Happy 2013…

I worked yesterday, a full 8.5 hour day. We had plans to go to Will and Kim’s annual New Year’s Eve party but I was totally burned out. Instead we stayed home, ordered Papa Murphy’s pizza and went to bed around 11:30 PM. I was still watching TV at 12:00 AM and watched the ball drop at Time’s Square, John was asleep. It was a quiet, relaxing evening. Spending New Year’s Eve with just the two of us is the best!

Dreary, rainy start to the New Year.   I can’t believe I lounged in my PJ’s until noon.  John beat me and didn’t change until we went out for hot chocolate around 3:00 PM.  He woke up with a queasy stomach (could have been the Papa Murphy’s) and I with a scratchy throat and hoarse voice.  After hours of reading, sleeping and generally doing nothing, we are feeling a bit better. 

I have a few New Year’s resolutions on my note pad.  Among the usual items that appear yearly ( loose weight and increase physical fitness) is to learn to use our new SLR Cannon came and to blog more.  Blogging has fallen off my  priority list, it can take a huge amount of time.  Facebook has somewhat replaced it but I frequently get bored by facebook and it does not provide the same “through the years” experience.   One day at a time with blogging…    

A few rainy day pictures from our outing for hot chocolate:

I



Happy 2013 to all!

-B

500th Post and Other Things...

On August 19, 2004, a little blog named Smithposts... was born. Today, some 6 1/2 years later, I am typing the 500th post.  My enthusiasm has ebbed and flowed over the years as evident by the fluctuating  number of monthly updates but this recording of snapshots of my life marches on.  

Busy weekend as we continue to get back into hiking. Saturday morning John and I left the house around 8:30 AM and pointed the car toward the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We drove the back roads, the bicycle roads, so John could get a glimpse of other riders and day dream about being in his bicycle shoes instead of his boots.  As we drove along Old Walland Road, we caught this glimpse of low lying clouds trapped between the foothills.  Really incredible as we drove into the clouds and out on the other side.  

We parked just outside the Cades Cove Loop Road gate and paused to gaze at the serene beauty of  winter.  No matter how often or why we go into Cades Cove, it never fails to amaze. We talked about the times we have hiked, run and bicycled around The Cove and made a commitment to come back at least one more time this year.

Rich Mountain Loop Trail was the first leg of our hike.  The trail head is located just inside the gate to the Cades Cove Loop Road and begins as a deceptively flat section of trail.

Us within the first mile of the hike

We spotted a couple of deer in the forest near the trail head. Aside from birds and squirrels, this was the extent of our wildlife experience on this trip.  Deer in Cades Cove are surprisingly unafraid of people and while I couldn't get the deer to pose for a photo, we were able to get pretty close.  

About a mile into the hike, we reached the backside of John Oliver's cabin.  The cabin was built in the 1820's by the first resident of the Cove.  The cabin is a small structure with a covered front and back porch.

John Oliver's Cabin

View from one of the cabin's porches, really beautiful

Woodland plate for some small animal, probably a squirrel

Shortly past the cabin, the trail begins a steep climb.  I say the uphill is steeper but shorter if hiking counter clockwise, John says it doesn't matter, the length of the climb and the elevation are the same.  We happened to be hiking clockwise and the hike was quite steep.  I may or may not have been overheard to whine  (about 3/4's of the way to the highest point), something along the lines of "if we were hiking in the other direction"  and "we would already be done with this climb" but I'm not sure about that.  I was definitely aware that I need more trail time before our big summer adventure!!

John stopped to look at the view and compare it to the  map.  We decided we were looking toward Russell and Spence Field. Above his head is the ridgeline we would hike along....once we reached the ridge.

The view

We stopped at the trail junction of Rich Mountain Loop Trail and Indian Grave Gap Trail for lunch.  The photos above and below are our lunch views. 

We finally reached the ridgetop and views opened on each side.  The photo below is looking back toward the foothills and Townsend, TN.  Note the curled leaves of the rhododendren.  Winter is here and the plant is self protecting from the cold and wind.

The photo below, taken on the opposite side of the ridge was our view of Cades Cove.  The Loop Road follows roughly on the outer edge of the brown area.

At the Crooked Arm Ridge Trail junction, we headed right to complete our loop.  The hike was 8.20 miles, a moderate hike by any account but we were tired and ready to go home.  I have a lot of work to do before our summer adventure but we have more hikes and backpacks planned over the next months.  

