Mountain Musings

Crabtree Falls Hike

Memorial Day was our chosen time to tackle some hiking. It was a beautiful day for getting some exercise in the mountains! Erich, a friend from church and co-worker of Jonathan's, suggested hiking Crabtree Falls and joined our family for the adventure. Here we are at the very top of the falls, 2 miles up the trail. The view of the valley, and the fact that some of us hadn't been hiking in awhile, was breath-taking. :)

Crabtree Falls is known as the tallest vertical drop waterfall east of the Mississippi, located in Montebello, VA. Our family had hiked part of this trail many years ago, but we did it more justice this time around. Along the trail there were several stopping-points where you could see different cascading sections of the falls. At left is shown the Lower portion of Crabtree Falls, where Mom sat on a bench knitting until the rest of us returned! You could feel the coolness of the water just standing there watching.

The trail included about 9 switchbacks and many large rocky formations. This photo (courtesy of Jonathan) is of the Upper portion of the falls where the trail starts breaking out of the woods. It was quite an enjoyable and invigorating hike, and we were all glad we made it to the top! We drove home in time for the arrival of more friends, a cookout, and an evening talking and playing games.

~Hannah

Confederate Memorial Ceremony

Our friends, the Pruiett Family, graciously invited us to spend Saturday morning with them honoring the fallen Confederate soldiers buried in the University of Virginia Confederate Cemetery on the campus.

Pictured at right, the Pruietts were dressed in period attire, as were many in attendance. Aren't the ladies' dresses and gentlemen's uniforms wonderful?

We heard speeches, pledged allegiance to the flag, sang songs such as Carry Me Back to Old Virginny, Dixie's Land, and How Firm a Foundation, listened to scripture being read, heard prayers, and covered our ears for the 21-gun salute.

After the Memorial Day Ceremony, the children placed flowers on some of the Confederate graves in the square where more than one thousand soldiers were buried.

Mr. Pruiett is a member and chaplain of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and has a growing interest in his confederate ancestry. We were glad to reunite with the Pruiett Family and enjoyed the experience and a meal with them at Michie Tavern before departing for home. 

Are you doing anything special to celebrate Memorial Day?

~Deb

And the winner is...

Thank you to all who entered our giveaway for the CDs from the Genevan Foundation and shared a Psalm or hymn that is meaningful to you. I'm sure the Servens are already planning even more new CDs with some of your suggestions.;)

We used a random generator to come up with our winner. Congratulations to the Donahue family for being the special recipients of Nations Praise and Glory, Laud, and Honor! The Servens will be sending your new CDs as soon as they can, and you can begin learning to sing these Psalms and hymns together to the praise of the Lord.

If anyone would like to read other's inspiring reviews of the newly released CDs, go here.

~Hannah

Last Day for Giveaway!

Remember to comment on this post by 9 o'clock tonight! Who will win the Psalm and Hymn CDs??

~Hannah

 

There's A Doctor in the House!

We all had the privilege of watching Elizabeth hood Micah after he received his Doctor of Medicine degree Sunday afternoon at the commencement exercises for the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. What a very special accomplishment, and we are all very proud!

Would you pray for Micah and Elizabeth this week as they pack to move? And pray for us (especially Mom) as they leave us! Thank you!

Congratulations, Dr. Micah Girotti!!

~Deb

New from GenevanSong!

Today, May 19th, is the official release date of 2 brand new audio recordings by the talented GenevanSong singers. They are excited about praising the Lord in song and teaching others to do the same! If you are interested in learning to sing hymns or Psalms in four-part harmony, these CDs would be wonderful for giving practical help towards that goal, as it includes instructional vocal tracks along with the final version (we're not aware of other similar Psalm/hymn Cds that do this). Click here to view a photo report of their recording process, and continue reading to find out about our special giveaway!

Nations Praise seeks to teach families and churches how to sing the Psalms in four part harmony. The first ten tracks demonstrate the full harmony versions. The following selections break the parts down to soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, so you can learn your notes and sing along. All selections can be found in The Book of Psalms for Singing.

