When you pull up to Mary's house you have to go very slowly down the driveway to thread your way through a gauntlet of cats that always seem to know that a kindred spirit lives at Windward Meadows. I think Mary would be very content to just sit on her porch and let her various animal friends come up one by one and be loved.

Or you might find her in her vegetable or flower garden making the rows tidy and attractive. And be sure to stay out of her way if she is on the tractor making some order out of her meadow garden and animal habitat.

But for her quiet and reflective times, she likes to knit. Mary has been knitting since she was eight years old. She has made countless numbers of heirloom pieces for generations of folks. Wonderful blankets and afghans and sweaters have all been made with an amazing assortment of patterns and specialty stitches.

Recently, though, Mary has turned her hand to making scarves. And not just any scarves - she has taken her lifetime of experience and applied it to working with complicated mixtures of whimsical and traditional yarns to produce one-of-a-kind pieces.

Part of her passion comes from seeking out and working with fiber producers in the various coves and hollers of the North Carolina mountains that she loves. She hasn't yet tackled knitting fiber right off the back of angora rabbits, but she knows the artisans who can do it. After selecting the various fibers that attract her, she combines them into unwieldy skeins and somehow knits the odd assortments into these wonderful scarves.