About 7:00 PM, after a nap and shower, we headed downtown to join friends Sonya, Mac and Micah Cissna for dinner.  We had reservations at Sangria's, which is fast becoming one of our favorite restaurants  http://www.sangriasmarketsquare.com/ .  We ordered an assortment of tapas.  John and I split Ai-oli potatoes,  chef's choice croquets, fried artichoke hearts and Sangria's salad.   Oh so gooooood!

Dark photo of the restaurant front on Market Square Mall

We had so much fun with our friends!  Our tiredness from a day of hiking disappeared over dinner.  We talked and ate and laughed then walked downtown for a while.  While the day had been warm, the evening was cool so we didn't linger long.  We did have time to formulate a car camping (versus backpacking) plan for late spring.  We haven't been car camping since the last time we went with Sonya and Mac to bring in the New Year (and Sonya's birthday) around 2002-2003.  We are looking forward to this adventure!!  

Sonya and me with roses received at dinner

Rose close-up

Header's back...

Amazing, header's back! After resizing and uploading the same pic for over an hour on Sunday, tonight I just popped it in. No accounting for "technology."

Our little city is back under the grip of winter today. Big, wet, beautiful snowflakes fell around noon lightly covering the ground and giving us false hope for a few inches of the white stuff. Several hours later, the storm has moved out, the temperature is above freezing and there is no sign of snow.  I am still waiting for the "big one."

This weekend we are co-hosting a birthday party for one of our favorite friends and hiking buddies, Barbara Allen.  It's an appetizers, drinks and dessert affair. In preparation, John and I are baking cupcakes tonight. Actually I am baking (I love, love, love to bake) and John testing.  After taste testing 1-2 of each flavor with a big, ice cold glass of milk, he gives them the thumbs up.  Tomorrow is icing night!

This batch is devil's food, compliments of Duncan Hines.  Our local cupcakery advises that Duncan Hines is the best boxed brand. After sampling, we agree.

 This batch is yellow cake.  We will ice the yellow with chocolate butter cream and the chocolate with vanilla butter cream frosting.   Yum-yum!!



Header gone missing...

If you read this blog regularly, (all 2 or 3 of you), you will notice the photo header is missing.  Sometime between the header I put up in November and last night when I tried to replace it with a photo of sunrise over Mt. LeConte, something has changed in the upload process. So, for the time being, the blog is without a photo header...until I can figure out what is going on!  Have a great day!

Happy New Year 2011...

The New Year has arrived with 12 months of new opportunities and challenges.  Happy 2011 everyone!

I am back on the blog, or so my New Year's resolution reads.  My posting was very spotty in the last quarter of 2010, due mostly to perceived lack of time and facebook distraction.  Facebook has gotten boring again, time is still a bit of an issue.

We brought the New Year in at home, watching the ball drop at Time Square, TV is good for that sort of thing.  Earlier in the evening we attended a party hosted by friends Will and Kim, their 6th annual NYE event.  After a little socializing, we slipped out and headed downtown to watch Knoxville's version of the ball drop on Market Square.  Rain arrived around 11:00 PM, just as weatherman Todd had predicted and the event was not what we expected, so we scurried back to the warmth of the car and drove home.

This morning we woke to buckets and buckets of rain.  The weather was just not conducive to getting outside.  After some discussion, we headed back downtown to catch a matinee showing of "Little Fockers." Gotta love living within 2 miles of the city!

Play date...

If you think the blog looks just a little different, you would be spot on!  Sat down yesterday to do a little tweaking and  ended up with a big blue mess. Blogger has changed some of it's editing methods and somehow, in the spirit of edit exploration, I downloaded a new template.  There was no going back to the old one so with some effort, I remembered the name and location of my most favored template and reloaded. It's not exactly as before but I like the look so it will probably stay as is, unless of course, I make the same mistake again! 

Tonight we had reservations at backcountry Campsite #13-Gregory's Bald.  We have been glued to the most current  weather forecast over the past few days and each update indicated that backpacking tonight was an iffy proposition, especially for two people that haven't spent much time in the back country this year. 

