Dogwood Winter and Retreat

Dogwood winter is a term used by Southerners to describe a period of cold weather that coincides with the blooming of the local dogwoods.Typically the trees bloom sometime between mid-April and mid-May (depending on the weather variations of the season) and such a cold spell is often the last winter-like weather of the season.
Well, I certainly hope so ! This has been the coldest Dogwood winter in the past eighteen years, so Pa says. All I know is that I'm cold and have been for a while. OK so if you know me then you know that I'm always cold but this is a colder cold.
I had heard on the radio that Dogwood Winter was coming the weekend that we were to go to Rugby TN. While I was packing I packed flannel sheets and extra blankets just in case. Pa wasn't real thrilled with me. He doesn't understand the cold nature. I just told him I wasn't going to get there and then be miserable the whole weekend because I was cold. Since it was still warm out he just looked at me like I was nuts and sighed.
It was a pretty day for a trip and we enjoyed the drive. When we stopped over at Crossville it was cooler and at Allardt just up the road it was flat out cold. I was dreading our cottage being cold. To my great surprise the cottage was very warm and cozy.
This was the first time Pa and I had ever done anything like this so we were a little nervous about what to expect. There were two bedrooms and a sitting /kitchen area just enough room for 3 people very cozy.
The town is small and we took a walk around it then went home. The church there had Good Friday services.It was after the service that one of the men came back in and said it was snowing, big fat snow.
Pa went to get pictures while I fixed supper and that ended our first day.
The next day we took the town tour, drove up to Pickett State Park and checked out a couple of other parks. The Dogwood trees had gone from spectacular to sad looking because of frost but not the rest of the area.
We spent that evening reading the Bible,talking ,and praying for our children.
All in all we had a Wonder filled time in a very quite place and plan on doing it again and again.
We didn't need the flannels but the blankets were used. Now I want my own cabin on the Cumberland Plateau overlooking the river.