The Hemlock Inn Archives - Page 12 of 16 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Beautiful Things Don’t Ask For Attention

June 21, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

It was a rough day for Boo yesterday…she was grounded. I don’t know what got into her….maybe it’s all the freedom. There’s a wedding tonight and the bride and her family were here yesterday setting up and Boo was so excited to help…and she was a great help…but then she began to get a little snooty, too big for her britches as they say, and then she was disrespectful to the inn’s intern Harper and that was the last straw. I confined her to the house and then witnessed a full blown tantrum and I’d never seen her so defiant before. She is well beyond her years in being able to turn arguments around on a dime. After being grounded and realizing that her actions had serious consequences (like not being able to run freely around the inn) she turned back into my sweet, down-to-earth child.

But she is me. She wants to do and see everything. She craves freedom and independence. She wants to disappear and wander aimlessly. She never tires. I get it…but when it affects others it’s time to reign it in. I guess that’s why we need boundaries, right?

I stayed up way too late last night…reading Thoreau of all things. I hadn’t touched Thoreau since being forced to read it in high school but something deep down was urging me to revisit it. I kept having to turn on the light to write down page numbers of quotes to share:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest.”

“It is life near the bone where it is sweetest.”

“In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

“The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats.”

*****

Yesterday was the first day I took my big DSLR camera out…and I only took a few photos. We watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the other night and there’s that scene where the rare snow leopard emerges from its hiding place and Sean O’Connell doesn’t press the shutter button. Watching it I’m thinking: PRESS THE BUTTON. PRESS THE BUTTON!

Walter Mitty: When are you going to take it?
Sean O’Connell: Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.
Walter Mitty: Stay in it?
Sean O’Connell: Yeah. Right there. Right here.

(loved that movie…except I have been singing the line non stop “This is Major Tom to Ground Control….I’m stepping through the door.”)

I’m in these moments…I haven’t felt like I needed to capture them all for the first time in a long time.

******

I was a little uncertain for the first few days living here….the moisture of the mountains, the spiders and healthy insect colonies of the forest. It was all so new. I wondered if maybe I just wasn’t made for the outdoors. But yesterday, as Brett and Boo were skipping rocks into the river yesterday afternoon (her request) I found this place along the shore where the powerful Tuckaseegee river was flowing backwards because of the current. He leads me beside the still waters. I’m in awe of this place. The richness of the land and the area. It’s humming with life all the time. I find strength in the trees and peace from the water.

A year ago I would have needed the perfect office to write from, now I’m writing from the floor of my bedroom huddled next to the dog for the best sunlight. It’s quiet here and Diesel’s sweet panting breath is soothing. And other than that there is no sound whatsoever except for an occasional bird song. I could be the only person on earth right now…..except I know there is a flurry of activity up the hill for a young couple getting married on the property tonight:

The Road to Nowhere

June 19, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.
– Jack Kerouac

This morning we took a wrong turn and ended up on the Road to Nowhere. It’s a 6-mile-drive into the park that ends abruptly at this tunnel. (you can read the story here). There’s not really anywhere to turn around so we just kept going. Why not right? We were the only ones there when we first got there:

Boo and Brett talked me into going in. I walked behind them holding Diesel. One foot in front of the other…careful to stay right in the center…totally focused on the light ahead of me. I felt like I was going to be snatched into the walls. My heart was beating a million miles per hour and I just kept saying the Lord’s Prayer so it echoed throughout. Funny how things can be scary and amazing all at the same time.

the light at the end of the tunnel

Here’s a photo Brett too from the other side:

exhilarated….until we realized we had to walk back through.

a graffiti compliment

So the Road to Nowhere actually does lead somewhere…to an eerie tunnel that feels sinister, earthy and breathtaking all at once. I totally recommend walking through it…first thing in the morning (that’s the safest time of day in scary movies).

Deep Creek

June 12, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

This morning we went hiking at Deep Creek. It’s located in the Smoky Mountains National Park, just a few miles from the inn. It’s a pretty popular part of the park because there are three waterfalls that are within a short hiking distance:

Tom's Branch Falls at Deep Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Boo loved the falls and surmised that the creek must be a circular loop and that’s where all the water comes from. Love that thought.

At one of the waterfalls Brett was out on the edge of the water teetering on a huge log with his phone and I couldn’t figure out what he was doing until I saw his photo (he’s getting better and better at Instagram @bretthackshaw)….go like this photo and you’ll make his week ; )

Indian Creek Falls at Deep Creek Great Smoky Mountains National Park

There were all of these amazing blue little butterflies that kept swarming in the park. After a while they would find somewhere to rest and then they would all take off at the same time and it was like they were being set free in this magical frenzy:

Mort (Hemlock’s innkeeper) was showing us the trails and he found Boo this huge centipede. A week ago she would have screamed and run the opposite direction but she’s getting braver and braver. How does the centipede make all those legs go in the same direction at the same time?!

This afternoon Boo visited Lainey while Brett and I finished painting the master bedroom of our cottage. I had finished caulking yesterday …and used FOUR tubes on one room….I think I’m a little obsessive about cracks. I’m just not used to all the spiders and other insects in the mountains yet. (I’m basically setting up a “caulk” blockade…and good luck getting past it spiders!) The cottage used to just be 2 rooms but an additional bedroom was added on in the 1980’s on the other side of the chimney. You can see the chimney in the closet as Brett paints…love the stacked stone:

Thursday is Fried Chicken Night at the Hemlock. It was our first. We sat with a new couple tonight and a young family we’ve shared the table with for a few days now. Both families are from Florida. There were two other large tables tonight for dinner almost 30 minutes after the tables were cleared… all the guests were still sitting at the tables talking and laughing. It’s like instant community. When I think back to our own table talked about tonight the conversation ranged from train rides to ranches to John Deere tractors to Dolly Parton. I love the story telling.

Fried Chicken Night at the Hemlock Inn

This morning after breakfast we said goodbye to two couples whose stays had come to an end. This is one aspect of inn life that I didn’t even think about: saying goodbye to new friends. I know all stays must come to an end but it’s a little sad saying goodbye to the familiar faces you’ve come to know.

Lainey took this photo tonight….so precious of Boo with a few of her new friends holding hands for the blessing. Brett was late for blessing…hence the empty chair.

Now I’m sitting in the sunroom and there are some lingering groups playing board games and chatting. I love the muffled sounds of the kitchen being cleaned up and the kitchen door swinging back and forth every few minutes. Boo and Brett are probably in bed right now. I’ll make my way down to the cottage with my flashlight shortly hoping I don’t run into a bear. Tomorrow my sister and mom are coming to visit. I think I need to find a place to get my hair cut too….did you notice the sideburns?! They are out of control as I try to grow my hair out. Mort says if I go to the barbershop I’ll get the same “white wall” haircut everyone else does when they go there. He had to explain that to me. Remember the old tires with the white insides? That’s where it comes from…the hair is cut so short around the ears that it resembles the white walls of the old 1960’s tires. I’m so tempted to go anyways….there’s one old antique chair sitting in the middle of the shop. Maybe I could just get the barber to trim it a little just to say I sat in that chair…..how bad could it be?

Last night sitting in bed I took this photo (go-go-gadget arms!)….

….and then I woke up in the middle of the night and the moon was so incredible all I wanted to do was go outside and set up my camera but the battery was dead. It looked like the cover of a story book with the moon behind the clouds. Seriously it was amazing…the glowing of the edges of those clouds against the dark sky. The moon is just as big tonight.