I can’t believe summer is already here – "summer," of course, being those eight fleeting weeks of the year when Timberley and I aren’t trapped inside our high school classrooms with groups of teen-agers who can’t believe that teachers actually have lives away from school.

The calendar says summer actually runs from June 21 to September 22. However, as far as Timberley and I are concerned, summer officially started May 31 when we walked out the schoolhouse door after the last teacher workday of the 2001-02 school year, and our favorite season will end on the morning of Aug. 1 when we report for the first teacher workday of the 2002-03 term.

Don’t get the idea, though, that we dislike teaching. It’s just that – as Timberley has mentioned elsewhere in the Gaillardia Press pages – we both have big plans for this summer. We’re hoping that we can pursue our artistic interests actively and productively – Timberley, her painting and other visual art endeavors; me, my writing and music making.

This past week – one down, seven precious weeks to go – we got off to a pretty good start, I think. After a rather ordinary weekend – not really knowing what to do with our newfound freedom, I guess – we decided to begin the week with a pilgrimage of sorts to a place that Timberley hadn’t seen in ages and that I had never before visited – the Biltmore Estate near Asheville.

We made a whole day of the trip Monday, leaving Boone not long after the crack of dawn (it was either the crack of dawn I heard or our neighbor shooting at rabbits again) and getting back home that evening not long after dark. Our route took us from Boone to Linville on NC 105, then to Marion on US 221, then to Asheville on Interstate 40. It was about a 2 ½-hour trip each way.

We could have taken the Blue Ridge Parkway the whole way from our little community near Boone to the Asheville area; however, that would have made the trip considerably longer. Also, we had planned to eat breakfast at Famous Louise’s Restaurant on US 221 in Linville Falls. The establishment, though, wasn’t open for some reason Monday – our only real disappointment of the day.

I think Timberley would agree that our favorite part of the outing wasn’t touring the Biltmore House itself, though we did have fun following the "Tour Turns Here" signs throughout the chateau-like mansion’s four floors and endless wings. Most of all, we enjoyed walking through the estate’s gardens and greenhouse – excuse me, conservatory.

There’s just something hopeful about a greenhouse, by any name. Whatever we were exposed to in that glass-enclosed building must have taken root, because the remainder of the week was fairly productive for both of us.

I got up early every day – my favorite time to write – and finished my first short story since we moved to the High Country from the South Brunswick Islands five years ago. Also, I worked on the lyrics to a couple of new songs and tried my best to drive Timberley crazy by playing and singing the two new songs over and over at all hours of the day and night, Rain Man-style.

Using acrylics instead of her favored watercolors for a change, Timberley painted the image of a small angel statue in her English garden. Though she says she isn’t finished with the small painting by a long shot (that’s what all artists say, by the way), I believe this will be her first completed canvas in about five years, since her days selling paintings and prints on the coast at the original Kindred Spirits Gallery.

Timberley also worked in her garden quite a bit this past week – oddly enough, usually when I was working on my music. I think I heard her mutter once that she was starting to feel "trapped" again, but I knew that was just because it was Week One away from the kids at school. She’ll get over that feeling – or get used to it – by Week Eight, I’m sure.