My Half Birthday

Yesterday was my friend Leslie's birthday and my half-birthday. It was also the day we decided to celebrate Debbi's birthday, which was back in February, but we never got a chance to pamper her. Oh, it did me so much good to get out and be with my friends! It was a gloomy, rainy day, but we were out in it anyway.

Me, Debbi, Leslie

First we had lunch at Bella's, a lovely little Italian restaurant in Banner Elk. We mentioned birthdays to the waitress and wrangled a free desert! Then we took a road trip right in our own back yards. We took the "back way" through Newland to the little community of Crossnore, home of the Crossnore School. We visited their fine arts gallery (which carries some of my work) and saw one of Ben Long's frescos called "Suffer the Little Children" in their little chapel.

It was too rainy to walk their labyrinth.



Then, we hit the thrift store...

But what we really wanted to do was to shop at one of the best nurseries around. Unfortunately, it was so wet and cold that we only looked and oooed and ahhhhed, but didn't buy any flowers. We vowed to go back later this week when its warm and sunny.

We stopped at another lovely nursery/landscaping place on the way home. Too bad the weather wasn't cooperating. I saw LOTS of things that I would have brought home if it wasn't so wet. And, did I mention it was cold? It SNOWED on top of Beech Mountain last night!