Bissett Park

This weekend we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and have a picnic at the park. Kenan surprised us by taking us to Bisset Park in Radford. We took the back way to Radford and enjoyed the scenary

That is Buffalo mountain in the distance.


Bisset Park really isn't that far from us, i'm not sure why we don't come here more often. The park is located on 57 acres of riverfront land. There are picnic shelters, playgrounds, a bike path and hiking trails.

Sage making her usual face, at one of the several play structures we played on.

Kenan and Sequoia being themselves.

We spent a lot of time walking by the New River. The kids can be entertained for hours trying to skip rocks across the water.

There were huge amazing trees everywhere, and i couldn't resist climbing a few, even with a skirt on!

All along the River were these huge Beech trees. This one was almost completely hollowed out, and yet it was still living.

i felt right at home inside this one.

!

The trees are all begining to turn, and color is everywhere. It was a fabuloous day to be out hiking, enjoying the natural beauty that is everywhere.

Pumpkin Carving time!

Sequoia has been begging to carve these pumpkins since i brought them home last week. Saturday afternoon seemed like the perfect time to start carving.

Sage dug right in and then started yelling, It's gross! It's gross!

However, it didn't stop her from getting right back to it. She didn't want any help, and did a really good job of cleaning out her pumpkin. It was my job to separate the guts from the seeds. Which we then roasted and ate. Yum!

Bleck!!! Pumpkin guts!

Sequoia designed this pumpkin himself, although i did the actual carving. We still have more pumpkins to clean and carve, two orange and two white that we grew. A good activity for this coming weekend.

Year Round Easter Eggs.

So i know i already posted about the blue/green eggs we were getting from our hen Weepie. Well, Peepie (her sister) has finally started to lay, and we were surprised to see a very different shade of green . Every time i collect eggs, i am amused by the variety of colors. These are all the natural colors of the eggs, they are not dyed.

Picnic on the Parkway.

After leaving Mabry Mill, we decided to drive down the parkway a bit for a place to picnic. We pulled over some where near mile post 170.

What an amazing place for a picnic! The views here were phenomenal!






After our picnic we decided to go on a little hike on the parkway trails. We followed part of Black Ridge Trail, and then stopped in to visit the Rocky Knob visitors center. Then looped around and followed the trail back to where we started.

Right across from the Rocky Knob visitors center is this amazing tree. i have no idea what kind it is. i orginially thought it might be a Live Oak, but i don't think they grow this far North. The leaves were quite a bit different too. The kids had a ton of fun climbing all over it.



Kenan, Sequoia and Sage sitting high up in the tree.



Chilling out on the crazy tree.

Along the hike we found lots of other trees to climb, and Sage of course had to climb EVERYTHING that her brother did.




We had a great time exploring the area. There are so many beautiful things to see, rocks and trees to climb and gorgeous views! Kenan and Sequoia had fun throwing acorns at each other, while Sage and i had fun collecting them. i love acorns.

We can't wait to come out again and explore some of the other trails along the parkway, it really made for a wonderful afternoon.

Mabry Mill

On Sun. we decided to take a drive to Mabry Mill. This is just a short trip down the parkway, about 10 miles from our house. It's a very scenic drive, especially this time of year. During the fall, Mabry Mill has live Bluegrass music and different demonstrations of how things we done in the past. i really wanted to see the apple butter making, but it wasn't going on today. We did catch a bit of the blacksmiths demonstration, and the mill was running when we first arrived.

The classic Mabry mill picture.

This was first time we were there when the old cabin was open. Inside a woman was doing weaving demonstrations on a large wooden loom. It was too dark inside the cabin for pictures (no windows) , but the inside of the cabin was really, really cool. i was hoping to catch the spinning demonstration, but no such luck.

Basket of fibers and hand carders

We have never been to the Mill when it was this busy. There were people everywhere! There was live bluegrass playing, and lots of folks kicked back in lawn chairs. They have a small area for dancing and there were a few folks up there flat footing.

Basket weaving demonstration.

