some time away from it all

my sister,  meems,  from hoe and shovel just left last week after a wonderful visit with me here in tennessee.
there is always so much to include in her visit. trying to decide exactly
 what to include is usually hard to narrow down.

we met up with gail from clay and limestone at nashville's famous 'loveless cafe'.

it was so nice having some time to catch up with gail and have a lovely face to face

talking a little bit about everything under the sun...including our gardens.

thank you gail for giving us such a generous portion of your day.

afterward we all ended up at a local nursery ( moore and moore garden center)  purusing the plants and of course buying some plants.

since meems was flying she wasn't able to buy any local flora but gail and enjoyed taking home some 

goodies. i believe among other things gail bought a lovely smoke bush/tree.

i needed a few annuals  (white violas, black & yellow petunias, and an interesting ruffled english ivy)  to add to some containers for my back patio.

it is always fun to go to a garden center with other gardeners.

that same evening we were able to meet up with my eldest daughter rachel for some dinner 

in franklin, tn @ papa boudreaux. we had some delicious soft shell crab, et to fey, red beans and rice.

the best part was watching meems and rachel catch up.

i love having grown children they are some of my best friends.

meems and i definitely sat around chatting it up as much as possible around my house, in the sun room, out back on the patio, on the front porch and walking around the yard.

 i love having a master gardener for a sister

but we never have enough time. how is that possible?

sun room fun.

on friday we headed out for a couple of days and nights away by ourselves.

this is a rare shot of the both of us arriving at the b & b,  the garden inn located in monterey, tennesse.

the garden inn's  front lawn

below is the view from our room. since tennessee had gotten some rain the weekend before we 

arrived the trees were all greened up except on single tree that was proudly announcing falls arrival. 

we were blessed with some cooler temps while meems was visiting.

on our was back to my house on a beautiful sunday morning we took a couple of detours.

one was a gorgeous nursery that happened to be closed. i took no pictures but meems did. if only it were closer to me i would be a regular visitor at johnson's nursery. 

i would highly recommend it.

the next detour was burgess state park and falls.

the lower falls was the first peek at what was to come.

                                                   then came  middle falls with it's beauty.

it was a great day for hiking and being with your sister.

 the upper falls was something to behold. we saw it from up above and then we hiked down below.                    
                        at this angle we were misted and it was quite refreshing.

                                                 the whole hike was picture perfect.

i loved having some quality time with my sister, meems. i already miss her terribly and can't wait for our next visit together wherever it might be.

 thanks dear meems for coming to tennessee to spend time with my family and with me. 

happy september everyone,

marmee