Before the feast

Something's burning, on the other side of our apartments, on the other side of US 70 and the other side of I-40.

But I was off to Ohio to visit family, so never found out what the burn was.

 The front yard of my son, Russ' house had about 20 squirrels digging away...while a big wind came through for hours on Wed. the 27th.

Here's another of my grand-dogs...Cody. He's snuggled asleep, and I was glad to sit with him, because he usually is barking. Sleep equals quiet.

So we did lots of indoor things that day...getting ready for making the big feast on Thurs.

And here's the morning of. Some family prep work. I was the recorder. And made the gravy.

Michelle has a pretty dress under her apron.

And Audrey was happy to cut up the potatoes before they were cooked and became, you know!

Caroline is the mistress of the sweet potato casserole.

Russ and Michele have a cheerful time, pretty much all the time.

Granddaughter Kate tried the chocolate chip banana bread that Russ made last night. I tried both of the loaves, one with and one without chocolate chips. Excellent breakfast food.

Below is the making of the 2 kinds of bread (you can see the chocolate chips in the bowl still...but they all ended up in the moist bread!)

 I sent this out as my FB wishes, since I delve into so many ancestry things and probably bore my descendants to tears with them.

Standing on the bridge

 The spillway goes under a little foot bridge at Lake Tomahawk

 Mallards rest on the side of the lake.

And if I look back over the dam (and zoom a bit) there is the VFW center on the downhill side of the dam of Lake Tomahawk.

Sometimes you win until you lose

I wanted to make a casserole dish...a gift.  It took forever to dry to just be bisqued.

 And then I glazed it and quickly waited. Yes that means the 20 minutes of glazing then sat through 3 other glaze kiln-loads before it got in one. About 3 days actually. I was pleased that it got done that fast.

But...

Well, just look closely.

A crack appeared that doesn't go through to the outside, but makes it not able to be cooked in, and thus not giftable.  (Cracks mean bacteria can hide there, so it's not food safe.) I may keep it around to keep my humility rate up.  Geese. I think I'll try again!

More Parkway and NC History

 Teresa drove us carefully from the Altapass Orchard (where we indulged just a bit) and where I'd taken photos of their new history exhibits.

 I was focused on historic displays that day, and saw this one in the Minerals Museum.  We didn't have time to see the whole exhibit about the geology of the area (which is extensive and very educational.)

Altapass, North Carolina history

 I had to pause in enjoying my homemade apple pie a la mode to record this photo for you!  In no time there was just an empty bowl...and smiling elder.

 While my much younger friend enjoyed hers, I spied the "history of Altapass" sign over on the post.  But I had to watch some of the more limber folks dancing to the music...Sunday afternoons at Altapass are live music and dancing! Free. And lots of those folks wore their clogging shoes (which are maybe like clogs, but I think more specifically designed for dancing.)

 It was a huge wall map, so I've tried to capture little bits in each photo.

 If you received any North or South Carolina history in school, you must have heard of some of the big Revolutionary War battles, of which Cowpens SC, and Kings Mountain NC are spoken of.  I learned of them through my various ancestors in my family tree (though I was raised both in Texas and Missouri, so didn't learn about this history in school at all!)

 I was particularly glad to see other elements of local history were also shown...here a little bit about the first Americans to live in this area...

 This is the weather we had for driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway...and I was so happy Teresa was driving this trip!

Showing your ass-etts

 Every time I clicked the shutter, this duck was showing his ass-etts and getting something to eat on the bottom of Lake Tomahawk. It must be hard when you're all bouant and meant to float.

 The Coot was busy preening, so out of a dozen photos I got one of his face!

 The Japanese Maple still has some color.

 A strange tasting (but good) "snickerdoodle" and cup of tea at a new bakery, opened in the same location as one of the old favorites in town...now the "Open Oven."  My conversation continued for a while about whether anyone else's recipe for snickerdoodles included orange extract, as my mother's did.

Open Oven is a breakfast/lunch venue, on Church Street, looking at the side of the Methodist Church.