Category: North Carolina

On the Road: Greensboro, NC

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We spent Thanksgiving week in Carolina visiting family in Greensboro and then Chapel Hill.  It was lovely to see fall colors and to scuffle and crunch along in the fallen leaves.  Thanks to Ann and Paul, in Greensboro, we enjoyed several outdoor attractions plus a museum. Here are some of the highlights.

ATTRACTIONS

Greensboro Arboretum

Chimes in Greensboro Arboretum

The 17-acre Greensboro Arboretum combines paved paths for easy walking and a host of special plant collections ranging from conifers to hostas to a rhododendron garden and a shade garden.  For us in late November, little was in bloom, so what was most appealing were the tall trees holding on to yellow gold leaves.  Adding to our enjoyment were several sculptures, one tall one with chimes.  It was quiet and serene on a Sunday afternoon, and we only passed one other visitor.

Fall foliage in the arboretum

Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

Guilford Courthouse, a small village, was the scene of a critical battle in the Revolutionary War in 1781.  Although the Americans were defeated, Major General Nathanael Greene lost only a few soldiers.  Nearly a quarter of British Lt. General Cornwallis’ troops died in this battle, resulting in a change in course for the Southern Campaign.  Cornwallis was reputed to have said, “Greene is as dangerous as Washington.  I never feel secure when encamped in his neighbourhood.”     

Continental Army camp follower

The park’s small museum has exhibits describing the key players in the battle, figures dressed in the uniforms of each side, and facts about life in this rural area.  We watched a 10-minute introductory film which provided a very helpful animated depiction of where the American and the British troops were positioned and how the battle played out.  

Outside we wandered around the battle site noting the occasional sculpture or memorial marker.  It was an informative morning and much more interesting than I had anticipated!

Golden woods at Guilford Courthouse

Green Hill Cemetery

Opened in 1877, this large city-owned cemetery is full of history.  Many prominent families in Greensboro purchased plots here.  Many of the family plots are circular ones, a popular style in the 19th century, which allowed for a central piece of sculpture such as an obelisk to be ringed by individual headstones.  

View in Green Hill Cemetery

At Guilford Courthouse, we noted a pedestal dedicated to one of the founders of the military park along with the names of two other men.  In the cemetery, we wandered, took photos, noted some exotic tree species (Chinese parasol tree, for one), and found the gravesite of one Guilford Courthouse’s founders.  It was a lovely afternoon with splashes of sunlight, and the surrounding trees were especially beautiful!

Glowing fall foliage

LUNCH OUT

Osteria

Osteria is in a small shopping strip.  We had eaten here before with my sister and brother-in-law and were delighted to return.  Their menu includes salads, homemade pasta, and more substantial entrees.  Several of us began with the house salad or the panzanella and both were very good and good sized.  Their mushroom soup was also pronounced excellent.  I really enjoyed the strozzapreti pasta with creamy tomato meat sauce while others sampled fettucine with peas and prosciutto and gnocchi pesto.  Not only was the food very tasty, but it was also a good value!

BOOK SHOPPING

Scuppernong Books

A visit to Greensboro is not complete without some time to browse and buy in Scuppernong Books.  An independent bookstore with a café (offering wine), it both feels and smells like a bookstore should!  In stock are the latest fiction and nonfiction hardbacks, newly released paperbacks, and an extensive and well-curated children’s section.  In the back are two walls of gently used books.  

We browsed and lingered and even bought!  For the curious, the store is named for a Southern grape used to make a sweet wine.

Interior of Scuppernong (downtowngreensboro.org)

Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington. Header photo is of metal silhouettes of soldiers at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.

Out & About: History in North Carolina

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VISITING NORTH CAROLINA

How I spent my summer vacation.  Wrong season, how I spent Thanksgiving week.  The Chief Penguin and I were in North Carolina to visit my sisters and their families and spent time in both Greensboro and Chapel Hill with brisk walks to Greensboro’s Bog and Centennial Gardens, excursions to Winston-Salem, to the marvelous McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village, and to the Kidzu Children’s Museum for a morning with three lively little girls.  

