perfection

my saturday started with mom waking me up at 9:00 in the morning. that wasn't that perfect, but what she told me was. she said i didn't have to clean her bathroom and that we were going to have a mommy/hillary date. i was so excited. we decided to go to north carolina. we had to drive up thru the mountains. all the windy, twisty roads. it was wonderful. as of saturday, i hadn't been able to get out and enjoy fall, but driving in the mountains, i experienced fall to the enth degree. i opened up the sun roof, and the leaves fell into the car. it was lovely. the trees created a canopy over the car and all i could see was incredible color. nothing like the east coast, but enough to make me happy. so we were driving up and up and up higher and higher. towards the top, about 1000 feet from ceasar's head, there is a restaurant. it looked like something right out of the twenties. mom and i enjoyed a bowl of chili, and a slab of cornbread. it was lovely. they were playing dean martin, and frank sinatra. the perfection of the lunch was only enhanced by the two little old ladies talking about the movie stars from their youth. it was amazing. they were having so much fun! i thought of gwen and i in about fifty-odd years...they even looked like us gwen! =)

we then left and traveled the 1000 feet to ceasar's head. mom wanted me to see the view. when i got to the overlook, it took my breath away. all the fall colors were amazing. mom, who freaks out over heights even if there is a rail, was way back and telling me to hurry. up there at the top, the wind was whipping around me and had a nice crisp quality to it. i started thinking about the garden of eden. if the world is so beautiful now, after the fall and after the flood, the garden of eden must have been overwhelming. i thought, our God must love us so much to give us such amazing beauty. it is truly a mind boggling thought.

after that we went down into brevard, nc. mom wanted me to see a couple of antique shops there. when we got there they had the roads all blocked off and bunches of people were walking around in the middle of the street. mom and i don't like a whole mess of people, so we were just going to pop into the store and come right back out and go home. we went into the store, and the proprietress told us that at 2:00 they were having the fiddle contest for the bluegrass festival. mom and i were hooked. we love bluegrass. mom's mom and dad were both born and raised in west virginia, mom grew up in southern ohio and has grown up with bluegrass in her blood. she passed that love on over to me. paw-paw has played his guitar for us ever since we were little. he likes the ballads that were passed on from generation to generation. as he was the youngest of 13, he heard songs from way back. he has one called "pretty polly" that is so sad, i cry every time i hear it. sometime if you meet paw-paw, you will have to have him play it for you. but back to the subject. we stayed for the fiddle contest, the mandolin contest and most of the guitar contest. it was amazing. there were three young guys that played all of the instruments. banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, dulcimer...you name it they played it. i am sure that they were raised playing all of them. they were the best and won in each division. my personal favorite was nick who got up to play the fiddle. he played a waltz. he had a huge snowy white beard, and just smiled out at the audience. while he was toward the beginning of the song, this young couple in front of us got up and started waltzing around in the street. it was so cool. i wanted to get up too, but mom wouldn't. =) they had all sorts of booths out in the middle of the road. fudge, jewelry, a guy who made fiddles, some american indians with leather goods, food stands, and this one lady who is a teacher at the university in columbia. she knitted all sorts of things in beautiful colors. her name is lydia odell. she had a stand filled. and then i saw it. the most beautiful hat! it is all sorts of colors all knitted. i fell in love with it. and, DUMB, i tried it on. no, i didn't get head lice, and no i didn't get ticks, fleas or any other sort of creepy crawly thing. i got the hat. i even walked away and kept thinking about it. silly silly me. i won't say how much it cost, so don't even ask.

it wasn't long after that that we went home. it took about an hour and a half or so, but we made it. i got out my most favorite book, and went to the living room set op candles all over the hearth and lit a fire and spent the next three hours sitting by the fire, reading, drinking earl grey tea and reading my book. it is the blue castle by lucy maude montgomery. the wit that she has in her books have endeared me to her books ever since i was little. so i read it for old times sake. then i found out from drew that it was set-your-clocks-back saturday. =) that just made the absolutely perfect day perfecter.

i love you mom!