Before and after

 

Saturday morning, Jan 31, snowing still after the first 8 hours or so. It stopped in another 7 hours. But there was no visual evidence of the ridge on the other side of the valley!

Sunday morning, the mountain on the other side of the valley is visible, and sun has come out again! It was only 7 F degrees however.

And then it started to melt, of course. By Tuesday it got above 40 in the afternoon.

Before: A neighbor across the holler seems to have not cleaned out his chimney, but the billows of smoke did finally die back. I worried that the whole house might go up.

After.

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Bridge seen in the distance in the lower shot is the Blue Ridge Parkway. Skyline Inn in Little Switzerland has been in operation since the 1940s. See my blog post which included older photos. 

June 2024, some of the foundations of lower buildings

June 2024 the hotel continues operation, but the floods and landslides of Hurricane Helene closed it at the end of September 24. The hotel is open again now.

View of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Little Switzerland NC. Sharing with Skywatch Friday

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Bridge in Swannanoa NC - the second shot from floods of Hurricane Helene

Downtown Swannanoa...the pillars are on the Short Sleeves Coffee Shop today. The next building behind it was once a bank.

The Short Sleeves building also served as a gas station at one time. This location and was not damaged by the floods from Hurricane Helene.

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The Flat Iron Building in Asheville NC

Flat Iron Building in center, Nov, 2023

Flat Iron Building (on r) and Wall Street, Asheville NC Jan 31, 2026

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Sharing with Sepia Saturday

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Saturday Jan 31, 2026

Jan 31, 2026 The Mustang Sallie's Krew of the Gasparilla Parade, Tampa FL. Cold and windy in the 40s F. My son was on safety crew in bright yellow vest in front of the building on the float. Hillsborough Bay looks frigid in the background of Bayshore Blvd.

From Black Mountain to Swannanoa

by Van Gogh

Once a week the food bank brings produce, bread, and eggs to distribute to the senior residents at Blue Ridge Apartments. Many of them don't drive. It's quite an occasion to line up and socialize, especially in good weather.

Over at Lake Tomahawk...

Did you know North Carolina's state flag has dates on it for a declaration of independence prior to the US one? 

Wikipedia says: It bears the dates of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (May 20, 1775) and of the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776), documents that place North Carolina at the forefront of the American independence movement.

The pool is shrouded for the winter, while the construction project on the house in the background seems to go on and on. I wonder when they'll have the exterior finish put in place!

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A rainy day to share an Americano and meet a friend at the Dripolator.

We were lucky to get a table.

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The following shots are of simple homes in Swannaoa.

Grovemont Park is a great gathering place for the community.

My friend Judy lives in this nice little house.

Sharing with "Almost" wordless Wednesday on Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

Treasures of homes

 More of the pretty and somewhat unusual, older homes in Grovemont, Swannanoa NC. Here's the explanation of Mr. Grove's intentional community.

Sharing with Tuesday's Treasures!

and

My Corner of the World.

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It's not a laughing matter. Too many friends and relatives have suffered from this condition. 

Bridges

Current events, close to home - warning these photos are current but show damages remaining from Sept. 27, 2024's floods from Hurricane Helene.

 When driving by the Swannanoa "business district" it's still full of the remains of buildings, and huge drop-offs looking down into the waterway where parking lots were washed away after Hurricane Helene.

A remaining ruin was here one day (months after the storm), and then...

Just an empty lot!

While next door the wreck of the warehouse still stands.

But the bridge connecting Old 70 and US 70is now open, and well used again to get to the many homes up around Old 70. My friend, Judy, lives in that area, and has been driving circuitous routes to get places for 5 months!

A red trailer left by flood waters from the river, was pulled onto the bridge perhaps to use for storage while workers were repairing it. 

Below shows the bridge has been repaired and is now in operation (we went over it) March 1, 2025

 (Incidentally, the red overhand of roof on the far upper left belongs to one of the ruined buildings still hanging over the river .)

There was a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the repaired bridge on Wed. Feb. 27!

Much of the debris has been hauled away...though larger objects and buildings still show the damage a flood of water did to this little town. As I was in a passenger seat driving along on last Thursday, I just clicked away at what we drove by...

A favorite vet practice now gone.

Ditches dug deeper to remove further runoff problems from any new rains!

Taken on Feb 28, 2025. The newer looking small structures might have been donated sheds, some of which were used for shelters by owners of the property during the winter months (almost over now.) FEMA provided motel rooms for many of us who were displaced by the storm, but the vouchers are due to be ended this month, though they've been extended several times already. People just didn't have any place to return to in many cases.

We live in the next town up the Swannanoa Valley, in Black Mountain...and support all the local businesses we can, and my friend's car says what we feel.

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And for more upbeat sharing, 

Not my photo, but snowdrops! We didn't get that much snow (as of now anyway)

And since we just looked at a real neighborhood, here's Mr.Rogers' neighborhood - the actual sets used in the many programs my children watched!

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Today's quote:

From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad. -Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (1892-1975)

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Today's art:

Van Gogh, The Gleize Bridge over the Vigueirat Canal

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Open Yesterday's Pages, featured yesterday Learning their ABC's thanks to Swannanoa Valley History Museum

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My family album sharing:

Daughter-in-law, Michelle and middle son, Russ 2025