Sunday, October 19, 2014

Joining the Leaf People on Craggy Pinnacle; Acquiring a Poison Ring

J and I ventured out along the Blue Ridge Parkway this afternoon along with hundreds of tourists seeking autumn colors.  The trail up to the top of Craggy Pinnacle reminded me of visiting the Uffizi in Florence-- forced march, not enough time to linger and enjoy any of the paintings/trees.  inally we found a side trail and a little outcrop off of it.  It was below the pinnacle itself so we missed the crowds up there and had a quiet spot to sit for a couple of hours and talk and take pictures and draw.

On the left is a view looking down on the valley and at the mountain range in the distance.  On the right is the pinnacle as seen from below.  The foreground, which I did not draw, was a grassy high meadow and relatively flat.  The elevation was a little above 6000 feet, a 400 ft climb from the parking lot.
I met J to go hiking downtown at the Jewish festival where he had been able to find poison rings, something I had found when I was at the festival a couple of years ago.  I have regretted not buying one when I was there before;  so while I sat in the car in an illegal parking place, J ran back to the festival with some cash and bought one for each of us.  His has a tiny drawer under the bezel (top part with a small onyx stone) that pulls out.  Very nice.  Mine has a hinged bezel with a Celtic knot design.  I've never gotten over my fascination with decoder rings from the 50s, and an old silver ring with a secret compartment is right up my alley.  A good place to carry pin numbers among other things.  I checked out a history of poison rings and learned that date back very far, to the Middle Ages and earlier, and were used to carry poison, obviously, but also holy relics, locks of hair, secret messages, perfume, and even tiny portraits.

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