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It’s Local

IT’S LOCAL: CAFE SYMMETRY IN CARRBORO

By |2015-08-23T18:07:57-04:00August 23, 2015|It's Local|

There’s a new restaurant in town!

Cafe Symmetry
in the Carr Mill Mall in Carrboro, N.C.

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The entire space has been renovated and updated. It’s light and airy and inviting.

It’s “cafeteria” style: you enter the line, pick up your tray and utensils, and order from the  young, helpful crew behind the counters.

The food is healthy and fresh with lots of salads and “cold sides” to choose from. All of these are available in 1-4 portion sizes, but I found that even the 1 portion size was enough to share. I’ve tried several, but I would say the Asparagus, Apples, Basil, Cabbage, Apple Cider Vinaigrette side was the best of all!

Here is a direct link to their menu.

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Those colorful Le Creuset pots hold the “Hot Pots” i.e. hearty casseroles, both with meat and meatless and all served with rice.

The Paninis we haven’t tried yet…but the Gruyere, Fig Jam, Parmesan on Rustic Sourdough sounds mighty good.

For dessert we saw a delicious looking piece of Avocado Lime Cheesecake: a bit unusual, no?

All the furnishings were sourced and made locally: the eye-catching overhead lights, the resurfaced […]

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FRIDAY FLOWERS

By |2015-03-19T21:12:21-04:00March 19, 2015|Friday Flowers, It's Local, Shopping|

Ok… Let’s see if this post comes up just fine for everyone, shall we?

Believe it or not, I, and about three other people, have been working each and every day for over a week to get this blog up and running. No, you do not want to know the problems. In fact, there were so many problems and they changed and morphed so quickly that is has been very difficult to begin to fix them.

So let’s open with a fresh, spring, colorful image I took the other day. The tulips are “store bought” (Trader Joe’s) as mine are just
6″ high and won’t be flowering for about another three weeks.

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I am loving this wonderful green, tin tray I bought last weekend.

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This I had posted on Instagram they day I bought the green tray:

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Local people, you really should take a trip over to Apex (or Raleigh) to
Two Old Birds
 The Apex store is in a former gas station which just makes it all the more interesting. It’s fabulous! Lots and lots of goodies. They are also a dealer for
Annie […]

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IT’S LOCAL: LoMoMarket

By |2014-07-07T17:09:21-04:00July 8, 2014|It's Local|

LoMoMarket
What in the world is it?

It’s many things.

It’s a truck that arrives at scheduled stops around the Triangle (that’s Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) and sells locally grown and produced goods to hungry, and savvy, customers.

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It’s a unique concept whose mission is
“to expand the market for local foods by making it easier for farmers and local food producers to connect with local food lovers. This mission plays a big role in our business,” said Guenevere Abernathy, founder and CEO of LoMoMarket.

lomo-trailer-exterior-side-and-back_0 From the LoMo site

 

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It’s a fun, new way to shop local and to find the very best in locally produced goods.

Look at the LoMo Market site and see all the stops in the Triangle area. The truck used to stop in my village but there just was not enough business as we also have a weekly Farmer’s Market that has expanded every year and is very successful. The nearest stop to us is Briar Chapel where you will find the truck on  Saturday  afternoons.

One thing in particular I love […]

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IT’S LOCAL: LAVENDER HARVEST IN BENNETT, N.C.

By |2014-06-15T12:41:56-04:00June 15, 2014|It's Local|

This place and its story are so good that I am writing about it a second time, two years later.

We went back to
Bluebird Hill Farm
where Norma Burns invites everyone to come and help harvest her fields of lavender. Once again, it was a picture perfect day for North Carolina: not too hot or humid and a nice breeze all day.

IMG_0639_wm We parked here: nice first view for the day!

 I had written about our visit two years ago and put a slide show on the post. Hmmm. The slide show has disappeared with my move over to WordPress last December!
One of my followers in England, Deborah Lawrenson, had seen the post and immediately started to compare the lavender harvest here in the U.S. to that in Provence where she also lives. The result was her post
“Bluebird Hill Farm”.
Take a look and you will see just how international, and yet small, the blogging world is.

I took many, many pictures today but thought that, once again, the best way to show a selection was with a slide show. You can almost smell the lavender! 

This is what I brought home. I will let it dry, but in the meantime I get to […]

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IT’S LOCAL: FRIDAY FLOWERS

By |2014-05-22T20:42:59-04:00May 22, 2014|Friday Flowers, Garden, It's Local|

It’s Local, but it’s also time for Friday Flowers.
I spent a day last weekend visiting more beautiful, gorgeous gardens as part of
The Garden Conservancy Tour
The Garden Conservancy, based in Cold Spring, N.Y., has “Open Days” programs all over the country. Go to their site to check out one where you live. Thanks to husband giving it to me for Christmas (hint, hint..), I am now a member.

So I had been waiting for the Raleigh area tours. These are not in my immediate local area; in fact, I drove for the first time up to Wake Forest to see one of these historic gardens set in an 1867 house. One of the things I like most (aside from the gardens) is getting to know a wider area around me.

I put together another slide show so sit back, watch, and listen to Yo-Yo Ma.

Finally, a few images from my garden this week. Oh the iris! Most of the iris are gone but the last to bloom are my
Louisiana Iris.

And they are simply stunning.
Thank you, Jane, for such an everlasting, gorgeous gift.

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IT’S LOCAL: TEA AT THE CAROLINA INN

By |2014-05-11T20:01:02-04:00May 11, 2014|It's Local|


The Carolina Inn
is an iconic landmark in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is where almost any student or graduate of The University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, has been either as an undergraduate or at some later time. There is really no other place like it in the town.

The lobby and seating areas:

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We stayed at the Inn on our very first visit to the area when we began our search for a house and a community in North Carolina.

The Inn did not disappoint. The rooms are lovely, the service impeccable, the location perfect.

But this post is about their afternoon tea.

I love tea. And a truly formal afternoon tea is something I  look forward to for days in advance. So it was that I made reservations for my daughter and I for a Friday afternoon when I would pick her up at the airport and we would come directly to the Inn. We had crystal clear weather, arrived a few minutes early so had time to sit outside with a glass of wine (why not?) before being shown to The Piedmont Dining […]

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