This morning we pulled the plug on the trip.  7" or more of snow was predicted for the higher elevations and Gregory's Bald, at over 5000' was a prime target for accumulation.  As it turns out, our decision was correct.  While we are currently sitting in sunshine, accumulations in the mountains as of late afternoon had already reached 7".  Oh well, we are disappointed.  We had looked forward to sitting on the bald, cooking dinner and watching the sunset. 

To compensate, John took the day off and we went out to play around town.  After a delicious  sushi lunch, we went to the movie, "Social Network", the only flick we could agree on.  Being facebook addicted, I looked forward to the story of the early days  about but thirty minutes into the film, I found the whole process dirty.  I  am not sure that feeling is going away anytime soon! 

Good-bye September, so long October...

The weather has finally settled into fall and we watch as the days fly by.  One glance at the calendar reminds me that the moments of my life slip by without capture, my blog posts are becoming further and further apart. I am still working out the kinks of being married, working full time and doing all the other stuff I use to do.  I have been mostly successful at the important stuff and mostly unsuccessful at the rest.  You'll have to ask John which is which :-)

The following is the month of October in quick review...




On Sunday, October 3, we took our annual trip to Carver's Apple Barn in Cosby, TN.   It was a cool, grey day.  Low hanging clouds and light rain made for dramatic scenery. 


We have been to Cosby for apples almost every year since we started dating (in 2000). We take a picture at the same pull off every year.  In a few years, we will have a pictorial essay of our aging!  



In the early days, we purchased 1/2 bushels of our favorite apples. I spent days coring, peeling and dehydrating apples to enjoy on various backpacks during the upcoming year. These days we aren't backpacking as much so we sample from the many baskets of apples, choose a few favorites and buy small bags to take home and dehydrate. This year we also picked up some blueberry jam and honey.

Saturday, October 9th found us at the Hola Festival.  Our favorite festival moved from Market Square to the 100 block of Gay Street, which provided all 27 participating countries more space.  

Did I say this is our favorite festival??!!!  Lots of good food and music...



Sunday, October 10, we were still in the festival mood so we headed to Maryville for the Fall Foothills Festival. The usual crafty booths, banjo music, hot dogs and funnel cake stuff left us a little disappointed. Typical East Tennessee festival atmosphere. We have marked this festival off our "must repeat" list!!

Sunday, October 17, we decided to take a walk. We didn't want to do the usual walk around the block so we ended up taking a walking tour of Mead's Quarry and Ijams Nature Center.  The "walk" extended much longer than expected and by the time we walked home, we had logged six miles. Summer flowers were still blooming wildly even amongst the changing autumn leaves.  

Us at Mead's Quarry

The weekend of October 22-24 rolled around pretty quickly and we found ourselves hosting John's sister Laura and her husband Richard for the Tennessee-Alabama game.  They drove their Harley up from Tuscaloosa, AL Friday night  and joined us and John's son Lee for dinner at the new Brazilian restaurant Brazeiros Steakhouse.  It was a bad experience for all, long wait (even with reservations), questionable service etc.  We won't repeat the experience.

Saturday morning the four of us went to Market Square for breakfast at the Market Square Kitchen.  The place was packed with football fans from both teams.  Slow service again but tolerable because we weren't paying the grande bucks.  After breakfast, Laura and Richard  hopped on the motorcycle and headed to the Maryville Harley shop while John and I strolled through the Farmer's Market.  Saturday evening we shuttled Laura and Richard to and from the game. It was a late night for us and we enjoyed sleeping in Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, October 24, we decided to do a Fall 2010 Colors Tour.  The Foothills Parkway, which rolls through the the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Parkway is only 35 minutes from the house and is less traveled by leaf peepers which makes it the perfect choice. 

The colors were great, the traffic light and we had a lot of fun driving through the foothills and Happy Valley. 

Beautiful...

October is a special time of year for us because we celebrate my Dad's birthday, 87 years this year.  We had our first celebration on his official birthday, October 26 at Shannondale Nursing Home, so my Mother could participate. Dinner included her favorite food, Kentucky Fried Chicken and cupcakes from The Cupcakery. 

Today, Sunday, October 31, we had our big birthday celebration at my house.  We grilled steak, roasted potatoes and asparagus.  Getting the family together is always a good time though we missed Mother's presence.

Me, Daddy and Carol  (Leslie and Mike were not here yet, John is behind the camera).  Below, the birthday boy!