Cider and Pie... Oh, my!

 About a week ago, Ed sent Russ a text message about a charity community pie tasting contest to be held at one of our local hard cider taprooms, Nobel Cider, on Sunday 8/28 at 4 PM. 

Since both Russ and Ed are pie aficionados, I am particularly fond of ciders, Carol is a non-discriminating dessert lover, and the charity was the local Make-A-Wish foundation, this seemed like a no-brainer. We were in!

Pie makers each submitted three of the same dessert pie to the contest, in hopes of having their pie judged one of the top three in the categories "Best Fruit Pie," "Best Non-fruit Pie," and "Nobel's Choice." For a $5 donation, we were among the many "judges." 

This is what typical judges look like:

 Since we arrived plenty early for a ring-side seat, we started with flights of some of the ciders on tap.

Meanwhile, the pie bakers were cutting their masterpieces into small pieces.

 And the pies were arranged on two tables... fruit and non-fruit... with pie names and identifying numbers.

After a brief introduction and talk about Make-A-Wish, judges got in line to select their samples.

Here is my plate, with selected fruit pies on the right and non-fruit on the left and cider in the upper right hand corner.

Once sampled, ballots were collected in the ceremonial bucket.

 There were also some door prizes donated by a few local businesses. 

(Russ won the plaid short sleeved sport shirt, actually.)

One interesting pie that was actually very good was this tomato and hatch chili pie. It didn't clearly fit into the dessert category, but the lingering hotness of the chilis certainly encouraged cider drinking! I bet it will be Nobel's Choice!

Unfortunately we didn't stay until all the votes were tallied, so we don't know if our favorite pies won, nor do we know if the bakers were just ordinary folk or prize winning pastry chefs from local restaurants.

Would we do it again? Certainly!

Though next time, I would have a different strategy. I would linger toward the back of the line and listen to comments as people came by savoring their first few tastes. Once at the table, I would select a normal sized piece of the one pie that looked/sounded like the best to me. And then I would have a scoop of that nice vanilla ice cream that was offered to accompany it. (None of us had the room or the desire to eat ice cream with that combination of sample-sized pie flavors.) 

I would then sit and enjoy my singular dessert... and maybe cast a vote for it, if it lived up to expectations.

To maintain the pie theme, we stopped for a pizza afterward.  

I was so full of cider and dessert that, good as it was, I struggled to eat one piece of pizza!

THE END

An Evening at Lake Lure

Last night our RestauranTour group made a trip to Lake Lure for the scenic boat ride and dinner at a local inn.

We've been on the boat ride multiple times in our years here. It's a great place to take visitors and it's always enjoyable to be on the water. However as we drove up the serpentine road that leads to Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, I realized that I hadn't been there for a while. I know I golfed in Lake Lure once last summer or fall, but it's probably been two or three years since we have taken the boat ride. I probably blogged about it then and I could look back, I suppose.

First of all, you couldn't have picked a more perfect evening! In this shot I took as we pulled away from the dock, you can see the wispy clouds and the calm water. No hint of the humidity we felt earlier in the month when daily rogue afternoon showers seemed to be the norm.

Our boat ride started at 6 PM and lasted about an hour, so we were able to see the sun sink lower on the horizon of mountains, though not really sunset.

 The gazebo in the photo above is part of the park near the marina and a frequent site for weddings.
Below is a view of Fire Fly Cove which was the site where about 40% of the scenes from Dirty Dancing were filmed. It's now an upscale housing development, but back in the 1980's it was the site of a boys' camp and the camp buildings were used as the housing set for the resort workers in the film. In fact, just last weekend Lake Lure held a Dirty Dancing Festival, still reaping interest from DD groupies who convene here yearly to relive their favorite scenes from the movie.

Now facing east looking at the expanse of lake ahead. Below us, before the river was dammed to create the lake, there was a small settlement called Buffalo. One of the nearby mountains is named Buffalo Mountain.

 And our selfie...

Approaching the castle which is supposed to be the largest home along the shoreline. Believe me, there are plenty of roomy houses around this lake!

 And the castle enjoys the so called "million dollar view." I include a couple shots of that.  I learned that the rounded peak in the center is Bearwallow Mountain which is actually not far from our house.

