Sunday

  

  

   

The Gateway Walk of Charleston

Happy June everyone!  How are things in your part of the world?  The sun is finally shining in a blue sky here, and I'm a happy camper.  :D   

Countryside

Hello out there!  How is everyone -- I have missed you so!  I'm sorry I've been absent for awhile, but we're trying to get things fixed and cleaned up (still) from the basement flooding.  The weather has been hot (88°F here yesterday) but pretty with gorgeous summer skies, so I decided I had to get out and take some pictures.  These were all taken with my iPhone, so the quality is definitely not the best.  Hubby and I are signed up for a one-time class on taking pictures with your iPhone, so we're hoping to get some good pointers on taking better pictures.  It's often handier to use the phone camera than having to lug around the bigger camera with extra lenses, etc.

The French Huguenot Church in Charleston

Today I'm sharing a bit about the church we visited while in Charleston a few weeks ago.  We didn't attend the service there, but we were walking by snapping some photos, and I noticed the front doors were open.  We walked around to the steps and were met by two church members who greeted us and invited us to go into the church.  They said we were welcome to look around and also welcome to take pictures.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, Northern Ireland

Recently, I came across these pictures among our many hundreds of old photographs.  My husband had taken these snaps on a business trip to his company facility in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland.  While there, he visited Armagh, the county town of Armagh County and a civil parish.  The town of Armagh is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.  Following are some pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh.

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.

The Church on the Hill

Last year when we took our trip to the mountains, we visited Highlands, North Carolina.  I wrote about Highlands the year I started my blog in 2011, and I shared some images of the pretty churches there.  Most of my readers were really taken with the Episcopal church in Highlands (You can see the Episcopal Church in this post.)  I think it's very pretty, too; but I was intrigued with the Presbyterian Church, which I didn't get to see up close in 2011 because we ran out of time.  I finally got a chance to view the church at close range, and I wasn't disappointed.  Founded in 1885, it really is a charming little church.

October Note Card Party

I'm so glad to be participating in Vee's monthly Note Card Party again -- it's one of my very favorites.  :)  Stop by A Haven For Vee and see what the party is all about; I think you'll be glad you did.

I usually have a theme for my Note Cards, but you certainly don't have to.  I like to add a caption to my cards, too, because I'm just OCD that way.  :)  This month I'm simply doing "Fall Scenes."

"On The Blue Ridge Parkway"

A Mountain Treasure -- Church of the Fresco

Autumn is so beautiful -- and so fleeting.  Just last weekend we were out enjoying the colorful leaves and gorgeous mountain views; and now, this evening, the wind has whipped up and is blowing the leaves off the trees.  I'm not ready for them to be gone yet; fall is our favorite time of the year here at Forest Manor. Somehow, it always goes by much too fast.

I think that winter can be beautiful too, with the bare, lacy branches of the trees stretched across the sky.  But for now, I'm celebrating autumn, and I hope all the leaves won't get blown down just yet.

In the mountains of North Carolina, in the small town of Glendale Springs, stands this tiny wooden church.  Holy Episcopal Church was built in Glendale Springs in 1901, and is now called Holy Trinity Church of the Fresco.

May Note Card Party

I'm looking forward to joining Vee at A Haven for Vee for her monthly Note Card Party.  This month, I've chosen to use some pictures of churches for my note cards, since I have a lot of them in my previous blog posts.

I love to look at and photograph churches.  I find it so interesting that in the United States, as well as other countries around the world, the churches in each geographical region have their own special architecture.

For my note cards, I chose to use churches from my home state of North Carolina.  The first church is Home Moravian Church in Old Salem, North Carolina.  You can read about Old Salem HERE.  I like this picture because it was taken at the time of evening known as the "blue hour."

The next two churches are located in Highlands, North Carolina, and you'll find them HERE.  The first church is The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation.

Below is the Presbyterian church in Highlands.  I love the dark green trim around the windows and the scrolled hinges on the front doors.

The last church is St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church, located in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  You can see it HERE in the post I wrote about Jan Karon's Mitford series.

Which note card is your favorite?  Do you prefer wooden, brick, or stone churches?  If you're like me, I think they're all beautiful.

I hope you'll take time to stop by A Haven For Vee to see the other pretty note cards for this month.  Thanks for stopping by; I always enjoy your visits and comments!

Denise 

Old Salem at Dusk, Part 2

Hi folks!  I don't mean to bore you all to death with my posts on Old Salem, but I wanted to share the rest of the pics that Mr. Forest Manor took earlier this week.  Overall, I was pleased with my pictures, but he took some really awesome photos that I just have to share.

The community of Old Salem is such an integral part of our town.  It is where we began; and even though progress continues all around it, Old Salem remains like a small bit of history -- preserved and restored.  All the power lines are buried underground, so except for the cars you see there, you do get a feeling of having stepped back 200 years in time.

