Never too old to travel!
If you’ve wondered whether we would ever get back to “normal” after the corona virus quarantine, hear this: quilt shops are full, and shoppers are spending at the East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2020! Owners of all ten shops participating in this year’s event mentioned the rush of visitors (all masked!) who have not only […]
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Knoxville is the ugliest city I ever saw in America, with the possible exception of some mill towns in New England. John Gunther, 1947 With that caustic statement (actually a blessing in disguise), Knoxville took note. We Knoxvillians had a pretty city then, but we have an even prettier city now. And to top it […]
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I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own. Chaim Potok On a recent journey through the Great Smoky Mountains, we understood Patty’s Lens-Artists Challenge for this week: “A Quiet Moment” since, we, too, were searching for the hushed beauty […]
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The world needs who you were made to be. Anonymous Southern magnolias have been a part of me all my life. From the time I was born in Louisiana and then moved to Arkansas and Tennessee, I’ve never been without these gracious gems of trees, towering over lawns and stately homes (humble ones as well) […]
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Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. Buddha With a congratulatory nod to the women who began the Lens-Artists Challenge and are now celebrating the 100th prompt, let us say “thank you” for influencing us to think creatively and artistically . This week, Tina of Travels and Trifles […]
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This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge features the theme of All Wet, and from our home in Knoxville (where we are still sheltering in place), a spring rain brought just what we needed for the challenge: gentle drops on tender new blossoms — all in our neighborhood. “Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon […]
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Just the mention of fall in Knoxville brings to mind football with the Vols and the music of the Pride of the Southland Band. We can hear that music now — strains of the unofficial fight song, “Rocky Top,” being played as the band marches through campus into Neyland Stadium . . . or as […]
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Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures in “dabs” and “smidgens” and “tads” and “you know, hon, just some.” Inside cover of The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table With many of us staying home during the corona virus “Shelter in Place” mandate, we are finding ways to […]
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As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. Henry David Thoreau When life was at its most complicated (What, was that only a month ago perhaps?), we found that time spent in Cades Cove in the Great […]
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Whenever we travel, especially to foreign countries, people ask us where we are from. We answer proudly “Tennessee”! But if we detect a hesitancy as they process our answer, we only have to say a couple of words about famous singers like Elvis and Dolly Parton, and we get a head nod and a reassuring […]
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