So, for contrast, here’s a photo from my previous post dated March 3, 2015, showing an on-season, gorgeous White Star White Magnolia!

For more off-season occurrences, head to Weekly Photo Challenge: Off-season, right here.

Vivid fabrics by Kaffe Fassett liven up a traditional quilt pattern.

This week, I’m traveling to 12 quilt shops participating in the annual East Tennessee Shop Hop.  And although I grew up watching my mom make quilts, these new fabrics in somewhat traditional patterns are nothing like what she put together.  (But she’d love them, no doubt.)

Vivid colors front and back on this quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett.

The vivid colors and contemporary patterns are the inspiration of Kaffe Fassett, a London designer who has made his mark in the design world in various textile fields:  needlepoint, knitting, and now quilting.

Were the 60s ever this colorful?

This cute piece isn’t a Fassett design but one I couldn’t resist sharing.  It’s a vivid summer somewhere!

For more vivid entries in this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.

All quilts shown are on display at Gina’s Bernina Sewing Center, 10816 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37934.

Ready to go ATVing with a guide from Xtreme Clarens in South Africa.

For those of you familiar with our blog, you know that we traveled to the country of Lesotho to build a Habitat for Humanity house.  But when a coup against the government forced us to evacuate the country, we found shelter in nearby Clarens, South Africa.  Worn out with waiting, worrying, and packing so hurriedly, our whole group decided we deserved a bit of excitement.  Xtreme Clarens to the rescue with rentable ATVs! We took to the hills.

On the way, we were treated to scenes like we’d never seen before.  Good scenes — rocky terrain, heights from which we could view sites miles away, the homes and shelters of people who lived on the mountainside.  And not so good scenes of devastating fires creating environmental hazards and hardships for the people trying to breathe heavily polluted air.

On the way back to the rental place, we welcomed paved streets and a smoother ride. But what we really loved seeing were the people, especially the children, who stood on the side of the road, waving wildly or attempting to high-five us.

Shot with my iPhone held in one hand, we tried to capture a shot of the children who ran out of their houses to high-five us!

Kinda reminded us of a quote by Robert Frost in “Birches”:  That would be good both going and coming back. 

For more “on the way” shots, head over to this week’s WordPress Daily Post Challenge right here

Poster we saw on the way!

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Photo taken high above Kathmandu where we could clearly see the city below. The broken stones we saw then may foretell what this city may be now — broken in many ways.

Could be that we’ve had Nepal on our minds lately, but the word for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken just seems appropriate for that country right now. Not that we have any additional news.  But just looking through our pictures taken in 2011 makes us realize that what we saw then may not even be intact after the April 2015 earthquakes.

What we remember, though, is all positive when it comes to our memories of a Habitat International build in a village about 45 minutes from Kathmandu.  We watched as the homeowner took a pick ax and broke up the rock in the quarry on his property.

Homeowner in Nepal breaks up stone from a quarry on his mountainside property

Broken pieces were “daisy-chained” up the mountain where stone cutters continued to shape stones into building blocks for a stone-and-mud home.

Stone cutter breaks up rock to form building blocks for a new home in Nepal

And then those broken and shaped stones formed walls for a new home for a young couple and their daughter.

Adding doors and windows to a new home in Nepal constructed of stone and mud

May that circle be unbroken as we continue to help others around the world.

For more entries in the WordPress challenge this week — Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken — click here.

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Intricate.”

Intricately stitched wall hanging of the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is known for intricate design, inlays, and details.  But this stitched version seen in a tapestry shop in India caught our tour group’s attention: fine detail executed in tiny stitches in an exquisite wall hanging.  Not surprisingly, there was no price on this piece!

For more intricate details, head to WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Intricate.

Giddyup at Coolidge Park Antique Carousel, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Why would you want to just stand and watch the motion when you can ride a horse and move like the wind?!

Constant motion on the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Or run with the wind on Chattanooga’s Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge?

Childhood = Constant Motion!

Want to put a little motion in your life?  Move on over to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion right here.

“This is what I had” sign: Abundant Acres tent at Lakeshore Park Farmers Market. You have to get there early!

You have to be an early bird if you want to buy greens on Opening Day of the Lakeshore Park Farmers Market.  And as just as we suspected, Abundant Acres from McMinn County, Tennessee, sold out early, leaving one bunch of kale from what the sign revealed:  “This is what I did have.”

Sad but undaunted, Bert lined up at the tent of VG’s Bakery, quickly grabbing three Toasty Almond Sweet Rolls before someone else did.

Grabbing the last three Toasty Almond Sweet Rolls from the VG’s Bakery tent.

Stuffing one each of the delicacies into our mouths, we perused the other farmers’ wares wondering which one of us would enjoy that third roll with coffee the next morning.  But we knew the answer:  the early bird, of course.

Grabbing the last three Toasty Almond Sweet Rolls from the VG’s Bakery tent.

For more entries in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Early Bird, click here.

For more information:

On farmers markets in the Knoxville area including schedules, go to East TN Farm Markets: www.EastTNFarmMarkets.org. 

On the Yoder family of Abundant Acres, click here.

On VG’s Bakery, click here.

Seemingly afloat is this diver who’s taking a closer look at sea vegetation.

Entry from the McQuilken Family (Steven, Lauren, & Suzanne) in the Dogwood Arts Festival Chalk Walk 2015.

Another entry seemed afloat just by the process of creation:  the artists (University of Tennessee students) were freehanding the painting!  No paper picture beside them.  No preconceived notion of how this should turn out.  Just one artist sketching freehandedly (Is that a word?) while the other one filled in the color.

UT Art Education majors creating a watery picture for Chalk Walk 2015.

End result?  A dreamy, purple-haired lady afloat with the creatures beside her.

Lady with Koi — Chalk Walk 2015

For more entries in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat, swim over here.

Dogwood Arts Festival 2015: Chalk Walk

Just One of Those Days by Cheryl Burchett, Educator at Beaumont Elementary, Knox County Schools. Charcoal and pastel on collage.

Art Source 2015: A Knox County Art Educators Exhibition

A Dogwood Arts Festival event at the UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 379o2; web.utk.edu/~downtown/

Tiny bud of a Saucer Magnolia

From bud to full opening, the glory of this flower — called Saucer Magnolia, Chinese Magnolia, Japanese Magnolia — comes upon us quickly and lasts only a few, albeit fabulous, days.  All too often, brisk winds and sudden drops in temperature take their toll, and the glory fades sooner than the already short bloom time allows.  But oh, what a joy to drive through Knoxville, pointing out full-blown specimens and reveling in their ephemeral charm!

Almost open — Saucer Magnolia, Knoxville, Tennessee

Morning after a spring rain — Saucer Magnolia

Ephemeral beauty — a Saucer Magnolia, Knoxville, Tennessee

For more entries in this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Ephemeral, click here.