I took a photo of this stone wall, which is in my previous post.  My husband took this picture at the end of the wall, showing the intersection of a brick sidewalk and path.  I like the two different patterns of brickwork here.

Old Salem at Dusk

Hi everyone!  Are you enjoying these pretty spring days?  It sounds like some folks are getting late snows in their part of the country -- I hope it melts quickly for you.

I want to share some images of Old Salem with you.  I wrote about this historic area of our town last summer, which you can read about HERE and HERE.  Yesterday, hubby and I took some pictures there as twilight was falling.  We hadn't exactly planned it that way, but by the time we ate dinner and got to Old Salem, it was almost dusk.

This time around, we mainly took pictures of the church and the college.  The first photos are of  Home Moravian Church.  The church was built in 1799 and dedicated in 1800.

 

An Afternoon in the Highlands

No, we didn't go to Scotland.  We did hear some bagpipe music though :-)  We spent an afternoon in a town called Highlands in the mountains of southwest North Carolina.  I really do love mountain towns, and there are lots of them dotted throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.  I haven't come anywhere close to seeing them all, but of the ones I've visited, I think Highlands is the most picturesque.

I got so many comments about the pretty churches in the post I did on Blowing Rock ("Finding Mitford"), which you can read about HERE.  I love churches as well, and for some reason, it seems that mountain churches are some of the most charming.  Highlands has a fairly small main street that runs through the center of town, and almost all of the protestant denominations are represented on this one small street.  While we were there, we saw a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Catholic church.

Hubby and I didn't have a lot of time to spend there that particular day, so we were only able to photograph three of the churches, mainly because they were in closer proximity to one another.  I hope to photograph the Baptist church and the Catholic church next time around.  We also took pictures of some of the shops and the gorgeous flowers, like these pink Phlox.

Finding Mitford

Have you read the Mitford books by Jan Karon?  No?  I highly recommend them; I really do.  Hopefully, you'll be drawn into the stories and feel like you know all the characters -- in some cases, better than you know your own neighbors. 

The characters in the Mitford books are mostly southern, very human, and oh-so-funny.  These books make me laugh out loud, and I really love a book that does that.  Karon's use of southern dialect is so humorous and realistic; one of the men in the books is always saying "buddyro", which I haven't heard anyone say since I was a child.  Having grown up in the south, the characters and dialect really strike a chord with me.  But you don't have to be southern to appreciate the books; the people and themes are universal.  I imagine if you look around, you can find real-life Mitford's all over the country.

The stories take place in the fictional town of Mitford, which is based on the town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  Jan Karon was living in Blowing Rock when she wrote most of the series; in fact,
the first book was printed serially in the small-town newspaper, The Blowing Rocket.

If you liked the books, you might enjoy seeing what some of the real places actually look like; if not, you can just enjoy seeing a really cute mountain town.  Unfortunately, Blowing Rock has become something of a tourist destination, so it's almost impossible to to find a time to visit when it's not crowded.

We took a lot of pictures, so this will be a two-part post.  You can see Part Two of "Finding Mitford" HERE.  The first group of pictures are of the church.

Love these beautiful foxgloves!

"Little Williamsburg"

I'm celebrating Independence Day all this week -- at least on my blog.  Mr. Forest Manor had his out-patient surgery last week, and thankfully, he's doing well.  After I picked him up from work this afternoon, we drove to Old Salem so I could take some pictures while they still had their historic flags out for the Fourth of July.  I grew up in this area and have pretty much lived nearby all my life, and I never get tired of Old Salem.  I LOVE it there.  Years ago we read in a local newspaper or magazine (can't remember which) that Old Salem is like a "Little Williamsburg".  That was probably a tad ambitious :)  Old Salem is quite a bit smaller than Williamsburg, and they don't offer as many events; but it is quite old for this country, and I think it's charming.  You can read my second post about Old Salem HERE.

Old Salem was built in 1766 and features a living history museum that interprets the restored Moravian community. The Moravian church has its origins in ancient Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic.  To escape religious persecution, the Moravians came to America, where they settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Salem (now Winston-Salem), North Carolina.  Like Williamsburg, Old Salem does historical re-enactments, and the tour guides and interpreters all wear 18th century traditional Moravian costumes.


George Washington visited Salem in 1791 and slept at the Old Salem Tavern.  And this has nothing to do with Colonial America or July 4th; but... the first Krispy Kreme store opened in Old Salem in 1937;)  The doughnuts were made using potato flour, an old Moravian practice.  So that's it for facts in this post; let's look at some pictures.

Hanging in front of this shop is the Grand Union flag, commonly regarded as the first (unofficial) American flag.