We really lucked out with the weather for Jonathan and Shaghig's visit. This was the view to the West the day we toured Biltmore.

It was really great fun having these two here, although it was a reminder that what Jonathan lives for is to tease everyone he knows. After a few years away from him, I had almost forgotten what it is like. Still, what a great time. . .

Shaghig, Jonathan, Abner and I stopped on the side of the Bass Pond for a group shot. Abner seemed somewhat indifferent to the process.

Despite appearances, we didn't sit down for the entire hike at Biltmore. There is a little seasonal outdoor cafe by the Winery where we did stop for a little liquid refreshment.

Abner is always happy to be along on these walks. . .even when he is with Jonathan who used to torment him mercilessly when we worked together in Sacramento.

Jonathan Boynton and Shaghig Kodbashian, two of my friends from Sacramento, came for a 4 day visit at the end of April and hit picture perfect weather.

After touring Biltmore House, we drove back to my house, got Abner, and went back for a hike on the estate. We frequently run into other people with dogs at Biltmore and Abner usually tries to engage anyone that is remotely friendly in some kind of play. When the dog is considerably smaller, it usually consists of lying down and trying to appear vulnerable so the little dog will pretend to attack. This schnauzer was pretty cautious though and never really went for the attack.

This isn't a still from Little Shop of Horrors and Shaghig isn't being devoured by an azalea. Jonathan just likes to take corny pictures of her from time to time. . .and I like to publish them.

Here are the two of them posing at the boat house on the Bass Pond. The water level is quite low right now due to repair work being done on the dam. Most incovenient that they do this when I have guests but surprisingly they didn't call to clear it with me.

These two shots from the Craggy Gardens overlook show Interstate 26 heading toward the Tennessee border to the North of Asheville, and below is looking South with the Parkway curling below us and a pavilion along the Craggy Gardens main trail visible on the ridge below. As you can see, at this altitude, most of the trees still haven't leafed out for spring.

Bent Creek used to flow across Biltmore Estate in the days when George and Edith Vanderbilt lived there. It now crosses land controlled by the National Forest Service and the NC Arboretum. It is clear and beautiful year round due in part to the sense of stewardship that the people of these organizations seem to feel.

My friend Hedy Fischer and I rarely get to hike together even though we both love to do so. Hedy technically doesn't have a job but she and Randy have quite a bit of rental property that she manages so she is one busy woman. Once in a blue moon, I succeed in convinicing her to join Abner and me, and she did one day earlier this week. Above is a Trilium we found growing in the wild on a trail in Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 15 miles from Asheville. I, of course, had no idea what it was but Hedy either knows this stuff or sounds authoritative enough to convince me.

At the upper most point in Craggy Gardens, you are 6,085 feet above sea level and on a clear day like this one, the views are extraordinary. The lake you see is actually the reservoir that provides Asheville's water.

When we do a hike that takes more than two hours and it is as warm as it has been, Abner gets to have some down time in a cool spot where he gets water and treats. This is one of his favorites on the verandah of the Visitors Center at the NC Arboretum. The tile is always cool.

The Arboretum has a native azalea repository that has been closed for two years. It was damaged by the flooding of Bent Creek that occurred in September or 2004 when one of the Gulf of Mexico hurricanes dumped prodigious amounts of rain on Asheville. It reopened this winter and we are now starting to see what it looks like. Many of the native azaleas are later bloomers and escapted the 3 nights of freezing weather in early April that wiped out most of the early blooming flowers.

Pink Lady's Slipper Orchids are endangered and rare. They only grow below a specific type of Oak and have a short blooming season at this time of year. There is one area in the Arboretum along Rocky Cove Road where there are probably more than a dozen of them.

One of Abner's and my favorite hiking routes is along Bent Creek. The above shot is a tree that came down recently. The beavers started it, and nature did the rest. It is kind of amazing to see that these small animals can bring down. The shot below shows Abner heading down the Bent Creek Trail. At this time of year the foliage is very green and dense. . .we feel very private when we do this hike.

One day about a week ago, we were on the Carolina Mountain Trail (historic old trail that was overgrown and lost for years but was re-established a few years ago by the Carolina Mountain Club) and I sat down to take a cell phone call from Beth when this moth decided that Abner's Bags on Board container was a good sunbathing spot.

As part of the ongoing effort to show pictures of Abner with all the people in Asheville (and elsewhere) who spoil him so shamelessly, I offer the above. This is Latrella McElrath who is both my personal banker and friend. Latrella has a very up close and personal relationship with Abner as you can see.

Biltmore has recently introduced a program of Segway tours. Part of each 3 hour tour is a teaching session at the beginning before the riders set off on these devices. Even though we have covered every inch of the trails that they go on, Matt, Amy, Regie, Eric and I are considering doing one of these tours just to try out the Segways. The above photo is a group being trained prior to setting off on their tour. I have told several of the people at the Outdoor Center who conduct these tours that they really shouldn't get paid for having such fun.

Spring in the Pisgah National Forest and the NC Arboretum is in full force. Above are some native azaleas that grow wild in the forest and the photo below shows Mountain Laurer about to bloom.

It is raining this grey afternoon is Asheville. We have been having warm and sunny weather but a front moved in today that is predicted to be with us through sometime on Sunday. It somehow seems appropriate. My dear friend Jean Ann Rogers died last night.

As some of you know, Jean Ann, her husband Jim, and I were supposed to go to Puerto Vallarta together in March for a week, but had to cancel a week or two before the trip because of Jean Ann having symptoms of an undetermined illness. She had suddenly begun retaining enormous amounts of water, predominantly in her trunk but to a lesser degree in her legs and feet. She was pretty uncomfortable starting in early or mid-February but her primary care doc didn’t feel that there was any reason to be particularly concerned. He prescribed a diuretic and said she should see how things went. By the time we were scheduled to go to PV, they had determined that the meds were of little benefit and decided to get her into a gastroenterologist. Her primary suggested that we postpone the trip until the water retention was dealt with.

She saw the gastroenterologist in early March and he scheduled her for a March 19th MRI to see if anything showed up. The radiologist read the MRI and wrote a report the next day but neither the GI doc nor her primary bothered to share the results with Jean Ann or Jim for another 8 days. On the 28th of March, after having to insist on being seen again by the GI doc, she was told that the MRI indicated what appeared to be lesions too numerous to count that appeared to be metastases on her liver. With that sentence, Jean Ann was told that she probably had cancer that was, at a minimum, second stage.

About another week and a half passed before she could get in to get a biopsy and still another 5 or 6 days before she was given the results. It showed that she had adenocarcinoma of an undetermined origin. Another delay of several days followed but by now, several of her friends, myself the most demanding, got involved. We got her in, through the back door, to see a doc generally considered to be the best oncologist in town. He reviewed all her tests and history and began to speculate on the origin of her illness. He also ordered some specialized blood work to try to determine the primary site of her cancer. When nothing conclusive emerged, he told her he wanted to start her on two chemotherapy drugs on April 30th and she was scheduled to see his PA for guidance and to work out the details a few days before she would have her first dose. That appointment was a week ago today, but Jean Ann had gone home from work on Wednesday afternoon and had an uncomfortable night, so she called on Thursday morning and asked to switch the appointment to Friday. By Friday, she was feeling so bad that Jim decided that she needed to be hospitalized and she was admitted to St. Joseph hospital a short distance from my house.

Her condition worsened dramatically after she was admitted and Saturday morning she was put on a morphine drip to control her pain which was, by then, severe. Once on the morphine, Jean Ann pretty much left us. She remained largely unconscious the rest of the time she lived. I visited Monday afternoon after taking my friends Shaghig Kodbashian and Jonathan Boynton to the airport at the end of their 4-day visit here. By the time I saw her, I don’t believe she knew anything that was going on. I spent some time in the room with her by myself and said the things to her that I wanted to say, hoping that at some level, she was aware of my being there. She fluttered her eyelids a few times, but her eyes were rolled partially back and she couldn’t look at me. I will never know whether or not she knew I was there or heard what I had said. Sometime on Monday, her kidneys stopped working and at 8:30 on Wednesday night, she finally stopped her fight and ceased breathing.

In less than a week Jean Ann went from going to the office to death. All of her friends and loved ones are stunned at the speed with which this disease took her. No one knows where this cancer started or when. What we do know is that until she saw her oncologist less than 3 weeks before she died, no one who treated her seemed to be in any hurry to find out what was wrong, communicate with her, or help ease her growing discomfort. What we did learn from the oncologist is that an MRI done in mid-November when she had a kidney stone showed clearly visible metastases and either the radiologist who read the image didn’t notice it or didn’t bother to report it. There is no way of knowing now if it would have made a difference if she had been alerted back then to her illness. If nothing else, she might not have spent so much time feeling bloated and miserable.

There will be a memorial this weekend for Jean Ann. I am thinking of wearing something cheerful. I don’t think she would have wanted a bunch of people standing around mourning for her. Jean Ann was a smart, clever, happy, funny, and very loving woman. I will miss her enormously.

Soon I will compose a happier post about many of the good things that are going on here. . .and there is much of that.

Abner continues to be very spoiled by everyone in town. At the top, Regina, the woman who owns the salon where I go to get my hair cut is lavishing her attention on him. He gets his treats directly from the mouth in this case. In the third photo, Butch, one of the Public Safety guys at the Arboretum is crazy about Abner. Butch and Terrell are both guilty of giving him way too many dog treats but he loves them for it. Notice the smile. In general, as you can see from the other two shots, Abner's life here is pretty good. Mine too.

Abner and Spencer are still pretty much each other's best bud, but occasionally Abner and I encounter someone else who turns out to be interesting. Two days after the boy rolled around and played together in dense ivy near the Winery at Biltmore, Abner and I encountered Zeke, this very handsome Red and Tan Doberman. I guess Zeke was unaccustomed to a dog who was taller than he is, but they seemed to enjoy each other.

Weekend before last, Matt, his two friends named Eric, Abner, Bear, one of the Eric's dogs, and I hiked the Laurel River gorge down to where it meets the French Broad. It is a wonderful day hike of about 7-1/2 miles round trip but all along the river. Near the farthest point on the hike you encounter this wonderful stretch of railroad track and a bridge across the Laurel. It has a wonderful romantic quality that makes you wonder where the tracks disappear to. In all the times I have done this hike, only once did I ever see a train here.