Return To Mitford

Hi folks!  I've been missing in action again; I've decided this is going to be the norm for me the rest of this year.  At least it feels that way.  Part of the reason for this is my husband has some extra vacation days to take this year, and when he's home, I like to spend time with him.  My posting will probably be sporadic, and my visits too, but I promise I will visit you.  :)

We seem to stay pretty busy when Mr. Forest Manor is home, but I hope I'll have some house and home things to share with you before too much longer.  Those are the things we're really interested in, right?  In the meantime, this is what I have to share at the moment.

Yesterday, Hal and I drove to Blowing Rock, N.C., for the first time in almost four and a half years.  I tend to forget just what a charming town it really is.  The fall colors were gorgeous on the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Blowing Rock, and they were gorgeous in the town itself.  

This is one thing I love about fall here; you can still have summer flowers blooming right alongside trees covered with fall foliage.  What a combination!  :)

I know I focused on this church in my original post about Mitford, which you can read Here.  However, it was wonderful to see it in autumn, so of course we took more pictures.  We also took pictures of things I haven't shared here before -- so today, I'll show you some of the shops and houses in the town of Blowing Rock, Jan Karon's inspiration for her Mitford books.

Downtown Main Street is always lively, with people browsing, window shopping, and walking their dogs.

These views always remind me of the covers of the Mitford Books.

source

This is the shop I specially wanted to visit -- the French Shop.  I checked online, and their business hours said Monday through Saturday, 9-5.  Notice the sign in the window below --

"Sorry, we're CLOSED"  Hmmm.  Guess we'll just have to go back next week.  ;)  It's an awfully cute shop on the outside; I looked in the windows and there are lots of goodies inside.

I love these beautiful Nasturtiums out front.

Hubby took the picture above; he's really good with a camera.  :)

This pretty building is across the street from the French Shop; it's a gold and silversmith shop and an art gallery.

Aren't the maple trees gorgeous?

This shop carries oriental rugs and home accessories; we didn't go in, but I could see they had some beautiful things.

This shop has pink and green trim and flower boxes; the window advertises Lily Pulitzer merchandise (hence the pink and green).

This is the office of Blowing Rock Properties, Inc.

Just charming.

I love this rustic planter outside another real estate office.

A mural on the side of one of the shops.  One of the antique shops we saw had one whole front window filled with vintage copper cookware (probably French).  It was amazing!  There are some nice shops here, but we don't typically buy anything because of the $$$.  :)

I'll leave you with some pretty images of the flowers and foliage (and the Episcopal church) in Blowing Rock.  I can just picture Father Tim there, can you?

The flower border at the front of the church, near the street, was so pretty.

There were some of the prettiest Dahlias here I've ever seen.  Look at these pink beauties.

These yellow ones were pretty, too.

These hydrangeas were growing in front of one of the shops.

This was another pretty flower bed in the park.

 Love these pink flowers!!

This vivid foliage was on one of the trees in the park.

Hal took all these pictures of the flowers and foliage in the park.  I took the pictures of the church and the flower border there.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Blowing Rock in the fall.  Next time, I'll show you some more of the buildings and the cute cottages we saw there.  Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my blog.  I hope you're enjoying a beautiful autumn, wherever you may be.  Do you have a lot of pretty foliage in your area yet?

Have a great week!!

Denise