Nixon Notes: Biltmore Sans House

Christopher and I went up to Asheville yesterday. We decided to go to the Biltmore estate, but not actually go to the house. It takes so much time to go through the house, and we had been in three times in the past year, so we decided to check out more of the grounds this time instead. It was a beautiful day! We went downtown first and got some lunch at Salsas then stopped at Mast General Store where Christopher got a new pair of running shoes...like Vibrums, only not heinously ugly! WIN!

Then we headed to the Biltmore and walked through the gardens. Christopher got some GREAT pictures!

(I love this picture! It's a plant potted in an old travel makeup case. You can see Christopher taking the picture in the mirror of the case!)

(This was in the azalea garden. It's some sort of zombi hybrid that grows brains (or at least that's what it looks like).)

(awesomest bridge ever)

(This is a "Bare Cedar." Craziest tree I have ever seen. It grows all these crazy "bare" roots out of the ground. They looks like petrified gnomes.)

(close up on the petrified gnomes)

This tree was in the conservatory. It was beautiful! It was kind of like a Chinese Lantern tree. The flowers on the tree are amazing - like tiny little lanterns. After we left the conservatory we went into the garden shop and there were two tiny little trees just like this. We picked one up, and when we got to the cash register the lady checking us out got really excited and told us all about the tree. It's a special hybrid called "Biltmore Ball Gown" that they created at Biltmore. They have had a waiting list for it for 18 months. They just called everyone on the list and told them this past week that they were ready. They have one person driving from Indiana just to pick this tree up. They happened to have two extra that they had just put out, and we got one! How cool is that?

(tiny little lanterns)

(our very own biltmore ball gown!)

(I thought this was one of the prettiest plants there. I'm not even sure what it is, but it has these huge flowers that grown towards the ground. Very pretty.)

Next up we went to the barn. I was a little bummed this time: my sheep were out in the pasture and on the other side of the fence. I couldn't get to them!