man arrived at the isolated waterfall. He introduced himself as Cory, a photographer from the Atlanta area checking out new places to photograph. We walked on around to the side of the waterfall and continued taking pictures with Cory. We walked one last time to the front of the falls to take another selfie and to snap a picture of the waterfall sign. Next it was time to hike further down the trail to Ammons Falls. And of course we had to cross a creek along the way. We paused to check out interesting lichen along the way. When we arrived at Ammons Falls we discovered red “danger” tape. We decided to go around it and proceed cautiously. We discovered that a tree had fallen on an observation deck. The bridge to the observation deck had not been hit so we inched out along the bridge and snapped a few pictures. As we turned to leave, Pam’s hiking boot slid across the wet leaves and down she went! Hard! On her knee! After checking to make sure she was ok, we very carefully made our way out of the woods to our car. And look what we found on the car— a note from our new friend, Cory! Maybe we’ll make him an honorary member of the Girls Only Hiking group!
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We had our first snowfall of the season in Highlands. It started out as a wet rain. Soon it changed to snow... And then it began to stick everywhere except the asphalt areas... By the end of the day the snow began sticking to the asphalt. I carefully walked down the driveway to take pictures of our first snow of the season. Our bear mailbox looked like he was catching snow with his tongue. A few more pictures from the first day... That night I turned on the flood light outside our master bedroom and watched the snow fall as I drifted off to sleep. The next morning the snow was everywhere! The birds were grateful that we hung our feeders... ...and Boots dreamed of warmer days. Later that morning I heard a commotion outside. I went to our bedroom balcony and saw a family sledding down our driveway. The mother asked if it was ok for them to be there and I welcomed them to continue. What fun they were having! Inside Two Holt all was calm... ...while outside Two Holt the snow continued to fall. More snow fell overnight. Winter storm Diego gave us 10” of snow! I challenged friends to make snowfaces! What fun! Here’s the snow face of my friend, Dianne. On Tuesday afternoon I finally got out again to take a few pictures. After I slipped on black ice and shattered part of my iPhone screen, I decided it was time to come inside! And finally I leave you with a few pictures taken by friends and by the town of Highlands. Enjoy! Beautiful! But now we’re waiting on the stubborn Diego snow to melt away. It looks like it might be several more days and cabin fever is already setting in! Merry Christmas, everyone!
I dearly love to decorate for the Christmas season. There’s just something wonderful about sitting in the living room with only a fire and Christmas tree lights to brighten the room. Phil humors me by helping with the outside decorations and with the Christmas tree. So let me show you around. Let’s start with the outside where we place garland greenery wrapped in clear lights on all the sections of our post and rail fence, both balconies, the screened deck, and the side entrance. Red bows are also plentiful. So why so much greenery, lights, and red bows? For us it’s simple. The red bows represent the ultimate gift. Christ came to lead us to the Father. He willingly gave his life and shed His blood to redeem us. The lights represent Christ as the light of the world. He promised us that whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12). The greenery represents eternal life. This life will end, but eternal life in the place He has prepared awaits the believer. We also added a few whimsical touches outdoors... Now come inside. We’ll start with our kitchen. I made Christmas Goody Baking wreaths for this area. The Christmas Goody theme continues above the window... Next we move into the dining area... From the dining area we move into the living room area. Moving to our master bedroom... And finally we visit the guest rooms upstairs... Red berry wreaths hang on each door. Toiletries are kept in this Christmas container for guests. This is the front guest room which is done in blue and white. And finally we move to the back guest bedroom... A Santa bear sits on my daddy’s old suitcase. From our house to your house— Merry Christmas!
Highlands always lights the town Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The tree lighting event never disappoints and this year was no exception. After singing Christmas hymns, the crowd listened to Bible scripture which told the story of Christ’s birth. Then Santa appeared and led us in the countdown... 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1... LIGHT THE TREE! Imagine our delight when the tree lit up and at the very top was a CROSS! How perfect! Christ came to earth, sent by our Father as a tiny, helpless baby. He grew to be a man who would ultimately die on a cross to redeem us. Without the cross, Christmas would be meaningless. These were my thoughts as I gazed in wonder at that tree. My tears weren’t caused by the cold wind blowing. My tears were tears of gratitude to my savior. The next day I started receiving messages from local friends. “The cross has been taken down!” “What is going on,” I wondered. “Why?” So I called the mayor to inquire. Yes, each citizen has a direct line to the mayor in our little town. I asked the mayor about the cross and he said that since this tree was newly transplanted last winter, it was decided not to add a topper this year to protect the tree from harm. I thanked him for his time and shared the information with the one who had first brought the matter to my attention. What I learned next disappointed me. It seems the mayor was overheard immediately after the tree lit up and the cross was shining from the top. He was angry that a cross was on top of the tree. “I said there was to be no cross!!”, he stated sharply. And over the next few hours, town workers let friends know that it wasn’t about weight at the top of the tree. It seems our mayor is an atheist and wanted a secular tree. He had the cross removed on Monday morning. What happened over the next few hours still amazes me! Anna Claire Ramey, a fellow believer, posted the following on Facebook... The message spread across Highlands and beyond and at 6:00 that evening a few dozen people were at the park to protest the removal of the cross. Fox News and a few other reporters were there and listened intently as the crowd spoke. Our own pastor, Dr. Ford, spoke, too. And the next morning... ... the cross was placed back at the top of the tree! Christian, don’t buy into the secularization of one of the most beautiful celebrations ever. Celebrate the gift given to you before you were even born...John 3:16. Merry Christmas!