Jonathan: I have lamented before on this blog about the lack of quality music that conforms to the principles in God's Word.  I am especially pleased, therefore, to see what the Lord is doing through GenevanSong.  Not only do these CDs exemplify godly, joyful singing, they also invite families and churches to do likewise.  The other day, Hannah told me that the Servens had asked us to review their two newest CDs.  I was certainly willing to do so.  On Saturday, I had to run some errands around town, so I took Nations Praise with me in the car to listen to.  It was great!  The sound quality was professional, and the harmonies were well sung and blended beautifully.  My only wish was that it could have lasted longer!  I would say my favorite tracks were The Lord is My Shepherd (based, of course on Psalm 23) and By Babel's Streams We Sat and Wept (taken from Psalm 137).  By Babel's Streams sounded like it had an Appalachian flavor to it, which I especially enjoyed. Once I finished all 10 Full Harmony tracks, I decided to put GenevanSong's idea to the test.  Was it possible to easily learn a part? 

I chose The Lord is My Shepherd to tackle first.  I sing bass, so it took me awhile to skip to track 43 on our car's CD player. Nathan Serven's clear voice started singing, and it was only a few minutes later that I was able to start joining in.  The bass part was fairly simple, so I was able to get the first couple phrases down quickly.  A few more miles down the road and I had the rest of the part under my belt.  So far, so good.  My next step was to skip all the way back down to track 3 to the full harmony and try singing along with that.  I did so--and failed miserably.  I completely forgot my part as soon as I heard all the different harmonies together.  Back to 43.  I listened and sang some more.  Back to 3.  This time it was a little better.  More back-and-forth track skipping ensued. I was gradually able to sing along, each time gaining more ease.  I was stuck on one phrase though: ("....green pastures He leadeth me...").  I could nail it every time when singing bass solo, but it wouldn't come with the full harmony.  Finally, when pulling up in our driveway, I was able to get it!  Once inside, I demonstrated to the rest of the family, and they all agreed it sounded great. 

So yes, it does work!  Within an hour, I was able to learn a part and sing it along with others, by God's grace.  Now for some of you, you might require more grace, but nonetheless, it wasn't that difficult.  I am definitely not a trained singer, so I usually am not able to know what notes to sing by merely looking at the notes in the hymnal.  Hearing the individual parts by themselves helped a lot.  I trust it will help you, too.  My next song to learn will probably be either By Babel's Streams or Come Thou Fount from Glory Laud and Honor (see below).

I would heartily recommend the GenevanSong CD's for both musical enjoyment and musical instruction.  Keep up the good work, GenevanSong!

Glory, Laud, and Honor seeks to teach families and churches how to sing the Hymns in four part harmony. The first ten tracks demonstrate the full harmony versions. The following selections break the parts down to soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, so you can learn your notes and sing along. All selections can be found in The Trinity Hymnal, and many other fine hymnals.

Hannah: Don't you like the cover photos of these CDs? I was impressed with the quality of the overall design, and after having enjoyed the first 2 volumes of the Servens' Psalms CDs, I was even more pleased with the way the sound turned out on these new volumes. I thought a nice mix of common/unfamiliar hymns were included on Glory, Laud, and Honor. One of my favorites was By Grace I'm Saved. Listen to a sample clip of Crown Him With Many Crowns here. I'm looking forward to possibly learning some of these selections with the family and eventually, church family!

To celebrate the release of these new recordings, Mountain Musings is hosting a CD giveaway, compliments of the Serven Clan! The winner will receive a free copy of each of the new CDs: Nations Praise and Glory, Laud, and Honor. To enter for a chance to win this drawing, make a comment to this post telling one of your favorite Psalms or hymns. This contest will end on Thursday, May 22nd at 9:00 pmEST, and the results will posted on Friday.

~Hannah and Jonathan

South Carolina Trip ~ Day 4

We were on the go every day last week--the sort of vacation I love!

On our last day in Greenville, our friends, Rhonda and Emma, invited us over for lunch and a visit. How fun! It was very enjoyable, and we loved having the chance to catch up on each other's lives. Thank you Rhonda and Emma!

No pictures of our treks to Hobby Lobby, Country Boys' Greenhouse, El Grande Mexican, Panera Bread, or to UPS to mail off my malfunctioning camera...but trust me, we had a good time fitting in everything we could think of while there!

A big thanks to my sister for the special vacation week! In case you missed it, Bet wrote about our visit here.

