Well this is an eclectic batch. Perhaps most notable to me, another birthday has come and gone. It has been a year since the last one, imagine that. But a momentous year. This year I celebrated with Jill and my son, Gregg and Jessica, his wife who were visiting. Coincidently, we celebrated her birthday on Saturday and it was a nice event as well. My day included a couple of presents, a very nice dinner with an amazing cake. It is sitting on my grandmother’s or great-grandmother’s cake plate - a nice touch. Chocolate two layers with chocolate ganache in the middle and a caramel icing. Seriously good. Jill is an excellent cook and baker. I benefit. We also picked blueberries one morning and Jill made a super blueberry pie. The celebration continues as on Wednesday we drove up into the Blue Ridge Mountains to a small village called Burnsville, There is an old hotel, very old, the original building dates from 1833 and it is the oldest continuously operated hotel in North Carolina.. It has been redone recently and both the rooms and the restaurant are very nice. Jill came here occasionally with her family when she was young teen for Sunday dinner, which back then was family style. We will go to a Dark Sky observatory for a program on Thursday night - should be fun. Then back to Knoxville and the heat index. I was also able last week to take my bike and ride a loop at Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains. It is a 12 mile loop that is closed to auto traffic on Wednesday in the summer. I rode with a group starting in the evening about 5. Lovely. We spotted 7 bears. Just a terrific spring and summer and I could, but will not, fill up several posts.