Sunny and cool, colorful leaves, and delightful waterfalls— all combined to give Pam, Ginie, and me a glorious hike! These were our directions as we set out for today’s hike. Our first stop was down the Dillard Road to see Upper Middle Creek Falls. We parked on the side of the road at a school bus stop. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’d most probably miss it! We carefully made our way down a little hill covered with wet leaves at the trailhead. I was surely glad to have my hiking poles to help me through the slick leaves on the path. It wouldn’t be a complete hike if we didn’t need to cross a creek! We came to the bottom of the falls... ...but we didn’t have a clear view of the falls so we climbed up the path a little further. At the top we found our first geocache. We opened it up and signed the book showing we had been there. And then we focused on the beauty of Upper Middle Creek Falls. We started back after enjoying the view and stopped again at the bottom of the falls for more pictures. We climbed up the path as we made our way back to the car. Pam pulled out her hiking book with directions to our next stop— Mud Creek Falls. We drove further down the Dillard Road to Sky Vally. At this time of year Sky Valley has the ‘Hay Bale Trail’ event where residents create fun hay bale creatures. Here are a few we saw today... ...the hay bale turkey... ...a hay bale snow leopard... ... and a hay bale Frankenstein. We came to the turn for Mud Creek Falls. We drove right up to the falls and parked. Pam suggested we walk down Mud Creek Trail to a covered bridge at the end of the trail. The trail was wide and mostly flat. Mud Creek ran alongside the path and we stopped several times to enjoy the scenery. We crossed a footbridge... ...and kept going. We emerged close to the Dillard Road. And walked up to the covered bridge alongside the road. We crossed over to the bridge by walking on a narrow board. And we sat awhile while enjoying the sights and sounds of the water rushing under the bridge. We didn’t want to leave, but we soon gathered our things and started walking back. We can’t wait until our next Girls Only Hike!
I love boxwoods! Two Holt’s original owner, Mrs. Cora, planted three boxwoods 50 or 60 years ago which became the evergreen ‘bones’ of our side garden. We added three more boxwoods to this garden as Two Holt grew in size. We even rooted three boxwoods from clippings, nurtured the rootings in small pots for a year or two, and transferred the small boxwood plants to our garden last year. From the history of the oldest boxwoods to the nurturing of the cuttings into new plants, we have a definite connection to the boxwoods in our garden. These pictures show how the boxwoods added to our garden... These boxwoods are beauties so I panicked a bit when I noticed a small dead area on one of our oldest boxwoods. Then I noticed a larger dead area on another of the oldest boxwoods and yet another on two of our younger boxwoods. I had a sick feeling that a relatively new disease, Boxwood Blight, was attacking our boxwoods. I went straight to social media to ask more knowledgeable friends if this was blight on my precious boxwoods. I had several answers that it was indeed blight and there was no hope... pull them up and burn them. But then along came neighbor Brian. Brian shared that he was working with North Carolina State faculty members on Boxwood Blight and that he, himself, had a degree in agronomy with an emphasis in plant pathology. He got my attention quickly! Brian came by the next day and assured me the boxwoods could be saved if I followed a treatment plan. He showed me how to treat the boxwoods, left me with some chemicals and a written plan to treat my boxwoods. We have been faithfully treating our boxwoods weekly as he suggested. I’ll share his plan at the end of this post. Brian is THE man! But first let me take you on a tour of our little Mirror Lake community. Boxwood Blight can take an otherwise healthy boxwood out in a couple of weeks. Many of our residents are seasonal and will be shocked to return and see the condition of their boxwoods. One new friend contacted me a week or so ago about her boxwoods. Brian even went to check them out, but they were too far gone to save. The owner was devastated because these 50-year-old boxwoods were her grandmother’s. Take a look... All of the pictures above were taken in our neighborhood. The pictures show blight at various stages, but I know, without a doubt, if left untreated every single boxwood will die. Brian says, “It’s not a question of IF untreated boxwoods will die, but rather it’s a matter of WHEN they will die.” And he clarified that he meant whether it currently has Boxwood Blight or not! And here’s the plan Brian shared... Daconil is a contact fungicide and Tebuconazole is a systemic fungicide. The combination of these two products treat the shrub from the outside and from within. YOU NEED BOTH!