~Deb

South Carolina Trip ~ Day 3

Biltmore Estates, billed as America's largest house with 250 rooms and 8,000 acres, was our next destination. Located in Asheville, NC, about an hour or so from Greenville, Biltmore was certainly worth the drive--a pretty one with lots of mountain views.

Here's the sign that welcomed us onto the property. Many flowering trees and shrubs were planted alongside the lengthy landscaped driveway leading to the home: rhododendrens, azaleas, white wisteria, and many others which were not readily familiar to us. What a lot of work has gone into making the property a beautiful showplace!

We thoroughly enjoyed the self-guided tour of the mansion and seeing all the interior decorating and floral displays in every room. Get this: the house features 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces! We toured the basement where there was a swimming pool, gymnasium and changing rooms, bowling alley, servants' quarters and kitchens.

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside, but we took plenty in the gardens. Here's my sister, Bet, smelling one of the snowball bushes. We visited during the Festival of Flowers taking place April 5th through May 18th, so there were lots of spring flowers in bloom.

My favorites were all the white flowers--the white wisteria, the white snowballs, and the white false indigo were ones I really liked.

The Conservatory is the building you see at the end of the large corridor of flowers. Basically, it was a rich man's potting shed and contained all sorts of greenhouse plants. We didn't have time to go in the Conservatory Gardeners' Gift Shop---maybe it's a good thing!

Recommendation if you go: if you are a member of Triple A, you can save $15 off the admission. If you're not a member, ordering tickets ahead online will save a few dollars on your ticket.

When you check in at Biltmore, definitely purchase the additional $8 per person guided tour with headsets to hear about each room and what you are seeing as you go through; we found the headsets very necessary.

Next: Day 4 ~ Visiting friends

~Deb

South Carolina Trip ~ Day 2

The second day of our vacation began as we headed to Abbeville, about an hour or more from Greenville. We actually were headed to Yoder's Dutch Kitchen for a lunch that we had been told would be unbelievably delicious! Unfortunately, Yoder's wasn't open on Tuesdays!! We were all quite disappointed that we had not called ahead.

We made the best of the situation and found Dutch Oven, located along the main street of quaint Abbeville. The homemade cherry pie made up for missing Yoder's--almost.

Next, we headed to our second destination in Greenwood, Park Seed Company, established in 1868.

Here's Hannah looking over all of their hundreds of seed packets and not finding the one she wanted!

Park Seed Company, we found out, caters mostly to their mail-order customers rather than to local visitors who happen by their property. Even though we enjoyed the time, I wouldn't give a hearty recommendation to going there as we saw lots of flowers and areas that could have had more attention paid to them, and the advertised Garden Tours were only scheduled for one day next month rather than daily.

Here are my mom and Hannah taking a break under a tree that boasted many hanging baskets of flowers on its limbs.

The Rose Garden and Water Lily Pond were both enjoyable self-tours. We snapped some nice photos and were thankful for the nice weather we experienced all week. So, all in all, it was a good day.

Next: Day 3 ~ Biltmore Estates, voted our favorite day of all!

~Deb

South Carolina Trip ~ Day 1

On our way to visit my sister in South Carolina last Monday, we first stopped in Charlotte, NC, to visit the Billy Graham Library, which was dedicated last year.

The grounds are beautifully landscaped with a variety of flowers, and the library itself was very informative and quite interesting. The library is housed in the building to the right that looks like a barn with a glass cross on the front. Visitors appropriately enter through a door "at the foot of the cross."

The barn and silo were selected because as a young boy Billy Graham grew up on his parents' dairy farm. Inside, visitors are greeted by a talking cow who sings, "He Owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills." The library contains much memorabilia from bygone days, crusades, and from the many people he counseled.

Here are my mom and Hannah standing in front of the old homeplace where Billy lived. The home has been moved 3 times in past years by numbering each brick and reassembling them in the correct order. The beautiful home was finally located on the property you see here and made available for public tours.

We toured not only the library and homeplace but also the serene Prayer Garden where his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, was buried last year. A spot just to the right of her gravestone awaits her husband.

Billy Graham, almost 90 and in failing health, now resides at his home in Montreat, NC.

This was a very enjoyable excursion just off the interstate on Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte. We then continued our journey to Greenville and all my sister had planned for us.

~Deb