REYNOLDA HOUSE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Located in Winston-Salem, the former home of R. J. and Katharine Reynolds, of tobacco fame, is worth a tour.  The house was built in 1917.  R. J. died in 1918, and Katharine only lived until 1924, but she was both enterprising and ahead of her time and founded a school for the black children of the staff.   Of greater interest, perhaps than the house, is the range of special exhibits on offer throughout the year in the museum wing.  This season it is:  Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration.  J.C. Leyendecker and his brother, Frank, were both artists, but J.C. had the more notable career.

Couple on Horseback (1904)

Over his lifetime, J.C.  produced 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post in addition to ones for Collier’s Magazine and illustrations for Arrow collars and men’s clothing.

Arrow Collar Man

  J.C. also introduced the idea of using a baby to represent the beginning of a new year and drew 40 New Year’s covers for the Post.  

Created in the early part of the 20th century, his depictions of African Americans and everyday people reflect the racial and social climate of the time.  This is a fascinating exhibit on many levels.

THE CAROLINA INN

Carolina Inn anticipating the Christmas season

Built by a University of North Carolina alumnus, opened in 1924, and later gifted to the university, this charming inn in Chapel Hill is a paean to the achievements of its faculty and alumni.  Throughout the halls are plaques and photographs testifying to the accomplishments of the many individuals who were educated here.  You feel a bit like you will turn baby blue in hue before you leave!  

There is lots of history recorded here, and it’s significant to note that while blacks worked in the hotel, the first black guest, for lunch, not overnight, was Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963.  Such a short time ago—so much has changed for the better, but not everything.  Fast forward to the present day, and I enjoyed watching family groups arrive for Thanksgiving Dinner, all ages and multiple generations, white, Hispanic, and black. 

It is not Christmas yet, but our family group was delighted with the inn’s creative, whimsical, and fun displays of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  The days were scattered out of order around the lobby and main floor, and my older granddaughter and I made many treks around finding each number and then reading about the artist.  

Five Golden Rings

Highlights for both granddaughters were Two Turtle Doves (live ones), Four Calling Birds, a display that included four ticking cuckoo clocks, and Five Golden Rings, five desk telephones spray painted sparkling gold. 

 It provided great post-breakfast entertainment along with this year’s tree with its theme of “visions of sugar plums.”

RECENT READING

America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie

This is the first of two Colonial period historical novels by this pair. I read their most recent one, My Dear Hamilton, first and enjoyed it so much that I was drawn to this one about Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Martha, known to him and her siblings as Patsy.  Patsy’s mother died when she was only nine and she promised her mother that she would always take care of her father.  That promise to care for her father and, by extension, guard his legacy, led her to sacrifice her own happiness and to keep dark and dangerous secrets.  

The authors did extensive research for the novel and have used quotations from the archive of Jefferson’s correspondence to begin every chapter.  As the novel opens, Jefferson has died, and Patsy is going through his papers and deciding what letters may be kept and which ones destroyed in order to preserve his reputation as a great statesman. Through the years, we see Patsy mature from childhood to teen to adult as his helpmate, his confident, and as a skilled political hostess in Paris and Washington.  Later, as the wife of a Virginia plantation owner, she manages hearth and children (ten in all) at their home and some of the time at Monticello, always attended by slave labor and the ever-present Sally Hemings.  The result is a rich portrait of a woman who both chafed against the strictures of her time and simultaneously, ignored or denied unpleasant truths.  Reading this I came away with a perspective on a less noble, flawed Thomas Jefferson.

Note: All text and photos ©JWFarrington. Header photo taken at Kidzu Children’s Museum.

North Carolina Interlude

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BOOK NOTE

Lest anyone think I haven’t read any books lately, here’s one I wanted to like more than I did.

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

This might be the first novel by Allende I’ve read or possibly the second.  It brings together an unlikely trio to deal with an out-of-the-ordinary surprise.  Fussy, academic Richard Bowmaster rents his basement apartment to Lucia Maraz, a professor from Chile who also teaches at NYU.  He is intrigued by her and attracted to her, but has done nothing about it.  She is lonely and would like to further her acquaintance with him beyond their professional relationship.  None of this is likely to happen until, undocumented nanny, Evelyn Ortega, shows up on his Brooklyn doorstep on a bitterly cold winter night after a snowstorm.

