Right before the semester started we met a couple of friends for a weekend retreat in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in Asheville, NC. While there we ate at some great restaurants, joked and laughed, and had a great time with one another.
Before our friends arrived, the hubby and I happened to stumble into the Colburn Earth Science Museum on its second to last day before closing and moving to a new location. Despite a great deal of the collection in a state of being packed up (which enabled us to tour the museum for free) there were some nice pieces. After the Tellus collection it was hard to be super impressed but I heart anything and everything to do with minerals and fossils (and have since a very young age) so I still loved it all the same.
The best part for me was the fact that their gift shop was 75% off and they had a “free room” which included all manner of things such as beautiful topographic maps, an assortment of lovely coral fossils, and mica (a common mineral used in a variety of industries which is very integral to North Carolina) in many different forms. It was an artist and collectors dream come true! (I exercised restraint but it was difficult…)
Another great find right before we left was a library book-sale that yielded some great finds (most of which are books of poetry), including a book by one of my favorite authors, Diane Ackerman, that I’ve been wanting to read for a couple of years, The Human Age. All in all, the trip was just what we needed and held a great deal of artful inspiration for me personally.
