Flat Creek becomes a playground in Montreat NC

 Several bridges cross over Flat Creek which usually is nice and well behaved.  In May it was not and flooded the area, and dropped some trees and changed the shape of some people's creek-front property.  But it is controlled somewhat by the dam up in Montreat at Lake Susan, except when there's just too much water in too little time.

 It even comes under a parking lot, or at least some of it does.

 There are some buildings by the creek, which provide the daytime activities for the camping experience for children during the summer.  There were lots of little signs saying the playground was closed (bright pink here).

 Looking at the creek below the rhododendrons, below.

 I walked down this ramp past the little sign, to find many families were enjoying the park.

 Big smelly white bags are the remains from cleanup, but the water itself was clean.

 Children continue to have birthday parties.  And the park is actually open to the public, except for areas that are fenced off.

The climbing equipment is still useable.

 This is a nice big park, with lots of places kids can go wading and play in a natural stream.

 This area is still being repaired, and the plastic orange fencing shows the damage to the rubber matt walkways, which used to end in a bridge over the creek.

Quote for today:

My brain is only a receiver; in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.

Nikola Tesla

Thanks to potter blog readers!

Thank you Pottery Making Information Blog!

for making me the number 7 most-mentioned blog in 2016!
This is indeed an honor.

Don't miss the other Top Pottery Blog winners for 2016...HERE.

7. Alchemy of Clay

• Blog Author: Barbara Rogers
  
• URL: http://blackmtnbarb.blogspot.com/
• This blog was mentioned 65 times in the Clay Blog Review in 2016.
• 2015 Rank: 8

Barb shares an almost daily look into her life making pots and living in North Carolina.

Today's Quote:

Here are some details about what Clay Blog Review means...

• 166 blogs were mentioned at least one time in the Clay Blog Review in 2016.
• 44 blogs were mentioned at least 12 times. That’s an average of once per month!
• 6 blogs had over 100 mentions each this year.
• 40 blogs were mentioned at least one time in the “Can’t Miss” section for the month.

Clay Blog Review

On this site you can find a monthly feature, called the Clay Blog Review. In it, you will find highlights from the best pottery blogging from around the world. (This is the subjective, inexact part!) I do my best to scan every pottery blog I can find and link to the best parts. A list of links is compiled at the end of the month and sorted into categories. At the end of the year I count each time that a blog was mentioned in the Clay Blog Review and rank the top blogs by the number of times they were mentioned.

Changes From Last Year

If you look closely, you may be able to tell that the list seems a little different from last year. One major change: I added the “Opportunities” category to the Clay Blog Review.

I also started including blogs more often that were promoting other artists and potters. In previous years I linked mostly to individuals showing their own work. This made a big difference for sites such as Cfile and Musing About Mud.

One other small change happened gradually throughout the year. If one blog had a number of similar posts in a month, I most likely only picked one or two to link. This keeps the Clay Blog Review from getting too large and I hope it encourages readers to go explore each blog and find some of those other posts. by Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz