An afternoon with friends...

In the past few weeks, friends of ours purchased a mountain home. As it turns out, this is a great time to pick up a piece of real estate. They invited us up for a Sunday walk through Gatlinburg and lunch on the deck. The weather was warm and we had the best time!

Sonya and Mac, your new mountain house is beautiful !!
Sonya and I sitting in a couple of rocking chairs on the strip in Gatlinburg. This is where Mac told Sonya how great he thought the grapevine rocking chairs would look on the new deck. In response, Sonya frowned at the chairs, we sat in them and rocked for a few minutes, agreed they were comfortable and she quickly put some mileage between Mac and the chairs. The chairs will not show up at the mountain house :-)

Another Gatlinburg strip shot

A view from the deck of Sonya and Mac's new mountain home. Nice!

John and Sonya on the deck



One last pic of the Smokies from the deck.

6 more weeks of this?...

The groundhog saw his shadow today which means 6 more weeks of winter. As someone who is usually a winter oriented person, I am having trouble dealing with the thought of more cold. I cannot seem to get warm this winter. Luckily our winters are relatively mild although it seems as if, in response to the prediction, we are having the heaviest snow we have had in years. Now where did I put my sled???

Below I have posted several pic of my yard in the snow...enjoy!

Family + food = an abundance of love....

Monday I drove to Tazewell, VA for a really great visit with my cousins and dear Aunt Itsa, who was visiting from Richmond. I held my breath for most of the trip, in fear that the steady rain would turn to snow. I was lucky, the weather did not change until Wednesday, several hours after my departure.

As usual, when my mother's side of the family gets together, it is all about food. My cousin Vicky just happens to be one heck of a cook. Monday night we dined on crab cakes, roasted potatoes, sauteed vegetables, cornbread, coleslaw, sweet pickles and fresh, locally made apple cake with whipped cream. Tuesday night we had roast, asparagus, smashed garlic potatoes, corn, salad and strawberries with yogurt and whipped cream. I rolled out the door for the drive home, I would have enjoyed hanging around for more good cooking.

The rest of the trip was filled with lots of conversation, laughter and catching up. Last year, at the age of 55, Vicky took up watercolor and as it turns out, is pretty good. We spent some time looking at her paintings and drawings. It was a lot of fun and encouraged me to pull out my sketch pad again.

I returned home just in time to rush to the hospital to spend a couple of days with my mother. She had an overnight panic but is home now and doing well.

Cousin Eric and Aunt Itsa. Itsa was married to one of my mother's late brothers. She is originally from Greece, lived in a mountain cave during WWII and arrived in the US after the war to go to nursing school. She planned to return to Greece after graduation but met my Uncle Tom, fell in love and remained in the US. Lucky us!!

This is a photo of the apple cake. Apparently an elderly resident of Tazewell has been making apple cakes for years, based on an old family recipe.

Another locally made food item, bread and butter pickles. These pickles are made with the juice of a lime which is apparently what keeps them so fresh and crisp tasting...or so I am told.

Cousin Vicky in her great room with China, her sweet little pup (9 year old pup but all dogs are pups to me).

Backpack 68, Bob's Bald....

This backpack was billed as a winter event and it is the end of January, so we were not surprised to be a bit chilly as we headed out for our 1st backpack of the year. Our destination ... Bob's Bald in the southern section of the Cherokee National Forest.

We were on the trail around 2:30 PM. The skies were sunny but unfortunately, the sun did not take much chill out of the air and we started out totally bundled up; me in a long sleeve shirt, fleece vest, fleece jacket AND rain jacket. The higher we hiked, the higher our body temps climbed so we stopped several times to peel layers.

For the most part, the trail was clear. As we neared the bald, we encountered an inch or so of snow around a rhododendron thicket along with some water and slush. This indicated our hike out could be a frozen mess because the overnight temperature was expected to be in the mid 20's.
Sunset arrived on Bob's Bald around 6:00 PM. We cooked dinner in the dark, our meal, a less than satisfactory concoction that was suppose to be "Shepherd's Pie." It was too yucky to photograph (mashed potatoes, peas, corn, spices and soy meal starter) and not much better to eat.
Will and Kim warmly bundled against the cold
Duane cleaning up after dinner

A big fire with the express purpose of warming the group of 13

Warmed by a blazing fire, everyone stayed up till nearly 10:00 PM, very unusual on a cold, winter night. The later bedtime and warm sleeping bags resulted in difficulty getting out of the tent this morning. We had a relaxing few hours while we talked over breakfast, followed by the task of tearing down camp. While most of the group spent the late morning hours exploring areas adjacent to the bald, Will, Kim, John and I hurried down the trail. Kim had a previous engagement and I plan to leave for Virginia in the morning.

All in all, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for leading another great winter backpack, Ron!!

A good day for change...

Today I woke up to a this...

The world woke up to this...

Today is a good day for change!

In search of accumulation...

Today began cold and grey with light snow. Since snow is usually pretty scarce around here and John had the day off for the MLK holiday, we took a quick hike up House Mountain in search of a little accumulation.

