Living near the Blue Ridge Parkway

Close to sunset looking out my bedroom window.  What a lovely view of Windy Ridge on the other side of the Swannanoa Valley, here in Black Mountain, NC.

Saturday I decided to drive up to the parkway and see what was happening.  Beautiful blue skies invited me.

Noontime view over Panther's shoulder to my tiny balcony, where I trimmed back the geranium which was rather gangly, right after this shot!

The uphill side of the first scenic overlook as I traveled north on BRP from Hwy 70.

Most people were checking out this view going west towards Asheville.  I think this is Haw Creek Valley...but I forgot to take a picture of the sign.  Sigh, will just have do drive the 10 miles back again.

My goal for the day was to try to capture the "greening of the mountains."  It's barely visible coming up from the valley here.

It's amazing how many houses are perched up there on the ridge, and show more clearly in the bare tree season.

So I drove a few more miles to Bull Gap overlook.  The camera doesn't do justice, since it focuses so well on the foreground.  I'll go back with a zoom next time.  It does face east in a lovely valley of which I don't know the name.

The houses look so tiny down there.

A little redbud brightens up the slope, with one lone bright green tree.

Not just the evergreens, but the tops of the deciduous trees are turning bright spring green now.  Just over the thorny tangle, look for the tiny brown house.  I got vertigo looking down at it, seemingly right at my feet.

Did I mention I took my lunch and a stadium chair and sunbathed in between the tourists stopping and sometimes asking for me to take their picture (on their camera)?  This is one of my "back yard" acquisitions.  Shhh, don't tell the National Park guys who do all the caretaking for me!  My back yard is wherever I chose to enjoy life.