Summer snapshots in Asheville

This view, free, is worth returning to again and again. Location: Looking Glass Rock, Appalachian Mountains–via Blue Ridge Parkway, Mt. Pisgah National Forest. Pic by traveling companion.

Summer is my favorite season because of all the sun to harvest. Mountains to climb. The heat doesn’t bother me.

Before summer, I first fell in love with autumn when I experienced the four seasons for the first time. That was in 2009. The love didn’t last because it was tainted with sadness. I’d know on autumn’s heels would be winter which was too cold for me to enjoy. So Fall became the season with the capacity to delight and sadden me at the same time. I’d watch the leaves change, then fall to the ground as if to remind me that we too humans were not going to remain perched on the branches that held us firmly. Whether we clung or not, were deeply rooted or not, our time would come to turn grey and wrinkled–if we were lucky to go through our seasons–then we’d fall back to the ground and the priests would say, dust to dust… I could not shake off the helpless feeling to hold onto one lovely season for a while, if only for a while, before getting used to change.

Butterfly garden at the NC Arboretum. Pic by traveling companion.

Summer assures me that other seasons will come, but for the time being bask in the sun, enjoy the simple pleasures of the outdoors, embrace the heat and pose with the butterflies.

Pic by traveling companion.

Besides beauty, the body expanding and rising to nature’s greeting, other joys in the hiking journey include finding edible wild berries–huckleberries, blackberries and raspberries. These make every adventure in the forests/mountains worth a repeat. And then there’s what I don’t know yet–touch cautiously and feel the texture. Could this be Chaga, the king of medicinal mushrooms, or some highly poisonous thing? Mt. Pisgah National Forest would know.

Chaga or some highly poisonous mushroom? Pic by traveling companion.

Oh, the rainbow! Is there a person who doesn’t like rainbows? They often come in doubles. Once in a while triples. While coming out of a grocery store on Merrimon Ave, the security guard outside the store saw the rainbow first and and praised its beauty. Given the nature of rainbows, it could also have appeared elsewhere at that time.

My welcome to Asheville. Pic by traveling companion.

During hikes I’ll often wonder, if i could be any place right now where would I be? Only to find the answer: right here, hiking. Taking the moment to reflect, rest and be. 

Pic by traveling companion.

A Happy Summer to all of us!