42nd Anniversary

My apologies to those few readers of my blog who came to rely on more frequent postings while we were in Atlantic Beach this winter.  Since returning to Highlands in March, it has been difficult to find the time to write.  My running (the ostensible subject of this blog) has stagnated during these warm, humid weeks, although I am still managing to complete nearly 20 miles most weeks.  And there has been little to document in the way of travel.

A recent exception was a trip to Snowbird Mountain Lodge to celebrate our 42^nd Anniversary.  I have written in past years about this historic lodge where we have spent so many of our anniversaries since our first visit in 2003.  The lodge is a very special place of scenic beauty, peace, and serenity, located only three hours away in Graham County on the crest of Snowbird Mountain.  It overlooks rolling mountains on the horizon and Lake Santeetlah deep in the valley below to the south and east, and is also close to the Cherohala Skyway and Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.  We have enjoyed canoeing, cycling, and hiking in all of these nearby places over the years.  

The drive to Snowbird is a pleasant one through relatively undeveloped Graham County.  We took the scenic route in our Mini Cooper, stopping at the Stecoah Valley Center on the way, where Martha took this photo of us parked on a covered bridge to a private home.  I would have been worried about the bridge, with its wide cracks between the boards and the sight of rushing water below, if the vehicles parked in the driveway had not been pickup trucks much heavier than our little Mini.

We have stayed in one of the detached cottages in the past, but recently we have enjoyed one of the twenty or so rooms off the main lodge building with its big windows, excellent library, and dining room where we have enjoyed some excellent dinners.  I like to think that if I can’t sleep in the middle of the night I can tip-toe down the corridor, take a book from the shelf in the library, and settle down to read for awhile, enjoying that unmistakable fragrance of a wood-burning fireplace that lingers even in July. 

We have not stayed at Snowbird for three years, but the owners are continually making improvements.  The new feature this year was the spacious, beautifully-designed Forest Chapel a short way down the path west of the lodge.  What a great place for a wedding!   

 

The grounds have some nice walking trails and there are plenty of quirky little statues, yard art, Tibetan prayer flags, and inspirational signs all along the way.  We have drawn much inspiration from the lodge and its yard art in our own home over the years.

 

At the end of the trail to the east is a platform called Sunrise Point overlooking Santeetlah and there is a tall cylindrical gong, which traditionally we ring in celebration of our years of marriage, the sound ringing out over the valley below. 

This year we did not do quite as much hiking as we have in the past due to the threat of rain, and likewise we did not take a canoe out on the lake.  We did, however, take a long ramble on the Cherohala Skyway on Tuesday in our Mini, stopping along the way for short walks.  We found our way over to Fontana Dam and tranquil Fontana Lake and we ate our lunch nearby.  Snowbird provides breakfast and dinner at the lodge, but for lunch they pack a picnic lunch in a little backpack from a menu selected the night before at dinner.

The next day we enjoyed spending most of the afternoon reading in the Summer House, a covered and screened building not far from the lodge, where we found two or three other couples quietly doing the same thing.  Reading somehow seems to be more enjoyable when you can hear rain on the roof, the cool breeze blowing through the screen windows.

We left on Thursday morning, stopping in Bryson City for our picnic lunch on the way home and arriving to find that several packages had been delivered by UPS.  One of them was something I have been awaiting for some time – five author copies of my book of poetry, Bells in the Night, which has finally been published after weeks of back-and-forth galley proofs and revisions.  I discovered a few days ago that I could go to the Amazon website, type in my name, and have my book appear on the screen (Paperback, $17.95).  But now for the first time I was able to hold an actual copy of my first published book. 

In the coming weeks I will organize a book signing here in Highlands, but in the meantime I have a short list of people to whom I will be sending copies.  At the top of the list are two of Martha’s Aunts, prominently mentioned in Acknowledgements in the book:  “I would also like to thank a sharp-eyed nonagenarian aunt, Anne Sellers, for proof-reading the final manuscript.  Another generous aunt, Lizette Pryor, made it possible for us to spend an annual sabbatical at her beach place, where much of my inspiration and writing took place.”

Thank you Anne!  And thank you Lizette!