"THIS IS YOUR KINGDOM," (OR HOW TO MAKETHE MOST OF YOUR DAY OFF)

I decided to use my day off for a day-trip.  I picked Pittsboro, a lovely small town about an hour away.  And in fact Pittsboro is a kingdom of sorts because it lies in Chatham County which is named for William Pitt, the 1st Earl of Chatham, England.  Chatham is 32 miles from London in the southeastern County of Kent.  Pittsboro itself is named for William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), the youngest Prime Minister of the UK.  So, a very English town. 

French Connection, Pittsboro, NC

This lovely old home houses a shop that features French fabrics, African arts and crafts and metal sculptures from Monterrey, Mexico.  Huge 18-wheelers arrive quarterly from Mexico with sculptures made from tin drums and other cast-off metals.  Perfect recycling.  I bought a quirky yellow pelican for the top of a totem-pole tree I am decorating. 

French Fabrics

The rest of the town is just as charming.  About 3,700 people live in Pittsboro.  The historic district has coffee shops, vintage boutiques, art galleries, antique shops, restaurants and bars, just about everything to make for an excellent day trip. 

There's also a first-class woodworking school with sold-out classes in hand-carving, window joinery, spoon carving, bench work, puzzle pots, memento boxes, etc.  Windsor chairs are a specialty (www.woodwrightschool.com).  If you're not into that, there's Shag Dancing. What fun to take a class in that!

On the way back I stopped at Fearrington Village to see the herds of black and white belted cows and goats that graze there.  One was close enough to rub its head.  And I passed a pottery studio in a little turquoise and cobalt house off the road with an OPEN sign.  The owner is Lyn Morrow (www.lynmorrowpottery.com), a local ceramic artist who trained in Perugia, Italy!  I thought that was amazing. I loved talking with her.  With North Carolina clay thwarting gardeners all over the state, we are big on pottery.  

My local kingdom doesn't have palaces or tombs of famous kings and queens, or churches with brass rubbings, or most of the things we love to see when we travel abroad.  But the day off was great!  If you are driving up or down the eastern corridor, meander off I-95 a bit and enjoy Pittsboro, North Carolina on Hwy 15-501 through mostly country.  Or better yet, enjoy your own kingdom on your day off.   

Fearrington Village Belted Cows