You can see the sun, which is behind the clouds, is casting it's light on the lake, suggesting a pretty sunset.

And finally, before leaving the lake, a picture of the southwest shore where there is a popular sand beach and an historic inn.

We didn't eat at that inn, but rather headed through the village of Chimney Rock, about two miles away, and ate at The Esmerelda Inn. 

It's a very pretty spot, with an excellent menu, and a refined rustic decor.

Before our meals came, I wandered outside for a few pictures. Nearly dusk, I was pleased they came out as light and clear as they did.

 This pretty fountain was out front and there was a waterfall behind the outdoor restaurant seating area. (We ate indoors.)

 There were nice garden areas surrounding the building.

 A view of the exterior front of the inn... and the side rock garden.

It was a lovely evening and a gentle reminder that we really should take a summer drive to Lake Lure and Chimney Rock at least once a year. Why don't you come and visit and you can come along with us!?

It's Not Just About the Legos!

The North Carolina Arboretum is indeed a local treasure!

Yesterday was a great day for mushrooms.

 This one reminded me of a teed up golf ball!

 I guess conditions were just right for these fungi to emerge!

And here's some bracket fungi on a dead tree.

And there was moss...

(I liked that speckled leaf!)

And some nice summer wild flowers along the trail.

I didn't really expect to see any azaleas in bloom in the azalea repository, but I was pleasantly surprised with a few showy bushes!

Apparently these brilliant flowers in red and fuchsia are the late blooming Plumleaf Azalea which only occurs in nature in an 11 county range along the Alabama and Georgia border.

I tried very hard to get a shot of this orange and black hornet... a color combination that I don't see in nature very often. The hornet was my daughters' high school mascot and their school colors were orange and black!

There were some lovely perennials and annuals showing off in the more formal gardens.

And, of course, a sunflower!

The quilt garden was filled with butterflies...

And, we'll end with a nice pine cone.

Yes, there's always something beautiful to see at the Arboretum!

Nature Connects... the Lego Sculptures at the North Carolina Arboretum

This morning we went to see the Lego sculptures that have been placed throughout the gardens at the North Carolina Arboretum. We went early enough that it was pleasant to take a walk on our favorite trail before following the map to locate the 13 art installations.

Of course, I took pictures of all of them, but won't show them all to you, because perhaps you will get to the NCA before 10/23/16 so that you can see them for yourself. The artist is Sean Kenney and this is actually the second time that the Arboretum has hosted some of his work. Unfortunately we missed it last time, so it was a high priority to see it this time around. If you google his name, you can see some other examples of his sculptures and I was surprised to note that he currently has 7 different displays which are concurrently enjoying time in 7 different gardens.

It's impossible to pick a favorite, but I would have to say I was quite taken by this little exhibit, which was actually the last of the sculptures that we saw this morning. I guess it just reminded me of the visitors at our bird feeder on our back deck. You might have to enlarge the picture to see that the picket fence is indeed constructed of Lego blocks and the tan bird seeds are little Lego blocks.

 And of course the blue jays and squirrels are in their typical poses and amazingly in scale with one another.

And who could not be awed by the bald eagle, poised high on his perch in all his majesty.

Of course the nice clear "Carolina blue" sky is also a wonderful backdrop!

 Each of the sculptures was accompanied by a nice sign that told how many blocks were used to create it and also related the sculpture to it's location on the campus.

The grey sundial in the pond is a working sculpture and cast it's shadow at this morning's time.

 Praying mantis posed for us!
And I think that snake has found his dinner.

We saw some real workers gardening, but this lady gardener is made of Legos.

And there was even a Lego roto tiller!

I'll leave you with this beautiful monarch butterfly enjoying the milkweed flower. The blocks give the flower a really pixilated look!

The North Carolina Arboretum is always a special place to visit. There is a gallery inside which always has some sort of interesting display (this time it is exquisite watercolors of great detail and local interest) and in the other building, the Education Building, there is always some sort of art on display and usually some fabric art and quilts. But one thing that I noticed today, was that there were many parents and grandparents accompanied by their children and grand children in the garden... I think the Legos are a nice intergenerational connection as well as a nature connection.

Well done, Sean Kenney, and thanks to the local sponsors who make a wonderful community resource all the better!