Mix the chemicals in a 1-gallon or 2-gallon pump sprayer: 1. Daconil: 1 oz/gallon of water 2. Tebuconazole: 1 oz/gallon of water These chemicals can be mixed together in the same tank. In the case of a 2-gallon sprayer, you will mix 2 oz of each chemical in 2 gallons of water. Spray the boxwood to the point of runoff, covering all sides of the shrub. These fungicides are safe and will not harm the shrub or other plants in any way. You can’t spray too much. Boxwoods should be sprayed every 21 days during the months of April-October. No spraying is required from November-March. (Note: since I had infected boxwoods and it was so close to the end of the spraying season, Brian advised that we go ahead and spray weekly.) Thank you, Brian! I’ll be making you a homemade thank you treat very soon! Phil and I decided to go ahead with a project we had planned to complete in 2019 and we’re glad we did. We now have a nice fire pit behind Two Holt. All of our flat spaces had been claimed—- the house, the sitting garden, the potting bench, Boots’ Run, parking. So we called our friend and grading contractor, Mark Rogers, to carve a large flat area out of the sloped lot behind our house. And he agreed to the job. Mark started the job and Phil staked out his observation stations! I had walked the land with Mark and shown him pictures and drawings two or three times prior to the beginning of the job so I was fairly certain he understood what I wanted. At the end of the first day, I KNEW we were in sync. The next phase was to bring in the large stones to build the back retaining wall and a smaller retaining wall in the front. Mark worked for a week creating our fire pit and the beginnings of walking paths through the back lot to the road behind Two Holt. Mark dug down a bit for the actual pit. Phil and I tried out the fire pit and immediately knew this would become our favorite outdoor spot. We began planting our Fire Pit Garden with plants we bought on clearance at Lowe’s which included three Dwarf Alberta Spruce trees... ...a red twig dogwood... ...a Kaleidoscope abelia... ...and several Rain Forest Morning hosta. I planted three Creeping Jenny plants in the retaining wall and will add many more plants as it becomes another living wall comparable to the one we created in a front garden near the road. We also planted a white blooming hybrid rhodie, Bloom Struck Hydrangea, and a Red Dragon Japanese Maple in the Fire Pit Garden. We began a Woodland Path Garden along the lower path leading away from the Fire Pit Garden by planting one Nana Cryptermia, four Lemon Lime Nandina, and a burning bush. Creating this garden will be an ongoing project as we add shrubs and understory trees beside the paths along with benches, a swing, and chairs to create garden destinations all the way to the very back of our property. Next it was time to spread gravel over the ground within the fire pit sitting area. This was a tough job for Phil and me. We unloaded over a full ton of gravel from Phil’s truck and carried it bucket by bucket up endless steps to the fire pit area. We found comfortable Adirondack chairs on a trip to Gainesville, Georgia. We bought four chairs (two are swivel glider chairs) and two small tables. But then we had to unload that VERY heavy furniture and carry it up to the fire pit. Here’s a view of the fire pit from the upstairs guest bedroom... And here’s the fire pit as we enjoy it today. You can see the tree stump grinder has not shown up yet. Hopefully he’ll be here soon. We still have finishing touches to add. I’ve ordered lumbar pillows for the chairs and we plan to add another whiskey barrel planter to this area. I’m on the lookout for a few other large pots to add, too. Next spring our gardening efforts surrounding this area will intensify. I hope to achieve a nestled-in-the-woodland look. Happy gardening, everyone!
After our last “Hike from Hell” we decided to take an easier hike to Ranger Falls. Pam and I hiked to Ranger Falls last year from Cliffside Lake, but we decided to return to Ranger Falls via a descending hike from Flat Mountain. We met at Ginie’s House, but Ginie was sick and couldn’t join us. Bummer! But we had a group of four hikers ready to go: Sally, Margaret, Pam, and me. First, Pam pulled off to a little path on Flat Mountain Road which she said led to Pinky Falls. I was very excited to visit there. Our church has had baptisms at Pinky Falls but I’ve never been and I have been wanting to see it. We entered the woods and walked a short path to our destination... The walk was easy and we quickly emerged at Pinky Falls. What a delightful place! We walked along a very short path and emerged at a large sandbar which would be a perfect place for a picnic! There was even a bench for visitors. Such a lovely place... We all agreed it would be a perfect spot to bring our grandkids for a picnic and a swim. I’m sure we’ll all return. We walked back to the car and continued down the road to the Ranger Falls Trail. The path was well maintained and well marked. Note the sign here: More Difficult. It was one mile and it wasn’t a bad hike at all, but this path does descend to the falls and you know what that means... it’s more uphill coming back. Still, we all handled it without difficulty. The wide path was fairly level at first. We came to an area or two where we used stepping stones to cross wet areas. Another couple of places had rhodie limbs we had to go under. And then we arrived at Ranger Falls. Pam pointed out these rock cairns which had been made by earlier hikers. They were interesting... I read about them after my hike and this little snippet of info below convinced me that we don’t need to add this activity to our hikes... We lingered at Ranger Falls taking in the beauty. We took a few pictures including a selfie and then returned to the car. The mile hike back to the car was a bit more troublesome because it was uphill, but I still wouldn’t call this a difficult hike. We drove to Main Street and enjoyed an outdoor lunch at Wild Thyme. What a perfect way to end our hike! I love hiking with these ladies! Pam, please start planning our next Girls Only Hike!
A couple of years ago we brought this old secretary desk from Alabama to Two Holt. It’s not an antique, but it was a piece that I had in my bedroom as a teenager so, for sentimental reasons, I wanted it. I wanted to place it in a guest bedroom, but the color just didn’t work. The guest bedroom is navy and burnt orange (War Eagle!). I asked Phil to paint it and he agreed. First he scuffed it up a bit with sandpaper. Then he primed it... Then he painted it navy blue with orange as an accent color. I was waffling at this point as I thought the back wall should have been orange and the shelves navy so I asked for opinions on Facebook. The feedback was evenly split between ‘leave it as it is’ and ‘repaint the back wall and shelves.’ We made the decision (well...Phil made the decision) to live with it as is for a few weeks and then decide. Translation: No more painting! Phil spray painted the hardware with a black undercoat and then sprayed with a copper color followed by a oil bronze layer. Because of the layers if the hardware paint is chipped from use, the other layers of paint will show through instead of the original white. Finally it was time to put it all back together and move it upstairs. I love it and, as Phil can attest, happy wife—happy life! On to the next project!
Phil asked what I wanted for my birthday last March and I immediately told him I wanted a custom potting bench. I had a gazillion ideas which would all require an experienced carpenter. With his blessing, I began to ask around about a carpenter, but it’s sometimes hard to hire workers here in Highlands. No one even came to see the spot I had picked out and talk to me about what I envisioned. Bummer. But Phil told me that he would build a simple bench and I could decorate it to make it what I wanted. I wasn’t sure but I knew it had to be better than what was presently there. Ugh. I reminded Phil that we had brought three pressure treated columns from Alabama and, maybe, we could use them on this project. He thought for a moment and said, “Yeah. I can cut them in half and use them as table legs.” I reminded him that I had saved Miss Cora’s original sink and I’d like to use it, too. He agreed and began measuring the space and drawing the table. “Don’t forget to add shelves between the outside windows,” I told him. First he cut, painted, and set the post legs. Then he built a table top and cut the table to hold the sink. We picked up an inexpensive faucet set from Lowe’s and he installed it. Looking good! He added trim to make it look more finished. He painted the table top and legs Ewing Blue (Benjamin Moore Paint). I found outdoor fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby and turned it over to a friend at church to sew table skirt panels. (Thank you, Marie!) He painted the shelves Ewing Blue and the trim Chantilly Lace (Benjamin Moore Paint). I made a quick trip to our local nonprofit second hand store—Mountain Findings. I was looking specifically for an old rake head to use as hooks to hang my tools. I didn’t find one, but I did find an old peg towel hanger or is it a hat hanger or... whatever it was, I took it home and spray painted it yellow to brighten it up. Now my garden tools hang from it. Also at Mountain Findings, I found this metal basket for $1. I love it! And I found this artificial ivy for 50 cents. I added artificial flowers and a spray nozzle to this garden hose to make a cute wreath. I thought the white trim was too blah so I asked Phil to paint a colorful flower border. It took him four or five days but he never complained. i added a lot of my old garden items to the shelves. And we added a hanging basket for some more color. Phil is currently painting Miss Cora’s original mailbox a bright metallic blue and then he’ll paint a large sunflower bloom on the side. The mailbox will keep my garden gloves nice and dry. Isn’t this potting bench so stinkin’ cute? I smile every time I see it. Thank you, Phil!
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Phil & SharonMarried 40 years and hoping to enjoy many more! Archives
December 2019
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