We're at the Penland School of Crafts

Our friends Debra Frasier and Jim Henkel's cozy cabin at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, offers solace and beauty for serious reading and research. Think: crackling fire, pine stands and tulip trees, huge stars. Winding roads with little stands stacked with pumpkins and jams. I'll try to blog, but Arthur and I are also hiking, photographing the autumn joys, and looking at art. Author of "On the Day You Were Born" and other wonderful picture books, Debra and her husband, photographer Jim Henkel, are old friends of Penland's, too. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the craft center is a stone's throw from Black Mountain, another favorite haunt. Our writer friend Phil Deaver visits here, too. The Blue Ridge inspires his poetry and how could it not? The winding Toe River. A run up Heartbreak Hill. The mists rising. The cabin is a friend in and of itself, Phil says, and we agree. Some of America's most original books & paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking, textiles, and wood are born here. Here's a gorgeous photo by Penland student Courtney Dodd, a view from the Penland coffee house, looking through a hand-blown glass bowl.