Fall 2017 mountain getaway to Dillard

Few things say "Southern hospitality" more than a Mason jar full of tea, and that's exactly what you'll see when you dine at the Dillard House in Dillard, Georgia, one of our favorite spots in the North Georgia Mountains. Alex and I just had the pleasure of spending another lovely few days up there, with plenty of time for reading, strolling, eating, and shopping!

On our last trip, we discovered the charms of nearby Clayton, Georgia, the hometown of a dear friend of mine. This time there were several new shops in town, including this funky art gallery I absolutely adored.

Isn't this column amazing?

Clayton also seems to have lots of hidden gardens tucked away behind some of its streets, like this one where I saw some folks relaxing as I shopped on Saturday.

The town clearly takes pride in its flowers and gardens. And does anyone know what this flower is? It's not the best photo since I took it with an iPhone and not the close-up lens on my camera, but it was so pretty, I had to try to get a shot. It reminds me of a bleeding heart, but bleeding hearts are all one color, aren't they?

The family-style meals at the Dillard House are so, so large, you really have to plan your dining well. You simply cannot, for instance, eat there twice in one day unless you want to be the size of one of those mountains. So we had breakfast there one day and saved lunch for another day. Here you see Alex at our empty table ...

And here you see our lunch table quite literally filled with bowls and platters of food! We ate plenty (I had skipped breakfast to make sure I was good and hungry), and we still had four large take-out containers full to take home, so I don't anticipate having to cook until later this week.

Hurricane Nate was moving in so I didn't get to take my usual photos of the dahlias in the garden out front, but I enjoyed the great view of the property from my table.

Oh, and one thing you do not want to save for later is their delicious hot strawberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream! It's a dreamy good dessert and well worth the splurge once a year!

I believe I shopped about eight antique malls while I was in town, yet I didn't see one teacup or tea mug that I just had to have, and I had recently read of a collector who said she no longer buys things she likes but buys only things she loves. I think that's a great rule at this stage of my over-collected life, and I surprised myself by buying only a new cross necklace on this trip. So while I didn't pick up any new teawares as I had expected, the Dillard House has mugs in the room, so this served quite well as my "tea mug" for this trip. It was another great time in Dillard with my sweetheart, and I hope we get to enjoy many more trips there!