Interesting Dreams

I have always been blessed with a very active subconscious imagination, and last night I enjoyed another pleasant diversion. In my dream, I was seated on a backyard swing; one with a wooden seat, suspended by long ropes from a piece of lumber spanning the space between two tall trees. I twisted the ropes into a tight spiral, as I had done many times in my childhood. I could feel the anticipatory tingle in my gut as I braced myself for a moment before launching myself into a thrilling, exhilarating spin. I was acutely aware of so many physical and physiological sensations: the incredible rush of adrenaline, the touch of the warm summer air across my cheek, even my hair swinging off to one side of my face as the ropes quickly unwound. Such fun!

This was the view from behind Grotto Falls. We will definitely take the kids there this summer.

To the Smokies At Last!

John and I finally just took a day and went to the Smokies to restore our souls.

We are beginning to check out suitable trails for the Grands when they are here this summer. The one we chose this time was the Trillium Gap trail to Grotto Falls.

This trail went behind the waterfall, and we think the children will really enjoy it. There were kids splashing around in the pool at the the base in their swimsuits, and it looked like lots of fun. (Even tho I'm sure the water was plenty cold!)

Chocolate Daddy Iris

Our house is filled with sweet smells: Chocolate Daddy reminds us of, uh, well, chocolate - and the yellow iris is yummily lemon scented. Both of these are irises hybridized by Grammy Smith.

Springtime in the South

Golly gee! It has been spring here in East Tennessee since we came back from Florida a month ago. One beautiful thing has followed another, with no let up. Not only the blossoming trees and flowers, but the birds' songs, the gentle touch of the warming air on bare arms, and even the quiet fragrance of the air. Great weather to be outside, but also the rainy days and even the stormy nights make the heart happy just be alive. And we DO have stormy nights! Last night it rained and sparkled and thundered in wave after wave as the weather cells passed over us. The thunder here on our high hillside is especially impressive as it rolls around among the nearby hills and comes back again and again. Whew. Can you tell we are happy to be here?

Spelling words

Just in case anyone wants to know ... here a just a few of the 1800 words I had to learn: masseter, nociceptive, coccygeal, stylopharengyeus, aryl, acharya, choucroute, rhabdomancy, seapoose, agalloch, echoppe, chionablepsia, Chinarra, psephology, and my personal favorite: phthisiology! This is why we were so pleased to have a chance to spell inoculate ... it was soooo easy!

Yep, this is just what it looks like. I am participating in an adult spelling bee!

Unlike the familiar school bees, for adults they have made several concessions: we have three person teams, we have 60 seconds to discuss the word and its spelling, and we have paper and pencils to write down what we agree to be correct.

Then the captain (me, in this case) goes to the microphone and reads the version we have agreed upon.

They did not, however, make any concessions in the difficulty level of the words!

Out of 20 teams, we came in sixth. Not too shabby, but next year we will do better!

The word we missed was "inoculate." We all agreed to spell it with two n's. Our friends in the audience, and John, and even the team which followed us, all agreed that they would've spelled it that way, too. (The next team was able to learn from our mistake, and they spelled it correctly.)

We lasted through about a dozen rounds, and it was all great fun. I really took it seriously and spent untold hours studying. We all agreed that we learned a lot during our studies.

The best part was the fact that the production netted about $6000 for the local Literacy Council, and will provide a number of college scholarships for adults who dropped out of high school but later achieved their GEDs. A good cause, I'm sure you will agree.

All three of us are dressed in our team colors and are feeling pretty spiffy. Notice my socks!

Donna, the second member of our three member team, coaches me on a few last minute words right before the competition. We were in the cafeteria of the local high school.

These are the programs showing the listing of names. (There were four pages worth).

Walter and Louise Smith were named on this page.

I just wanted you all to remember Grammy and Grandsir today, too.

Easter Lilies

This is the interior of the Tellico Village Community Church immediately following Easter Sunday services.

There were dozens of Easter lilies arranged throughout the sanctuary. Each one was in memory of, or to honor, someone special.

We provided one in memory of my parents.

Adding to the overall ambiance of the Mule Day festivities were several musicians playing various instruments. This man, who appears to be Native American (not unusual in East Tennessee) was producing haunting melodies from his pipe flute. I could've stood and listened to him all day.

I still can't get my pictures to upload, so this is just a note to say I'm still here. We have been totally immersed in our gorgeous southern springtime. Our version of O-hanami mostly involves dogwood trees -- Knoxville has an annual Dogwood Arts Festival, with routes through pretty neighborhoods marked with pink paint on the pavement. David and Lisa Underwood's home is on one such drive. Their most gorgeous, huge, old dogwood tree is in their backyard, tho, with the ones in the front nearing the end of their prime. Redbud trees overlap with the dogwoods in many areas, and early azalea bushes add their splash as well. Whew. All this, with warm sunny weather .... bliss.

The really big event of the day was the Mule Pulling contest. The sledge was loaded with increasing numbers of cinder blocks, and each team had three tries to pull it a total distance of about 8-10 feet. Sometimes, after the pull was complete and the harness disconnected from the sledge, the teams would continue to pull ... and the hapless handlers were swung around as though they were playing "snap the whip". By the way, the guys in the green/white stripes were county prisoners, there to tote the blocks. The mules could pull about 3.3 times the combined weight of the team. Whew!

The Mule Day parade lasted for about two hours (at least that was what was planned. We didn't last quite that long.)

There were covered wagons appropriately sized to all the different sizes of animals.

We expanded our cultural horizons on Saturday, and drove to Columbia, TN to attend the "Mule Day" festivities. We saw more mules in one day than we've ever seen before in our entire lives. They ranged in size from the dog-sized miniature mules, up through the pony mules, "regular" mules, and on up to the Belgian mules. Those guys are huge! This is one of the regular sort.