My View of Browns Summit
Welcome to "downtown Browns Summit"
and the views out my window. The view to the left is the entrance to the barnyard and my
workshop (better known as The Barnyard Shoppe of Amos D. Bugg) after a summer
storm. The pot of gold was found just a few yards away!
The pergola in the main yard is one of my favorite garden projects. It is so fully covered now with
wisteria that you can no longer see the structure itself — just look at the recent photo of the wisteria in full bloom! The lush catmint patch surrounding the pergola provides special spots
for napping and pouncing for my many cats on hot summer days.
The proud turkey red clapboard building that you can see in the
background of the early pergola photograph is the historic Browns Summit Broom Works,
still fully equipped with wonderful vintage machines and broomstraw all over the
floor! The building is currently open as the workshop of a custom furniture maker. He is also reviving the the art of Browns Summit broom-making!
The magnificent dairy barn pictured below the wisteria photo is in its full glory fronted by a huge
field of periwinkle bachelor’s buttons. On alternate years it is one of Browns
Summit’s many tobacco fields. This vista is right across the road from my house
and is a never-ending source of inspiration and smiles.
Browns Summit doesn’t have a stoplight, but it does have the
requisite general store, post office and railroad crossing. The tracks cut right
across the western back edge of my property and every once in a while I capture
a magical moment like this one when a rare steam engine comes through town. Not
so rare, but still delightful, are the daily (and nightly) serenades my dogs
sing with the frequent passing freight trains!
All the photographs above make it look like eternal summer in Browns Summit so
to prove we actually get snow from time to time, here’s a shot from a very
unusual early December snow. It was beautiful but I lost power for over a week
(along with millions of other North Carolinians) so the beauty of it all was
overshadowed by the inconvenience! At least I learned that I would have made a
good pioneer!