Sage enjoying the scenery.




Water on it's way to the mill.



Mabry Mill is one of the most photographed features on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In fact its appeal is so great, you can find pictures of Mabry Mill on postcards for many other states.

Fall Garden.

This year we are pushing the limits of the growing season. At the beginning of August i planted a fall garden, i technically should have gotten it in at the end of July. This is the first year that i have planted a full fall garden, and i am really glad that i did. The weather has been fabulous for it, and if the frost will hold off just a little while longer we should be able to get a good harvest.

Rainbow Swiss Chard and Kale. The rainbow chard seems to produce forever, and is such a beautiful plant. Ours produced stalks in bright red, yellow, white and burgundy. The kale is not quite ready to pick, but should tolerate some frost and if covered at night it should produce through part of the winter. i'm hoping to create a few cold frames, to protect some of my veggies during the winter.



This is the Rhubarb Swiss Chard. i have a second row of Chards coming up in the main garden. We love to eat this leafy green lightly sauteed in olive oil, with pine nuts and minced garlic. It's also good in shredded in stir fries and stirred into mashed potatoes, although it will turn the potatoes pink. :)



i have a new crop of red and green leaf lettuce ready to be picked.

Snow peas have begun to bloom. i'm hoping to get some peas on these before we have a hard frost. They are pretty cold tolerant, but i don't think they'd survive a major frost or deep freeze. Although a few years ago, i remember picking peas in the snow. :)



More leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas and lots of weeds. The sugar snaps are also blooming, so we are in a race agaist time. Hoping to get a harvest before the winter really sets in.

Lots of flowers still blooming. We still have quite a few green tomatoes and peppers on the plants, just watching the weather incase of a frost. i pulled almost all of my peppers about a week ago, when frost threatened. However the plants survived, and i have several new peppers on them. We are still harvesting beans, and red raspberroes and i have carrots, onions and spinach growing in raised beds. i am really eager to see how long we can extend the growing season, and i'm already planning out my garden for the spring. This has been a good year.

Autumn is in the air.

In just this past week, the leaves have begun to change and the color has just exploded across the mountains.

Maple trees on fire with color.

We've been enjoying the sense of slowing down that comes with this season. Canning applesauce, digging potatoes and freezing corn and green beans. The mornings start cold, and we have pulled out our sweaters and thick socks. However by afternoon it has warmed up, and we are spending as much time outside as we can, enjoying these last warm days.

Sage received this adorable Tigger costume in the mail from a friend. As soon as i pulled it out of the box, she hugged it and exclaimed, " i wub it, i wub it! i wub tigger!!!. She wore it for the entire day, and half of the next.



This is the perfect weather for swinging, running jumping and bouncing. This is the perfect weather for tiggers and two year olds.

Buffalo Mountain

Today the weather was so fantastic that we decided it would be the perfect day for a hike at Buffalo Mountain. We hike Buffalo a couple times a year, but this was our first time hiking here, since they re-did the trail that leads up to it. While searching for the basic Buffalo mountain info for this blog, i came across this blog which is all about Buffalo mountain, and the constructions of the news trails.

The trail now winds around and zig zags and makes a very nice afternoon hike. The original trail was quite steep, and was a pretty straight shot to the summit. We really enjoyed the newlong and winding trail, although it seemed to go on forever before we finally reached the top. :)

We found a lot of interesting things along the trail and really enjoyed the beauty of the season.



Buffalo mountain is a the perfect place to find rattle snakes. Thankfully, this sign is as close as we got to any.

At the top of Buffalo's summit, the world starts to look very small.

It was such a clear day, we could see Pilot mountain, NC in the horizon.

Sitting on top of the world.


This is the highest point in Floyd county, with an elevation of 3,971 feet.

The view here is always amazing, although it was exceptional today. Often times it is quite hazy, cold and windy up here...and visibility it limited. It was really a gorgeous day for a hike, and we all enjoyed it immensely. It's been eight years since we moved here and we are still constantly amazed by the natural beauty of this area.