Wrapped up another trip to Black Mountain… I think this is the most time I’ve spent at the cabin.  From Atlanta it’s only a 3.5 hour trip as opposed to 6 hours from St. Simons Island… and since I’ve been coming up to Atlanta a lot for meetings, it’s just awfully convenient to head on up there afterwards.

Well, it’s apple season so we went apple picking.  Jonagold, Mutsu, Golden Delicious and Fujis were the bulk of the apples we picked.  I also picked up some Arkansas Blacks at a farmer’s market, which I’d never heard of before, but was told they were good cooking apples.  I bought them more because we had seen them on the trees at the u-pick place but they were roped off for a school group to come pick… and they looked so bizarre… all these black apples hanging off a tree.  We though they were rotten at first.  Of course, the ones I got at the market are simply dark red… not even close to looking like black.

I’m always amazed by the food up in Black Mountain.  Local, fresh and delicious.  We asked around at a morning tailgate market for breakfast suggestions and were referred to a few places.  We chose Sprout, a little place that used to be a garden center.  The food was all locally grown, the coffee was locally roasted, and all of it was great.  While sitting down to breakfast, we began talking about what we should do that day.  A couple of ladies heard us and started to run down a list of things we could do.  So by the end of our meal, what looked to be a quiet Saturday in Black Mountain, turned into a busy day all over the area.

So now, I have a fridge full of apples.  So I guess tomorrow, I start making pies… and cakes… and perhaps a tart or two. Will post photos if they come out pretty enough.

Just home from NYC where my best friend from college got married in Central Park at the Conservatory Gardens. It was a simple ceremony with glorious weather.  When I was in school, after spending the summer in the grueling Atlanta heat, it was always such a joy to return to the northeast and a dry, cool September.

After the ceremony and the obligatory pics,  they  arranged for a double decker bus to take us all to Grand Central.   It’s funny – we were all as excited as the tourists who usually do these things.  When you live in a place, you tend not to do the basic touristy things that are around… and even now, when I return to the city, I visit friends, eat all the stuff I can’t get back home, perhaps visit the Met… but having lived here once, actually twice, what sort of stuff am I really going to do?  But with the perfect weather, sitting up top and seeing the familiar buildings go by, it was really cool.  So everyone really enjoyed the ride… then the reception was a Metrazur, it sits on the mezzanine overlooking the grand hall of Grand Central – which is just gorgeous!  It’s great place for drinks after work… watching all the commuters head home in this ballroom of a space.  Everything was really nice.

That night, we all met up again and took the Circle Line from the 42nd Pier. It took us as far as the UN on the East River, then over to the Statue of Liberty – then back up the Hudson. It was a lot of fun doing things we don’t and wouldn’t normally do like the double-decker bus and the Circle Line.

We stayed with friends out in Brooklyn, Prospect Park. Sunday was spent hanging out there and getting the Brooklyn experience. Since I lived, worked & played in Manhattan, Brooklyn is still a mystery to me… it’s all fairly new. So we got the mini-tour… and now I’m completely sold.  I started urging friends in Manhattan who told me at the wedding they were looking to upsize, so I am now convinced Prospect Park and the other areas nearby would be perfect!

So it was nice to see old friends, hang out in the City, experience new areas and do a few new things… My friends kept asking me ‘Don’t you miss the City’ and the answer is yes.  I think my husband was a bit put out by my response since I left New York to get married to him and live in St Simons Island.  But what’s wrong with missing a place that’s been such a major part of your life?

Being in real estate gives me enviable flexibility as far as my schedule goes.  With laptop and cellphone, I can really conduct business anywhere and with good reliable co-workers, I can even ensure that anyone wanting to see my listings can get into them while I’m gone.  But my husband is another story.  Tied to a more traditional sort of business, he works all the time and has deadlines which must be met… so getting away is not always easy.

This past Friday, he called from work mid-afternoon and said “I’ve got some time, let’s get out of town!” So out of town we went… after my initial hesitation since I had pork souvlaki marinating in the fridge and I had planned to grill it for dinner.  ”You’re going to pass up a chance to go somewhere because you have pork to grill?”

The next day, we did more walking… off the beaten path into more residential areas just looking at houses… you would think I’d be sick of looking at houses but these were just so charming and interesting, I couldn’t help taking pictures.  We stumbled upon a little grocery store on Queen Street in an old building and were surprised to find they made organic crepes – so we had lunch of ham & cheese crepes and went on our merry way.

At one point, we turned down a street to find ourselves in the midst of government housing… odd juxtaposition to the wealth and charm just a couple of blocks away.  But we came upon this huge old walled property with an enormous run-down building with massive bars at the windows.  It was really fascinating and we discovered as we came up to the front gate that it was the old city jail being renovated (for what, I have no idea!)… so I was glad we took that wrong turn because otherwise, we would never have seen that building, which was really cool…

So I suppose  what I take away from all this… if you don’t take a wrong turn now and then… you may never stumble upon cool things you might otherwise have missed… is that the Doogie Howser lesson for this episode?  I think it is… Oh and that it was hot… really HOT… and humid and that next time we decide to go to Charleston… it will have to be late fall or the dead of winter.

Without realizing it, I have been on search for a really great blueberry muffin.  I really miss the ones I used to get from a place called The Market, Market Street or MarketPlace or something like that.  I just remember it being across the street and one block up from my first job, on the 40th floor of 1 Dag Hammskjold Plaza in New York City (49th & 2nd Ave).  It was one of those gourmet markets that used to make fantastic sandwich platters when we had those big lunch meetings… and even better muffin, danish platters for those pesky breakfast meetings.  Of course, that was back in 1990…  Their muffins were oversized, with these huge crusty muffin tops sprinkled liberally with chunky, coarse sugar.  Inside, they were light, fluffy and moist, tinged with blue and full of berries.  They melted in your mouth and then there was that satisfying crunch from the sugary topping… ah, bliss.

Since then, my experience with the blueberry muffin has been somewhat lackluster.  In Atlanta, muffins were usually relegated to those purchased as an after thought in a (more…)