House Mountain is an easy 30 minute drive from downtown Knoxville. We arrived at the parking lot and were not surprised to find the lot full of cars and trucks. Many others seemed to have the same idea.

Light snow at the base of the mountain

Flurries continued to fall and we did find a little more snow near the top. This is, however not a big snow.

Stark, brown trees are a nice contrast to the white snow and grey sky

Nice way to enjoy a day off!

A Sunday afternoon hike...

This afternoon we went on a hike of sorts. We hiked from John's house to Market Square for Sunday brunch and back, a round trip of about 5 miles. A stiff breeze was blowing and shady areas were quite chilly but we had a lot of fun and figured we walked off at least some of the brunch.
We had brunch at Market Square Kitchen on Market Square in downtown Knoxville. I had an omelet and biscuit, John had chili and a sandwich. We both agree that my brunch was better than his. Before we headed back out into the cold, I indulged in this really yummy cup of hot chocolate with REAL whipped cream. I am not grimacing, really!

Downtown Knoxville on a very clear but cold day

John, standing on the Gay Street bridge, looking down at the Tennessee River

Knoxville from the south side

Hike: 5.0-miles

Spade Smackdown...

Friends, Sonya and Mac and their son Micah came over for pizza and Spades on Saturday night. We fixed two pizzas, the first with a basil pesto base, turkey pepperoni, onions, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese and mushrooms. The second pizza was tomato based with sweet Italian spiced turkey sausage and similar other ingredients. The food was pretty good!! One of these days I will learn to make pizza crust instead of buying it but this was not that day. Too bad the pizza disappeared before I remembered the camera.

After dinner, we were ready for Spades! It has been over four years since we last shuffled a deck of cards together and John and I have not played since. The Cissnas, on the other hand, were on top of their game and arrived like they always did, talking smack with a bottle of wine under each arm. We were sunk before the first card was dealt.

Sonya cracked open a brand new deck for the game. The cards, a gift from her daughter-in-law, were manufactured as a breast cancer fund-raiser. Damn if all the cards weren't pink and white and it was near impossible to discern between the suits. Everyone at the table was reduced to wearing reading glasses and we laughed a lot as we exposed secrets in our hands when a spade was thrown down for a heart and vice versa.

Sonya laughing as she tries to separate her pink clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds

Mac, with an almost empty glass of "Strong Arms" Shirz 2007, is analyzing his "tricks"

John can't believe he is playing with pink cards. He did keep up with Mac on the wine, glass for glass

I am just tickled to win a trick or two, this was a lot of fun

The note pad says it all. We (BJ-left column) stayed close for a while, at least within striking distance. We were blown out of the game on the last two hands when Sonya went Low 50. We will be gunning for the Cissnas on the next game, I think we have our card legs back!!

5 Weeks MIA

The Christmas presents are open, my tree has been recycled, the New Year celebration has come and gone and I just reached a PW (personal worst)...five weeks since my last post.

Christmas trees waiting to be recycled at the local nature center

I don't know if it was a result of the down turning economy or just the need to connect, but it seems like our friends were really reaching out to each other during the holidays. We attended more parties and casual get togethers than I remember in the past and the enjoyment of sharing food and laughter felt more satisfying than ever! We even caught up with some old friends that we haven't seen in a long while!

The actual mechanics of Christmas almost slipped by me. In mid-November, I went to work for Williams-Sonoma as part-time Christmas help but by early December, the part-time hours turned into nearly full-time. Aside from being very tired after each shift, I enjoyed the people, product and the daily contact "with the outside world".

My meager holiday preparation was pushed into the few hours I had available. I almost passed on putting up Christmas decorations but when I went to a local tree lot to purchase a wreath, the owner took pity on my poor unemployed self and gave me a real deal on a tree. Hey, it was a good deal and I looked pretty pitiful :-)

My mailbox decorated with some fake and mostly live treasures from the yard...white pine, nandina berries, laurel and holly

Not quite a Charlie Brown Christmas tree but certainly a little sparse near the top. Unfortunately, the decorations did not go beyond lights, I just never pulled the boxes and boxes of ornaments out of the attic

As we have with the past several Christmases, we spent Christmas morning with mother at Shannondale. It was just the girls, a "hen" party according to my dad. He had GI problems and wasn't feeling well. We really didn't want to share in his stomach issues so we were okay with him staying at home. I cooked breakfast and took it with me. Not sure what I did to the grits casserole, but what a disaster! John spent the morning cooking pancakes for his boys and opening presents at his house. We got together in the afternoon, watched football and vegged!

Me with my new shawl, a gift from Carol

Leslie and Mother

Carol opening a gift

Our final event for the holiday season was a New Year's Eve party, hosted by Will and Kim at Kim's home. Twenty some people attended and while we didn't stay till to see the clock strike 12 AM, we did watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV. Must be the first New Year we been awake for in 4-5 years. The pictures below were taken by friend Will Skelton and lifted right from his Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/theskeltonview

Happy New Year!

Kim and Will

Look at the food spread