This last weekend Bob and I grabbed the chance to get away for a night and the truck took us in the direction of Susanville, Ca.. I have been wanting to see my friend Melissa's nursery, Every Bloomin' Thing, all dressed up in its holiday finery and we were able to combine that with a pine cone gathering afternoon. This Saturday, the 11th, is our Family Day at the Flower Tree, and one of the free workshops we offer is pine cone bird feeders for kids of all ages. We arrived at her place late in the evening, and she greeted us with a huge bonfire and a hot drink. The next morning we packed a bit of food and set out for Eagle Lake, with the summit being our destination to cut greenery that we needed for the yule log and porch arrangement workshops that Michelle will also be doing on Saturday.

With the snow glistening off the branches and the sun barely peeking out between the trees we gathered heavily scented cedar fresh with berries, noble fir, sugar cone pine boughs and pine cones. The snow was pretty heavy in parts and being the Florida girl I am, the backseat was the right placement for me. I gazed out the side window and took in all the beauty rather than worry about the slick road down the mountain pass. Well, maybe I worried a little. We arrived back at Melissa's nursery just in time for her to teach her wreath making class. With 14 in attendance, it was a lively and fun afternoon and I made a wreath for myself, as well as a YouTube video of one of her porch decorations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RB7qc01_I Our first experiment at this, we are going to work on adding lots of videos to our website.

It is always amazing to me that just taking a short overnight trip can fill you with a sense of peace, relaxation and wellness. As Bob said on the way home, "We might just need to do this a little more often."