What We Saw At Mabry Mill

Think warm sun on your shoulders.

(But the breeze made me run back to the car for a flannel shirt.)

This was back in May, when I finally visited Mabry Mill,

built in 1910,

and the most-photographed location on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

But before we saw the mill, in the general store we saw a landscape quilt of the mill.

Fascinating.

Each vertical slice was created by a different woman.

The detail was amazing, but I wondered,

"Now, why did they put a woman hanging her head out the mill window?"

Later, when I attempted to get a photo of the mill without someone hanging their head out that window, I understood.  (Please revisit first photo.)  Later still, I hung my own head out that window,

and laughed.

So...this will be a photo tour...

We saw...

a man in the parking lot hoping to sell his custom-built wooden pickup truck:

The hood ornament was our favorite part.

We saw...

wild azalea blooming in a stand of white pines:

The mill from the back...it had that built-of-matchsticks look that old mills often do:

The waterfall sounded beautiful in the quiet woods.

We saw...

a yellow swallowtail on orange flowers, enjoying the sunshine:

The peace of the mill in a wash of spring green...yes, you could see the peace:

Yellow flowers under the millrace, gathering sunshine into themselves:

and the race eventually disappearing into the woods.

Trillium and ferns,

and a duck resting in the shade.

An old wagon that made me want to pull out my Ingalls books,

A beechwood, one of my favorite things,

An unmentionable.  Can you guess what it is?

Broad hint:

And lastly, two very kind men grinding cornmeal in the mill.

One joked that they would break the camera, but it's still working.

____________________

A queer dusty man was the Miller of Arden,

From top of his head to the soles of his feet.

And he made mealy tracks in the kitchen and garden,

And left a white trail on the road and the street.

His wife was a trim little, neat little spinner.

She saved all her pence and she bought her a broom;

So that when he came home every day for his dinner,

She chased and she dusted him all round the room.

Nancy Byrd Turner