Poor George. Today was his scheduled visit to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He planned to use this beautiful park as a backdrop for his Earth Day message and to push his "Clear Skies" initiatives. But Mother Nature didn't approve. About the time he was scheduled to helicopter from the airport to the park, a line of severe thunder storms hit the area...lightening, high winds and torrential rains. George was forced to give an "abbreviated" speech in front of the armory near the airport. Do you think he got it?

If you weren't at Sundown in the City on Market Square Mall tonight, you were in the minority. The mall was packed with young and old moving to the music of The Hector Qirko Band and Steve Winwood. Thanks Knoxville, Mayor Bill and the many event sponsors. This was a beautiful spring evening and a really incredible show!


A fabulous opening act, The Hector Qirko Band

We would have been happy to listen to these guys all evening!

Evening falls and the crowd is totally engaged in the music.

Many of the buildings along the mall are in various stages of rehab. Through outdoor events such as this and Movies on the Square, Knoxville is effectively utilizing Market Square Mall to entice it's citizens downtown. The revitalization of the mall can only increase the excitement of being in the city.

Lots of moving people. It was, at times, hard to see much on stage. We were also on the wrong side of the stage. Steve Winwood was pretty much blocked from my view by one of the trees. For my next trip to Sundown in the City, I will bring my chair AND a chain saw.
Encore, encore!!

John and I took a quick hike to the top of House Mountain today. House Mountain, a Knox county park, is located at 9601 Hogskin (gotta love the name) off Rutledge Park. The mountain offers an opportunity for a quick challenging hike when one is too lazy or starting too late to hike just about anywhere else. That pretty much sums up our attitude this morning.



Wildflowers along the trail

Squawroot

The view from the top. Sharp's Ridge is visible i in the distance/

All week we looked forward to a Saturday "dinner date" at the Tomato Head. Somehow we managed to ignore the fact that the Knoxville Dogwood Arts Festival parade would be underway about a block from the restaurant at just about the time we planned to be eating AND Saturday was prom night for several area high schools. When we finally put the events together (Saturday morning), we decided to risk the crowds and take the plunge by heading downtown in the mist of much activity.

After cruising a few parking lots, we found an open spot and dashed to Market Square, hoping to get to Tomato Head before the crowds. Hmmmm, lots of boutique craft tents were set up and lots of people were milling about. Can you tell we don't read the Knoxville News Sentinel? We were clueless! Luckily the line at Tomato Head was short and we waited only 20 minutes for a small table outside.

Ahhhh, outside. Although our favorite restaurant downtown, the acoustics inside the Tomato Head are terrible and it is hard to carry on a conversation. We were happy to be jammed against the wall behind a party of 8. We ordered the hummus and blue chips (out of chips, too bad, delicious homemade pita wedges were substituted) and a pizza, #13 on the menu...a 9" roasted rosemary chicken, no sauce, goat cheese, kalamata olives, carmelized onions and pesto. Yum, yum!

Just as we finished dinner, the parade crowd began to stream onto the mall. To our surprise, Duane and Angela Simmons materialized from the mass of people, jokingly questioning our choice of eating dinner instead of going to the parade :->. We chatted for a bit and and they were soon off to comb the expanse of craft tents. We too, spent some time looking at crafts before drifting toward the stage to enjoy a Cajun band from Louisiana. Too few people were gathered around to listen and we wondered about the publicity.

Once again Duane and Angela appeared from between the rows of tents and we spent an enjoyable evening chatting and swaying to the music.

E-e-e-e-e-e-k! On our evening walk around the yard tonight, I opened the birdfeeder to check the seed level. As I lifted the lid, two little beady black eyes were starring back at me. The two eyes were attached to a very little, really cute field mouse. Cute I thought after I squealed, dropped the lid and refused to raise it again. John peered inside and found a very scared mouse scurrying around on top of the seed. He looked really well fed!

With leather yard glove on hand, John reached in the feeder to grab the mouse. The mouse jumped around as John lurched from side to side trying to grab his tail. Standing back, I am not exactly sure what transpired but John jerked, the mouse high jumped out of his hand and hit the ground running.

We think it is curious that the mouse got in the seed. The birdfeeder sits on a pole and is of the squirrel proof variety. The little mouse may have snuck in the garage and crawled in the seed. He could have ended up in the feeder when I dumped the last of the seed bag on Sunday. On the other hand, he may have figured out how to jump in the tray like the squirrels. So much for squirrel (and mouse) proof feeders.

John and I went hiking on the Chestnut Trail today. The trail is located across from the "Y" on the Townsend side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked the trail several years ago on bitter cold, snowy day so we were thrilled to enjoy warm weather and sunny skies on this early spring Sunday!

A number of hikers with cameras and tripods were out on the lower part of the trail; a sure signal that the wildflower pilgrimage will soon begin. I don't take to wildflower identification with the religious zeal that many do but I hope you don't find a mistake in my identification below! :-)


Yep! It really is this pretty. Note the snow capped ridge in the distance!


If you know much about me, you know that my favorite flower is the violet. I usually have 6 or more brightly colored "grandma violets" (African) blooming in house but I have a fondness for the delicate lavender and purple wild violets that bloom among the blades of grass in my yard. For a real green and lavender show, you can't beat the wild violets blooming among ferns and moss in the Smokies in early spring.

Wild violets among the wild iris leaves. The iris will break out in mini blooms soon! Did you know that the wild iris is the Tennessee state flower?

Rue Anemone....I think!

Okay, another guess....Toothwart?

This is one of the solomon brothers...false solomon seal or solomon seal.
We were a little early for the trillium but found lots of buds trail side, just days from opening.


This beautiful yellow trillium was one of two we found open.

The Greenways 5K has become a rite of spring for many of us who gather each year on the 1st Saturday in April to help friend and race director Will Skelton with the race. On this blustery, grey spring day, 137 shivering runners gathered at West High School to run an out and back course on the Third Creek section of the Knoxville Greenways. The bridges were slick and the greenway a bit muddy due to recent rain but everyone seemed to have a good time.

While the runners were running, John was stationed on the course at mile marker 2 to provide splits to the runners. Barbara, Steve Dyer, Ed Soler and I were warm and dry inside preparing food and drink. Oh...did I fail to mention the rain during the race? Poor, wet John :-)

I have posted a few pictures below, a full set of pictures with runners will be available on the Knoxville Track Club website in a few days. http://www.ktc.org

Today was the 14th Annual Greenways 5K, a race to draw attention to the growing greenway system in Knoxville.

John rode his bike to mile marker 2 to shout out times as runners hurried by. Here he is waiting, something he does quite patiently.

B and B...Barbara and Beverly, once again gathered to help with race prep.

Gathered at the start of the race, runners wait for race director, Will Skelton (left on curb) to read a few announcements and sound the gun.Today was cold and windy.

While the runners run, volunteers are busy in the background preparing food. Yum, yum, bananas, oranges, cookies, donuts and bagels.

Mark Skelton, brother of race director Will finished near top! Mark seriously took up running when his son, Todd began running for school. While Todd has taken top honors for the state and has run internationally, Mark has become quite a runner in his own right, regularly setting new personal bests!||