Evelyn’s car, her employer’s, was hit by Richard in an accident and she seeks his help.  But the help goes beyond just the damage to the car as there is a body in the trunk.  How this ill prepared threesome handles this fact and journeys upstate to deal with the dead person makes up the crux of the novel.  We learn how Richard and Lucia’s relationship develops and we get the back story of each of these individuals before they came together and, in the process, learn about recent history in Chile and Argentina.

I liked the premise of this novel and the way that Richard, and especially Lucia, rise to the challenge of helping Evelyn, but much of the action takes place as straight narrative with almost no dialogue.  It is a static novel which tells more than shows.  Interesting, but not as engaging as I expected.  (~JW Farrington)

 

NORTH CAROLINA WITH FAMILY

The Chief Penguin and I spent an activity-filled week in North Carolina over Thanksgiving visiting my sisters and their families.  We sampled the delights of Greensboro (shops, parks and a favorite restaurant), ventured to Asheboro for lunch and wildlife, explored downtown Raleigh and the Ravenscroft School campus with my niece, and then decamped for Thanksgiving Day in Chapel Hill and several brisk chilly walks, a new restaurant, and a long bookstore browse.  Here are some of the specifics:

GREENSBORO

Scuppernong Books

This cozy bookstore cum café in downtown Greensboro has a nicely chosen selection of both new and used books.  Scuppernong is a type of muscadine grape native to the area, a word that might be hard to spell, but is certainly memorable!  I was especially pleased with their children’s section and had an informative chat with the woman who buys their children’s books.

Bog Garden

On this visit, I was impressed with the work of the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department.  My sister and I walked in the Bog Garden, close to their home which we’ve visited many times, and also checked out the Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden and the David Caldwell Historic Park.  The bog garden has a raised boardwalk and is wilder and less manicured than one might expect of a garden.  In partnership with several Audubon members, the park is engaged in removing invasive plants and putting in native plants in their place.

Print Works Bistro

Adjacent to the Proximity Hotel, this restaurant is always good, be it for breakfast or dinner.  The dining room is large with high ceilings, but is sectioned off with floor-to-ceiling billowing fabric drapes and upholstery-covered chairs which provide overall softening.  I would call the menu sophisticated comfort food, and it ranges from items such as local trout and mussels to a shrimp risotto, meatloaf or chicken schnitzel.  Breakfast fare includes the standard eggs and bacon, but also duck confit hash and a bacon and Brussels sprouts quiche.

ASHEBORO 

After a good lunch of salads and sandwiches at The Table , we continued down the road to the North Carolina Zoo.  Some folks are not enamored of zoos in general, but this one is exceptional.  It’s located in the center of the state and has many hundreds of acres with lots of room for the animals in each habitat to roam.  You get around to key points by tram and within the North American and African Habitats there are meandering paved paths that take you to the various animal sites. 

Signage is good and, being in a woodsy environment as you wander, makes it a most pleasant experience.  I especially liked seeing all the tropical birds in The Aviary and having an almost nose-to-nose encounter with a chimp.

RALEIGH

Garland

Lunch at this Indian/Asian restaurant in downtown Raleigh was perfect for our group of seven.  We liked the beef and noodle salad, tofu salad, and the vegetarian daily special.  Portions were a generous size and fortified us for several hours of shopping and walking.

CHAPEL HILL AREA

McIntyre’s Books

Friends who know me well know that I seldom pass up an opportunity to visit a bookstore, particularly an independent one.  I’ve patronized McIntyre’s at Fearrington Village for many years and it’s always a pleasure to spend an hour here.  With the holidays soon upon us, the shelves and tables were overflowing with stock and notes of staff recommendations. It was very easy to find gifts for family as well as a paperback for myself!

Venable Rotisserie Bistro

A new restaurant in Carrboro recommended by my sister and brother-in-law who’d dined there once before, Venable was a great place for the day after Thanksgiving.  Casual with wood flooring and bare wood tables, family groups and couples were scattered around the dining room.  Two of us tucked into the chipotle glazed salmon on a bed of spinach with sinfully rich whipped potatoes while the men enjoyed fried chicken (really a breaded chicken paillard with arugula) and North Carolina trout topped with bok choy.  Very good “elevated comfort food” as the restaurant calls it!

Photos by JWFarrington.