Faith, Folklore, and Friends

We have taken some odd things on trips.      Sometimes, we don't take enough; sometimes, we take way too much.   We have taken food and water, apparently thinking that wherever we were going didn't have such things.   We used to take a bag full of books; now we take a loaded Kindle and a bag of books in case we forget to charge the Kindle's battery.   Hub does most of the driving, so I usually take something to do with my hands, like knitting or sewing. I hand-quilted a full-sized quilt once on a trip to Sisters, Oregon, to a quilt show.  We have taken loaded weapons through states where it may or may not have been legal.  We have taken framed photos of our granddaughters to decorate our hotel room.  We have taken our own pillows, then left them in hotels in North Carolina and Oklahoma. We have bought plants when we were far away, then struggled to get them home alive.  Yep, we have packed some crazy and totally unnecessar...

Wilderness Wildlife Week offers excursions to various places in the Smoky Mountain National Park and the surrounding area.  These excursions are highly desired, and you have to enter a lottery to get a seat on one of them. On lottery night,  Hub and I got tickets, and mine was one of the first ones called.  You could register up to four people, so Hub got to go with me.  Two excursions are allowed per ticket; I chose the American Eagle Foundation/Bush Beans trip and a photography trip with a professional photographer as our guide.  Today, I am going to tell you about our photography trip, which turned a little differently than originally planned. We were scheduled to be at the LeConte Center at 8:15 AM for the 8:30 departure.  After we got there, we were told the trip would be delayed for at least an hour.  (The bus driver told us later that the tour company didn't bring enough buses, and he had to go to Knoxville to get the one we were on.) I...

Last week, we were able to spend some time in my favorite place, the Smoky Mountains.  We were there for Wilderness Wildlife Week, several days of events about Appalachia. It was held at the LeConte Center in Pigeon Forge.    Wilderness Wildlife Week was named top international event of 2016. People come from all over the United States and several foreign countries to attend this event.  It was started in 1991, and celebrated 27 years last week. There were stories and lectures about the folk life of the mountains.  We heard from writers, park rangers, hiking guides, photography experts, and crafts people on a wide range of subjects.  There was old and modern music on instruments one doesn't see everyday. Of course, there was some Appalachian  cooking, too! It was an amazing week.  Next year, the dates are May 8-12, and it is already on my calendar. These photos are from the Cade's Cove area.  It hasn't changed much sin...

Hub and I attended the Smoke on the Water Festival last Saturday, April 29, in beautiful McFarland Park.  There was a mass of humanity there.  Apparently, there is something about the smell of barbecue in the air that gathers people together. This was the festival's second year, and event coordinators are calling it a huge success.  Funds raised from the event benefits Shoals Scholar Dollars, a community scholarship program. We sampled six different kinds of barbecue, and surprisingly, they were all very unique. A couple of them were a little too sweet for me, but they were all good. Several different musical acts entertained all day. Will and Janet McFarlane were on stage while we were there. You can see that it was a little windy that day. Hub loves the vintage cars.  Personally, I like new cars, but that's just me. McFarland Park is a perfect place to spend a spring Saturday.

It was a perfect day for music in beautiful Wilson Park.   I'm so happy I got to be there. Music in the Park is every Wednesday during May and June, from 11:30 to 1:30.  Great entertainment, and its free!  Thanks, Florence Parks and Recreation.

They say that our olfactory sense is the last to go; that up 'til the end when our memories of names and faces and places are gone, we can remember certain smells.  I can instantly remember the smell of burning leaves, the richness of a plowed field after a summer rain, and potatoes frying in a skillet.  I can remember the smell of mimeograph machine ink from fifty years ago, and the Vick's salve that Mama rubbed on our throats.  I remember waking up to the smell of coffee and bacon cooking every morning of my childhood.  Nothing smelled as good as honeysuckle. We knew it was spring then, when we played outside by the porch light and our bare feet got slick with dew, and it was like being in a perfume factory with the wild honeysuckle blooming along fence rows and road sides.  Later, when we were dating, we rode those country roads with the car windows down, listening to music with the smell of honeysuckle intensifying the young love being born. ...