Lake Junaluska and Bailey Mountain Preserve in Mars Hill

 Enjoying Some Local Sight-Seeing

Hi friends! The Mr. and I have been doing some local sight-seeing recently so I thought I would share some of the beautiful scenery we have enjoyed on these day trips. We had occasion on Tuesday to visit some friends in the Lake Junaluska area and stopped by the lake to walk and enjoy the Fall colors. 

Lake Junaluska is a Methodist Retreat Conference Center with many lovely and unique homes situated around the lake and in the area. It has a beautiful walking trail around the lake that is enjoyed by many. 

I always enjoy coming here whether it is to attend our Annual Conference or simply to visit and walk around the lake. The views with the Fall colors and the mountains in the distance are just stunning!

Later this week, we drove to Mars Hill, NC to scope out a trail at Bailey Mountain Preserve. This is a relatively new hiking/walking trail that is located close to Mars Hill University. 

The preserve is located on the old Smith farm and features several old barns which were either located on the property or were dismantled and then rebuilt on this property. 

The trail begins by meandering through a meadow and then into the woods. The first half of the trail through the woods is a footpath that is covered with soft mulch. It's a steady uphill, but not steep, and offers places to sit along the way. The trail eventually turns a bit more rugged. We didn't hike the whole trail but I enjoyed what we did hike.

This tree was huge and located where the trail leaves the meadow and enters the woods. I loved the swing and we made sure to take advantage of swinging for a few minutes as we hiked!

It was an enjoyable time spent walking at Bailey Mountain Preserve and I look forward to going back and hiking more of the trail. Next time, I will be sure to wear my trail shoes and have my hiking stick with me!

We enjoy sight-seeing locally and these two trips were particularly enjoyable for me. 

I also enjoyed a time of retreat last weekend at Hinton Rural Life Center near Hayesville, NC. This retreat center is located next to Lake Chatuge which straddles the NC/Georgia border and is a beautiful spot to rest and spiritually rejuvenate. Since some of the ladies on the retreat requested that their faces not appear on Facebook, which I use to share my blog, I won't show pictures of them. But here are a few pics not showing faces.

 

That's all for now. Life has been busy lately! 

And November is almost here!

Blessings and Peace until next time!

Debbie (this and that)

🍂

A Little More Fall Decor

 Scattering Fall All Around The House

Hi friends!  Since I last blogged I have continued to add Fall items around the house bit by bit. I think that I have finally finished and am officially ready for Fall! I added the October sign you see above to the front door. 

This was how the front door looked at first while I still had the hanging pumpkins on top of the sign.

But then I decided to add more orange to the front door with the Welcome Friends orange pumpkin. This will probably stay this way until October is finished and then I may bring the other wooden pumpkins hanger back to the front door. We'll see. You know I enjoy changing things up a little from time to time!

And then, I just started scattering pumpkins around the living room where I thought they might look good. Like these interesting pumpkins around the light tree. They are made from interesting and textured material. I have actually removed the white/black/orange ceramic jack-o-lanterns to the left of the light tree. I'm much more into Fall decor than Halloween decor and I didn't think the jack-o-lanterns fit. I've decided to give them away to Goodwill for someone else to enjoy.

And these wooden pumpkins look good in front of the lamp on our round table. There is also a wooden acorn that I found last Fall season and purchased. I have a few other pumpkins scattered about that I didn't take pictures of this time. I think most readers will have seen them before.

In our dining room I created a little Fall pine tree vignette with orange stick pumpkins in my lighted pine tree and my Fall Is My Favorite truck. I love this little pine tree and I know that you have seen me use it a lot for every season. And, yes, you can see that I have added some multi-color lights to the tree, as well, but I don't have them lighted for this picture. The multi-color lights are battery operated and I turn them on from time to time for a bit more color. I'm already thinking towards Christmas and I love multi-color lights, what can I say?!

Another view of the dining room vignette. I have fun creating arrangements of my Fall items and then looking at them and enjoying them throughout the Fall season. We have had some beautiful weather the last few days and this morning is sunny with gentle breezes. I hope that wherever you are that you are enjoying this season as well. 

Until Next Time,

Debbie This and That

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